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Restoration Christian Fellowship Restoration Christian Fellowship began on the 7th of January in 1996. Our services are marked by con www.RCFNY.org

10/16/2026

Two Moments 10-11-26
Pastor Roy Esposito

-We’ve been talking about growing in spiritual maturity.

-We know that our spiritual advancement isn’t connected to our age, years attending church, or Bible knowledge.

-Rather, it has everything to do with how much self-absorption we’ve been able to let go of for the sake of gaining more of Jesus.

-Recently, I’ve come to see that although our lives consist of many moments that meld themselves together into what we live as our “reality”, there are really only two moments that matter:

When you know in your heart that you are truly valuable, deeply loved, and fully alive, and experience God as Abba.
When you realize that your present life was pointless and empty if you had never experienced the first moment.

-I believe that both moments are necessary and act as focal points that will keep us on the right path and traveling in the right direction.

-The Bible is a Christian’s key to both these moments.

-The Bible, however, should be seen as more than a source of information about God and a listing of the rules that will make us right before Him;

- Not so much an explanation of God’s ways, but a tool through which we can encounter Him and a vehicle of transformation into His sons and daughters.

-The goal is to experience an encounter with God as Abba and receive the comfort, assurance, direction, and grace that we need to go beyond just information to enter into communion with Him.

-When we come to know Him in this way, we enter “Shalom, Shalom”, the condition of “perfect peace” spoken of by Isaiah. (Isa 26:3)

-The 1st moment gives us peace, energy, and joy by connecting us with the ultimate source of all created things, rooted and grounded in the very nature of Abba, who loves us with unconditional love.

-The 2nd moment sets the limits, boundaries, and the proper humility that keep us seeking the Source, no longer stagnant and leaning on the knowledge of the “small self”.

-We all have both a “Small Self and a Big Self”.

-Small Self - You in you
-Big Self - You in God

-GOD LOVES BOTH SELVES!!!

-Teresa of Avila - “We will find God in ourselves when we find ourselves in God”.

-If you can embrace this saying, you will never need a therapist!

-Humility is the key that opens the door to spiritual maturity

-1Corinthians 13:11-12 (TPT). “When I was a child, I spoke of childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned as a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.
For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me is fully understood”.

-The correlation here is: We’ll be able to know to the degree that we’ve become known.

-Knowing and being known speaks of spiritual maturity.

-Exercising humility allows us to become vulnerable to God, ourselves, and, when appropriate, to others.

-Here there is no hiding, no excuses made, no deflections, only our true selves, open and transparent.

-When we allow ourselves to become known, we will know what we need to know for victory in every situation we encounter.

-The more transparent/known you become, the more you’ll know.

-This is the “Loop of Divine Disclosure and Dialogue with the Lord”

-It’s where you, in humility, open the door of self to God, and He in turn opens the door to divine insight, wisdom, and direction. This will repeat itself all the way to spiritual maturity.

-This is what Paul is talking about (Phil 4:6-7) when he says, “Don’t be anxious about anything. Come to God in humility and truth and make your request to Him”.

-Another way of saying this is to let the things that are important to you be known to God by allowing your core self to be fully open to Him.

-What will follow then is that God will flood you with a peace that’s beyond your mind's capability to produce or to even comprehend.

-To be known to the Lord begins with being known to ourselves.

-If we don’t know who we really are, what we have to give to others is only a shadow-self; one with no substance.

-Unconditional love shares its genuine self with others.
-If you’re hiding something or holding something back, you’re not really loving.

-Whatever part of yourself that’s kept hidden will remain closed to receiving love in return.

-There's a deep healing that occurs within us when we can accept ourselves before God.

-1Peter 4:8 (NKJ) - God, who is: “Love– will cover a multitude of sins”

-Every loop must have a beginning. So, too, the Divine Disclosure and Dialogue loop.

-There must be an entrance way to begin this interchange with God.

-It’s simple, really: All it takes is a desire for it to be so!

-I encourage you to ask it of God - even if you’re unsure or afraid.
Ask it of God. Ask specifically for it!

-You can even pray for the desire to desire it. God will answer you.

-Eph3:20 (TPT) - “Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energizes you.”

-There is a mighty truth that has been kept hidden by the opaque state of our being - it's that:
Our souls already desire more of God, deep down, beyond the boundaries of consciousness.

