EQ- Emotional Quotient

I was singing a song this morning (10,000 Reasons) in church with these two lines in it:

"Bless the Lord oh my soul
Worhip his holy name."

I sometimes look at myself and others and think how emotionally driven I am and they are. I like this - I don't like that, I won't do that because I don't want to. My emotions can rule me! How do I feel as I walk through the church doors can determine how I worship God. Is that the correct stance to take; is worship of God actually anything to do with the way I feel. The answer is No! God is worthy of my worship, I will spend eternity worshiping in heaven. So I better get myself sorted out.

One of the latest trends is to talk about my EQ (Emotional Quotient) my level of emotional capacity as opposed to my IQ or intellectual capacity. I think that we should look hard at our EQ and feel the feelings and then do the right thing. The question is not  how I feel, but what is required and is this the right decision?

Today I chose to do the right thing.

I took the road less travelled and it made all the difference to my day.

Happy Birthday to my friend Michelle!!!

The Crucible

I was spending some time with God this morning, reading a devotional classic by Samuel Bagster which went like this....
"How happy is he whose wrong doing is forgiven and whose wrong doing has been forgiven and whose sin is covered! How happy is the man whose sin the Lord does not hold against him, and in whose spirit there is nothing false."

Although the process of us drawing closer to the Father illuminates our many sins, He is faithful to forgive and not only forgive, but cleanse, so that in our spirit there is nothing false. I am sensing the closer I get to God the more this applies.  The closer I get to the Father the more real I become. This is not to say that I don't have sin and darkness quite the contrary; I can actually see it, acknowledge it and  finally deal with it.  I guess it is like the old anology of the gold or silversmith skimming off the impurities. Until the heat and light of the presence of God illuminates our sin and dislodges it, floating it to the surface where it can not be dealt with it, nothing much happens and we can sometimes remain unaware. The heat of the crucible which holds the silver can be our situation, but I also see it as our continually entering the the presence of God. It must have been like that for Isaiah in Isaiah 6.

5  "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
6  Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7  With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
This was Isaiah's spritual crucible, only ours is heated a lot more slowly, by daily visits to the Father.
The Father is our silversmith, our furness and our crucible. He provides the heat, he carries us as the crucible and he gently removes our faults.

The loving Father and the prodigal children learning to be together and love each. This such apowerful image that speaks constantly of our Christian walk.

Taste and See

Can we really live on a diet of one sort of experience of God? Is this a breeding ground for a spritual straight jacket? It would seem that the books that we read, seek to tell us the answer. Could this eventually snare us in a very comfortable trap?

I know that it would appear to be risky trying different things, that ultimately I could end up being decieved. I guess that is why I have the plumbline of the "word of truth". I find it a very envigorating and exciting process to try knew things.

I was reading a book by a Senior Jesuit Priest who had spent much of his time in India. He was talking about "living in the moment" and saying that using all our senses to be in touch with where we are is very important. How my back feels against the chair, what is it like to have my feet on the the floor and so forth. This provides a grounding so I know where and how I am in the present. This seems to me to be important to totally experience the fullness of God. Is not God not called the great 'I AM'? If I am not as fully in his presence as I can be, being aware of all my faculties, how can I begin to move towards completeness in Him.

Philippians 1:6,9-10
being confident of this that he who has begun a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ. 

I shall take some risks in my contemplation by opening my senses and awareness, and not be completely lost in "western tradition". Rather I will seek to acknowledge what my fellow Christians may have discovered. Truth is truth no matter where it comes from!

Hopefully by handling the real thing well, I will be able to discern the counterfeit better.

I hold to the promise
Taste and see that the Lord is good:
blessed is the man who takes refuge in him
Psalm 34:8

Rolling Stones

I was sitting looking at some items I have sitting on a set of drawers in my quiet space, my attention was drawn to a rock that had been cut in half and polished. The outside was crusty with deposits that looked like calcium or broken bits of barnicles, the inside however was multicoloured with crystals and different shapes. I started to think about how much we are like that stone, the outside can be crusty and fairly unattractive while the inside is beautiful when it is seen in the right light. That light is Jesus, He said "I am the light of the world". I remember seeing the Holman painting "Light of the World" in St Paul's Cathedral in London.

We all have beauty that can be brought out from the inside. I remember going to a gem factory and watching semi-precious stones being polished. They were placed in a rotating barrel; lots of stones flushed with them, with water as they turned. I observed the action of stone against stone, the reaction of the stones to constantly flowing water. The activity of water and other rocks was starting to rub out blemishes and polish off chinks, cracks and cuts in the stone surface. We are a lot like this -  God uses the activity of the Holy Spirit (water) and the bashing and crashing against others to begin to erase the blemishes, cuts and cracks in our lives.

When we are around the Holy Spirit and Father our darkness and blemishes come to the light pretty quickly. Over time the interactions with God and others slowly erradicates these faults and we become polished and begin to reflect the beauty that God intended in the first place. I notice my dark spots are becoming glaringly obvious, and more often than not they evolve to the way I see others and react to others. So the closer I get to God the more I see the darkness and more I feel compelled to do something about it.

In the end it comes down to a simple choice: do I want to do something about my darkness or not? Its a bit like deciding whether to start the barrel rotating or not. If it doesn't rotate, all you end up with is wet stones. Some may choose that option, but not for me at this stage!

The Haze on the Bathroom Mirror

As I said last time I have been pondering on the Apostle Paul's line about praying without ceasing and what that might look like. I have tried to work at the process that Brother Laurence applied about practicing the "Presence of God" in all that I do.( See Blog "Dial Up or Broadband"). I can do it while I do practical tasks that do not require too much complex thought. I however work in a "people industry" which means that when people demand my attention that tends to dominate my thinking, and as a consequence I often lose God.

