Stories of Humility and Salvation from Luke 18

A Grownup Is A Child With Layers On. – Woody Harrelson

Luke 18 contains four stories that share a common theme of childlike faith. First, there is the parable of the persistent widow. She begs like a child. Adults are often too proud to beg. At most they will ask someone once for something. If the person says no, they aren't likely to ask again. But a child will plead because they don’t have an ego to protect. All they want is to play with the toy, or eat the sweet or do the activity that has kidnapped their attention. But the widow’s adult pride (if she was proud) is overcome by her grief. Someone had taken advantage of her vulnerability. She was obsessed with justice like a child is obsessed with things. God wants us to be like that; to ask him for things like a child – insistently.

Next, Jesus contrasts the prayer of a confident Pharisee to that of a guilt-ridden tax collector. The Pharisee prays about himself. “Thank you God that I am...”. The tax-collector prays about himself but only to the extent that he has fallen short of God’s glory and perfection. “God, be merciful to me a sinner”. He was humble like a child in being prepared to plead for mercy. He didn’t feel the responsibility of self-sufficiency that most adults tend to take on themselves. Why do we feel the need to get our lives in order on our own? It’s as if while children we feel like we have much to learn and no one expects much of us, but by the time we are adults we’re supposed to be wise and strong. Any foolishness or weakness is evidence of failure. Yet all around us grown men and women are doing things so stupid even children would know better and displaying incredible weakness. Could it be that humans are inherently foolish and weak? If we could all acknowledge that, it would release us from our need to come across as wise and strong. But I find that it is difficult to admit my limitations so long as people around me are putting on a show of coolness.

After these two parables, Jesus speaks of receiving the kingdom of heaven like a child. But I’ll wrap up our look at Luke 18 with that.

Luke goes on to relay the interaction of Jesus with a rich young man. The man wants to inherit the kingdom of God. But he also wants to keep his earthly riches. Jesus effectively tells him he can’t have his cake and eat it. The man fails to muster up enough faith in Jesus to leave his wealth and follow him. His planned entry into the kingdom was complex – it had an insurance policy. In case the King of the kingdom failed him, he wanted a safety net. His trust had an element of duplicity to it. Spiritual wealth was augmented by earthly wealth. But Jesus told him this wouldn’t do, forcing him to perform an on-the-spot cost-benefit analysis. Does he forfeit his money for the kingdom? Is it worth it? But such an analysis is contrary to child-like faith for children typically outsource thinking about complex issues to adults.

The last story I’ll cover from this chapter is that of a blind man who cries out aloud to Jesus to heal him, despite those around him telling him to keep quiet. He wants to come to Jesus, just like the children wanted to. It’s as if both he and the children don’t realise how important Jesus is and so don’t suffer from a severe case of “celebrititis”. Others just want to observe from a distance and maintain dignity in the presence of the latest and greatest personality. Not them; they want to experience him, without sugar coating their lives. They just want to be with him and to receive from him – not to ensure that they don’t make fools of themselves in his eyes; not admire him from a distance.

A widow who pleaded for justice, a contrite tax collector openly confessing his sin and inadequacy, a rich young man who couldn’t muster up enough trust and a blind beggar crying out to Jesus in desperation... their stories captured in the eighteenth chapter of Luke. Captured to teach us that we must come to Jesus, not like self-sufficient adults, but like vulnerable children. Captured to show us that Jesus will not shun us if we do.

“Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”

Why Worship Is Important

DOES GOD CARE FOR MY WORSHIP?

Recently, while worshipping, I suddenly froze... why would God care about my worship? I’m just a man, and a flawed one at that. I also worship silly things like sport, other flawed humans and doughnuts. So on a relative scale, not only am I not as important as God, I also regularly make poor judgements. I don’t give much weight to the opinion of people who I consider to have poor judgement rooted in a foolish value system... so why would God? A verse that described my mindset at this time is in Isaiah 40:

Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;

they are regarded as dust on the scales.

