Bright Morning Star

The Certainty of Emmanuel

 

 

In the early morning hours when quiet and stillness are at the peak capacity in the world I seek my connection with the Source.  Often it is my only time of the day where I can find my center, the Peace in me at the core.  I have various tools for which I use routinely to help me gain perspective on the Truth. I am often reminded of who Brad is.

 

My morning spiritual tool box includes three different translations of the "Word of God" (Bible/Good Book), "Alcoholics Anonymous" (Big Book), "The Upper Room" and "Disciplines" daily devotionals. Nine out of ten days this is how I start.  I have learned that if I begin my day this way I will  have a better chance of being the person my Creator wants me to be; of being more aligned with what his will is for me.

 

One of my morning meditational practices is walking outside at dawn to look around and experience the world as it's activities begin to fill the ears with sounds and eyes with movement.  I will always look to the eastern horizon to fix my eyes on a bright star. It is the brightest in the morning of all the stars! There is no missing it on a clear morning. This beacon shines so that as the sun begins to rise and it's light washes out all the others in the sky, there is only One remaining!

 

 

 

 

Through the course of a year this bright light appears in different positions on the eastern horizon. With our time changes here on the east coast, you know - spring forward and fall back - I have to search longer to find it. Sometimes I cannot find it all. This past week we have been covered with a consistent cloud layer and much rain and I have not been able to put my eyes on this constant companion of ours. As a matter of fact I have not gone out in the morning much for the past week.

 

 

 

 

The world calls this star a planet and has named it Venus. I do not believe it is a coincidence that Venus was the Greek goddess of Love.  So I will be grateful that Love is with us always and constantly. Lord knows the world needs it!

 

 

"I am the Root and Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star."

Revelation 22:16 (nkjv)



 

Amen

 

Bradford Bosworth

September, 2015







Our Vital Spirit

"The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from, or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the spirit."

John 3:8

My simple soul longs for a simpler time. Every time I sign up for a new service or software application I have to create a new password. I need a password to find my password list. My electronic devices have shorter and shorter lifespans. The update pop-up pops-up with increased frequency.

I watch "American Pickers" because it leads me to glimpses of those simpler times. I am drawn to life's antiquities for they are where the treasure of my simple memories lie in a warm soft place. The basic truths contained in these memories still connects deep down and touches the Spirit within.

Recently I was strolling through the toiletries aisle at my local grocery store. A product on the shelf caught my eye and gave me pause. At first I thought that this particular shelf had been overlooked in restocking efforts. This seemingly forgotten section of display real estate must have been caught in a time warp. There rested a single bottle of Vitalis men's hair tonic. This should have been a facing that included Dapper Dan and Butch Wax adjacent to this relic of men's grooming!


Why would this isolated relic from the past grab me to the point of taking a picture with my cell phone? Perhaps I did not believe my eyes. Why - if I had a picture to show- people would actually believe me when I told them what I had recently discovered in a Publix of all places. How is it that this simple chance encounter with an inanimate object would have me gathered up in the mystique of my memory?



The first thing I did when I decided to share the picture was to look for some kind of sign, a message in the name itself, Vitalis. Of course, when beginning this search on my antiquated laptop, I received the message that my browser needed updating...go figure. When googled, the word Vitalis brought up the word Vitalism. What I found was that "Vitalism" is an obsolete scientific doctrine. I was not aware that a scientific doctrine could become obsolete? Then again I am not an academic either. I will let the reader see for themselves:

Vitalism is an obsolete scientific doctrine that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things".^[1] a Where vitalism explicitly invokes a vital principle, that element is often referred to as the "vital spark", "energy" or "élan vital", which some equate with the soul.

When I further looked for clarification of that phrase: obsolete scientific doctrine, I found the descriptors: scientific consensus and mainstream scientific acceptance. Can anyone say global warming? Then it occurred to me that what we are talking about here is the same thing as conventional wisdom!  God forbid, that the belief in the concept of the soul travel the same road as the idea of vitalism!  All right, so I will remove the letter -m- and voila...we are back to our original word topic VITALIS... whew!  I think I will try to avoid wikipedia for awhile.

One thing I am sure of is the existence of the soul. I have a soul. It is my vital spirit within and when I connect best with fellow humans it is at the level of our souls. That spirit is what we all have in exact and absolute common.  What is different about us is how we are packaged; how our souls are manifest in this material world.

Last evening my friend Donna and I were enjoying a meal outside one of our favorite eateries here in Smyrna, Georgia. I saw her look up and behind me recognizing a familiar face. She immediately arose and went to this passerby calling him by name, "Michael"!  This was, I could sense, a connection on the level of the soul. Michael is a close friend with Donna's daughter. They were high school classmates many years earlier.  I could clearly see that "vital spark" of this young man as I got up to introduce myself and shake his hand.  I had never known of or heard his story. Here it is:

 



I had started writing this piece a couple days earlier and I got stuck. I was not sure where it was going. After hearing about this young man from my fiend Donna I knew it was not a coincidence that our paths crossed last night. There are no coincidences.  It is my conviction that one of the reasons Christ came into the world was to facilitate mankind's awakening to it's collective soul.  The Holy Spirit allows us to comprehend who we are.