I mentioned this to one of my close friends about how I was struggling, trying to work out this conundrum. It seemed to be one of those points of tension between the Word in the Bible and the reality that we face. How does this work? My friend said that Henri Nouwen in his time at the Dayspring Trust learned to find the reflection of God in the people that he worked with and seeing they were at the higher end of the mentally disabled spectrum, that was a challenge that took years.

I have pondered this and given it back to Father and said 'is this the way I continually interact with You?' ......because I will struggle. This was the concept and picture that He gave me back. It is like the haze on the bathroom mirror. At first I was unsure of what he meant. This is the interpretation I have come to so far................

The mirror is the person, the reflection is of the Father (God) in their lives. Sometimes in a bathroom after a shower the mirror is covered with various degrees of condensation which means the reflection changes from mildly distorted to completely undercover and unrecognisable. Well all that is fine but what does that really mean?!

These were the things I have discovered:

1. Not matter what it looks like that mirror ( the person) is still carrying the reflection of the Father whether I find it easy to see through the condensation or not.
2. My job is to find ways for the condensation to be lessened or removed so the image of the Father can be released.
3. When I think about the natural the easiest way to get rid of condensation is to have ventilation and air movement. That air movement/breath/wind is the Holy Spirit in the spirit realm. The Holy spirit will break down the condensation of my eyes and make me "Super-Sighted" to see the Father's reflection in others, even when it appears heavily disguised.
4. I started to connect the dots. If I am, as I suspect, very much like the prodigal son then as I learn to know my Father.... I will need to know my Father's business....."For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through Him" John 3:17 ...neither should I be condemming, but direct the people to the Son, through my reaction to them. By seeing the people as they were created to be by the Father, not through the distortions of "the mist on the bathroom mirror". I am now beginning to see that the mist will only clear supernaturally. It will only clear by knowing the Father.
5. It is said that bank tellers are trained to spot a counterfeit note by repeatedly handling the real thing. Only when I am so used to being in relationship with the Father on a daily basis will I be able to spot the reflection of the Father in others, through the Holy Spirit. 

This is easy to say but gives me some long term sign posts. I have along way to go.......

Dial up or broadband

I have often wondered about what it must be like to be a really good Prayer. We hear all sorts of amazing stories about what prayer warriors do. There are plenty of books around to tell us how to do it - but is this God's way?

I wonder if God has a plan for each of us, our own distinct way of communicating with Him? I have been taught that you have to get up early and have a quiet time. No one has ever done anything significant for God without this consolidated prayer time....but is that so? Paul talks about praying unceasingly. Which would seem to be a very different process from following a formula.

To me these two prayers - unceasingly and formula - are as different as dial up and broadband on the internet. Dial up can often be very slow and difficult. On the other hand broadband is available, fast, has depth and is versatile. I imagine this is what Brother Laurence was talking about when he said that there was no difference between his devotional time and the way that he lived in the presence of God.

Now I have no idea how to do this, it's a bit like being hung up on thoughts in your time of silence. I work with people all the time and find I can go for long periods of a day without really having payed much attention to God. I get so involved with the people I am working with that God seems to get "squeezed out". So I really don't know how to do this but I figure I can get better over time. So rather than just read a book I have decided to give it a go. I will read bits and pieces and who knows one day I might end up writing my own book after trying a little bit of this and that.

Dial up or Broadband...... broadband any day. I want revelation that is not old and mouldy like yesterday's mana but right up to the cutting edge. If I keep trying I should get better..........right?

Significance or Success

It is Father's Day this weekend in New Zealand and as a school teacher I am well aware that ours is a society depleted of fathers. There are so many children who grow up separated from their father. They may never have known their father, see him every second week, or have a substitute Dad. I see this as a significant ploy that the Devil uses in this country to separate and undermine our families.
I also see it as significant ploy of the enemy to strip our churches of their spritual fathers ( and mothers). People who are able to lead and nurture the next generation of believers, not because they have done a course, or its their job, but simply because of who they are. It's the way they do life that is so attractive, people see them and say "I want what you have." The father (or mother) may reply "if you want what I have....then you do what I do".

What might that be you may well ask?

I believe it is hearing that still small voice that Elijah heard in 1 Kings 19. There was a wind, an earthquake, fire, and then in the gentle whisper, there was the voice of the Lord. We get hung up on the earthquakes, fire and winds of our circumstances that we miss the voice of the Lord. I believe one of the whispers is the Holy Spirit himself testifying to our spirit that we need the Father.

Romans 8:15-16......" but you have recieved the Spirit of sonship and by him we cry Abba Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children."

Our frantic activity does not make us significant to the next generation in anything but a worldy sense. These actions gain us a response that the world understands - Success 'The attention and acknowledgement of other people'. However a true relationship with the Father will bring everything into focus and allow us to be God's representatives on earth. Our activity on earth will not direct attention to ourselves but to the Father.

If we begin to seek the Father earnestly we may be able to rekindle the urgency and desire that will in the end transform the next generation by truly being a spiritual father or mother. This will begin to rebuild the church one day at a time and one person at a time. We may not be successful people in the world's eyes or even the church. We will however be significant children in God's eyes.

It may the difference between
" This is my Son (Daughter), in whom I am well pleased."

and
" well done good and faithful servant."

or worse

"Away from me I never knew you"

It is Fathers day everyday, Spend time with your Dad today ..... Abba Father we love you.

Paul