The Present: A Gift from God

The past is already gone.
The future has not yet come.
It is in the present that we can listen and give ear to God's call.

You don't see what you don't see

1. I start writing
2. I press Enter
3. The next number appears
4. I keep writing
5. The sequence continues
6. There is an invisible programming
7. And I don't always notice it

And in my life?

• My thoughts
• My beliefs
• My fears
• My reactions
• My conditionings
• What I don't see

I can get in the way of what I heard

• Out of fear
• Out of shame
• Hiding when I could speak
• Staying silent when I could act
• Fighting evil with evil
• Taking revenge on the other
• …

When I stumble and fall, the Spirit reminds me

• Eternal life is to know
• the only true God as a Father
• who loved the world

The Kingdom of God

• Is righteousness
• and peace
• and joy
• in the Holy Spirit.

It is God who…

• It is God who calls
• It is God who chooses
• It is God who works the willing
• It is God who works the doing, according to his good pleasure
• It is God who makes the seed bear fruit
• It is God who gives the growth

What is up to us

• To listen
• To give ear
• To God's call
• Through the Holy Spirit

Listening and understanding

• I don't always understand what I hear
• I keep listening
• I come into contact
• I begin to notice patterns
• Understanding begins to emerge
• What I could not see begins to appear

The cleansing

• The Word keeps washing us
• and transforming us
• by the renewal of the mind
• I don't need to understand everything
• I can listen
• I can give ear
• If we live by the Spirit
• Let us also walk by the Spirit

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The present is already part of eternity

The walk

• Remembering what I heard
• Whoever practices evil does not know what he is doing
• Therefore, forgive
• And love your enemies
• Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up
• Faith works through love
• God is love
• Only God is good
• I will stumble a few times
• But there is no condemnation
• Christ lives in me
• Christ is being formed in me
• And God's goodness reaches the other
• Through me
• I am a child of God
• The past condemns me
• but in Christ there is no condemnation
• The future brings anxiety
• Each day has enough trouble of its own
• The Lord is the one who knows the future

• It is now that I can listen
• It is now that I can give ear
• It is now that I can know
• It is now that I can live in the Spirit

• Eternal life is to know
• The Father, as the only true God
• And Jesus Christ
• Whom he sent.
• The Lord is the Spirit
• and where the Spirit of the Lord is
• There is freedom
• And we, with unveiled face from what we have learned
• Beholding as in a mirror
• The glory of the Lord
• Are being transformed
• From glory to glory
• By the Spirit
• Being able to experience
• And prove
• The good
• Pleasing
• And perfect
• Will
• Of God
• Who first
• Gave to God
• That God
• May repay?

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The present is a gift from God

• Present yourself to God
• and receive the gift
• in the present moment.
• Present, Lord!