-It’s the presence of God in the core of our being that desires a deeper communion.

-It’s God who longs for life and love in you, with you, and through you.

-When we come to God in humility, it allows the Holy Spirit to speak to what’s already percolating in us and, in doing so, find our place in the universe of the things that are.

-Here, we will discover our personal song and then sing it.
(Rev 5:9-10, Rev 14:2-3,5- NKJ)

-Eph1:17-18 (TPT)- “I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know Him through your deepening intimacy with Him.
“I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your innermost heart (imagination), flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of His calling-that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that He finds in us, His holy ones”.
Two Moments 10-11-26
Pastor Roy Esposito

-We’ve been talking about growing in spiritual maturity.

-We know that our spiritual advancement isn’t connected to our age, years attending church, or Bible knowledge.

-Rather, it has everything to do with how much self-absorption we’ve been able to let go of for the sake of gaining more of Jesus.

-Recently, I’ve come to see that although our lives consist of many moments that meld themselves together into what we live as our “reality”, there are really only two moments that matter:

When you know in your heart that you are truly valuable, deeply loved, and fully alive, and experience God as Abba.
When you realize that your present life was pointless and empty if you had never experienced the first moment.

-I believe that both moments are necessary and act as focal points that will keep us on the right path and traveling in the right direction.

-The Bible is a Christian’s key to both these moments.

-The Bible, however, should be seen as more than a source of information about God and a listing of the rules that will make us right before Him;

- Not so much an explanation of God’s ways, but a tool through which we can encounter Him and a vehicle of transformation into His sons and daughters.

-The goal is to experience an encounter with God as Abba and receive the comfort, assurance, direction, and grace that we need to go beyond just information to enter into communion with Him.

-When we come to know Him in this way, we enter “Shalom, Shalom”, the condition of “perfect peace” spoken of by Isaiah. (Isa 26:3)

-The 1st moment gives us peace, energy, and joy by connecting us with the ultimate source of all created things, rooted and grounded in the very nature of Abba, who loves us with unconditional love.

-The 2nd moment sets the limits, boundaries, and the proper humility that keep us seeking the Source, no longer stagnant and leaning on the knowledge of the “small self”.

-We all have both a “Small Self and a Big Self”.

-Small Self - You in you
-Big Self - You in God

-GOD LOVES BOTH SELVES!!!

-Teresa of Avila - “We will find God in ourselves when we find ourselves in God”.

-If you can embrace this saying, you will never need a therapist!

-Humility is the key that opens the door to spiritual maturity

-1Corinthians 13:11-12 (TPT). “When I was a child, I spoke of childish matters, for I saw things like a child and reasoned as a child. But the day came when I matured, and I set aside my childish ways.
For now we see but a faint reflection of riddles and mysteries as though reflected in a mirror, but one day we will see face-to-face. My understanding is incomplete now, but one day I will understand everything, just as everything about me is fully understood”.

-The correlation here is: We’ll be able to know to the degree that we’ve become known.

-Knowing and being known speaks of spiritual maturity.

-Exercising humility allows us to become vulnerable to God, ourselves, and, when appropriate, to others.

-Here there is no hiding, no excuses made, no deflections, only our true selves, open and transparent.

-When we allow ourselves to become known, we will know what we need to know for victory in every situation we encounter.

-The more transparent/known you become, the more you’ll know.

-This is the “Loop of Divine Disclosure and Dialogue with the Lord”

-It’s where you, in humility, open the door of self to God, and He in turn opens the door to divine insight, wisdom, and direction. This will repeat itself all the way to spiritual maturity.

-This is what Paul is talking about (Phil 4:6-7) when he says, “Don’t be anxious about anything. Come to God in humility and truth and make your request to Him”.

-Another way of saying this is to let the things that are important to you be known to God by allowing your core self to be fully open to Him.

-What will follow then is that God will flood you with a peace that’s beyond your mind's capability to produce or to even comprehend.

-To be known to the Lord begins with being known to ourselves.

-If we don’t know who we really are, what we have to give to others is only a shadow-self; one with no substance.

-Unconditional love shares its genuine self with others.
-If you’re hiding something or holding something back, you’re not really loving.

-Whatever part of yourself that’s kept hidden will remain closed to receiving love in return.

