§ Spirituality and Religious Expression

Spirituality: The Vital Component of True Religious Expression

By Jorge Madrid Sr.  (Posted with author’s permission)

Then Jesus said to him , “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (Matt. 32:27)

Scripture tells us that true spirituality begins in man’s “heart”  or what we call  “spirit”.  It is our “inner man” from which the actions of our “outer man are derived. That is why the Lord’s command to LOVE Him begins with our hearts or spirit. Religious expression is the part our outer man (that is, our soul and mind)  plays in responding to the demands of our heart. True spirituality happens only when all of us, our heart, soul and mind,  is in harmony or in communion with the Spirit of the Holy One of Israel. That is why true worship can only be realized in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

My words are spirit and they are truth

Our lack of understanding as to what is spiritual and what is religious hinders us from growing spiritually because without this understanding we tend to attempt to grow spiritually by becoming more religious. In fact it is our spirituality that gives validity and vitality to  our religious expression not the reverse. For you see, true religious expression must flow out of our spirituality, not vice versa. Religious expressions that are performed merely out of compliance to a sense of obligation or tradition can hinder us in enhancing our relationship with the Lord because He desires something else from us than mere religious performance.

What he desires is that we love Him and Him alone and that we express that love from the very inner center of our being, namely, our spirit. When we do religious things out of routine observance (at our mental or emotional level) we are not bringing our spirits into play and this detracts from the relationship our creator desires with us. Jesus told the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well that what the Father desires are worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth[1]. That kind of worship must come out of our spirits (the very center of our being) and must be true worship in the sense that our expression of that worship must truly reflect the nature of the Father as revealed through the Son and His Word.

In order to illustrate this concept, I resort to what one might consider a simplistically weak   analogy.  When a young man is courting the lady he loves, all of the actions he takes in her presence are intended as demonstrations of his love. For example, when he opens the door of the automobile that she is entering he does it because he wishes to demonstrate his love and personal concern for her. When a butler or chauffeur opens a door for her their actions are not motivated by a personal love for her person but merely out of respect and obligation. The lady recognizes the difference not because their action is any different from that of the young man courting her but because of the underlying motive behind the actions. Similarly, the Father who created us, loves us, and knows our deepest motives desires that our response to His love come from our hearts and not merely out of a sense of obligation or duty.

One way we express our love for the Lord, which flows from our spirits, is through actions that we sometimes call religious actions. These actions may be expressed through our personal piety, public worship, communal prayers, or through our concern and love for our fellow man. But to be truly pleasing to the Lord these must flow from our loving relationship with our creator. If they do not, then the words of  Jesus regarding the Pharisees are as applicable to us as to them. Citing the words of Isaiah, Jesus said of them, “these people do indeed honor me with  their lips but their hearts are far from me”[2]. The Pharisees Jesus rebuked, you see, were religious people but their religious actions were not the product of their loving relationship to God but rather the result of a sense of obligation to tradition. And what is worse, using that religious tradition to exalt their own egos.

In order to come before the Lord with heartfelt worship that worship must flow out of a personal relationship with the Lord. If we seek to grow spiritually and draw closer to Him we must first examine the nature and state of our relationship. Where is our relationship with Him?  Do we have one?  Or having had one has it cooled off somewhat? If by asking ourselves these questions we come to the realization that our religious actions are not flowing from such relationship then we must, like the church at Ephesus[3], repent and return to our first love, Jesus! For you see, the only way we can come to a personal relationship with the Father is through the Son[4].  And the only way our religious practice can be meaningful is through a continuing and growing personal relationship with our Savior.

Most of us have come through a “cooling off” period with religious practice when we transition from childhood to adulthood. This is a necessary phase and one should not entertain any self-guilt about it. As children and adolescents who loved our parents, we faithfully followed their guidance and example as they passed on their religious traditions to us. At that stage in our development, our hearts (spirits) were pretty open and we did not question them or the religious culture in which we were brought up. In essence, our spiritual sensitivity was pretty much in accord with our rational and emotional perception of what was happening in our lives and we took these things for granted. We may have had other problems in understanding our parents but not necessarily with the family traditions and religious environment that was basically becoming part of our personal identity.

However, as we progressed to maturity some of us found ourselves becoming more and more uneasy with our religious practice and how our inner selves felt about what we were doing. Something in us told us that in order to be truly sincere in our religious practice we needed to be personally convinced of the validity of the spiritual truths that under-girded our religious practices. We became uncomfortable about doing things that didn’t jibe with what we felt or didn’t feel deep inside of us. We thought that in order to be truly sincere in what we were doing, our religious actions should flow out of what our hearts (spirits) were telling us. And we were right!  Our problem was that we didn’t know how to properly resolve our inner queasiness and as a result we usually ended up exacerbating the situation by opting out instead.

This questioning of our motives behind our religious practice is natural, it is merely our heart’s way of  telling us that there is something missing within us that needs to be filled to resolve this inquietude in our spirits. What most of us didn’t understand was that, our hearts needed some inner affirmation of what we intellectually believed that would allow us to bridge the gap between our head knowledge and our heart experience. What we also didn’t realize, was that all we needed to do to bridge that gap was to make a decision in faith, accepting the relationship with the Father that is available to us in Jesus. If we had, the  Lord would have provided us the inner affirmation we needed. This affirmation is a new awareness that suddenly tells our spirits that the Word of Faith we are professing is true even though we have no evidence to support it other than it is God’s Word! Through such a faith affirmation, the Lord enlivens our spirits in such a way that suddenly our religious practice is not only reconcilable with our inner selves but becomes desirable in order to maintain the spiritual sensitivity we were experiencing as we entered maturity. This is what a true conversion experience does and why everyone of us needs to undergo such a conversion experience.

Remember when Jesus asked the disciples, “who do men say that I am?”. The disciples repeated the variety of rumors that were going about as to who Jesus was. But Jesus then tested them further saying, “but who do YOU say that I am?”. When Peter responded with “you are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God”, Jesus said to him, “blessed art you  Peter, son of John, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father who is in heaven”[5]. This affirmation of faith based on a personal revelation of who Jesus was, moved Peter from being an uncertain follower to a  committed believer. Similarly, when we encountered our uneasiness, if we had looked deeply into ourselves and made the decision to affirm the Jesus that was being revealed to us in our deepest center, then the clouds of doubt between our religious practice and our inner self would have been dissipated and we would have KNOWN, as probably we had never known before, the meaningfulness of our religious practice that was in consonance with the Word of God. But more than that we would have come to KNOW personally the reason behind all that we do……Jesus the Messiah! The Son of the Living God!

The reason I went so many years in my religious limbo was only because I based my knowledge of who Jesus was on what others said he was, rather than looking within myself to affirm the “Jesus” that the Father was revealing to me in my spirit. When the Lord finally worked in me to realize my own pitifully sinful state and I REALLY understood that the Good News of Salvation was for ME personally! The Good News that Jesus died for MY sins so that I could have a relationship with the Father through Him! Then I truly came to understand for MYSELF who Jesus was for ME and when I proclaimed Him as MY savior and MY Lord, everything I was taught from the Scriptures began to come into place. I no longer needed a theologian  to attempt to explain my doubts away. Now, I knew that I knew that I knew! Now whatever I do in worshipping my creator and savior truly comes out my expression of love for Him deep from my inner self and no longer something I have to force myself to perform out of ritual obedience. Praised Be His Holy Name!

For any of the readers of my reflections in whom my testimony has stirred something within and is sincerely desirous of a genuine conversion experience I would counsel to pray as I prayed (link to: Prayer of Dedication) and expect the Lord to respond. However, I will add that conversion experiences  vary from person to person. It is my belief that the lord tailors each person’s encounter with Him with regard to the person’s deepest needs and personality.  Some people who are already close to the Lord, may find their conversion experience takes place gradually without many “bells and whistles” although the first thing you will experience is that your prayer life will improve dramatically.  The people closest to you will probably notice the change in you before you do. For some hard-heads like myself, the Lord literally has to hit us over the head with a “two-by-four” to get our attention. In my case my conversion took place over a weekend retreat in 1975 that I will never forget. A retreat that advanced me spiritually into the arms of Jesus!

I pray that The Spirit of Truth will touch the hearts of all who read this testimony so that you can verify for yourselves through prayer and the scriptures the truth of what I am sharing with you and thus truly become the instruments of His Love in the world.  May His Kingdom come and may it come through you!

