{"id":15282,"date":"2015-05-15T08:09:32","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T15:09:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=15282"},"modified":"2017-04-19T17:38:44","modified_gmt":"2017-04-20T00:38:44","slug":"ready-for-your-altar-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/15282-ready-for-your-altar-call","title":{"rendered":"Ready For Your Altar Call?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Ready For Your Altar Call? Invoking the Christ Consciousness<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you send the light, when you extend it out to when you might next be disturbed, that is part of the alter call of the Christ. For some of you, you signed on for a whole series of altar calls — more like on the order of countless, like every day, several times a day — so the later call is ongoing in some ways. There may be an alter call for you to rise up in your Christ Consciousness from that place that would hold back your love, your charity, and your spirit.<\/p>\n

When I was about five or six years old in the house\u00a0where I grew up we were Sunday worshipers but not every Sunday. Some Sundays there was some reason or excuse why we couldn\u2019t go to church. That was \ufb01ne with me, because I really didn\u2019t care for my relationship with church at that time. So I was rather glad when we didn\u2019t go. I remember being at home on those Sundays, \ufb02ipping television channels. Back in those days I think there were three. So it was pretty simple. \u00a0But I felt frustrated because I didn\u2019t really like anything that was on. I kept \ufb02ipping back of forth hoping that whatever was on would be going o\ufb00 soon so I could watch something I really wanted to watch.<\/p>\n

One of the shows that was on back then was called the Billy Graham Crusade. \u00a0At some point I found myself watching the show. Even though I grew up in a family with an older brother and sister, what I remember is I was the only one watching the show. Everybody else in the house was doing something else or they were away.<\/p>\n

At some point while watching Billy Graham, I felt moved by what I was watching. I remember a struggle started happening inside. Part of the moving that was going on was in my emotions, and I was uncomfortable with the experience. I didn\u2019t want to cry. I didn\u2019t want to feel whatever it was I was feeling. So I started \ufb01ghting it by \ufb01nding fault with it. I don\u2019t remember exactly what I thought. I just remember the inner \ufb01ght and the cynicism and sarcasm in my thoughts, even at that very early age.<\/p>\n

There was always a point in the service where there was an altar call. Billy Graham would invite people to come down to the altar and let Jesus into their heart. What struck me was what I saw in the people as they came forward. I saw people that were so moved, more than I was, such that most of them were sobbing by the time they got close to the altar. \u00a0They were responding with their arms wide open. \u00a0Some people keeled over onto the ground from being so moved.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t understand because this sort of experience didn\u2019t go on in the Lutheran church my family and I attended. In our church, we didn\u2019t have an altar call. We had something similar leading up to it. The choir sang, and then the minister did his part. There was a passing of dona-tion plates, which was kind of fun because my father would give each of us a quarter, a dime or a nickel, so we could make some noise as the coins clinked in the brass plate that came by. It was a nice sound to hear — all those coins dropping in.<\/p>\n

Back then, I wondered to myself when I saw Billy Graham what I would do if I was in the audience. \u00a0I wondered if I would come down and make the altar call. \u00a0It seemed\u00a0like an embarrassing thing to do, especially on television. But there was something obviously very powerful about it that was going on, for those I watched as well as for me.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m looking at what the Christ might have in mind for us and how we would do an altar call. If there was an altar call through MSIA, and I said I\u2019d like you to come up here now and open yourself to receive the Christ and claim the Christ in your heart, would you come? \u00a0Would you sit there? Would you run out the door?<\/p>\n

The altar call that we\u2019re all being called into is this —<\/p>\n

Consider the next time you\u2019re uncomfortable or faced with something you don\u2019t like that disturbs or bothers you, or you\u2019re tempted to get upset, react and be angry, or tell somebody o\ufb00, or shut yourself down and be depressed and sad, or the next time you \ufb01nd yourself choosing not to participate anymore, feeling like you want to pick up your marbles and go home, etcetera. \u00a0The next time you have that temptation, that\u2019s your altar call. \u00a0You can decide whether that\u2019s just me making it up or that\u2019s the Christ passing on a message to you. You can choose whether to see that moment as an altar call.<\/p>\n

When you send the light, when you extend it out to when you might next be disturbed, that is part of the altar call of the Christ. \u00a0 For some of you, you signed on for a whole series of altar calls — more like on the order of countless, like every day, several times a day — so the altar call is ongoing in some ways. \u00a0There may be an altar call for you to rise up in your Christ Consciousness from that place that would hold back your love, your charity, and your spirit. \u00a0 The call\u00a0may be for you to love whoever and whatever is in front of you as Christ has loved before and calls for now.<\/p>\n

