Worry -- or Pray!

I just have to post today's entry from Jesus Calling -- it's too good not to share:

Problems are a part of life.  They are inescapable: woven into the very fabric of this fallen world.  You tend to go into problem-solving mode all too readily, acting as if you have the capacity to fix everything.  This is a habitual response so automatic that it bypasses your conscious thinking.  Not only does this habit frustrate you, it also distances you from Me.

 

Do not let fixing things be your top priority.  You are ever so limited in your capacity to correct all that is wrong in the world around you.  Don't weigh yourself down with responsibilities that are not your own.  Instead, make your relationship with Me your primary concern.  Talk with Me about whatever is on your mind, seeking My perspective on the situation.  Rather than trying to fix everything that comes to your attention, ask Me to show you what is truly important.  Remember that you are en route to heaven, and let your problems fade in the light of eternity.

 

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To me, these words seem a recipe for sanity.  My mother once told me that I could not be a doctor -- my early ambition in life -- because I would drive  myself to drink over everyone else's problems.  I think she knew what she was talking about, because every time I see children, animals, people in general in distress, I wonder what I can do to help.  The most frustrating times in my teaching career were those times when I could not help a student.  One of my more memorable students was June -- not her real name, of course. 

 

June came in everyday at 9:00 am.  The 2-hour class began at 8:00 and lasted until 10:00.  When she arrived, she would come in with a crinkly plastic bag (to protect her books from the rain) and proceed to extract her books amidst lots of crinkly sounds while I was teaching.  Finally, I found a soft canvas bag and offered it to her for her books.  The next day, she arrived with her books inside a plastic bag inside the canvas bag.   I could not learn, it seems, how to solve June's many problems -- she arrived late each day because she did not drive, and that's when her father dropped her off.  (A few years later, I learned what to do about this, but at the time, I was at a loss.) 

 

In addition, June arrived at my office each day for help.  I would spend hours with her, going over her work -- only to find the same problems appearing in the next essay.  She always wanted help, but did not absorb the help.  One day, I had just fixed myself a cup of tea when June showed up.  Unnerved, I spilled the tea all over the papers on my desk, and I realized that I had for some time started to shake whenever June appeared at my door. 

 

A good friend helped me understand what was going on in my psyche:  I really believed deep down that I should be able to help every student who wanted my help -- and June was beyond all my efforts to solve her problems.  But I could not accept the fact that she was beyond my limited resources.  Later, I was to discover that she had been at the college for 8 years, still at the freshman level -- and that no one had been able to help her.  As long as she was in school, her father was supporting her, so she had a good thing going. 

 

Once I accepted the fact that I could not help June, even though she seemed to want my help, everything changed.  When she came into my office, I smiled and went through the motions for a few minutes, and then I let her go.  I stopped caring that she missed an hour of instruction each class period.  I knew she would once again fail English 101, and that it would be fine with her -- so why was I worrying about it?

 

If we refuse to pray about our concerns -- about all of our concerns -- we will continue to worry about the things we cannot change -- and we will never change the things we can, nor have the wisdom to know the difference.  I am sooo grateful to God for His Goodness in teaching me to pray early in my life, so that I do not continue to drive myself crazy over the things over which I have no control.  

Revisionist History

We were told that our Founding Fathers were Deists, and given the Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries, maybe their understanding of the Divine was more "intellectual" and "rational" than the later Romantics.  But if by "Deists," we imply that they believed God had no hand in the affairs of men -- much as Einstein believed-- it is hard to see how we derived that belief from their written documents -- even those of Benjamin Franklin, the most Deist of all.

Today's paper carried  the first Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation by George Washington in 1789, given at the request of both houses of Congress:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His Will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and

 

Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness:

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be;

that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation;

for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war;

for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed;

for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;

for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge;

and in general, for all the great and various favors which he has been pleased to confer upon us.

 

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions;

 to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually;

 to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed;

to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord;

to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us;

and generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.

 

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789--George Washington

 

It always thrills me to read these founding documents slowly and attentively, for they reveal to me the faith of our founders -- a sure and steady trust in the guidance, protection, and providence of Almighty God.  

Peace and Contentment

We are no longer alone if we allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit.  Our life unfolds in response to Him.  As we dispossess ourselves, our being is possessed by God: the void is filled.  God who is welcome, light, and warmth, transforms us, bestowing on us something of his radiance.  Those who are possessed by God resemble the burning log, which, St. John of the Cross tells us, little by little becomes white-hot.  Nourished by the fire of the Spirit, our life becomes fire.  Is not this the fire of which Jesus spoke when he said, "I have come to cast fire on the earth, and what would I but that it be kindled"? -- from The Ways of the Spirit: The Spirituality of Cardinal Suenens.

 

Mary, the first Christian -- the first to know the indwelling Presence of Jesus, the Savior of all mankind -- the first to be so overshadowed by the Holy Spirit as to incarnate in her own flesh God Himself.  We are designed by the Creator to be capable of union with God -- in mutual knowledge, in an exchange of love, in obedience to the mission we are given to redeem the earth, to be a blessing to others.  We are created to be "like God" because His Divine Breath animates us.

