MARCH 16 "HOW SPIRITUAL ARE YOU?"

     HOW spiritual are you?  Of course nobody likes "super spiritual" people, but that does not mean we should not be spiritual. "Super Spiritual" people are those who try to spiritualize matters that are more practical in nature than anything else, they also try to hide their flaws and judgmentalism behind "spirituality"...., well we know all about them, but let's talk about us. We are proud that nobody would call us "super spiritual" but would anybody call us "spiritual" ???  THE FACT IS some of us are more spiritual, more in tune with God and seem to have more of his Spirit, than others. Paul prayed, "that they may be filled to FULL measure with His Spirit".  Full meaning that any Christian can be from a quarter empty to overflowing full (just like a gas tank) with God's Spirit.  If only we had a gage like our gas tank, to show us where we are at.  A side from violations & money problems, the balance of divorces stems from two lovers that have let their love fizzle away.  Is it possible that our love for God could fizzle away? Are we divorced from God? Perhaps not officially, we have not made it official but many couples before making it official lived a very stoic relationship together. What does this have to do with today's reading?   "25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts....." 
     We look suspiciously at people who say, "the Holy Spirit spoke to me about this and that". Why do we, because we can't relate and therefore anyone who says that the Holy Spirit is either crazy or super spiritual.  Some serve God as if there was no Holy Spirit.  Joseph and Mary were also spiritual people and the Holy Spirit also spoke to them.  My Pastor a few weeks ago said, "God spoke to him that his ankle would (that was in a cast) be healed when he awoke the next morning and we to looked at him as if he was crazy or super spiritual, but he showed up the next day for church, HEALED.  TRUTH BE KNOWN, most of us (speak for yourself...I AM) are not spiritual. The business of our lives has turned us into Christians by necessity.  We have been around long enough to know what Christians do and what Christians do not do and that is the place our Christianity has come to, it stops there and goes no further. Instead of judging Simeon and others as "super spiritual" (as we would have) we should be convicted by this man's devotion to God and his "superior" relationship with God and the Holy Spirit. WARNING: When we try to conjure up the "voice of the Holy Spirit" rather than conjure up our relationship with Him, that's when we turn into flakes.  Don't sit there and try to hear the voice of God, sit there and seek Him, not His voice and the by-product of that will be you will hear from God and have clarity of mind, clarity of purpose and perspective on life and all matters pertaining to it.  Nobody will want to answer this question "how spiritual are you?" and we shouldn't answer it, it's not a question to answer, it is more a question to ponder, it is more something to be, rather than something to profess. I doubt Simeon ever would have said, "I am spiritual" he simply was.  But if you ever asked him if he knew his God, that he would have confidently answered, "yes indeed I know my Lord, I speak to him daily and he daily speaks with me".  Sound overly spiritual, perhaps to us that are not, but to those that are, it makes perfect sense!

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