I wanted to share.....

The Avowal

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.


Denise Levertov


- Posted by a fellow sojourner from his mobile office

Stillness and prayer

Prayer is powerful when it is a time of stillness.This is why for many prayer is difficult.

I remember a man who was known for his loud and distracting prayers. He either was putting on a show or lacked faith in God's hearing ability. Many think our prayers are about how well we word them, or the scripture references we use. However ask Peter, one of his most urgent and powerful prayers was simply, "Lord save me!" There have been moments where my most heartfelt prayer has been, "Oh God!".

Prayer really is about changing us, not God and most times is a perception or mind change in us. It is more about listening, not so much for a voice as a perspective. This takes quieting the mind, getting still and connecting with the Holy Spirit which is a religious title for God which is simply means "God on in the inside of us".

We are not necessarily able to stop all the mind noise and thinking but we can step back and observe our thoughts. This stepping back is our spirit (the real us)observing our mind. This creates space and stillness where we can hear from God. We don't need to so much pray through ( see last post for definition-"Wheres Waldo") but we simply need to step back from the noise and activity of the busyness of our mind. This is in a nutshell what meditation is. It is a practice that would benefit us on a regular basis.

Many people live their total lives in the constant noise of their own mind and have not experienced the stillness and the Peace of God that passes all understanding.

They live under the delusion that they are their thoughts, when in fact this is the ego. (the false self that is the story that your life experience has created. All the labels and identities you have given yourself or accepted from others. Some examples of this is; a victim, someone who is always sickly, poor, failure..etc) Many people believe these roles and labels about themselves when in fact they are really a spirit created in the image of God with limitless potential.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

New twitter account...

I just started a new twitter account for Reconnection Ministries......@reconnectionMin

Check it out......my old twitter account will be more personal

Where is Waldo?

I remember these books with the huge color pictures of hundreds of cartoon people in a scene and you were supposed to find the one guy who wore a red and white stripped shirt named Waldo. These were a great distraction, when I was at the Mall, while family shopped in stores, I had no interest in.
Sometimes, finding God can feel like this. Where is the Kingdom? How do I connect with God in a real and meaningful way.

Prayer has always come easy for me. Maybe because I have always believed that the spiritual realm, is here but only invisible. I was once praying with a friend before he and I was to minister in a church. After the service on our drive home he asked me a question. He said, "Mike, how is it when you pray you seem to go right to God and it takes me a while to get passed myself and pray through?"
(pray through- a term used in Pentecostal circles which meant praying until you finally felt like you had reached God.)

I answered him by saying,"I had never really given it much thought, but I believe that God is present everywhere and when I close my eyes, I am in God's presence."

Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God is within us. Which simply means God Abides in us, we are God's temple, God's house. To talk with God, we simply must give him our attention.

This may sound too simple, and that is the reason my friend had to pray through. He wasn't praying through to reach far into the Heavens and maybe he would get God's ear. No, he had to pray out of his own doubt, guilt, unworthiness. Which was his perception, not God's.

We are our own hinderance. God is desiring a relationship with each and every one. Our own false image and ego keep us from what God has prepared and made available.

Many believe this will all become theirs after they die and go to Heaven. Heaven is real, but it is not a place the way we often think of it. We think of it in terms of space and time. Heaven is eternal and available now. It is not limited by space, distance or time. We are spirit, we have a mind and we live in our body. We live in this life on earth because we have a body, but our spiritual life is because of our spirit. We touch Heaven by our spirit. Heaven is real, God is real, our spirits are real.....we find them inside...we carry the presence of God inside us. Christ in us...our hope of glory (God's presence.)

I am not saying that Heaven is not a place we go to when we die. We do, that is when we leave the limitations of our body and enjoy the fullness and limitlessness of eternity and Heaven, which is total access and connection to God. However life is not meant to be a journey to God, but a journey with God.(paraphrased from The Enoch Factor by Steve McSwain). Eternity is timeless is is now. God's presence is timeless and eternal and so is Heaven.

