Our blog is inspired by The Holy Spirit.
Brothers and sisters:
If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh
with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit. Emphasis mine Galatians 5: 18-25
Gail and I are heading to Mississippi in twelve days. I had a choice; it wasn’t much of a choice, have someone else write our blogs or cram three blogs into ten days. I chose the ten days.
When I read the first reading, I jumped for Joy.
As I am sure all of you know, this is one of the readings that changed my life, to our life.
We thought we would recount what happened one morning over thirty years ago.
I, yes, I had decided that when I died, and God asked if I read His book, my response would be, “No, but I read a lot of Tom Clancy.” Not reading the Bible, as I a sure you all know, is a foolish answer. Foolish answers I had lived with all my life, and for once, I wanted to clean my act up.
I started reading the Bible and must confess I had difficulty staying awake, satan.
I started and never stopped; a chapter a day was all I did at first,
But I was reading the Bible!
I don’t remember if it was the second or third time I reread the Bible when I reached Galatians Chapter five.
I read the above words and the words that leaped out to me: Against such there is no law, I have and do hate rules.
The Holy Spirit, whom I didn’t know then, whispered into my ear, “Would you like more Peace in your life?”
We will ask you the same question, “Would you like more Peace in your life?”
My answer, and I pray yours is, ” YES!”
The Holy Spirit then told me, and we are passing the same thought to you, “Learn the Fruit of the Holy Spirit.”
I wrote down the nine words, and as Gail and I walked our five-mile route, I learned and prayed the nine Fruit of the Holy Spirit.
I prayed by asking for an increase in Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
That’s all, nothing more, nine words, but after a week of asking for an increase in the Fruit of the Holy Spirit I noticed I was growing in Patience.
Shortly after I started praying for an increase in the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, I took a fall, hit my head badly, got up, thanked God for the fall (where did that come from?), laughed at the stupid statement I had just made, thanking God for a fall, and noticed that before I had started praying for an increase of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit, I would have gotten up swearing at my bad luck.
One fall and my life changed!
And I loved the change!
My Journey with The Holy Spirit had just begun in earnest.
No, I wasn’t like St. Paul, who did a complete one-hundred and eighty-degree change all at once; my growth in my love of the Triune God has taken decades.
But,
I, you have to start sometime, and my start was reading Galatians chapter 5 that morning.
As I write this blog, I realize I began to change when I said I would read the Bible and never stop.
When we went into the Cumberland County Jail, I, we gave each man a slip of paper with the Nine Fruit of the Holy Spirit listed. We ask the men to learn “the nine.” Those who know “the nine” notice a change in their lives and embrace it.
We encourage you to learn “the nine” and experience God in your life.
What do you have to lose?
“The nine” We pray you will grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
I send out our blog to one hundred and sixty-six people via email and post on Linkedin. I am saying this because I get responses telling me they are confused by how we sometimes express ourselves.
A few weeks ago, a person emailed me and said they were confused by the word satan, which appears mid-sentence bracketed by commas and is not capitalized.
I know proper English grammar is to Capitalise a Name. I will not capitalize the name of satan.
I will Capitalize many words related to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For example, His Cross, Love, Joy, and Peace, to mention a few.
If in mid-sentence, or at the end of the sentence, you see the name satan, I am pointing to satan as the one trying, in that case, to pull me away from the Triune God.
I am reading What’s so Amazing about Grace by Philip Yancey.
Great read; I think I have highlighted over fifty percent of the book.
Philip tells the story of a Minister happily married for sixteen years who one day thought that maybe the grass could be greener with someone else, satan. In Phillip’s example, the minister never identifies or rejects satan for the thought that he can find greener pastures with some other woman. I don’t believe the Minister ever identifies satan as the one who started this thought process.
Yesterday in the Cumberland County Jail, John Kernan and I talked with Sam, not his real name, and Sam said he was a major drug dealer. I questioned Sam about satan being active in his life, and he had no idea this was happening.
How can we change if Sam, or we, can’t identify the source of our sin?
We can’t!
Who else but satan would want you to go through the horror of divorce?
Identify the source of your Joy or your trouble!
Once you have identified the source, take appropriate action.
If your thought or action results in Joy and or Peace, God is working in your life.
Thank God!
Easy!
If the thought or action leads to anything BUT Joy and Peace, satan!
If satan,
Tell satan to” Get behind you.” and get into the fight of going back into Joy and Peace.
I have just learned a new prayer that I now feel is even more powerful.
Come Holy Spirit!
I learned this prayer from a priest writing in Harvest Magazine, a quarterly publication by the Catholic Diocese of Portland.
The Priest said that whenever his mind starts to drift at Mass, he says, “Come Holy Spirit,” and the priest’s mind returns to what’s going on at Mass.
“Get behind me, satan” works, but as I have reported, I seem to have to say this prayer many more times than I would like, and I believe that is because I throw satan out but create a vacuum that satan comes back and fills. By the way, this is in the bible. The Parable of the woman cleaning her house. Luke 11:25
“Come Holy Spirit,” replaces satan with the Holy Spirit, and I seem to experience more extended periods of Peace.
Soooooooooooo
Once again, I change, just as I did when I read and learned the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.
Picture:
Fall Beauty Picture by Allain C.; Allain commented, I was riding my dirt bike on an absolutely gorgeous day for Sept 27. The sights smells, and feel of that ride I won’t forget as God’s gift to me. I’m 62, still riding in the bush by myself. Crazy eh?
I love the picture and the comment, and as promised, I have deleted Allain’s email.
I Love it!
By submitting a picture, you change from an onlooker to a participant. YOU become a part of OUR blog.
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph; in the comments section, tell me you want to submit a picture, and I will send you my email in our reply on Thursday.
