Category: Blessing

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Coin of the Realm

Lord, I can’t seem to get quiet inside. My thoughts are bouncing off tasks like pinballs.

 

The Coin of the Realm.

Okay, what does that mean?

If your coin is like a Peace Shield, whose likeness is on the coin?

Uh, Yours is, right? Some artist’s interpretation of You?

So you are an artist. You are interpreting My Kingdom, My realm, which for you is the peaceful connection, the call and response. The counterpoint.

Right…

So the coin of the realm for you is what you offer from those connections. You do give-away. Your blog is a huge give-away. You give-away your heart, your best self, in every encounter. There is a coin of the realm, and it is okay to receive this world’s coin in exchange for the treasure from My realm that you provide. You could, right now, be living a fully-connected heavenly life–but I need you, on earth. I need you to live that life on earth, where you are. I need you to be willing to barter, this earth’s food, this earth’s shelter, this earth’s technology, in order to sustain your physical life and health so you can share your spiritual and emotional life and health. And your venue is creativity because it is a gentle, still, small voice. It is not the loudest voice in the room. But it is very, very powerful. When you “share” the implication is that there is enough for you and for someone else to be nourished, to receive. Your sharing doesn’t mean giving all away. It is not a call to sacrifice. It is an invitation to others to come feast with you, to share the abundance of life with you.

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Suffering

God, I have—we all have—been taught so many different things about You. They can’t all be true. Here is one: You make bad things happen to punish us. Is that true?

You have been taught that I Am a God of suffering, that I afflict My Children to test or punish them. I have much to say about this.

But let Me begin with this: My Heart is to bless My children, to lavish My Love upon humanity. There are consequences for bad behavior or bad choices, and people misinterpret those consequences as My punishment. Even genetic or environmental illnesses come about because of ill-thought choices.

No, My Will is to see each of My children grow as Jesus grew: “in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man.” What does that mean? It means growing mentally, physically, spiritually and emotionally. Growing in relationship to the earth, to your own body, to Me as your God, and to others around you. It’s another way of saying, growing in Love.

What gardener wants any of his flowers to wilt? What farmer wants any of his crops to fail? What rancher wants any of his animals to sicken and die? How can you possibly think I Am less than any earthly farmer or gardener or rancher or shepherd? Am I not the Good Shepherd? Do I not give good gifts?