Children of God

A Brief History of our Development

A long long time ago, before the earth was formed, God was.

God desired to have children and began to prepare a place to grow and nurture them. He formed the earth and the entire universe, he formed the land and sea and every living thing plan or animal. Then he conceived a child.

While His child was still in the womb, he named him Adam. Before Adam had even begun to develop, God conceived of a second child, a twin named Eve and the two were alive and growing in God's womb together. This place is often called “The Garden of Eden”. In this place, Adam and Eve were mere embryo's at first - incapable of leaving God's presence. Feeding directly from the Father not having to work at finding food for themselves.

Soon, Adam and Eve were born and became somewhat detached from God. They were infants who obeyed the Father without question. They were given rules and followed them because they didn't know yet that they had an option. They were still completely dependent on God for food, shelter and the final say on right and wrong. But just like with a child approaching their second birthday, that was all about to change.

Adam and Eve became toddlers. They could wander off on their own for short periods of time and they even began to realize that rules were just that – rules – not inherent conditions of existence and life. They found a great new way to fill their days. Thinking. They thought about why they should listen to God's rules. Then they thought about how they could dress themselves, and later how they were going to find the next meal.

As these twin children of God grow and become older, we can read of them through the old Testament. They are stubborn and disobedient children over and over. God imposes house rules for these wild children to follow yet they continue to blatantly disobey. God sends them out of the house which is the promised land to boarding school for several years. They learn many new skills and gain an appreciation for the Father who helps them by sending money and food when they are desperate. Just as any good Father, God requires that his children attend church every week and there is no debating this point often dragging them kicking and screaming to the synagogue each week

Eventually however, all children become adults and need to start making decisions on their own. The Father can only hope that they will respect the parent's wishes and do what is right in terms of the way they have been raised and taught. In the New Testament we can read of the children of God becoming adults, and gaining a whole new way of relating to the Father. It is a relationship that is completely now at the initiation of the child. The Father has a hand in directing the ideal groom towards His child, but He can only hope they see and accept that gift. Again, the new relationship between Father and child is all about the child's freedom. Freedom to follow the Father's teaching, and the freedom to turn away. And the responsibility to deal with the consequences of our decisions.

As we sit at this stage of middle-age, with children of our own, we can't help but wonder “what is next for the children of God?”

Renovare Week 5: March 24-30

John of the Cross: "Purifying the Soul" ( from The Dark Night of the Soul )

"A soul will never grow until it is able to let go of the tight grasp it has on God."
"True spirituality consists in perseverance, patience, and humility"

Our spiritual life, like our physical life is susceptible and prone to "the 7 deadly sins." Pride, greed, luxury, wrath, gluttony, envy and sloth. In order to overcome these vices, God takes away the comfort of a reassuring and easy spiritual routine and replaces it with a long dark night in order to purify the soul.

Renovare Week 4: March 17 - 23

Francis de Sales: "One True Devotion"

Devotion is to Charity as flame is to fire.
Devotion is to life as sugar is to food.

"Genuine, living devotion pre-supposes love for God."

Sounds great!!! Problem is the bar for being devout is pretty high and it would seem that attempting to clear the bar in public does not count towards devotion.

The devout do good carefully, frequently, promptly, quickly and diligently with charity, zeal and readiness, are spiritually agile, and observe commandments without exception.

Renovare Week 3: March 10-16

Jonathan Edwards asks "How do we distinguish the presence of the Holy Spirit?"

Summarizing and extraplotaing on "Engagement of the Heart".

If the deepness of "our religion" is displayed by qualities such as the fruits of the spirit, then our religious affections are directly proportional to the extent that these fruits are displayed and manifested as activities.

Wordly affections beget worldy activities and religious affections beget religious activities.

To the extent that we DO NOT manifest the fruits of the spirit consistently and convincingly, we are weak, dull, lifeless, lacking conviction and indifferent.