 

Carl Jung, a non-Catholic, saw in Mary the anima, or soul receptive to the Divine Presence that moves each one of us toward completion.  Without that Presence, we are "like sheep without a Shepherd," "not knowing our right hands from our left" (Yahweh to Jonah, regarding the Ninevites).  When we find our true center, the soul receptive to the Spirit of God, we find both ourselves and God: in knowing Him, we know ourselves.  Without that knowledge, we wander as aimlessly as the Israelites in the desert, not sure of our destination or of our purpose in life -- we simply do not know why we are here.  When we are directed by the Spirit of God, we may not know where we are heading, but we do know the One Who Knows and Who will infallibly guide us to our purpose.

 

Then, even in our uncertainty, we have peace and contentment, for we know ourselves taken care of, guided, and protected on our way.  Last night, after listening to someone tell me again and again (for 3 years now) how her life has fallen apart, how no one will help her, how she hates her job, etc, I finally asked her if she ever thought of thanking God for what He was doing in her life.  "I do thank Him," she began, and then she started listing some of the things she was grateful for.  Instantly, her tone changed from self-pity to gratitude -- for the one friend who invited her to Thanksgiving when her family would have nothing to do with her, for the elderly woman who was so appreciative of her care (she's a caretaker), for the friends who still call and ask her to go line-dancing, etc.  I was amazed at the change I heard in her voice.  Today, I read this in Jesus Calling:

 

A life of praise and thankfulness becomes a life filled with miracles.  Instead of trying to be in control, you focus on Me and what I am doing.  This is the power of praise: centering your entire being in Me.  This is how I created you to live, for I made you in My own image.  Enjoy abundant life by overflowing with praise and thankfulness.

 

I think we are never truly joyful and content until we know ourselves to be truly loved -- and this is the first gift of the Holy Spirit to us.  When the Spirit descended on Jesus in preparation for His earthly mission, the Father spoke from heaven:  This is my beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.  And strangely, despite our human weakness and failing, these are the same words we "know" in the depths of our hearts when the Holy Spirit descends upon us -- to know we are loved, to know we are not alone, but that the Paraclete (the One Called beside us) -- this is what it means to have heaven opened to us.  Contentment, not restlessness, is the mark of the Christian in whom the Son of God dwells on earth.

The Carpenter-King: Viva Christo Rey!

Mary Venturella Graffagnini was a good friend of mine.  The first time I saw her work, I did not believe she had made what I was seeing.  At the time I met Mary, she was already well into her 70's, and she was showing me a one-of-a-kind work of art, made of at least a dozen different pieces of cast-off wood.  Anyone else would have thrown these scraps into the garbage, but Mary had taken these good-for-nothing odds and ends and had fashioned them into the most beautiful, polished structures, resembling waves of wood.

"You didn't make that," I said, knowing what kind of machinery it would have taken to produce this object.  With that, this almost-elderly grandmother of eight took me into her workshop, where I saw jigsaws, polishers, and other tools that I could hardly believe she was using to create her artwork.  Later, Mary was to show me hundreds of pieces of art, all unique and beautiful.  She would begin with the central piece of wood, much as Michelangelo would begin with a block of marble,  Studying the grain of the wood and the size of the scrap, she would envision what it might become, and how it could fit into an overall pattern with other scraps she might find.  What I might see as covered with dust and mold, Mary could see in its finished and polished state, carved into new shapes to highlight its natural beauty, and fitting into shapes with other scrapes she had rescued from the dumpster.

When I see Mary's work today, I am reminded of what the Carpenter-King can do with lives that have been scarred by pain and abuse.  What is fit in the eyes of the world only for the scrap-pile, He, the Creator-King, can make into a work of art-- not only something beautiful in itself, but something that fits perfectly into an overall pattern with other pieces, something that now forms a "new creation," waves of wood, for example.

One reason I love reading the lives of the saints is that therein I can see the hand of the Divine Artist, the one who came as a Carpenter, to fashion wood into functional and beautiful works of art.  In the Old Testament description of the Tent of Meeting between God and man, the furnishings were all of acacia wood, overlaid with gold.  The wood represented man; the gold, God.  The tabernacle, the mercy-seat, the candlesticks -- everything used in the Temple was fashioned from wood overlaid with gold.  And certain men were endowed with "the Sprit of practical wisdom" to know how to fashion works of beauty for the House wherein the Divine Presence was to dwell, the place where men could go to meet God.  That 'house'/tabernacle/ Tent of Meeting today is the gathered church, those wherein the Spirit of God dwells -- men and women whose lives have been overlaid with the Spirit of God and who have been redeemed from the scrap-pile of life, fashioned by a Divine Carpenter, and anointed with the gold of the indwelling Presence.  And together, we are being built into a place where God lives on earth.  We are being fit together into the Dwelling Place of the Spirit of God on earth:  Where two or three are gathered in My Name, there I am in the midst of them.

Each one of Mary's works was one-of-a-kind, depending on the kinds of wood she found, the size of the pieces, and the way she fitted them together into a final shape.  And each congregation fashioned by the Divine Carpenter is also unique, depending on the personalities, the lives, the inherent talents He finds in His 'scraps of wood.'  But the Carpenter-King knows what to do with lives that are given over to Him, how to fit them perfectly with other lives, and how to fashion them into a worthy dwelling for His Father and His own Spirit.  Viva Christo Rey!

