Spirit and Scripture

The Scripture without the Holy Spirit can be used to contrive and falsely justify all manner of evil.  History gives ample evidence of this. Acts Chapter Ten tells the story of a man, Peter, who trusted the Holy Spirit when He [the Spirit] seemed to contradict the Scripture; and the outcome has been of unspeakable advantage for the human family. The Scripture is absolutely necessary. It points us ultimately to Jesus Christ, the Messiah, God in human form, perfect in all His ways, Truth, Light and Life. This Jesus then says to us "I am in you." When we are in Christ and He is in us, the whole universe becomes Scripture for us, proclaiming the Love, Truth, Goodness and Grace of God to us. And we become joyful, peaceful and complete servants of God and man--we become the humble prophets, priests and kings of our generation, embodying Christ.

The Mind II

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. — Philippians 4:8 (NIV)

Our media, and therefore our minds are filled with stuff that is none of the above. It takes mental discipline to obey this gracious command--to take control of our own minds and focus them on things that are true, noble, lovely, etc. Get unplugged... Be still... and know that He is God.

"Background Unhappiness"

This I command you: that you love one another as I have loved you. Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.

Peace I give to you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives give I unto you. [Jesus, John 14:27, 13:34, Luke 6:27-8]

Our delusions and pathology are exposed and burned away as we practice consciously and peacefully loving with the Love of Christ. Whatever keeps you from loving people is your pathology [not theirs]; and whatever blocks your peace composes your delusions. Eckhart Tolle speaks of “background unhappiness”. This is a very helpful concept for us. When we “be still and know that He is God”, we are blessed with a deepening awareness of our self—our inner being. If we listen deeply we may hear the “noise” of certain unhappiness, like background noise that we become so accustomed to that we don't even notice it. Maybe it was in the environment into which we were born, so we have never been free of this “noise” and therefore consider it normal. But Jesus determines what is normal for us; and He declares peace and Love to us. Perhaps the most important aspect of our ongoing sanctification is to discern this unhappy, disquieting “noise” and to allow the Holy Spirit to progressively turn down the volume. This “noise”, as Eckhart relates, is fueled by certain, largely unconscious, thoughts or subterranean beliefs. Some examples from my experience as a counselor are:

• Something is not right. I need something that I am not getting. When I get it, I can rest.
• Something is coming up on the horizon that I will not be able to handle, or that is very dreadful. I must stay braced up against it to protect myself.
• Something happened in the past that makes it impossible for me to experience true peace. I am damaged beyond repair.
• A person [or some group of people] either did not do or are not doing what they were/are supposed to do, therefore I can not have peace.
• I made a mistake that has trapped me in this place of unhappiness.
• Life or people are going to require more of me than I will be able to supply. I may be inadequate for the task of life.
• I have been treated unfairly and someone has to pay. I am a victim.
• Those who have more power and authority than me are not handling things properly, therefore I must suffer.
• Others in my life are unhappy and I am responsible. I cannot have peace until they are healed.
• I should be doing more than I am doing, but I'm not sure exactly what or how.
• I know that things are not right, but I don't have time now to figure out what to do about it. I must keep running to survive.
• I am a dreadful failure but I must not let others know. I must prove that they are worse than me, because it's really not my fault that I am a failure anyway.

If you look deeply into your soul, you are likely to discover one or more of these or other unconscious peace-destroying messages polluting your mind. Jesus methodically exposes, then destroys them all. “Peace I give to you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives give I unto you.” This is a direct gift from Christ to you; there are no prerequisites except faith.

Polarization

But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity. James 3:17

Know this, my beloved brethren: Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger...
James 1:19

"But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 
bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."  Jesus, Luke 6:27-28 

...Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Eph 4:32

These are some verses I think of when I see the vitriolic polarization in our nation.

