Meditating to Heal

Jesus in Name

Whether we refer to our Lord as Jesus or Yeshua, the meanings are identical; Yeshua delivers and Jesus rescues, this according to Hebrew meanings. I prefer Yeshua, only because I think it brings me closer to what the early first and second century Christians prayed whether in cities or in exile in the deserts of Israel or Egypt.

We rejoice that God directed Mary to name her child what she did. It is a pronounceable and understandable name for God. Either name is easy to say and remember. When our lips form His name, we are taken to a place that is filled with wonder and salvation. This name glorifies us in God’s Love.

When we bring Yeshua into our hearts, we dwell in the glorious realm of Jesus’s home, a simple dwelling, lacking in any ornate trimmings. Although the room is bland, there are no walls; we enter and are amazed at the beauty of God’s creation within. We also notice that there are so many people that we cannot count them, nor can we miss that there is a variety of skin tones, and couples vary according to gender. It is an open and welcome place.

There is no darkness in this room; there is no strife in this room. When we enter this room, we are no longer in the desert of despair and want. We know we are welcome because everyone is happy and secure in their stations. We are led to this divine room by the eternal Love of Yeshua and His Father. We say His name in prayer and are transformed.

© Russell Kendall Carter

We make so many plans for our future that we sometimes forget that this fine-tuning often goes to naught. We forget to take our plans to the One who matters. We forget that God is always at hand and His message comes through our hearts before it surfaces in our mortal thoughts. This is the way He seems to hide from us always.

In our darkness when thinking of the future, God is there to pave the way. We are now contending with a vicious virus that dims the future for us and all humanity, but we are freshened when we feel God’s hands caressing our hearts, assuring us that all will be well. For most of us, we need the darkness to find the light of God.

Remember back when we were mere children; we did not have a care in the world. Our days were filled with small thoughts, a few chores, and lots of fun with other kids in the neighborhood. Our minds were at ease, because we had no thoughts of the future. I sometimes think that this is the way God wants us to be, even in our adult years. I recall the words of Jesus, “anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

Does this have any meaning for us today? It should! Jesus asks us to put aside our daily mortal worries and live in the present. To achieve any degree of ease, we must think as a child. The universe is at our hands. The universe is eternal, therefore, we must live in the eternal, we must live and think in eternity, for eternity is the only real existence.

My challenge is to bring the eternity of God’s presence into my daily life to live and prosper in the only way it matters. My enemy is hunger, hunger for assurance that what I am matters, what I am is beneficial to others and not just a selfish existence. I am thirsty for God’s assurance, but if I think in terms of eternity, my enemy is small; it is God’s eternity that matters. I pray and fast each day for God’s comfort.

© Russell Kendall Carter

A Prayer for a New Year

God meets all my needs, bringing the richness of Jesus’s Glory to my doorstep. As God became the Father to Israel, like Israel, I am His son. He speaks to me through His daughter, Truth, and She gives me my holy reward. I trust my sole provider. My faith grows as the proverbial mustard seed. Therefore, God gives me Hope when hope is hiding.

When my life is empty, my soul calls out for God’s intent and purpose. I open my heart for the awareness of His bountiful provisions. I grow wrapped in the comfort and promise of His Love. He blesses me with Christ’s presence in my life. As Jesus forgives those who hung Him on that tree, I forgive those who harm me. In this, I obtain the inheritance of His word.

His manifestation brings all things His creation. There is remarkable Hope in my realization that all is not lost according to Christ. He brings all to me with His transforming Love. I feel deep internal change when I practice silence and stillness in my life. When I walk in Christ’s holy light, my awareness of the plight of those long forgotten by society scorches my very soul, knowing that I am a part of a society that denies the pluralism of God’s world.

I am refreshed, knowing that nothing is lost in God’s eyes, and all I must do is work to lift those oppressed by selfish egotism. God gives me Hope that what I do, and other champions of God’s word will help to help our brothers and sisters, who are also worthy of the best of God’s creation, rise from the oppression of the cruel despot, greed.

Abba, give me the strength to spread your light to the world.

© Russell Kendall Carter

What is God saying to me today? Am I growing in prayer for all humanity?

Where can I improve my relationships with others, with Jesus, with God?

These are questions I ask myself every day. My goal is to rename myself; The Lord is Here. I open my Bible, read whatever chapter falls open; this is always random. I then turn to my Bible in a Year App and Read the selections for the day. Then I look to the other inspirational sites I read each morning. I take my pen and my daily diary and jot notes from each of these.

Then I put all aside and begin my morning meditation which includes a prayer of thanksgiving for my life and those dear to me. I invite God into my heart and meditate on my relationship with God and God’s relationship with me. At times, worldly issues delay my immersion. All the while, I am deep in conversation with God, our eternal Abba.