-There's a deep healing that occurs within us when we can accept ourselves before God.

-1Peter 4:8 (NKJ) - God, who is: “Love– will cover a multitude of sins”

-Every loop must have a beginning. So, too, the Divine Disclosure and Dialogue loop.

-There must be an entrance way to begin this interchange with God.

-It’s simple, really: All it takes is a desire for it to be so!

-I encourage you to ask it of God - even if you’re unsure or afraid.
Ask it of God. Ask specifically for it!

-You can even pray for the desire to desire it. God will answer you.

-Eph3:20 (TPT) - “Never doubt God’s mighty power to work in you and accomplish all this. He will achieve infinitely more than your greatest request, your most unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination! He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly energizes you.”

-There is a mighty truth that has been kept hidden by the opaque state of our being - it's that:
Our souls already desire more of God, deep down, beyond the boundaries of consciousness.

-It’s the presence of God in the core of our being that desires a deeper communion.

-It’s God who longs for life and love in you, with you, and through you.

-When we come to God in humility, it allows the Holy Spirit to speak to what’s already percolating in us and, in doing so, find our place in the universe of the things that are.

-Here, we will discover our personal song and then sing it.
(Rev 5:9-10, Rev 14:2-3,5- NKJ)

-Eph1:17-18 (TPT)- “I pray that the Father of glory, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, would impart to you the riches of the Spirit of wisdom and the Spirit of revelation to know Him through your deepening intimacy with Him.
“I pray that the light of God will illuminate the eyes of your innermost heart (imagination), flooding you with light, until you experience the full revelation of the hope of His calling-that is, the wealth of God’s glorious inheritances that He finds in us, His holy ones”.

10/10/2026

A Transparent Heart 10-4-26
Pastor Roy Esposito

-Last week I said that Jesus was transparent in all He did.

-Transparency magnifies light.

- The clarity and purity of His being allowed the “Light of Life” to be magnified through all He said and did.

-Jesus spoke, taught, and acted from an assurance of the Father’s love and grace. This enabled Him to operate outside the natural laws that govern this realm.

-The opposite of being transparent is to be opaque.

-When something is opaque, it blocks light, which, in humanity’s case, disrupts and sometimes cancels out our ability to see and to focus on God’s love and unconditional grace.

-We have, in Christ, been given the power to resolve the distortion.

-Jesus overcame the obstacles that all of humanity faces.

-Built into being born is a preoccupation with 3 basic human desires, which are deterrents to spiritual clarity and stability:

1. Security 2. Pleasure 3. Prestige
-Striving after these temptations will form a “cloak” over our spiritual vision (unable to receive or emit light), making us cloudy and opaque.

-The truth of God’s love and grace toward us becomes blocked from our perception.

-We then find ourselves preoccupied with the constant struggle of finding ways to have enough money/security; to feel good; to be relevant and noticed, and to impact the people around us.

-These plant the “seeds” that will eventually gestate the rotten fruit of hatred, worry, fear, anger, jealousy, anxiety, and resentment.

-These, in turn, are the cause of a great percentage of self-inflicted injuries and sufferings many experience.

-They are the actual demons we are at war with who continuously demand that our focus remain on our lack, our flaws, and our inadequacies, and block us from seeing the abundant life that Christ affords us.

-They want to keep us opaque and cloudy, and away from life in the “Light”.

- 1John 2:11- John equates hatred with an absence of love, which he calls “darkness”

- ” He walks in darkness and doesn’t know where he is going because darkness has blinded his eyes.
-To walk in love is to walk in God’s Light!

-In God’s Light, we enter a reality where all things become possible and are not limited to the restrictions of the ego-dominated state of being.

- The ego-dominated self keeps us locked into a series of moves and counter-moves whose purpose is to influence, control, and manipulate our choices and decisions.

-These maneuvers destroy our inner peace and serenity.

-We’ve become trapped in a loop, with moment-to-moment thoughts concentrated on the pursuit of illusory happiness.

-In this state, we are inattentive to God’s instructive voice because our eyes are not on Christ but on the earthly.

-Here we experience the emotional equivalent of a roller coaster ride, with exhilarating highs and depressingly low valleys.

-From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus warned of these distractions that come from inordinate concern for material things.

-Matt 6:31-32 - He says, Forsake your worries. Doesn’t your Father already know what your bodies require?