(excerpted with permission from “Thy Kingdom Come” by Jorge Madrid Sr.; © 2003 Madrid Family Trust, all rights reserved)

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[1] John 4:23

 

[2] Matthew 15:8

[3] Revelation 2:4-5

[4] 1 John 2:23

[5] Matthew 16:17

§ Key to the Kingdom

THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE

The Key of Knowledge

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11:52)

My fellow pilgrims,

There is nothing more important to “entering the Kingdom” than spiritual knowledge.  I say “spiritual” because our modern mentality seems to think that the only kind of knowledge is intellectual or conceptual.

When speaking of “Knowledge of God” scripture is not referring to intellectual knowledge but of an intimate “knowledge” of the person of God that can only come through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  John’s Gospel clearly tells us that … “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (John 1:18)

The reason that Jesus accuses the scribes[1] for taking away the “key of knowledge” was that, as the custodians of the Word of God, they were interpreting the Word in a legalistic manner, mainly to maintain control over the people and augment their own religious stature rather than to help the people understand  the spirit of the Word rather than the letter.  As a result they were obscuring the Good News of the Father’s Love and true character of the Messiah who would manifest that love to Israel.

As a result, through their culturally biased teaching they were hindering those disciples to were drawn to Christ by presenting a human-based interpretation of the Word  and the prophesies relating to the Messiah.

The Word of God in the Old testament was not only meant to be God’s way of guiding His people into  how to live a full life in His Love but really He intended that through the Word they would come to understand His Love for them and thereby come to know His person and thus  through that knowledge enter into a relationship with Him . That is why He said through the prophet Hosea that He desires steadfast love and not sacrifice (Hos. 6:6).

In the New Testament He reveals His love through His Son and it is through His Son, the Living Word of God, that He reveals himself to us so that through Jesus we may enter into the true intimacy of Knowledge He desires for us; a knowledge that comes only through a relationship with Him through Jesus His Son. It is this gift or “Spirit” of Knowledge which Isaiah  prophesied would be  one of the seven spiritual character traits of the Messiah, (Is. 11:1-3) and ours when we are baptized by the Spirit into Christ (Rom. 6:3, Gal. 3:27).

Simon Peter, our first pope, who ought to know about the Keys to the Kingdom, states the following in his second epistle:

2Pet. 1:1 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:
2Pet. 1:2 May grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
2Pet. 1:3 His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

…..

2Pet. 1:8 For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful     in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2Pet. 1:9 For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins.
2Pet. 1:10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be all the more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will never stumble.
2Pet. 1:11 For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.

Later in this epistle Peter also exhorts all Christians that this gift needs to be nurtured so that through this gift we may grow spiritually.

2Pet. 3:17 You therefore, beloved, since you are forewarned, beware that you are not carried away with the error of the lawless and lose your own stability.
2Pet. 3:18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen

As one of the sanctifying gifts we receive at baptism and conversion, growing in the gift of knowledge is key to the process of being conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). It is not a gift that we can just take for granted, it is a gift that has to be received and acted on daily through an act of our will. All we have to do is ask in faith.

St. Paul, through his epistle to the Colossians, exhorts us about this process of renewing the new self as follows:

Col. 1:9 For this reason, since the day we heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
Col. 1:10 so that you may lead lives worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, as you bear fruit in every good work and as you grow in the knowledge of God.

……

Col. 3:9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices
Col. 3:10 and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator.

But how, you may ask… “can I come to this ‘knowledge’ of which you speak? I have been baptized and confirmed but I don’t know whether I have such knowledge. And although I consider myself a faithful Christian, I ‘m not sure I can say I have a “personal” relationship with Jesus.”

My dear brother or sister in Christ, let me assure you all you have to do to intiate a relationship to Jesus is to sincerely ask in prayer and faith for Him to come into your Heart and reveal himself to you!

Of course, when I say sincerely, I mean that you are willing to surrender yourself to his Love and let Him reign as King in your life.

When you do this, the Holy Spirit will activate your spirit so that you become sensitive to His presence in you.  He will also activate your prayer life so that you may dialogue with Him and strengthen your relationship as you let him tell you about yourself and the Love He has for you! The fruit you then bear will, in itself, be a witness of His Life in you and of His relationship with you; for without Him you can do nothing (John 15:51)!

“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13)

Then, in order to nurture the relationship and grow in Him, turn to His Word and meditate daily on it so that the Holy Spirit may continue to communicate the Knowledge of Him through His Word.

“My child, if you accept my words and treasure up my commandments within you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding;

if you indeed cry out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding;

if you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures—

then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. “ (Prov. 2:1-5)

Thus scripture reveals to us how the seven sanctifying gifts of the Spirit interact in us to activate the transforming gift of knowledge which brings us into conformity to Christ.

May the Lord richly bless you as you proceed on your walk with Him to whom all honor and glory belong! Praised be His Holy Name!

Your Brother in Christ … Bartimaeus

© B.R.Timeo and Bartimaeus’ Quiet Place, [2008-2009]

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[1] The scribes were also responsible for teaching and interpreting the “Law” or the Torah to the Jewish people. Because of this they were also sometimes termed “lawyers”

 

§ How the Lord Drew Me Near: One Catholic’s Reflections

“God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24)

My brothers and sisters in Christ,

As fellow pilgrims on our walk with Christ, I wish to share with you the crucial learning experience I had in coming to a spiritual conversion and for the first time understanding why a personal relationship with Jesus is so essential in being able to really experience the worship that the Father desires.

True Worship

One of the first things I learned, as the Lord opened my Heart to the Love of the Father, is that the true worship of the Father necessarily involves entering into a living relationship with Him.  Without such a relationship we can only approach worship from a distance as from the outer courts of the Temple. The true worship the Father desires of us is through a loving relationship with Him – a relationship that may only be realized through a relationship with Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead resides.

[Note: True worship of the Father requires that we “know” (as in a relationship) whom we are worshiping (John 4:22-23) and Jesus is the only one who can make the Father known to us. “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” (John 1:18) ]

As a (more or less) traditional and cultural Catholic, I was observant of all the church rules, partook of the sacraments and attended mass regularly and assumed that my attendance at mass was de facto worship. The beauty and reverence of the services did help me to reverence God, His Word, and the sacrifice of His Son that brings us to salvation and acceptance as His children. I also believed that during the mass (the Catholic Eucharistic Service) I was a participant in that awesome and magnificent act of God’s Love for humanity and that, by being present, I was, in fact, present at the greatest act of worship ever. However, my personal participation in that worship was limited in that I perceived myself more as a devoted observer than a participant.

One circumstance that limited me was my lack of spiritual awareness through faith. At the intellectual level, I assented theologically to the concept of the mass being a participation in Christ’s offering of Himself to the Father, but in hindsight, I know now that I was not entering the level of awareness of being in communion with Christ during the worship that I ought to have had. I cannot speak for others, but for me, before my conversion experience, I never really comprehended the full meaning of that worship in my spirit. Metaphorically speaking, it was as if I were an observer of the Temple worship from the court of the gentiles but never as an actual participant in that worship in the Holy of Holies as I ought to have been. For that reason I could not, at that period in my life, say I had personally experienced, at the spirit level, the worship that the Father desires, which is, that we worship Him “in Spirit and in Truth”. Now, I must be clear, I did also believe that I received the Body and Blood of Christ at the reception of the Eucharist and I can say that the sustenance of the life of Christ did help me through some difficult times in my life. I am only attempting to state that there was a certain dullness in my spirit that prevented me from receiving the fullness of the graces that flow from the Sacrament of His Love. It was only after my conversion experience, which opened me to a spiritual awareness, that I have been able to experience the fullness of the worship experience at mass, the Eucharistic celebration.

As I later discovered, through the grace and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, there were three major factors casting a veil over my worship experience. These were as follows: (1) my spiritual ignorance, (2) my un-yielded self-will, and (3) the hidden sins of my heart.

Spiritual Ignorance

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge …”   (Hos. 4:6)

My ignorance consisted of not clearly understanding that we humans are endowed by our creator with three levels of awareness: (a) an awareness through our physical senses of our physical self and the material worlds around us, (b) an inward mental awareness of our personal identity and all of our intellectual and our emotional attributes and capabilities (ie. what we sometimes categorize as the “soul”), and (c) the spiritual level of awareness, which we sometimes identify with the human heart or spirit. This latter level of awareness is intuitive, non-conceptual and non-verbal and includes our conscience. It is this latter level of awareness that we sometimes ignore or overlook as a part of our personal assessment. Yet it is at this level of awareness that our Creator intended as the level where He desires to meet with us and establish a personal relationship that brings us into communion with Him. Due to Adam’s act of disobedience (original sin), however, this level of communion with the Holy One was disrupted in Adam and all his generations.

