Dear All of Us,
Being
WELL CONNECTED
socially and
professionally
makes a difference
- a big difference.
It opens doors,
ups the voltage,
deals a full house,
makes the cash register jingle,
rolls out the red carpet.
It's the way the world works.
In a wonderfully, refreshingly
different way,
a pure and intimate way,
being
WELL CONNECTED
is just the the way Jesus works:
"Live in me.
Make your home in me
just as i do in you.
In the same way
that a branch
can't bear grapes by itself
but only by being joined
to the vine,
you can't bear fruit
unless you are joined with me.
I am the Vine,
you are the branches.
When you're joined with me
and I with you,
the relationship
intimate and organic,
the harvest is sure
to be abundant."(1)
Jesus
WOW!!
Jesus invites us
into a dynamic
Divine Connection.
Our spiritual life
is our response.
Our response
is acceptance.
Most basically
our spiritual life
is not a getting,
is not a doing.
It is accepting
life connected to
The Source
The Vine
and
letting it fruitfully
flower forth.
To clear for that,
it is telling
our false self,
our phony self,
our fear fueled self,
our arrogant self,
our control determined self,
our independent driven self,
our disconnected self,
to go to hell in a hurry
and that we're not in any way
going along for the ride!!
So freed,
we take Jesus up
on his offer,
on his invitation.
We accept connection
unto union and fruitfulness.
We really do
move in with Jesus.
We not only
live with him,
we live "in" him.
We are right at home
in him as he is
right at home "in" us.
It is naked intimacy,
each plunged into
the other unto
Oneness.
Jesus is the vine
that branches out as us.
It's "intimate and organic"
and the harvest is
ever so "abundant."
Jesus is
the Source,
the Aliveness,
the Energy,
that flows through us
unto harvest fullness.
Are we ever
WELL CONNECTED
So connected,
so sourced,
we think like Jesus,
we value like Jesus,
we act like Jesus,
we live like Jesus.
"I live now, not I,
but Christ lives in me" (2)
Then comes the "doing,"
the "doing" of Jesus
in and through us.
The vine makes
the branch fruitful.
All this deserves
a generous portion
of time and reflection.
Over the next many days
let's do just that.
SOUL STEPS
to
heeding,
accepting,
living,
Jesus
Praying that we more and more
accept the invitation to be
WELL CONNECTED
John Frank
******
(1) JOHN 15:4-5
(2) Galatians 2:20
******
If you care to
Pray Ponder
more and deeper
on being
WELL CONNECTED,
on our
God Connection,
here are some
SOUL STEPS
forward.
We soul slow it.
A little at a time.
We deep listen.
Jotting/Journaling
reflections is a major help.
So is penning a quote
or reflection on a card
and carrying it with us
for prayer on and off
during the day.
We see-sense what
The Spirit
shows.
We feel free to stay with
a word, an example,
an insight, an application,
for all it has to say-show.
We then dress the particulars
of our life in that brightness.
Our help here is
Eugene Peterson's
translation of scripture,
The Message
The scriptures were written
long ago and far away
in the idiom of
then and there.
Peterson translates them
in the idiom of
our here and now.
As we pray ponder these scriptures:
- what do we understand here?
- how do we react to it?
- how does it show up in/effect
our daily living?
- is there something we need to
maintain, change, add, delete?
- is there a way we can
share with/support others
in all this?
- where is our
religious community
with (or without) all this?
We again hear Jesus and
his offer of connection.
What does he
Soul Say
to us and how we live?
John 15:4-5
"Live in me.
Make your home in me
just as I do in you.
In the same way that a branch
can't bear grapes by itself
but only by being joined
to the vine,
you can't bear fruit
unless you are joined with me.
I am the Vine,
you are the branches.
When you're joined with me
and I with you, the relation
intimate and organic,
the harvest is sure
to be abundant."
- live in me
- make your home in me
- as I do in you
- Vine as source
- branches connected
and fruitful
- how see and say all this
in the particulars of
our daily living?
Paul details a stepping
away from disconnection and a
stepping forward to accept
connection and its fruits.
Galatians 5:16-18
"My counsel is this:
Live freely,
animated and motivated
by God's Spirit.
Then you won't feed
the compulsions of selfishness.
For there is a root of
sinful self-interest in us
that is at odds
with a free spirit,
just as the free spirit is
incompatible with selfishness.
These two ways of life
are antithetical,
so that you cannot live
at times one way and at times
another way according to
how you feel on any given day.
Why don't you choose
to be led by the Spirit
and so escape the
erratic compulsions of
a law-dominated existence?"
- live freely
- Spirit powered
- sinful selfishness
at odds with a
freed spirit
- Spirit led
- escape compulsive
domination
- what's all this look like
living out our spiritual lives
out here on the street
of actual, everyday life?
Galatians 5: 19-21
"It is obvious what kind of life
develops out of trying to get
your own way all the time
( being disconnected ):
repetitive, loveless, cheap sex;
a stinking accumulation of
mental and emotional garbage;
frenzied and joyless grabs
for happiness;
trinket gods;
magic-show religion;
paranoid loneliness;
cutthroat competition;
all consuming-yet-
never-satisfied wants;
a brutal temper;
an impotence to love
or be loved;
divided homes and divided families
small-minded and lopsided pursuits;
the vicious habit of depersonalizing
everyone into a rival;
uncontrolled and
uncontrollable addictions;
ugly parodies of community.
I could go on..."
- Whew!!
- from what do we need
to disconnect?
- how do these show up
in our society/culture
and how does that effect us ?
Galatians 5:22-23
"But what happens when
we live God's way?
He brings gifts into our lives,
much the same way that
fruit appears in an orchard -
things like
affection for others,
exuberance about life,
serenity.
We develop a willingness
to stick with things,
a sense of compassion
in the heart,
and a conviction that
a basic holiness permeates
things and people.
we find ourselves involved
in loyal commitments,
not needing to force
our way in life,
able to marshal and
direct our energies wisely."
-the fruits of being well Sourced,
WELL CONNECTED
******
Oh God, disconnect us from dead circuitry.
Plug us in, hot wires us to Source Central.
******
WELCOME
A special "HI 5"
to our visitors this week from
Turkey
"frankly speaking"
spirituality for the street
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Thanks for connecting!
Looking forward to it again next week.
******