The Mind

Rather than using our precious, God-given minds to complain, worry or criticize, we should use them to think about how to love people with the Love of Jesus Christ, and thereby help to move the human family a little further down the Kingdom Road.
In order to make this marvellous shift, we must first allow ourselves to be placed in a third-person perspective, so to speak. In other words, we must become aware of our mind, and what is going on there. We can live and die complaining and fretting, and never wake up to the realization that we are creating a negative life for ourselves--and others. We must climb up, out of the river of our thought-stream, onto the bank, and look carefully, non-judgmentally, curiously and compassionately at what is flowing in that stream. At some point, we become aware that we are sitting in a very important place--a place that God is calling us into. We begin to see that when we were caught up in the stream, we were lost--lost in our own mind, our own perceptions; and that we were not seeing Reality as it is, but rather through the lens formulated by our genes, culture and experiences--most of which we had no control over. If we look at history, we see that whole nations and widely-accepted ideologies have taken the human family in dark and destructive directions because of this mindlessness. We realize that we can see things from a new perspective. And if we have enough humility to try to divest ourselves of the ego that has been leading us around in the darkness, we can see things from the perspective of Universal Truth--the perspective of Christ. When we climb up out of the river of what we mistakenly thought was our "self" we discover a  broad expanse that is open to the universe. We discover that we are, even now, in God. He is omnipresent. He fills up the universe that He created. Jesus said, "I and my Father [Creator, God] are one.....and I am in you, and you are in me." [John 10:30; 14:20] The Wisdom, Love and Power of the Living Word is in you; and you are one with Him. The work of what the Bible calls the "world" is to keep us distracted from this place of understanding, this At-one-ment with Christ, Who is God, Who is Love, Peace, Freedom and Eternal Life. This is the universal perspective that Christ, if we allow Him, brings us to.  In this place of the Spirit, every fiber of our being is transformed, like a caterpillar [created by the same God that you are now experiencing more deeply] into a butterfly. It is not a partial conversion; it is more like becoming Light--like frozen ice melting into water. It is like a molecular transformation. But this is not what we seek, that is, this transformation. We are not trying to have a transformation; we are simply trying to wake up. The transformation is the by-product of consciously going toward God. The Bible says "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you." [Jam 4:8] Jesus said, "Seek and you will find; knock and it will opened to you, ask and you will receive." [Matthew 7:7]. Ask Him for His perspective, and He will bring you back to a new you.

Marriage Preservation--Gottman

The Most Important Ingredient to Improve Your Marriage

What fuels a strong, resilient, enjoyable marriage? Most people would immediately answer with suggestions like better communication and the ability to resolve conflicts. As important as those skills are, it is actually much more simple than that. According to marriage and relationship expert John Gottman, it boils down to one thing: friendship!

Why is Friendship so Important?

When you think about it, the most important dynamic needed in a strong marriage is what Gottman calls Positive Sentiment Override, which is just another way of talking about friendship.

What can make a marriage work is surprisingly simple. Happily married couples aren’t smarter, richer, or more psychologically astute than others. But in their day-to-day lives, they have hit upon a dynamic that keeps their negative thoughts and feelings about each other (which all couples have) from overwhelming their positive ones. (p.4)

The concept of PSO was first proposed by University of Oregon psychologist Robert Weiss. It simply means that their positive thoughts about each other are so strong that they override any negative thoughts that they have. When conflict emerges, they are able to weather the challenge because they have already built relationship resilience. It doesn’t mean that a couple won’t ever struggle, but it will take a much bigger conflict to rock the relationship.
The entire work of John Gottman has been less about predicting divorce as it has been about helping couples build PSO. Because he has observed so many couples in his 40+ years of research, he provides useful relational skills that can deeply enhance a marriage or any relationship.

What Does Friendship Look Like?

Here are the first three of seven ways that Gottman provides for couples to connect and build their friendship with one another:

Enhance Your Love Maps    

What does this mean? It means that you never stop getting to know your spouse. So often, through the mundane monotony of life and the hectic seasons of marriage, career and family life, it is easy to start ignoring your spouse. Instead, you always want to be inquisitive about your spouse. What he or she likes, dislikes, fears, and finds comfort in.

They keep remembering the major events in each other’s history, and they keep updating their information as the facts and feelings of their spouse’s world change. When she orders him a salad, she knows what kind of dressing he likes. If she works late, he’ll think to record her favorite TV show. He could tell you how she’s feeling about her boss and exactly how to get to her office from the elevator. He knows that religion is important to her but that deep down she has doubts. She knows that he fears being too much like his father and considers himself a “free spirit.” They know each other’s life goals, worries and hopes.

Without such a love map, you can’t really know your spouse. And if you don’t really know someone, how can you truly love them? No wonder the biblical term for sexual love is to “know.” (p.54)

Nurture Your Fondness and Admiration

Another practical way that you build your friendship or increase PSO is through nurturing your fondness and admiration for your spouse. The tendency in any marriage is to slowly let your guard down and not work at thinking and expressing the things you appreciate about one another. It is much more natural and easy to start finding fault and pointing out the things you don’t like.