Viva Christo Rey!

Today is the Feast of Christ the King, the last feast of the church year before we begin the cycle all over again with Advent.  Always before, when we came to this Feast, I would think of Christ the King of all Nations, of a world finally at peace because of His Divine Rule.  Today, though, I am humbled with awe as I read through the brief lives of all the "saints," -- canonized or not -- in my daily book of prayer.  I realize that these men and women were those in whom Christ reigned as king.

Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) prays that the Lord would remove from his soul the stumbling blocks to the reign of Christ therein:  greed, which claims a throne in us; arrogance which dominates us; pride which does not allow us to bend; comfort and pleasure which claim first rights to our souls; ambition, detraction, envy, anger -- all fight for supremacy within us, and which seem to have us in their power.  Most of us think that we have to conquer these kingdoms through our own willpower and self-control.  (I, for one, learned a very long time ago how helpless I was to overcome any negative power or energy within myself.)  Like Therese of Liseux, I have to trust that Jesus, seeing my helplessness to "climb the rough stairway of sanctity" will graciously descend to lift me up Himself and carry me to heaven. 

If we are the conquerers of evil tendency within ourselves, we have no need of Christ.  But He, knowing human weakness, came not only to live a good life, as an example to us, but in order to enter forever into human weakness, crucifying our flesh so that the Spirit of God reign in our lives.  Who of us is "like God?"  The answer should be fairly obvious -- only Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Only He can transform our human weakness into the Image of God on earth.  Christ must reign over the evil in our flesh and in our egos if He would be king.

There is no sense negotiating peace with our enemies, whether personal or political, if bitterness and anger and natural pride are still reigning over, or dominating, either party.  There IS NO PEACE ON EARTH without the reign of Christ in us.  When we meet others in whom Christ is at work conquering the flesh, we immediately know it -- not because they are perfect people, but because He has established peace in their hearts.  These are people who are not afraid, who are not threatened, who need no defenses -- because they know Who is their King, Lord, and Protector.  Only then can we relax and enjoy "the other" in their weakness and imperfection -- because we know the same Lord who is at work in us will also conquer the evil in them.

More tomorrow on this theme.

LIGHT! BE!

He spoke His eternal word--LIGHT---into existence in a dark and lonely speck of matter, and that LIGHT brought into existence everything that is.

I do love the "Big Bang" theory, for it correlates so well with the account of Creation given in Genesis, Chapter 1.  Can we imagine a world without light-energy?  Nothing would grow, and so the earth would be just a cold stone floating in space, no more significant than the meteor chunks we occasionally see falling from the sky.

The light-energy that gives life to all that exists pre-existed the sun, and indeed, was the source of the sun's energy and light itself.  Until science discovered the full spectrum of light and radiation -- and who is to say there is not yet more to be discovered?---scholars puzzled over what this "light" could be that preceded the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars in Genesis 1.  Now, we are using lasers to heal disease.

The first chapter of John says that the Word was with God at the beginning and the Word was God:

Through Him, all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.

 

Later in John's Gospel, Jesus says, "I am the Light of the world" (9:4).  In the Psalms, David exclaims: "In Your Light, we see light!"

 

What we call "religion" is merely our receiving, or soaking up, the Light of the world, opening our hearts to the Divine Energy, which so wants to take up residence in the temples of our souls.  From that center, It desires to radiate outward to a spiritually dark and lonely world.  We have all seen people who have lost the light of life; their eyes are dead.  Often, I see these people's pictures on the front page of the newspaper -- they have murdered, molested, cooked meth, taken crack, etc.  And I look at their empty eyes, wondering if I can find light in those eyes -- the windows of the soul.

 

There are some whose "light" derives from "who they are," "what they own," or "what they know" -- all ways of "shining" in a dark world.  But these lights soon disappear, and they are no longer remembered by the world.  The Jews had a saying, "The just man shall be in everlasting remembrance," meaning that justice (holiness) lasts forever.  When the Light of God is absorbed by a person's soul, his light shines in the darkness, regardless of his/her religion.  Malala is one example of a shining light, as is Mother Teresa and countless others whose lives will never be publicized.  I have met cooks and housekeepers, maintenance men, teachers, and countless others who had within them the "Light of Life."  And their light is radiant to all who come into contact with them.

 

Jesus Calling -- Nov. 20 -- puts it this way:

 

Shift your focus from your performance to My radiant Presence.  The Light of My Love shines on you continually, regardless of your feelings or behavior.  Your responsibility is to be receptive to the unconditional Love.  Thankfulness and trust are your primary receptors.  Thank Me for everything; trust in Me at all times.  These simple disciplines will keep you open to My loving Presence.

 

Many people seem to be afraid of the Light of the World.  John says this is because their "deeds are evil."  I have met some who are not necessarily evil, but just not interested---their "light" is coming from someplace more intriguing to them.  The world of entertainment and celebrities is one source of  "light" to some; the academic world is another source to many.  It may help all of us to consider our own sources of "light" and whether they actually give Energy and Life to us, or whether they drain those qualities from us.  

