Today....I'm on my next to last Medrol pill. Tomorrow is the last day. Pain has been creeping back into my joints and tendons. I went to the grocery store today and used the scooter.
But that is just my body....what's the state of my soul? I just read a book recommended to me by a good pastor friend. I finished it this morning and was so filled with thoughts I had to put them down in a page on my computer...and also did some things long hand. I underlined like mad in my newish Bible. My concern is that I'm just sailing through my days not paying much attention to the state of my soul. There have GOT to be issues that God wants me to deal with...But I do not think about it. I do not pray for God to transform me....I've decided that this is something I need to begin doing. I don't want to end up at the entrance to heaven wearing old messed up clothes with a sin-filled character that has never experience the discipline of God.
The author of the book, Mansions of the Heart by R Thomas Ashbrook.... The book takes the book by Saint Teresa, the Interior Castle and her 7 stages of the soul on the was to their becoming transformed . It talks about challenges they face and the difficulties and also the rewards.
Here is a quote, "Communion with God discovers the excellence of His character and by beholding HIm the soul is transformed . Holiness is conformity with God." As I read the example tales of two people and their spiritual development, it gave me very clear insight as to what I am up against. We are told that we must be in the "habit of prayer" and it is by this practice that we are able to behold the holiness of God and the changes within us are ones that we have begun to understand.....
My internet was not working this morning ....so instead of chatting away my morning, I gazed on Jesus and studied the scriptures that Tom Ashbrook used in his book and underlined them and read and re-read them. At the conclusion of the book the author listed quite a number of books that we may study further. I intend to do that. Once I finish Matt Chandler's new book.
I had such peace this morning. I recall devotions -- getting up at 4:00 or 5:00 so as to be undisturbed in past years and beheld all the yearning and nostalgia I had about those mornings. And it is possible again. My goal? I want to look like; to think like my Lord. For all my bleating about going to heaven SOON..I clearly see that I need to all the great surgeon a chance to work on my heart before he calls me the join him in Heaven.
A man by the name of Bengal said this -- as prayerfulness produces a singular serenity of spirit. "WE are built up into a recollected consciousness of God. " I desire that . I want my prayer life to be infused with power...I want it to cleanse my spirit....to fill and nurture me....and most of all, I want to look like my Lord. I want to greet him in the morning with the joy a honeymooner may feel when she opens her eyes and sees her beloved sleeping next to her. And it is possible. In fact it is what my Lord wants.
I know there are things in me that displease my Lord. I want to be rid of them and instead to progress with the goal in mind of transformation...I used to think that I had already passed through the "Dark Night of the Soul" But I did not. I passed through clinical depression and periods of wanton sin....which darkness is much greater and serves less purpose than does someone with a heart that is bent on self destruction.
I am goign to go back to writing in my little notebooks and from now on the morning belongs to the Lord ...and hopefully soon I will learn to use them to the greatest benefit.
But that is just my body....what's the state of my soul? I just read a book recommended to me by a good pastor friend. I finished it this morning and was so filled with thoughts I had to put them down in a page on my computer...and also did some things long hand. I underlined like mad in my newish Bible. My concern is that I'm just sailing through my days not paying much attention to the state of my soul. There have GOT to be issues that God wants me to deal with...But I do not think about it. I do not pray for God to transform me....I've decided that this is something I need to begin doing. I don't want to end up at the entrance to heaven wearing old messed up clothes with a sin-filled character that has never experience the discipline of God.
The author of the book, Mansions of the Heart by R Thomas Ashbrook.... The book takes the book by Saint Teresa, the Interior Castle and her 7 stages of the soul on the was to their becoming transformed . It talks about challenges they face and the difficulties and also the rewards.
Here is a quote, "Communion with God discovers the excellence of His character and by beholding HIm the soul is transformed . Holiness is conformity with God." As I read the example tales of two people and their spiritual development, it gave me very clear insight as to what I am up against. We are told that we must be in the "habit of prayer" and it is by this practice that we are able to behold the holiness of God and the changes within us are ones that we have begun to understand.....
My internet was not working this morning ....so instead of chatting away my morning, I gazed on Jesus and studied the scriptures that Tom Ashbrook used in his book and underlined them and read and re-read them. At the conclusion of the book the author listed quite a number of books that we may study further. I intend to do that. Once I finish Matt Chandler's new book.
I had such peace this morning. I recall devotions -- getting up at 4:00 or 5:00 so as to be undisturbed in past years and beheld all the yearning and nostalgia I had about those mornings. And it is possible again. My goal? I want to look like; to think like my Lord. For all my bleating about going to heaven SOON..I clearly see that I need to all the great surgeon a chance to work on my heart before he calls me the join him in Heaven.
A man by the name of Bengal said this -- as prayerfulness produces a singular serenity of spirit. "WE are built up into a recollected consciousness of God. " I desire that . I want my prayer life to be infused with power...I want it to cleanse my spirit....to fill and nurture me....and most of all, I want to look like my Lord. I want to greet him in the morning with the joy a honeymooner may feel when she opens her eyes and sees her beloved sleeping next to her. And it is possible. In fact it is what my Lord wants.
I know there are things in me that displease my Lord. I want to be rid of them and instead to progress with the goal in mind of transformation...I used to think that I had already passed through the "Dark Night of the Soul" But I did not. I passed through clinical depression and periods of wanton sin....which darkness is much greater and serves less purpose than does someone with a heart that is bent on self destruction.
I am goign to go back to writing in my little notebooks and from now on the morning belongs to the Lord ...and hopefully soon I will learn to use them to the greatest benefit.
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