At first, this may all seem obvious to the point of being ridiculous: People who are happily married like each other. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be happily married. But fondness and admiration can be fragile unless you remain aware of how crucial they are to the friendship that is at the core of any good marriage. By simply reminding yourself of your spouse’s positive qualities--even as you grapple with each other’s flaws--you can prevent a happy marriage from deteriorating. The simple reason is that fondness and admiration are antidotes for contempt. (p.71)

The important thing to know about this aspect of building the friendship is looking for the little things about your spouse that show up in a normal day. If you start looking, you may be surprised at how fortunate you are to be married to your best friend!

Turn Toward Each Other

The third of seven ways that you can build your friendship or PSO is by turning toward one another. This is a critical way that a couple builds trust. Trust is foundational to any robust friendship. Gottman calls these interactions “bids.”

In marriage, couples are always making what I call “bids” for each other’s attention, affection, humor, or support. Bids can be as minor as asking for a back-rub or as significant as seeking help in carrying the burden when an aging parent is ill. The spouse responds to each bid either by turning toward the spouse or turning away. A tendency to turn toward your partner is the basis of trust, emotional connection, passion, and a satisfying sex life. Comical as it may sound, romance is strengthened in the supermarket aisle when your partner asks, “Are we out of butter?” and you answer, “I don’t know. Let me go get some just in case” instead of shrugging apathetically.

In our six-year follow-up of newlyweds, we found that couples who remained married had turned toward their partner’s bids an average of 86 percent of the time in the Love Lab, while those who ended up divorced had averaged only 33 percent…..There’s a reason that seemingly small events are fundamental to a relationship’s future: Each time partners turn toward each other, they are funding what I’ve come to call their emotional bank account. They are building up savings that, like money in the bank, can serve as a cushion when times get rough, when they’re faced with a major life stress or conflict. Because they have stored up an abundance of goodwill, such couples are less likely to teeter over into distrust and chronic negativity during hard times. (88-89).

Gottman and The Gospel

It seems that we have found some very helpful, empirically proven and simple skills to see our marriages flourish and grow. As I read Gottman, I am so thankful for his observations and practical guidance that has proven so helpful for countless couples. I am also always listening to the pages of Scripture which are replete with this same sage counsel. This is where we turn in a new a profound direction. Scripture confirms what Gottman is seeing and describing. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in just one of many places. In Ephesians 4:1-3, he says,
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit----just as you were called to one hope when you were called---one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country's Foremost Relationship Expert

By John Gottman Ph.D., Nan Silver

It seems that what Gottman does is help us understand what it looks like in the very mundane places of life to be humble, gentle, patient and forbearing in love. For that, we can say thank you, Dr. Gottman. What Scripture does is connect us to the One who has been humble, gentle, patient and forbearing in love towards us! Father, Son and Spirit have reconciled us to God through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. Now we are new creatures in Christ who have a new power by the Spirit to love our spouses. In light of all we have been given, this should be our daily prayer: Lord, have mercy on us that we would not squander your grace and miss opportunities in the drudgery of daily life to build Positive Sentiment Override with our spouses.
Copyright © 2016 Timothy S. Lane

Grace

I challenge you to take some time just now to list your sins in your mind. I am thinking particularly of the sins that you may be reluctant to acknowledge because you know that you are likely to commit them again; they are "besetting" sins; sins that you have confessed before, yet they persist. List these in your mind. Take time and be thorough and complete in this..... Be courageous enough to bring them firmly to the forefront of your mind.
Now visualize these as a stain on the window of your soul---the window through which you so desire the Love of Christ to shine through, out into the world. These stains dim the Light of His Love shining out of you. And your hidden shame and guilt only add to the opaqueness of those stains. And your denial transforms you into a caricature of your true self--an inauthentic being.
Now, with all the truth and humility you can muster from the depths of your soul, offer these up to Christ. Plead for His mercy, because you know that, on your own, you will never overcome them. Bow before Him with the spirit of the blind man on the side of the road who cried out in a loud voice "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" Cast aside all prideful dignity. Know how blind and helpless you are, just like that blind beggar. Keep crying out for His mercy until you are sure that you desire it more than the air that you breathe, more than all human love and comfort. Sit for a time in that holy desire.
Then see Him approaching. He takes in His scarred hand the edge of His blood-stained robe and lovingly wipes away that stain on the window of your soul. "This is my Grace," He says. "I do not condemn you. Your faith has made you whole, and My Word in you cleanses you from all uncleanness. Do not claim a righteousness of your own. Acknowledge before people that you are free from guilt and shame only because of the righteousness that I have bought for you at Calvary. When you acknowledge your sinful state, abiding in My Grace, your sins no longer dim My Light shining into and through you, and you become a suitable vessel for the Eternal Truth that sets men free.
You are free! Rejoice in this freedom. Celebrate it. Be eternally thankful for it. And share it diligently with all who have the ears to hear and the eyes to see."