 



What is Grace?

One of my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, writers is C. S. Lewis, who died on the same day 50 years ago as J.F.K.  Another famous writer who also died on the same day is Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World.   Someone wrote a book about the three of them meeting in the ante-chamber of heaven and discussing their philosophies of life.  Unfortunately, I can remember neither the name of that book nor the author, but if I had to guess, I'd say it might have been Peter Kreeft, who wrote C. S. Lewis for the 21st Century.

Anyway, the reason I've always loved Lewis is his ability to explain mysterious things in the most clear way.  As a somewhat muddled thinker myself, I appreciate Lewis' clarity when it comes to the deep things of life.  Even as a child, I was somewhat frustrated by not being able to comprehend something that I wanted to understand more clearly.  For example, I think I've mentioned before that I never liked the word "Grace" because I could not understand "what" it was.  We learned about "sanctifying grace," "actual grace," and "sacramental grace," but I did not know what it was I was supposed to be getting.  And it bothered me.  I wanted it, whatever "it" was, but I wanted to know what God was giving me.

Having confessed my childhood puzzlement to my husband last week, the very next day, he showed me a definition of "Grace" in an article he was reading in the paper:  Grace is the release of loveliness into the world.  Now that I could understand -- loveliness.  Of course, since my childhood, I have grown into more and more understanding of Grace as energy, dynamic relationship with the Holy Spirit, exchange of love and life, movement, God's own breath in me, and finally, The Power and Presence of God in me. 

Even as a child, I desired to understand Truth -- I wanted to wrap my head and heart around the essence of things, not their surface.  I wanted to know what things meant, not just what was said about them.  So when I discovered C.S. Lewis, I was elated --  he makes things so clear to me that I always exclaim, "Why, of course that how things are!"  "Why did I not see that before?"  One of Lewis's more famous passages from Mere Christianity concerns the identity of Jesus Christ:

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God."  That is the one thing we must not say.  A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic -- on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell.  You must make your choice.  Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.  You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher.  He has not left that open to us.  He did not intend to.

 

This passage alone has brought many to re-examine their belief about Jesus Christ.  I wish I could articulate the wonderful mysteries of God as clearly as Lewis did.  But each of us has his own gift, and C.S. Lewis's gift continues to live on and on.  His devotees today number in the thousands; there are Lewis study groups and professors of Lewis's philosophy on practically every college campus.

 

Two nights ago, I met a man in our parish who told me that reading Lewis, along with Thomas Merton, brought him back to the Catholic church.  What is remarkable about his story is that Lewis began his professional life as an atheist, and Merton as an agnostic and a seeker of pleasure.  Surely, the Power and Presence of God in these two lives is Amazing Grace -- and knowing their stories brings me even closer to understanding what "Grace" means -- the Power and Presence of God in our lives, the Power to change even those walking in darkness, the Power to bring us -- any one of us -- into the Amazing Light of Truth.  Not only did Grace/Light/ God's own Energy enter into Lewis and Merton, but it lit them up from within and put both of them on a "lampstand," that they might shed light to all those in the house.

 

Alleluia!  Three cheers for GRACE!



Let My People Go!

The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God.  God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.  So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them (Ex.2:23-25).

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...but I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him. So I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians with all the wonders that I will perform among them.  After that, he will let you go (Ex. 3:19-20).

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This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me." But you refused to let him go; so I will kill your firstborn son" (Moses to Pharoah--Ex. 44:22-23)

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The slavery in Egypt is not only an historical event; it is also a parable and a pattern for the Christian life.  Jesus told Nicodemus: Unless you are born from above by water and the Holy Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God.  Yesterday, I wrote about a woman from Taiwan who was instantly set free from her slavery to a false god.  Her eyes were opened immediately -- not from years of study, not from an evangelist ---but from the power of God to reveal things no one had ever told her.  She was set free to worship the True God. 

 

The truth is that we are unable to worship God until we have been set free from slavery.  We are slaves to fear; we are slaves to the wounds of the past; we are in slavery to ignorance, to superstition -- to "the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers," as Peter puts it in his letter to the church.  Like the Pharisees, we think we are free and that 'we have never been slaves,' but still, we find ourselves unable to worship God.  That in itself is proof that we are slaves to the flesh, for the flesh and the spirit are at war with one another (Gal. 5).  The flesh does not desire to worship God, and in fact, it cannot.  Paul tells us that no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit -- and my observation tells me the truth of this statement.  I myself, though a church-going Catholic for many years, could not have said "Jesus is Lord" until I was set free by the power of the Holy Spirit to truly worship God and to proclaim Jesus as Lord.

 

So where does our freedom from slavery come from?  Jesus died as a slave in order to put into effect the New Covenant of Spirit to spirit.  When He died, we died and are no longer in bondage to the flesh.  Sin and death no longer have any hold on us; we live now not according to the law of "sin and death" (Romans 7) but according to the "law of the Holy Spirit" living in us (Romans 8).

 

If anyone thinks he is not in bondage, but free to worship God, let him put it to the test by attempting to read Scripture -- or to worship God.  Is Scripture is a dead book to us; if it does not penetrate our minds and hearts, we have not been set free yet from the flesh.  "The god this world has blinded us," in the words of St. Paul.  If we are unable to worship the living God, if we do not know who He is, we are not yet 'born again' of the Spirit.

