One of the critical events during the presidency of Ronald Reagan was the Sunday morning terrorist bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. Hundreds of American soldiers were killed or wounded as they slept. You may recall the horrible scenes as the dazed survivors worked to dig their trapped comrades from the rubble.
A few days after the tragedy, Marine Corps Commandant Paul X. Kelly, visited some of the wounded survivors in a Frankfurt, Germany hospital. Among them was Corporal Jeffery Lee Nashton, who was severely wounded in the incident. Nashton had so many tubes running in and out of his body that he looked more like a machine than a man — yet he survived.
As Kelly neared him, Nashton, struggling to move and in obvious pain, motioned for a piece of paper and a pen. He wrote a brief note and passed it to the commandant. On the slip of paper were 2 words – “Semper Fi” — the Marine motto, which means“Forever Faithful.” What does it mean for you and me to be “forever faithful” to Jesus Christ?
Join us this Sunday, as we conclude our series on Lordship Living, and we’ll discover how we can be faithful to Christ in any and every situation. Hope to see you Sunday.

Faithful to Him,
Pastor Ben

Week #9 – Adoration

Invocation:
Eternal Father, let my first thought today be of You, let my first impulse be to worship You, let my first speech be Your name, let my first action be to kneel in prayer. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 150

Daily Scripture Reading:

Monday Deuteronomy 6:4-25
Tuesday Isaiah 42:1-13
Wednesday Genesis 1:1-31; 2:1-3
Thursday 1 Peter 1:3-9
Friday Job 38:1-33; 42:1-6
Saturday Revelation 21:1-7
Sunday Luke 1:46-55

Selections for Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Try to make the first petitions of your prayer this week to be those of praise & adoration. Do not let yourself begin with your needs or from within the context of your life. Instead, begin your prayer against the backdrop of the greatness and majesty of God:

Our Father . . . Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come, Your will be done. . . .

Hymn: “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee”

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee,
God of glory, Lord of love
Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee,
Opening to the sun above.
Melt the clouds of sin and sadness,
Drive the dark of doubt away;
Giver of immortal gladness,
Fill us with the light of day.

All Thy works with joy surround Thee
Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays:
Stars and angels sing around Thee,
Center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
Flowery meadow, flashing sea,
Chanting bird and flowing fountain,
Call us to rejoice in Thee.

Thou art giving and forgiving,
Ever blessing, ever blest,
Wellspring of the joy of living,
Ocean depth of happy rest.
Thou our Father, Christ our brother
All who live in love are Thine,
Teach us how to love each other,
Lift us to the joy divine.

Mortals join the mighty chorus,
Which the morning stars began,
Father love is reigning o’er us,
Brother love binds man to man.
Ever singing, march we onward,
Victors in the midst of strife,
Joyful music leads us onward,
In the triumph song of life.
-Henry Van Dyke-

Benediction:
Father, may my life make Your great heart glad today. Let me live in adoration, praise and gratitude for who You are and all You have come to mean to me. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* “Adoration” for the person of today is difficult because we are not altogether sure what it is or what it means. Yet, “adoration” is one of the great continuing words of the religious vocabulary, a vocabulary which is one of the richest, most retensive elements of our language. Words linger on long after the deep experience which they signified has been forgotten. Sometimes, even the capacity for the experience has become dimmed or lost, the meaning of the word blurred. We “adore” many things — the word is in common use, is used to describe lesser and often inane things or ideas. Thus “adoration” in its religious and original sense — the bowing down in awe and reverence, tinged with the fear of God — has become largely lost in superficial wonder and feeling.
-From Surprised By the Spirit by
Edward J. Farrell-