I'm Angry and I'm Sad

I'm angry and sad---because I love this nation. And in case you're not paying attention, there is a groundswell of hedonism, addictions of all sorts, greed, hatred and violence in this nation. Harmonious and compassionate relationships are scarce as hen's teeth. Meanwhile we are entertaining ourselves to the grave, and teaching our children to do the same. We ignore Jesus and try to bolster our freedom with education, political power, social programs, and military might--none of which are working to hold back the flood of pathology that causes us to distrust each other, use each other or ignore each other--except for the relentless pursuit of romantic "love", which we sing endless songs and make endless movies about. We fight for our right to have sex the way we want it--which may have little to do with Love.We gather in the bars and commiserate about broken relationships or try to bolster the vain hope that a human relationship or some political figure will ultimately fulfill us. Or try not to think about it while we watch our games or wait for the next season.  Underneath, we are scared because we don't trust our leaders any more than we do our national enemies. That fear manifests as anger which fuels a desire to accumulate power with the idea that that power will set things straight and alleviate our fear. So someone who speaks with a loud and charismatic voice against what we perceive to be our "enemy" gets our vote; and we shout down anyone who speaks against him without listening for any truth that might be in their viewpoint. We demonize the other side--because of fear! Or the desire for power. *
All this happens because we do not understand the Truth of Jesus Christ. (And that statement will cause many readers to turn off their computers or go to another site--which is the problem). But if you are still reading at this point, I want you to know that, underneath my sadness and anger, at a deeper, core level in my soul, I have peace and joy. I am thankful! It is this peace, joy and gratitude that I desire for all humankind. And until we get there, I have work to do--the work of the Kingdom that Jesus Christ instituted, informs and sustains.  My deepest hope--the reason I am writing this--is that someone, hopefully many, will be motivated to go to the most influential and liberating Book that has ever graced the human family; and that they will study it long enough to discover that it points to (in the Old Testament) and reveals (in the New Testament) a Messiah--a Savior Who brings salvation, peace and joy to the soul through the revelation of the one and only God of this universe Who is Love!  I'm sixty-nine years old now, and I've been paying attention, studying some, and listening for over thirty years, as a counselor and minister, to the ails of the human soul. And I am more convinced than I have ever been that Jesus is our only hope. Anyone who fails to look deeply into His Life and Teachings is either a coward or a fool. I say this with no desire to offend or look down upon anyone. I know that God loves everyone as much as me. But how can one say that he is a truth-seeker if he ignores or brushes off the One Who said "I am the Truth..."  And if one is not a truth-seeker, then he is a fool, rushing along with societal trends without looking to see where they are going; like a lemming rushing toward the sea, or a lamb to be slaughtered; like the Dr. Seuss character following the stranger to Solla Sollew.
I'm angry because so many people seem to have no idea who Jesus is, and yet they discount Him as if they had gotten to the bottom of His teachings and found them to be inadequate, or only a small and insignificant piece of the universal puzzle--one of the many pathways to God (none of which they are actually traversing). I'm angry because of the many intelligent and compassionate people who unconsciously raise themselves above Jesus and try to find solutions in the upper regions of the atmosphere, as they would imagine. But there is no oxygen there! Here's an example: I heard a woman being interviewed on National Public Radio who was an unbeliever. She was in a relationship with a Christian man. She was confessing that she had been supportive of his ministries [I think he was a pastor] but that she really believed, as she said "It's bigger than Jesus."  This woman was apparently intelligent and compassionate. I liked her, just from hearing her thoughtfulness and deep concern for her husband. I suspect that out of the many listeners to that broadcast, many others did also; and nodded in agreement with her without realizing the incredible and profound error of that statement, based upon what the New Testament says about Christ as reliably recorded by those who walked with Him. As recorded in the First Chapter of the Gospel of John [for those fools and cowards who have not read it (I'm sorry. Don't mean to offend, but, as I said, I'm angry)] : "In the beginning was the Word; and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. And everything that has come into existence came through that Word...And the Word became flesh [Jesus] and dwelt with us...full of grace and truth." In the first Chapter of Ephesians Paul writes that Jesus has been seated at the right hand of God "far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but in the one to come." Now, either the Bible is accurate about who Jesus is or that woman has the right idea; but they can not both be accurate. I suspect that the "It" that she alluded to is bigger than her conception of Jesus.  She just doesn't have the correct conception of Him--that is, the conception of those who lived with Him and wrote about Him. And also the conception of the billions of people whose lives have been radically transformed by Him since His incarnation. For these happy folks, Jesus is the biggest thing. But I suspect that many more people will hear that broadcast, nodding in agreement with that woman, than will read this blog, or, more importantly, the New Testament, to make their own judgments of Jesus, which is what God would clearly have them do. After all, He spoke audibly from heaven saying, "This my beloved son. Listen to what He has to say," Then He [God] raised Him from the grave to seal the deal. But we are free, of course, to carry on in our efforts to find the answer in education**, politics, government, laws, and military**, resting in our smug belief that there are many ways to God and "I'm bound to be on one of them", while we watch ourselves go down the drain, along with the many other spiritually blind nations in the annals  of history.


