The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part Four – Revised and Expanded)

Orthodox Church of Holy Spirit in Medzilaborce, Slovakia Polski: Cerkiew Świętego Ducha w Medzilaborce, Słowacja Slovenčina: Pravoslávny chrám Svätého Ducha v Medzilaborcach (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mick Turner

continued from Part Three…

Discovering Our Call To Purpose

Three terms that are often heard when discussing our “purpose” in life are purpose, mission, and calling. These words often used interchangeably and can mean basically the same thing. I think the confusion comes in when an author or speaker uses these three expressions to mean different things. With that thought in mind, whenever I use these words, I take them to mean basically the same thing. Our mission, our purpose, and our calling refer to our God-given reason for being here on this planet at this time. In addition, I firmly believe that God has a highly specific calling for each of us that has three primary aspects:

 

• It is personal and specific to us;
• It is related to our spiritual gifts
• The realization and actualization of this mission is a major part of our spiritual formation and helps grow into the optimal version of ourselves.

In the next section we will talk about vision and it is important to understand how mission and vision are different. Our mission or purpose is far more general than our vision. Basically, you can say our vision is the specific way in which we will realize our mission.

We can say that your mission is your life calling, your reason for being here. It is not so much specific activities as it is the reason you perform those activities. Your mission gives your life meaning and gives you positive motivation to get out of bed each morning and, in positive faith, face the challenges that may come your way. Your true mission is a major motivator, something you enjoy doing, and something for which you have passion and enthusiasm.

One thing is guaranteed. If you cooperate with God and consecrate yourself to the process of becoming the optimal version of yourself, you’ll end up becoming far more than you ever imagined possible. In his infinite wisdom, God has given you divine potential to achieve your divine calling and, as we have seen, has equipped you perfectly to carry out that calling. As you work toward realizing your divine purpose, your will undergo great personal and spiritual change. You will be transformed into something far greater than you ever imagined.

Living With Vital Vision

A fundamental component of living a life of spiritual optimism is the birth, development, clarification, and realization of your personal vision. Solomon tells us in Proverbs that without vision, the people perish. The same principle is true for all of us. We may not physically die without having a personal vision to guide and direct our steps, but we will surely die spiritually. Without the motivating presence of our own vibrant, vitalizing, vision we surely cannot manifest the optimal version of ourselves.

A vision consists of our perception of our particular mission in life and more precisely, defines the specific framework within which we will carry out that mission. Vision gives us a sense of direction, acting like a compass when we lack certainty about our direction in life. In this sense, vision gives us a basis upon which we can make positive and effective choices among various options that might be available to us. A personal vision gives us hope and courage, especially when we are feeling overwhelmed or when we are confronted with difficulties or setbacks.

As mentioned earlier, vision is intimately related to purpose but more specific. Put simply, vision is the method whereby you see yourself living out your mission to completion. Living with vital vision involves every area of your life and how those aspects of your life related to your personal mission. Your vision involves your family, friends, associates, and especially your choice of career. Ideally, all of these things come together in a harmonious orbit around the specific vision you develop for carrying forward your mission.

Arriving at your vision is a process, not an event. It requires much planning, organization, and flexibility. Most significantly, developing your vision involves deep, focused, and above all, consistent prayer. You cannot expect to discover what God wants you to do and the best way to do it without communing with Him on a regular basis. Pray that the Holy Spirit walks with you, guiding you, and challenging you to move forward with your vision, even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone. More than anywhere else in the process of growth into excellence, the phase of vital vision may require you to think out of the box.

A simple way to look at the relationship of vision and mission is as follows. Let’s suppose that three friends all have a mission to provide convenient, quality, fast-food to busy workers. One may decide to open a Burger King franchise, another a Pizza Hut. The third may have a vision of a Taco Bell. You see, the mission of quality fast-food is the same; the vision of each friend is different. I realize this example is overly simplistic, but I do think it serves our purposes of demonstrating how a vision is a specific plan for carrying forward a more general mission or calling.

