Dear Reader,
May I ask you two questions?
Were you baptised as a baby?
Did you have two loving and caring parents?
I ask you to hold these two questions and their answers while we consider our walk in faith today. For many years I never even thought about my parents or the life I had lived as a child, Both were dead, and I assumed every adult was without parents - until at the age of 45 ish, I discovered nearly all the members of staff in this polytechnic, had one or more parents alive!! But I still didn't really know any suffering with this until my only source of love, my partner, had affirmed our original agreement, and said he didn't want to marry me. This led to me being called back to an active faith, and a daily walk with God in prayer. I slowly learned that if we continue to look to God for guidance and desire to do His will, we are daily growing and changing, prayer by prayer, as we serve, and as all that is in the dark is being brought to the Light.
But, as happened to me one night, at the end of the evening I found myself plugging in my IPad which I haven’t used since I came to this flat. I then fell into what felt like a prayerless ‘blip’ and I realised I had Scrabble on there….and while it was charging, I played a whole game at ‘Hard’ level, and even won!
I then went to bed and with prayer surrendered all back to Christ, and slept. But the following morning I came to an awareness of deep darkness emerging, and the lovelessness, in my soul, was very strong. Consciously, but deep within that sense of loss, was a cry to God, and a desire to die. Firstly, in Christ, I owned this deep and inconsolable pain of the child, and prayed for others who had this sense of loss, lovelessness and hopelessness, and then my phone beeped – bringing me back to faith in a Living God.
When I looked – I saw a pictorial message from a Romanian friend. It started with the word:
Can’t. – then underneath- the second
Can’ t had a little figure separating the t (which looked like a cross).
On the third line the figure was carrying the ‘t’ Cross away–
Can’ ( Figure carrying the cross. ) And on the 4th line
Can With a distant hill bearing the cross at the top of it.
God was speaking to me. My (your) heart pain was real and makes us feel we can’t – hope, or praise, give thanks for our life, learn or serve – BUT with Christ in the picture and our will surrendered, we CAN, but only through His Spirit. He truly is the Redeemer. And in fact I realised that He was the one who had born this pain – in His Holy Heart in me (and had given me great grace to learn as a child) – until such time as I was Strong enough in faith to allow it to the Light with my conscious will involved. He truly is my Strength and Source of all Love for my own life, and for others.
So dear souls, give thanks for Christ in your life if you were/are baptised, and the work of the Holy Spirit, bringing dark to Light. And if you did not have loving parents, thank God for His parenting, upholding you, and His Spirit, in Christ, who truly LIFTs us through these current trials. As a child I had become very creative, able to make all sorts of things, and good with words – poetry and Scrabble!!
I am glad for these current trials now bringing this to consciousness, as I do not want this darkness and self-hatred to stay within me nor the desire to die hold back my will for His service. I desire to live His commandments to Love God with All I am, and my neighbour as myself - but I know it cannot be done by me alone. I see now how powerless I was with no love for me in my heart. Since that time, I do play Scrabble without blame or shame, but not often!
So I thank God that His solution, via the Cross, is EVER available to me!! And thank God for the person who was prompted to send that email – JUST at that moment.
So dear Readers, if you really want to Love God with All your Heart, Mind, Soul and Strength, and your neighbour as yourself, and know you don’t, God is not condemning you. He wants to set you free from all the things that bind you to false gods, false images of yourself, or false prophets.
Lets do what Jesus asks us, ‘Come to Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and learn from Me…`I am lowly and humble of heart…My yoke is easy, my burden in Light’. (Matt 11:28-30)
If you would like a 4 month opportunity to ‘take every thought captive’ and go to Jesus with all your burdens, one day at a time, through L.I.F.T.E.R (Life In Faith Trusts Eternally Rejoicing) you will grow in Love, Grace, Self-control and a Willingness to Love and Trust God, and Love and serve in Spirit and in Truth. All the burdens of trying to be good enough to be loved by parents, authority – even by God, melt away before the Trust in Christ and Life in His Spirit of Love, Joy, Compassion, and Gentleness. I do not offer you ‘perfection’ – but His Love, mercy, Gentleness, for YOU – and through you to others – as you stop judging, condemning, or serving in pride and desperation. Only by His Spirit leading to self-acceptance as a Child of God, obedient to the Father through the Holy Spirit, can we live in Peace, Surrender, and Witness to His Purity and the Perfection of the Cross…’Father forgive them they know not what they do’. Mention in the comments or send an email if you would like to know more.
LIFT- 4 month Journey: There will be one session weekly – and access between sessions. Call it ‘coaching’ in Spiritual growth and Love if you like through your Inner Being. The Inner Being (Union of Heart, Mind, Soul and Spirit in a Body) is the direct connection with God to enable and inspire the ‘outer’ work of service and obedience to God alone.
As you grow in renewal and integration of the Spiritual gifts God had already given you, with the Inner Journey of Purification and Sanctification,
so you can Live IN Faith Trusting , Eternally Rejoicing (LIFTER). The 4 months will enable you to focus:
Month 1: Who is God? - re-examining your beliefs and the image of God you carry;
Who are you? Body, Soul, Spirit and will: the significance of will in our faith journey and Life;
Why are we broken from our relationship with God? the damage done to our will for good by childhood, and even later traumas;
What is God giving us as 'life-lines? the resources we have for healing in prayer ; particular prayers for the broken-hearted.
Month 2) 'Treasures of Darkness..'How does my need become apparent? 'taking every thought captive and day by day, unravelling the sources of pain and distress and the prayers and action to transform them; Renewal of heart and mind.
Month 3) ‘Your Will Be Done’.. finding the joy and trials of being obedient to God’s invitations for Prayer, Praise and Service; and
Month 4) ‘Children of God’ – seeking that Love that has first Loved us- and being willing to be purified to the Height and Depth of God’s Love, so ONLY Love of God provides and leads us.
CONTACT ME if you want to know more – and to see if you are ready for this four month journey within – yet grounded in Love and Life – by looking at your life with a lens of Divine Love. Come Holy Spirit.