* Years ago I asked a lady who had grown up in Nazi Germany, married an American soldier and come to the U.S., "How could someone like Hitler gain power?" She answered quickly, "Oh, the people loved him. He made the streets safe to walk again." Rampant incivility paves the way for power. But leaders who covet power may bring along some bad ideas about how to wield it; and they are reluctant to share it or to allow it to be taken away from them.
** The Bible says "Add to faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge..." [2Pet. 1:5] Notice, education is third on the list. And Hosea 10:13 states: You have eaten the fruit of lies—trusting in your military might,believing that great armies could make your nation safe..

Music

Music can be, among other things, a blank canvas upon which the imagination can project many beautiful or dreadful images. It is like a Rorschach for the mind.
"Music expresses that which cannot be spoken, but which cannot be left unexpressed." Victor Hugo [approx quote]
"The reality of the music is the vibration that remains in the soul when the singer is silent and the musician no longer plucks the strings." Kahlil Gibran [approx quote]

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech in a nation that has been careful to refrain from stern laws against slander and libel necessitates a great responsibility on the part of its citizens to be very careful about how they use that freedom. It is a principle in life that misused freedom tends to get taken away. It is pathological to demand a freedom and then use it for destructive or hateful means. And it is equally pathological to label properly used freedom as "hate."

The Source

Imagine for a moment that you are here because of the best that is within you--the very best that is within you: That which is transcendent, that which is free, peaceful, strong, trustworthy, generous, loving, courageous, kind, that which can celebrate and experience joy. Imagine that you are here because of the Source of all of that, and that that Source is all of that and more. It is the best of all that is within you multiplied by the number of stars in the galaxies--indeed, the galaxies themselves originated in and exist in that Source; and that you can never be lost from that Source; you can never be lost from this Universe that has come into being because of Love; the love of parents for children; the love of brothers and sisters; the best that is in the love between a man and a woman, or any two humans--the Love. Imagine that that Love is really all there is; that that Love is like Light, and everything else is a shadow--merely the absence of  light.  And imagine that you are moving into that Light, as those who've had near-death experiences describe, moving into the Light that they recognize to be God or the Conscious Core of the universe that permeates and enlivens all, and they so desire to continue into this Light, that is the amazing Source of this love and freedom and peace that they feel inside,  but in an even more powerful way than they can describe because they are so much closer to the Source, being free of the physical body and earthly confines, and they do not want to return to their earthly existence. Imagine that that becomes your reason for being: connecting with that Source, abiding in an open-hearted awareness of that Light that is shining into you, brighter and brighter going toward the full Light of day.
Now take note of everything that is within your mind and heart that pulls you back from that Source: that creates some tension, tightness or fear; worry, anticipation, dread, the fear of uncertainty, inadequacy, death, sickness--all of it! Everything that is selfish and holding on to stuff that needs to be released; everything from any slight annoyance to the most dreadful fear.  Imagine that you could renounce all of that. Renounce it! Push it away from you. In Christ you can do that! Christ is Light, and in Him is no darkness. And He is [or desires to be] your "friend", as He himself has said. But you must have humility; you must realize that you are not the Source. You do not control the Source. You did not originate your own life. You did not think up your own mind. You did not create eyes, colors, sounds, and the marvelous energies that flow [how many have we yet to discover?] in this universe. You did not create love, emotions, will, intuition, etc. We are not the Source; but we are open to the Source, have access to the Source through Christ, Who said, "I and the Father [the Creator of this universe] are One." And He said, "I am in you, you in Me, and I am in the Father." That is the Light that is in us. That is the Source. That is Love, that is freedom, that is peace. That is what those people who've had near-death experiences say they do not want to come back from. Jesus brings us into that Light. That is His expressed mission, what He came to do. He is that Light in human form, and now in Spirit--the Holy Spirit. He said, "I come that you might have abundant and eternal life. Peace I give to you. I have spoken these things that my joy might be in you..." Peace, joy, abundant life. "I come to set at liberty those who are oppressed." What is oppressing you? Jesus will set you free from it--now. Today. And every day. If you submit to Him. He says, "Come to me. Come you who labor and are heavy burdened, and I will give you rest for your soul." Rest for the soul, not just the body. Rest from all fear and oppression. From all the worries and cares of this world. In Christ Jesus, Who delivers you from this world even while you continue to live in it. This happens while being in denial or putting on blinders about nothing: death, suffering, tribulation, being blindsided by attacks from Satan, etc. We know that all these things will happen  to ourselves and everyone we love. We are not being naive to receive the peace given to us by the One Whom God raised from the dead to confirm that He is the Truth for humankind. It is wise, and strong, and liberating to receive the Gift of the Salvation offered by Christ. It is foolish not to.