* The highest adoration is not occupied with the recollection of favors received and mercies extended, though they do help one be aware of the true nature of God. There is still, in all such recollection, a remnant of that self-centeredness which it should be the purpose of prayer to escape. In it, we are still thinking of God in terms of something done to “me” and for “me.” We never really adore Him, until we arrive at the moment when we worship Him for what He is in Himself, apart from any consideration of the impact of His Divine Selfhood upon our desires and our welfare. Then we love Him for Himself alone. Then we adore Him, regardless of whether any personal benefit is in anticipation or not. Then it is not what He has done for us or what we expect Him to do for us, but what He has been from eternity before we existed, and what He is now even if we were not here to need Him, and what he will be forever whether that “forever” includes us or not — it is that which captivates us and evokes from us the selfless offering of self in worship. That is pure adoration. Nothing less is worthy of the name.
-From An Autobiography of Prayer by
Albert E. Day-

* There is a place in the religious experience where we love god for Himself alone, with never a thought of His benefits. And there is a place where the heart does not reason from admiration to affection. True, it all may begin lower down, but it quickly rises to the height of blind adoration where reason is suspended and the heart worships in unreasoning blessedness. It can only exclaim, “Holy, holy, holy,” while scarcely knowing what it means.
If this should seem too mystical, too unreal, we offer no proof and make no effort to defend our position. This can only be understood by those who have experienced it. By the rank & file of present day Christians it will be rejected or shrugged off as preposterous. So be it. Some will read and will recognize an accurate description of the sunlit peaks where they have been for at least brief periods and to which they long often to return. And such will need no proof.
-From The Root of Righteousness by
A.W. Tozer-

* So we have come to the point at which, through discipline and silent waiting, prayer happens. We do not create prayer, but merely prepare the ground and clear away obstacles. Prayer is always a gift, a grace, the flame which ignites the wood; the Holy Spirit gives prayer. The human response is one of adoring love. It is this posture of adoration which is the central posture of worship. “Religion is adoration” wrote Von Hugel. As in meditation, adoring prayer calls for a concentration. But it is not a fierce mental concentration so much as a focusing of our love, an outpouring of wonder toward God. In meditation there was a simplifying of thought so that we came to think deeply around a single word or phrase or theme until thought gave way to prayer. Similarly in the prayer of adoration we focus ourselves. The mind becomes less active, and we allow ourselves, body & spirit, to rest in an attitude of outpoured offering to God.
-From True Prayer by Kenneth Leech-

* Our children can teach us a great deal about ourselves. My daughter once came home with the not unusual remark for a 9 year old, “I’ll never speak to Elizabeth again.” She was angry with Elizabeth but, either because of the latter’s size or the restraining influence of a civilized image of a young lady, she refrained from scratching Elizabeth’s eyes out. Instead, she did the more civilized thing: she refused to speak to her.
To act as if another does not exist is a more hostile act than to slap his face. In the latter action one at least acknowledges his presence. The silent treatment is an extremely powerful weapon of aggression. With God, we are seemingly unable to hurt him in any other way. The only weapon we can use on Him, as a vehicle for our anger at all the suffering he allows, is our silence. Like my daughter we can at least not speak to Him.
-From Guilt, Anger, and God by
C. Fitzsimons Allison-

* And let it be observed, as this is the end, so it is the whole and sole end, for which every man upon the face of the earth, for which every one of you, were brought into the world and endured with a living soul. Remember! You are born for nothing else. Your life is continued to you upon earth for no other purpose than this; that you may know, love and serve God on earth, and enjoy him to all eternity. Consider! You were not created to please your senses, to gratify your imagination, to gain money, or the praise of men; to seek happiness in any created good, in anything under the sun. All this is “walking in a vain shadow”; it is leading a restless, miserable life, in order to avoid a miserable eternity. On the contrary, you were created for this and for no other purpose, by seeking and finding happiness in God on earth, to secure the glory of God in heaven. Therefore let your heart continually say, “This one thing I do” — having one thing in view, remembering why I was born, and why I am continued in life — “I press on to the mark.” I aim at the one end of my begging, God; even at “God in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” He shall be my God forever and ever, and my guide even until death!
-From The Message of the Wesleys.
Compiled by Philip S. Watson-