I must add, with great sadness, that my ignorance extended further to the fact that I did not understand that in order for me to connect with the Father in true worship, I had to enter the spiritual level of my spirit, which had been renewed in me through baptism. I also was not aware that, even though baptized, this channel of relationship remained inactive, and needed to be activated through an act of my will – by a sincere, heartfelt repentance and conversion. In my traditional and cultural passivity as a young child, I went through the motions required of me in receiving the sacraments but did not truly understand the level of  heartfelt repentance and commitment needed in giving my heart to Jesus. As a result, although the grace of baptism and confirmation worked in the circumstances of my life, I had not totally yielded my inner self to my Savior, Jesus, thus creating a veil that kept me from a true relationship with the Lover of my soul. Through the grace and mercy of the Father, the Holy Spirit continued working in the circumstances of my life so that as an adult He brought me to the point where I recognized my need to know Him in a personal way, and thus, after a heartfelt repentance, I turned to Him in a conversion of heart, inviting the Lord Jesus into my Heart and thus beginning a personal relationship with Him “in the Spirit”.

My Un-yielded Self-will

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:23-25)

This brings me to the next barrier that hindered me from fully entering the spiritual awareness I needed to truly participate in worship, namely my self-will. You see even though I had come to conversion and repented of my known sins, and turned to the Lord for his forgiveness, I still retained my self-will. That is, I had not fully yielded myself to the Holy One. In my continuing ignorance and, of course, my pride, it had not entered my mind that what the Father desired of me is the total yielding of my self to His reign in me. I incorrectly supposed that, I, in my turning to Him I could now use my self will to serve Him. So the Holy Spirit had to make it clear to me, through His Word, that I had to deny my self will in order for the Lord to rule in my life. I had to yoke my self to Jesus so that, through that yoking, my desires, and my thoughts would become His desires and his thoughts, and thus my actions would be in conformity to his will and thus “walk in the spirit”.

Of course, once I understood my problem, I repented again and I made the decision to surrender my self completely to His reign in me. What this decision did was to begin a process of transformation in me where I now continually come to situations where I have to put down my self will so that He and He alone would reign in me. This tension between my spirit and my flesh is still the cross I have to bear daily but now I am more aware of my self will attempting to creep in, and now, by the grace of God, in Him I have the spiritual strength needed to walk in the spirit and not in the flesh. Praised be His Holy Name!

The Hidden Sins of the Heart

“ Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?    Who may stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.
Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.”
(Psalm 24:3-5)

Having yielded my self completely to the Lord, He then began His work of transformation in me to conform me more and more into His image. He began His work in me with a very thorough house cleaning. In this process the Holy Spirit began to reveal to me the secrets of my heart.

Yes, although I had repented of my sins at my conversion, there were secret sins that I harbored in my heart, that were barriers to the fullness of worship. These were sins that I had long ago buried in my subconscious by justifying them as merely human idiosyncrasies.  They were very personal sins, which included things like: bitterness originating from unresolved personal grudges and hurts, an anger and cynicism towards others that came on me for no apparent reason, a prideful and stubborn attitude that always placed my ideas and will above others, and flowing from this, a sulking behavior when I didn’t get my way.  These sins, of course, affected all my relationships but again I was blind to them because they were so deeply hidden in my inner self. Even now I still encounter them attempting to creep back into my life. But now that the Lord has brought them into His Light I am rapidly aware of them and bring them under His Blood in confession. Some of these sins are gone forever as the Lord healed me of my inner hurts and I forgave all who had injured me. Praised be His Holy Name!

Worship Revived Me

As the Lord worked His transformation in me my worship experience continued to deepen. In the beginning, after I received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, I experienced a totally heavenly worship at a mass conducted after a spiritual retreat. I literally thought I was before the throne of God, I experienced a sense of communion with the Lord that I had never experienced before, a communion that extended to all who were present in the church as well. Now I began to truly understand that the ideal for the fullness of worship is in a corporate setting. Where we believers as the “Body of Christ” in communion with Him are, in fact, also participating in His Priesthood at His ultimate act of worship as He offers Himself to the Father in compliance with His Merciful will for the salvation and redemption of humankind!

Later the worship experience spilled over even beyond my participation at mass to a personal worship time with Him. I noticed this happening during the daily events in my life. For instance, I sometimes would enter into worship as I was driving to work and I would have to stop until I the experience passed and I was able to drive again. Nowadays, I find myself going into worship during my evening prayer times and when I am exercising in the Gym. Thus is the Glory of the Lord manifested in us!

In Conclusion..

Like the man born blind who received his sight at from the healing hand of Jesus, and having been given new life in Him, I now wish to tell others (whatever their religious upbringing or lack thereof) who are still seeking, about the renewed spirituality that comes with knowing Jesus personally and the more vibrant worship and prayer life that abounds when you put aside your inhibitions and yield your self to the Spirit of the Living God and receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

To Jesus, our Blessed Savior, be Glory and Honor and Praise forever and ever! Amen!

Your Brother in Christ … Bartimaeus

PS: For those whose interest has been provoked I refer to the following Links:

Jesus, Revealer of the Father’s Love

Conversion: Our Response to the Father’s Love

I also provide you a copy of my Prayer of Commitment:

Lord Jesus, I believe that you, the Son of the Living God came down from heaven to reveal the Father’s Love to me by suffering and dying for my sins. I believe that through your death and resurrection you have brought redemption and life not only to me but also all else who believe in you. I further believe that it is only through knowing you in a loving personal relationship that I can know the Father.

It is because I have a burning desire to know you and abide in you that I now yield myself completely to you and your love. I open the door to my heart so you can come in and sup with me and thus begin the special relationship with you for which you died and for which I hunger. At this moment I yield myself to your love. Enter in and activate my spirit with your Holy Spirit so that I can go beyond just mere intellectual belief in you to a personal spiritual knowledge of you and the Father.

Lord, cleanse me from my sins and make me a fit vessel for your presence. Permeate my entire being with your life and your love so that I can truly be your instrument in this world. Be my Lord, Be My God, Be my King to rule and to reign in me. In faith and by your grace I receive you and I receive your word. Abide in me just as you abide in the Father and the Father in you! Thank you for giving yourself for me. Amen

Again, May the Lord Bless You … Bartimeus

§ The Kingdom of God: Our Spiritual Inheritance

By Jorge Madrid Sr. (Posted with author’s permission)

The King within us

Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20 -21)

In our culturally conditioned religious and pietistic thinking we have a tendency to associate the  New Testament terms “Kingdom of God” or “Kingdom of Heaven” with the concept of “Heaven”, the eternal dwelling place of God and hopefully ours if we  accept the salvation provided us in Jesus, His Son. However, strictly speaking, Jesus and the Jewish people of his day used the term in reference to the Messianic Kingdom which had been promised to Israel through the prophets. Their use of the “Kingdom of Heaven” or “Kingdom of the Heavens” instead of the “Kingdom of God” was done mainly to avoid using the name of God in vain when referring to God’s reign on this earth through His Messiah.

Jesus, without denying the truth of the eschatological nature of the prophetic terminology, amplified its meaning beyond the manner with which the culture of His day interpreted the term. He proclaimed the “Good News” that God, in His all-loving mercy, was providing immediate spiritual access to this Kingdom even though its physical realization in this world was yet to come[1]. Furthermore, by the citation above He was also indicating that access to this spiritual “Kingdom” was through His own person. That is why the term in the scripture cited above is sometimes translated “… the kingdom of God is amongst you”. Since He, the King, was indeed amongst them. For us, in whom Christ lives today, the translation “… the kingdom of God is within you” is certainly applicable as well. For when He abides in us the Kingdom of God is accessible within our spirits.  And when any one of us enters into this Kingdom the reign of God is able to be manifested through our lives in this world.

This is the Kingdom that Jesus preached and by which His works were manifested to the world. This is the Kingdom that He ordained His disciples to preach to the whole world with works following[2]. It is our Lord’s intent that all who come to Him not only become aware of this Kingdom but enter into it. The reason that it is a “mystery” is that this Kingdom is not discernible with our human senses or reason. The “Kingdom” that the Lord has said is “at hand” is within us and as such it is meant to be experienced in our lives through faith and not considered as merely an intellectual abstraction to be “understood” or “explained” in theological terms.

