Covenant with the Light of God
As we start to be Pursuers of the light of Christ, it is important to discuss a topic that has much to do with a personal place that we’ve all been to: the kitchen. As you can perceive, it is a very personal setting and has everything to do with our topic because our relationship with God has to be personal.
This discussion brings me back to the good moments that I had spent with my grandfather. He taught me everything that there is to know about a direct and personal relationship with God. It doesn’t matter where you are, that is the material place because you can always be in tune with God’s Will. You can always connect yourself to God. Even if you are in a kitchen, which most of the time is messy, full of people that go in and out, looking for things and letting them in anyplace.
No matter the material setting that you are, it won’t ever be perfect. There will always be something you want to change. That needs to be cleaned or even got rid of. Thinking that after doing that, you will finally be able to have your moment with God. In reality, you can have your moment with God, even if surrounded by troubles, noise, and mess. Of course, for you to be able to have that, spiritual and inner work are necessary, until you are able to perceive the light of God at those moments.
Witness of change
My grandfather taught me that this is possible. I remember that every time we were in a kitchen for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, he would actively connect himself to God in the kitchen, before or after (the majority of times before). It is interesting because, for him, the kitchen was the better place to focus and to be connected with God and write his books bringing a message about the Love of Christ to this world. Even with everything happening that could take his attention off what he was doing—all the noise, people going in and out, talking, pans hitting the stove— it was the best place for him to do his work.
This is so different from what we see nowadays, even regarding the discussion around attention deficit and attention span. But just the fact that we sometimes learn about how our connection to God should be. This shows that you can have a personal relationship with God, wherever you are, even in, and for most it is very debatable, the bathroom. You can have those moments, because the material body is just an instrument for us to be here in this world, doing our work. It does not reflect everything that our spirit represents.
So even in these moments, you can have a spiritual reflection, a debate, a discussion with God and find at the moment of rest an answer for the trouble you are facing.
How many times have you not experienced that? After a long day of work, tired, and full of challenges and things to do. In a moment of material relaxation (during a shower, for example), you come up with an answer, a solution for what you're facing. That happens all the time, and those moments are moments of connection in which we are having an exchange with God.
The decision to make a covenant
Being Pursuers of Light, working for everything Christ shows us and wants us to achieve, at the same time is an alliance, a spiritual covenant with God, with Christ Himself. In His Gospel, Jesus lays out the terms of the contract, the document for us to sign and have this alliance with Him, with God's Will in our lives.
The terms present the changes we will undergo when actively going after the light of God. The decision to have the exchange laid out in it needs to be in accordance, not only with our will but also with the will of God. Once the process begins, there is no turning back. There is no return to the past condition, trying to forget what happened to us once we became witnesses of God’s actions.
As we become Pursuers of the Light of God our life undergoes a change that we need to be in accordance with, because once we start the process we can't go back, otherwise we will be setting ourselves to a state of alienation and rumination. You cannot unsee what is put in evidence by the Light. That is why, for you to walk in accordance with what has been shown, you need to make a covenant with God and Jesus, so you can walk through it towards the finishing line.
Comprehending the terms
This document, which represents the alliance between Christ and us, was gathered by Brother Paiva Netto, my grandfather, who in his intuition with Christ and God, willing to bring forth His Divine Love, put together the words of Christ from His Gospel, according to John 13:34 and 35; 15:7, 8, 10 to 17, and 9, and named:
Treatise of the New Commandment of Jesus
13:34 A New Commandment I give you: love one another, as I have loved you.
13:35 Only by this shall all of you be recognized as my disciples, if you have the same Love for one another.
15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
15:8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
15:10 If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my Love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in His Love.
15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
15:12 This is my Commandment: that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:13 There is no greater Love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
15:14 And you are my friends if you do what I command you. And I command you this: love one another as I have loved you.
15:15 No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.
15:16 You did not choose me; on the contrary, I chose you and appointed you so that you should go and bear good fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name He may give to you.
15:17 And this I command you: that you love one another as I have loved you.
15:9 Therefore, as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Remain in my Love.
That's what we want to do, to remain in the Love of God. Live by those terms and then muster courage and strength to face everything that may appear in front of us and do not turn our back to, but work it. Bear fruits in the name of God and Christ, so we can all carry His Will in this world.
Being fruitful for Christ and God
Once we become witness of the changes in our lives, we have more than one reason to decide to go forward besides the challenges that may come, after we made that covenant with God, and through the experience we will acquire. The terms will be more comprehensive and the Peace that only Christ and God can give us, as well as the joyful spiritual state we will be in, is going to fulfill us.
Doing our part, no matter the material setting we are into, because God is always doing His part opening the path for us. By accepting it, we will be the ones bearing uncountable fruits that Jesus Christ wants us to bring and having our backs.
God walks before us and Jesus guides us through it so we persevere in His New Commandment (John 13:34 and 35):
“A New Commandment I give you: love one another, as I have loved you. Only by this shall all of you be recognized as my disciples, if you have the same Love for one another.”
Friends of Jesus
Through persevering in this Divine Love, not only we will be recognized as disciples, but also as friends of Jesus (John 15:15):
“No longer do I call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
He chose us
That my friends, brothers and sisters, is something that nothing in the world can be compared to, because we know and understand that no matter what others say, no matter what happens to us, we were all chosen by Christ. That's how He finishes His words (John 15:16):
“You did not choose me; on the contrary, I chose you and appointed you so that you should go and bear good fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name He may give to you.”
Let us make that decision. Not faltering on accepting the calling of Christ.
