How’s your daily conversation with the Lord going?

Simple, yet complex! There is so much of God we will never know in this life (Eastern Orthodox call this mystery), yet there are clearly things the Lord absolutely wants us to know and experience. Do you believe that God wants to speak and be in relationship with you each day? In John 16:13-14 Jesus says, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not be presenting his own ideas; he will be telling you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. He will bring me glory by revealing to you whatever he receives from me.”

One day, when I was about 17 years old, I picked up the Bible to see what Jesus had to say. As a young man I was frustrated with some of my friends and their view of the world, God and people. Something inside of me was crying out with deep concern! Many aspects of what I was hearing (from those who called themselves Christian as well as those who did not) seemed to hint toward some sort of love, but it was distorted. From the core of my being something or someone was crying out, “It’s more than that!” In this frame of mind I flipped open my Bible to Matthew 5 where Jesus goes to a hillside and starts to share some of his thoughts. As his words left his lips, traveling through the written page into my heart, I was filled with a deep sense of joy. I thought, “Yes! This is what makes sense. This agrees with the voice within me. Admittedly, as I looked at my life, I knew I fell short and did not put into practice all these amazing concepts of love that were being taught, but I certainly did not disagree with Christ and desired to be more like the people Jesus was encouraging his hearers to be. I wonder if that was, and is, the Spirit. My hunch?... Yes.

Jesus promised to give his followers the Holy Spirit. Every single person who desires to be a follower of Christ, surrendering their life to the ways and cause of Christ, is promised the Holy Spirit. They are promised the one who will counsel, comfort and bring unity among believers. So why is there so much disunity and friction within the church? It makes total sense. Many of us, if not most of us, are living on our own terms, listening to our own voice, working things out to meet our own purpose. My desire is to join the ranks of those who are listening to the One True God of Love. If it is true that there is one body, one Spirit, one hope… one Lord, one faith, one baptism… then it makes sense that there is one clear message that is indisputable. Somehow I don’t think that message has to do with saving money so we can be comfortable in the future, or spending lots of free time indulging in self-gratification, or having a worship service go the way we want it, or filling our big house with nice things. The words I’m hearing from Christ have to do with humility, service, sacrifice, giving stuff away freely, trusting, obedience, caring for the poor, paying attention to God and giving back to God the best of all we have. There is a big part of me that says, “Oh yeah… well I don’t want to. I like my life the way it is. I don’t want to be stretched. I don’t want to be challenged. I don’t want to be uncomfortable.” Is this true for you too, but in reality you really do want to be shaped into the person Christ has called you to be? If so, let’s join together in prayer, wanting and willing to listen and move into those things Christ is calling us into. May the unity and effectiveness of the Body grow, as each part does its work.