The “Kingdom”, like all things spiritual, is a “Mystery” of faith but God does not mean it to be mysterious. In fact, through our conversion to faith in Jesus we have already been translated into His Kingdom[3].  If we were still in the world we would not have access to this Kingdom but as believers we are inheritors of the Kingdom of God and have every right to function in this Kingdom. Our problem is that many of us are not even aware that this option exists for us much less enter into it!

This happens, first of all, because to some of us, the term, “Kingdom of God”, is a transcendental theological abstraction which we do not expect to have any relevance to our real everyday experience. Because of our confusion about the Kingdom, as I have mentioned previously, we are generally led to believe that the “Kingdom of Heaven” is a term equivalent to “heaven” (i.e., the blessed afterlife) and therefore not to assume that it can be experienced in this life. Secondly, even if some of us have an idea of what the “Kingdom” represents, we tend to approach it from a “religious” viewpoint rather than from a “spiritual” perspective. From this viewpoint the “Kingdom” is sometimes seen as represented by an organizational church structure or by compliance with a specific set of religious rules and order.  This approach  is  sometimes misused by unscrupulous sects or cults to achieve an inordinate control over their adherents. Now, it is true that the church, as the people of God, the Body of Christ, is the instrument through which the Kingdom is manifested at this time in history[4] but we should not place a particular church structure on a pedestal. That place belongs to the head of the church, Jesus Christ Our Lord! The church is here to lead us  to Jesus and keep us in Jesus not to replace Him. The third reason we are not fully aware of our inheritance in the Kingdom is because we are looking for it in the wrong way. This happens because our spiritual sensitivity has not been awakened. Without an activated spirit all our perception is accomplished through the prism of our mind and senses instead of with our spirits. As a result, although well intended, we tend to tend to think that the Kingdom can be experienced through increases in  our  piety and religiosity. The Pharisees and the Sadducees of Jesus’ day were extremely pious and religious but not only were they very far from the “Kingdom” but they also failed to recognize the “King” when He came.

Nicodemus, a member of the religious establishment of his time, was such a person[5]. As a member of the Sanhedrin and a respected teacher in Israel he certainly had the theological credentials and access to the scriptures to have some understanding of the  Kingdom which Jesus was preaching. Yet he was so constrained by the “religious” culture of his time that, he like everyone else, assumed that the promised Kingdom of God to be ushered in by the Messiah was only to be a temporal kingdom that would deliver Israel from her enemies. Confounded by  the teaching and works of power manifested in Jesus’ ministry, he came to Jesus by night to  inquire of Him so that he could reconcile within himself the thoughts he could not express in public. Could Jesus be the Messiah that was promised?  If he was the Messiah what about the Kingdom that was also promised to come with the Messiah? He thought that maybe that by questioning Jesus he could come to some conclusion about who Jesus really was. One thing he knew. He was “a teacher sent from God for no man could do the works that he did if God was not with him”[6].

In responding to Nicodemus’ inquiry, Jesus responded by telling him that if he could recognize that God Himself was working through His ministry, he was already blessed by God because of this awareness. He told him that this type of awareness was a God-given perception that permitted him to “see the Kingdom”, that is, to recognize God’s personal intervention or rule in this world through the works that were manifested in  and through Jesus’ ministry. This sensitivity could only come if God had revived his spirit or, in other words had been “born from above” or “born again”.

Nicodemus’ religious rationalism was offended! He asked how could this be? How could a man “be born again”? Could a man be placed again in his mother’s womb?

Jesus was amazed that Nicodemus, being a teacher of Israel, was not aware of this truth since it was clearly stated by the prophets that God had promised such a renewal of  man’s heart (spirit)[7].  He then gently tried to tell him that this new awareness he had been given was just a door that had been opened by God for further blessings.  Not only could he be aware of the Kingdom but he could go through the door into the Kingdom and be a partner with the Father in what he wanted to accomplish with his Kingdom here on Earth. In other words he could “enter” into the Kingdom. All that was required once you became aware of the Kingdom was to make a decision. A decision to repent and be converted (a decision which culminated in water baptism), and to receive to the anointing of the Holy Spirit (the baptism in the Holy Spirit) required to truly be a channel for God’s supernatural Grace in this world.

Nicodemus still could not understand. “How can this be?” he asked in desperation. Jesus explains to him that only spirit can give birth to spirit and that our natural selves cannot bring forth spiritual life. Spiritual renewal cannot come from our own religious energy or efforts. Only God can renew our spirits. Jesus further tells him that those whose spirits have been renewed by God and have subsequently “entered into  the Kingdom”  have been given a spiritual awareness that enables them to sense the leading of the Holy Spirit. This sensitivity then gives them the ability to respond and cooperate with God’s will in a way that purely religious people like Nicodemus could not even imagine.

In the religious culture in which Nicodemus was embedded, doing God’s will was thought to be accomplished by assiduous compliance to the Law of Moses plus an onerous set of traditions that imposed further regulations on the faithful in order to prevent one from even getting close to breaking the 613 commandments (mitzvoth in Hebrew) encompassed by the Law.  Of course, keeping these commandments perfectly was impossible, so the Lord had mercifully provided a priesthood and ordinances for religious rituals that would assuage the self guilt that would result from the breaking of the Law.

In the New Covenant that Jesus was revealing to those who entered into the Kingdom, adherence to God’s will would come naturally from hearts that had been spiritually renewed[8].  Since their spirits would be in-dwelt by God, compliance would not be done out of obligation but from a truly willing spirit that desired nothing but to please the Father. Thus for us today, when our spirits are awakened we also become keenly aware of God’s desires in our hearts so that we can walk in the Spirit and put to death the desires of the flesh[9]. For we are no longer to be under the Law but under the Spirit[10].

Before the Lord awakened my spirit, I was in a worse situation than Nicodemus. I was not even aware of the work of God all around me – in my life – in my relationships – in my career and business dealings. Because of my religious training, I had some understanding (at an intellectual level)  that God was supposed to be present in my life but in actuality I did not have  an inner (spiritual) awareness of this. In fact, I did not even know that such an inner awareness was available to all Christians. In general, I perceived life as merely a set of random, unrelated challenges and events that I needed to overcome with my wit and my talents. I prayed to God in desperation only when my own efforts were exhausted and I did not know what else to do. My churchgoing was done purely from a sense of tradition, obligation, and perhaps an underlying sense of self-guilt that my religious practice helped me to assuage.

But then, through what I now realize was a clearly pre-determined set of events, the Lord opened my spiritual eyes to so that I began to “see” His Kingdom in the person of Jesus. What I saw opened the hunger of my heart to receive all that he had for me and so I made a full commitment to Him and His salvation, repenting of the hardness of my heart. That day  (May 10, 1975) I walked through the door He had opened to His Kingdom and on  Pentecost Sunday of that year I also entered in, receiving the Baptism of His Holy Spirit and His anointing on my life. Without the Baptism of the Holy Spirit I would not have come to a fully empowered life in the Spirit and an empowered prayer life.

Regarding the testimony that I have just related, amazingly, there are many Christians today that, like Nicodemus, would say, “how can this be?”.  Like myself, there are many who, although living religiously compliant lives yet, through no fault of their own, are still blind to the Kingdom of God. There are also many others who, even though seeing, are afraid to make the decisive commitment required to enter into the Kingdom and receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. To these Jesus would say, “Be not be afraid, only believe and enter in, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”.

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[1] From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. (Matt. 11:12, NIV)

[2] Matthew 10:7-8

[3] Colossians 1:13

[4] After the Second Coming, the Kingdom will be materially manifested through a restored nation of Israel.

[5] Read about Nicodemus’ encounter with Jesus in the third chapter of John’s Gospel.

[6] John 3:2

[7] Ezekiel 11:19-20

[8] Ezekiel 36:26-27

[9] Romans 8:13

[10] Romans 6:14

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(excerpted with permission from “Thy Kingdom Come” by Jorge Madrid Sr.; © 2003 Madrid Family Trust, all rights reserved)

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§ God’s Call to Personal Intimacy

Jesus the Good Shepherd

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me — just as the Father knows me and I know the Father…” (John 10:14-15)

As astounding as it might appear, Jesus desires that we (His sheep) know him in the same way that the Father knows the Son and the Son knows the Father.  More astounding yet is how few of us know that this is the level of deep relationship to which we, as Christians, are called.