 

If Jesus Christ is dwelling in us through the Holy Spirit, He will teach us all things and lead us to the pure worship of God, in spirit and in truth:  If the Son of Man sets you free, you are free indeed.

 

The Israelites finally escaped from Pharoah by the death of his first-born son -- but even then, he sent his troops after the fleeing people, only to see them drown in the Red Sea.  Satan, too, is not willing to release his hold on us.  He will tighten his grip again and again until we finally flee to freedom through the waters of Baptism into Jesus Christ, where the sons of Adam / sons of the flesh die and are born again into a new way of life -- no longer subject to the flesh, but ruled by the Spirit of God:

 

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being;" the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.  The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.  The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven.  As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so let us bear the likeness of the man from heaven (I Cor. 15:44-49).

A Lady from Taiwan

It was about half-way through the semester.  I was teaching a class in Basic English as a Second Language, when one of my students, a woman in her 40's remained after everyone else had left.  I went over and sat in one of the student desks next to her, sensing that she was troubled and wanted to talk.  She began to tell me that some months previously, she and her two teen-aged children had arrived in this country on student visas.  She wanted to study English; her children were in a local high school.  But they had come first to the port of Houston, where she had contact with a Chinese lawyer who was helping her.  Upon her first visit to him, he took her documentation and paperwork and kept it.  Thereafter, he was blackmailing her.  If she did not pay him a fee each month, he threatened to "turn her in" to the immigration authorities for not having documentation.  Her children just loved America and its school, and she did not know what to do.  Every night, she spoke to her husband in Taiwan and cried on the phone in desperation.

"Have you prayed for help?" I asked her.  "I pray and pray to your Jesus," she answered me, "but He not helping me!"  "Well," I said, "maybe He is, after all.  I have a good friend who is a Christian lawyer, and he may be able to advise you."  I put her in touch with Jack, whom I had known for years, and whom I could trust.  She was so grateful to me that she wanted to come to my church.  I did invite her to Mass, but the Catholic ritual confused her, and she understood almost nothing of the sermon either.  So I told her about a Bible study I was teaching on Thursday night. 

Anh cleaned houses on Thursday nights to pay the blackmail fee, but nevertheless, the next Thursday, she arrived in Kenner all the way from New Orleans East, where she lived.  However, since she had cleaned a house before coming, she arrived at 9:00, just as we were all leaving.  I could not allow her to turn around and return home after that long trip, so I said, "Come on; we'll do something very short." 

I opened my Bible to Genesis, Chapter 1, and we read about Creation.  Then I went to the first chapter of John, where we read about the Light of the World, Who gives to all who receive Him the power to become children of God.  "How can I receive this Jesus?" she wanted to know.  "You just ask Him to come to your heart," I told her.  "No, I cannot," she answered me; "I have too much crime in me."  I was awed at her response, remembering that St. Peter had said to Jesus, "Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man."

"The reason He came," I told her, "was to remove the crime from our hearts."  "Oh," she said with a great deal of relief.  Then she knelt on the floor, and we asked Jesus to come into her heart.  Suddenly this lady from Taiwan jumped to her feet:  "I know the REAL GOD!" she said.  "All these years, I have gone to Buddhist temples and lit hundreds of candles.  How could I not know that Buddha was not the REAL God?  Now I know the REAL GOD!"  The excitement, the joy, the shouting coming from this shy, somewhat withdrawn, woman was a moment none of us could ever forget.  The fire of Pentecost had arrived in our midst. 

I thought to myself on the way home that night, that if this is what it felt like to be a missionary, I wanted to be one!   But that was not the end of the story.  She went home and called her husband in Taiwan.  "What happened to you?" he wanted to know.  "Before, you always cry and cry on the phone, and now you are happy!"  "Tonight, I met Jesus Christ!" she told him.  The next day, he went out and bought a Bible and began reading it.  Then she told her children that she now knew the REAL GOD, and the three of them began studying the Bible at home.  Eventually, her teen-aged son began a Bible study at his public school in Metairie.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells us the story of Cornelius, the Roman Centurian, who sent for the Apostle Peter at the direction of an angel.  As Peter began telling the Roman household about Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit descended upon all in the house, and they began speaking in tongues.  I believe I witnessed the same phenomenon that evening.  This lady from Taiwan instantly knew what no one had ever taught her; she knew the REAL GOD.

Over the years, I have lost touch with my former student, but I often wonder about 'the rest of the story,' as Paul Harvey used to say.  I was so blessed to have seen and heard what God did for this child of His, and I have often wished I could replicate the experience for others -- but, as Jesus said, the Gift of the Holy Spirit is the "Gift of the Father," and we do not know where it comes from or where it will go.

Why Pray? ( 3

"Our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual.  We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil" (Eph. 6:12).  The only power that is effective in this realm is the power of the Holy Spirit and by His own choice, that power is liberated and released only by the prayer and faith of praying people....