Before him all the nations are as nothing;

they are regarded by him as worthless and less than nothing.

I don’t plan to go into the context of what this text is saying or try to reconcile this to the love of God. I just include it here to describe how I felt recently while worshipping. “I’m enjoying this, but that’s because I assume God is. If He isn’t – what’s the point?” My pleasure in worship started disappearing like a little bucket of water thrown onto the sand of a hot desert.

WORSHIP IS EXALTED IN THE BIBLE

Now, days after this experience, I am pleased to reaffirm the importance of worship. This article looks at why I believe worship matters and can be done joyfully.

Despite what Isaiah 40 may seem to suggest, God cares about having worshippers from every nation gather around his throne when he wraps up the current era on that Day. This is a prevalent and consistent message contained in the pages of the bible, Old Testament included. Psalm 47, written during the time when the phrase “The people of God” referred only to Israel is explicit in its call to all peoples to jubilant worship:

Clap your hands, all peoples!

Shout to God with loud songs of joy!

For the LORD, the Most High, is to be feared,

a great king over all the earth.

God has gone up with a shout,

the LORD with the sound of a trumpet.

Sing praises to God, sing praises!

Sing praises to our King, sing praises!

For God is the King of all the earth;

sing praises with a psalm!

God reigns over the nations;

God sits on his holy throne.

The princes of the peoples gather

as the people of the God of Abraham.

For the shields of the earth belong to God;

he is highly exalted!

This Psalm ends with a prophecy: because God reigns over all nations, all peoples will gather to worship Him.

"FITTING AND PLEASANT"

100 Psalms later, Psalm 147 says this about the matter:

Praise the LORD.

How good it is to sing praises to our God,

how pleasant and fitting to praise him!

His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;

the LORD delights in those who fear him,

who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Extol the LORD, Jerusalem;

praise your God, Zion.

That phrase, “how pleasant and fitting to praise him!” summarises the bible’s clear message on the appropriateness of praise and how we should take pleasure in it. The rest of the Psalm (not quoted above) explains why this is so. It tells us that God heals the brokenhearted, counts the stars, has limitless knowledge and wisdom, is mighty in power, spreads snow like wool, and satisfies the hunger of his creatures. He is a great God, making it fitting or rational to praise him.

But why is it pleasant to praise him? It is pleasant to praise him, because it is fitting to praise him. Our hearts will praise something as surely as our bodies will eat something. There is a desire that needs to be satisfied in both. Our hearts yearn after a god like our bodies hunger for food. And just as we will eat something when our stomach’s hunger kicks in, so we will worship something when our soul’s hunger arouses itself. The question is merely how pleasurable and satisfying our feeding/worshipping experience will be.

My wife’s favourite TV program is probably “I shouldn’t be alive”. It’s about people – stupid people – who get themselves into horrendous situations hundreds of miles from the nearest friendly creature wearing only their underwear and possessing nothing more than a beach ball, a pair of cheap sunglasses and 50 other items that are useless when it comes to survival. On one episode two teenage boys went fishing at sea in a little boat, got swept out by a strong current, drifted without water or food for six days (being stupid they dropped their rods in the sea) and started eating their own bodies. They were feeding their hunger, but it wasn’t either fitting or pleasant. And it wasn’t pleasant because it wasn’t fitting. God didn’t give us ten fingers so we could eat eight of them if we ever found ourselves without food. It’s not as if eight of our fingers come with neat, “unzip from body here for hassle free removal” labels. And so, because it is not fitting – not rational – to eat our fingers, it isn’t pleasant. The same could be said for screwdrivers, cell phones and small dinosaur bones – there is no pleasure in eating any of these because it isn’t fitting to do so. We’re just not made that way, however much we wish we were and regardless of how much we practice eating them.

