One with Our Creator

In today's first reading, Acts 17: 15, 22-18:1, Paul speaks to us of our origins: In God, Paul tells us,  "we live and move and have our being....[W]e are the offspring of God"!

We spring off of God. God has given "life and breath"  to every member of the human race and has given us the option of dwelling "on the entire surface of the earth."  God also made the entire universe for us: the sun and the stars, the galaxies, each of the seasons--spring, summer, fall and winter.  He set boundaries for each of the seasons, for each of the bodies of water, for all humankind, really, so that we  "might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us,"-- remember that we "live and move and have our being" in God Himself.

WOW! Listen to God say to you personally:

"(Your name)____________, I, your God, made the world for your enjoyment, for your learning about Me.
I, your God, made all that is in the world as a means for you to "grope" for me and "find" Me.
I am not served by any of you because I need nothing from you (See this statement in this passage of Acts).
I serve you, bathe you in grace.
I protect you from the Evil One.
My Son returned to Me on Ascension Day in order to send you the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and He is preparing a place for you in heaven.
I, Your God, am the one who sent My Son to take on human nature. He lives in Me and I in Him. He was sent to show you my love for you by ransoming you from death by His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead. By His death and resurrection,  He destroyed death's power over you. So, if you believe in Me, I will see you in heaven, also."

Calmness and Solitude: Prerequisites to Hearing God

In today’s first reading, 1 Kings 19: 9a, 11-16, Elijah is fleeing for his life!  God finds  him hiding in a cave at Mt. Horeb and tells him to come out of the cave and “stand on the mountain before the Lord,” as God “will be passing by.”

Elijah comes out of the cave, as God asks of him and waits for the Lord to pass by.  Hurricane or tornado-like  winds pass by, “rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord.”  The earth quakes,  shaking it to its very foundations. A fire erupts. God is in none of those terrifying disasters.  Following these scary events, everything becomes calm.  In the quiet,  Elijah hears a “tiny whispering sound. When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.

Note, that it is when the storm subsided, that Elijah hears God’s voice. God wants to know why Elijah is in hiding and from what is he fleeing.  Elijah answers the  Lord: “I have been most zealous for [you] Lord, the God of hosts. But the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, and put your prophets to the sword. I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.”  God responds to Elijah: “Go, take the road back to the desert near Damascus.” He then gives him instructions of what to do for the people of Israel, against whom he had complained. And from whom he is fleeing for his life.

Like Elijah, we, too, have got to come out of hiding and  face that from which we  are fleeing. We need to come before the Lord with our fears. We need to be honest with the Lord in prayer!    And, yes, we need to become quiet in order to hear the gentle, loving, caring voice of the Lord. The Lord cares about what is happening in our lives, as he did for his prophet Elijah,  and will  help us move on in accord with God’s holy will.  As in the case of Elijah, God’s will is not that we be destroyed by the disasters around us or within us.  Neither does God want us to withdraw from life.  “Go, take the road back to the desert,” God says to us, as He did to Elijah.  In the desert, unlike our expectations, we will, with God’s help, find or create new life, discover  or create new opportunities. Why? Because, it is when we are powerless that we are strong in the Lord . It is when we are at our lowest that  we realize our dependence upon the Lord and that, apart from God, we can do nothing (compare Jn 15:5)!

Living, Moving, Existing in God

“… it is God who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.  He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘in him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17: 25-28).

As I reflect upon the beauty of all of nature coming to life this spring, I stand in awe of God who has given life to all that is blossoming, all  of  that which is producing tiny leaves and buds. Those buds will burst forth into full bloom within a short time. Every living thing is given all that it needs to develop into maturity, to produce fruit, and to reflect the beauty of its creator.  You and I, also, have been given life by our God, who breathes His breath of life into us, gives us all we, too, need to become fully mature human beings reflecting the beauty of our Creator as well. God, St. Paul tells us in this same passage, is not “dependent on anything that human hands can do for him since he can never be in need of anything; on the contrary, it is he who gives everything—including life and breath—to everyone” (Acts.17: 25-26).

God, our provider, needs nothing from us. We, His offspring and all created things, need everything from Him!  What a relationship of love!

And what an awesome God. He "fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions," so that you and I might seek Him, "even perhaps grope for him and find him, 'though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For 'in him we live and move and have our being'" (Acts 17: 26-28).

My God Image: How It Impacts How I Approach God

In the Gospel of today, Mt 7: 7-12, Jesus tells us to “ask and you shall receive, knock and the door will be opened, seek and you shall find.”    A God who cares, who wants us to knock at the door of His heart, and who wants us to seek Him, to seek His face, to seek His love, to seek His help, to seek His forgiveness in all things is the God  with whom Jesus invites us to fall in love and to get to know intimately.

Ever go to the door of your superiors, or to another person, in trepidation? “Will he/she receive me? Will I be turned away? Will my boss/this person be too busy? Will I be treated with scorn? Will I be chastised? Will the tables be turned against me? Will my boss/this person retaliate against me?” we may wonder.No surprise that we approach God with little confidence, or don’t approach Him/Her at all!  Past experiences with authority figures, or with other persons who treated us badly,  may be very much alive in our sub- or unconscious minds. We may also have been taught, as youngsters, that God is a God of revenge, a demanding God, a God keeping score of our wrongdoing; who, with no hesitation, throws His/Her “enemies” into the everlasting flames.

This is not the God Jesus reveals to us.  Jesus reveals a God who is compassionate, eager to wipe away our tears, heal our wounds, bring us back to health, put His arms around,  forgive our sins and reconcile us to Him/Herself-- a God who quickly reassures us, comforts us, especially when our sins are scarlet red: “This day you will be with me in paradise.”  We will always encounter a God from whom healing power flows when we touch but the hem of His garment, a God who confronts our accusers and says to us “I do not condemn you.” 

We might be saying: “Whew!  What an encounter. Why did I not prostrate myself before God sooner? Why was I afraid to approach the God who Jesus taught, by His words and actions, is a God of compassion, love, and, kindness toward all who call upon Him.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Honor God’s name!

Acknowledge God’s presence!
Prepare God’s way!
Probe God’s messages!
Yes, know that God is always speaking Truth, seeking Truth, and inviting us to Truth!

The Lord is King!

Halleluiah!
Always present is my God! Halleluiah!
Now and forever near to those who seek Him,
Knowing my comings and goings and my thoughts from afar!
Sound the trumpet! God is near!  Halleluiah!
Give glory and honor and praise to God’s holy name!
In times of darkness and of light, in sorrow and in joy, in life and in death
Verify that God is God,
Invisible and infinite,
Never far from the brokenhearted is our
God and Savior!