Freedom in the Spirit

~~~ Acts 16: 22-34 ~~~ Ps. 138 ~~~ John 16: 5-11 ~~~

In Acts today we hear a powerful conversion story of a prison guard.

His job was very important and he took it seriously.

Not only his life depended on how well he did his job,

but his family's well being would have also been in jeopardy

 had he failed in any way.

On this particular occasion all was going as usual...the hymns of praise and worship could be heard from the cell of Paul and Silas...and they were under lock and key.

They even had shackles around their ankles which were staked to the ground.

Suddenly without warning a strong earthquake shook the jail, opened the cell doors, and the chains were all pulled loose.

Now this is the stuff movies like to portray but the guard was in fear for his life that the prisoners had escaped. But to his surprise that was not the plan of God. Instead God wanted to demonstrate his power to the guard which resulted in his conversion.

This conversion story is given to us as one more example of how God went about touching the lives and hearts of the early church. God wants people from all walks of life to come follow him.

The message Jesus came to deliver was for all people not just a chosen few.

We have each been called by name.

In John's Gospel Jesus is addressing the grief of his disciples at just the thought of not having his presence with them. He has revealed to them that he is going to the one who sent him...the Father. Jesus is trying to get them to grasp a very difficult concept...that of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. He says if I do not leave the Holy Spirit cannot come down upon you.

We know now that the Holy Spirit did come down to the people. We know now that the Holy Spirit is here and will be here for all time. We can no longer see Jesus but his presence is with us through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

As a human person Jesus was limited as to whom he could physically reach, but now all physical limitations are gone. Through the Resurrection the chains of death were broken and the Spirit was sent forth to all.

Just as the earthquake broke the chains of Paul and Silas in the prison.

The movement of the Spirit is free and inspires the hearts of all

who are open to receiving.

True freedom comes from living in the Spirit of God.

True freedom is living in love not in fear.

If there is anything in your life that is keeping you in shackles ask God to intervene. Tell him you must rely on him. Tell him you believe he can free you in mind body and soul. The prison guard had his fears dissolved as soon as he was assured that all was as it should be...they, the prisoners, had not endangered his life

by claiming their own freedom.

Remain in My Love

~~~ Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26 ~~~ Ps. 113 ~~~ John 15: 9-17 ~~~

Today is the third time we hear these verses of love from the Gospel of John. Why do you think the church gives us this same passage? Is it because we don't listen and pay attention very well? Is it because we are slow learners? Surely there were many other texts that could have been chosen.

I think we have been drenched in these words about love because we need to be reassured over and over again. We need to hear the words over and over again that we are loved by Jesus just as the Father loves the Son, Jesus.

We can never hear too often about God's love for us. If we truly truly believed this about God's love for us we would never want to act in such a way as taint that love.

As a parent I can understand in a small way this immense and lasting love. As a parent you love your children in spite of what they do or how they act.

As a parent loves their child God loves us and then some.

God's love for us keeps the soul alive in a way that no other love can compare. Without this love from God we most likely would not exist or ever would have existed. God's love is sustaining us...giving us our every breath.

Without love we would vanish into the thin air of nothingness.

Without love our life would have no purpose.

Without love the human race would disappear.

Today I think of how humbled Matthias must have felt after being discerned to join the twelve apostles in the place of Judas. He must have expressed his gratitude with these words from psalm "Blessed be the name of the Lord both now and forever...He raises up the lowly from the dust...to seat them with the princes of his own people."

"Remain in my Love."

Nothing else matters where there is love.

Love does bear all things...

