A Word from The Park

What are your gifts that you have that you can match with the power of the Holy Spirit that God has infused in your life?

"God has earned your trust. Hand that trust to the Holy Spirit and your faith will bear you up. Through anything. No matter what." In her sermon, Pastor Kaji references the Harvard Business Review article "Begin with Trust" by Frances X. Frei and Anne Morriss. See https://tinyurl.com/begin-with-trust

"Be at Peace" is my blessing for you today. You will pass through flames and waters, but no matter what, God says "I will always be with you, before you, beside you, behind you, bearing you up, rising above, within you. I will be with you."

Whatever the circumstance, God's gonna meet you - God will never beat you... Your project is to look for the ways that God is meeting you right now.

Jesus’ story is the template for your life, it is your archetype, it is your path. They might write you off. They might try to forget you. They might denigrate you, reduce your being, anything to put you in a position of anything but a child of God. But God’s not worried. And we know this because: when they did the same thing to God’s only begotten son: It. Didn’t. Work. At the end of the day, if you’re in your own pit, just know this: the God who’s not worried has already decided in your ultimate victory. You. Will. ALWAYS. Always get up. You are getting up. Let God show you how.

Be ready to encounter someone else and know that you are loved, yes, but for the sake of loving.

Peace comes, and we get saved, even, when we love and help one another.

Chances are that, like me, you have been at battle with yourself. And breaking the chains of that habit can be the hardest thing we could possibly do. So impossible, even, that we could only pull it off through divine intervention. Because, you know. God intervenes. God will fight that battle for you.

You are seeking something that you are not going to find where you’re looking for it. And you are invested in it being there. In the box you’re comfortable with. Your Lenten journey is your chance to change this. To turn the other way. To scale out beyond your comfort zone. Lent is your pivot. It’s time to stop looking in all the wrong places.

No one can know everything that you’re facing. Sometimes there are storms and quakes and fires that only you experience. Or, hear this critical correction: only you AND YOUR GOD experience. But the promise the Word gave to Elijah is the very same one that God makes to you: Stand up. For the Lord is about to pass by. The Lord is coming.

We do not get to *pick* what revelations God sends us. It just doesn’t work that way. God is always answering a question in your life. It might not be the question you’re asking. But the question God is answering? It’s the right one to ask.

God is trying to tell us something, all of the time, in every moment of our lives, and fine-tuning our mastery of the intuitive process in connection to the humility of listening is how we faithfully make decisions wisely. So, is a gift good? Well, is God in it? What does your gut say.

When a gift is real and comes with God’s blessing, God will shine a light on it. But you need to take the time to look for it.

God will go to extreme lengths to connect with you and show you God's love. And that is the point of Christmas... there is no extent to which God won't go to reach you.

There are many ways in which we prepare for Christmas. But Advent gives us a time to spiritually prepare. Advent means the start of something, an anticipation that something is to come.

You are anointed for goodness, beloved. Give thanks and hold fast to that. The rest? Dust off your feet. Put your shoulders back. Hold your head high. You are God’s anointed, in whom God is well-pleased. The full text of Pastor Kaji's sermon is available here.

In my “last” places, I have a tendency to feel sorry for myself. I feel like there’s nothing left to do. Nothing possible. Which gets me stuck. If. That. Is. You. Don’t be stuck. Be inspired. Know this and say it to yourself. Again and again: I can’t be last in everything. There’s something I’m first in. The full text of Pastor Kaji's sermon is available here.

Beloved. Tell me: What is it YOU plan to do with your one wild and precious life? The full text of Pastor Kaji's sermon is available here.

The ones who would look past us, cut us off, discount us, put us in impossible positions with no support, talk and plot for our demise behind our backs, do us wrong? They plot and trick and sideline and harm because the want to live outside of their assignment. That is not of God. Because when you live inside your assignment? God WILL provide. If God has called you to it, God will give you the tools to do it. It’s that simple. The full text of Pastor Kaji's sermon is available here.

God already knows what is in store for you. God hears you, sees you, but is not anxious for you. Because the beauty of your story, your resurrection, your new day, your new moment of life: it is already written.