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Volume. XXXI, No. 27 From the Pastors Heart: A Lesson from Brother Lawrence (Part 1)I wonder if it was the hearts desire when Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:1-3, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Paul was full of Christ. It was his spiritual life and spirituality.
He continues to tell us: “Remember what I advised you to do: Think about God as often as you can, day and night, in everything you do. He is always with you. Just as you would be rude if you deserted a friend who was visiting you, why would you be disrespectful of God by abandoning His presence?” One of the key reasons we fail to live in the presence of God is because we consider Him only as means for our ends. We may vehemently deny it. We protest that we have never cheapened the grace of God but loved Him always. If then, why do we put our own agendas in priority even in Christian living? Where is the spirit of edification but only of division and conflict? Where is God in all such times? If we truly desire to live and practice in the presence of God, we must listen to Brother Lawrence more attentively. He said, “what I wanted was simply to belong totally to God, so I decided to give everything I could give, in order to attain the greatest blessing in return-knowing Him. I gave myself completely to God, accepting His forgiveness of my sins, after which I renounced everything that might offend Him. I began to live as if there were no one but God and myself in the world. Sometimes I thought of myself as a criminal standing before Him, my Judge; at other times I regarded Him as my Father. I tried to keep my heart in this father/child relationship as much as I could, adoring Him there. I held my spirit in His holy presence, recalling it whenever it went astray. This exercise was rather difficult. Yet, I was able to continue it without being disturbed when I was involuntarily distracted. It occupied as much time during my regular working day as it did in my prayer time. At all times - every hour and every minute -I drove everything out of my spirit that might take me from the thought of God.” “Once and for all, let us begin to be His entirely. May we banish from our hearts and souls all that does not reflect Jesus. Let's ask Him for the grace to do this, so that He alone might rule in our hearts.” In a bigger scale, it is applied to the church as found in Ephesians 4:13, “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” His advice is this: “People seek for methods of learning to love God. They hope to arrive at it by I know not how many different practices; they take much trouble to remain in the presence of God in a quantity of ways. Is it not much shorter and more direct to do everything for the love of God, to make use of all the labors of one's state in life to show Him that love, and to maintain His presence within us by this communion of our hearts with His? There is no finesse about it; one has only to do it generously and simply.” Wish and pray that all of us are immersed in the love of God, which leads and molds us to be true followers of Christ. Lovingly, Your Pastor |
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