by Jo Lyn Cornelsen | May 12, 2017 | Community, Spirituality |
Why Go to Church?
Churches still play a primary role in the lives of millions across the world. Some say they can be spiritual without religion. Some use religion inappropriately to force political or economic agendas. Others, on their path to alignment with the Divine, remain true to pure religion, as a structure to continually expand their spirituality and connection with Divine Love and the Great Creator of All Things.
Tony Robbins taught that water, as a powerful cleansing and healing element, needs structure to be useful. This structure could be found in the form of a water glass, a pail, a faucet, a bathtub and more.
The cleansing and healing energy of Spirit can also be more powerful through the structure provided by the practice of pure religion, including church attendance, prayer, study of sacred scripture, meditation, faith, and loving service freely given.
I am grateful to my parents, who had the presence of mind to teach me about religion, take me to church and introduce me to the practice of spirituality.
May you be blessed on your path to spiritual awakening, and embody the teaching, “Love One Another” (like I was taught in Sunday School at age three).
The following email message showed up in Mother’s inbox today – which prompted this post.
It reminded me of the children’s finger play I was taught as a child, and with which I entertained my little ones on the way to church:
“Here’s the church and here’s the steeple, open the door and see all the people, close the door and hear them pray, open the door and they’ve all gone away.”
“Here’s the Church” by Kathy Fincher
“A Church-goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper, complaining that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. He wrote: “I’ve attended for 30 years now, and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons, but for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them.
So, I think I’m wasting my time, the preachers and teachers are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all”.
This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column. Much to the delight of the editor, it went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: “I’ve been married for almost 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today! When you are DOWN to nothing, God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible & receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical and our spiritual nourishment!”
Thank you to all who have contributed to my spiritual growth and nourishment.
Blessings!!
Jo Lyn
Here’s the best link I can find for Kathy Fincher’s amazing artwork:
http://www.somersetfineart.com/pc-4603-356-heres-the-church-by-kathryn-fincher.aspx#.WRYxB9LyuUk
by Jo Lyn Cornelsen | May 7, 2017 | Miracles Witnessed |
Betty’s Microphone Miracle – a Divine Synchronicity
My sweet mother, Betty Marie Lyman Rasmussen, is now 94 years old.
She fills her days cross stitching beautiful heirloom pieces,
playing solitaire on her iPad, and reading Christian novels.
Sometimes she thinks she is insignificant, and wonders why she’s still here,
because, she says, “I’m no use to anybody anymore – I can’t do much of anything.”
I tell her she’s still here for Love.
She’s got seven children (and their spouses),
36 grandchildren,
and 76 great grandchildren.
That’s a lot of love.
We take her to church on Sundays.
This week, feeling stronger, she chose to use her walker rather than the wheelchair,
even though the corridor from the church door to the chapel seems like miles for her to walk.
Making her way to the pew, she parked her walker in the aisle.
As the meeting began, the Bishop’s Counselor apologized to the congregation
that the microphone at the pulpit was malfunctioning, for reasons unknown.
It was giving off loud static – and none of their repair efforts had been effective.
So they turned it off and did a work-around, bringing in a hand held microphone on a long cord.
Today was Fast and Testimony Meeting –
where congregation members are invited to share our
testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as inspired by the Holy Spirit.
And today, my dear mother, without a word to me,
saw her opportunity, and being unencumbered without the wheelchair,
but empowered by her walker, stood up and walked up the aisle to bear her testimony.
Thankfully, the Bishop saw her coming, and brought the microphone to her.
There, before several hundred people in the chapel,
my dear, sweet, frail mother turned and stood as tall as she could,
and told us all we were beautiful.
She expressed gratitude for the malfunctioning of the main microphone,
and the availability of the corded microphone,
because it could be handed to her,
as she could not walk up the steps to the podium to bear her testimony.
She expressed her gratitude for her membership in the Church
through her 94 years on this earth, and all it has meant to her.
She expressed gratitude for the truths in the Book of Mormon and other scriptures,
which she has read multiple times in her life
And she expressed gratitude for the multiple times she has been
healed through the power of the Lord…
that her life would have been so very different without it…
she may not have lived even past the age of 4,
but that would be a story for another day.
I took Mother home after Sacrament meeting,
then returned for the rest of the Sunday Services.
The Bishop stopped to speak with me –
He said the microphone was working perfectly as soon as the meeting ended…
and he felt sure that the microphone malfunction was specifically a blessing for Betty…
a divine synchronicity, creating conditions to be just right for her to
bear her testimony and speak the gratitude she felt in her heart.
I am grateful for my mother,
and how she “walks by faith, nothing wavering”.
I am grateful to know in my heart that none of us are ever too old,
or too young, or too disabled, or too insignificant
for God to know our needs, our hopes and our dreams,
and to bless us with a little miracle now and then.
Today, I am specifically grateful for Betty’s Microphone Miracle.
Blessings,
Jo Lyn
Recent Comments