People sometimes focus on what a terrible sinner they are as if that is the key to the kingdom and the way to come to the altar. That does nothing but present the garbage of the universe as an o\ufb00ering to the altar of God. That is not what gets you there. \u00a0What gets you there is placing yourself in a surrender, in a humbleness of asking that you be reborn in this consciousness of the Christ. \u00a0That you are willing to be assigned to and accept the conditions in which you \ufb01nd yourself.<\/p>\n

Surrender to the love of God. \u00a0Bring yourself into the loving of it all. \u00a0That\u2019s your altar call. \u00a0You come to the place of the Lord, where the Lord is gathering those who want to lay claim in their heart to the Lord. \u00a0Consider that your altar call means your willingness to claim the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart, to activate and individuate the Christ Consciousness within you.<\/p>\n

If you want to make the claim of an altar call, the way the Church of MSIA works is the altar goes within you as the consciousness of the Christ within. There\u2019s an opportunity when you make the altar call to be born in the Christ, to have the experience of the light that comes upon the planet, like the Star of Bethlehem. \u00a0It touches down to you, within you. So maybe in your mind\u2019s eye you could see something that represents the Star of Bethlehem bright in the sky. \u00a0It has this quality that extends vertically and horizontally. \u00a0There\u2019s an extending of that light that represents the Christ in you, touching to you in those places in which you transform yourself from the law that would persecute, convict, condemn\u00a0or judge into the grace that is the Christ. It is a blessing upon you.<\/p>\n

Invoking The Christ Consciousness<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the things we can do that works at any time is invoking the Christ, that spiritual consciousness within. \u00a0What it means to invoke the Christ is to pray, right there or right here, on the spot. \u00a0So if there is something right now that you would like to o\ufb00er that is a way of extending what is inside of you as the spirit of the Christ, just touch in and take a moment inside.<\/p>\n

When you go inside, if you feel a little tense, it\u2019s good to breathe in. Then let out this breath so there is a greater calm. Ask for the presence of your Lord God however that resonates with you.<\/p>\n

Maybe invoking the Christ isn\u2019t familiar territory for you. Maybe it\u2019s something that feels in some way new or awkward. \u00a0Regardless, just consider that you can call upon the Divine Presence now, extending it to any area that comes to mind that is not happening in the way you would like it to be. You can also extend your prayer to things that you\u2019ve been wanting or wishing for.<\/p>\n

Envision a nice white light extending from the highest levels to whoever and whatever comes to mind. \u00a0Breathe in and out and allow the peace from within to become present. If you haven\u2019t done so already, extend this light and peace to others. It can be anyone of your choosing and as many as you would like.<\/p>\n

Extend this Christ Consciousness to those who are close to you. That may be emotionally as in your loving relationships. It may be more about proximity, so you can extend\u00a0this Christ Consciousness to those with whom you live or who live nearby. Extend it out to anybody in your neighborhood, in your community and your city, to your country and out into the world. See this process as an invitation to have a visit with the Christ at this time. And as personal as you can make it, do that.<\/p>\n

The Christ Consciousness begins in the heart, in the soul of each of us. It is an extension of a spiritual consciousness that is love and forgiveness. \u00a0What I\u2019d like to o\ufb00er to you isn\u2019t so much a de\ufb01nition of the Christ as it is an experience or an interpretation of the Christ Consciousness. \u00a0You could have your own. You might come up with a whole di\ufb00erent meaning. So we don\u2019t have to be caught up with the word or how we spell that term.<\/p>\n

In my personal experience with the word Christ I see meaning in the name. \u00a0 To me, the Christ Consciousness is \ufb01rst about charity. It is a consciousness that gives. Not out of obligation, but because there is a goodness and an extension of this goodness.<\/p>\n

In the Bible, Jesus referred to the following as one of the greatest commandments:<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. \u00a0And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: \u00a0And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. \u00a0And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. \u00a0 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.\u201d [Deuteronomy 6:5 KJV]<\/p>\n

One of the ways I register that passage today is in the importance of taking the commandment and extending it out. \u00a0Not just as something that we value or recognize, but as something that we look at as a reference with our children and all of God\u2019s children. It\u2019s about the importance of extending what we are as God\u2019s beloveds to all of God\u2019s beloveds.<\/p>\n

As a father, that commandment resonates a lot to me. \u00a0But it also resonates because I am someone who is deeply devoted to doing something so that I make some level of contribution to the world. \u00a0I will be leaving this world at some point in time. \u00a0While I am here, I want to extend my loving and caring out into\u00a0the world to make things better, not just for my children but for all children and all who come after me.<\/p>\n

