Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify(Greek hagiazo set apart for sacred use or make holy) them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. John 17:15-18 (New International Version)

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
In one of the climactic scenes of The Lord of the Rings, the young hobbit, Frodo, laments the world he sees around him with all the tragedy and darkness that has befallen him. Looking at the difficulty in continuing on the path laid out before him, Frodo mourns, “I wish it need not have happened in my time.” Gandalf the Grey, ever his wise mentor, consoles him with these words: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring, in which case you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.”(1)

Like Frodo and the other members of the Fellowship of the Ring, we can so easily look around us and see the peril of the journey in this world. Our desire to avoid difficulty and pain, and our longing for another kind of world often distracts us from doing God’s work in God’s world, regardless of the times at hand. Yet, our longings for what is good, beautiful, and right for our world do not have to lead us to flights of fantasy, or to wishful thinking. Rather, our longing for a better world should compel us to action as witnesses to the gospel as the force of good for our world. Indeed, our longings can lead us to decide what we can do to make the best of the times we’ve been given.

Comments:
This past weekend a group of friends ran the Chicago Marathon with a cause of Pro-Life. Several thousand dollars were raised to give to many different organizations in an effort to end this injustice in America. To be part of this was something amazing. May I encourage you to look for causes that fight injustice and become part. There were several people running for causes. One shirt that stands out read, "Love Wins".

Share your passions with the group and lets move forward in service.

Thank you Pat (COUGAR) for adding fuel to the fire of passion for the Love of Jesus through service.

Incarnation Application by Margaret Manning

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

Then I looked, and I saw a hand stretched out to me. In it was a scroll, 10 which he unrolled before me. On both sides of it were written words of lament and mourning and woe. And he said to me, "Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel." So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, "Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it." So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.Ezekiel 2:9-3:3 (New International Version)

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
For most of us, the study of doctrine is best left to academics and theologians. If we’re honest, reading and studying theology is something most of us would like to avoid just as we’d like to avoid a root canal.

...The more I thought about the Incarnation, the more I realized that doctrine needs to be incarnational. Doctrine must be “enfleshed” in our very beings, just as our skin encases our bones and organs.

...Of course the preeminent example of incarnation is in the person and ministry of Jesus Christ. But incarnational doctrine begins all the way back in the Old Testament. God comes to be with his people in their wilderness wanderings as a pillar of fire and a cloud. God “dwells” among the people in the Ark of the Covenant, and then in the Tabernacle. Later, the Temple became the incarnational focal point of God’s presence with God’s people. Ronald Rolheiser suggests a profound incarnational application for this image: “The idea is that they should digest the word and turn it into their own flesh so that people will be able to see the word of God in a living body rather than on a dead parchment....We have to digest something and turn it, physically, into the flesh of our own bodies so it becomes part of what we look like. If we would do this with the word of God, others would not have to [only] read the Bible to see what God is like, they would need only to look at our faces and our lives to see God.”(1)

Could it be that we could so imbibe and ingest doctrine, and the beautiful teachings that come from God’s word into our lives, that they would radiate from our faces? That the way we lived, spoke, acted--even our very countenance--would give witness to the truth of God’s word? This is incarnation application. We incarnate God’s word, God’s truth and love, as our lives bear witness to Him. Doctrine is lived out, and our beliefs are enfleshed in our deeds and our actions, and even in our words. As St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the word of God wherever you go, even use words, if necessary.”

Comments: I notice quickly what types of Doctrine-especially worldly ones-people hold. Perhaps I am quick to judge. I pray that everyone I come in contact with recognizes the doctrines I hold. By 'eating' the clean things and avoiding the unclean, I pray I am radiating God's love.

Time and Transformation by Jill Carattini

Take approximately 5 minutes to read this shortened version of yesterday's 'A Slice of Infinity'. Post comments to the blog for spiritual collaboration. Please email your prayer requests too.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Corinthians 5:17 (New Living Translation)

Slice of Infinity Snippets:
To the one who has been united with Christ, the daily indwelling of God is a gift. Within our experience of time, the message of the gospel is all the more transformational, Christ is our moral influence daily, and through the Holy Spirit we are being further transformed into his image. But this kind of transformation is neither the dramatic change we often hope for, nor the steady linear progression we might expect. Like Paul himself, we find ourselves doing the things we don’t want to do, falling back into mindsets that need to be renewed, imitating a broken world more than we imitate Christ. Transformation at these times seems far less like Lazarus rising from the grave and more like a would-be butterfly refusing to come out of its cocoon.

But even here, Christ is surely near, the eternal urging us to see the potential in this very moment. Whether we make our bed in the depths, whether we fall repeatedly or seem to be moving backward, God is both near and at work. In the experience of time before us is the radical promise of transformation and the gift of looking glory full in the face. By the power of the Spirit, God takes the most wretched of creatures and changes him into the likeness of Christ, the most beautiful creature. Whether time is flying or standing still, for the worst of us,..., this is indeed good news.

Comments:
One way to experience God in your life is through service to others. May we start / continue to make space for unbelievers in our lives. This is as easy as saying hi or dropping someone a note and as difficult as inviting them over to your home.