Your Body

Your physical body is the glorious Temple of the Holy Spirit; and it should be celebrated as such.  The glory of the Lord, once you have received Christ and His Holy Spirit is within you; that Spirit shines out into the world from the core of your being, from your heart, like Light in the darkness. Let that Light shine. Let it shine! Open your heart to receive the Love of God manifested through Christ Jesus, and be inwardly illuminated with this, the Light of the world. This Light, which is the Love of God, will continue, and you abiding in It, when your body returns to the dust. Nothing can separate us from this Love.

Suffering

Allow your suffering to be consumed in the Fire of God's Love for you, and in your secure knowledge of and faith in that Love. If we turn away from God in our suffering, or because of that suffering,  we move away from the only Source of its healing; the only Power by which that suffering can be transformed into something beautiful; something for which we are actually thankful. 
Here is a prayer:
"Lord I pray to be delivered from all my suffering except for that which You, in Your infinite wisdom and unspeakable Love, would choose to allow into my life for the loving and wise reasons that You would allow it. I accept that suffering with gratitude for what it is designed to bring into my life."

Ann Voskamp poetic quote and link

Count the ways He Loves, the ways He gives a thousand more, never stop; so that when you wake in the morning you can't help but unfold your hands to the heavens, and tho you grieve, and tho you wonder, tho the world is ugly, it is beautiful;

tho time moves on and the planet spins a-blur, you can slow, and you can wake, and you can trust, and you can pay attention; with this offer of gratitude; because this is how you spend this one life well, receiving each moment for what it really is: holy, ordinary, amazing grace—a GIFT!

Whatever battle you're facing, whatever love and thanksgiving you pour out to Christ will be a memory that goes on forever. So sing a song and do your work, and give thanks; and when it's painful, praise God; and in silent times, seek God; and in harried times hallow god; and in terrible times, trust God; and in ALL times—in ALL times—give thanks to God, so that you take your gift and make it ALL ------a gift of thanks back to Him.

Ann Voskamp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2_HVSufE-k

LAW AND LOVE

There will never be enough laws, or courts and officers to enforce them, to bring about justice and liberty. The need for laws, officers and courts itself attests to something in us that must be restrained, subdued, overcome, constrained. The idea of Christianity is that that evil something in us be constrained by the Holy Spirit within us—the Spirit of Love for God and man. To the degree that this Love does not permeate a culture, it moves toward dictatorship because the only other constraining factor is fear. Without the fear of God there is only the fear of man or sociopathy; both big steps down in the hierarchy of human existence.

We have a wonderful opportunity to be free in the Love of Christ. Through His body of imperfect believers, He offers freedom. Still today, as when He walked upon the earth, His Spirit says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You stone the prophets and kill those that God sends to you. How often I would have taken you under My wing, even as a mother hen her baby chicks, but you refused.”