All who call themselves Christians have received and believed the “Good News” that the Eternal Holy One, who created us, loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us that we might come into a relationship with Him as “Our Father”. What we sometimes have a hard time understanding and experiencing is that He also wants that relationship to be one that involves more than just believing that he is our Father but actually coming to such a personal relationship with Him that we actually “KNOW” Him as  Father.

Because of His transcendence, the person of God is by definition unknowable by us in our human state.  For this reason, God in demonstrating His magnificent love for us became flesh in the person of His Son so that through Jesus we might obtain the unachievable, namely a knowledge of Himself  through a relationship with His Son.

Once when challenged by the Pharisees as to His Father, Jesus answered, “…if you had known me you would have known my Father” (John 8:19)

Sincerely believing in Christ brings us to eternal life; knowing Him transforms us  through the concomitant personal self-denying relationship with Him. All this is not due to our efforts; it is accomplished by God’s grace – by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit moving in us through conversion and prayer. This is the essence and foundation for discipleship because it is only through such a sincere giving of ourselves in a loving relationship with Jesus that the Holy Spirit can mold us into the image of Christ to continue the works of Christ here on this Earth. All that is required is for us to unreservedly give ourselves over to Him.

Unfortunately not many of us expect to enter into such intimacy of relationship mainly because we never bridge the gap between ‘believing” and “knowing”. One of the main reasons is that our faith has not taken us beyond the intellectual confidence in what we believe to the next step which is an experiential “knowledge” of the person of Jesus through a living and personal relationship with Him through prayer.

Even Jesus’ disciples had trouble understanding that relationship with the Master was the doorway to a relationship with His Father. Phillip was speaking for the twelve when he asked Jesus to show them the Father. Jesus said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how do you say, Show us the Father?” (John 14: 8-9) [emphasis mine].

He told them however that He would soon be leaving this world but that he would not leave them (or us) as orphans and that He would come to them by revealing himself to them in a new way – a way through which they would “know” He was in the Father and they in Him.  By this He was telling them that the relationship he wanted with them (and us through their testimony) was a relationship of such depth and intimacy that it would be like they were part of His person and He part of their persons in the same way as the abiding relationship He had with His Father! Now that is intimacy!

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.  After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also.  In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.” (John 14: 19-20) [emphasis mine; notice the use of the  word “know” not just “believe”]

This new way of experiencing Jesus was not evident to Judas (not Judas Iscariot) who then asked how it is that He would reveal Himself to them but not to the world. Jesus indicated that the world would not be able to receive this revelation because it involved a love-derived obedience, which only those who believe in Him would receive.

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. (John 14:22-23) [emphasis mine]

Now here comes the hard part.  Many of us, including myself, tend to judge that relationship with Jesus and the Father by the depth of our devotional life However, John in His first epistle asks his readers to really test the effectiveness of that relationship to determine if they really KNOW the Father through the Son. That test goes beyond the devotional life of an individual.  It should not surprise us that the test is how well we express God’s Love through our daily lives. Listen to what John is saying:

We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (1 John 2:3-11) [emphasis mine]

This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence (1 John 3:19)

Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us. (1John 3:24)

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. (1John 4:8)

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. (1John 4:13)

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. (1John 4:16)

This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. (1John 5:2)

After our initial conversion, our devotional life is important because it is through  the intimacy of prayer that we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to bring the Father’s Kingdom of Love into this world. But if we do not act on the Love that the Holy Spirit infuses in us through the Word and prayer, we cannot bear fruit. And the tree that does not bear fruit is cut down[1]. The ultimate test of the effectiveness of God’s abiding presence in us is the fruit of love that we bear by being channels of His Love (John 15:1-8)[2].

Another hard fact we have to bear is that when we sin, and we all do, we break this fellowship, this intimacy of love, we have with the Father and the Son.  In fact, if we are truly in relationship with Him we feel this loss at once in our consciences and our souls are saddened with guilt and shame.  Everything in us calls out to be restored to fellowship with the Lord.   John also addresses this problem in his epistle. With respect to getting right with God he says:

“We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense — Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 1:4- 2:2)

The good news for us is that not only has God the Father provided for the forgiveness of our sins after our initial conversion through confession and the continuing application of Jesus’ atonement, as indicated above, but He has also provided for reconciliation, the restoration of the intimate fellowship with Himself through the person of His Son.  I believe that, after repentance and confession, the Lord may move in us to this restoration in many ways, sometimes though the reconciliation in our personal relationships, sometimes through the pastoral care we receive in our churches, and sometimes through the counsel of the Holy Spirit in our devotional life. Whatever the case, our loving Father, looking at the sincerity of our repentance will always lead us to the place where the reconciliation with Him, already secured by the blood of Jesus, can be affirmed in us through faith.

In my reflections on His Word I have also come to believe that the main means He established for this spiritual restoration was through the ordinance of Holy Communion.  It is through this ordinance that Jesus told us that we are restored to the intimacy of His Abiding Presence in us.

‘Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” ‘ (John 6:53-60)

And it is indeed, to some of us, a hard teaching, even today. However, I urge you not to reject it out of hand. Rather, in your personal fellowship time ask the Lord Himself as to what He meant by His own words. After all we have already heard that “… We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands” and certainly this is one of His commands!

It is important that you hear it from Jesus directly so that you “know” in your heart the truth of His Words – not as something that you may question as coming from the traditions of man but as from the Word of God quickened in your hearts by the Holy Spirit!  It is a Word you need to act on in faith – and acting on this Word in faith will bring results!  I can attest to that!

One of my most memorable transforming experiences occurred on the last day of the spiritual retreat where I surrendered my life to Jesus and asked to be baptized in the Holy Spirit (May 10, 1975). This memorable event occurred as I participated in Holy Communion with my co-retreatants and His Words about His Flesh and His Blood resounded in my mind and in my spirit.

This worship and communion service was like none other I had ever experienced. Not because there was any significant external difference in the proceedings but because with my just-renewed spirit I was open to God’s Spirit, His Word, and His Presence in the worshipping community and in the reception of the communion elements (The Body and Blood of Jesus).

As a cradle liturgical Christian I was no stranger to the communion table. But what made this service so special was that I not only did I sense the stirring of God’s Spirit in me but I actually experienced “Holy Communion” itself.  In my renewed spirit I sensed that I was indeed in union not only with the Lord Himself but also with all those present as they their hearts in praise and worship before the Throne of Glory. Above all was the deep communion I sensed with the Spirit of Jesus as I, in faith, received the elements of bread and wine as His Body and His Blood!

It was a communion experience that lifted my spirit to a point that I thought I was indeed in heaven and before the Holy Presence.  From that point on in my life participation in the Eucharistic Ordinance changed from one of an obligatory and rote participation in what had become, for me, an overly familiar ritual to an opportunity to encounter Jesus anew, to renew and strengthen the presence of His Spirit within me, and to re-dedicate myself to truly serve others in His Name and with His Spirit.

It was an Emmaus experience[3] that I was graced with that day. For like those two disciples, it was in the breaking of the Bread that I became aware of His Presence in my life. An awareness that remains to this very day, as my heart burns within me every time I meditate on His Word.

It was the opening of a door to my spiritual journey into intimacy with the Lord. A journey where I would find out just how sinful and weak a person I really was, but with the consolation that my Redeemer was at my side, conversing with me, forgiving me, lifting me after every fall, covering me with His compassion and love; a journey where I learned from every experience (however good or bad) how to walk closer and closer to the Lord.  The Holy Spirit teaching and strengthening me as I stumbled on!  It is a journey I do not hope to complete in this life – a journey that will continue on to the next life – in His Presence!  Praised Be His Holy Name!

My usual meditation upon receiving the sacred elements is as follows:

Lord Jesus I thank you for giving yourself to us in this manner;

For opening the door to Abiding  Intimacy with You and the Father,

For being broken  for my wholeness and shedding your blood in a sacrificial death

so that I, in turn,  might become truly alive in You.

In receiving the Bread of Life I receive wholeness from Your brokenness.

And I dedicate this wholeness of body, soul, and spirit to you, Lord, so that through this gift

I may truly be an able servant to all to whom you have given me to serve..

In receiving Your Precious Blood Lord, I receive Your Spirit,

so that Your Life may permeate my being entirely – body, soul, and spirit,

so that everything  I say and do and think emanates from your presence within me.

