Friday, June 12, 2009

Lets get it started!

No.. I didn't mean the Black Eyed Peas song lol

I meant our spiritual life. I am reading "The Orthodox Way" by Bishop Kallistos Ware. I read bits and pieces of it a while ago, but never really sat down to read it. What better introductory book ''gives a general account of the doctrine, worship, and life of Orthodox Christians".

We need to take our spiritual life seriously. Be responsible and take it into your own hands. My favorite quote so far says "God has children, but He has no grandchildren." This really opened my eyes. We can't rely on others or advisors or anything, even though they are all necessary. "The Creed does not belong to you unles you have lived it" - Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow.

We need to have a direct, personal relationship with our Creator. I am the first one who should take my own advice. I am stuck on this fence, this lukewarm fence, that only God can help me to make the jump over. I think I'm okay because I go to church, serve, take communion, etc. "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach wil be judged with greater strictness" - James 3:1 So being in the position that I am, am writing this mostly for my own benefit, and anyone who may be in the same boat as me.

So to start, we need to make God our friend, our best friend. As I stated in an earlier post, we need to stop thinking "what would Jesus do" and start doing it. Many people look to pray and ask God for help on decisions and choices, but if we make Him our best friend, we will already know what choice He wants us to make, and He will just guide us there.

Look at the book of Psalms, how many times does David say Praise Him, Praise God, Give thanks to the Lord.? There needs to be a reason to Praise Him so much, there must be something special about Him right? I attended a retreat entitled WOW, whose focus was to make us understand how much God appreciates us, then we will learn to be appreciative of Him, proud of Him.

One thing I learned was a great meditation on how much God loves us, to make us realize it, and LOVE HIM BACK. Matthew 13:44 "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sels al that he has and buys that field." I always thought that we are the ones who would sell all that we have and obtain the kingdom of heaven. The other meditation I heard about this parable says that God is that 'someone'. He sold all that He has (Giving up His life for us on the Cross), and bought the field. WE ARE HIS HIDDEN TREASURE.

So now lets take a second thought on how we should view our relationship with God. Look at how much He loves us, let us make Him our personal Friend, Father, EVERYTHING!

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