September Blog @St. Alban's

What if the Jesus has left His Spirit within you so that you could learn "how to believe and pray" with great results? Now that is a great adventure of learning how to see your personal life and issues come under the influence of Heaven!  Often times it simply takes learning how to accept that your are "already one" with Christ...primarily at the inner level of your spirit and heart rather than the body or mind. The greatest tool to do that is to help yourself change your attention....to shift  onto Him in you!  The prayer shift from the problem and my anxiety about the problem and onto  Him who is the Answer and is within me is enough to come under the influence of Kingdom Answers.

  Reading the promises of God, & singing and worshipping Jesus the Answer is enough...it is a shift that moves a person out of trying to control other people or situations. All I really need to to do is to flip a problem into the Answer! It's taking the negative and converting  that lack, or confusion or even physical limitation or pain into it's opposite. Without denying the pain, need or problem you can shift it into a happy expectation that the Answer, that is always Jesus, is now being RECEIVED and PUT INTO ACTION!

  Our goal is to learn ....to lean how to first recognize our connection with the Spirit of Jesus..turning our affection and expectation toward Him, recognizing His Presence in and with me! When share your affection for the One who is your heavenly Answer before seeing a change you are now stepping into the partnership of Heaven coming to earth. I have done this thousands of times, some answers have been huge and dramatic like a son's adrenal glands begin to function perfectly while others have been smaller like relationship restored wlth real kindness and mutual support. But the way of the Spirit seems to be the same:  turning away from limiting God which is what we do when we identity ourselves with a problem and lose awareness and connection with the Spirit within me who wants to flow with impact, solutions, and influence. 

     " Visit this place, O Lord, and drive  far from it all snares of the enemy: Let your holy angels dwell with us to preserve us in Peace; and let your Blessing be upon us always; through Jesus Christ our Lord"...BCP p140 "At the Close  of Day"

Early Fall at St. Alban's

This month's blog looks at the upcoming Rector's Bible Study on Tuesdays at 10 am in the Church Office.  Reminder: Beginning August 12 our Wednesday Noon Day Prayer will be in the Church at 12 noon for thirty minutes of quiet and contemplation,  and the Wednesday evening "Imagine Heaven" book study adult education class begins at 6pm with a pot luck and then the 6:30-7:30 class time.

The Rector's Bible Study...

  Our study begins Tuesday August 11 at 10 am in Conference Room. Together we will look at the present benefits available to believers as a result of the " finished work of the Cross'. Often we think of the death and resurrection of Jesus in a vague way, that somehow His death and then resurrection paid the price for our sins so that we could be forgiven. True...but the question is Why and How? Why couldn't God the Father or the Son or the Holy Spirit simply declare " I forgive you"? Why, apparently is that not enough or inadequate? After all, we often say to each other " I forgive you" and that statement or gift of forgiveness didn't depend on us dying first?

The scriptures open our eyes to the Cross as the primary vehicle or means by which all of His blessings are secured for us and also delivered to us!  Psalm 103:2-3. " Bless the Lord, o my soul and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all our sins and heals all our diseases".  In fact, the entire expression of the Kingdom of Heaven with all of it's benefits, and realities of grace, beauty and powers are delivered to us by the Cross or by the death and resurrection of Jesus.  So our bible study will connect you with the promises and power of Jesus today...the benefits that He has promised our available by grace and faith...today for you and your life!

Please purchase your study book " God Wants You Well" by Andrew Wommack in preparation for our class.

Jesus... and the Fourth of july

 As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of Signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 we can step back for a moment to consider this great American Experiment that begins with the Declaration of Independence brilliant opening: " We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...that to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...' words penned by Thomas Jefferson. The idea here is that of "the people" being both the source of consent for a legitimate governance by their elected representatives,  and that the same people are granted liberties by their Creator rather than by any government is the basic understanding of our "political freedom". This "political freedom" is declared as the colonies new basis of elected governance since they had been governed up until this time, by the unelected Crown and a British parliament without their elected representation. So we owe our "political freedom" of self-governance to this declaration and we also have our "civil freedom" secured to pursue Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" ...that is to pursue work, business creation, family, land ownership, and the Pursuit of Happiness which at the time meant the pursuit of creating and building  businesses of farming, labor, trades, investment, the arts, schools, universities  and churches, hospitals, business and labor associations, etc....all these Rights being granted foremost by the Creator and therefore cannot be diminished or denied by any local, state or national government. This is a remarkable statement by our new American republican or representative form of government to act in support of and in accordance with, the Rights and Liberties granted by God!

  The Founding Fathers recognized that faith in God, and the churches that cultivated that faith in God, also developed a Responsible and Reasonable people...a people who lived with a godly fear or sense of obligation to God and HIs Kingdom...to be accountable to the divine laws of His Nature.They believed that faith fosters good character, and that without Virtue and Self-Restraint, the republic would descend into moral and civic chaos of an extreme individualism that rejects as they put it " the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God". They believed that men and women can live in liberty only if they are governed from within. As John Adam said " Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." The framers understood that without a Virtuous people....a Responsible and Reasonable electorate ...that freedom could not be sustained. George Washington said clearly in his Farewell Address that " Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are the indispensable supports." So while the Founders wanted to prevent choosing one Christian denomination over another and requiring submission to it as a national church like in England with the Anglican Church, or in Germany with the Lutheran Church, they clearly saw the need to allow and cultivate religious morals and values in order to create a Virtuous people who had the capability to self- govern with a sense of moral accountability to God as their primary source of both freedom and virtues.

  So we need to repent. We need to return to a personal and self-transforming faith in the One Who both grants our rights and liberty...and Who also instills REAL FREEDOM in the souls and characters of his human creation.That Freedom from sin, from the smallness of soul that uses people for our ends, the smallness of soul that rejects being responsible for our decisions, the smallness of soul that rejects obligations to the Greater Good...the good, wise and healthy "building up" of our communities ...communities of family, churches, neighborhoods, towns, states, nations and the international community. It always begins with one....and together we will be a part of the answer to the prayer "..thy will be done on earth as it is Heaven."

Pentecost and YOu....

" When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were gathered together in one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house...and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit..." and " you will receive  power when the Holy Spirit  comes upon you to be My witnesses..." ( Acts 2:1-4 & Acts 1:8)

 The promised gift of the Spirit was poured out on the followers of Jesus on a Jewish feast day that celebrated the harvest of a great crop that had been earlier planted...an acknowledgement that the time of the full fruit had appeared in the world. In the activity of Heaven coming to earth, Jesus is also saying that the long awaited Divine Fruit of the Spirit in human beings hearts and lives had now happened! Now the God-kind of Eternal Life could be placed within people, within our hearts to transform flow our personalities and characters. People would no longer be just "mere humans"....we would carriers of the Life of Jesus by His indwelling Spirit. Heaven would be planted into human heart!  So now, we have a choice...to choose with faith and expectation that His world of salvation and Heaven will grow in our hearts and lives..or revert to a normal human experience as if God were " far, far away".