O Lord, as I receive You, abide in me, Be my Lord, be my King, and be my God

so that I may truly serve others in Your Name, and for Your Glory.

May this be so, In Your holy Name!  Amen!

Your Brother In Christ … Bartimeaus

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[1] It is not my intent to imply by this statement that our salvation depends on our works but that our ability to be God’s instruments in this world is greatly impeded when we do not act on the personally activated Word of God (rhema) that has been placed in our hearts. (see Matt 7:19)

[2] See John 15:1-8

[3] Luke 24:30-32

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Document Download: “Awakening To The Love Of the Father”

© B.R.Timeo and Bartimaeus’ Quiet Place, [2008-2009].

§ Jesus, the Source of Living Water, and Us

Jesus said that… “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Jesus Offers Living Water

We, who have encountered Christ like the Samaritan Woman in John’s Gospel,(Chap. 4:4-42) have come to experience the Living Water of His Love and found that in our personal relationship with Him He always satisfies our spiritual thirst. Through our encounter with Him, His Presence is also transforming us, for He is now in us to lead us and to guide us as we respond to His call to attend to the work of the Kingdom and proclaiming the Good News.

In proclaiming the message it must be made clear that the term “living water” is not just a made up symbol, representing some vague theological concept or myth. They are the Words of God offering us an entry to a spiritual reality that transcends the reality of this world, a realty that can be experienced by us here and now.  An experience that will satiate the thirst and hunger of our souls, a thirst that only a living and intimate relationship with Jesus can fulfill.

The Father does not give us this Living Water merely to save us. No, He gives us access to this Water, that is His Love, so that in being conformed to the image of His Son we may also be channels of His Love to the world as extensions of the ministry of Jesus. That is why Jesus said as He attended feast of Tabernacles, that “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”(John 7:37). For we are all called to be Streams of Living Water, which is the life of Christ in us.

But if we are truly to be channels of His Love that Living water in us must be kept flowing if it is truly to bring Life. Brethren, we have not been called to distribute bottled water we have been called to channel the streams of Living Water that have been entrusted to us to flow from us to others and to do that we must keep it flowing! We do that by proclaiming the Good News in word and witness empowered by the Holy Spirit.

The Truth we must proclaim is that the true and eternal reality which the Father offers us through the blood of Jesus, His Son, is more real than our earthly existence and, indeed, it is this reality that brings us to Life – Real Life, the Eternal Life of God in us. And that only by partaking and experiencing this Life through faith in Christ can we really come to the place where we know God and are known by Him.

When we proclaim these Good News in words and witness those to whom we minister will begin to understand because the Holy Spirit will work in them, so that in their hearts will be opened to know that the Father is offering His Love to them personally. Through this spiritual hearing they may thus comprehend the reality of what is being offered to them and turn to Jesus in faith, bringing them to a personal encounter with The Rock of Living Water. It is only then the spiritual hunger and thirst that pervades them will be satiated and the Holy Spirit will begin the process of transformation in their lives.

Jesus the Source of Living Water

Yes brothers and sisters, it is through our word and witness, that people come to understand that there is a knowing beyond knowing and an understanding beyond understanding, just as there is a hearing beyond hearing, a seeing beyond seeing and a Life beyond this life.  This Life that I refer to is th Life of God. It is His Love. That is the Living Water that He offers to us freely through the sacrifice of His Son.  And it is this Living Water that He has poured into us, by His Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5) for those of us who have come to Christ through faith in Him.

Now it is clear that we cannot transmit that which we ourselves have not experienced. So the precondition for us to be channels of Living water is that we, in our spiritual thirst, have come to Christ and established a relationship with the Rock of Living Water so that we have access to the Love we are to channel. Assuring and maintaining that relationship is essential.

Assuming we are in such a relationship, what then are the obstacles to releasing this water to those around us?

The first obstacle we usually encounter is our inadvertent ignorance, for we assume that since we are vessels containing Living Water that the Water of Life will flow from us automatically without out our doing something about it.  After all we say “if grace is to be grace then we have no part in its manifestation through us.”

Yes, it is true that the Holy Spirit may work around us and is with us but the Holy Spirit respects our free will and will never impose Himself on us. No, we have to make a choice to yield to the Holy Spirit so that He can work through us and in us. And sadly, because of ignorance, some of us have never made that choice and yielded ourselves totally to the Holy Spirit.

Oh, yes we may be very active in our parish and are involved in many charitable works of mercy, but that is exactly the point. It is something WE are doing not something the Holy Spirit is doing in us and through us. This happens because our flesh resists surrendering to the Spirit of God but wants to retain control even when we do religious things.  In order for the Holy Spirit to work through us, we have to let Him take over and let Him guide us and lead us into what He wants us to do, not what we want to do for the Father.

In order to do this we have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and we do this by accepting His call and asking Him to activate our spirit to His Leadings and to anoint all that we do in obedience to His guidance.  That is the reason the Father has provided us with the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. To activate the gifts and anointing that we need to be true instruments of His Grace and channels of His Living Water to others.

Jesus Himself is our example, who, after accepting His calling in being baptized by John, received the Baptism in the Spirit to activate the anointing He needed to fulfill His calling. Yes, even Jesus needed to be anointed. In fact, this is what He said in addressing the congregation in Nazareth shortly after receiving the anointing of the Holy Spirit:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18-19)

Since the anointed Son of God is in you – you also, share in that anointing – an anointing that is distributed as the Spirit wills to the body of Christ.

It is our responsibility, then, to seek out our calling and gifts under that anointing. and when you have ascertained these, accept them in faith, and in loving obedience follow the leadings of the Holy Spirit who will also anoint you to fulfill the Father’s call to be a channel of His Love, the Living Water of Eternal Life.

Because we still retain our human failings, however, there are many circumstances in the world that may cause us to suppress our calling and our gifts. But that is also why the Lord gave us the sacraments and an additional grace, the gift of community. For it is in an accepting and loving community that we discern our gifts and our calling and it is this community that validates our calling and fosters and nurtures the spiritual gifts in us so that it may send us forth to take the Living Waters to others.

Let us, then, not neglect the gathering of ourselves in community (Heb. 10:25) for it is there and through the graces received there that the fountains of Living Water in us are revitalized in us.

May the Living Waters flow through you all for the Glory of God the Father!

Baruch HaShem! Blessed Be The Name! To Him Be Glory and Honor Forever!

Amen and  Amen!

Bartimaeus

© B.R.Timeo and Bartimaeus’ Quiet Place, [2008-2009].

§ The Sweet Yoke of Love

The Challenges of Discipleship: The Sweet Yoke of Love

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)

My Fellow Pilgrims,

Sweet Yoke of Love

From a worldly point of view, offering someone to live his/her life yoked to another person is not exactly a very appealing offer even to the farmers of Jesus’ day. Of course they knew that new oxen were trained by yoking them to an ox that already “knew the ropes” so to speak. But the analogy was still rather a shocking way of attracting disciples.  Even today we are still taken aback by the metaphor even though we understand that it refers to the relationship that is required if one wishes to enter into a life of discipleship with Jesus.

However, if we try to understand what true discipleship entails it turns out to be a very enticing offer.

All Christians are called to discipleship, and many of us (like myself) are merely wannabe disciples. The main reason for this is that true discipleship involves a total giving of ourselves in Love – a total giving that asks us to be conformed to Christ and not to the world in which we live. Thus, although we may have a deep desire to be in a discipleship relationship with Jesus, our worldly attachments are formidable barriers to achieve this in our lives.

As an example let us look at the story of the rich young man who also was a wannabe disciple.:

And behold, one came to Him and said,  “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?” And He said to him,  “Why are you asking Me about what is good? There is only One who is good; but if you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him,  “Which ones?” And Jesus said,  “You shall not commit murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; Honor your father and mother; and You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The young man said to Him,  “All these things I have kept; what am I still lacking?” Jesus said to him,  “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieved; for he was one who owned much property.

(Matt 19:16-22)

The first thing one notices about this exchange is that Jesus only asks the young man about the commandments dealing with our relationship with others but NOT His relationship with God. Jesus does this intentionally because He knows that this young man is sincere in attempting to keep the Law with regard to his relationship with others but He also knows that if He asks Him about his relationship with God He will attempt to justify himself because, inadvertently perhaps, He is not keeping the Law with regards to God and doesn’t want to admit this to himself. This is brought out when He asks him to sell all that He has and to come and follow Him. The young man went away saddened because the challenge that was placed before him by Jesus revealed that his possessions were really his ”god” and that these were controlling his life rather than the Only God, the God of Israel.

