Touched by God yet still a sinner

I am not going to say that I believe or disbelieve anyone that alleges to have supernatural occurrences happening in their lives. Yet, I come to the defense of anyone to whom this might be happening when their personal lives are ripped apart unmercifully. Doing this is first to forget that Jesus came for the sinner (that would be us all) and second it would say God can only work with certain people. The Almighty is capable of doing whatever he wants, with whoever he wants, whenever he wants. Thanks be to God that human beings have nothing to do with judgment or salvation, for God is more merciful than we are.

If one were to look through the Old Testament, one would read story upon story of those ordinary people living ordinary lives, yet they are touched by God. Many of these people still sinned or fell into sin after their encounter with God, a classic example would be King David. I think the people of the old testament were more genuine and realistic of human nature then we are. Realizing that as long as we are in the flesh, we are subject to sin. This is not an excuse to sin, but a realization of there being no saints on earth. While our souls are still attached to our mortal being, sainthood cannot be. To think so is to call Jesus Christ a liar, for upon his words we are all dead in our sins. Salvation is not a one-shot deal, for we need it moment to moment. We are making active decisions moment to moment within our flesh, in our thinking, behavior and actions. So who among us is pure in any of these?

One of the most heartwarming stories I heard, and which, is also encouraging from a human standpoint, is a story I heard from Archbishop Anthansius Yeshue, who was Bishop of Jerusalem of the Syrian Orthodox Church. In 1947 when he was a young man at the monastery, his Eminence, was highly graced and privileged to be there when the first of the dead sea scrolls came to light. I had the honor and privilege to meet and spend some time with the Archbishop and he spoke to me in depth about the scrolls he saw and what was in them. The Archbishop allowed me to ask him question after question about the scrolls, I could not get enough of his stories about them. The most interesting points that I learned was the detail given about the humanity of the characters, in the scrolls, such as Sara, and how Abraham loved her and how he described in detail how she looked. But, the most interesting was a detailed description of an argument Noah had with his wife concerning their children. I thought to myself, look at this; Noah and his wife argued just like other married couples. There was nothing magical about these people, they were real with real human failings. But, that did not stop God from choosing them and working with them.

I naively thought in the past that the best way to honor God was to live in a cloister or being a hermit, (these are very holy ways but not the only way). Then I reflected upon the life of Jesus, who incarnated all the attributes of heaven and placed this grace into daily living.

It is harder to be of God in the world then to be said in seclusion. For you are constantly challenged on all fronts when you are in the world, not only in your own person and but in the influences within your own family, neighborhood, environment, work or society. One's daily duty and routine is also a spiritual battleground. Not enough credit is given to the ordinary lifestyle as being a way of holiness.

If the righteous man falls seven times a day, I must be falling seventy times seventy. I don't believe that holiness or lack thereof is limited to actions, I believe it also involves words, thoughts and intent.

"Touched by God, or there goes a sinner"? When thinking of me, choose the truth, which is the latter....