new church life: march / april 2014
The more we do what
the Lord says, the more
love is brought out
into the world. The
Lord says He gives His
commandments to
us so our joy may be
full. The Lord’s laws
are all about joy.
is about having us change and follow
Him. Everything He teaches is about
us learning how to love and embody
that love better in our lives. That is
what regeneration is – regenerating our
loves, learning how to love better. He
is the judge of right and wrong, good
and evil, and through His teachings we
judge our lives and learn to change.
The Lord fights enemies and
protects us too, but again, not in an
external or earthly way. When we look
within ourselves, anyone who has ever
struggled with anything knows that
there are greater forces going on than
any one of us can handle. We know that unless the Lord is present with us,
fighting for us, we will not win those inner battles. That is what temptation and
struggle are all about.
When we are faced with spiritual struggles we need to allow the Lord to
be king in our lives and allow the Lord’s way to come in. If we ask for His help
and strive to follow His path we let Him defend us. The Lord is only present
in what is good and true from Him. When we seek to have that embodied in
our lives the Lord is truly the king within, and He is able to fight and protect
us from harm in cooperation with our free-will response to His leading. So,
again, is the Lord a king? Absolutely!
We are integral parts of the Lord’s Kingdom. The Lord created human
beings from love and for love. True Christianity 43 talks about three aspects
of the Lord’s love: love is always going out toward others, seeking to connect
with others, and seeking to make others happy from oneself. That is what the
Lord is doing every day. He is continually creating things outside of Himself.
He strives to make a connection with all that He creates.
For what reason? To share His love with us and make us happy. That is
the whole reason we exist. Every one of His laws, every one of His kingly
principles, is about that. They all teach about love going out toward others,
connecting with others in love, and creating happiness through His laws.
If that is what the Lord is doing for us, that is what we are meant to be
doing for each other: reaching out toward others, learning how to connect
with them, and striving to make them happy. The way we do that is to allow
the Lord to be king of our lives. We allow the Lord’s truth to lead and guide.
We allow the Lord’s truth to show us what love is all about.
When we look at the symbolism of the Palm Sunday story we can see
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