This is a collection of booklets or articles to bring attention to your
faith.
I feel that I have been inspired by the
Holy Spirit to renew God's
message to you. These booklets are thoughts and ideas on faith, on
love, and on trust. You are a baptized member of the body of Christ, a
child of God and an inheritor of the kingdom of God. As such you need
not be converted. However, are we exactly what God wants us to be? If
not then you may need to be converted to His ways.
We tend not to have conversions like that of Saul of Tarsus. If fact,
we were, in most cases, born into eternal life before we could do a
conversion. So where do we stand? Are we disciples like St. Paul? Why
not?
Are we “Sunday Christians”? That is one who attends church most Sundays
and makes a donation. That completes everything for the “Sunday
Christian”. What about the rest of the day? What about Monday, Tuesday,
and all the other days until next Sunday?
Does God want us to use all our time to preach daily and travel to
foreign lands? Not really. But there are guidelines in His instruction
book. Martin Luther in his study of the Bible realized that the people
were getting off the path to Jesus. He translated the Bible so the
people could read it, taught a simplified doctrine, and made his
catechism.
John the Baptist went around announcing the coming by giving the
message “repent, make straight the way of the Lord”. I am saying gently
“awake, place God first in your life”.
To do this suddenly, in most cases will fail. Therefore, I am proposing
that you make the steps in that direction. Babies learn to walk a step
at a time. We can change our direction by doing it a small step at a
time. This is not difficult or hard to do. In reality, we are changing
a little bit every day we live and with each experience.
How then can I start changing my life to focus on God? The very first
thing is commitment. We must want to make the change and then we must
put that to into a firm commitment, much like to commitment that is
made in marriage with I do.
The next step is the method of change. Benjamin Franklin had this in
mind when he did his 12 steps of improvement. Each day he would
concentrate on improving a different ideal. You can do likewise or you
can select a single aspect. This could be on forgiveness. We will look
more closely at this subject in the Forgiveness Booklet, but here, if
we are not very forgiving, we can learn to change that.
To be more forgiving, we need to examine daily. Has someone said or
done something minor to offend you? Then in your heart, forgive that
person and pray for him (or her). If you can, let that person know that
you have forgiven them by word, action, or attitude. That little “baby
step” is one step closer to God. If you doubt that then remember in the
Lords Prayer “forgive us our sins as we forgive others who sin against
us”. In time as you forgive small hurts, you will learn to forgive
bigger ones.
To help you in your faith growth, you can find or put “triggers” into
your mind set. A common one practiced by most is the prayer before a
meal. The sitting at the table is a trigger to the response of a
thankful prayer. There can be many others. Examples:
* Remembering God's creation seeing a infant and all the tiny
features
* Seeing God's creation when smelling and seeing a field of wildflowers
* Relaxing in hearing praise and thanks to God in music
* Feeling the power of God's love by touching or being touched by a
loved one
* At communion, tasting the bread and wine, knowing the power of God
* At any “mountain top” experience that you have ever had
I know that I could convince you to accept God in your mind. The
purpose in these booklets is to help you accept God totally in your
heart. Even Einstein admitted that if there were no God, we would have
to invent one.
Jesus came to let you know that He wants you to come to Him with all
your heart. In the following booklets, we will look and (prayerfully)
learn to come to Jesus.