The concept of personal vision is intimately tied to at least four other significant factors in the life of a sincere spiritual aspirant: God, dreams, purpose, and optimism. Although space does not allow for a detailed discussion of these four critical connections, let’s take a brief look at how personal vision is tied to them.

It is imperative to understand that your personal vision is a Spirit-designed and Spirit-imparted phenomenon. Through my work with individuals and groups over the past 35 years I have come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit imparts a specific, achievable, personal vision to each of us prior to our birth on this planet. Further, God not only gives us this vision, but also supplies us with all the talents and gifts we need in order to bring that vision to life and completion. We may have to work at honing and sharpening those Spirit-given talents but we should always keep in mind that those gifts come from a divine origin.

Our dreams are also connected to our vision. I am not talking about the kind of dreams we have when we sleep. Instead, I am talking about those dreams that we entertain as we imagine what we would like to do and what goals we would like to accomplish. The dreams I am speaking of here have to do with our imaginings of becoming the best that we can be and even more significant, making a positive contribution to the world. These dreams, like our personal vision, come from God. I am convinced that our dreams are one method the spiritual realm uses to communicate to us about our personal vision. We, therefore, should never discount our dreams, no matter how far-fetched they may initially seem.

In fact, there are many times that the most impossible dreams have their origins in the mind of God. Think about it. I believe Divine Intelligence desires that we always remain cognizant of the fact that we are ultimately dependent upon him for everything. With this truth in mind, it is very reasonable to assume that the Holy Spirit may indeed give us dreams that are impossible to fulfill without a vital connection to the Divine Source. Perhaps I evaluate a dream and feel inspired, but say to myself, “That’s something I could really get into and it meets a very real need. Still, there is no way I can ever do that by myself.” God, in response, may very well be saying, “No, you can’t. But we can.” The Bible clearly tells us that with God, all things are possible.

I suggest that over the next week or so you set aside some time to examine your dreams, both current and from the past that, for whatever reason, you did not allow to grow and develop. Study these dreams and ask for guidance in gaining insight into how these specific dreams may now be or may have been connected to your personal vision. Do you see any common themes in these dreams? If these dreams somehow were to become manifest in reality, what specific and beneficial purpose would they serve? This exercise may help you in your search to discover the exact nature of your personal vision.

How do I discover my vision? There is no one way to do this, but one thing is true: Start by discovering your personal purpose. Your vision should then flow out of that purpose. Discovery of our purpose (mission) is intimately tied up with our personal vision. One thing I have discovered over the years about uncovering purpose and vision is this: You have to be creative and think outside the box. At first, don’t discount any idea just because it seems impossible. Often, God gives us impossible things to do so that we can discover that we need him to do anything of last worth.

Art Sepulveda, Senior Pastor of the Word of Life Christian Center in Honolulu has written an excellent book entitled, Focus: What’s in Your Vision. In this book Pastor Sepulveda gives the following guidelines for envisioning your future:

Expand your horizons by stretching your imagination

Nurture new ideas

Vote for positive changes with a welcoming attitude

Imagine the impossible

Stay ahead of tomorrowInvent the future

Operate expectantly

Notice unlimited opportunity

The pastor’s suggestions are first-rate and I would encourage anyone interested in kick-starting the process of discovering their person vision to implement his ideas. I think you will discover that developing vision is not nearly as difficult as you have imagined it to be. The reason for this is that you are not so much trying to invent something that doesn’t exist; instead, you are actually uncovering the outline of something placed in your heart by God before you took your first breath.

Finally, let’s see how your dreams, purpose, and vision connect with optimism. It is a connected as part of a process that begins with potential and ends with the glory of assisting in the realization of God’s kingdom on earth. Let’s take a look at a synopsis of this process – a process that can only lead to Christian optimism.

to be continued….

