Soul Sister Time

              The Christian life is not about religion.   Religion is about following a specific set of behaviors.   It is more about what we do.   It is about why we do what we do.   When Christ is ruling over our wills, our mind-emotion-actions fall into order.               When Christ is ruling over our wills, we act from the center of His presence in our souls.   It seems to me that all the work of the Old Testament was given to reveal that although our minds and emotions wanted God’s rescue from our sins, we needed something greater than ourselves to set us free.   The New Testament exposed the mystery that was known to God from the beginning, that we humans had been depleted of the will-power to follow God without His help.   Ezekiel 36:26 explained it this way: “ I will give you a new heart and put a new spiri...

              On the second week of Advent our virtue is love.   It is the greatest of everything: affection, virtue, connection to God.   Imagine what it was like to live in the world that God created from His heart of love with the purpose of nurturing every need and delight a human could experience.   Adam and Eve, alone, experienced what this world was like when love was incorporated in every tiny cell of creation.   Because of sin, God’s love has been obstructed.   Our emotions have become corrupted along with everything else about us.   In Advent we celebrate the love of God poured over the earth by the incredible lengths God went to in order to restore us to His love.   He took on human flesh in the form of an embryo in the womb of Mary, His chosen mother.                 Imagine Mary’s corrupted human emot...

              Christmas Eve 2018 marks the 100 th anniversary of the first Nine Lessons and Carols service held at King’s College in Cambridge, England.   Many churches include this meaningful service as part of their Advent lineup.   It is a service celebrating the birth of Jesus by following the story of the fall of man and the promise of the Messiah in the scriptures.   The nine lessons are Bible readings from Genesis, Isaiah and Gospels are presented in between hymns and Christmas carols.   These lessons remind us how our minds became corrupted and why we need the mind of God.               I love this service because it teaches how Jesus’ birth will restore my mind.   The basic lessons are: 1.        God announces in the Garden of Eden that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent’s he...

              Advent begins this Sunday.   Advent includes the four Sundays before Christmas.   It is a season of preparation for the coming of Christ.   Advent also marks the beginning of the New Church Year.   The color of Advent is purple which signifies that this is a season of fasting and repentance.   Our culture has diverted its original intentions to a focus on food, parties, decorations galore, and red and green.   I learned from my friends in England that even the church liturgy reminds them when to start their Christmas pudding.   On the last Sunday before Advent, the prayer begins “Stir up, we beseech thee, Oh Lord the wills of thy faithful people.”   This prayer reminds parishioners to start their pudding that Sunday.   In the 14 th century this pudding was a soup that was used for the days of fasting before Christmas.   By the 19 th century it became a f...

                Matthew is one of the twelve disciples who had one of those dramatic stories of following Jesus.  The fact that Jesus called a man like Matthew sent shock waves through the religious community.  It also opened the door for others like Matthew to have the opportunity to follow Jesus.                 Matthew would have seemed a lost cause to the religious Jews of his time.  He was worse than a pagan because he was born a Jew and chose to reject his rich heritage and join the hated Romans by collecting taxes for them, from his own people.  The dramatic conversion details are mentioned in three of the gospels and in his own words in Matthew 9:9-13 which highlights the importance of his conversion story.  When fisherman left their nets to follow Jesus, they could return to their professions.  W...

              The birth of Christ receives far less detail than the ministry and death of Christ in the Gospel narratives recording His life.  Yet every year people around the world focus on His birth.  Some of these people don’t have any idea who the Christ of Christmas really is.  The four Gospel writers each share a unique narrative about His birth.  They don’t contradict each other; they simply highlight different peculiarities around His birth.  For the next four weeks, we will explore each Gospel narrative as we prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Christ on Christmas Day.               Rather than start with Matthew, let’s begin with the Gospel of Mark.  Mark’s gospel doesn’t even mention His birth.  Mark’s gospel was the earliest written description of the incredible life of Christ.  He wrote his go...