You may learn much in the classroom.  You may learn much by diligent study....by listening to sermons and lectures and teaching tapes, but God's deepest secrets are reserved for those who take time to wait upon the Lord, who take time to be alone with Him.  He has many secrets, many spiritual vision, many hidden revelations and insights which will be shared only in long hours of waiting upon God in the secret place of prayer....

Activism has its place, but the place is after prayer...."You can do more than prayer after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed" (Gordon).  Few of us really believe in our hearts that prayer is where the action is.  Many of us are convinced that a brilliant, polished intellect is where the action is; that scholarship, faultless logic and reasoning is where the action is; that psychology is where the action is; that fluency of thought and speech is where the action is....Others believe that a magnetic personality or that organizational ability, administrative and managerial expertise, business acumen, social service and community leadership---all of these are really where the action is.

I make no effort to discredit any of these; all may be profitable and contribute to the success of a ministry.....if God cannot use our wisdom, He can use our ignorance less.  But in the warfare against evil spirit personalities with whom we are engaged, one thing and one alone is effective--the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit that is put into practice only by prayer....."Prayer is striking the winning blow.  Service is gathering up the results" (Gordon). -- from The Technique of Spiritual Warfare by Paul E. Billheimer.

Why Pray 2

There is a vast store of spiritual wisdom, insight, and understanding which can never be tapped by the intellect alone.  In Colossians 2:3, Paul tells us that "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" are hidden, that is, kept secret, in Christ.  It is impossible to exploit fully the spiritual advantage of academic knowledge without access to the "treasures of wisdom and knowledge" that are hidden in Christ.  The spirit makes those treasures available mainly through our devotional [prayer] life, in the time spent alone with God.

A few hours alone with God can open up treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ which may have eluded one during years of purely academic training.  Christ is the original source of all knowledge.  One may learn much about Christ and spiritual things from the written and recorded works of others, but that is 'second-hand' knowledge, which is not to be despised.  But if one is willing to spend time alone with God and make prayer the main business of his life, he may tap the original source of all wisdom and knowledge for himself.

All original wisdom comes only by revelation of the Holy Spirit from God himself.  Only the truth that comes to one from God himself is original, and it is this truth alone that imparts authority to any ministry.  Therefore, the most excellent academic training is no substitute for a deep devotional life.

...God's deepest secrets are reserved for those who take time to wait upon the Lord, who take time to be alone with Him.  He has many secrets, many spiritual visions, many hidden revelations and insights which will be shared only in long hours of waiting upon God in the secret place of prayer.  If we begrudge the time spent alone with God, if we will not wait upon Him, we must be content to remain spiritually naïve, inexperienced, and immature.

If we will not take time to be alone with God, we forfeit the most priceless and invaluable secrets known to divine intelligence.  God waits to share the treasures of wisdom and knowledge with those who take time to listen.  In our devotional life, time is of essence.  If we do not take time to pray, our devotional life will be defective, anemic, and weak.
             ---from Destined to Overcome: The Technique of Spiritual Warfare by Paul E. Billheimer
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Usually, I do not quote so extensively from a source without commentary on the source.  But in this case, I think Billheimer's reflections are so true, so accurate, that I cannot improve or add anything to what he is saying.  I keep this reading close to my computer so that I can re-read it from time to time and not forget his wisdom.

I have a small book called Give Us This Day that I use for my daily prayer, even though I am the most unstructured pray-er in the world.  I am a person who must always be exploring new things from one day to another, and for whom routine is stifling.  I am always looking for new routes to  work, new roads to explore, new ways of doing old things.  However, I have been using Give Us This Day regularly for two years, because I find it grounds my prayer life. Each day, there is a very short spiritual reflection by different authors both modern and ancient.  While all of them give me food for thought, I can always tell when I begin reading an excerpt written by one of the great saints.  After a couple of sentences, my heart catches fire, and I must look at the reference at the bottom to see who wrote this.  Inevitably, I discover a name like Augustine, Teresa, Anselm, etc.  My question is always, "How did I know this writing was different from all the others?"

I think the answer lies in the exact situation whereby people responded to Jesus Christ:  Spirit speaks to spirit.....My sheep know my voice, and they will not listen to another.  People who pray live in a different space -- maybe on a different planet -- from those who do not.  Some may be brilliant in knowledge and insight, but those who pray have a wisdom that comes from above, and they are able to speak to hearts seeking that wisdom also. 

More tomorrow.

Why Pray?

Not so many of us possess creative potential.  Few of us are blessed with towering personalities, shining gifts, brilliant intellects or golden talents.  Because many of us are only ordinary, average, unspectacular persons, we feel that we have been cheated in life.  We believe that we are deprived persons of little or no significance.

But the least gifted person who is born again has access to the most creative resource in the entire universe, the resource of prayer.  We humans place great stress on the importance of human endowments, including talent, magnetic personality, technique, intellect, cleverness and skill as the principal factors in shaping human events.  But God knows that prayer is where the action is.

Prayer is the greatest activity anyone can do for God or man.  And the least-gifted, the least-endowed, the least-known person in the world, by making prayer the main business of his life, may become greater in God's book than the most highly endowed, the most brilliant and the most famous person in the world who fails to pray. 