Think deeply about what we are refusing when we refuse or ignore Christ.  He promises peace, joy, abundant and eternal life. Polls indicate around 80% of Americans claim to be Christian.  Yet how easy to be cavalier about our faith. I notice in myself, an ordained minister, seminary graduate and life-long church-goer, a strong tendency to be perpetually preoccupied with anything but the Love of God and man; and this Love is the primary command of Christ.  I don’t think this tendency is unique to me. I think it is a manifestation of the evil we must all be perpetually overcoming. We overcome by abiding in Christ.

If we had the opportunity, as Franklin Graham wrote about in his book Rebel With a Cause, to visit nations and cultures that have not had the strong influence of Christianity that America has been blessed with, and witness the superstition and psycho-social deprivation there, perhaps we would not be so cavalier about the Faith that has provided us so many blessings and so much freedom. If we look deeply into our own culture, we see the seeds of social entropy taking root in various places. These seeds are present in all of us—we are the nation! And we must all work diligently to keep them rooted out of our own personalities. This is the work of the Holy Spirit within us. We truly are lost without Christ. We have all seen, almost daily, humans acting in very selfish and destructive ways with no remorse or even any evident sense that they were in the wrong. Many feel entitled to act in ways that cause suffering to others. There are very dark undercurrents in the human soul. I recently read that people hired by FaceBook as “content moderators” must receive counseling to cope with some of the violence and depravity they are exposed to, including child pornography, bestiality, and cruelty to animals. Social media , by providing the combination of anonymity and exposure, has provided us an unwanted but enlightening look into the darkness of the human soul. This should serve to awaken us to what Christ has come to deliver us from. I also discovered recently that Son of Sam, the infamous murderer who terrorized New York City decades ago, became a sincere Christian and teaches His Way to fellow prisoners.   His conversion is by all accounts sincere and has stood the test of time. He does not attend his parole board meetings; he is not trying to be released. What other influence than Christ could have brought about such a conversion of a man’s personality? There are billions of examples of this transformation in the history of Christianity. This is our hope. But we must nurture it.    It is not enough for us to eat of the fruit of the garden of freedom and peace. We must also tend it carefully. We must pull up some weeds and sow some seeds. The Love of Christ extends to those yet unborn. What are we bequeathing them? Whatever it is, we will give account of it in the Day. 

                                     

Distractions and Fear

Intelligence, curious past times, entertainment, games, sports, shopping, working, planning for retirement, trying to help our family---all these are futile without Christ Who gives meaning to our actions, wisdom in our choices and discernment of our motives. Without Christ, our efforts to help a family member may only enable his/her weaknesses. Without Him entertainment may be an escape from a painful relationship or from honest introspection. Preaching about Jesus without the Spirit of Jesus becomes a way to vent anger, or to control people, or to impress them. Without Christ a marriage becomes a battle of egos, or of domination and control, or a boring pastime until death comes, or a living hell of resentment and contempt.

                In Christ we are blessed with a keen awareness of our sinful nature/character defects/dark side or whatever one might label it. It is not good. It is evil. And we should not let the label disguise the evilness of it. It needs to be exposed. Pride and fear keep many away from the Pathway of Truth that leads to ultimate freedom. We cannot circumvent the truth about our self on the way to freedom.

There are many fears to be faced on the Pathway to freedom; and we must face them all, even the fear of death. Some say that they do not fear death but rather life, or the pain and suffering they might endure in life. But that fear does not protect them from these tribulations; it only robs them of peace along the way. Jesus has promised to be with us always. He will be with us when we endure the sufferings that He told us we would have. We can, as He said, “be of good cheer” because He has “overcome the world.” His Love has conquered all. We will be brought to completion. Not even our own sins will prevent us. He has paid the price for them. There is really nothing to fear now that we are in Christ. But fears die hard and crop up like invasive weeds in the garden of our soul. They must be weeded out diligently and regularly. Each one must be brought into the full Light of Christ-in-us, where they evaporate like stagnant water in sunlight.

Scripture

Studying the Scriptures can become another distraction into darkness if it does not lead us into the infinite, liberating Love of Christ being inwardly experienced by the student. The Pharisees are an excellent example of this. They studied the Scriptures but did not find Christ, nor even recognize Him when He stood before them. When our souls are opened to the Truth of Christ and His Spirit is residing in us and His Love being manifested through us, the Scripture has served its purpose. At that time Joy and Peace begin to arise within us like a Fountain of Living Water, just as He said. We are then at one with the Living Word. The Scripture serves to connect man with God, and to refine and enhance that connection. It is wasted on all other purposes.

