My Salvation

I am being conformed to the image of Christ through God’s Grace. This Grace is the calling from God for me to follow His will not mine. His will for me was set before I was conceived. This Grace is brought about through the complexities and experiences of my life. The choices, events and circumstances of my life are all a part of the process of forming me to the likeness of Christ, His one and only Son He sent to us in the flesh so we could have a tangible teacher to show us the way to God our true Father. God provides this Grace and path to me for the sake of God’s Kingdom and the world around me. I experience God molding transforming me in the innate driveness inside me that is never content that I am always striving to be a better man and now that I have heard His call a holier man. What Jesus has taught me is both and accession but also a sense of losing myself or better put a dying to my own will (self actualization or self fulfillment). As I pick up my cross I learn to live not for myself but for the Father.

Interweaved through my life is the constant presence evil. A counter spiritual presence that wants to keep me from God’s love and will. I know deep within me there is something set against me trying to prevent my relationship with God. I understand I am living in a fallen world, one of intense evil and good. Good things happen and so do bad things. What I have come to experience is God makes good out of those times when I do succumb to evil and fall away from his Grace. For God understands the evil one is so adept to getting me to go the opposite direction from God’s love. I also know that God gave me a choice to choose His good or the devil’s fallen way. Choice is the foundation of Love. For God’s knows that Love is not something born out of any kind of force or coercion. I must understand there are two realms to the world in which my soul and body reside. One is the world of what I can see that is tangible this where my body resides. The other realm is that of my spirit. This spiritual realm is much like the physical world in that it has an order and a process to it. The major difference is that the physical world is bound by time where as the spiritual world is timeless. Both worlds invade each other or better put they are intertwined. God uses both realms in order to conform me to be in His image (don’t be conformed to the things of this world).

One of the biggest dangers that evil uses against me is to make me believe is the absence of a spiritual world. This lie is the foundation of the fallen world or as we call it culture to a great extent. For evil teaches me only to believe what I can physically see and what my human rational mind can validated. This is where God’s calling comes into place in my life. He nudges me and if need be He invades my life with His presence to bring me a reminder that I was created in His image to be more than I being. These nudges and invasions if not paid attention to go unheeded by me sometimes for years and years. I can recall now so many nudges and invasions by God in my past. I just did not know how to listen or understand what God was saying to me. Most of the time they came in the form of irritations; broken relationships, failures, and more often just sadness and depression feelings of something is not right with my heart. It is for me that looming thought “I am not where I am supposed to be.” As if I want to say out loud “Mike stop go the other direction.” This is to me is what repent means. I am learning to respond to God’s call more often. As I let God into my daily life He begins to purge those things in my life that have gotten in the way of knowing Him. I see life differently now. I have begun to have a deep personal relationship with Him. He has grown to be my best friend, my confidant, and my ultimate power. I love Him more than life or anything in it.

Now that I am listening God is always purging me of my old ways. He is now my General my true Father. I do nothing without Him. I have a passion to follow Jesus and to learn how He lived how he brought the Kingdom to Earth. So I see life differently and do things differently. I am trying to become of servant to the world just like Jesus did by giving up my wants and needs so I can serve others with my skills, talents, wisdom and most importantly with the love in my heart. This pouring out of myself often empties me. I become worn out, burned out on life and religion. I must therefore go back to the well of the Lord to fill up. The only way I find to fill up is to spend time with God; to BE with God to seek is His company and to speak with Him, to let Him put things upon my heart. As I spend time with Him, He pours into me his Grace and love. It fills my heart and soul so that I can again pour out to others in my life. This pouring out illuminates me, it shows me the Kingdom and I experience in my heart God’s true love for me. I feel on purpose, alive like I have never felt before. I now have the eyes, ears, and heart to experience how I was made to be; a Kingdom builder!

Being with God requires activities that put me in a place to recognize and receive his Grace which means the way he communicates to me. These activities are contained in my survival kit which consists of fasting, a letting go of or dying a little, removal of things in my life so that I can focus without distraction on God. I am learning to silence the world around, so that I hear His still small voice, that heaviness on my heart. I seek solitude to find Him then I sit back and notice what He is doing in and around me. My priorities are to remain in Him, loving all God’s children, and bearing witness to God’s goodness to all that will listen and watch in me.

