Blog Posts containing "Christmas"

The last Sunday in Christmas can be a real bummer for some. All the preparation, hard work, busy malls, traffic and people can really stress a person out. Let us not take away any joy that is left. The embers are still lit. Just a bit smoky but with a few embers left. Here come the resolutions time. Some people make many and others none. By definition a New Year resolution is a commitment to make a life style change that would be advantageous for us. Most of us have made New Year’s resolutions at one time or another. The reason we quit making them is because they do not work. The reason they do not work is because they are symptoms. Until we know the cause they will be a lost cause.  Read more

Think literal Legalism: Legalism finds no consolation or closure about traumatic events. Feel the spiritual Grace: Grace finds consolation and closure in the Presence of God. Old Testament: Jeremiah 31:7-14 Think literal Legalism: “With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back.” Feel the spiritual Grace: “With weeping they shall come, and with consolations I will lead them back spiritually.”  Read more

An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went. Christmas is about Peace on Earth and good will toward everyone. All is calm and all is bright, sleep in gentle sleep. If this has been a meaningful Christmas for you because of all that happened, well and good. It will not last long. Here comes the New Year of unknowns and out of control, sudden occurrences. If this has been a meaningful Christmas to you because you came into it and through it in the Peace and Presence of Jesus, it will last through this New Year and on.  Read more

Think literal Legalism: “Presence” is physical. Feel the spiritual Grace: “Presence” is spiritual. OLD TESTAMENT: Isaiah 63:7-9 Think literal Legalism: It was no messenger or angel but his physical presence that saved them. Feel the spiritual Grace: It was no messenger or angel but His spiritual Presence that saves them. Legalism looks for the key to happiness. Grace knows there is no key, the door is always open!  Read more

Matthew 1:24 "When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him." Joseph was lucky. He had a dream and the angels told him what to do. Anyone can do what the angel tells you to do. Why can’t God make it that easy every time?  Read more

Jesus is asking the people what did they go out into the wilderness to see in John the Baptist? It was not some prince in a palace. If they did they would be terribly disappointed. They went out to see a prophet. But the question is how do you see a prophet? What do you look for? A prophet of God is not something you see. It is something you feel. You feel they are in the Presence of God and are sharing not their thoughts, but God’s thoughts. This is what a true prophet is. You listen to what is being said because the speaker is in the Presence.  Read more

“Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'” Presumption can lead us to believe we are in God’s Peace when we are not. It can have us believe that no matter what happens we cannot and will not ever be in His Peace about certain things in the past, present or future. Presumption leads us to believe that we know how to change the unchangeable by working on it long enough or thinking about it hard enough. We overcome our presumption by knowing as a fact, that when we are in the Presence of the Peace of God we can be at Peace under any condition. St Paul tells it like it is when he wrote in Romans 2:2, “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed.”  Read more

The Christmas Peace cannot be found in getting all the shopping, cooking and other ducks in line so we can feel at peace. The Christmas Peace is found within ourselves. It is already there. We need to find the Christmas Peace so we can celebrate the Christmas event. The Peace is all about the Presence of Jesus born into this World. The Word, according to John’s Gospel, is that Jesus came into the World and the World did not know Him. The World is not that place out there. The World is this place in us. It is the place where we often forget about the birth of the Spirit of Jesus that God has poured into our hearts.  Read more

The tragedy at Newtown will always be a painful memory. The question asked is, “Where was God?” We think of God as Loving, Almighty and all Knowing. He knew this was to happen so why did He not intervene? The answer is to face the fact that we are in a spiritual war between good and evil. An emotional Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy got it right when he said that Evil visited the Village of Newtown.  Read more

Spiritual language is natural, conscious and innate. It is not something we learn, it is something we discover. This language is not rationally taught but consciously remembered. Take time to sense the godly Presence within when a spiritual word is added to the rational, worldly reading of scripture. Life starts inside spiritually and moves outwardly to the rational world. Feel the difference starting from in to out makes.  Read more