Life is what happened between our old and our new plans. It is an opportunity for a “Time Out”. How many of us need a time out. We perhaps could use a time out in our personal life. It seems to be headed down not up. There are time outs needed in our relationship at times. When was the last time we took a time out with our spouse, or with our children or with our parents? Our problem is we do not have time to take a time out. It is frivolous to think we can do it. Too many things to do, places to go, people to meet. And, yes, we are about to take on some more busy work. We believe the wise old warning that “the Devil is in the details.” We just do not have time to check out the details. Read more
Third Sunday in Epiphany
Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Jan 16, 2014
Epiphany is about changing our thinking from outside to inside, to inside to outside. We cannot do it unless we are able to know the difference between the two ways of thinking. If we cannot tell the difference, no matter how sincere we are we will go back to the old way. This is illustrated by the word “repent”. It can be either from outside to inside thinking or from inside to outside thinking. Do you know the difference between the two? You can practice with the “Bottom Line” exercises published in this blog every Monday. Read more
Second Sunday in Epiphany
Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Jan 09, 2014
Epiphany is a spiritual inside-out experience. The feeling of His Presence transforms our thought about the event. The rational outside-in thinking tries to change what we think about the event to transform our feelings. We find this thinking in the Gospel lesson today. It is about two disciples Andrew, and most likely John. John does not like to mention himself. Although he does not mention his name, he calls himself “The Disciple whom Jesus loved.” Outside-in thinking believes this disciple was the one that Jesus loved. It sounds pretentious that Jesus would love one more than the other. Inside-out thinking knows his name “John” means “The Beloved”. That is as close to his name you can get. The author was just referring to his name not his relationship with Jesus as a special person. Read more
Year C Sixth Sunday After Pentecost Meditation
Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Jun 20, 2013
God declared War on Legalism when He sent His Word into the World. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us … full of grace and truth. Legalism fought back against the grace believing the Bible, not Jesus, is the word of God. Grace is based on the Two Great Love Commandments. All the Law and the Prophets have now been changed into “do the loving thing.” The New Command is to be in His Presence in order to Love one another. “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Read more
Advent III
Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Dec 06, 2012
The God News is the difference between the rationality of worldly legalism and the spirituality of Godly grace. Worldly thinks inside the box. Both John and Jesus called the Sadducees and the Pharisees “a brood of vipers”. They were snakes who stayed in their family box, producing others in their kind of legalism. Anything outside the box is impossible. When the Godly spiritual thinks outside the box, all things are possible. Read more
Pentecost XI John 6:24-35
Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Aug 02, 2012
This scripture is a good example of the difference between rational and spiritual understanding. The rational could not understand how Jesus could be the Bread of life. For them, "bread" meant the "manna" that God gave during the Exodus. How could a person be bread? Jesus makes the compare and contrast difference. Read more
Follow Your Heart Part 6: The Difference Between Being In Or Out Of The Presence
Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Jul 10, 2012
This twelve part series is an attempt to make clear how to follow our heart by explaining an intangible concept!! Things that exist that are seen are physical and are down here on earth. Things that exist spiritually are unseen and are sensed to be upward. When we think with our head we are "out" of the spiritual Presence. When we consciously feel the Presence we get "in". Read more
Dealing with a Guilt Complex
Posted by Paul Edwards (The Rev) on Apr 03, 2012
When we have the feelings of a guilty conscious, it is a sign we are out of His Presence. Under the Law, when we are out of the Presence of the Love of God, we confess our sins to be forgiven and to be loved by God. In grace, we get in the Presence of the Love of God to be forgiven. We confess our sins because we are forgiven. Read more
I Have an Anger Complex
Posted by Paul Edwards (The Rev) on Mar 27, 2012
"I have a problem with not being able to fully control my anger." One of the problems with anger control programs is, it isn't the anger. We use our anger to cover our real feelings. When you are Out of the Presence, your reality is pain and anger about what you think happened to you. When you change how you think In the Presence, you change what you think of the event. Within us is a Presence that can put our life back on track. Read more
Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Feb 23, 2012
Take time to wonder what difference it makes if you understand life's events with rational understanding, out of the Presence, or with spiritual understanding, in God's Presence. Read more
Latest Posts
-
Year A Pentecost XXIV
- Nov 13, 2014 -
Year A Pentecost XXIV Bottom Line
- Nov 10, 2014 -
Year A Pentecost XXIII
- Nov 06, 2014 -
Year A Pentecost XXIII Bottom Line
- Nov 03, 2014 -
Year A Pentecost XXII
- Oct 30, 2014
Latest Comments
-
I am interested in finding out…
6 years, 8 months ago -
I have built a Chartres Labyrinth…
7 years, 8 months ago -
Feelings of guilt grip many who…
7 years, 9 months ago -
I truly needed to read this today!…
8 years, 11 months ago -
These designs are all outdated.…
9 years ago
Blog Archives
- November 2014 (4)
- October 2014 (9)
- September 2014 (9)
- August 2014 (8)
- July 2014 (9)
- June 2014 (9)
- May 2014 (9)
- April 2014 (8)
- March 2014 (9)
- February 2014 (8)
- January 2014 (9)
- December 2013 (9)
Most Used Tags
- Fr. Paul (150)
- Lectionary (141)
- Meditations (139)
- Bottom Line (121)
- Year A (106)
- Year C (102)
- grace (75)
- Presence (50)
- Pentecost (49)
- spiritual grace (46)
- literal religion (46)
- legalism (41)
- Year B (35)
- spiritual understanding (25)
- Easter (22)
- rational thinking (18)
- Epiphany (16)
- war on legalism (15)
- Jesus (13)
- follow your heart (12)
- Wisdom (12)
- Lent (12)
- rational head (12)
- Peace (12)
- Grace (11)
Most Used References to Scripture
- John 1:1 (28)
- John 15:5 (27)
- John 13:34 (25)
- John 1:14 (20)
- Matthew 22:37 (14)
- Matthew 22:37-40 (8)
- Romans 12:2 (7)
- John 16:33 (7)
- John 1:17 (6)
- John 20:19-31 (5)
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 (4)
- John 8:23 (4)
- Galations 4:6 (4)
- Matthew 28:19 (4)
- John 20:1-18 (4)
- Psalm 146 (3)
- Matthew 15:21-28 (3)
- John 1:4 (3)
- Luke 14:1 (3)
- Psalm 99 (3)
- Psalm 16 (3)
- Luke 17:21 (3)
- John 1:10 (3)
- Romans 8:3 (3)
- Psalm 126 (3)