Photo Source: Flickr Creative Commons by Waiting for the Word. https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/waitingfortheword\/<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve told you about the few things I know from lived experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI know that God is real.<\/p>\n
I know that God is love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI know that our existence is meant.<\/p>\n
I know that the Holy Spirit will walk with each one of us.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI know that the Holy Spirit teaches us the nature of our sins and shows us what we must do to follow Christ.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI also know that if you refuse the guidance of the Holy Spirit, He will not force you. He will step back and let you go your own sinful way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGod\u2019s army is an all volunteer army. It\u2019s weapons are faithfulness and love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt would appear at first glance that God\u2019s Army is an army of weaklings. The world is a nasty place. People who lie, bully, cheat and attack would seem to be what success is made of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBut history tells us another story. It was the Christians who changed the world over the slow centuries, not the Roman Empire. The powerful who stride across history go back to dust.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMeanwhile, Jesus and His Gospels, with their upside-down view of power and success, roll on. The Kingdom of God can be born in your heart in a moment. All you have to do is say \u201cYes\u201d to the One Who made you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAt the same time, the Kingdom of God manifests slowly, both in you and in history. It is the leaven that grows into a lifetime of followership, that becomes the spine of your soul, that lets you stand upright morally and say \u201cno\u201d to the religious fashions and myriad temptations which lead away from Him.<\/p>\n
Following Christ begins in the moment that you say \u201cyes\u201d to Him. The Spirit of God leads you from that moment all through the rest of your days. Every step of the way, it teaches you and shows you your sins. It encourages you in the pits and reminds you to remember who you are with humility in your heights.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt works through you, and through all the other followers who will accept its leadership to manifest the Kingdom. That is your role in history. It doesn\u2019t matter if you are a housewife or an emperor. If you follow Christ, you have one, simple, role; to manifest the Kingdom in the place where you are by means of the things you do and choices you make.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou are the Light of the World.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou are, for many of the people who interact with you, the only Jesus they will ever meet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat is how the Kingdom comes. It is how it manifests. The Kingdom of God has been coming since God spoke to Abraham. It is coming still. Today, this moment, in this time and place, is your one chance to play an active part in that great coming of the Kingdom of God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou can follow Him.<\/p>\n
Or you can follow the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou choose this day, and every day that you live, whom you will serve.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou can follow the powers of the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOr you can follow Him.<\/p>\n
But you cannot follow both of them.<\/p>\n
They go in different directions. They lead to different destinations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOne path leads you to do your small part in bringing the Kingdom of God to reality in this world and time.<\/p>\n
The other allows you to be part of the darkness, to lead people away from Him and into the worldly way of power, success, hatred and hurt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nJesus told us that we could discern if someone really was His follower by the fruits of their work. By their fruits you shall know them\u00a0<\/i>He said. <\/i>If they bring justice, and peace, if they uplift the poor, defend the weak, speak for the voiceless; if what they do makes the world better, then the Spirit of God is working through them.<\/p>\n
But if they bring chaos, set people against one another, teach lies and violence and hate, then they are not His.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nRacism, misogyny, violence, hatred, chaos and lies are fruits of the devil. They have nothing to do with God.<\/p>\n
This I know: God is love.<\/p>\n
If you say you love God, and hate other people, you are a liar.<\/i> John the Apostle, the son of Zebedee, the son of thunder, the one who Jesus loved, told us this.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou don\u2019t have to get everything right to follow Christ. You can\u2019t. You are a finite, mortal and fallen creature. You don\u2019t know enough. Your understanding is nailed down to the ground of your own finite, earthly self.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat is your reality. You are a creature.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe miracle is that the Creator loves you. I have never been able to fathom that awesome fact.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe One Who made everything there is, who breathed all existence into existence with a single breath and who holds that existence in existence with a thought, loves us. Loves me. Loves you.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know much about God. But I do know that the Being I encountered was Love.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI know because He\u2019s taught me that every single one of us is precious in His sight. God is love.<\/p>\n
I know it. St John the Apostle knew it. Everyone who has ever encountered the Risen Lord, who has ever heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, knows it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a0 I\u2019ve told you about the few things I know from lived experience.\u00a0 I know that God is real. I know that God is love.\u00a0 I know that our existence is meant. I know that the Holy Spirit will walk with each one of us.\u00a0 I know that the Holy Spirit teaches us the nature […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1155,"featured_media":28016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[726],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-following-christ"],"yoast_head":"\n
Every Person is Precious in God's Sight.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" I\u2019ve told you about the few things I know from lived experience.\u00a0 I know that God is real. I know that God is love.\u00a0 I know that our existence is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/07\/every-person-is-precious-in-gods-sight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Every Person is Precious in God's Sight.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" I\u2019ve told you about the few things I know from lived experience.\u00a0 I know that God is real. I know that God is love.\u00a0 I know that our existence is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/07\/every-person-is-precious-in-gods-sight\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Catholic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-08T15:27:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-11-11T21:17:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/254\/2015\/02\/rockwell-golden-rule.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"571\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rebecca Hamilton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/07\/every-person-is-precious-in-gods-sight\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2020\/07\/every-person-is-precious-in-gods-sight\/\",\"name\":\"Every Person is Precious in God's Sight.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-07-08T15:27:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-11-11T21:17:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/#\/schema\/person\/e8d2778109308e0e776e5c16eae7b67d\"},\"description\":\" I\u2019ve told you about the few things I know from lived experience.\u00a0 I know that God is real. 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