Clothe yourself with Love Col. 3:14

What does ‘ being filled with God ’ actually look like in real life? Can we recognize such a person filled with God? The reason I am asking is because, to live in this world, is to be subjected to so many pressures of life on a daily basis. It happens that we think that God is not present when we are being pressed on from every side or attacked. But, with growth and understanding, we come to realize that these pressures are in our lives for a reason and for a season. They come to form us; to reform us, to mend and heal us; and they can be uncomfortable, even outright painful. As one of St John's Society monks wrote: " It’s like in Physical Therapy, the practitioner massages; presses and compresses those areas that hurt the most to facilitate healing ." God knows how best to shape us. He is our maker after all. How do we navigate these pressures of life? Do we seek to remove these obstacles that pressure us? Or learn to be comfortable facing them? The words of Paul to Eph...

In life we have all kinds of treasure boxes. Some boxes contain beautiful memories and others bad ones. Beautiful memories could be good encouragement words received; successes in life such as graduation, first paycheck, first house, wedding, children. Bad memories could be something in our past that was difficult to get over; or a bad word that deeply affected us; job loss; or loss of a loved one. As we live our lives, we keep adding to these treasure boxes, some of us in helpful ways and others in not so helpful ways. Jesus had sent his disciples in mission, to contribute to people’s treasure boxes in helpful ways. They were back from their mission and were happy to debrief. Jesus invited them to a quiet place for some rest and to recharge. That quietness became short-lived because they met a big crowd on the other side of the lake. Jesus saw them, was moved with pity because they were like sheep without shepherd, so he began to teach them. He did not say: I am tired, what are you d...

Painters and builders use plumb lines to keep their work straight. God uses a plumbline in a different way. When God said to the prophet Amos that he was setting a plumb line among his people, he was declaring an end to their attempts to justify their crooked ways. What is interesting, is this human behavior of quickly defending ourselves when something about us is being pointed out for correction. Israelites were no different. God had been patient, longsuffering but this time, God was done. He was not going to put up with a provoking people, so He told his prophet his intentions. The prophet learned that at the bottom of trouble was sin, and he also understood that at the bottom of deliverance was forgiveness of sin, so he prayed for that. I wondered and contemplated on what message could God be sending to us, in our busy postmodern lives. It is true that God also sent a plumbline in our midst: The Bible. Do we have a track record of justifying our behaviors and shenanigans? It’s tou...