Eventually, I know that you and I are marvelously made and fully known to God. I pray for assistance to practice this all day long. I keep it simple – I try to see the face of God in all whom I meet. My desire is to assure that my relations with all are wrapped in one simple word – Love. Love comes from God into my heart. It’s that easy. 

When this is complete, I open my word document and write in my blog. Something simple, such as this, will appear the next day. I also write a short poem on my topic for the morning:

Take your favorite pen;

find a blank page in your diary.

Hear the knock; open the door;

let God enter your heart,

and the marvelous city

of simplicity will enter.

© Russell Kendall Carter

Good living . . .

Our universal vision must change as to what the definition of charity is. When we withhold equality in all parts of life, we obfuscate the  meaning of charity. Jesus calls us to protect the most vulnerable in our society. We must stop the denial of our history of inequality, since the first of our ancestors stepped on the shores of Virginia and Massachusetts. What we can do is recognize the errors made and reverse them for all humanity, and by extension, all of God’s creation.

Equal rights, be them for people of color or by gender, are supposed to be guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, but lawmakers have passed laws limiting the rights of those who are on the fringe of society and will not allow their prejudices to be reversed. This is why religion and the churches in the United States must take a lead on this issue of equality.

Like it or not, we are all make in God’s image; nowhere in the words of Jesus does it say that we are to discriminate against a certain class of people. It is time for all people of faith help repair the virulent divisions created by duplicitous politicians. Jesus gives us certain instructions when it comes those left behind by society; “what you do to the least of these, you do to Me.” We cannot say we love Jesus and not love all people.

What Jesus asks is not easy; but, if we truly love Jesus and praise God for the gifts given to us, we cannot ignore the two greatest of the commandments. We are all poor in our humanity; the economic standards of the poor in Israel two thousand years ago may not be the same as they are today, but spiritually, we are just as bankrupt. We need to recognize God within us all. I pray that 2021 will bring us closer to Love.

© Russell Kendall Carter

Let us All Prosper

With the new year, we all make resolutions to improve ourselves. I say that we should only make one: reduce the greatest difficulties in our lives. The only way we can do this, I believe, is to take a greater interest in our fellow man (and woman), be kind, be patient, and accept each as a child of God who is just as damaged as we are and are looking for a way to survive this pandemic-threatened world.

Give charity to one another and not just in monetary form. Lift those we see and those we do not see up to God in prayer, asking for God to lift all of us from suffering, from envying, and from egotism. Jesus invites us to love one another; love is not a word; love is a deed, a function of our lives. The only way we can prosper is through love. It is all God asks.

We are now separated from our families, our friends, and our neighbors, all around the world. Our community is divided because of this virus. Some take precautions, some do not, but all are in our family. We must turn toward each other in love and compassion, share our stories of isolation and quarantine.

If we want to survive this pandemic, we cannot add to it by hate and opposition. We look upon the face of Jesus and see God. We must look upon the faces of others and see Jesus before us; see the ocean of Love pouring forth in a gentle torrent. It is there for all to see. None of us have seen the face of God until we recognize it in the faces of those we disagree with. Accept what we see; go, let us all prosper.

© Russell Kendall Carter

Go in Peace

Our minds are filled with the peace of God. With God’s peace and love, and our faith in God’s presence within us, removes fear of troubles in our lives; faith becomes our guiding light, and in this light, we overcome all worries, are healed from evil threats. 

When we live with the faith in God, we experience a great hope that supports are efforts to continue on the lighted journey of our life. We never give in to our bodily troubles. We are blessed that the Holy Spirit, which wraps us in protection, is shared by others, and when we recognize others as children of God also, our hearts are lifted by joyous goodness.

When we share, we see the brightness of God in their hearts, and this good news brings us and all gracious health from our Lord. How many times in the Bible did Jesus tell us that faith has saved us, and we are to go in peace. We listen, we learn, we hear and feel the Holy Spirit. Let our faith support us as we turn the corner on the new year.

Cherub, go in peace

It is the way of the lord

In faith find release

© Russell Kendall Carter

Body and Soul

It is good to have a body. Without this necessary entity, we cannot do what we are asked to do. Primarily, what we are invited to do by Jesus: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” A simple but many times a difficult invitation to uphold. We are too quick to judge others by their appearance.  

Just take a look at that family on the side of the road; you know, the one with the father standing there with a cardboard sign reading, “Help, we have no jobs and no place to live.” How many of us just pass them by, perhaps thinking that if we stopped, we might be infected by the filth they are forced to live in. Or, worse still, we say to ourselves and sometimes shout it out the window telling them to get a job and stop cluttering up the highways.

