Every Breath is Love

~~~ The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary ~~~

~~~Ezekiel 37:1-14~~~ Psalm 107 ~~~ Matthew 22:34-40 ~~~

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,

with all your soul, and with all your mind...

The Lord sends the prophet Ezekiel into dry bone 

covered plain with the instruction to prophesy over the lifeless bones.

Dry bare bones certainly have lost their ability to love the Lord.

Dry barren bones are stripped of their flesh and their spirit.

Dry bones have no life left within them.

But God does not allow that to keep him from fulfilling his prophecies.

Ezekiel sees the prophecy from the Lord fulfilled right before his eyes.

He hears the rattling of the bones as they join back together.

He see the muscles and the flesh materialize right before his eyes.

God is working this miracle as a message to Israel.

Israel seems to be lost, dry, with no spirit left in them, 

but God does not give up.

It is impossible to love the Lord with your whole heart, 

mind, body, and soul if your bones are lying lifeless on the ground.

God is sending his prophecy to Ezekiel to prove all is not lost.

God has powers to not only put together the bones

with its muscles and skin,

but the power to return the spirit.

The joining of the bones and the flesh do not make the person whole.

Without the breath of the spirit, which comes form above, 

is not present there is no life...

if there is no life there can be no way to love the Lord.

God gives us every possible way to love him

 with our whole mind, body, and soul.

I will put my spirit in you that you may live,

and I will settle you upon your land;

thus you shall know that I am the LORD.

I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD.

God delivers us whole and safely 

so that we may come to love him more fully.

To love him more fully means that we must also

 love ourselves and others as God loves.

This is of course easier said than done.

Blessed in every way with his love.

Love is the whole reason and purpose

 for every breath of air we inhale.

I invite you to spend a few minutes today

 just focusing on your breath...

this is the spirit with which we are to love.

~~~Peace~~~

His Breath of Comfort

~~~ Isaiah 40:1-11~~~ Psalm 96 ~~~ Matthew 18:12-14 ~~~

 

 

At the beginning of chapter 40 in the book of Isaiah

the people of Judah were in exile.

They had failed to listen to the word of God.

They just could not get their act together.

So what was their future?

Would God move on to another group of people and leave these

people to suffer their own consequences?

 

The first few verses we have today is God's response.

"Comfort, give comfort to my people,
says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her
that her service is at an end,
her guilt is expiated..."

 

God is speaking words of forgiveness for their past offenses.

Just as he speaks words of forgiveness to us for our offenses today.

God will never abandon his chosen ones.

 

The wonderful thing about God is that he grants pardon

and forgiveness whether or not you may deserve it.

The question of deserving is not part of the relationship where

God is concerned. Here again we are reminded that

the ways of God are not like our ways.

 

Children often feel their punishment

is out of proportion for their offenses;

so it is not surprising that this community

felt God had punished them long enough.

"...Indeed, she has received from the hand of the LORD
double for all her sins."

 

Repenting for our past offenses may mean retreating to the desert for a time.

Alone in the desert one can better focus on the hear God's voice.

 

"...In the desert prepare the way of the LORD!"

 

The verses go on to provide proof that with God

nothing is viewed as an obstacle.
Whether it is mountains or valleys, rugged or flat plains

the glory of the Lord will be revealed.

 

 

God, like a good shepherd, nurtures and cares for his sheep.

A good shepherd counts his sheep and knows if even one is missing.

He goes out in search of the solitary lost sheep;

he gives him comfort upon finding him.

 

This is a comforting image of God as the good shepherd

rather than unapproachable royalty,

such as a king or queen.

As we have seen in the media royalty

rarely interacts with the general public.

When the royal family ventures out among the common people

they are surrounded by security.

Jesus moved freely mingling with the 'common' people of the area.

Jesus felt most comfortable among the poor and the lowly.

He sought out the lost lonely sheep.

He reached out to them drawing them into his loving care...

just as good shepherd.

 

Is there an area of your heart that would benefit

from the comfort of the good shepherd?

Be patient he will come with his breath of comfort,

as he gathers you to his 'bosom'.

 

We wait on the Lord with anticipation.

Comfort, give comfort to my people...

how sweet the sound of these words of the Lord.

Spirit of the Living God

~~~ Acts 4: 23-31 ~~~ Psalm 2 ~~~ John 3: 1-8

Released by the authorities Peter and John returned to the people and openly prayed for God to intervene on their behalf.  Believing they were merely the instrument at the hand of the Lord. They prayed for the gift of fortitude and as they prayed the place shook with the power of God. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

Those things which one cannot see are more difficult to understand. If I hear an unfamiliar sound during the night I try to listen more intently. My brain begins trying to place the sound with something I have heard before.

Nicodemus, a Pharisee, has a similar problem. He understands what it means to be born of a woman. Jesus was speaking about another kind of birth. He was referring to a birth from above; a birth of the Spirit which comes from God.
The Breath of Heaven remains here with us.

The 'wind' of the Spirit comes upon you without being seen.

Sometimes the spirit comes as a cool gentle breeze you hardly notice, but you know it is there. The ways you look at things are different. Other times the Spirit comes over you with the power of a tsunami. You are profoundly and forever changed. I have most often felt the power of the Spirit during a retreat, even if I am staffing. At times the Spirit is just a subtle brush of a rose petal across your cheek.

May the Spirit of the breath of the Lord rest upon you.

Spirit of the Living God fall afresh on me.