The Spirit of Love

~~~ Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48 ~~~ Ps. 98 ~~~ 1 John 4:7-10 ~~~ John 15: 9-17 ~~~

While the central focus of today's message is obviously love, I want to look at a couple less obvious points...The Holy Spirit and the concept of friendship.

If you ever wonder or doubt about God 'thinking out of the box' just listen closely to today's passage from the Acts of the Apostles.

We have been hearing for weeks about how the early church made decisions to allow us, the Gentiles, to become Christians. I wonder if you noticed the sentence telling of the Baptism of those who already had the Holy Spirit?

'...the believers who had accompanied Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit should been poured out on the Gentiles...'

Yes, the Holy Spirit did not wait for these believers to be formally Baptized. The Holy Spirit does not adhere to our guidelines...instead he goes and blows at his own discretion.

Then the Holy Spirit inspires the early disciples to accept these people who had been touched by the Holy Spirit and welcome them with the formal rite of initiation...Baptism.

God knew that in order for Christianity to flourish and remain there needed to be a sweeping conversion movement. If in the early church thousands had not become believers, where would Christianity be today? The Holy Spirit went to work right away showering the people with the gift of desire, with the flame of belief.

This is the picture you want to see...people flocking to embrace Christianity. This is still what we want today in our churches. Missionaries in foreign countries receive those people who come in hope of finding the missing part of their life. But what we may overlook is that many times the Holy Spirit has preceeded the missionaries, just as it happened in the early church.

I am so enriched each year as I get to know our converts. I am eager to hear their conversion stories. How they came to the church. How they made the choice.

I am constantly amazed at the workings of the Holy Spirit...past...present...and I am sure the future as well. The Holy Spirit is busy spreading love throughout the hearts of people all over the world. And thank God for that, because then they do not have to wait on the rest of us to reach them.

God calls us friends. A friend shares your love, hopes, joys, sorrows. A friend cares. A friend understands when you have no words to speak. A friend stands by you no matter what. A friend tells it like it is...even if it hurts. A friend extends unconditional love.

I could go on, but if you have a true friend you know what I am speaking about here.

So when Jesus calls us friend it is very special.

To think about my Creator as a friend is a bit mind boggling and

at the same time wonderful.

If Jesus is my friend there is nothing I should fear or be anxious about because friends want only goodness for one another. Friends want to be together.

Friends want to share experiences with each other.

Talk to Jesus as you would your best friend...he will listen.

He only wants what is best for you.

The greatest commandment is Love.

Whether through the actions of the Holy Spirit or those of your closest friends

love says it all.

The Spirit of Love is all around.

May you be blessed with this unbounding love in your life.

Love Makes the World Go 'Round

~~~ Acts 6: 1-10 ~~~ Psalm 100 ~~~ John 15: 18-21 ~~~

Throughout the days and weeks between Easter and Pentecost the church nourishes our faith; providing numerous accounts of how the number of believers grew.

"Day after day the churches grew stronger in faith and increased in number."

We are also given the history of our own path to Christianity. If the early believers had not been open to the urgings of the Holy Spirit we might not be Christians.

It is good that we hear these stories each year as our faith is built upon the faith of all those who have gone before us.

Psalm 100 says,

"Know that the Lord is God; he made us, his we are;

his people the flock he tends."

God has been with us and looking after our well being throughout all of the ages. We were always a part of the divine plan. God uses his people to accomplish his works on earth now just as he did in the early church.

Less we forget; we do not belong to the world...we belong to God. We are only here for a short time. Our home is in heaven with God. We belong to him and he will call each of us home when the time comes.

Jesus says, "I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you."

 The world is wrought with evil and filled with temptation. Daily we are faced with the opportunity to confess that we do not belong to this world. This world cannot bring us true peace or joy because those only exist in their pure form in heaven.

In this world we settle for what we know as peace and joy, even though this satisfaction falls short of what is in store for us in heaven.

Because God loves us he has granted us bits of consolation in this world through those who love us. We too have been commissioned to extend this same measure of consolation through loving others.

The greatest commandment is to love.

Love makes the world go 'round.

In 1965 Burt Bacharach  composed a song titled, "What the World Needs Now; one of the lines says 'love is the only thing the world needs more of'. I think intuitively many know that love is the only thing that makes this world inhabitable.

So today as I celebrate my fortieth anniversary with my husband, I stand to give testimony to the power of love. With love it is possible to make marriage commitment until death parts us.

I am happy to have the love of my husband and my family.

Look around you today for the signs of love this world can provide.

Perhaps it is the softness of a baby's cheek.

