Posted by Paul Edwards (Fr. Paul) on Jul 18, 2013 | Comments (0)


Tenth Sunday After Pentecost

Bottom Line Spirituality: Worldly and Godly Thinking

Click here to go to the Bottom Line Meditations for Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

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.

 

Remember: The DISCIPLE-SHIFT

(see Pentecost Sunday Meditation by Clicking Here)

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.

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 praying to feel the Presence of God in us, to feeling the Presence of God in us to pray.

The War on Legalism

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. John 1:14 Legalism fought back against 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.” Matthew 22:37-40 The New Command is to be in His Presence in order to Love one another. John 13:34 “Apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Galatians 3:1 “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?”

Legalistic preaching admits nothing, denies everything and makes counter-accusations because ranting gets raves.

Luke 11:1-3 “When you pray”

There is a difference between prayer and praying. His disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” He said, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.”

Legalism teaches us to pray the Lord’s prayer to get into God’s Presence. Grace teaches “to pray” means to get into the Presence of God before praying.

Praying for Jesus was to be in God’s Presence first. St. Paul tells us to pray unceasingly. The only way we could do this would be by being conscious of the Presence of His Love, Peace and Joy while going about our life.

In the Gospel lesson a friend comes to us at midnight asking us to loan him some food for a visitor who had unexpectedly come to them. We would tell them it was too late to come out. If they kept banging on the door we might respond just because they would not go away until we did. God is much more ready to answer our prayers. 

Legalistically is we must pound on God’s door with prayer to get Him to answer our prayer. For grace, pounding is about getting free of our legalism in our head and opening our hearts to His Presence. We know His response to our prayer is not an answer but it is His solution. It is the solution to find the Wisdom we never could have when we legalistically say prayers to get God’s answer to enable us to be in His Presence.

This is the difference between

being in His Presence to pray

and

praying to get into His Presence.

Using logic, would we rather pray to God before we get into His Holy Spirit or shift to getting into His Holy Spirit in order to pray?


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.


Comments (0)







Allowed tags: <b><i><br>Add a new comment:


Copyright 2008-2011 Paul Edwards