Lent ~ Day Eleven ~ Quotation Saturday

Job 8: 6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.

~ LENT ~

"Lent comes providentially to reawaken us, to shake us from our lethargy."

~ Pope Francis

"Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God."
~ Andrew Murray

"Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers."

~ Sidlow Baxter

"Everything in life has its own time. There is time to celebrate and there is time to mourn. This is the time for reflection and transformation. Let us look within and change into what we ought to be." 

~ Aaron Saul

~ COMMUNION ~

“Christians should put survival of the planet ahead of national security...Here is the mystery of our global responsibility: that we are in communion with Christ- and we are in communion with all people...The fact that the people of Nicaragua, Guatemala, El Salvador, Russia, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia are our brothers and sisters is not obvious. People kill each other by the thousands and do not see themselves as brothers and sisters. If we want to be real peace-makers, national security cannot be our primary concern. Our primary concern should be survival of humanity, the survival of the planet, and the health of all people. Whether we are Russians, Iraqis, Ethiopians, or North Americans, we belong to the same human family that God loves. And we have to start taking some risks- not just individually, but risks of a more global quality, risks to let other people develop their own independence, risks to share our wealth with others and invite refugees to our country, risks to offer sanctuary- because we are people of God”
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen

“Faith is not knowledge of an object but communion with it.”
~ Nicolás Gómez Dávila

“We who have turned our lives over to Christ need to know how very much he longs to eat with us, to commune with us. He desires a perpetual Eucharistic feast in the inner sanctuary of the heart.”
~ Richard J. Foster

“At the heart of Galatians 2 is not an abstract individualized salvation, but a common meal. Paul does not want the Galatians to wait until they have agreed on all doctrinal arguments before they can sit down and eat together. Not to eat together is already to get the answer wrong. The whole point of his argument is that all those who belong to Christ belong at the same table with one another.
The relevance of this today should be obvious. The differences between us, as twentieth-century Christians, all too often reflect cultural, philosophical and tribal divides, rather than anything that should keep us apart from full and glad eucharistic fellowship. I believe the church should recognize, as a matter of biblical and Christian obedience, that it is time to put the horse back before the cart, and that we are far, far more likely to reach doctrinal agreement between our different churches if we do so within the context of that common meal which belongs equally to us all because it is the meal of the Lord whom we all worship. Intercommunion, in other words, is not something we should regard as the prize to be gained at the end of the ecumenical road; it is the very paving of the road itself. If we wonder why we haven't been travelling very fast down the road of late, maybe it's because, without the proper paving, we've got stuck in the mud.”
~ N.T. Wright

~ AWAKEN ~

“When we awaken to our truth, we realize we are free.”
~ Kristi Bowman

“The degree to which your Consciousness expands, is the degree to which you understand yourself and the universe.”
~ Gina Charles

“To love those who love us and are good to us is easy. To love those who are indifferent to us is workable, but to love those who have harmed us, intentionally or not, is true growth and realization.”
~ Patsie Smith

“Life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed, do not squander your life.”
~ Dōgen

 Rom. 13: 11 And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Lent Day Six ~ Communion with Christ

Eph. 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

A lot of people think when I talk about all this spiritual stuff I’m not leading a Christ-filled life because I’m too wrapped up in all of this Spirit mumbo jumbo. Spirit mumbo jumbo, huh. So you think that Jesus, the Holy Spirit, is a bunch of mumbo jumbo?

Let me try to elaborate a little if I may. I grew up in a house that was not filled with God. We had drugs and alcohol and each one of us kids, six in all, strayed to the dark spirit that called us. I will only speak of my journey because it is mine to tell.

As a small child I believed in ghost, who amongst us wasn’t curious about ghosts? A few of you I’m sure, but in all honesty, I was intrigued by spirits and the pull that they had on my life. I’m certain that God didn’t just create all good spirits, it is written that there will be a legion of evil spirits walking the land, after all He did condemn Satan for giving Eve that apple didn’t He?

It is through the communion with Christ, my comforter, the HOLY Spirit that I find my saving grace. When I died of alcohol consumption, it wasn’t satan who saw to it that I came back, it wasn’t the bible that saved me, it wasn’t wisdom and knowledge all crammed into my head that saved me, it wasn’t ideology either, no it was the Holy Spirit that blanketed me, surrounding me with Angels that warmed me and pulled me out of the abyss.

Talk about breathing new life, Spirits will do that once you experience them first hand, the good ones AND the bad ones. Yeah this is the point in my life where people started calling me weird and crazy but I was okay with that because I knew the Holy Spirit had great plans for me otherwise I would be dead right now unable to relay important messages.

I think the problem that society has is that they’re under the false assumption that they can read the bible, fill themselves with all the scriptures, gain wisdom and knowledge and that that is their communion with Christ; THAT is their saving grace to them. They don’t have to live Christ-like, be Christ-like or bear ANY cross.

To be FILLED with the Spirit is a whole different ballgame. Think of yourself as the batter, you’re preparing to swing as God is the pitcher and his Angels are surrounding you on the bases. He throws the word at you, you swing, hit and it’s a pop-up going long (that would be you filling yourself with the bible/wisdom/knowledge.) It’s soaring, you’re feeling good about this one but then it falls flat in the outfield right into an Angels hand. You’re OUT

He winds his arm ready to toss another one. You look Him dead in the eye, determined to hit a home run with this one. He throws out material treasures, you see all of them dancing in front of you. You go to swing but you’re too consumed with the penetration, the strong pull of seeing treasures not the ball. He threw the ball three times but you were distracted. Strike three, another out.

Okay, we’re at the bottom of the ninth; tie game. The demon spirits are cheering from the stands every time you fail. They let out a roar of applause as you hang your head in shame for the failure that you’ve become in this game. You think you’ve done good but those demon spirits are filling you with doubt and embarrassment. You know you’re trying your best, but again, the demon spirits pull out all their ammunition to distract you. They even line the sidelines (unseen in baseball) with half naked cheerleaders that you see as beautiful but really, they’re demon spirits trying to lure you away from being the best, the VERY best you can be.

God winds His arm, a sweat brow has formed on His lips, this is it, will you or won’t you? The ball is now filled with Christ, His Son! The ball leaves His hand, you see it coming at you full force. Your eyes are focused. As the stadium falls silent, you take in a deep breath; focused, you swing, you miss. Strike one.

Revving for another pitch He tosses the cross at you. Your focus is on the cheerleaders, the commotion in the stands, everything around you begins a slow motion movement. You swing. Strike two.

You see another ball coming straight at you, but blood is dripping from your eyes. You kneel and look up at the cross and it is not your blood, but the blood of Christ dripping down on your face. A deep inhale as tears swell in your eyes. The game, your surroundings, the ball coming at you is gone, you’re now inhaling the very soil that the Cross is buried in.

You look up and see a spiraling vapor ascending from the cross. At first you feel scared but when the vapor consumes you, fills you with confidence, surrounds you in peace, comforts you with love, blankets your soul, your eyes…they now see the ball more clearly. You swing, hit the ball with a strength you never knew, snapping the bat into shards.

Home run! No one in the stands is cheering for you, but the other team (God and His Angels)? They are rejoicing in your overcoming the distractions. They are delighting in your achievement of winning the game…the game of LIFE.

You now play a lot differently because you know the meaning of Communing with Christ.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.