If we analyze our consciences carefully we will find that there are many attachments in our lives that similarly control us and keep us from giving ourselves totally to God, which is what true discipleship requires. Things like our business, our occupation, our family, our politics, and our hobbies can take over our lives to the degree that they control us. None of these are necessarily bad in themselves but because we give ourselves over to these things instead of seeking FIRST the Kingdom of God they become impediments to our spiritual growth and we place ourselves in bondage to the things of this world. With appropriate spiritual guidance, however, we can overcome the bondage these things impose on our lives and come into true discipleship.  Yes, through Jesus we can overcome the world even as we live in the world to proclaim the Good News of Salvation.

That is where the Yoke comes in!

If we yoke ourselves to Jesus and live our lives in a walk that is closely linked to Him He will guide us and deliver us from the bondages the world has placed on us. In being yoked to Him, He will transform our thinking about how to live in the world without being conformed to the world. Instead, we will find our freedom and find ourselves being conformed into His Image day-by-day.

So if you are a wannabe disciple (like I am) being yoked to Jesus is a very enticing offer!

The Lessons of the Yoke: The Obedience of Love

Now, It must also be said that in being yoked to Jesus you begin to learn some spiritual principles that are clearly opposed to the world’s way of thinking. Some of these are: Faith brings you to Love and love brings you to obedience and obedience brings you to freedom!

As strange as it seems (from a worldly point of view), Freedom, Faith, Obedience and Love are all interdependent and connected to one another. You cannot have true Love unless you are free and believe in the One to whom you are giving yourself to. And you cannot claim to express that Love through your life if you live a life that is not in accord with that which the One who Loves you desires for you. This is the Obedience of Love.

True Love, the Unconditional Agape Love, that God gives us and the Love that the Father desires of us, requires a freely given act of the will.

It cannot be forced, enticed or coerced.  It must be given freely because true and pure Agape Love is the unconditional giving of ourselves to God.

You cannot therefore truly Love God unless you are free to express that love in the total giving of yourself to Him.

This kind of giving goes against our human nature and so the only way that we can decide to give ourselves to God is through Faith – Faith in Him, faith in His Word, and faith in His Love.

Like wise, you cannot truly give yourself to God unless that love is in consonance with His will and you hold back nothing that is in you from Him.

Because it is in obeying the One you Love (God) that you fully express the gift of yourself through your obedient actions and response to His Love.

That is why Jesus tells His disciples that …

“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14 23))

Now, that is a very high bar which none of us has the ability, in our human nature, to achieve.  Thankfully, in His Mercy and Love, the Father also provides the means to achieve the level of Love He desires of us. He does this by first of all giving us the faith we need to believe in His Divine Son, Jesus, and then by pouring His Divine Agape Love into us through His Spirit, the Spirit of Love (Rom. 5:5).

So now, I hope I have made It clear, that in yoking oneself to Jesus you are yoking yourself to God’s Love. And since Divine Love never fails you also, will never fail to come to the place in discipleship where the Father wants you and where you will accomplish His purposes by the power of His Spirit and for the Glory of His Name!

May it always be so forever, Amen and Amen!

Bartimaeus

PS:  I add the following scriptures for you wannabe disciples that  are considering being yoked to Jesus.  These scriptures clearly lay out for you the Commitment of Love, that is, the Yoke of Love.

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. “(John 15:9-11 NRSV)

“Beloved let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (1 John 4:7-12, NRSV)

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.” (1 John 4: 13-16, NRSV)

“God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of  judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The  commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also”. (1 John 4:16-21, NRSV)

© B.R.Timeo and Bartimaeus’ Quiet Place, [2008-2009].

§ The Spirit of Music Divine

My fellow pilgrims,

The other night I was watching a documentary on television regarding the piano performances of a musical genius and how he led a group of gifted students he was teaching to be able to reach their full potential.

The Music of God is in His Word

In one scene, he was interacting with one of his students explaining to him how the notes of a particular Beethoven concerto were to be played. He told the young genius he was teaching that, “… in order to give each note its proper meaning and interpretation, the crucial elements to bring the music to life were the appropriate timing, emphasis, and spacing with respect to the total composition”. “However,” he added, “in order to determine what is ‘appropriate’ you must give your total self over to the music so that it lives in you and you become one with the music. Only in this way can the ‘appropriate’ spirit of the music itself be captured.”

“You cannot bring forth the true purity of the meaning of each note”, he continued, “and its place in the composition unless you have completely died to yourself, forgotten who you are, whatever personal situations you are enduring outside of the concert hall, and even why you are here in the concert hall. You must be so completely absorbed in the music that, as you perform it, that it becomes your life and your life is poured into that music.”

In the same way, brethren, we have been called to bring to life the “music”of the Word of God as it is played through the instrument of our lives. This is not achieved by merely reading the scriptures like a piano score that we learn by rote and never touch the keys of the piano or some other instrument. And even then, just technically touching the right keys will not really reproduce the spirit of the composition itself.

The author’s intent is that we identify with His Spirit as we attempt to perform His composition through the instrument of our hearts and lives. Thus, in giving ourselves over to the “music” of His Divine Love, which is the essence of His Word, that music permeates our lives and resonates in the hearts of those whom the Lord brings into our sphere of influence.

We achieve this only by dying to ourselves and the circumstances that constrain us. In doing so we open ourselves to the Spirit of the Author and thus permit Him to manifest Himself in our lives so that through HIM we may truly live out the Word of His Divine Love!

Without wishing to belabor this metaphor too much further, I must note, that before my spirit was revived through the Baptism of the Spirit, I was very much like a musical illiterate. Because I could I not read the score (His Word), I had no way to know what to play on the instrument of my heart. And if I did try, it did not turn out very well.

After I received the baptism in the Holy Spirit, one of the gifts I received was that I found that not only could I read the “music” of the Word but was also able to play that music on the instrument of my heart! So now when I meditate on His Word, the sweet music of His Love resonates through my entire being: body, soul, and spirit to the Glory of His Name!

Yes, my brethren, there is a hearing beyond hearing, just as there is a seeing beyond seeing, and an understanding beyond our human understanding. And these spiritual gifts are freely given to us by the Holy Spirit when we truly repent of the sins of our fallen sate, receive the forgiveness that Jesus offers through His blood, accept Him as our savior and Lord, and receive the Holy Spirit of Promise so that we can truly fulfill our calling as disciples of His Love!

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2Cor. 4:6-7)

Be very careful, then, how you live
— not as unwise but as wise,
making the most of every opportunity,
because the days are evil.
Therefore do not be foolish,
but understand what the Lord’s will is.
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery.
Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.
Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord,
always giving thanks to God the Father for everything,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph. 5:15-20)

Praised Be His Holy Name! Amen and Amen!

Bartimaeus

© B.R.Timeo and Bartimaeus’ Quiet Place, [2008-2009].

§ Regarding Personal Prayer

Prayer: Our Response to God’s Call to Intimacy

By Jorge Madrid Sr. (Posted with author’s permission)

If you have ever felt a tug at your heart to experience a level of prayer that takes you beyond the rote repetition of formalized prayers you should consider that it is the Lord who is urging you forward.

When you clasp your hands open your heart!

It is the way the Lord calls us to a more intimate personal relationship with Him. It is He who is saying to you. “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”(Rev. 3:20).He is calling you to intimacy through personal one-on-one two-way prayer. Will you disappoint Him? Will you not open the door of personal intimate prayer?

Formal prayer plays a key role in communal or liturgical prayer because it is necessary that all in the praying community be united in a particular prayer. Either we sing or recite the same prayer or add our agreement to the prayer with an “Amen”. Without detracting for the need for communal or liturgical prayer, we must understand that the strength of our communal or liturgical prayers is directly related to the intensity of each individual’s personal prayer life. As a community we are instruments in bringing God’s glory into our services. This happens when a sufficient number of individuals in the community bring the prayer energy of their personal prayer life to the community service.

When non-praying or skeptical individuals come into a truly anointed praise and worship service, the Holy Presence breaks down their defensive composure against anything spiritual and the Holy Spirit begins a work of conviction in them to bring them to conversion or renewal. Knowing, then, the importance of personal prayer, it behooves us to always pray from the heart because sincere prayers from our hearts are the ones that what reach God’s heart.

