MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY and the CHURCH

FURTHER STILL
God takes us further still.
 Our beliefs inform our actions. Beliefs evolve as well. A decade ago my faith journey was shaken and shaped by unexpected events that initiated my search across the church divide. 

I found what I wasn't looking for, and I began to see why we hold fast to Christ alone as our true truth. As I turned my gaze on Christ, He began to show me what I had not seen before because I had blinders on and had some mistaken beliefs.

FORWARD HO
God says to follow Him.
In 2009 the Lord was guiding me to another level of spiritual understanding. Holy Week took on greater significance as I attended my first Maundy Thursday service and my first Stations of the Cross at a liturgical church and later, in 2014, at a Trappist monastery. 

My beliefs were birthed in traditional Evangelical Protestantism but have found a measure of community with other faith groups that follow Christ as the head of the church and believe in Christ for salvation. We are one in Christ, one at the cross of Christ, and one as beloved children of God.

WHERE TO
God says to love one another.
Christianity is represented in three predominant groups: Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant. Within those three groups are a myriad of branches, each with their own strong church biblically-based doctrines which link to their Christian theology, based on interpretation of the Hebrew and Greek of the sacred text. The Christian fold, um, family, has too much in-fighting and dysfunction, and has in some ways lost its first love. Christ is the answer.

Though that is a rather simplistic statement--it is much more complicated than I have stated--it somewhat explains the broad tent of Christianity. According to the Word, unity is found in Christ. We in the Church are to follow Christ, first and foremost. To do that we must follow the teachings in the Word of God. Other sorts of beliefs aren't rooted in biblical teachings. We must look to Christ. 

What I found that I wasn't looking for is people of God and historic writers not of the Protestant tradition that love God with the same fervor as I do. And that makes Easter extra special. I can celebrate Christ's resurrection with them and with my church tradition. 

Hallelujah! Christ has risen. He is alive!

*Photo by Tony McLachlan on Unsplash

Two Ways to Live Spiritual Life: Intervention no. 11

LIVING SPIRITUAL LIFE 

as it should be lived

Finding God in the Daily

Complexity and simplicity both have their roots in spiritual life. Where you are in the mix is good to know.

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH is divided into two groups. One group has found Christ to be real and living and life changing. They have awakened from their slumber and are connected in interactive, intimate relationship with God. Theirs is a deepening faith with a genuine construct in its core.

The other group hopes and wants to find Christ as real and loving and life-changing, but they are still asleep, not fully accessing the life which Christ offers His children. Although they don't realize it, they are missing a life of closeness and meaningful relationship with God due to a perfunctory spirituality or a casual lacking-in-depth spiritual reality.

It need not be this way. Christ’s arms are open wide to all who will come unto Him. Lasting change starts from within and reaches out in faith and honesty. 

It is not just about us. It is also about God.

Life is hard but God is good. What God desires is to be close and complete in us. He may allow or at least use difficult things to gain our attention. He desires for us to reach out to Him that He may help us and offer us comfort and a new and better way. 

God does not want us to live in a wounded state bound in a spirit of fear with unhealed hurt trapped in the interior places. Our lives need the freedom that is found in a life hid in God. He wants to set us free and to restore us to wholeness.

God desires for us to come to Him with the painful stuff 

-that God may minister to our need, 

     -that we may grieve the offense, 

          -that God may enter and heal the hurt as He removes its 

              sharp piercing

              - that God may place peace as a salve 

                      -that brings healing and joy in the soul.

In the areas that have brought much distress, God guides you on a soul journey that, in time, brings you to health and wholeness through a renewal and restorative process.

I know this is true because it happened to me.

Father, Bring Your children close to You. Bless their hearts. Mold them and make them after Your will. Amen

To God be the Glory

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