(c) L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part Three – Revised and Expanded) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part One – Revised and Expanded) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• The Unfolding of Sacred Potential (Part Two – Revised and Expanded) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• A Note on Unfolding Divine Potential (lifebrook.wordpress.com)

A Note on Unfolding Sacred Potential

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There have been numerous requests from readers to publish the Unfolding Sacred Potential series, originally published on LifeBrook back in 2009 under the title “Unfolding Divine Potential.” The series was also published on the Sacred Mind Minstries site around that time. The series of articles proved quite popular and over the past two years I have revised and expanded much of the material. Starting this week, I will be posting the Unfolding Sacred Potential series in its new, expanded form. It is my hope and prayer that this material might be of benefit to those who explore it.

Blessings in His Light,

Mick

Living as a New Creation (Part Two)

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Mick Turner

(continued from Part One)

When we encounter our consistent difficulties in living out the Christian life as Christ intended, one of the reasons is our lack of understanding of who and what we are “in Christ.” It often saddens me to the core to hear genuinely sincere followers of the Christ speak of themselves as “miserable sinners” or “totally depraved humans.” We speak of humanity as if we were some sort of low-grade pond scum without merit or moral fiber. What’s worse is the reality that this stilted, sinful (yes, I said sinful) view of our station as human beings has been foisted upon the church not by its enemies or other faith systems, but instead, by many of its own leaders and teachers. I find this especially shameful.

As redeemed and spiritually reborn persons, our humanity is our crowning glory. Born from above, we have been restored to the pristine glory that God originally intended for us. God has done this for us through the being, the mission, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Christ. Further, he has provided everything we need in order to lead a godly life (see 2 Peter 1:3) and for us to not claim this renewed life and all that it implies is sacrilege in its most rebellious form. In essence, through Christ God has restored us to righteousness and this gift of right standing with the Father is eternal. What we have to grasp is the fact that we are right now, at this very moment, as pure and as righteous as we are ever going to be. We have to be because the Father’s unfathomable holiness could not tolerate our presence at his right hand, where scripture tells us we now reside with Christ. Andrew Farley, in his great little book entitled The Naked Gospel tells us:

We find it difficult to grasp the idea that God calls us righteous because we actually are righteous. It feels more humble to believe we’re filthy worms awaiting a future change into beautiful butterflies…………..Jesus stated it best. He said that our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees in order to enter the kingdom (Matthew 5:20). So if we Christians don’t claim to possess perfect righteousness, we are lowering God’s standard. We are watering down the gospel. We insinuate that Jesus can unite himself with sin. And we insult the perfection of God.

The point Farley is driving at is what Paul tells us time and again in Romans: we have to come to a point where we live the reality, not just believe it, that our old self has been crucified with Christ. It is dead and gone. From a spiritual perspective, this is the only possible reality. As Christians, we are now united with God through Christ and further, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence within us. On top of all this, we are also filled with Christ (see Ephesians 4:10). As hard as it may be for us to fathom, we are now the “Temple of God.” In the old temple in Jerusalem, God dwelled in the inner most room of the temple, called the Holy of Holies. Nothing impure or imperfect could enter there and even the High Priest only ventured in once each year.

Friends, we are now the Holy of Holies. We may not feel like it. We may not understand it. We may look at other followers of Christ and, knowing their shortcomings, find it hard to believe that they are the Temple of God, the very Holy of Holies. I guess that is one reason we are told that trusting our feelings is a tenuous, risky business. Scripture affirms that we are now the dwelling place of God and if God lives in us, our true being cannot be imperfect. That is why the old self had to die with Christ. Andrew Farley continues:

The risen Christ doesn’t join himself to filthy worms. The Holy Spirit doesn’t dwell in dirty sinners. Christ only unites himself with those who are like him in spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn’t reside in someone who remains even 1 percent flawed by sin. . . . . . . .But we have been perfectly cleansed. We have been made perfectly righteous at our core through spiritual surgery. This is the way we can enjoy even a moment of relationship with Jesus Christ.