When we enter into personal prayer, the use of formula prayers tends to stilt or limit rather than enhance our personal dialogue with God. Let us remember that prayer is the means with which we actualize our personal relationship with the Divine. Like all such relationships the more personal we can get the better. Since our Creator knows all our words even before we initiate them it is clear that the Lord does not need to hear our uttered prayers no matter how beautifully worded they are. What He is looking for is the prayer of our hearts. This means that our spoken or verbal prayers need to flow from our hearts and not from our minds. Formal prayers can be of value at this personal level only if we have made them our own. That is, we should have meditated sufficiently on the words of the prayer that it conveys the deepest expression of our hearts. If we sense the words don’t quite express what is in our hearts then we change the words as the Spirit gives us utterance.

Because God looks at our hearts sometimes even words can get in the way. There are times when the most appropriate prayer is the prayer of silence where we merely present ourselves before God for our spirits to commune with His Spirit without any words to spoil the purity of the communications. As we become more comfortable with the Lord in prayer we will find that although we may still initiate our prayer time with a heart-felt formal prayer, we will enter into His presence with a time of silent reflection during which we open our hearts before Him.

One way with which this opening of our hearts will come is by meditating in silence on His presence and our deep desire for His Person apart from any petitions or concerns. By quieting our own minds and putting aside our worldly concerns we make ourselves available to hear the voice of the Lord within our spirits. Once we sense His presence our prayer can be as simple as Samuel’s prayer: “Speak Lord, for thy servant is listening” or “Jesus”. At this point your spiritual dialogue with Jesus will begin.

Another way to open our hearts to Him is to quiet your mind and imagine yourself in a setting where the Lord is present to you. As you look into His face you sense His compassion and love for you as he reaches out His hand to your shoulder. Immediately, those things which have been burdening you come out of your mouth. As you tell him about the deepest feelings of your heart, He begins to tell you of His Love and how He wishes you to respond to His Love through the circumstance you are facing. As you converse with the Lord you find your concerns fading into the background and your attraction to the person of Jesus increasing until you throw yourself into His arms and embrace Him with a Love that you did not know you had in you!

Because of our confused understanding of prayer, we have come to believe that the only function of prayer is to petition the Godhead for our needs or the needs of others rather than purely for the delight of communing with the Lover of Our Souls. If we come from a liturgical tradition we also are trained to find some kind if a formal prayer written in beautifully expressive language that expresses something close to what our petition encompasses. And so we have books that are collections of such prayers that we rely on in our attempt to express the yearning of our hearts to God who already knows those yearnings better than we do. Sometimes we use a mechanically repetitive prayer as a means of attempting to communicate our petitions to God as if somehow the repetition of the words will emphasize the sincerity of our prayer and convince God of our need.

I think that the Lord winks lovingly at our uninformed piety and answers us just because he sees the intentions of our hearts and in His compassion understands that we really don’t know any better. We also sometimes think that God will not listen to us personally because we are imperfect sinful creatures and that we must therefore find someone who is “better” than we are to intercede for us before God. In the truth expressed in His Word we find that God the creator of the Universe, the God who created us, is more desirous than we are to have an intimate communion with each of us, a communion that liberates us to fellowship with Him in a way that cannot be imagined by our religiously organized mentalities.

It is true that sin and our own hardness of heart are barriers to this fellowship with Him. But they are barriers we ourselves create, not God. In fact God loves us so much, he has provided the means for us to clear out these barriers. He has done this through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus. Jesus, who continually intercedes for us before the Father so that nothing can interrupt our fellowship with the Father. It is because of the Precious Blood of Jesus that every believer can come before the throne of the Almighty and enjoy fellowship with Him! All we need to do to enter this supper of divine fellowship is to consciously and verbally open the door of our hearts to Jesus. Acknowledging our need for Him to clear out the barriers of sin that encumber us and to maintain a loving fellowship with our fellow believers in His Name. Of course we must also invite the Holy Spirit into our supper with the Lord, since it is the Holy Spirit who reveals the person of Jesus to us. If we do this we are ready to enter into a new and wonderfully intimate relationship with our God!

Once we begin our revived prayer life we soon find that although we have concerns we leave these behind when we enter into His throne room and we immerse ourselves in His Presence enveloped in His Love. Then, as we interact with Him during our intimate prayer time, He will ask or bring to mind our concerns. He will also add to our list some concerns we had not even thought about. It is then that we present them to Him, knowing that if He places a concern in our hearts then we can be assured that our petitions have been heard. Our role, then, is to be His instruments in bringing forth His Kingdom by permitting Him to perform the very things He has already, in His sovereign will, determined to do. He merely desires us to be His partners in the manifestation of His Kingdom

(excerpted with permission from “Thy Kingdom Come” by Jorge Madrid Sr.; © 2003 Madrid Family Trust, all rights reserved)
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For More, Click on the DOOR!

§ “We Wish to See Jesus…” – Pope John Paul II

[Excerpt from the] MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER JOHN PAUL II TO THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD ON THE OCCASIONOF THE XIX WORLD YOUTH DAY 2004
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/messages/youth/documents/hf_jp-ii_mes_20040301_xix-world-youth-day_en.html

“]

Mysterious image that appeared in a bonfire and Pope John Paul II at an audience in 2001 [Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-487764/Is-Pope-John-Paul-II-waving-grave--Vatican-TV-director-says-yes.html#ixzz0LTtnzOND

My dear young people!

1. This year 2004 is the final stage before the great event in Cologne, where the 20th World Youth Day will be celebrated in 2005. I therefore invite you to intensify your path of spiritual preparation by reflecting on the theme I have chosen for this 19th World Youth Day: “We wish to see Jesus” (Jn 12:21).

This is a request made to the Apostles one day by some “Greeks”. They wanted to know who Jesus was. They had come not simply to see what kind of impression the man Jesus would make. Moved by great curiosity and a presentiment that they had found the answer to their deepest questions, they wanted to know who he really was and whence he came.

2. My dear young people, I want you too to imitate those “Greeks” who spoke to Philip, moved by a desire to “see Jesus”. May your search be motivated not simply by intellectual curiosity, though that too is something positive, but be stimulated above all by an inner urge to find the answer to the question about the meaning of your life. Like the rich young man in the Gospel, you too should go in search of Jesus to ask him: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mk 10:17). Mark the Evangelist states clearly that Jesus looked at him and loved him. You may remember another episode in which Jesus says to Nathaniel: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you”, drawing from the heart of that Israelite, in whom there was no guile (cf. Jn 1:47), a fine profession of faith: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God!” (Jn 1:49). Those who approach Jesus with a heart free of prejudice can quite easily come to have faith because Jesus himself has already seen them and loved them first. The most sublime aspect of human dignity is precisely man’s vocation to communicate with God in a profound exchange of glances that is life transforming. In order to see Jesus, we first need to let him look at us!

The desire to see Jesus dwells deep in the heart of each man and each woman. My dear young people, allow Jesus to gaze into your eyes so that the desire to see the Light, and to experience the splendour of the Truth, may grow within you. Whether we are aware of it or not, God has created us because he loves us and so that we in turn may love him. This is the reason for the unquenchable nostalgia for God that man preserves in his heart: “Your face, Lord, do I seek.  Do not hide your face from me” (Ps 27: 8-9). That Face – we know – was revealed to us by God in Jesus Christ.

3. My dear young people, don’t you too wish to contemplate the beauty of that Face? That is the question I address to you on this World Youth Day 2004. Don’t be too hasty in your reply. First of all, create a silence within yourselves. Allow this ardent desire to see God emerge from the depth of your hearts, a desire that is sometimes stifled by the distractions of the world and by the allurements of pleasures. Allow this desire to emerge and you will have the wonderful experience of meeting Jesus.

Christianity is not simply a doctrine: it is an encounter in faith with God made present in our history through the incarnation of Jesus.

Try by every means to make this encounter possible, and look towards Jesus who is passionately seeking you. Seek him with the eyes of the flesh through the events of life and in the faces of others; but seek him too with the eyes of the soul through prayer and meditation on the Word of God, because “The contemplation of Christ’s face cannot fail to be inspired by all that we are told about him in Sacred Scripture” (Novo millennio ineunte, 17).

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Thank God for Pope John Paul II (may he rest in peace)! …..   Bartimaeus

PS: If you also are seeking Jesus then open the Door – Click Here to open

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