Meditating to Heal

The Mirror Called Love

 

Cynthia Bourgeault writes on God’s loves: “For true love is given to mirror and manifest God on earth . . .” What does this mean for us in our daily lives? If we love God, then we love all people, because all people are loved by God. God calls us to love every day in every way and with every person we meet. Why is this?

Humankind was God’s last and greatest creation. We were created to shepherd God’s creation. He never stops calling us to do this. We may think that being a doctor or a teacher is the most important thing that we do, but in reality, serving God and being good stewards is primary. Being a doctor or teacher is the way we serve. Until we serve God, we can never be happy. As an example, I was on this earth for fifty-one years before becoming a teacher, and when I became a teacher, it dawned on me that this was what I was created to do.

The relationships I formed with my students were the direct product of God’s love for humanity. God’s love, and therefore our love needs human relationships. It is these relationships that demonstrate the glory we have in being God’s creations. We are all diamonds, precious stones too valuable to ignore or waste. This is why love was created, to cherish the gems of life. This is the message of Jesus; as members of God’s creation, we are called to love one another, bringing peace to His creations, as He brings peace to us.

 

 

Matthew 21:23-25 KJV “By what authority doest thou these things?”

 

The synagogue leaders asked Jesus this question. By whose authority is the question for all of us to face. Who are we to lead the church? Who are we to offer intercessory prayers for others? Jesus’s response to this was his own question: “The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men?” Is baptism something we do to bless others, or is it a blessing from God?

When we are baptized, we devote our life to live up to God’s principles, not our own. By taking this vow seriously, we are truly enabled by God to do work in His name. the priests and ministers who perform the baptism, just as John the Baptist, are bringing us closer to the will of God. This is an important element in the life of a person of faith. By devoting our lives to the will of God, we are worthy of passing on the gifts and grace of God to others.

As a personal prayer minister, I am never calmer or more filled with the presence of God within me that I am when praying with others. There are times when I meet someone later whom I prayed with, I am thanked for the spirituality of the words that I said and am asked how I do this. My answer is that I don’t know. The words I use are not my words; they are words passing though my lips from God.

I urge all of my friends to try this. You will find that if you truly concentrate on what your prayer partner requests, the prayers you offer are not your words. When I first realized this, I was awed by the presence of God in all our lives. I am still not comfortable with the idea that I can make a difference in another person’s life. However, I know that when we pray together, God is with us, not only listening, but taking an active role in our prayers. When we pray, God is talking to us. So, when asked by what authority we pray, the answer is God’s authority.

 

 

 

 

 

From 1 Samuel 8:7-9:

And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. ⁸ According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. ⁹ Now therefore, heed their voice. However, you shall solemnly forewarn them, and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them.”

This warning from God, written over 3000 years ago (approximately 1000 BCE) clearly demonstrates humanity’s fall from having God as the ultimate leader. Whether we elect a president, a prime minister, have a king, or a dictator, none of these people are ruling from the throne of God’s majesty. When we add money, the idea of wealth, into the formula, we have a society that is so far removed from the concept that we are God’s people, not people from a specific area, that we no longer have the right to call ourselves people of God.

From the Christian Gloria in excelsis, are the words: For You alone are the Holy One/

     You alone are the Lord/You alone are the most high. The You, of course, is God, not man. I have just recently begun reading translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, written by the Essenes over two millennia ago. Many scholars believe that Jesus, in his disappearance from view in the Bible from age twelve to age thirty, spent a good deal of his time with the Essenes in Qumran. The Essenes never referred to a man as lord, or most high. The lord or the most high to the Essenes is God.

                 In my meditation this morning, I will take time to renew my relationship with God, connecting spiritually with others around the world who bring God into their lives. I never insist that people worship God, but I do extend the invitation for them to join me.

                

 

New Wineskins

“therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away” 2 Corinthians 5:17, KJV

During the wedding at Cana, Jesus said that to never put new wine in old wine skins. We are the new wine skins. If we are stiff, as in an old wines kin, we cannot expand to new ideas; we cannot accept change. Cynthia Bourgeault writes about our union of lives allowing us to walk on God’s path. This, above all other desires, requires that we be as pliable as new wine skins; we must be able to expand our ideas, thoughts, and practices to accept all others as God’s children.