-Matt 6: 33-34 (TPT) - “So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from Him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly. Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

-We all want to see clearly, right? So, having clear eyes is important.

-Recently, I was recounting how I felt before I had eye surgery done.

-Not only could I not see well, but the opaque quality of my vision caused me to feel physically unstable and even a little confused at times.

-It said that our “eyes are the windows of the soul”. I think that’s true in two ways:
They reflect what’s in a person’s heart
They are the entryway into the inner self.

-I’ve made it a point in my life to pay attention to people’s eyes. It has helped me discern who I’m speaking to.

- Many have eyes that are anxious, darting, filmy.

-This tells of hearts that are clouded by the cares of this world.

-Others have translucent eyes which radiate the joy of hearts that are fixed on Jesus.
-Heb 12:2 (TPT) - “We look away from the natural realm, and we fasten our eyes onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this:
Because His heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be His, He endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God.”

-His example is the only prescription for spiritual transparency.

-Because “Looking to Jesus” means making a reappraisal of our whole human value system, and making whatever adjustments that may be required.

-It means to reevaluate what you treasure.

-Luke 12:34 (NKJ)- Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

-Paul knew where his treasure lay:
1 Corinthians 2:16 - ”We have the mind of Christ.”

-What did he mean exactly?

-I believe that because Paul had his eyes fixed on Christ for so long and so intently that he began to see through Christ’s eyes.

-And so much so that Christ became his alter ego.

-The same was said of Frances of Assisi, “Jesus became transparent in his personality.”

-Were these men just nutty, or was something mystical revealed to their inner man as a result of their unswerving devotion to God?

-Paul seemed to think that this should be the “normal” operation in the spiritual life.

-The question I think we need to be asking ourselves is:
“Do I believe this to be true?

-It’s time to get real: Am I a true “Spirit-Walker” or a “Wanna-be?”

-If you’re a Wanna-be now but really Want- to be, the answer is simple enough.

-Know that the transformation you desire can’t be done through human willpower; present yourself as fully as you can to God.

-Rom12:1-2 (NKJ) - ” I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (A reasonable response to God’s mercy -Jack Heyford).
And do not be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

-Having a “renewed mind” means to have your point of view changed,

-This happens by changing the point from which you view everything.

-It takes courage to look away from what you’ve trusted in the past and fix your eyes on Jesus, the “Light of the World”

-The courage to do so is one of the “mercies of God.”

-When we put our faith and trust in this ” turning,” it will transport us from darkness into the “Light of Christ,” where you can receive the love and grace of God.

-It will take you out of the opaque cloudiness of fear, anxiety, striving, and struggle, into the translucent clarity and transparency of Jesus Christ.

-This is being “In Christ”, where true peace, security, love, and acceptance exist.

-It is the place where all human needs and desires are fulfilled.

10/02/2026

In God We Trust 9-27-26
Pastor Roy Esposito

-Phil 4:13-“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.

-John 6:1-14 - Jesus and His disciples feed 5,000 men with just 5 loaves of barley and 2 small fish: A miraculous and impossible feat.

-Jesus, seeing a massive crowd coming, asked Phillip, “Where shall we buy bread that these shall eat? But He said this to test him, for He Himself knew what he would do.”

-Test (peirazo- pie-rad-zoe)- Testing a believer’s loyalty, strength, opinions, disposition, condition, faith, patience, or character.

-Jesus knew that what He instructed them to do was naturally impossible.

-The test was about whether they would look to Him or their current resources for the solution.

-This is the same question that modern-day believers must also resolve for themselves because:
What we put our trust in will determine the outcome of every battle we face. -PR

-Remember, we aren’t wrestling with flesh-and -blood enemies, but with powers and principalities in the heavenly places. (Eph 6:12)
-Natural resources won’t be sufficient for the road ahead.

- After He instructed His disciples to have everyone sit down (to rest from the burdens of life), He took the barley bread (a symbol of poverty) and the fish (a symbol of men’s souls) and broke them. (Broke off the spirit of poverty from the soul of humanity)

-Then He had His disciples participate in the naturally impossible act of feeding all present and then gathering up 12 bushels of leftovers.

-It was probably not easy for them to trust Jesus, even though they were following His instructions.