This is a useful analogy for our soul and its need to worship. When we worship ourselves, our stomachs, or another person we’re doing the equivalent of gnawing on our hand. It isn’t fitting since there is only one true God who is worthy of praise as the all powerful, all knowing and all present One. And so our souls take little pleasure and derive little satisfaction from worshipping another god, though our brains try to convince them otherwise. “This will make you happy and content, soul.” But it doesn’t. “This new car is what you need to be happy, Mr. Consumer” – but the advert’s lying. We are trying to fill a round hole with a square peg – it does not fit and so it is an unpleasant experience.

ONE LEG OF THE IMPORTANCE OF WORSHIP STANDS ON GOD'S LOVE FOR US

And this is the foundation for one of the reasons why worship is important to God. Follow the logic: worship is important for my personal joy. I am important to God. Therefore worship is important to God. God cares about worship because he cares about me. This is why it is as difficult for me to believe that my worship matters as it is to believe that God loves me. And the answer to the question of why he loves me is not that I am so wonderful, but that God is love. He cannot do anything but love me. Love is not a choice for him; it is part of his nature. I am human and I will interact with others as human, regardless of their nature – animals or humans. I cannot choose to be anything but human. Now, I can chose to act like an animal and run around them barking like a dog, but I would still be doing it as a human. That would not make me a dog; it would just mean I am either fooling around or mad. There is no madness in God – he is love and he acts towards us in love. So, worshipping him is important for my personal wellbeing, therefore he cares about worship. And he loves the world, so he wants the world to worship him.

THE OTHER STANDS ON WHAT IT MEANS TO BE GOD

The other reason I can think of why worship is important to God (and this one is perhaps more foundational) is that it gives God pleasure to contemplate his magnificence in the admiration of his worshippers. “Wow, that sounds vain!” you complain. But it isn’t. It’s vain when I take pleasure in doing that, because I’m not the source of all worth and beauty in the universe. I’m not the reason for everything, so it’s vain – hollow and futile – when my internal dialogue is self-exalting. But God would have to be a fool not to take delight in how great he is. I think of it like this, “God is so glorious, even God gets excited about God.”

Now, God does not need us in order to enjoy his own glory. He did not create us out of a need to have someone admire him. In the Trinity, the Son lavishes on the Father constant admiration, while the Father lavishes on the Son – who is an exact representation of Him – the same. We offer God nothing. We merely reflect back to God the admiration of Himself in the Trinity. He has created us with a capacity to appreciate beauty and worth and he has revealed his beauty and worth to some of us. Our worship is nothing more than us using these two God-given gifts to reflect back to him, like a mirror, his splendour. And he loves to gaze upon his splendour. He’d be stupid not to, which would disqualify him from being God.

What 'Easter' Does For Us Everyday

Here's quite a cool music video to remind us that by dying on the cross, Jesus conquered all our burdens, struggles and sins.


So, instead of carrying the weight of these around with us every day, we need to remember to give them all to Him and live the joyful life that God intended for us.

Happy Easter!

See Enjoy Life's Easter Video.

Trying To Be Like God (In A Bad Sense)

The lives of the Pharisees are picked apart and laid bare in the gospels. God knows that the hypocrisy of their hearts – supported by pride and self-exaltation (I’m so great/clever/righteous/charming) – has a root in all humanity. So he warns us with Jesus’ words to his disciples:

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.” (Luke 12)

His warning takes two forms:

“They are bad – don’t be like them” and

“Their ‘badness’ will be revealed – as will yours if you follow after them – on the day of judgement”

Notice, he doesn’t say, “Sheesh, those guys – how bad are THEY!!! (chuckle) They’re so hopeless!” No, he warns his handpicked disciples who will preach the gospel in the nations and write large chunks of Scripture not to fall into the same trap because he knows they are inherently as susceptible as the Pharisees are to pride and hypocrisy. Even Eve seemed to be before the fall. Here is the lie that she fell for:

“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

That’s it, isn’t it? We want to be like God. The Pharisees wanted to be like God as esteemed lawmakers possessing superior righteousness. Eve wanted to be discerning and enlightened like God. I want to be in control like God rather than trust that he can do a better job with the universe – and my life – than I can. The disciples wanted to be like God as “the greatest”. Satan coveted the throne in heaven and fallen mankind takes after him. This makes me question a conversation the disciples had with Jesus when they came back from a successful mission trip:

The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Luke 10)

The disciples are ecstatic at the thought that demons are no match for them. Part of this may be acceptable reverence for God’s supremacy over all powers. But, based on other revelations of their character in the gospels and Jesus’ response, I think they are mostly being like little boys who have just received a sword for Christmas. They thrust it into the air as they fantasize about being great and slaying any who dare to challenge them.