* When the worst finally happens, or almost happens, a kind of peace comes. I had passed beyond grief, beyond terror, all but beyond hope, and it was there, in that wilderness, that for the first time in my life I caught sight of something of what it must be like to love God truly. It was only a glimpse, but it was like stumbling on fresh water in the desert, like remembering something so huge and extraordinary that my memory had been able to contain it. Though God was nowhere to be clearly seen, nowhere to be clearly heard, I had to be near Him — even in the elevator riding up to her floor, even walking down the corridor to the one door among all those doors that had her name taped on it. I loved him because there was nothing else left. I loved him because he seemed to have made himself as helpless in his might as I was in my helplessness. I loved him not so much in spite of there being nothing in it for me but almost because there was nothing in it for me. For the first time in my life, there in that wilderness, I caught what it must be like to love God truly, for his own sake, to love him no matter what. If I loved him with less than all my heart, soul, might, I loved him with at least as much of them as I had left for loving anything.
-From A Room Called Remember by
Frederick Buechner-

Some years ago, a man was learning to fly a plane. His instructor told him to put the plane into a steep and extended dive. The novice pilot was totally unprepared for what was about to happen. After a brief time the engine stalled, and the plane began to plunge out of control. It soon became evident the instructor was not going to help at all. After a few seconds, which seemed like an eternity, the rookie’s mind began to function again. He quickly corrected the situation, then vented his frustrations at his instructor. The instructor calmly answered, “There is no position you can get this airplane into that I cannot get you out of. If you want to learn to fly, go up there and do it again.”
There are times in our lives that God seems to say the same thing to us: “Remember this: as you serve Me, there is no situation you can get yourself into that I cannot get you out of. If you trust me, you will be alright.”
Have you discovered this wonderful truth yet? This Sunday, as we continue our series on “Lordship Living,” we’re going to look at one of the greatest stories on trust in the Scriptures. Come and join us as we learn the difference between simply believing in God and truly trusting Him. In the process, you’ll discover no situation is ever beyond God’s control.

You Are Loved!
Pastor Ben

Week #8 – Silence

Invocation:
O God, my Father, I have no words by which I dare express the things that stir within me. I lay bare myself, my world, before you in quietness. Watch over my spirit with Your great tenderness and understanding and judgment, so that I will find, in some strange new way, strength for my weakness, health for my illness, guidance for my journey. This is the stirring of my heart, O God, my Father. Amen.

Scripture Reading: Psalm 8

Daily Scripture Reading:
Monday Revelation 3:20-22
Tuesday James 3:1-12
Wednesday Ecclesiastes 5:1-3
Thursday 1 Kings 19:9-13
Friday Psalm 46
Saturday John 10:1-15
Sunday Habakkuk 2:20

Selections For Meditation:

Personal Meditation

Prayer
There is much to be said in the Christian life; but it is God who is to do the speaking. Pray for silence both in mind and spirit so that you may hear His voice. If He spoke to you in a whisper, would you be quiet enough to hear Him?

Hymn: “Still, Still With Thee”

Still still with Thee,
When purple morning breaketh,
When the bird waketh,
And the shadows flee;
Fairer than morning,
Lovelier than the daylight,
Dawns the sweet consciousness,
I am with Thee.

So shall it be at last,
In that bright morning
When the soul waketh,
and life’s shadows flee;
Oh, in that hour,
fairer than day-light dawning,
Shall rise the glorious thought —
I am with Thee.
-Harriet Beecher Stowe-

Benediction:
Come, Lord, and speak to my heart. Communicate to it Your holy will, and mercifully work within it both to will and to do according to Your good pleasure. Alas! How long shall my exile be prolonged? When shall the veil be removed which separates time from eternity? When shall I see that which I now believe? When shall I find what I seek? When shall I possess what I love, which is You, O my God! Grant, O Jesus, that these holy desires with which you now inspire me, may be followed by that eternal happiness which I hope for from Your infinite mercy. Amen.
-Thomas a’ Kempis-

Selections For Meditation:

