Are negative titles always better clicks? Maybe so, but regardless it’s time for Good News. Today is the day God has made and I am so glad to be in it.
I was able to get to church today on Easter Sunday (in the modern Christian church). My favorite church, Grace Church in Eden Prairie, has a truly unique pastor willing to speak truth no matter how unpopular it may make him. Pastor Troy certainly has a way of speaking that is so engaging but also filled with history and cultural background. He makes hearing Good News so much more interesting and inspiring. Why is it that bad news draws us in more than good news?
I know this really isn’t related to how we perform our Civic Duty of keeping society in check, but it kinda does. Our faith, spirituality, and/or religion are constructs that keep our morality in check. Morality is what laws are based on (or should be). Apparently now laws are based on equity NOT morality.
What is the simple definition of equity?
The term “equity” refers to fairness and justice and is distinguished from equality: Whereas equality means
providing the same to all
, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.
I don’t understand, how from conception, we don’t all start from the same place. That’s because we do all start from the same place. We just don’t always have the most equal environment to grow up in, and that is definitely a problem. But that isn’t a government problem. It’s a human problem. Our government seems to want to control the boundaries of society in which the people should be controlling. God gave us dominion over land.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
The most important written law we have is the sacred texts in which I call the Bible. Love God first, yourself second, and neighbor third. Natural law supersedes any law made by man.
Right now, and every moment we walk this Earth, prophecy is being fulfilled. No matter if we are picking out backsplash or making our elected officials work for their position, our existence is fulfilling prophecy. WE are the hands and feet of God. He has created us just as we create our own children - out of love. Even though we may rebel and separate ourselves from Him, He loves us unconditionally. But, we are still His children. Meaning we are here, on this Earth, to grow and mature. He gives us free will to find ourselves and our way back to Him, just as we parent our children to grow up and hopefully return back to their family when they decide to start their own. When you’re a child, you long for the safety and protection from the big scary world in which your parents should provide. Those of you who have children know, that when they become teenagers, they long to separate themselves from you. This is by design right? They have to learn to grow up and be more independent. Then they may go off to college or move out of the house and try to figure out what they want to do with their life. Then, when they decide to have children they look to come back in relationship with you and as grandparents you long to just be there for them through the journey of parenting and enjoy the new life they’ve decided to bring into the world.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
This is my inspiration from my Easter this year. I know it’s a bit late on getting this out, but I needed time for it to marinate in the brain and heart. To me, Easter is about faith. Believing in the divine force that is unseen and not having all the answers. The Great I AM is within each one of us, not some Gandalf up in the sky. God is in each of us. We have a divine spark - we are His children. God is the everlasting Creator of all. Night and day, good and evil. In order to be the change, choose to forgive someone today. Maybe that needs to be yourself; maybe it needs to be even God. Only you know, but it really helps when you look at yourself hard - look into the mirror into your own eyes and forgive. It’s an amazing experience.
Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.
The verse below really hits home with me. We are the branches - without being rooted in Him we can not grow. In fact, we will wither away and die without the life giver of the mother vine. That is how all of this works. That’s what everlasting divine life is. But, in order to stay connected to the mother vine, we must also wander and experience life for ourselves while staying connected or we lose what gives us life and helps us grow.
John 15:5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
Growth can be hard. There are no promises in the Bible that say being of true faith is going to make your life easy. No, no, no. You are going against the grain when you have true faith. You are choosing to believe something you’ve never seen, but somehow you know in your gut and your heart that it’s real. That inner knowing is the I AM. God dwells in us, if we let Him. Make the home habitable for Him. Be the hands and feet - which is the hardest working part of the body, right? Above all else, pray for your enemy. IF, we can do this, we can bring peace here on Earth.
Matthew 5:44 KJV, But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
This doesn’t mean you have to be a doormat, no. On the contrary, speak up and turn over tables when the righteous are too righteous for their own good. But, love them as you do it. It’s all about intention.
To BE the CHANGE you must embody Love. Love can be many things, but it’s not weak. I pray this prayer for anyone who chooses to read this, that you go forth in Love in all that you do. Shine the light in whatever dark places you go. And should fear fall upon you, remember that if God is with you who can be against you? When a child takes their first step after they’ve been crawling don’t you think they are a bit terrified? Seeing the what the world looks like on two feet versus crawling on their belly can be exhilarating and terrifying! But you never see people crawling for the rest of their lives - we all learn to walk. Allow your spirit to take that first step too - Love, Pray, Forgive, and walk in Faith. God bless.