God is Alive!

Years ago I used to read a daily devotion that always included some scripture and reflection.  It was a 31-day devotion with a different reflection for each day of the month.  At the end of each month I would start over on the first of the month with the same scripture and reflection that I started with the month before.  The same for the second day and the third day and so on through the rest of that month.  Somehow those reflections always seemed anew to me. 

What I discovered was that I was in a different place in my life than the month before and that same reading spoke to me differently.  Likely due to meeting new people that I met and interacted with and new experiences in the last month my perceptions and attitude could be different.  I found in reading those Scriptures a month later that different words or phrases spoke to me than in previous times. 

In my upbringing I had heard that the Holy Scripture is also known as the living Word of God.  Without initially realizing it in my daily reading of those reflections the Living Word of God was having a life-giving effect on me.  The Lectio Divina process is a prayerful process that the Church teaches us in an effort to help bring the Word of God alive into our lives. 

We are taught to carefully read a Scripture passage and listen for a particular word or phrase in that passage that stands out to us.  Then read it again slowly listening to how God is speaking to us in that word or phrase.   What message does He want us to take away from that passage?

How do we experience the Living Word of God?

First, we must sincerely desire to hear His Word.  The more we desire to be in relationship to God the more we are in a disposition to hear His Word and be awakened to His call.  As we hear and recognize His messaging to us the more alive we become as the Apostles did when the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Jesus had filled them with the expectation of the coming of the Advocate.  They were filled with great expectation when the Holy Spirit descended upon them at Pentecost and they went out to the world with great power.

Faith is a gift from God and it is up to us to want to receive that gift.  The more we open ourselves to receive that gift the more we begin to hunger for more.  We desire to understand more deeply what God has in store for us.  There is so much richness in the Scriptures that He has stored there for us.  As we invest our time in reading and listening to His word in the Scriptures we develop a strong desire to live as He calls us to live.

This includes sharing the life of the Scriptures with others, the life that God passes onto us through the Scriptures.  When we are open to receiving that Word, living that Word, and passing on that Word, we demonstrate that God is Alive! 

He lives in all of us and loves us beyond our imagination.  We don’t need an imagination to love Him back but rather freely accept His love and pass it on.  In doing that we demonstrate to those who are struggling that God is Alive.     

Jesus, God made man, came to this world to reconcile us to the Father.  Jesus demonstrates to us the loving and merciful God.  His Mercy is greater than any sin.

God is the source of all good and of love.  When we look and see the goodness of each other we can again realize and appreciate that God is alive!

This Easter Season we are called to open our hearts and souls to Jesus and study and accept His Living Word.  The book of Acts is one of my favorite (non-Gospel) books of the Bible as it tells of how God lived in His new followers and how they acted upon His Word with power.  He calls us to act as well with His power and bring the Living God to this world. 

Read Acts and share it!  Read it with your family.  Share it with others and know God is alive!

Let us share God’s love and life and Shine Like the Son!  God bless you and may you and your loved ones enjoy a loving lively Easter Season!