Jesus affirms that, as his servants, they have received power and authority. And then he tells them why: they have power because He and the Father booted Satan out of heaven when he was poisoned by pride. Because God has authority over Satan, they do. They did not defeat Satan. And the demons don’t quake with fear when they encounter the disciples for any reason other than that God enforces their words. “Stop waving your sword around with a swagger that betrays how great you believe you are. You can go crush the Serpent’s head, unlike Eve did, because I have reinstated your authority over him. She had dominion over him, but forfeited it when she subjected herself to him. Now I’ve given it back to you – don’t do what she did. Don’t try to be like Me.”

But besides telling them not to do something bad that Eve did, he also tells them to do something enjoyable that Eve didn’t do: consider the bounty of God towards you. “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” This simple fact – names written in heaven – is the “good news” that Jesus came to make possible for all who would believe Him. It is far more precious and worthy of rejoicing in than the fact that demons duck when we swing our sword. We are not awesome, but God is, and Jesus tells us that we can be enchanted by and delighted in God’s glory and generosity for all eternity.

Let’s not be like Eve who, though she had a large garden full of beautiful trees from which she could eat, lusted after the fruit of the one tree that God forbade her to eat. We have the bounty of God. We will spare ourselves heartache if we rejoice in that, and don’t allow our carnal natures to do what they do best – lust after what they don’t have: godship.

Don't Fall For The "Good Guy" Lie

Luke 7 has an account of events that happened one night in the house of a man named Simon. Simon was an arrogant man. He was a Pharisee, and most Pharisees were arrogant. They thought they were better than others. And in some way, they were. But in the most important sense, they were not. They were somewhat better in that they kept the external requirements of the law better than most. They were sticklers for ritual and ceremony. This difference was largely irrelevant since they were also sinners; though outwardly impressive, inwardly they functioned like everyone else. Their actions were motivated by the lusts of the flesh just like those of murderers, adulterers, thieves, liars and other idolaters were. Pride, status, greed and lust had a strong grip on them as it did on others.

AN UNINVITED GUEST

Simon had Jesus around for a meal. Everyone would have been relaxing around a low table in the centre of the room. Resting on the ground, their legs faced away from the table, like the spokes of a wheel pointing out from the hub. Suddenly a woman enters – a notorious woman; a sinful woman. She is emotional and begins washing Jesus' feet with her tears and hair. Once “clean”, she kisses them and pours perfume on them. Simon is unimpressed that Jesus lets her do this. Jesus is supposed to be a godly man; why would he tolerate a hopeless sinner’s affection and attention?

BOTH RELATE TO GOD AS DEBTORS

Jesus breaks in on Simon’s arrogant thinking with some hard-hitting words. Using an illustration of two debtors who owed money to a lender, he points out that Simon shares in the woman’s sinfulness. Both of them are indebted to God. Jesus explains that the woman loves him much, because she has been forgiven much, whereas Simon loves him little (as shown by the fact he did not wash Jesus’ feet – a normal act of hospitality at the time) because he has been forgiven little.

DID SIMON OWE A SMALL DEBT?

Does this mean that Jesus believed Simon’s sinfulness was a small matter? It can’t, for the bible is clear that the sinfulness of every man and woman is a sharp offence to a holy and supreme God. All men have fallen far short of the glory of God – even their righteousness or best efforts to please God are like filthy rags before him. So then, what did Jesus mean by comparing Simon to a man who had been forgiven a small debt? I think he was referring not to the actual size of the debt, but rather to the perceived size of it. By Simon’s calculations he was essentially a good guy, unlike this dreadful woman polluting his house. He saw his righteousness as being great and his sinfulness as small. And so he didn’t love God or his Son much. Any good thing he received from God was more of a wage than a merciful gift. In fact, it is likely that he felt he deserved more from God for all his costly obedience to God’s laws.

