Thoughts from My Journey

 Several years ago I read Luke 10; in this chapter Jesus is asked by an expert in the Law of Moses, "what must I do to inherit life?"Jesus as He did so many other times respond to the question with a question of His own, "What does the Law say? How do you understand it?"The expert answered, “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with allyour soul, with all your strength, and with your entire mind, and loved your neighbor as yourself."  Jesus said, "You have answered correctly,do this and you will live."

  I have read that scripture and the one that the expert was quoting many times and yet it never really hit me like it did that day. That day I started on a quest and I will say right here that I have not arrived but I have seen great progress. I noticed that God wants us to serve Him with everything we are. Always before I understood it to mean that we should serve God with passion...Although I do believe that is a valid application, I no longer believe that is the point of this text.

 We, in America, are raised in a society were our lives are compartmentalized. We divide our work life, family life, social life, emotional life, spiritual life and religious life into different pieces of a pie. We will come to church and live our spiritual and religious life but when we are at work we separate ourselves from the other aspects of our life. We have been told that in order for our family to be happy and healthy we need to leave our work at home. And although there is some truth to that it only reinforces the idea that all these parts of our life are separate.

 Jesus tells us that He came to give us LIFE and LIFE ABUNDANTLY.Why is it that so many Christians, including at times myself, struggle to live out this life? We go to a service and meet with God in a mighty and powerful way, we leave energized and ready to take on the world, and then reality hits.We have an argument with our spouse, the kids are at each others throat, the boss is on you to finish that project by Friday and you really need two weeks, all of a sudden the victory we felt on Sunday is gone and by mid-week depression is knocking on the door.

 Although these things are a normal part of life and as long as we are walking in this flesh we are going to have days like this, I believe that God has something better for us. I am not talking about a life without any trials or tribulations. I am not talking about the belief that if you give your heart to God that everything in your life will turn out right. What I am talking about is a relationship that goes everywhere with you so that when life does happen you are not alone.

 Why is it that so many Christians can worship on Sunday and sin throughout the week? I believe it is because we have separated our lives into pieces and as a result what we do on Sunday does not affect our Monday. We have forgotten that God made us body, soul and spirit. That these three things although seperate, cannot be separated. We have forgotten or maybe we were never taught that everything, everything we do is spiritual. We tend to think that we are physical beings with a spirit but the truth of the matter is we arespiritual beings with a body. That is why the Bible tells us that "everything we do we are to do it as to the Lord." and in anotherplace it says "whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might." Why? Because everything we do is spiritual. The early Hebrews understood that when they worked in the field it was an act of worship, when they were watching their sheep it was an act of worship. They believed because they were stewards of what God gave them that when they were doing what we might consider the menial tasks of life, to them it was worship. We have lostthat.

 My quest has been to live the life that God has for me. I have made an effort to "find" Jesus in every minute no matter how mundane it may seem. What I have found has been amazing. I have a deeper and more intimate relationship with God than I ever thought was possible and yet it seems to flow naturally. I think that is how it was in Eden. We are told that God walked with man everyday and most of us see that as a type of our relationship with God but what we forget is that God told them to manage the Garden, to be fruitful and multiply and that when they were doing what God told them to do it was an act of obedience, it was an act of worship. Just going about their daily lives, doing the mundane and yet it was worship.

 I am not claiming to have advanced to some high spiritual plain but I have become more aware of God in the everydayness of life. I am not just meeting Him in a prayer room shut in for a period of time; I am meeting Him in the backyard playing catch with my son. I am not just meeting Him when I am in a service worshipping with others but I am meeting Him while telling a man in Sam's Club "thank you for your service to our country." I may not be meeting Him in all the ways that our society and religious circles may tell usis normal but in many ways the encounters now are more real.

 I am on a quest and I encourage you to join me. It is a quest to learn how to love God with everything that we are, every part of our being, holding nothing back but realizing that everything we do is spiritual and that God wants to be in the middle of the ordinary things in our life. It is a quest to serve God as ONE, WHOLE, COMPLETE, without division

 Shalom,

 PT