Severed parts

All who are in Christ are in Christ together. We truly are connected in all the greatest ways because of the gospel.

The Body of Christ has been preached for centuries, but something I do not recall hearing about the body and its parts, which we are, is what happens when they are severed from the body.

The Body of Christ only grows when it is held together. When it is disconnected parts, those parts die and cannot continue forward. Stay close and connected to the gospel and to the Body of Christ.

Over and over again I watch people disconnect themselves from the Body of Christ and attempt to go it alone. With the fervor of Hebrews 10, I say, "DO NOT give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing. " I have told people more times than I care to count: if you attempt to grow and move on your own, you will fail. If we play out the realities of a Body, not only will you fail, your will likely die.

Barely scratching the surface on connecting with God in spirit

* This is a very humble wondering and searching, and not a perfect scholarly approach. Proceed!

Recently I have read a few amazing books on prayer that have challenged me.  It challenged my view of God.  God is a spiritual being, and he is not flesh like us.  We are flesh, but God created us flesh and souls with spirits.  I cannot be theological enough here to say I know how that all works out (the diagram above is created by Dallas Willard, and has served me greatly).

Sometimes, I try relating to God awaiting the right feeling and emotion, and it always fails.  I just know that I too often try relating to God while starting with my emotions, and I fail.  Then I try relating to God with my mind, and that humorously fails. Then I just try to learn more about the spirit, and that spirit is what was made perfect and blameless by God on the cross.  Now if that is the only part of me that is blameless, I have to learn how to come to grips with it.

I do not know how to describe that, but I do know it takes a lot of trust (faith); like more trust than anything in my life has ever required before.  As I strive to learn, I do know that when my spirit is engaged (another thing I don't have space to define here), I THEN feel closer to the heart of God.  That is because he is a spiritual being and that is the only way to be relational to him.  This is why I said that when I come to him in spirit, it often forms, changes, and engages my mind, my emotions and my flesh.

There is no way I have clarified anything for you. So what say you?

Love the church

I love the Church but most congregations aren't all they're cracked up to be.  But hey, I guess I'll never find that perfect church.  It seems that every church I go to...I'm there.   Bunch of sinners!  Hmph!  It seems every time I go to church, I'm just another one of the sinners..... Wait!  Thats fantastic!  I really do love the church.  I really do love most congregations...bunch of sinners!  GREAT!

Lyrics Week: Mumford & Sons

"Where you invest your love; you invest your life."

The sense of the eternal is palpable in this song (Awake My Soul) and particularly in the lyric:

In these bodies we will live. In these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love; you invest your life.

Our bodies and our circumstances are only temporary, and the only things which last are things like love, faith, and hope. Of course the things we worry most about are rarely the amount of energy, time, and effort we put toward love, faith, and hope. We can nearly kill ourselves with the amount of energy we expend on the things which will always fail us because they simply cannot last.

Once your body dies, there will be no remembrance of the amount of hours you spent at work. The numbers on the scale you fluctuated through will reveal how pointless they always were. Even if you are buried with them, those gadgets you fought so hard to acquire will be older than antiques and just as worthless.

Once your body dies, those who knew you will speak aloud of how much you loved. Under their breathe, they will speak perhaps of the lack of love you gave.

The only sad thing of this thought is if I think upon that and choose not to make the comments under the breathe be the same as those spoken aloud!