-I think the key thing that helped them overcome their doubt and unbelief was their willingness to put aside rational thinking and listen to the One they had put their trust in.

- Jesus’ thoughts were never based on human reasoning or the circumstances of the moment.

-Rather, His thoughts were formed as He listened to what the Father was saying to Him.

-The Father, who isn’t limited by human reasoning, aligned Jesus’ thoughts and actions with the plan and purpose He had ordained for that particular moment in time.

-When someone receives Christ into their heart, they receive more than salvation for their souls.
-They also receive an invitation to develop a heart-to-heart relationship with the “sacred breath of the Lord.”

-This more intimate relationship with the Lord enables them to participate in the transformative, ongoing work of creation and transformation. (1Cor 3:9, 2Cor 6:1)

-We have to be fully committed to developing a deeper trust in God: a God who sometimes colors outside the lines of what we consider “normal” reality.

-Among the many gifts given to us when we received Jesus as Lord and Savior is an impartation of a special form of His grace to ensure that we will win the battle for our minds and be “saved” from our former limited understanding of God’s ways.

-Eph 2:8-9 - “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not that of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

-We are“more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom 8:37)

- His grace to overcome our mind’s limitations will form the basis of a new reality where all things become possible. (Matt 19:26)

-1Corinthians 2:16 - “...We have the mind of Christ.”
This is the same mind that allowed Jesus to circumvent all natural human limitations and act on what the Father was saying instead.

-Paul said that we already have His mind; a result of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.

-The question then becomes:
How can we learn to think with that mind?
-First, we must come to trust that God is who the Scripture says He is and is firmly committed to doing the things that are written.

-Heb 11:6 (NKJ) - ” But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”

-2. Put time and energy into listening for His voice. (His voice will always confirm the written Word)
1Sam 3:7-11- “Speak, Lord; your servant is listening.”

-3. It’s a Process! (Remain patient)
Rom 7:15-20 (NKJ) - Sometimes we’ll be more successful at it than others.

4. Remember: “God is for you!” (Rom 8:31) He will help you
-Picture the Prodigal Son’s father running out to meet him on the road back home. Realize that YOU are that prodigal son!
God is my Father. He lives in me and for me.

5. Persist and don’t lose heart.
-Isa 50:7 - “For the Lord, Jehovah will help me; therefore have I not been confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.”
-Jesus was very transparent about where His mind was focused:
It was to love the Father wholeheartedly.

-He trusted in the Father’s love unequivocally and, because of the intimacy of their relationship ( John 10:30 -” I and My Father are one”), was able to think and act without the restrictions and limitations of the natural realm.

-Thomas A. Kempis- We are to be imitators of Christ by assimilating His interior attention and thinking, and making them our own.

-He said, “If you had the whole of Scripture and all the maxims of the philosophers at your fingertips, what would be the use of it all without God’s love and God’s grace? – a shadow’s shadow, a world of shadows.” (Ecc 1:2)

-The Mind of Christ gets its power and direction from a laser focus on God’s love and grace.

-Jesus knew this and lived it, and was very transparent about it.

-Laser - a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification.

-It was through Jesus’ transparent focus on God’s love and grace that amplified His ability to “see” beyond the current circumstances and respond accordingly.

-I think many of those we consider to be “saints” possessed this ability as well.

-It was said that Frances of Assisi allowed Jesus Christ to become “transparent in his personality”

-As we develop a deeper trust in God’s love and grace, we will become more and more transparent as well, and the light of Christ will shine through us.

-John 1:4-5 (NKJ) - ”In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

09/25/2026

Continuous Incarnation 9-20-26
Pastor Roy Esposito

- When mankind, through an act of disobedience, disengaged from a dependence on God, it became incumbent upon all humanity to forge its own identity, though now outside the divine plan set by God.

–We know that God never changes; He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. (Heb 13:8, Mal 3:6). God’s eternal plan for His people also remains unchanged.

-Humanity suffers from what theologian Henri de Lubac calls a “Vertigo of Imagination”, looking everywhere but to God for its identity and acceptance and seeking meaning within an unstable, chaotic “Whirlpool of Imagination”.

-The only means to regaining stability and purpose is to be reconnected to the intimacy of God’s Presence.

