Everything in
this life serves as a distraction one way or another and can prevent
us from drawing closer to God. It must be remembered that Original
Sin was when, with the exercise of our free will, we turned away from
God. This continues today through our actions and the way we live. So
much time in our lives is spent planning for the future. It becomes
very easy to ignore God and not pursue a relationship with him. Even
more ironic is the fact that because God is everywhere and in
everything we become blind to his presence. The separation that we
initiated widens more with the passing of each day unless we become
conscious to the massive gulf between us and him.
We are habitual
by nature and we live in an addictive society. We create our own
patterns of behavior. This is also true with sin. The more we sin the
more we become comfortable with it. We then convince ourselves that
we are not sinning and self-justify our actions. This contributes
more to the separation between us and God. Immersed in sin we then
become comfortable with the separation and think we do not need to
repair anything; we become comfortable without God. This is evident
with the amount of people today who choose not to gather for worship
even though we are instructed by God to do so on every sabbath day.
Society enforces this behavior by transforming the sabbath day from a
day of rest and worship to a day of sports and entertainment. As each
generation passes, worship becomes less important in culture. It is a
great victory by Satan that this phenomena has occurred and all of us
are to blame.
Part of being a
Christian is to conduct ourselves rightly and to evangelize the
faith. We can do this simply by making Christ central in our lives
and act out our faith. To do this properly we need to recognize God
constantly and live with him. He needs to be a commanding presence
that overshadows everything else. He must be able to influence all
actions and conversations from what we would consider the least
important to the most critical. We can never be comfortable with
ourselves and our faith. We need to challenge ourselves and recognize
what we can do better. Christ instructed us not to judge others; we
must judge ourselves so that we may improve on the areas where we
fall short. Being brutally honest and judgmental when it comes to
ourselves will lead to a more fulfilling life. We can take comfort in
the fact that, when we do this Christ becomes our advocate and
savior. He is here to remind us that we are loved and forgiven. We
can then make the adjustments necessary to actually feel his love.
A key part of
Saint Paul's ministry was his constant testimony of being a sinner.
He made that clear continuously throughout his letters. He was
brutally honest with himself and used this as a tool: demonstrating
how we all are called forward as we are to serve God. It is then
through God that we are transformed. This transformation process is
continuous. It has no end. There is no ultimate goal in our
faith-life. No one is perfect and above reproach thus we must strive
to reveal our faults and weaknesses to ourselves so that we are not
overcome by them.
God loves us so
much that it has the ability to overpower us in a wondrous way. To
feel that love we must learn to recognize it and become familiar with
it. Through Jesus Christ, the all-powerful, all-knowing God, can be
personified. This personal relationship enables us to bring our
spirituality to fruitation. He can then take care of us and we can
love him all the more. The relationship can become passionate and
beautiful. Christ can become our lover and our confidant; our friend.
We have the capability to be lost in the love of our creator. With
that, nothing else will matter as much except through our faith for
it is through our faith that the perfectness of our existence can be
revealed.
Our life can
become like a great romantic novel with a story of loss, discovery,
elation, and love. In the end will always be happiness with Christ.
This is our life given to us by God. It is wonderful, beautiful, and
glorious when we realize that he is the key to ultimate satisfaction
and glory through him and with him.
Deacon Tom
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