\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

In the Christ Consciousness, there is something holy and sacred. There is something that transforms who we are so that we\u2019re lifted. So that whatever our ills are, whatever is a disturbance, is healed in this Christ Consciousness.<\/p>\n

Now there\u2019s lots of stories in the Bible about healings, stories about people who were lame and walked, who were blind and then could see. Even someone who was dead was raised so that they were living. There\u2019s great healing in the Christ Consciousness, and it takes quite a bit of trust on our part. At times, it may take all of our trust to make that leap to the highest level of healing. What level of trust would it take to heal whatever is your illness so you let go and release into the Christ whatever is your disturbance, sin or transgression?<\/p>\n

One of the ways that I look at Jesus is somebody who was very close to the children. There was a time when the Disciples were asking him, \u201cWho amongst us is the greatest?\u201d As part of his explanation, Jesus talked about whoever among you is the greatest servant is the greatest amongst you. \u00a0Jesus also talked about being like a little child. He picked up a child in his arms and used the child as a reference point of the innocence that is part of who we are. \u00a0Yet, our innocence may often be forgotten as we move through our life experiences and grow up.<\/p>\n

Innocence represents a purity of consciousness, a purity of intent. Someone that you know you could trust. Someone who you know in your heart will be there before you even know it. When the Christ\u00a0comes into us as an awareness, as a state of being, as an awakening, and a real force in our heart, it comes as a consciousness that has innocence and trust. \u00a0Imagine having someone that you know that you could completely trust, and perhaps you do know somebody so you don\u2019t need to imagine. \u00a0That\u2019s someone who would not betray you, would not lie to you or deceive you. \u00a0That\u2019s someone who would have your best interests in mind so that they come in a purity of consciousness and look upon you in that same purity.<\/p>\n

When the Christ looks upon each of us, we\u2019re seen in our innocence and our purity. We are trusted. In the story, Jesus talked about going to prepare a place. Going ahead of us, perhaps like an elder brother, as someone that knew the way and was showing the way to those who were interested. \u00a0Jesus said, \u201cCome, follow me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s always important at any time to consider how would you recognize this one we call the Christ. How would you know that consciousness, that presence? \u00a0How would you know to follow the Christ Consciousness?<\/p>\n

There are lots of ways you can interpret and refer to the Christ. \u00a0One of the obvious things that we have an opportunity to do every day is to open yourself up to the miracle that is Christ. \u00a0The Christ is a rising consciousness. Part of the story of the cruci\ufb01xion and death of Jesus includes the raising up of the body after a few days. There was an empty tomb, a place where his body wasn\u2019t anymore. \u00a0\u201cHe is not here: for he is risen.\u201d [Matthew 28:6 KJV] \u00a0What I \ufb01nd is that it takes a little, or sometimes a lot, of our innocence and all of these qualities — our charity, our holiness, the consciousness of our soul and spirit. \u00a0It takes us to rise up and above what we would have as our doubts. \u00a0We\u2019re called upon to raise up beyond our judgments and cynicism to know the Christ.<\/p>\n

Sweetness of The Christ<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I \ufb01rst had what I knew consciously was a direct experience of Christ Jesus, it happened inside. I went away from that experience with a kind of matter-of-fact feeling as I was touched by the ordinariness and the humanness of knowing Christ Jesus. I sensed that he was like me. I realized that due to my conditioning, I was brought up not to know Christ Jesus in that way. \u00a0There was always a reference to him as being in a distant time. Since the time that Christ Jesus walked on this planet was so long ago, it made his life di\ufb03cult to relate to. \u00a0It required trust, a leap of faith, to connect to a direct experience of the Christ within.<\/p>\n

I was struck by another quality as I touched in to the Christ Jesus. This is the quality that stood out the most and still does to this moment. My word for it is sweetness, an absolute profound sweetness of the Christ Consciousness. \u00a0That sweetness was so powerful that I had a hard time picturing Jesus with the human, ordinary qualities like getting angry, sad, depressed, and all of those upsetting emotions. That sweetness seemed to me to be all of who Christ is.<\/p>\n

I realize that when I\u2019m not really active in the Christ, that sweetness isn\u2019t really present. Something else is present such that I want to act according to what we refer to as the law. Man\u2019s law keeps track of when did you do it, how did\u00a0you do it, how much does it cost, how much do you owe me, when are you going to pay me, and on and on. Man\u2019s law is about what we want for ourselves or for others, where we focus on expectations and demands for what we think we or others are supposed to do if we were really good Christians and loved and cared for one another.<\/p>\n