- ” Standing up before the ONE, accepting God, literally allows you to be composed and gathered, and set in one place”.- Richard Rohr

-I think that being “composed and gathered, and set in one place” is a pretty good definition of being present.

-It happens when we “stand up before the One, accepting God”, naked and vulnerable, allowing Him to redefine us.

-There is nothing we need to think or understand to be present.

-Being present is not done in the mind, but by being “open to receive and give” in the “right now!”

-We give God our independence and, in return, experience His presence as grace, gratuity, and inner groundedness.

-This has been called “The Mystery of Presence,” that is, an encounter with God, wherein our self-disclosure evokes a deeper impartation of Him, experientially, that initiates a transference of our being to an ascended spiritual platform.

-We can have this experience whenever we’re ready to receive it. We don’t have to wait until we achieve an acceptable level of holiness

-2Corinthians 6:2 - “Now is the favorable time, today is the day…”
-I am only restricted by my own affections! -

- 1st step: Change the object of my affections by seeking God’s Truth, and break off the restrictions that have kept me bound up

- ” Jesus is not a law to be obeyed or a model to be imitated, but a Presence to be seized and acted upon.” - John Shea

-John 1:14 (NKJ) - The Mystery of the Incarnation:
“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”.

-Dwelt - (Greek grammar) - an inceptive aorist verb that connotes an action or process which started at a clear point in the past and continues into the present.

-In the past, we have considered the 33+ years Jesus was alive on the earth as the entire duration of the Incarnation.

-But this event, which started at a clear point, has continued into the present through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in all who follow Him, with no time of duration specified.

-Question: Why would God take on human flesh? Why would an infinite power want to limit itself within the confines of a human body?

-There’s a story of a young girl who was afraid of the dark in her bedroom. Her mom told her she need not be afraid because God was in the room with her. She said, “I know God is here, but I need someone in this room who has some skin.”

– We all need someone who has some skin.

-A God who is everywhere can just as easily be nowhere. -PR

-Humans are not angels without bodies, but sensual beings with five senses, who relate to the world through those senses.
-God, having created our nature, respects how it operates.

-The Jesus who walked the earth could be seen, touched, heard, and had an aroma of holiness emanating from His being.

-In the Incarnation, God became physical because we are creatures of the senses who need, at some point, a God with some skin.

” God took on flesh in Jesus so that every home can become a church, every child can be a Christ-child, and all food and drink can become a sacrament”. - Ronald Rolheiser

– He has tempered and turned down His glory so that our human eyes can see Him when we seek Him with all of our hearts. (Jer 29:13)

-As I said before, the incarnation is not a thirty-three-year experiment by God – a one-shot, physical incursion into our lives.

-The ascension of Jesus did not end or change the incarnation’s primary purpose.

-It’s the way of letting those who are seeking God tangibly find Him.

-God is still present, as physical and as real today as He was in Jesus.

-It is true to say that at the Ascension, the physical body of Jesus left the earth, but the body of Christ did not.

-God’s incarnational presence continues as before, but now through the Body of Christ.

-In Scripture, the “Body of Christ” means three things:
1. The historical Jesus
2. The Eucharist (His actual presence within the communion elements)
3. The community of believers

-It is not an exaggeration or a metaphor to say that we are the Body of Christ that holds the physical presence of God here on the earth.

-Scripture doesn’t say that we are a body of believers that replaces Jesus’s body, nor does it say that we are a mystical representation of Christ’s body.

-It simply says, “We are Christ’s body”. (1Cor. 12:27)

-This affirms that the incarnation didn’t end after the thirty-three years that Jesus walked the earth.

-The Word did not become flesh and dwell among us for a short period of time.

-The Word became flesh and continues to dwell among us.

-In the body of believers, God still has physical skin that can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, and tasted.

-As God once acted through Christ, so now He acts through those who are conformed to the image of His Son and whose behavior pattern is in imitation of His.

-We are tasked with keeping God alive in this world by reflecting His presence through what we’ve become in Christ.

-” In order to continue to exercise His salvific function, the Risen Christ must be effectively represented within the context of real existence by an authenticity which is modeled on His.”
- J. Murphy-O’Connor

-Teresa of Avila put it more simply: “ We must become God’s physical hands, feet, mouthpiece, and heart in this world.”

I pray: “Lord, have mercy on us and give us the enabling grace we need to become what you intended us to be”.

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