The Power Of A Great Affection

In the deep South of New Orleans 100 years ago, Brennan Manning writes that the words born again were unknown, but “seized by the power of a great affection” is how people described their personal bonding with the God-in-Three Trinity of Love.

Do you feel that connection? Does it warm your heart? When you awaken to a summer morning in the woods with light and shadow dancing among the oaks for you, do you think of the amazing wondrous God who orchestrated today’s show for you and me and the entire world?

 

Yes, hurry, scurry when you must, but do schedule in time to dwell with awareness on the prevailing, powerful Presence of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And along your way, look for a heart that may be in progress – a seeker, young or old - who has known only emptiness. Some look at nature and feel nothing but perhaps occasional intrigue, never awe. They're confused by the hoopla about a God they’ve never heard about let alone experienced.

Where is God to be found if one has never known Him? What to suggest?

A starting point, the Presence that pores from the words of Scripture, podcasts that Ravi Zacharias offers dispelling the myth of atheism, connecting with the pastor of a local church for a chat about God. Experience the liturgy of the church, age-old rituals packed with meaning - the sacraments, Mass, Communion that speaks the reality of the cross endured for your perfection.

Go in your thinking to the gate of the Shepherd. Surrender the pride that asserts to fragile, flawed minds we don’t need Jesus, the Christ - “We’re quite good enough without a Savior, thank you.” Wrong.

Seek the humility that can be born in us despite our serious grasping for dabs of human honor. Search for those who far excel us in walking with dignity the trail of Jesus Christ. Study their behavior as models of how commandment-keeping brings freedom and fun and prevents despair and bondage. Drugs, immoral sex, adultery - their cost is huge – sucking away choices and life.

Invite the Holy Spirit with an open mind and readiness to believe if He will but show you God’s reality. Never have I known that request to go unanswered.

To go through life without the awe that comes from being really, truly loved and in love is a very sad existence. Nothing, no one, only God can cut it and keep the pace. Great as human love can be, it’s never enough.

Entertain the possibility of being seized with great affection, enduring and enriching, that will one day bring you through the threshold of eternal joy.

Isn’t this what being connected with the living God through our days of earth-walking is all about. Joshua is eight. He already knows. Can't you just see his joy.

P. S. Thanks for choosing to read Breathless Minute Meditations. Five hundred plus e-books have gone forth in the last two months. In addition to 300 some sales, over 200 were given away in a special promotion. May they foster intimacy with God in every reader's heart.

Psalm 42:8 "Yet the Lord will command His loving-kindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me, a prayer to the God of my life."