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    To Know God Better And To Love God More: Messages For Your Spiritual Journey
    To Know God Better And To Love God More: Messages For Your Spiritual Journey
    To Know God Better And To Love God More: Messages For Your Spiritual Journey
    Ebook185 pages2 hours

    To Know God Better And To Love God More: Messages For Your Spiritual Journey

    By John Zehring

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    About this ebook

    Twenty messages inspire the reader to grow in faithfulness to God, to know God better and to love God more. Could there be any higher aim for a person of faith?

    There is often much Christians want from their faith and they are glad to find God’s guidance, comfort, strength, grace, love, hope, joy and peace along the journey. We are made better people by our faith. And yet, faith is more than receiving benefits. It is based in our relationship with God and our relationship with God’s children. If we love God, we will want more than receiving benefits. We will want to know God, to love God, and to glorify God with our lives. The book’s messages guide the journey and inspire those who are seeking God to grow in faithfulness.

    John Zehring is a United Church of Christ pastor whose writing embraces all people of faith as they journey to know God better and to love God more.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn Zehring
    Release dateMay 6, 2014
    ISBN9781311067173
    To Know God Better And To Love God More: Messages For Your Spiritual Journey
    Author

    John Zehring

    John Zehring has served United Church of Christ congregations as Senior Pastor in Massachusetts (Andover), Rhode Island (Kingston), and Maine (Augusta) and as an Interim Pastor in Massachusetts (Arlington, Harvard). Prior to parish ministry, he served in higher education, primarily in development and institutional advancement. He worked as a dean of students, director of career planning and placement, adjunct professor of public speaking and as a vice president at a seminary and at a college. He is the author of more than sixty books and is a regular writer for The Christian Citizen, an American Baptist social justice publication. He has taught Public Speaking, Creative Writing, Educational Psychology and Church Administration. John was the founding editor of the publication Seminary Development News, a publication for seminary presidents, vice presidents and trustees (published by the Association of Theological Schools, funded by a grant from Lilly Endowment). He graduated from Eastern University and holds graduate degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, Rider University, and the Earlham School of Religion. He is listed in Marquis' WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA and is a recipient of their Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. John and his wife Donna live in two places, in central Massachusetts and by the sea in Maine.

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      Book preview

      To Know God Better And To Love God More - John Zehring

      To know God better and to love God more

      Messages for your spiritual journey

      John Zehring

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2014 John Zehring

      Thank you for downloading this ebook. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

      Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      How then shall we live?

      The teaching methods of Jesus

      Memories of tables in your life

      What to do when you are having a bad day

      Remember to say thank you

      It's good to be alive

      What do you value?

      Find the happiness you want

      What is God really like?

      Kindness is never for nothing

      Step to the music of a different drummer

      What God wants to know from you

      Soar like an eagle

      The Failed Samaritan

      Mommy, who is God?

      It is what it is

      Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to some?

      The One Minute Beatitude

      Living with Ambiguity

      The Lord is My Shepherd

      About the author

      Introduction

      The plaque at the retreat center arrested the reader's attention. It proclaimed What you are seeking is causing you to seek. On your spiritual journey, what are you seeking? Perhaps the highest aim is to seek to know God better and to love God more. Everything else in our religious lives points to that aim. Is that not the outcome of reading the bible, engaging in prayer, or participating in a community of faith?

      Of course, along the way, we also seek God's guidance, comfort, strength, inspiration, love, hope, joy and peace. We receive much from our spiritual walk. There are benefits. But faith leads to more than benefits. Ultimately, our spiritual journey leads to our worship of God and to our desire to glorify God.

      As you grow in your faith, you are a work in progress. The journey continues, day by day, as you climb a little higher on the mountain and see a little more of God's face. What better mission statement could you have for your life, than to know God better and to love God more? To hold that desire is to fulfill the goal of trying to be a faithful child of God.

      It is my honor to share with you some aids to knowing God better and loving God more. These came from congregations I have served as pastor. Some were messages (I never called them sermons because I think that sounds preachy). Others were part of my teaching or encounters with the lives of women and men in my congregation. My experience is as a United Church of Christ Pastor, but I hope many of these messages would be just as useful to members of any community of faith.

      The common denominator of each message is to guide each of us who so desire to know God better and to love God more. May you be blessed by your search for a deeper and closer relationship with God. Jesus taught Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3). Do not make it more complicated than it needs to be. What God desires most from you is that you become a faithful child, in trust, love and obedience. May God guide you on your spiritual journey.

      John Zehring

      All scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.

      How then shall we live?

      TEXTS: Galatians 5:16-26 and John 14:15-17

      MEDITATION: This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. (John 14:17)

      There is a quote from Marcus Aurelius that I have been living with and that I have found to be of lasting value to me. Aurelius said: Today you will meet all kinds of unpleasant people. They will hurt you, and injure you, and insult you. But you cannot live like that. You know better, for you are a person in whom the spirit of God dwells.

      You cannot live like that.

      Why can't I live like that? Darn it, when someone hurts you or insults you, why can't you let them know or reply in kind to put them in their place? After all, did not we hear somewhere that you should not back down from bullies? We've got bullies in our families, neighborhoods, work and churches: bullies who will be unpleasant to you. If you do not stand up to them and if you do not show some force, won't they think they can walk all over you? What do you mean I cannot live like that? Why can't I stand up for myself, challenge them, and call them what they are?

      I cannot, advised Marcus Aurelius, because I know better, for I am a person in whom the spirit of God dwells. It is God's will that we not live like that.

      If you love me

      It is by our invitation that the Spirit of God dwells within. I desire the Spirit of God to dwell within and want nothing higher than to treat it as an honored guest.