* Unfortunately, in seeing ourselves as we truly are, not all that we see is beautiful & attractive. This is undoubtedly part of the reason we flee silence. We do not want to be confronted with our hypocrisy, our phoniness. We see how false and fragile is the false self we project. We have to go through this painful experience to come to our true self. It is a harrowing journey, a death to self — the false self — and no one wants to die. But it is the only path to life, to freedom, to peace, to true love. And it begins with silence. We cannot give ourselves in love if we do not know and possess ourselves. This is the great value of silence. It is the pathway to all we truly want. This is why St. Benedict speaks of silence as if it were a value in itself: for the sake of silence.
-From A Place Apart by M. Basil Pennington-

* Silence is the very presence of God — always there. But activity hides it. We need to leave activity long enough to discover the Presence — then we can return to activity with it.
Stillness is present throughout the run at every point. But if one only runs, he never knows stillness.
God is present in all beings, but we will never be aware of Him if we never stop and leave behind all beings to be to Him.
-From O Holy Mountain! by
M. Basil Pennington-

* Not long ago the religion instructor at a Christian high school decided to introduce silent meditation into one of his classes. He gave the students instructions simply to “be” during the silence: to be relaxed and awake, open to life as it is, with nothing to do but appreciate whatever comes. Week by week he slowly increased the amount of time to a maximum of 10 minutes.
The student response was very revealing. One boy summarized a general feeling of the class: “It is the only time in my day when I am not expected to achieve something.” The response of several irate parents was equally revealing: “It isn’t Christian,” said one. “I’m not paying all that tuition for my child to sit there and do nothing,” proclaimed another.
How is it that 10 minutes of silence can be so special to some and so threatening to others?
-From Spiritual Friend by Tilden H. Edwards-

* As there are definite hours in the Christian’s day for the Word, particularly the time of common worship & prayer, so the day also needs definite times of silence, silence under the Word and silence that comes out of the Word. These will be especially the times before and after hearing the Word. The Word comes not to the chatterer but to him that holds his tongue. The stillness of the temple is the sign of the holy presence of God in His Word.
There is an indifferent, or even negative, attitude toward silence which sees in it a disparagement of God’s revelation in the Word. This is the view which misinterprets silence as a ceremonial gesture, as a mystical desire to get beyond the Word. This is to miss the essential relationship of silence to the Word. Silence is the simple stillness of the individual under the Word of God. We are silent before hearing the Word because our thoughts are already directed to the Word, as a child is quiet when he enters his father’s room. We are silent after hearing the Word because the Word is still speaking and dwelling within us. We are silent at the beginning of the day because God should have the first word, and we are silent before going to sleep because the last word also belongs to God. We keep silence solely for the sake of the Word, and therefore not in order to sho disregard for the Word but rather to honor and receive it.
Silence is nothing but waiting for God’s Word and coming from God’s Word with a blessing. But everybody knows that this is something that needs to be practiced and learned, in these days when talkativeness and noise prevails. Real silence, real stillness, really holding one’s tongue, comes only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness.
-From Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer-

* The disciplined person is the person who can do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. The mark of a championship basketball team is a team that can score the points when they are needed. Most of us can get the ball in the hoop eventually but we can’t do it when it is needed. Likewise, a person who is under the discipline of silence is a person who can say what needs to be said when it needs to be said. “A Word filly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Proverbs 25:11). If we are silent when we should speak, we are not living in the discipline of silence. If we speak when we should be silent, we again miss the mark.
-From Celebration of Discipline by
Richard J. Foster-

* For as long as I can remember, I have not feared silence but welcomed it as a source of spiritual deepening. Like other people living in the world, I’ve grown accustomed to the noise in my place of work, to the raucous sounds of the city, to the inner disquiet stirred up by busy thoughts and earnest projects. Silence can be an escape from the functional responsibilities and physical demands of listening and conversing with colleagues, friends and family members. But it can also be an opening to God.
A common problem related to why we may seek to escape silence, is the discovery that it evokes nameless misgivings, guilt feelings, strange, disquieting anxiety. Anything is better than this mess, and so we flick on the radio or pick up the phone and talk to a friend. If we can pass through these initial fears and remain silent, we may experience a gradual waning of inner chaos. Silence becomes like a creative space in which we regain perspective on the whole.
-From Pathways of Spiritual Living by
Susan Annette Muto-