As we look at all this, again, some of us may find it hard to believe, especially those of us who struggle with chronic, long-standing strongholds and negative emotions. We need, however, to not only believe it but live it. By that I mean we must base our thoughts, decisions, and actions upon this reality. We must come to view ourselves in precisely the same way God sees us: pure, holy, whole, and righteous.

(c) L.D. Turner 2012 / All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• Identity – Who does God say we are through Christ? (helpedbygrace.wordpress.com)

Getting Out of Your Negative Ruts

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Mick Turner

 Have you ever been to a modern zoo, the type where the animals are not caged? Instead, they usually are separated from zoo patrons by either large ditches, small canals, or non-descript fencing. I lived in Miami for 15 years and often visited the zoo, at least in the winter when the weather was not too hot. Whenever I went to the zoo, I could easily spot the animals that had been kept in cages for most of their lives. Now, even with the freedom to roam over a much larger territory, most of them just walked back and forth in an area the size of their former prison. Nothing held them in that confined space except the force of habit.

As Christians, we, too, often behave in ways similar to these zoo animals. When we accepted the lordship of Christ in our lives, we were given a new, liberating freedom from the power of sin in general and our habituated negative patterns of thinking, feeling, behaving, and relating in particular. Like the zoo animals mentioned above, we are now free to choose new ways of living – and a fresh approach to life. Tragically, many of us keep walking in our old familiar ways, even though a new, exciting world awaits us through our freedom in Christ. We know we are saved, but we don’t act like it. Instead of exploring fresh and free ways to be salt and light in this world, we just pace back and forth within the confines of the ruts our negative, sinful past has created for us.

And keep in mind, my friend, a rut is nothing but a grave with the ends kicked out.

We can read all the right books, listen to all the right tapes, hear all the right sermons, and go to all the right seminars – but the fact remains that we often feel completely overwhelmed when a big problem hits us. Life’s storms can be terrifying at times and it is at just these times we need to apply the principles we have learned through all of our diligent study to the process of riding out the storm. The problem is, it is at just these critical times that we find ourselves least able to apply the truths that we have learned. As a result, we often make little headway toward finding a positive solution to our dilemma.

I wish I could tell you that there was a magic answer to this problem, but I can’t. Fact is, we have to gird up our loins and get to work. We must begin with getting the focus off our problem and onto God. Until we do this, we can at best expect to tread water. Progress, however, will be minimal.

Getting our focus onto the God is critical for another reason: Satan.

Our modern culture tells us that the supernatural doesn’t exist. Even many modern biblical scholars attest that demons and Satan do not exist and are only symbolic in nature. I can admit to you that at one time, I felt the same way. By the grace of God I now see this much differently. I know for a fact that a spirit world exists right along side this one and that dark entities indeed reside there. These entities are under the control of their Commander in Chief, the Enemy, and will do anything in their power to keep you from realizing you potential and achieving your purpose.

As I mentioned, there was a time when, even though I was a Christian and very involved in the faith, I didn’t see Satan as a living entity. I saw him more as some sort of metaphor for our dark human nature and our tendency to be self-absorbed to the extreme. Like many of the contemporary biblical scholars of a liberal bent, I explained Satan away with a flurry of reasonable sounding explanations.

One day, however, a significant question came to my mind. Why I had never thought to ask this question of myself is beyond me as it seems to be so obvious. I wondered: If Satan does not exist, why does Jesus talk about him so often? And why does he not refer to him as some sort of psychological projection, if in fact that is what he is? Although it seems so basic, these questions literally stopped me in my tracks. Several friends, like the well-meaning buddies that tried to explain it all to Job, offered answers to my questions. Most of these answered basically implied that the disciples were such simpletons and Jesus was so highly developed, he had to dial back his explanations and put them in terms his followers could understand. To some extent, this answer sounds plausible but if you really think about it, it just doesn’t wash. Jesus spoke so clearly and frequently about who and what Satan was and is that he leaves little room for doubt as to the existence of this dark force in the spiritual world.

