Being a Christian
We are called to know God from our depths, not just from our church’s teachings and the Bible, but to have such a relationship with the Indwelling Spirit of God that we know His voice—that “still, small voice” of 1 Kings 19:12. We are to follow His suggestions: we lay all that would stand between us and God on His altar, so that nothing comes between us and God anymore. Now that is a lifelong journey from the time that we first put our lives in His hands to the time we die. It takes time for each impediment to our love of God to be laid to rest and to be healed by God for all time.
Nothing is to stand between us and God or to define our relationship with God—not our church, our preacher, our families, our culture, our ego—not anything or any person. Once we understand that, we will turn to God every time we feel conflicted, every time we are unsure of what to do, every minute of every day—that is what it means to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. It is God himself that we direct our attention to. Whether our loyalty is to God or His Son or His Holy Spirit doesn’t matter, each member of the Trinity is God Himself. God will call us to what church He wants us to be in, to what purpose He names for us, to how to live and be and what to say. As long as we live in His presence, we can know that we are doing our best to follow God’s desires for us.
How do we live in His presence? Faithfully, turning to Him in every area of our lives—our work, our leisure, our family, our friends, our church and everything else. This is how we live out the Two Great Commandments of Jesus and the Ten Commandments, for God will direct us to follow His laws always. He will show us how to do that and what to say in every case. All we have to do is to depend on Him for direction. I know, this is so counter to our culture where we are to be in charge of our lives. But when we follow the culture, we are self-absorbed, unaware of what is really going on in this world. God is calling us to transform the world we live in by living in His love and expressing it wherever we go.
Our support in this journey to loving God with all that we are is our church community, our friends who are also following Jesus. We need to live in a community that supports our journey in Christ. And community is the nature of God’s kingdom.
Today, there are so many things that we could help God with: the violence in Haiti, the famine in Afghanistan, the poverty in the world, global warming, the inclination of the rich across the world to protect their wealth against any incursions, and so much more. For example,
About 9.2% of the world, or 689 million people, live in extreme poverty on less than $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank.
In the United States, 10.5% of the population — 34 million people — live in poverty as of 2019. For an individual in the U.S., the poverty line is $12,880 a year, or about $35.28 per day.[1]
10.5% of the population of the richest country in the world live in poverty! How can we let that continue? How can we Christians not demand that our governments—federal and state and local–take care of those in poverty when there are over 2,000 verses in the Bible commanding us to care for the poor and needy?
How can we ignore the problems on our planet—the bigger than ever hurricanes and tornadoes, the flooding of coastlines, the rising temperatures? Aren’t we to be the stewards of the planet, seeing that it can thrive and help all the people in this world live? Or does dominion just mean we can do whatever we want with it?
What is God calling you to do about these and other problems in the world? Who is God calling you to help, to love without judgment? When will you answer His call? Not what your church says, or what your social group defines as helping, but the actually words of God in your heart and soul. What is God saying to you right now?
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Two Announcements
- I am giving away a 10-week journaling guide to Jesus’s Two Great Commandments. If you are interested, email me at patsadams@gmail.com and I will send it to you, free of charge.
- My latest book, Called to Help the Poor and Needy, is now in bookstores and on line. It’s about the more than 2,000 verses in the Bible which detail God’s instructions for caring for those in need.
Questions to ponder over the weekend: How much do I appreciate God’s artistry in creating this planet and all its plants and animals? How grateful am I for the beautiful home He has given me? What do I depend on to keep me from being anxious in this pandemic which seems endless?
Blessing for the week: May we be the people of God who live in gratitude, awed by the beauty of our planet. May we depend on God for all that we need and desire.
See more blog posts and offerings at patsaidadams.com.
Check out my other website, deepeningyourfaith.com for information about spiritual practices and more writings about the spiritual life. New posts every month. 12.20.21’s is entitled “Sacred Fire.” Sign up to receive these as monthly emails at the website.
[1] https://www.worldvision.org/sponsorship-news-stories/global-poverty-facts