* It is necessary that we find the silence of God not only in ourselves but also in one another. Unless some other person speaks to us in words that spring from God and communicate with the silence of God in our souls, we remain isolated in our own silence, from which God tends to withdraw. For inner silence depends on a continual seeking, a continual crying in the night, a repeated bending over the abyss. If we cling to a silence we think we have found forever, we stop seeking God and the silence goes dead within us. A silence in which He is no longer sought ceases to speak to us of Him. A silence from which He does not seem to be absent, dangerously threatens His continued presence. For He is found when He is sought and when He is no longer sought, He escapes us. He is heard only when we hope to hear Him, and if, thinking our hope to be fulfilled, we cease to listen, He ceases to speak, His silence ceases to be vivid and becomes dead, even though we re-charge it with the echo of our own emotional noise.

Contradictions have always existed in the soul of man. But it is only when we prefer analysis to silence that they become a constant and insoluble problem. We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them and see them in the light of exterior and objective values which make them trivial by comparison.
Silence, then, belongs to the substance of sanctity. In silence and hope are formed the strength of the Saints (Isaiah 30:15).
-From Thoughts in Solitude
by Thomas Merton-

One day a beggar by the roadside asked for alms from Alexander the Great as he passed by. The man was poor and wretched and had no claim on the ruler, no right even to ask for help. Yet, the emperor threw him several gold coins. One of the emperors attendants was astonished at the general’s generosity and commented, “Sir, copper coins would adequately meet that beggar’s need. Why give him gold?” Alexander responded in royal fashion, “Copper coins would suit the beggar’s need, but gold coins suit my giving.”
That’s the way it is with God as well. His generosity toward us is lavish, not because we deserve it but because that is His nature. He is a loving, generous Creator who showers us with blessings we don’t deserve.
This week, in our series on Lordship Living, I want to challenge your thinking regarding generosity. Are you a generous person? Do you practice generosity toward others? And here’s the most critical question: What does your pattern of generosity reveal about you?
This Sunday, we will learn about the God who lavishes blessings on those who least deserve them — people like you & me! I am with you on this journey. Together, we will discover how to be more like our Heavenly Father — who gives generously to all. See you on Sunday!

In HIS Service,
Pastor Ben

Week #7 – Making Moments

Invocation
Father, give me eyes to see and a heart to respond to all which will come to me this week. Forbid that I should miss its graces by looking ahead to some other day or week. Let me accept the newness each moment brings with awareness and gratitude. In the name of the One who makes all things new, I pray. Amen.

Weekly Scripture Reading: Psalm 81

Daily Scripture Readings:
Monday Luke 24:13-35
Tuesday Mark 9:2-8
Wednesday 1 Chronicles 28:10-30
Thursday Revelation 3:14-22
Friday 1 Samuel 7:7-17
Saturday Mark 14:1-9
Sunday Matthew 17:1-13

Selections for Meditation

Personal Meditation

Prayer
Begin to pray this week that the moments of your life may themselves become prayers. Whether they are in the joy of a birthday party, in the weariness that comes from labor, in the majesty of the setting sun or in the pain that comes with tears. Pray that each in its turn will cause you to lift your voice to Him.

Hymn: “This Is My Father’s World”
by Maltbie D. Babcock

This is my Father’s world
And to my listening ears,
All nature sings, and round me rings,
The music of the spheres.

This is my Father’s world,
Oh, let me ne’er forget
That tho’ the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world
The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and heaven be one.

Benediction:
Father, so much of my life seems to be devoid of events that can be labeled important. It’s content and quality will more likely be determined by my responses to the ordinary. Let me see Your hand in the providences and circumstances of this day. Amen.

