Laurel Hill Cemetery.
For me, Fall is the time of year God paints with glorious colors to remind us of the beauty that surrounds us.
Picture by Richard Sawyer
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Wednesday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Extraordinary Time
Brothers and sisters:
If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are obvious:
immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry,
sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy,
outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness,
dissensions, factions, occasions of envy,
drinking bouts, orgies, and the like.
I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
In contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity,
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also follow the Spirit.
Emphasis is mine Galatians 5:18-25
St. Paul of course is referring to the Law of Moses the Torah. We took it one step further and are applying it to my interactions with society and all of its laws.
I am sure everyone who knows me knows how much I believe in praying everyday for an increase of Love, Joy, Peace, which is brought about by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
What you may not know was how this whole process started. The Holy Spirit asked me if I would like more Peace in my life? At that time we were going belly up, because I had started a new business, we hadn’t been paid for six months, and Peace wasn’t even something I could comprehend.
I said, “Yes.!”
And,
Started to grow in Peace. Go figure.
And,
The line that jumped out at me was If you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
I hate rules and laws, and as I considered the “Nine,” I quickly realized that if I lived in the Fruit of The Holy Spirit, Patience, Kindness, Generosity etc, I really would never have to worry about laws concerning my relationship with others.
Over the past forty-five years as I have prayed the “Nine,” I have noticed very positive changes in my life and I never want to go back to the person I was – NEVER!
The frustration for me is seeing so many people who think, “oh that’s crazy Fred, he’s different, it wouldn’t work for me.”
On the Honor Flight trip we passed out cards to the people on our bus, and some came up to me later and said, “See I have the card in my wallet,” which is a start, because they could have thrown it out, but now they have to start praying the “Nine.”
Months ago we gave a card to a man in our neighborhood, who is on dialysis and he is at a point in his life where he has to decide if he wants to continue or stop because he has a lot of other-related medical issues. He reached into his chair and found the card we gave him months ago, maybe this will help him on his journey home to Jesus. He mentioned it to me as I was walking by and stopped to say hi.
All of this is so easy, but because it’s easy it also makes it hard, because real change really can’t be that easy, or could it?
Yes it can!
Notice how the picture fits in beautifully – Fall is a time of change.
Prayer:
When satan knocks at your door, Pray: “Jesus for you.”
Sidebar:
Last week we wrote about my lack of humility, and the week before that, my anger, and this week we want to write about fear but maybe not the fear you are thinking about.
The second third of the Prayer for Humility.
O Jesus meek and humble of heart, hear me
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being despised,….
From the fear of being rebuked, ….
From the fear of being calumniated, ….
From the fear of being forgotten,….
From the fear of being ridiculed, ….
From the fear of being wronged,….
From the fear of being suspected, ….
Yes as you may also suspect I flunked all of these also.
But
Something very interesting happened on our trip.
We were told it was ok to put our feet in the pool of the World War II Memorial.
For eight-five years I was very self-conscious, two people in our group asked Dave and I to join them. Dave did instantly, and I made an excuse, and stood back,
UNTIL
The Holy Spirit told me to join them, which I did, and eighty-five years of Fear of being humiliated started to vanish. Taking off my shoes, and rolling up my pants just wasn’t part of my DNA,
But,
Now that we have started we can also start attacking this and the other other areas of fear.
Thinking back to our prior two blogs, God had me learn the Prayer of Humility. I next applied and was invited to go on an Honor Flight Maine trip, now, and was accepted. Anger was faced, and is being worked on, and I am trying to live a more humble life, and wash away fears.
If this isn’t God working in my life then I don’t what else one could call it.
Only a fool would say I was lucky!
Please keep Snapping!
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
The offer for the cards is sadly for American readers only. The Post office won’t accept foreign stamps.
If you want a copy of the prayers we discuss.
Send an email to: fprince101@gmail.com
Disclaimer:
We decided to share with you that I do use Google AI for spelling, punctuation, and helping me find a Bible verse. BUT we go to the Bible to print out the verse we find. If we do use Google AI it will be noted (GAI). I believe in a while this type of disclaimer will be needed on all created works.