THE CONVERSION OF A SINNER

What about this woman? Allow me to guess at her mindset. She had probably seen her sinfulness as great for decades. She knew she was more inclined to sinfulness than righteousness. She may have tried to live a good life, but sin held her in its grip. She envied and coveted and lied and cheated and lusted seemingly constantly. She hurt those around her; she hated those around her. She wanted to love them, she wanted to change, but she seemed incapable of doing so. Then she heard stories of Jesus and her heart stirred. She heard of one who was powerful, but compassionate; truthful, but merciful. She heard he was at her neighbour Simon’s house and her heart pounded. She barged in, God’s Spirit at work in her, and fell at Jesus’ feet. She sensed the holy presence of God, and she wept. Years of brokenness and sinfulness flowed out in a torrent towards Jesus. She sensed he could save her, even though she was convicted that he was the one she had sinned against. She had come to faith.

HUMILITY’S REWARD: THE PEACE AND JOY OF JUSTIFICATION

Jesus said to her: “Your sins are forgiven... your faith has saved you; go in peace”. This was the result of her brokenness and humility at the feet of Jesus. She had given in to her weakness and crumbled before him. She saw how lost and hopeless she was and she humbled herself and threw herself on the mercy of one she hoped could rescue her. The result was that she left forgiven and at peace.

SIMON STUMBLES WHERE SINNER’S STRIDE

Were Simon’s sins forgiven that night? I don’t think so. Simon believed he had little need of forgiveness. I don’t think he got even the little he thought he needed. We have already seen that Jesus’ comparison of Simon to a man who had been forgiven a small debt is about perception, not reality. Jesus was merely using the story to reveal to all present why this woman washed his feet with tears, when Simon didn’t even wash them with water. And the difference between their behaviour was their perceptions, not their realities. So the story does not mean that Simon was forgiven. If I’m right, why did he miss forgiveness? He missed it because of hubris – the ignorant confidence of the arrogant. He thought his righteousness would save him. As Paul said in Romans 9 and 10:

“Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the “stumbling stone”. As it is written: ‘See I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame’ ... for I can testify about the Israelites that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge. Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”

The stumbling stone was in Simon’s house that night and Simon stumbled over him as he said in his heart, blinded by his pride, “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is – that she is a sinner.” A sinner just like you were, Simon.

“There were many lepers in Israel, but only a Syrian was cleansed”

Last time I wrote of how John the Baptist told the “who’s who” of Israel not to place their confidence in being descendants of Abraham: “God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones”. In the next chapter of Luke, we see Jesus delivering the same message to another group of self-assured men. He points out that there were many Israeli widows when God sent Elijah to one in the land of Sidon to receive the outpouring of His blessing. And that there were many lepers in Israel when a foreign one was healed through the words of Elisha.

Jesus is reacting to how the people of Nazareth, his hometown, respond to his ministry. They don’t think he could be as special as he seems or as others have suggested. “Please man, he’s Joseph’s boy isn’t he?” “Who’s Joseph?” “That poor carpenter who lives on the other side of the market.” “Oh, him! (chuckle) I didn’t realise; what a joke.” That’s how most humans think: if he is special, he must come from a special place. The people of the small town of Nazareth would have received Jesus more readily if he came from somewhere else. Somehow they couldn’t stretch their minds to believe that someone who walked the same humble, dusty streets as them could be extraordinary. If he were from almost anywhere else their minds wouldn’t have stumbled over the familiar. And if he was from Jerusalem – the nation’s capital – then they may have swallowed any rumour of Jesus’ ministry. But familiarity bred contempt.