The Unseen Adventure

2Co 4:18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

Jesus opens new dimensions for us into the unseen world. He reveals the infra and ultra dimensions of the spiritual spectrum. All these dimensions are Love, and the ability to gain access to them is a gift of Love from God Who is Love. He knows that we need adventure and so He has given us the greatest adventure of all: the adventure of pursuing and blossoming into infinite Love, manifesting in infinite ways in an infinite universe. We will always be able to seek and find more—and not more of the same, as in the world. The moment our journey takes us away from the Love of Christ, however, it is no longer Truth that we are walking in, and the destination will not be good, no matter how pleasant the pathway.

Depravity and Protection

There seems to be no bottom to the pit of human depravity. “Content moderators”, hired by FaceBook to sift through the porn and violence injected into its medium, need, and are provided counseling to deal with the PTSD symptoms they suffer from what they are exposed to: child pornography, bestiality, and cruelty to animals, etc. One moderator witnessed children being encouraged to touch each other sexually; another witnessed a cat being put in a microwave. Social media has given pathology the unprecedented combination of anonymity and wide exposure; and given us an unwanted but enlightening look at human depravity. Christianity is the Fire that keeps the beasts of prey at bay in any society. It is the societal immune system that protects humankind from pathological outbreaks. We must nurture, protect and propagate it. We must extol Jesus Christ as the Way of salvation. We must live in Truth.

Snarlers

I’ve seen some snarling spirits in people. They are like mean dogs; when threatened they snarl and threaten to attack. Snarlers feel threatened by some of the Truth, and they will snarl at you if you get too close to them with it. Sometimes it’s better to let sleeping dogs lie. Sometimes the Holy Spirit leads us to speak Truth into that militant darkness. If they don’t let that Truth in, they will be dragged down by their own “pack”. They will end up in like company. Some snarlers soften and begin to get it—that the Truth is better than anything they are trying to hold on to. But others will pull out all the stops. They will verbally, or even physically attack you. Or they will find a way to distract or escape. They may even kill to defend themselves against the Truth—the mafia, for instance, or drug lords.  Most snarlers are lower down the scale than that, but their game plan is no less destructive for them. This militance against Truth is what nailed Christ to the Cross, and it is evident today in both subtle and overt persecution. The hatred of Christianity, as well as antisemitism, is impossible to understand except for the reality of evil.

God, through His Holy Spirit within in us, gives us discernment about snarlers, as with all life matters. He lets us know when to ignore and turn away, when to try to sow a seed of Truth onto the hard ground of their souls, and He protects us spiritually from what they can do to us physically if they get in positions of power, which is what they lust after. Jesus exposed them in His days on the earth, evoking their reactive hatred, and He exposes them today, causing them to scream about their “freedom from religion” in free societies, and to physically persecute His followers in those nations where tyranny has the upper hand.

Difficult Baby

Even tho there are some urgent matters that distract and dismay us now and then, it is the best of life that is ultimately true. Now there is darkness and Light—and we must cope adequately with the darkness. We do this by moving always toward the Light, in every situation. We begin then to see the Light even in the darkness, for the darkness serves, if we are blessed, to move us toward the Light. We must not get lost in the darkness. When we choose the Light, which is Jesus and His Love [a redundant phrase, for Jesus is His Love] then we realize that we will not fail to be carried beyond and out of the darkness, for this is clearly and unmistakably God’s will. So the farther we go in the direction of the Light, by conscious choice and willing submission to the Truth, which is that Light, the more we are drawn, like a meteor being drawn into the gravitational pull of the Sun, getting closer and closer to being joyfully consumed in the glorious Fire of Peace, Joy, Love, and Freedom of Soul. This is the Pathway of Christ—the Christ Who is still being mocked, ridiculed, or worse, ignored. The world looks down in arrogant blindness upon those humble souls walking that Pathway; sees them as tight-suited, money hungry televangelists, or naïve “sky-godders”, or infantile projectors of a beneficent, imaginary heavenly father who protects them from the fear of death. And there are and always have been “Christians” posing as Christians—wolves in sheep clothing. But how easy it is for worldlings to throw out a difficult-to-deal-with Baby with the hypocritical bath water. Even though billions have found unspeakable courage, strength, freedom and Love by dealing with that difficult Baby.