Published 1-30-12   The Religion Network publishes every Monday

ON TODAY'S SITE:
Nan C. Merrill, T. D. Jakes, C. Austin Miles, Book of Leviticus, Murray Bodo, Book of Ephesians
__________________________________________

        
 Photo by Chuck Bowman              All rights reserved



Desire only Love and walk your days
with the Beloved;
you will radiate with joy, blessing
others with Love's presence;
you will not know loneliness with
Love's companioning Presence...


The Saving grace of the upright comes
from the Beloved;
Love is their refuge in times of trouble.


Love leads the way and they arrive
home safely,
delivered from those who tempt them
with power.
Love invites all to open their hearts.



From"Psalms for Praying,"
by Nan C. Merrill
(Psalm 37)
continuum, 2009


____________



I used to spend a great deal of my time and energy trying to
be accepted by other people. I wanted them to like me,
respect me, admire me, and desire to have me around. But
once I realized and understood the full weight of the fact that
I was accepted in the Beloved of God, I no longer felt any need
to walk into a room and ask the crowd to accept me...A person
who comprehends that they accepted in the Beloved is a
person who has all the acceptance they will ever need.

...Once I grasped the depth and breadth of God's acceptance
of me, all of my motivation and drive turned to pleasing Him
alone. And when your every thought is consumed with pleasing
God and carrying out His agenda, you find very quickly that
He is only interested in touching people in the same way He
touched you. So rather than being desperate for another
person's love and good opinion, I became desperate for
them to know God and to be accepted in the Beloved also.



Excerpted from "Loved by God,"
by T. D. Jakes
Bethany House, 2000

____________



And He walks with me,
And He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.


Refrain and verse from "In the Garden,"
Hymn by C. Austin Miles
Christian pastor and author


____________



I will walk among you and be your God,
and you shall be my people.

Leviticus 26:12
New King James Version


____________

...(W)e know when we have been in the presence
of the Divine. We know it in the peace that follows
upon the experience, even if the experience itself is
a wrestling. We know it in the impulse to love more
selflessly, to reach out to the poor, the despised, the
rejected. We know it in that Formless, Soundless,
Incorporeal Other we bear with us that transforms
us little by little from superficial, outer-dominated
persons, to persons who act from the inside out
rather than feeling always acted upon...

Excerpted from "Landscape of Prayer,"
by Murray Bodo
St. Anthony Messenger Press, 2003