A brilliant, disciplined mind honed to a razor's edge, a mind impregnated and permeated with all that we associate with the ultimate in intellect, culture, and scholarship, is the be greatly admired and cultivated.  We spend years of study, labor, and toil to acquire these disciplines.  But there is something more supremely important and fundamental.
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Recently, a friend passed on to me this reading from Destined to Overcome: The Technique of Spiritual Warfare by Paul E. Billheimer.  On tomorrow's blog, I will continue with selections from Billheimer's book.

What do You Mean?

Just as the living Father sent me

and I have life because of the Father,

so whoever feeds on me shall have life because of me (John 6:58).

 

What does Jesus mean by "the living Father?"

 

What does He mean by 'sent me'?   

 

Jesus, as John the Baptist, clearly saw Himself as One Who was "sent." 

 

There must have been Someone Who was the Sender, Someone "living," Someone Who directed Jesus' mission on earth.  Jesus took on His mission in obedience to Someone else, not Himself.  He even prayed that the cup could pass from Him, but if it could not, then He would accept it in obedience.  If there is no "Father," then Jesus was entirely delusional and not to be believed.

 

What does He mean that He has "life because of the Father"? 

 

In another place, He says that the Father has life in Himself, and that the Father has permitted the Son to have life in Himself (Jn. 5:26) and to "give life" to all who come to Him.

 

What does it mean to "feed" on Jesus and to "have life" because of Him?

Surely those who do not "feed" on Jesus have life also? 

 

If we say that Jesus was the epitome of human life, if we say that He gave us the path of life, I think we owe it to Him to at least ask questions of Him:  What do you mean?  What does this mean?

 

In His day, many people shook the dust off their feet and walked away:  Who can accept these things? they asked.  Those who remained asked Him questions:  What do you mean?

 

If we refuse to ask questions of Him, if we just say "these things are too hard to understand," we will never have any relationship with Jesus at all.  He will remain to us a historical figure who lived and died, with some impact on the world -- but we will not have communion with the "living" Person of Jesus Christ.  We will not "feed" on Him.

 

Our pastor occasionally wears a t-shirt that reads I can explain it to you, but I cannot understand it for you.  I like that a lot, because our "explanations" are only our understanding, not someone else's.  When 'two or more' disciples are gathered together, the Holy Spirit enlightens their understanding and brings them into accord spiritually as they speak together.  If we would understand the words of Jesus, we must ask for that enlightenment from the Holy Spirit, and His job -- and His joy -- is not only to show us great and wonderful truths, but in the process to bring us into relationship with the "living" Jesus and with the 'living" Father. 

 

Life is communion, and to be in communion with the Living Father, the Living Son, and the Living Spirit is to be in communion with all of nature and with one another.  If we do not 'feed' on the Bread that comes down from above and gives life to the world (Jn. 6:33), then we have no life in ourselves.

 

God -- the Living God -- the Person of God---may be hard to approach for some people who have been taught to fear Him, not in a healthy, but in an unhealthy, way.  But Jesus showed Himself as the most approachable Person on earth -- and His mission was to reveal the Father to us, to embody in His Person the Person of God.  When I look around me, I wonder if, after all, He failed in His mission.

 

You can live as close to Me as you choose.

I set up no barriers between us;

neither do I tear down the barriers that you erect.

--Jesus Calling: Nov. 5

 

 



Coming to the End of Our Own Resources

In my own lifetime, I believe the clearest cultural expression of the meaning of Christianity is George Lucas' Starwars.  I don't know if that movie was based on a previously-written book, but if it was not,  I would love to interview Lucas to find out where the entire concept came from.

First of all, there is the "Evil Empire," "roaming the world seeking whom to control and destroy."  Then we see the ordinary Luke Skywalker, "chosen," as it were to combat the Evil Empire and to free those under its dominion.  Luke is given a Guide to The Force, someone who already possesses from of old the powers to stand against evil.  And he is given a Teacher in the person of Yoda, to help him enter into the powers of The Force. 

First, though, Luke has to learn how to let go of his own methods of control and of power.  He cannot rely on his own eyes (his senses); he has to learn to be directed from within, from Another Source.  And it takes time away from the "world" to learn this -- one might call his practice "prayer" time, directed by the Holy Spirit/ Yoda.  What is needs to learn is to walk as Obi Ben Kenobi walks, not as the 'world' walks. 

In the end, Luke has to push aside the instrumentation given to him by the world and rely entirely on The Force to guide his actions against Darth Vader and his minions.  And his walk of trust impacts an entire civilization; many will walk in freedom as a result of Lean not on your own understanding, but in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths (Prov. 3:6).

In a subsequent movie, we discover that Luke is actually the son of Darth Vader himself.  The Evil Empire is defeated by one of its own, one who chose to reject the evil and choose the good.  That is why Jesus, the Son of God, had to become also 'the Son of man.'  But first, the Son of man had to go into the desert to come to the end of His own strength, His own control, His own power -- and rely, as did Luke, entirely on the Spirit of God to guide His actions against "the evil empire."  He could not resort to human means, even to feed himself: Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.