Selections for Meditation:

* To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all attainments. Prayer is our humble answer to the inconceivable surprise of living. It is all we can offer in return for the mystery by which we live. Who is worthy to be present at the constant unfolding of time? Amidst the meditation of mountains, the humility of flowers — wiser than all alphabets — clouds that die constantly for the sake of His glory, we are hating, hunting, hurting. Suddenly we feel ashamed for our clashes and complaints in the face of the tacit glory in nature. It is so embarrassing to live! How strange we are in the world, and how presumptuous our doings! Only one response can maintain us: gratefulness for witnessing the wonder, for the gift of our unearned right to serve, to adore, and to fulfill. It is gratefulness which makes the soul great.
-From Man’s Quest for God, by
Abraham Joshua Heschel-

* Temperance, then, is the teacher of that genial humility which is an essential of spiritual health. It makes us realize that the normal and moderate course is the only one we can handle successfully in our own power: that extraordinary practices, penance, spiritual efforts, with their corresponding graces, must never be deliberately sought. Some people appear to think that the “spiritual life” is a peculiar condition. But the solid norm of the spiritual life should be like that of the natural life. The extremes of joy, discipline, vision, are not in our hands but in the Hand of God. We can maintain the soul’s house in order without any of these. It is not the best housekeeper who has the most ferocious spring-clean, or get things from the store when she is expecting guests. “If any man open the door, I will come in to him”; share his ordinary meal, and irradiate his ordinary life. The demand for temperance of soul, for acknowledgement of the sacred character of the normal, is based on that fact — the central Christian fact — of the humble entrance of God into our common human life. The supernatural can and does seek and find us, in and through our daily normal experience: the invisible in the visible. There is no need to be peculiar in order to find God. The Magi were taught by the heavens to follow a star; and it brought them, not to a paralyzing disclosure of the Transcendent, but to a little Boy on His mother’s knee.
-From The House of the Soul and Concerning the Inner Life by Evelyn Underhill-

* Varied and rich are the methods used by individuals who have discovered the strength and the security that come from the practice of the Presence of God. Most often, these practices are very private and are a part of the intimate resources of personal religious living. To talk about such things is like living one’s private life in public. In the course of a lifetime, a person may be privileged to share the testimony in most unexpected ways.
. . . There is a friend who is in her seventies now. In her professional life she was a secretary. Each morning before breakfast she sits at her typewriter and writes a letter to God. No one else ever sees what she writes. It is part of her own private communion with Him.
There is another person well into the later years. For some months now she has been in uncertain health. Each morning when she awakes, she stops for a period of meditation. The phrase is the same each day: “This is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” At night, as she turns out the light over her bed, she says it a little differently because “rejoice” and “be glad” are not very restful words. So, she says, “This is the night which the Lord has made. I will relax and rest in it.” One day she had a fall, but managed to pull herself up without calling for help. She was quite shaken and was much in pain. She prepared herself for bed and with much discomfort was able to get in beneath the covers. As she turned out the light, she said, “This is the night which the Lord has made. I will relax and cry in it.” Then she realized what she had said, and her tears were all mixed with her laughter.
Varied and rich indeed are the methods used by individuals who have discovered the strength and serenity that come from the “practice of the Presence of God.”
-From The Inward Journey
by Howard Thurman-

* Alan Watts once used a royal comparison for our moving around. A king and queen are the center of “where it’s at,” so they move with easy, royal bearing. They have no place to “get.” They have already “arrived.” Looking deeply at our lineage, we see that we are of the highest royal line: the royal image of God is in us — covered over, but indestructibly there. We need rush nowhere else to get it. We mainly need to attentively relax and dissolve the amnesia that obscures our true identity.
-From Living Simply Through the Day by
Tilden H. Edwards-

