Why I am a Christian #2: In my journey in the Christian Faith I have encountered a love that is much bigger than my own heart. An ocean of love. What I now know as the true source of all real love. It is a love that embraces all people everywhere. I first encountered it in my baptism. Later in what some people call the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I learned to access it more frequently through a tradition in the Orthodox Church called "The Jesus Prayer". I found a love that never leaves me and the wisdom to live in it through a little book called "The Practice of the Presence of God" by brother Lawrence.

Now encounters and even God's love for me and everyone else in no way automatically make me mature enough to love like God loves. But I find I am stretched a little more in that direction every day.

Ephesians 3:14-21 is a prayer that Christians would enter into and know the love of God. Immaturity at this point is the cause of a lot of people having problems with the church. We teach and show people how much God loves... and then disconnect from it in some way. Still this love sustains me every day in a grace that calls me to love more deeply everyone around me... and in the world at large. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+3%3A14-21&version=NIV

"Love is the only power on earth that can turn an enemy into a friend". Martin Luther King Jr.

Here are links to 3 books that have been useful to me in my journey:

The Practice of the Presence of God

Disciple by Juan Carlos Ortiz

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King