Over the following two months, the Spirit gave me wisdom and insight regarding the ever so real existence of the Enemy and it is my prayer that, if you don’t think he is as real as you, you come to understand that you are indeed mistaken.

As you work toward appropriating your new identity in Christ, be advised that you will not only be confronting your own habitual patterns of negativity, you will also be confronting powers and principalities as well. This is why scripture encourages you to “guard the heart,” (Proverbs 4:23).

It is important as well to keep in mind that your thought life is taking place in the realm of non-physical reality – the spirit world. You can take comfort in the fact that, as a Christian, God is already at work in your behalf in the spirit realm and has already won the victory. So, when beset with a flurry of negative thoughts, immediately replace them with God-soaked biblical thoughts.

Satan is not satisfied with just initiating minor skirmishes with you. No, friend, he is much more ambitious than that. His goal is all out domination and his primary target is your mind. Satan knows that by controlling your thinking, he can be reasonably assured of success. Why is this? Why is our enemy so confident? The reason is simple. Most everything we do starts in the mind with our thoughts and attitudes. Satan knows that if he can control our thoughts and attitudes he can control us, and, if he can control us, the war is won.

At least, that is what Satan thinks.

For this reason and many others, it is obvious that guarding your mind is of utmost importance. This is what Paul meant when he talked about “taking every thought captive for Christ.” I can’t stress this point enough. The battle for the mind is critical.

In attempting to discern why we keep living in negative, unproductive, and yes, even sinful ways in spite of the fact that we are “new creations” in Christ, we can now see that we war on two battlefields: our habitual behaviors and the schemes of the enemy. In reality, these two fronts of engagement are not totally separate and distinct. Satan often attacks us right where we are most vulnerable – our habitually negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Certainly there is much we can do to deal with this issue. I have found that practicing the classical spiritual disciplines of prayer, fasting, sacred study, worship, and so on to be of great value. Further, Paul gives us a detailed delineation of what we need to do in the sixth chapter of the Book of Ephesians. I suggest that you go to this passage of scripture and spend several weeks prayerfully pondering Paul’s advice. As you do so, make every effort to put on the equipment he speaks of. In addition, there is one other thing you can do and it is most crucial:

Trust God!

 One of the main reasons people keep living in the same old unproductive ruts is that they focus on the rut and not on the solution; they focus on the problem and not on God. The problem cannot and will not solve itself, but God can and will. Keep in mind also that if we trust God, turn our problem over to him, and let him control the outcome, we may not only find our problem solved – we may also be surprised. God’s ways are not our ways and he is not limited in what he can do. As a result, your problem may get resolved in a way that you never could have predicted. The key, of course, is to just trust God and turn your problem over to him.

Think about it.

© L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• You Have Not Been Abandoned (todaysfreshmanna.wordpress.com)
• Satan…He’s someone we should know about. Controversial yes, but you need to know the enemy. (pastormikesays.wordpress.com)

Wise Words for Today

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Part of what costs us the life we were created to live is that we don’t lock in. We lose focus because we become distracted by our circumstances. We get pulled out of the direction we’re supposed to be walking because we start looking in the wrong direction…..It’s so easy to get distracted by all the things going on around you. If you resolve to live the life of your dreams, if you refuse to settle for a life other than the one God created you to live, you’re going to see the waves and the wind. And it’s going to terrify you and you’re going to begin to sink. You have to decide to focus and lock in on the direction God has called you to live your life.

Erwin Raphael McManus

Wise Words for Today

 

 

 

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It is important to note here that when man fell from grace, he lost a kingdom, not a religion. He lost dominion over the earth; he did not lose Heaven. Therefore, mankind’s search is not for a religion or for Heaven, but for his kingdom.

This is why religion can never satisfy the deep hunger in the heart of man. Religion is itself a search. No religion can substitute for the kingdom or fill the vacuum in man’s soul. The hunger of the human heart is for the lost kingdom.