How often have you participated in the exchange of presents at Christmas and not really enjoyed it so you weren\u2019t thrilled by the process and you didn\u2019t appreciate it? \u00a0I remember as a child complaining about getting Christmas presents like clothes and supplies for school and being upset because I wanted toys and things I could play with. That\u2019s about man\u2019s law, not about the genuine sweetness and caring of the Christ.<\/p>\n

Sometimes when the Christ comes present, it isn\u2019t necessarily something that registers inside as peace, harmony, or what you expected and wanted. \u00a0I \ufb01nd often at those times we\u2019re measured in our Christhood. \u00a0Those are our altar calls.<\/p>\n

You may need to ask yourself, \u201cDo I have the openness to receive what is present? \u00a0Am I willing to trust that, whatever is the situation, there is something that can be a blessing through the Christ?\u201d<\/p>\n

Allow yourself to consider that whatever comes to mind, you send the light of Christ into what would disturb you. It would be good to send yourself the light right now, and to the next time, and as many times as you feel disturbed or faced with a di\ufb03culty. You can extend this light on out to in\ufb01nity as you can manage it. Know that you can ask for the light to go to you and anything that would disturb you, any occurrence in which you would react, strike out, or go against another in some way. \u00a0The light can go to your judgements so you can move into forgiveness, forgetting and letting go. The Christ Consciousness extends out through your empathy and compassion. Through the Christ, you are the one who is transformed into the consciousness that has charity and forgiveness, understanding and compassion, who loves the other as you would be loved in the very best way.<\/p>\n

Maybe some of you saw the movie Ben Hur. It\u2019s a pretty good one if you\u2019re interested. It takes place about the time of Jesus. \u00a0The main character gets enslaved, becomes part of slave ship, and goes to Rome. He then manages to become a chariot driver who the Romans bet on to win in races. So he kind of raises his lot in life as a chariot driver.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a great scene in the movie about the chariots. But for me, an even more moving scene takes place when he comes back to the land of Israel still enslaved\u00a0by the Romans. \u00a0What I remember is he notices that there\u2019s excitement with the people. There are these gatherings out in the open, and people are very excited about whatever it is that\u2019s happening. \u00a0He doesn\u2019t know what\u2019s going on, so he asks and learns it\u2019s about this man, Jesus. His \ufb01rst response is disbelief and cynicism. \u00a0But then he gets exhausted and thirsty so that he\u2019s kind of in a state of consciousness where he\u2019s not in his mind, like he\u2019s having a fever type of reaction.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s a presence that comes in with just a hand o\ufb00ering him a gourd full of water. \u00a0Even though it was somebody\u2019s drama being portrayed, and who knows if Ben Hur was based on anybody real or not, what I remember is the impact of that charity, of that\u00a0presence. Not knowing the face, not knowing the person, yet there was this presence — this presence of the Christ.<\/p>\n

When that presence comes in, it can bring chills and stir us as something like a wind from heaven. Often it comes when we\u2019re not really expecting it. We\u2019re probably not even prepared. But it comes to those who wait and those who have the faith.<\/p>\n

John the Baptist was somebody who came before Jesus, and he had a very clear message about preparing and making ourself straight so that we would have an opportunity to receive. I \ufb01nd that the cynicism that people have is the place that<\/p>\n

bends or closes o\ufb00 that opening, that place of openness to receive. \u00a0So when that Divine Presence is in our midst, rather than feel the charity, the trust, the holiness, the spirit and the soul, we instead feel the judgment, the mockery, the cynicism. \u00a0If we\u2019re participating in that kind of negative consciousness as a habitual form, if our way of relating to our world is through sarcasm, cynicism, \ufb01nding fault, and criticizing, we\u2019re really putting ourself into a bind that\u2019s very di\ufb03cult to loosen. We make it di\ufb03cult to open ourselves up to the loving and healing of the Christ Consciousness.<\/p>\n

I encourage you to be open to receive that one who is the Christ. \u00a0Be open to the sweetness that can come into your midst and touch you and make itself known in your heart. Be ready for your altar call with open loving arms as you embrace yourself as one who knows and claims the Christ within.<\/p>\n

\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ready For Your Altar Call? Invoking the Christ Consciousness When you send the light, when you extend it out to when you might next be disturbed, that is part of the alter call of the Christ. For some of you, you signed on for a whole series of altar calls — more like on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":87719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[261,1141,110],"tags":[190,399,118,391,249,155,177],"class_list":["post-15282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-john-mortons-current-story","category-relationships","category-service","tag-christ","tag-cosciousness","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-lord","tag-love","tag-spiritual"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}