What we think affects our bodies. But negative feelings about these poor people, many times people pf color or immigrants, do affect the way our bodies respond. Stress, acidity in the stomach are two symptoms that come to mind. But when we look at these people with sympathy and reach out to them giving the a few dollars, our opinions of them change, as do the reflections within our bodies.

Personally, I feel pity, anger, and shame. Pity comes first because I came from a relatively poor background in the 1950s; not a beggar’s life, but a life of an unsure future. What we had back then was hope. Hope is a spiritual refuge that secures our souls directly to the loving arms of God. hope protects us from the depths of depression that can overwhelm us in hard times. Anger and shame because our society of greed causes this grief.

Hope also in couples with faith; faith that ties us directly to God. Hope is repeated many, many times in the stories of Jesus that we read in the New Testament; but is also is present in the promises of God’s Love in the Old Testament, when the prophets speak of the coming Messiah. Hope is not present unless we also have faith, a faith in an every-loving God. our faith is in something not visible to the human eye; it is only visible when seen and received from the heart.

How many times did Jesus, say that faith has healed you? Healed, not cured, a healing is much more permanent than a cure. A healing cleanses one’s soul, that part of the human existence directly tied to God’s Love and Compassion. Your faith has freed you, so you can live in peace. Let our body, our soul, and our faith be one.

Our body, our soul

One is limited by time

One is saved by faith

© Russell Kendall Carter

Being a Watchman

God offers so much; we are born to live for such a short while. We cannot allow our neighbors to live in ruins. They are in pain because of our turning away from what we are too ashamed to see. We know we are wrong when we feast at the table and others go hungry. It is not enough to just open food kitchens. Our neighbors need these kitchens because we close the door to their prosperity.

We have the strength to lift them from poverty, keeping them healthy, and giving them well-paying employment. Yet we keep them from this because we do not want to give others a place at the table. We fear that what God produces in His abundant fields will not be enough; therefore, we hoard.

We forget that when others suffer needlessly, we also feel their pain; we just turn from it in embarrassment or fear. We forget that we are on earth to serve, not to hoard. We cannot love unless we allow God’s light to shine upon all. We celebrate the birth of Jesus every year, but we forget that He was born into poverty and lived His entire life in poverty. Yet He rose to great heights, inviting us to come with Him and walk in God’s light.

His lessons are of truth, eternal abundance, love, peace, and community through our sharing the Eucharist. All He asks is for us to open our hearts, listen . . . to understand our lives, the lives of others and how that without God, we are all weak. If we walk the lighted path shown to us by Jesus, our journey will lead to wonder.

In a world suffering with war and pandemic, we can rise above the turmoil by listening to God with our open hearts to receive true wisdom and love. We cannot heal others of their problems unless we ourselves are healed. This occurs only through God’s love and grace.

When we arm ourselves with God’s Love and Grace, we can rise above all earthly cares and not be slaves to the evils of war and pandemics. For your sake and mine, we must not be silent and turn our eyes from the hardships of life that are created by our fears. It is time to free our self-imposed shackles and live the lives that only God can provide.

© Russell Kendall Carter

In Him is Life, and the Life is the Light.

The light of all people shines on a bright Christmas morning. As the shepherds I the fields, the world is filled with wonder, the wonder of a grace-filled God born among us to suffer the hardships of mortal life. This is not just an experience for those of us who are called Christians. This light is for all people, all of God’s creation. Nothing can separate us from God’s Love and Grace. The Love that Jesus brings is so massive and so bright, we must close our eyes and see it with our hearts.

Only the majesty of this loving God can invite us to understand it, then, and only then, can we out our trust in the message that Jesus brings. As Christians, our God-given duty is to pray that others will be opened to realize and be strengthened by this Love. We must not force them to do so; we must only offer God’s invitation to do so. The Spirit of God is within us all to realize when we listen for His words with our open hearts.

Jesus asks that we love God, love ourselves, and love one another. We cannot love God, nor can we love Jesus, if we do not love one another. That means that no matter what a person looks like, what religion or gender that person is, or what color that person is, he/she is invited to hear the light of Jesus and the light of God wit their open hearts. If we do not love one another, we cannot absolutely love God, for God created all on this earth and love and respect for all His creation is all He asks of us. Remember, Love is the very character of God.

We spiritually climb to the heights of the His holy mountain to truly feel the warmth of Love that is all around us. We step carefully to show respect for God’s creation. We feel the warmth and bask in the light that only God can give, and Jesus can bring to us. The Lord our God will keep us from all harm and watch over us for eternity. This is the message of Jesus.