Dr. Myles Munroe

Forgetting About God’s Will Long Enough To Do It

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Mick Turner

 “If only I could really discover God’s will for my life, it would make all the difference in the world.” How many times have you heard sincere Christians make statements like this? I’ll wager that you have heard it quite a few times. I know I have. And if the truth be known, I can recall making that same statement myself, especially during times of spiritual floundering.

I mention this because I have come to understand that this sort of statement reveals a misunderstanding of the nature of God’s purpose for our lives and how he goes about communicating that purpose so we can grasp it. Granted, I believe that God has a unique, overriding purpose for each of us, has gifted us with certain talents and abilities that help us to become successful in carrying out that purpose, and has empowered us, through the Holy Spirit, to bring that mission to a successful conclusion. I have also come to believe, however, that God also given each of us daily tasks to perform – tasks normally associated with the environment we have been planted in. It is his will that we identify and carry out these daily callings with dedication and consistency.

Unfortunately, many of us are so busy trying to figure out that one great calling God has placed on our lives that we miss his will for us in the divine present, in the holy moment that exists right under our noses. He communicates those callings in ways we can all recognize – sudden insights, little hunches, or sudden feelings or memories that may come over us. I know in my own experience, I frequently have these sorts of impulses to take certain actions when I am reflecting on passages of scripture. All too often we fail to pay sufficient attention to these callings and, as a result, frequently miss discovering God’s will for us for that one divine moment. If we do this over a long period of time, we run the risk of losing vital contact with the Holy Spirit. A.W. Tozer tells us:

…….to expose our hearts to truth and consistently refuse or neglect to obey the impulses it arouses is to stymie the motions of life within us and, if persisted in, to grieve the Holy Spirit into silence.

Don’t keep reading as if the profundity of Tozer’s statement somehow escaped your attention. Pause and reflect for a few moments of what he just said. If we repeatedly ignore of disobey those nudging from the Holy Spirit he may just stop communicating with us.

It is understandable, really.

If you had a close friend, a person you care for deeply, consistently ignore or refuse to listen to your suggestions for how he might improve his life or solve a particular problem, would you continue to make those suggestions indefinitely? No, I doubt you would. I know I would eventually reach a point where I would just keep quiet.

Although I firmly believe that God has a unique mission for each of us, all too often I have seen deeply committed, sincere Christians get so distracted in the search for this calling that they consistently overlook clear service opportunities right in front of their noses. More often than not, the will of God can be found in those small, seemingly mundane task that cross our paths each day. Perhaps it is something as simple as opening a door for someone, picking up a bit of litter on the ground, or helping someone carry their groceries to the car. Perhaps it is something as routine visiting a sick friend in the hospital, giving a person a ride to the pharmacy or a medical appointment, or simply providing a listening ear to a friend who needs to unload what is on his or her heart.

It is in these everyday situations where we find the true epicenter of God’s activity and where we find consistent fulfillment of God’s will for our lives. Yes, it is also true that each of us has a unique and important calling and for some of us, that mission may be a great one. For all of us, however, these little everyday encounters are where we most often can give flesh to grace by answering the call of the moment.

It is precisely that consistent practice of paying attention to the small duties of our daily round that makes a life of excellence possible. Moreover, no one ever slouched his or her way to greatness. Let’s listen to the wisdom of James Allen:

The great man has become such by the scrupulous and unselfish attention which he has given to small duties. He has become wise and powerful by sacrificing ambition and pride in the doing of those necessary things which evoke no applause and promise no reward. He never sought greatness; he sought faithfulness, unselfishness, integrity, truth; and in finding these in the common round of small tasks and duties he unconsciously ascended to the level of greatness.

Let me share a brief story from my childhood that points out how attention to the small can lead to the unfolding of God’s greater will. The story also illustrates how attending to the small and mundane can have unforeseen, far-reaching impact.  I recall a conversation a middle-aged man had with my parents in a picnic area just across the road from Casey Key Beach in Nokomis, Florida, where I grew up. I was about 11 years old at the time and my hand was in a cast (I had broken it a few weeks before playing baseball).

