{"id":12182,"date":"2025-02-25T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=12182"},"modified":"2025-02-25T11:52:36","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T18:52:36","slug":"responding-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/?p=12182","title":{"rendered":"Responding to"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Encounters With God<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tuesday 25 February 2025<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

When was the last time you encountered God?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you respond?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or did you not notice?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

God Encounters happen many times each day for everyone!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psalm 118:14<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

James 5:13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Words of Grace For Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scripture reports people responding to their encounters with God in many different ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glowing faces (Moses)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glowing clothes (Jesus)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Humility (David)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astonishment (witnesses to Jesus\u2019 healings and calming of the sea)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankful Survival (Elijah and the Widow)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gratitude (Psalms and many others)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naming God as one\u2019s Rock, Salvation, Helper (Psalms and )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calls to prayer and praise<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So how can we respond with indifference as if God were irrelevant?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or with Ho-Hum, business as usual?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too used to miracle stories, we reduce them to elements of science and explain them away or dismiss them as false reports by fanatics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Too successful in our own endeavours we choose to \u2018rely\u2019 on ourselves, while sinking into profound sadness as individuals and as a people, since no matter how we succeed (wealth, power, fame, or supposed freedom) our achievements remain unable to \u2018pull us up by our bootstraps\u2019 into joy at being alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scripture is full of acknowledgements that we think, speak, and live in such fogs of denial about God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus Scripture and Tradition is full of Wisdom of the ages admonishes us to<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breathe.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be still.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Listen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be humble.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be thankful.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be contrite.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be bold.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be as God created us to be, those who embody God\u2019s Grace for us all… again today.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Encounters With God Tuesday 25 February 2025 When was the last time you encountered God? How did you respond? Or did you not notice? God Encounters happen many times each day for everyone! Psalm 118:14 The Lord is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation. James 5:13 Are any among you suffering? … Continue reading “Responding to”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lake"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12182"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12191,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12182\/revisions\/12191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mysticphoto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}