 "Not by might, not by power," says the Lord of Hosts, "but by My Spirit" (Zach. 4).
His power, strength, goodness, joy -- whatever he would pass on to us ---- had to be Spirit-given, not derived from the flesh. Jesus would not pass on His power through natural generation, but by the Spirit which is given to all who receive Him.   John 1:13 tells us that those who believed in Him and received Him would become "children of God---children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, but born of God."

It does not matter who our natural father is if we are 'born of God," for if we are (born-again) children of God, the 'old has gone, and the new has come; everyone who is in Christ Jesus is a new creation."  If we have a Guide to the spiritual life and a Teacher, everything that belongs to Jesus is given to us as we learn to use it under the direction of the Holy Spirit.  This is our only source of hope, especially if our natural inheritance has derived from the Evil Empire, if our mothers and fathers were under the influence of drugs, anger, hostility, coldness, for example.  Maybe this explains why prison ministry is so fruitful -- those who have experienced Satan as a father come more easily to the Light.  They are waiting to be born again and to experience The Force operating within themselves.

Three cheers, George Lucas!

Testing the Spirits

…choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.  But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord [Yahweh] (Joshua 24:15). 

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world (1 Jn. 4:1).

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At any given time, there are three spirits in operation:  the spirit of man, the Spirit of God, and the spirits of evil.  It seems to me to be important that we are able to distinguish which spirit is operating in ourselves, in other people, and in circumstances.  Fortunately, one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the ability to discern the spirits.

If we cannot discern the spirits, as John instructs us, we cannot know the truth or deception behind the voices we hear.  In the Old Testament, the prophets were challenged by false prophets, confusing the people as to who was speaking the truth.  In 2 Chronicles 18, we see an example of lying spirits trying to deceive, “in the name of the Lord.”  In the New Testament, Jesus was teaching through the Holy Spirit, while the Pharisees were teaching out of their own spirits (Mark 7:13).  The confusion that results from such a mixture of voices requires discernment from the Holy Spirit. 

When Jesus’ disciples wanted to call down the fire from heaven on the Samaritans who rejected them, Jesus told them, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of” (Luke 9:55).  But later, in the Acts of the Apostles, we see a major outpouring of the fire of the Holy Spirit in Samaria – the disciples wanted judgment, but Jesus’ plan was to send the Holy Spirit.  He was able to ‘test the spirits’ and rebuke the spirit of man in favor of the Spirit of God.

So how do we know which spirit is speaking to us through the circumstances around us or through other people?  Fortunately, John tells us plainly how to test the spirits.  Actually, the whole book of I John, if studied slowly and reflectively, can tell us how to “test the spirits.”  I would have to copy his whole book to do justice to John’s thought here, but it is more profitable for someone to read the Scripture than to read my paraphrase.  So, regretfully, I must skip most of the first chapter of I John.

Explicitly, John’s direction on testing the spirits begins with v. 20 of Chapter 1:  But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.  Who is the liar?  It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ…No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

John teaches us two things here:  (1) we have an “anointing,” or witness within, from the Holy Spirit, and (2) the spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.  There is an internal and an external test here – one within our hearts and one from without. 

John says further, “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you.”  At one point, someone asked one of the Saints, “What should we believe?”  “That which has been believed from the beginning,” answered the Saint.  If we study Church history from the beginning, if we read the fathers of the Church – that generation which immediately followed the Apostles – we will begin to know what has always been believed about Jesus Christ.  If someone in the 20^th century “discovers” something that was never before “known” about Jesus Christ, and that discovery negates 2000 years of what the saints and prophets have believed, that discovery cannot be true. 

John goes on to say, “This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood…we are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us…they are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.”  Actually, John is echoing Jesus’ own words to the Pharisees here.  He told them that the reason they did not believe Him was that they did not belong to God, “for the one who belongs to God hears the words that God speaks.” 

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God (I Jn. 4:15)….Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God…(5:1)….and it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth (5:6)….anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart (5:10).

…the whole world is under the control of the evil one…[but] the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.  And we are in him who is true—even in his Son, Jesus Christ.  He is the true God and eternal life.

 Those who believe that Jesus is the Christ may disagree on minor points – even vehemently.  They may belong to different denominations and reject the teachings of a church not their own.  But still, they may have “fellowship with one another,” in the words of John, and with the Father because they are brought together in the Person of the Son, who “breaks down the dividing wall” between us. 

If we love one another and walk in the light, the Spirit of God will teach us all truth.  I have experienced this fellowship with many, many Christians not of my own denomination.  A priest who once experienced a Full Gospel service in another church could not wait to get out of there (his own human spirit was operating), until the Holy Spirit spoke in his heart:  Ask them about Jesus.”  After the service was over, he began to ask individuals who Jesus was to them.  The answers he received convinced him that the Holy Spirit was operating in that church, and he repented of his own judgment.  There were two “witnesses” operating here:  the witness within his own heart and the witness without – the testimony about Jesus Christ.  Fortunately, both spirits overrode his natural ‘human’ spirit.

The next time we are tempted, or led, by our own spirits to follow another god, we need to pull back a moment to listen to the Voice within and to the voices without:  Who do you say Jesus Christ is?  If the voice without echoes what has been believed from the beginning about Jesus Christ, if the Spirit within us testifies to the truth, we will know whether the other spirit has come from God or from somewhere else.