 I vividly remember the gentlemen telling my parents that he was walking off the beach, heading to his car when he saw a pair of empty trash bags blowing down the beach near the water. He related that he started to leave, but felt that he should go and retrieve those bags and put them in a trash receptacle. “I think all of us who live down here should take responsibility to keep our beaches clean,” I recall him saying. Rather than leaving, he returned to the water’s edge to retrieve the garbage bags.

The man went on to relate than as he was reaching for the garbage bags he heard a distant cry for help. He looked up but did not initially see anything but then heard the cry again. Scanning the water he spotted an empty beach float and saw two arms frantically waving above the water’s surface. Racing into the surf the man swam out just beyond the float and found a small boy going under the water. He grabbed the boy and brought him back to shore. Panic-stricken, the boy took the man to his parents, who were just across the road from the beach.

If you haven’t guessed by now, that small boy was me. I was leisurely floating on my rubber raft when a wave knocked me off. The water was about two feet over my head and, with my hand in a heavy cast, swimming was impossible. I had gone under for the third time when the man reached me.

I tell this story because I am personally aware of how fortunate I am to be alive. Had that man not taken the time to return to the water’s edge and pick up the garbage bags, I would in all likelihood have drowned. I would not be writing this blog, which is part of God’s will for my life, nor would you be reading it right now. Yes, my friends, this gentleman’s decision to take responsibility for a small thing, litter on the beach, has had far-reaching effects, indeed.

Attention to the small is really God’s will for our lives. And in so many ways, the small is no different from the great in God’s eyes. James Allen continues:

Neglect of the small is confusion of the great. The snowflake is as perfect as the star; the dew drop is as symmetrical as the planet; the microbe is not less mathematically proportioned than the man. By laying stone upon stone, plumbing and fitting each with perfect adjustment, the temple at last stands forth in all its architectural beauty. The small precedes the great. The small is not merely the apologetic attendant of the great, it is its master and informing genius.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to do great things. Yet this calling should never become an obsession that causes us to miss the opportunities that are presented to us in each “divine moment.” It is in the context of these moments that we discover God’s will for us in the here and now. It is also in the fabric of these sublime moments, the “holy present,” where we connect with the “Holy Presence,” the unshakable power that enables us to carry out that calling with confidence and compassion.

© L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

I Have Heard, Lord (A Declarative Prayer)

 

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I Have Heard, Lord

Lord, I have heard your Holy Word and I have understood. You are the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. You never grow weak or weary and no one truly fathoms the depth of your understanding.

You give power to the weak and strength to the powerless. I trust you, Lord, and, according to your promise, I will find new strength and soar high on wings like eagles. I will run and not grow weary; I will walk and not faint.

Even more Lord, I am blessed because I know you have called me back from the ends of the earth and have said, “(Your name), you are my servant. I have chosen you and will not throw you away.” For this I am ever grateful my God and I am not afraid because I know you are with me. I have abundant courage because I know that you are my God. I draw my strength from you and know that you are always there to help me when I need you. I am more than blessed my God; you hold me up with your victorious right hand.

 [based on Isaiah 40:28-31; 41:9-10.]

Wise Words for Today

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Expectation is the power to have an idea become so real that you see it and feel it before you can hold it. It is like a giant magnet that attracts what you expect into your life. Expectation empowers you to think the unthinkable and do the undoable, and it turns uncertain hoping into certainty……….Expectation can be defined simply as fixing your eyes on the promised blessing with an eager anticipation of its arrival. An expectation is a strong desire that is filled with anticipation and confidence about obtaining what is expected. To live with expectation is to live with hope, dreams, imagination, and desires…………..You have a choice. You can slumber and sleep your way through life, or you can wake up and live life to the maximum. Life is meant to be filled up with all the great things God seeks to do for you, in you, and through you. Expectation is best received and lived out as you align your total life to God and His Word, living with abandonment to His desires for you and setting yourself to be in agreement with God.