      When Jesus said If you love me, you will keep my commandments, he began his sentence with the word if, which is a conditional word: IF this, THEN that. You do not have to love him. He cannot require or demand that you love him. Nobody can require you to love them. But IF you do, THEN you will want to honor him by keeping his commandments.

      The next sentence explains the chemistry of how this works: If you love me, you will keep my commandments. Then, he says I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

      This is the key to understanding Marcus Aurelius. I cannot live like that because I love God. And because I love God, I choose to honor God by keeping God's commandments.

      Jesus explained that the world cannot receive the Advocate, which is the Holy Spirit. Why not? Why would God not send the Holy Spirit to everyone? God does, but many, whom Jesus refers to as the world, cannot receive the Advocate because they do not want to. It is their choice. They self-select not to receive it. But you, said Jesus: you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you. When the Spirit of God abides in you, you cannot live like that.

      Fruit of the Spirit

      So, how then shall we live?

      One of the Apostle Paul's greatest accomplishments was to provide the world with a list known as the fruit of the spirit, from Galatians 5: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. These are consequences, results, or fruits you bear when you have invited God's spirit to dwell within you. They are not so much gifts as new goals you adopt. They do not come automatically nor in equal proportion, but when you desire to welcome God's spirit within you and treat it as an honored guest, you change your goals. You change what you aim at in life. You might otherwise not care whether or not you radiate these fruits, except God's spirit changes you and changes what you want. Now, you want the fruit of the spirit to emanate from your being.

      When the Spirit of God abides in you, you aim at LOVE. Love means to desire what is in the other person's highest and best interest, even as they might be insulting you or hurting you. If they slap you in the face, said Jesus, turn the other cheek. If they exploit you, walk with them a second mile. If they go on the attack against you, speak well of them. This is not a natural inclination or because of feelings of affection. It is, in honor to God, a determination of the mind to desire that which is in their highest and best interest. For God, we do this

      A General was known to dislike Lincoln immensely. He thought Lincoln was an incompetent do-nothing. He had been heard to suggest Lincoln ought to step down from the presidency for the good of the country. This from Lincoln's general! Who needs friends like that? One day when the press met with the President, a reporter asked Lincoln what he thought of this general. Lincoln replied that he thought the general was an excellent leader and a man of courage who inspired men to follow him. The reporter was taken aback by Lincoln's glowing assessment of the general. He said, In all due respect, Mr. President, do you know what the general thinks about you? Lincoln replied, You did not ask me what he thinks about me. You asked me what I think about him. After the manner of Marcus Aurelius, Lincoln could not live like that.

      When the Spirit of God abides in you, you aim at JOY. Joy too is a determination of the mind. When you wake up every morning reciting Psalm 118, This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it, you declare I will determine to have joy and maybe even to give joy. I will rejoice. I will be grateful.

      When you meet people who do to you what Marcus Aurelius talked about, it can rob you of joy. It pops your balloon. But you cannot live like that, so aim at joy in spite of those who would whisk it away from you. It is been said that you can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage her or him. Determine to pick yourself up and rejoice.

      When the Spirit of God abides in you, you aim at PEACE. Most people are inclined to dislike conflict, although sometimes you bump into a person who delights in saying I do not get ulcers, I give ulcers! You cannot live like that.

      But what do you do when you are on the receiving end of conflict? You aim at a peaceful resolution, at a win-win solution. You aim to not retaliate, to not seek revenge. You turn to the bible (Rom 12:16-13:1) and find counsel to...

      Live in harmony with one another.

      Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble.

      If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

      Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

      Today you will meet all kinds of unpleasant people. There will be conflicts in your life. You will experience unfairness, meanness or injustice. Do not let them get you down. Do not be overcome by it. Open your arms to receive God's gift of peace, even when the sea billows swirl around you. Determine that you will not let them overcome you, for you cannot live like that. You are a person in whom the spirit of God dwells.

      When the Spirit of God abides in you, you aim at PATIENCE. This is not the kind of patience we fail to show while driving behind a slow driver. Rather, it means patience with people. It is like when you are trying to teach another and he or she says Be patient with me. It is patience that waits for people, cuts them some slack, forgives their mistakes, gives them a little grace, and believes the best in them.

      When the Spirit of God abides in you, you aim at KINDNESS. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote What you do speaks so loud I cannot hear what you say. When a person is kind to you, you want to hear what they have to say. When a person is unkind to you, their words become useless.

      Kindness is a telltale sign of the spirit's presence. Kindness is like the canary in the mine. If the canary dies, poisonous methane gas is present. If the canary dies, run. Get out of the mine, because poison is present. If kindness dies, poison is present and poses a critical threat to the health and survival of the soul.

      As people in whom the Spirit of God dwells, we are expected to be kind. Do not mistake kindness for agreement. You need not agree with another's position, but you are expected to act kindly to them. And if they are not kind to you, well, remember Marcus Aurelius: You cannot live like that.

      Some days you just want to shout To heck with it. I don't want to be kind anymore. Their lack of kindness can make you angry. It is been said that He who angers you, controls you. You might long for the cathartic feel-good response, to let 'em have it, but you cannot live like that. You know better, for you are a person in whom the spirit of God dwells. When kindness dies, run for help to the Source of the Spirit.

      When the Spirit of God abides in you, you aim at GENEROSITY. The Revised Standard Version translates this fruit as goodness. I was having lunch with a renowned person of achievement, a man of faith who had produced and accomplished many great works. I asked him: What is your legacy? What do you want to leave behind... to be known for? His answer surprised me and I have never forgotten it. He answered I just want to be a good person.

      Out of the desire to be a good person springs forth a spirit of generosity. When God's spirit is inside of people, they see things through the lenses of abundance rather than scarcity. No matter

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