By being new and accepting, we are the new children of God who accept the transforming power of God’s love, by welcoming all in His name. It is only love that gives us the real image of God, and that image is in the face of the other. God is not some unknown divine being, God is visible only in the faces of others. We all picture the image of God to be that of Jesus Christ, but in reality, look at our neighbors and see the face of God as it truly is.

Our God of Love calls us to act for our brothers and sisters and reconcile with them in the spirit of God’s holy love. We are to renew ourselves to accept this self-replenishing life, becoming the new wineskins that Jesus praised. We are the wineskins; our treatment of others is the new wine that fulfills the Love of God within us and within the world. We cannot accept the love of others or the love of God without being the same as the very pliable new wine skins.

The outward showing of love for humanity fulfills the holiness, the kingdom of God within us, of our souls and hearts. We trust our own reverence within the holy embrace of God’s Grace, without which our futures are dim indeed. Our perfect example is Jesus. We try to follow him as we accept new ideas and new people into our lives.

“What have I to do with thee, Jesus” Luke 8:28 KJV

So asked the man filled with demons in the country of Gedarenes. Whom among us has never asked this question. Jesus, what is it that I, a poor human, has to do with You the Son of God? We all have demons; some have many, as this man did. Our legions are the many pressures of our society that press down on us and tell us how wrong we are, or how great we are. These legions tell us what to do every day, each day of our lives.

Society forces us to be sectarian. We are not allowed to be our own people. We must disagree with someone of a different religion, even if this person is a person of extreme faith. We must also distrust this person because he is from another country or has a darker or lighter skin than us. These demons are self-destructive I think that society has it planned this way so that the leaders of society can keep control. Every one of these false limits set by society drains our communities of love.

Do we know how long ago it was that the custom, the rules, of society demanded that we open our home to the stranger, to the wanderer, to the poor? It is many hundreds of years. Society forces us to exclude this person. Society forces us to distrust this person, make him an outsider, do not love him, he is evil.

If we disregard these rules, as Jesus did, we can remake our lives and those around us. I ask myself what Jesus would do; well, he lived his life against the leaders who were filled with demons.

 

 

All life is part of the community of God. We are united and renewed by the existence of others. God’s clear water nourishes the cardinal and the human. All God’s creatures are worthy of our respect and our love.

I am a backyard bird watcher. Nature’s wild animals spend most of their lives foraging for food. We get great enjoyment watching birds and squirrels playfully scurrying around our yards. What fun it is to watch them. We don’t think that their playful scurrying is survival in its basic form.

I am a people watcher; when at a restaurant, I sit where I have full view of the other people in the room. I get great pleasure observing their movements. Just as the birds in my backyard scurry playfully in search of food, people have their interesting eccentricities that are playfully amusing.

People and animals share the need to survive; all are creations of God. People, however, possess the ability to live by the word of Jesus. We know that this word allows us to share what some consider to be secrets; but it is not a secret; it is freely shared by all who listen silently for this word.

Jesus teaches us to love each other; we should expand this love to all of God’s creations. When all creation survives, we all survive.

Trinity, a concept based on faith, not fact. But, then again, our lives are based on faith. Without faith in God, we would be floundering in the depths of the troubles in our lives. When we speak of the Holy Spirit, we are in fact speaking of God within us. This was a promise of Jesus, the only son of God, and the face of God when we pray. This way, the Trinity comes to life for us and within us.

Every time we pray to God, He speaks to us; we merely have to listen for the Spirit within us. When we are open to the Holy Spirit, we receive the outpouring of Love that God graciously gives us. That Love gives us hope that we can build on when facing the troubles in our lives. That Love is the Holy Spirit guiding us, keeping us safe. All we need to do is listen.

The only thing that we must do is open ourselves to the transforming word of God that comes to us through the Holy Spirit. As I write these words, I am picturing God; the face I see is the face of Jesus. Jesus speaks to me, giving the word that God is always within me, helping me through this troubled world.

People called me a good teacher; well, Jesus is the perfect teacher, the perfect mentor, bringing the Truth of God’s promise, God’s Love. All we need do is love God and Love our neighbor. We try to remain open to the word of God as brought to us through the Gospels and other sacred writings that god instructed man to write.

