Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on May 08, 2014 | Comments (0)


Fifth Sunday in Easter

Click here to go to the Bottom Line Meditations for the Fifth Sunday in Easter

Godly Abiding Spiritually in Jesus Changes the Meaning of What we See Worldly When Not Abiding in Jesus.

Spirituality is our innate ability to feel the difference worldly or godly thinking makes to the way scripture translates to our daily life and relationships.

All Scripture is a testimony to Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God. He is the complete revelation of God’s will of grace for salvation. Grace is the only unfailing rule of faith and practice for the Christian life.

The Gospel of grace is: rather than trying to be more faithful to become faithful, we become faithful by feeling the Faith God already has for and in us.

The Strength of Christianity is Grace

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Another name for Jesus is "Grace". Another name for God is "Grace". We are saved by GRACE. "Love" is not Love if it is not grace. This is true for "Faith", "Hope", "Joy" and all other theological words of significance in the scripture.

Until someone experiences the grace gift in their lives, all other theological words have no real meaning. Why not begin to use the word "grace" in place of "Jesus", "God", "the Spirit", "Love" and so on? It might seem inappropriate to do so. However, until it is actually experienced it will make no sense at all.

That is what this year is all about. Grace, did you get it?

See Grace at See Level

We can only see the spiritual with the eyes of our heart. We can choose to see what God has planned for us or we can do what we see we plan for ourselves. Which is more reasonable.

Prayers from Forward Day by Day.

Read this prayer literally for its religious meaning:

“Almighty God, Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life.”

Now quietly move into God's Presence and pray the prayer spiritually:

“Almighty God, Grant us so perfectly to know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life.”

Can you feel the difference?

 

John 14:1-14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

Easter is about belief. It has a lot to believe in, perhaps more than any other Season. Advent is easy. It is all about John the Baptist preparing the way. Then comes Christmas containing a difficult concept for many: the virgin birth. It is a short season, one and sometimes two weeks, and we are rushed into Epiphany.  Yes, there are the Wise men, but there are only three and they do not last too long. The rest of the season is rather uneventful. There is the Lenten Season and Passion week. Passion week is difficult. It does not necessarily threaten our belief. However, the more we become involved in it, the gorier it becomes. Crucifixion is a bloody scene and there is the finality of death. Then here comes Easter and the Resurrection. The stories last some three weeks and then we are into the Good Shepherd stories. We can work our way through them with a bit of a relief. The problem is we keep coming back to that empty tomb and the impact it has on those who loved Him. Now it is our turn to look at the facts and to wrestle with the belief that goes along with them. Now, after a brief repast with the gate, we are back into the belief part. 

What is to believe? “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” There it is! We have spent our time struggling about the events in His Life and our belief in the teaching of what the Church believes. Now it is a different tune. It is about our belief. We have let the events make our heart struggle and be troubled with what we hear and believe. Now it is “do not let your heart be troubled.” It is you and I who are troubling our heart this time. It is not some event out there. It is some belief inside. The first reason not to let our heart be troubled is we believe in God. We now can believe in Jesus.

Wait a minute. Do we believe in God? Who says we must? How about the atheist, what about them? This is the dichotomy of belief. It is what divides our belief into two kinds. There are only two beliefs we can choose. One, we can choose the concept that our mind can understand everything that exists. It is simply a matter of getting the facts. From there we can either believe them or not. That is choice number one. Choice number two is the understanding that our mind is like a pea in the ocean. We can understand all that the pea encompasses and the rest of the water is not rationally understandable. Who is God? Where is God? What is God? God is that ocean that surrounds us. It is not a matter of trying to figure out if there is life on some other planet. That isn’t even part of the ocean. One of these days humanity might discover the truth of life existing elsewhere, one way or the other. It may or may not matter. It is not the question. The question is, “What happens when we die?” What happens not to someone else, but what happens to you and what happens to me is the question. The answer is in the ocean. The rational pea sized mind is never going to get to know the answer as long as we live.

Yes, as long as we live. But what if we die? WHAT IF? Let’s face it, we will and the magnificent thing here is we will then have the capacity to discover what we never could as long as we live on this earth. It is also obvious that if life goes on, then we do not die. WHAT! That is right. Our body is a gift of God. It is a magnificent gift of grace. We are not the ones who run it. We can ruin it or take care of it, but it is not ours. It does not last all that long considering the time of just this planet. It is a breath of time and it is over. But are we over? Probably not, but that is a matter of your belief.

We all have those moments when we know that life goes on. It may not last long. It is a quiet revelation but it is given as a gift to use. What we do with these moments is up to us.

I have been asked if I was afraid of death. My belief is, I am looking forward to it. My rational mind is like a pea in the ocean. When I pass on I will leave this body in the dust. But I will learn and see the spiritually unseen that my rational mind can never comprehend.

Easter is about our mind, our belief and our capacity to either think this frail, rational mind can ultimate understand everything or it is close to nothing compared with what can be known spiritually. That is what Easter is about. It is about, “Do we believe in our rational mind or do we believe there is a spiritual ocean?” I believe there is an ocean and I am learning how to consciously swim in it.

Did you get the grace?


THE DISCIPLE-SHIFT: The Virtual Small Group: Members share once a week with their group through the internet when a shift from being out to being in the Presence made a difference.


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