Dear Friends of Longview Chapel,
I often find that God leads me to books, people, music, movies or scriptures that help to open my mind to see something I have not yet seen or more understood. Over the last few weeks, I have encountered from several different sources this scripture:
“Later, he was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he gave them this reply: ‘The kingdom of God never comes by watching for it. Men cannot say, ‘Look, here it is’, or ‘there it is’, for the kingdom of God is inside of you.” Luke 17:20-21 J.B. Phillips
We can connect this scripture with many others. Just a few are:
“God created humanity in God’s own image, in the divine image God created them, male and female God created them.” Genesis 1:26-27 CEB
“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” I Corinthians 3:16 NIV
“That is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” John 14:17 NASB
“No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.” I John 4:12 NRSVUE
If, as Jesus taught us, God and God’s Kingdom are within us, then we are all connected by God’s Presence within us. If God’s Spirit and God’s Kingdom are in us, then each of us carries a part of God’s truth, not just for ourselves, but for others we meet.
I found myself praying about how the world would be different if we understood God’s Presence is connecting us. And that when we honor that Presence, we can become a part of God’s Kingdom being created “on earth as it is in heaven.” So, I am committing, at least once a day, to listen to God’s voice within me and to really focus on my connection with God dwelling in me and others and see how praying and working (which prayer often inspires action) with God just might make a difference. Who knows? Praying just might help me see God’s Presence working in others that I had missed seeing.
I am so thankful that God chooses to be in us and around us, always helping us by loving and nurturing us, helping us to grow and thrive.
Pastor Donna