I don't know if Waldo is still around or where to find him, but I do know where I can find God....even without the red and white stripped shirt.




- Posted using BlogPress from my Mobile Office

STORMS

There has been a lot of rough weather lately. The death toll is astonishing, and the news is full of videos capturing clips of the power of these storms.
My prayers are for all of those who have suffered as a result of these storms.

Today, I want to talk about a different kind of storm that looms on the horizon.

With the earthquakes, tornados and all of the political and economic unrest in the world today, it gives the "gloom and doomers" much material to use.

You don't have to subscribe to their kind of thinking to sense a change in the air however. There is a shift happening in the earth. Many times what we see in the natural world is a reflection of what is happening in the spirit. Business as usual, is no longer working, whether you are speaking of the stock markets and banks or the church and its business. Greed, self interests, pride and power seeking at the expense of the weak is what has brought us to the place we are.

There is a change in the air. Change is happening. Birth pangs are not pleasant but they do bring such a blessing and joy in the end.

Let us continue to pray for the necessary change needed....."Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven".....

I am not promoting a religious Agenda like the Christian Right, but a Agenda of Love, Compassion, equality and justice! I pray that our nation and world changes its ways from greed to equality...that we once again care about the poor, the widow and the stranger. May our wealth be found in our hearts and our faith placed in Love and compassion....this will bring lasting change and make us a great people!


- Posted by a fellow sojourner from his mobile office

Reconnections

When I began this blog, I felt it was geared to GLBT Christians who like myself had gone through a wilderness and desired to reconnect with God and reconcile their faith with their sexuality. This is still true, however as is true with God most of the time, there was a greater mission and purpose and I had began with just a limited view of this.

I never have been comfortable with the idea of a ministry exclusively to GLBT Christians. For those with that calling, I am thankful for you. Metropolitan Community Churches for instance was such a Godsend to me, and I would not be where I am now if not for this church family who took me in a nursed me through a very difficult time. I did contemplate taking a ministry route with MCC, but have always felt that God wanted me to go in a different direction. I also want to say MCC is inclusive and all are welcome, but it functions primarily as a ministry for the GLBT community.

It is one of the reasons, the Progressive Christian Alliance has also been such a God send to me. However I will admit, God brought them into my life when, it was a stretch for me to take such a leap. The wineskin on this former Evangelical, pentecostal southern pastor has been stretched a lot on this journey. God has had more confidence in my elasticity than I did, but as happens many times in our journey of faith, we find God knew what God was doing and has perfect timing.

Back to Reconnections..... I now find that this God given ministry name, describes many people. There are many who are tired of organized religion and are leaving churches and paths they have been on for some time. It isn't that they aren't spiritual people or people of faith but they have lost faith in institutions or religion. Some have been hurt by churches or ministries. Some have become frustrated with the state of the church or the hype of the "celebrity Hollywood" type of consumerism that masks itself using the name of God. There are also those who have followed what the church has taught and who have been faithful but find that their faith doesn't meet the challenges of life and falls short of a real authentic way of life. They find themselves "going through the motions" or "spinning their wheels" and yet not feeling the real connections to God. I know I was here.

When I resigned my last pastorate, it was just for those reasons. I felt like I was going through the motions, but yet I knew there had to be more. My faith failed to meet the challenges of my struggles and yet seemed to condemn my condition. It offered no real answers, but yet pointed out a lot of problems. I felt disconnected.

Today, I am thankful to report that God is much bigger than what I had been taught. I am connected to God in a very real way, and my faith is very authentic. I live without the guilt and shame that religion had once burdened me with and God's Love and Grace are very real to me. I enjoy the presence of God daily in my life and I truly believe in the Good News of the Gospel. My life still has challenges, however I have a faith that meets them.

All I needed was a reconnection with God in relationship based on Love, truth and a paradigm shift and how I see and relate to God. Which seems to be more like what Jesus lived and religion distracts from.

don't get me wrong,I am not against church or religion, I am just for relationship.

Peace to you in Christ!



- Posted by a fellow sojourner from his mobile office