Frank Damazio

(from The Attitude of Faith)

The Scandal of the Incarnation (Part Two)

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Mick Turner

One perspective on the Incarnation that I especially like is that put forth by Cynthia Bourgeault in her excellent book entitled, The Wisdom Jesus. Bourgeault describes the Master like this:

From a God’s-eye view of creation, the real operational challenge is not sin and evil, it is posed by the vastly unequal energetic frequencies between the realms. How can the sun touch a snowflake? How can the divine radiance meet and interpenetrate created life without incinerating it? This is the ultimate metaphysical koan – to which Christianity proposes as its solution the mystery of the incarnation.

Returning to our metaphor of the prism, depending upon the angle we are viewing the light from, we are going to see a different color. With the gospel and the Incarnation, depending upon the angle of our perspective we may see the exact same truth with alternate explanations. For example, the traditional interpretation of why we needed to be “cleansed” from all sin by the sacrifice of Jesus is that a pure and holy God could not tolerate sin in his presence.

Bourgeault looks at the same phenomenon and gives an alternative explanation, equally plausible. The intense frequency of the energies of the higher realms, being of a higher vibratory nature, would destroy life on this plane of existence. Jesus, in ways perhaps only understood by Quantum physicists, unleashed an energy that raised the vibratory rate of humankind and prevented us mortals from being consumed by the higher energies of the heavenly realms.

Far from being some sort of New Age mumbo jumbo, Bourgeault is viewing the Incarnation and the gospel message with the insight gleaned from cutting edge science. Far from being at odds with the Christian faith, science of this sort deepens our understanding of the gospel. Bourgeault continues:

This realization, in turn, opens up a whole new line of insight into John’s statement, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.” The Son, in this wider metaphysical context, is no longer the one who bails us out or rescues us from our fallen state but the one who becomes our bridge between the realms. Recognizing the enormous difficulty of our mission, Jesus comes to accompany us on it, advocating for our human finitude in a way that respects its integrity but doesn’t allow us to get trapped in it. As in the traditional theological understanding (but with a very different flavor), he becomes our mediator. Standing at the confluence of two vastly different orders of being, he offers his own life as the sanctuary between them.

 I vividly recall my getting out of bed and preparing for an early morning breakfast meeting my first day in China. Still bleary from jet lag and tired from a 16-hour plane ride, followed by six more hours on a Chinese train, my brain was hitting on about two cylinders. After brushing my teeth I plugged in my electric razor and flipped the “on” switch.

That’s when I realized something was horribly amiss.

If my razor was equipped with a tachometer it would have blown past the red line in a fraction of a second. The little motor screamed loudly at me as if to say, “You idiot!” The razor became too hot to hold and I dropped it into the sink just as smoke was pouring out of every avenue of escape. Finally, the poor thing coughed and sputtered a few times, made a wheezing sound kind of like an old Dodge on a cold morning, and then went belly up and died.

I recalled, much too late for my razor’s best interest, that China ran on 22o volts and the razor was built for 110.  I had brought along an adapter that would step down the voltage to 110, but in my jet lag soaked state, I totally forgot about it. The adapter acts as a bridge between the higher voltage of the Chinese electrical system with the lower voltage capacity of the American shaving device. The point that Bourgeault is making about Jesus is similar. Viewed from one angle, his Incarnation made possible the direct interaction between God and humankind. Yet another metaphor applicable here is Moses’ encounter with the burning bush. Although the bush was ablaze with God’s power and presence, it was not consumed. Now that we are “in Christ,” we can also be in God’s presence and not be consumed. This is but one of the countless ways the Israelites’ journey though the wilderness serves as a metaphor for the outworking of the Christian life on a daily basis.

to be continued…..

(c) L.D. Turner 2011/All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• The Scandal of the Incarnation (Part One) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• You are the Dance (zoecarnate.wordpress.com)
• The Heretical Roots of Fundamentalism (insightscoop.typepad.com)