In order to stop the onslaught of evil in my life I must be disciplined and I must take up the battle against evil. I need to train, practice, and go to war in order to maintain my relationship with God. He has provided me the spiritual disciplines as weapons and tools to keep his Kingdom in my life. It is this regular practice and training that always me to win the war and to work out my salvation for the good of God. I ask God my Father for the heart, soul, mind and strength to do His will. Lord I am yours do what you will with me. Save me from evil. Let me see the Kingdom. Take me from here to be with you.

Breathing

This is a continuation of my thoughts on the divine breath. I was so taken back by God as he unveiled the following to me over a sermon and video from Rob Bell pastor at Mars Hill Bible Church in Michigan. So I continued on a did a little more research using the Net Bible. If you have not used this tool it is awesome to look at the Greek words and definitions. Enjoy for it brought tears to my eyes and how good the Lord is to me.

DEFINITION and Greek translation the English word LORD= yeh-ho-vaw' (it is the sound when we breath try it say it slow a few times:)
Spirit in Greek is the word Pneuma who’s root word is Pneo which is defined as; to breathe.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
Luke 23:46 Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And after he said this he breathed his last.
John 20:20-22 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

The lyrics from the song : This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
This is the air I breathe
Your holy presence
Living in me

When we breathe each other “in” we are experiencing God’s life giving force, His spirit that is living in us, in every breath we take. In the act of making love of sharing this intimate time of connection, the pure love of God is strong and evident. The breathing of each others spirit ties our hearts and souls together which makes us one with God sharing in His life given force which is pure “love”. This breathe (God’s Love) is linked to directly to our sexuality or better put our complete intimacy with Him. This is why a sex act without love violates the spirit inflicting wounds at the deepest sense of our lives. Rape incest, pornography, lust, and sex for the sake of sex are all acts outside of Love and rob ourselves of God’s breath and in the true sense leaves us empty inside when done.

GOD DOES GIVE and TAKE OUR BREATH AWAY.

Where I am at today!

A letter to a friend this week reads:

All is well in the war over my heart and the hearts of my family and friends. I still listen to both Piper and Boyd. I enjoy the two points of view. I love Greg Boyd for his view of the Warrior Jesus who came to save us and show us how to fight the real battle for our hearts and how evil so is present in our lives. I love John Piper for his solid theology and reverence. I don’t get too caught up in any one preacher. My faith is not based upon any preacher, pastor or priest. These are men with their own beliefs and take on God’s word. I find little comfort in religion or denominational churchs. I find my relationship with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit much more grounded in the Word and in talking, praying and watching God at work in my life and in those around me. Life to me now is much different; it is all Spiritual, it is all about evil and good(love) nothing in between. I don’t DO Christianity, I walk with God and try to do what he ask me to do. I try to live like Christ somehow and read how he said to do life, to do life from the heart and build his kingdom. I find no value in rational thinking, I find value in love. Where that takes me I have not a clue I just try to live differently as did Jesus.

In Service for God!

Holey Heart

My first poem.

In the center of my heart lies a hole
It is not a wound
It is not a lonely feeling
It is not a scary feeling
It has not gone away by ignoring it
It has not been filled by material success
It has not been filled by marriage
It has not been filled by having children
It has not been filled by any amount of attainment
Culture says it has the solution “the American Dream”
I know this not to be the truth, tried it
I cannot tell you why this hole exist
I know it is really deep or even bottomless
I know my mind wants to fill it by being busy
I know God created this hole
I know it takes faith to live with
I know it takes dependence to exist with
I know it has everything to do with my purpose
I know without it I am a robot
I know it is to know God
I know I can always find Him there
In the center of your heart, is there a hole too.

Here is a quote by Blaise Pascal which describes the hole and its diagnosis.

“There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus”

Working Out for God

In church this past Sunday I had revelation about my spiritual life and practice. As a competitive athlete I am very disciplined and committed to keeping myself physically fit by training at least 15 hours a week. I also do certain workouts to better and maintain my level of competitiveness.

Then it came to me that I should look at my spiritual life in the same manor. I must work my spiritual fitness in the same manor. Ah Ha. Here is my workout schedule.

Daily Devotional readings
Reading of the bible (i am in the middle of Matthew)
Listen to Pod casts of different Pastors around the country (bell, boyd, stanley)
Praying myself and with the kids
Sharing my path and experiences of my Christian life with my friends.
Volunteering and Mentoring with the High School Youth Group Rezlife
Spending Time with fellow Christians
Writing about my relation with my Lord
Sunday Service 5pm

Wow that felt good. I am pleased with work out and I feel closer and more fit in my spiritual then I have ever in my life. Its A Good Life.