So Jesus warns them with a stunning insight. He points out that even Elijah and Elisha, now household names in Israel, were not always received or revered by Israelites during their lifetime. So God made their paths cross with foreigners and there He commanded his blessing. The stunning thing is who these foreigners were: a proud foreign army commander and an impoverished widow! You could not find two people more different and yet God blessed them – that’s grace. Here is how they are described:

Namaan: “...commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favour, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valour, but he was a leper.”

The un-named widow of Zarephath says of herself: “I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”

All they shared in common was a need for God’s intervention in their lives. One had it all (almost), one had nothing. One was significant and prominent, the other obscure. I am inclined to think that the widow was more likely a target for God’s grace – and maybe she was – for Namaan was proud. But his story is instructive. It is encouraging for the prominent for he too receives God’s grace and is healed of his leprosy. The important point to note is that in order to do so, he had to humble himself. He had to go down and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River. This was Elisha’s prescription for him and it seems stranger than any witchdoctor’s remedy. At first he refuses, indignant. But when he reflects on his desperate condition and how it will ruin his life, he humbles himself like “a little child” and heads for the Jordan. His humility precedes God’s outpouring of grace.

These two stories make me think of what Paul wrote to the Romans concerning Israel and Gentile nations and salvation.

Isaiah is so bold as to say, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” But of Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

God, because of the unbelief and pride of Jewish people took his salvation to Gentiles who were willing to humble themselves and believe his promise of salvation. The widow of Sidon had to gamble. She was required to use her last bit of flour and oil to feed Elijah. If she did, Elijah promised her, God would provide her with an endless supply of flour and oil. Her desperation forced her hand; she had little to lose and all to gain. Her circumstances humbled her just like Namaan’s humbled him. God sought out those who would humble themselves.

From this we see that self-assurance and self-reliance are great enemies of salvation. The heritage of the Jews became their confidence... and their downfall. As Paul says to Gentiles in the same passage in Romans:

“So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches (Jews), neither will he spare you.”

Christians are chosen by God; his special treasure. But this is no reason for pride or cockiness. We are as reliant and dependant on God as anyone else. And God’s ways and thoughts are far above ours, so we cannot presume to know automatically what he is doing and how he is doing it. He shocked the Israelites in the person of Christ. They were offended at the lowliness of his life and death. So they rejected him, and in doing so, they rejected God. Humility will prevent us from doing the same two millennia later.

Answering God's Difficult Calls

I once had the chance to go to an awesome conference where one of the speakers was ‘Mama’ Maggie Gobran. She is the founder of Stephen’s Children Ministry which serves the poorest of the impoverished children and families in the rural areas of Egypt.

Mama Maggie was initially a lecturer at Cairo University, but she received a strong, undeniable call from God, which led her to start the ministry to serve the poor around her.

She refers to Egypt as the Land of Tears and Blood as it has killed the most Christian martyrs in the world (hence the name of her ministry, named after the first Christian martyr).

But she also calls it the Land of Prayers and Love.

She started out just by walking through the garbage slums showing kindness and love to the children who lived among the rubbish.

Stephen’s Children Ministry is now powered by nearly two thousand employees and volunteers. This team positively affects over 25 000 families with compassion and life-changing opportunities.

Their mission is for these families to ‘experience love, build self worth and seize hold of the hope that is found in Jesus Christ.’

After twenty years of serving the poorest of the poor, Mama Maggie was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Hers was a tough call to answer, but she did, and so lives in the joy and fulfilment of God’s favour and love.

At the conference she spoke about answering tough calls from God, and she offered the following thoughts and advice that each person could follow and ultimately fulfil God’s call on each of our lives.

She said:

“We don’t choose where to be born, but we do choose to be sinners or saints, nobodies or heroes.

Silence your body to listen to your words.
Silence your tongue to listen to your thoughts.
Silence your thoughts to listen to your heart beating.
Silence your heart to listen to your spirit.
And silence your spirit, to listen to His spirit.
In silence we leave many and be with the One.

Have a pure heart and get to know the Almighty.   He will do miracles in you."