Love, Life, Hope, and Promise are all words I associate with God, because I believe that we cannot have these without the presence of God in our lives. I listen to the voice of the Spirit within me, allowing me to hear what God is saying to me. Love, Life, Hope, and Promise, God within us, the Holy Spirit within us, Jesus walking beside us.

I love all people, but I have a special place in my heart for those who need God’s Love. Those whom I meet in this state teach me so much about what it means to have faith in God. Together, what we accomplish is so much better than what we do alone. Together, we do God’s healing work; we heal ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually. God does the healing, but together we open our hearts to His healing touch.

Many prophets in both the old and new testaments tells us that God will restore us to health and heal our wounds. In our modern world, we overlook these promises. This may be due to our being raised to be self-sufficient. I have many friends that are so willing to give help when asked but will not ask for help when they need it. Pride? Or weakness?

I am one of these people, too. So, I think I can say that it is a weakness. We are not complete people until we can work together to improve our condition, be it mental, physical, or spiritual. Jesus said that whenever two or more are together in my name, I will be among you. Not, but two or three. This should tell us something about God’s purpose.

God is not this old, bearded white man sitting on a throne somewhere in heaven. God is the creator that remains within us to heal us, to cure us, to make us whole. He does, however, ask us to do it together. When we look for healing, when we look for blessings, when we look for truth, we turn to God. The healing, blessings, and truth are meant for all, not just for one. The response from God is much greater when we join in our prayers.

 God’s work is healing, healing us and making us whole. I pray that the prayers I share with others carry the strength of our uniform call for the healing of individuals and all humankind.

Our mortal life is a gift and comes with no guarantees. We live with this understanding. Friends die young, sometimes. My first experience was as a ten-year-old when one of my friend’s accident shot and killed with his police officer father’s service gun. They were playing and took the gun without their father’s knowledge.

I lived most of my life being self-centered and thinking only of my wife and children and their needs. When I was fifty-one, my life expanded immeasurably. I began a new life as a teacher, the most rewarding thing I have done. My inward-looking life opened to include the lives of all of the high school students I mentored.

When I was confronted by the problems of my students, I realized that regardless of what I had lived through was preparing me to show empathy and to love my students beyond anything that I ever imaged. The lives of my students were given to me by God; these lives opened my eyes and heart to others and deepened my faith in God as the loving provider. I saw the face of God in my students. I also so the face of need and deprivation, perhaps the same need and desperation that Jesus worked against in his thirty-one years as a man.

Our spiritual life does come with guarantees. In the Bible, Timothy writes: “Take hold of the eternal life.” And Paul writes in Romans: “The gift of God is eternal life.” Faith in God ensures that our lives are eternal. God knows us before we are born and also knows us after we end this mortal existence. All this supports the idea that our life as we know it is enriched by those we meet (and vice-versa), and our eternal life is of God’s Love.

 

We are born to celebrate our liberation. Our faith in God and the reality of His presence in our lives is so great that the problems of our daily lives, our health, and our emotions are reduced to insignificant bumps in the road. All of us who live and walk in God’s light are called to spread the good news that we are liberated from earthly problems through the grace of God. Nothing in this world exists outside of His grace.

Every person, every tree, every plant, animal, or bird as different as we are share the one true manifestation revelation and that is the Grace of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Each one of us is the divine manifestation of God. We are born in the liberation of God’s love; all we need do is share this love with all humankind, all animals and the very earth itself. This is what God asked Adam and all his followers to do.

Our liberation from evil, the eternal gift from God, is the anchor that keeps us secure; there is nothing in nature that can break us loose from His Love and Grace. The only certainty in our lives is the love of God. We lay down our doubts and fears when we talk with God. Some people say that the time we offer prayers to God are the times that we are talking with him. I reverse this belief. I believe that through the liberation we have from God, when we pray, we are hearing His voice as he speaks to us.

We listen for His voice and are many times disappointed by the lack of an answer; but when we understand that when we pray, God is truly answering us, we understand that this communication liberates us from our worries. As a prayer minister, offering prayers to God for the needs of others is a gift that I have been blessed with. Every time I sit with someone and pray with or for them, I am healed, liberating me, me, from the trials life threatens me with.

My prayers are the words of God, liberating me from the mental stress of life.