Christian
Love can overcome all things when we act on the presence of God's
Love within ourselves. God is perfect and thus his love is perfect
also. Through this perfect love he created us. When we love, it is in
reaction to his love and is an expression of it. This love can move
us to become closer to God and everyone whom we encounter in our
lives. Every interaction and every conversation can then be a product
of the perfect love of God. Through this understanding we are all
capable of living a happy wonderful life with God central to our
existence. We can also further understand our birthright as Children
of God and fully appreciate his beautiful creation around us which we
are an intricate part of.
To
achieve this state of being can be very challenging. There are forces
at work in the world that prevent us from fully experiencing this
life with God. We all are engaged in a spiritual battle within
ourselves between good and evil. We are constantly tempted by Satan
and our fallen nature to turn away from God;immersing ourselves in
the pleasures of the flesh. Even though these pleasures may offer us
temporary gratification, they are no replacement for the ultimate
experience of living a life with God's love. We must understand that
whatever this material world can offer in the form of pleasure is a
poor substitute for the ultimate pleasure of being in a state of
grace with God.
We
all know that engaging in sin will destroy us. Reacting to the
presence of temptation by surrendering to our physical desires for
stimulation and earthly pleasures without the presence of God is a
self-destructive act. Yet, if we do not have a relationship with God
which offers many gifts including Understanding and Wisdom, we
naturally refuse to acknowledge this. We do not have the strength and
fortitude to fight off the temptation to surround ourselves with that
which will be the cause of our downfall. We choose to accept these
corporal gifts from Satan and therefore refuse to call out to God for
help. While this is occurring, God is constantly pleading for us to
run to him for protection and love. Yet, the more we sin, the more we
become unaware of his call. We make ourselves deaf to his shouts and
blind to the beauty of his presence all around us.
When
we have erased God from our lives there is nothing else there but a
major void which then can be filled with evil, evil acts, and sin.
Unbeknownst to us, we have then welcomed Satan into our lives with
open arms and have embraced him as our God. He, instead of God,
becomes central to our existence and we act out our behaviors and
sins in his name. We acknowledge him, instead of God, by sinning and
engaging in behaviors that we know are not what we are expected to do
being God's children.
We
are taught that when we suffer to turn to God for comfort. We then
adjoin ourselves to the Crucified Christ; carrying our cross towards
Calvary and experiencing The Passion with him. When we ignore God and
instead choose to carry out actions contrary to our expectations as
Christians, we are actually becoming one of those crucifying Jesus:
spitting in his face and abusing him to the point of death. Imagine
our arrogance that we would actually rebuke our creator and insult
him by choosing the path of darkness over the salvation which he
offers all of us. When we don't love God and ignore him we are doing
the same thing.
It
must be understood that God loves us so much that he tolerates even
this. He is patient and kind. He endures the abuse because he
understands the conflict and war that rages in each and every one of
us. He wishes to lend us his support and strength if only we ask for
it. When we finally admit that we cannot be our own God and that the
pathway of sin leads to destruction, we can then make a real
commitment to God. This is the first step in a transformation that
will affect our entire life for the better.
There
is also a warning that comes with this transformation. God can and
will shape us like earthen vessels our entire life. This is what a
journey of faith is all about. When we cry out to God for help we
need to dedicate ourselves to this transformation exactly the same
way we dedicated ourselves to sin and debauchery in the past. It is
impossible to serve two masters as Jesus himself has told us. If we
choose God we must then really choose God. We can then arm ourselves
for battle, for the other master, Satan, will not readily release us
from our life of slavery and sin. God is the liberator and he will be
challenged by the slave-master.
The
number of masters is very significant. There are indeed only two. In
other words, anything and everything that is done without God in mind
is then the dominion of Satan. We are then presented with a choice:
“Whom do
we want to serve throughout of lives?”
Deacon
Tom
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