Chosen to Bear Fruit

~~~ Acts 15: 22-31 ~~~ Psalm 57 ~~~ John 15:12-17 ~~~

"It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you

We tend to think that it is best if we are in control of all aspects of our lives. Some people even struggle with letting others help them. Some think only they can do things 'the right' way. Today God is saying, 'you cannot go around boasting about your accomplishments, because it is all done through me.'

Have you ever gone to chose a pet? Maybe you go the the local pet store or maybe you prefer a rescued dog from the local shelter.  No matter where you go the preocess is the same. You go by all of the cages looking for the perfect pet...the pet that will love you and respond to you. When at last you find that perfect pet; it is the one with the wagging tail, the bright eyes wth a playful nature.

You chose the one that in effect chooses you.

You might say it is mutual affection from the beginning.

Now imagine if you will how much more profound is the choosing when God is doing the choosing. The thought of being chosen by God should fill your heart to overflowing with his abundant love.

God has chosen each of us, called us each by name. The sad reality is that some do not respond even after God has chosen them for his own. God on the other hand does not require us to respond before he will love us. We are his creation, we belong to him. It is right for us to return our affection through praise and worship.

Along with being chosen by God comes our responsibility.

and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,

With this gift of being chosen comes the sending forth. God does not want us to sit at home and relish in how special we are for being chosen. No. He wants us to go out and bear fruit. Do something with this gift of love.

Go out and make a difference in someone's life even if for just a moment or possibly for their lifetime. It is not always apparent when we are able to bear fruit by our actions, words, or prayers. Perhaps when we get to heaven we will have the blessing to see the good we brought forth with our lives tha we never knew. The flip side of that may also be true...in case you were wondering.

so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you."

Because you were chosen you can freely go to the Father ask for what you need. Asking and at the same time accepting that God knows what is best for us. God knows what we need to help us grow in holiness.  

When you are chosen you need not be anxious about approaching the Father.

He will only look upon you as his beloved chosen one.

For if your new pet chews up your favorite shoes; you will still look into his bright eyes and forgive his puppy playfulness.

Of course you will scold him, but with love.

We are not God's little puppies so imagine how much more loves us...

his chosen sons and daughters.

JOY...the Divine Intoxication

~~~ Acts 15: 7-21 ~~~ Psalm 96 ~~~ John 15: 9-11 ~~~

"I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete."

Yesterday we have the words of God's peace and today we have the gift of joy.

Until today I have not given much thought about the joy of the Lord. His personal joy, that is. How is it possible to begin to imagine God's joy? I am not sure.

The dictionary on joy...

the emotion of great delight or happiness caused by something exceptionally good or satisfying; keen pleasure; elation.

I guess we can only have the experience of complete joy when we are in the presence of the Lord. Does this mean we must wait until after death?

I certainly have had many times in my life I would describe as joy-filled experiences.

My wedding day or the birth of our children, but do these represent complete joy?

Is complete joy different for each person?

I think perhaps we have the ability to create joy in our lives through the choices we make every day. I believe we can chose joy. We can keep our eyes and ears open to those things in our environment that are exceptionally good.

When something is complete there is no need for more. Complete is being whole...when we have the joy of the Lord we will surely be complete. There will be nothing more; all the pieces of our life will came into place as they were meant to be...

It is then that we will be filled with the emotion of great delight...Joy.

The joy of the Lord is proclaimed all around us...look for it...

acknowledge its presence in you life.

Celebrate the joy...imprint it on your heart...

remember it in times of darkness.

The Joy of the Lord is a pearl of great price.

 I pray that your soul drink in the Joy of the Lord today.

The great Divine intoxication...

JOY

What is Really Important?

~~~ Acts 15: 1-6 ~~~ Psalm 122 ~~~ John 15: 1-8 ~~~

Today's reading from Acts speaks of circumcision; as a woman I will not be writing about that topic in case you were wondering.

What I will say is that the early church had many decisions to make since others beside the chose Jews were wanting to sign up...to belong to this community of believers.

So as the elders met their real task was to determine what was of real importance. What mattered in the greater scheme of things. These very dilemmas still exist in the church today...and they always will.

We do not live in a stagnant world things are constantly changing evolving; if you will.

We belong to a church that is alive, full of living breathing people of God.

Even though the teachings left for us by Jesus were so carefully modeled

we are part of the living vine.

We must strive for ways to live out our faith and the promises made to us by the Father within the world we live in today. This does not mean we abandon any of the Divine teachings; on the contrary we must pray for the vision to see how we can live them to the fullest within todays' framework.

This task is only possible to accomplish if we remain connected to the vine. We must remain connected so that he can reside in us. It is then that he will remain in us. As he remains in us the Holy Spirit guides and leads the way.

I suggest one other connection between the readings; removal of what no longer serves a purpose. The vine grower knows when it is time to remove the branches. The vine grower knows which branches, when removed, will produce the most new growth.

So today let us look at what is really inportant in our lives.

Do you have the strength to honestly look at your life and decide

what might better trimmed back?

Do you have the confidence to say

this habit is not bringing me closer to the Lord?

Visiting with a spiritual director may help you in seeing

where God is leading you and what he really is asking you to let go.

The vine and the branches are connected...commited to each other in a very intimate way. The branches flourish through the nourishment of the vine. The branches are supported by tiny wispy tendrils holding them in place near the vine.

The vine is the source of life.

I pray that today you each find comfort and peace connected to the Vine.