THE INVITATION

Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends.     Rev 3:20

About 50 years ago I consciously started my spiritual journey, through hills,  and valleys, deserts and streams,  and through moments of great light and deep darkness.  In 1995 I had an Epiphany, an encounter with Christ-Living Word and this radically changed my spiritual  journey.

Like so many Christians today I was doing all the right things; I had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, I was an active leader in the  church, a student of scripture and committed to prayer.  Yet, something was missing…….a lot of what I was taught, in reality, wasn’t working.  I looked around at my friends and the leaders in church and saw many good people committed to Jesus but little changed in their lives, except, some grew in more knowledge of scripture.  For me, this wasn’t enough I wanted a spiritual journey that would change my life from the inside out.  An inner transformation, not behavior modification.  We were taught to seek the presence of God.  Go here, go there, judgments were made on where to find God.  He is in this church, he’s in that church, spiritual temperatures were taken everywhere.  ENOUGH……I was exhausted and tired of spiritual gymnastics.  HELP ……..HOLY SPIRIT!

It is very easy to adopt patterns for our lives that God did not give.  In fact we can have delusions about God Himself.  We can have certain ideas about God that we invented, and build theologies around our ideas.  We can then worship a God of our own invention and become disappointed when our prayers aren’t answered. we may then get frustrated, hardened of heart and give up.  If this is the case we may be guilty of idol worship, in which we fail to worship the one true God, worshipping the one we made, instead.         Howard Morgan – Tishrei

My Epiphany came in a still small voice ” seek the presence of God within!”

That was 19 years ago.  I began my contemplative journey which is a process of interior transformation initiated by God, the Shepherd of my soul, and the Wayshower leading.

YAHWEH is my shepherd, I lack nothing. In grassy meadows he lets me lie. By tranquil streams he leads me to restore my spirit.  Psalms 23:1-3