* This “dark night” of disbelief lasted four bleak and barren months. Then it happened. It was the beginning of the rest of my life, the pivotal religious experience of my own personal history. In the evenings, we novices had a 15 minute examination of conscience, during which we knelt on wooden blocks, our hands resting on our desks, our minds combing through the day for failures of commission and omission in thought, word, and deed. The only thing I did well, or at least so it seemed to me, was to get that wooden block in the right place. A well-adjusted kneeler, I used to say humorously to myself, was half the battle.
It happened on a definite Friday evening in the early spring, while I was kicking that kneeler into place for the evening examination of conscience. With all the suddenness and jolt of a heart attack, I was filled with an experiential awareness of the presence of God within me. It has been said that no one can convey an experience to another, but can only offer his reflections on the experience. I am sure that this is true. I can only say, in trying to share my experience with you, that I felt like a balloon being blown up with the pure pleasure of God’s loving presence, even to the point of discomfort and doubt that I could hold any more of this sudden ecstasy.
-From He Touched Me by John Powell-

* Nothing is more reasonable, perfect or divine than the will of God. No difference in time, place or circumstance could add to its infinite worth, and if you have been granted the secret of how to discover it in every moment, you have found what is most precious and desirable. God is telling you that if you abandon all restraint, carry your wishes to their furthest limits, open your heart boundlessly, there is not a single moment when you will not be shown everything you can possibly wish for.
The present moment holds infinite riches beyond your wildest dreams but you will only enjoy them to the extent of your faith and love. The more a soul loves, the more it longs, the more it hopes, the more it finds. The will of God is manifest in each moment, an immense ocean which the heart only fathoms insofar as it overflows with faith, trust and love. The whole of the rest of creation cannot fill your heart, which is larger than all that is not God; terrifying mountains are mere molehills to it. It is in His purpose, hidden in the cloud of all that happens to you in the present moment, that you must rely. You will find it always surpasses your own wishes. Woo no man, worship no shadows or fantasies; they have nothing to offer or accept from you. Only God’s purpose can satisfy your longing and leave you nothing to wish for. Adore, walk close to it, see through and abandon all fantasy. Faith is death and destruction to the senses for they worship creatures, whereas faith worships the divine will of God. Discard idols, and the senses will cry like disappointed children, but faith triumphs for it can never be estranged from God’s will. When the present moment terrifies, crushes, lays waste and overwhelms the senses, God nourishes, strengthens and revives faith, which, like a general in command of an impregnable position, scorns such useless defenses.
When the will of God is revealed to souls and has made them feel that they, for their part, have given themselves to Him, they are aware of a powerful ally on every hand, for then they taste the happiness of the presence of God which they can only enjoy when they have learned, through surrendering themselves, where they stand each moment in relation to His ever-loving will.
-From The Sacrament of the Present Moment by Jean-Pierre de Caussade-

Let me ask you a question: How much would you pay for a pair of jeans — really good ones? $30? $45? How about $46,532? That’s how much Lynn Downey, corporate historian for Levi Strauss & Co., paid for a pair of vintage Levi jeans dating back to the late 1800s. And she’s not even going to wear them!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much would you pay for a painting? Ryohei Saigon, chairman of Japan’s Daishowa Paper Manufacturing Co., paid $82 million for Vincent Van Gogh’s “Portrait of Dr. Gachet” in 1990. What a deal!

And what makes the Ferrari Enzo worth the sticker price of $670,000? Only 399 of them were created. It comes with a V-12 engine that generates 660 horsepower and goes from 0 – 65 mph in 3.2 seconds. It has a top speed of 217 mph. I don’t know about you, but I’d be reluctant to park it next to a rusty pickup at the supermarket.

But we like to own nice things, don’t we? We like to be able to point to something special and say, “This is mine!”
But is that really the case?

February is Stewardship month at Johnson First Church of God. The theme for the month will be: “Lordship Living: God Provides
for our
Time Talent Treasure Touch

In this first week this Sunday, I want to challenge your concept of ownership by going all the way back to the beginning of Creation. There, we’ll learn something about this world and all the things in it — including YOU! Hope to see you this Sunday.

Every Blessing!
Pastor Ben