 

 



I believe there is a time in our youth where we are more in touch with our spirit.  Then the world began telling me who I should be and I started listening. Conventional wisdom pointed me to how I should act and painted for me what my picture of success should look like. These relics of the past sometimes help connect me to those moments when I could more clearly hear that still small voice within.

 

" 'The Spirit of Truth' the world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him for he lives with you and will be in you."

John 14:17

 



Thanks brother Michael.
Amen

Bradford Bosworth
September 2015



Give by Receiving

 

Hope Lives

 

 

In late winter 2011 I was serving as a member of the support team for North Georgia Walk to Emmaus Men's #146.  It was my first experience as a servant on a Walk as I had been a pilgrim on Men's #144 in October just a few months earlier. I was a rookie finding my way in a new role.

 

In our preparations leading up to the Walk I heard one of the team leaders speak of Christian Action and in his talk he described a book he had read called "90 Minutes in Heaven".  This man, an executive with Turner Broadcasting Sports in Atlanta, talked about the impact of this book in his own life but more importantly how- as a gift- he used it as a healing tool for a friend who had just lost a loved one.  His story moved me to go out and buy the book.

 

Sometime that spring I read the book. What I remember most clearly even after almost five years was that the message of the book to me was not "This is what heaven is like!".  Instead, what we can do here and now to make this life more like heaven? The answer for me was: By learning how to forgive myself and allowing those who love me to show their acts of Love. It is by receiving that we also give.  And these acts create the heavenly environment for all those involved.

 

 



 

Two years pass and I am on the phone with my brother Hal and - as we so often do - we are talking about my niece Kate and her latest professional ventures and he tells me that she and her fiance Michael Polish are negotiating for the film rights to this book titled "90 Minutes in Heaven." My ears perked up as Hal went on to say that it would be the couple's biggest project of their film careers.

 

Kate and Michael's wedding was set for later that year over Labor Day weekend 2013 in Montana.

Leading up to the wedding I would read the book again. When the wedding rolled around the film rights deal would be completed and there was talk of filming right here in Atlanta. While in Montana and to my disappointment, I was told that it looked like the movie would be made in Utah.

The weekend and wedding was very graceful!

 

I remember flying home feeling that the wedding event would be my last connection to "90 Minutes in Heaven". I did pray for God's Will be done in regards to the film. After another year passing and on the phone with Hal again, I learned that the movie would be filmed in Atlanta in January and February of this year. Praise God! This time I went out and bought two copies of the book for my daughters Maggie and Jeanne.  During the time of the production they would get to spend a great lunch afternoon with cousin Kate which warmed my heart.

 

Usually from the time production wraps to the time the movie arrives in theaters is a longer period -maybe a year or longer. "90 Minutes in Heaven" has taken about six months. This decision was driven by a calling to release the film on 9/11!  It is a tender time for our country.  It is a time where many of us need some hope in our lives. This movie will show many that still Hope Lives!

 

 



 

On Tuesday, September 1st I was able to attend the World Premier of "90 Minutes in Heaven" at the Fox Theater in Atlanta with family and friends.  What a blessed experience it was.  I have come to expect that many times when Hollywood produces a film from a book with religious connotations - particularly a Christian message - they will stray from the essence of the original story. That is not the case with this movie.  It is true to the original book.

 

Post Script: Over the years since that Men's Walk #146 I have served on a handful of Walks and have never seen that Turner Broadcasting executive again. This May I got a call to serve on the July Men's #172 and lo and behold who was on that team? The man who introduced me to "90 Minutes in Heaven".

 

Amen Brother

 

Bradford Bosworth

September, 2015

 

 

 



Renovatus Key

Glimpses of Grace



Yesterday, Sunday, September 6, 2015, I was confronted again by one of life's little coincidental moments. These tiny miracles or glimpses of God's Grace are occuring for me with increased regularity either in my own experience or of those others who are witnessing about it to me.

First I should provide some background orientation. My  youngest daughter Jeanne and I are engaged in a project related to her fund raising efforts to support her Rome, Italy study abroad program.
(See: http://www.gofundme.com/x58b9ss )

As a result of this effort we have pledged to provide content communication to those "subscribers" with bi-weekly recaps of our Father-Daughter letters. We have named this project, "My Father's Keys". (See: 8/17/15 blog post).

So this past week I received my first letter from Jeanne. If you have donated to Jeanne's GFM page you have received the complete letter with accompanying photos as well as my original letter to her of which she read on the flight over to Italy.  For this expose I am including an excerpt of her letter to me:



Marcella was born in Chile and spent most of her life in Uruguay, yet her family originates from Sicily. Her English is impeccable and her Spanish is even better, both of which she teaches to Italian students here in Rome.

When we met Marcella, we were exploring one of the neighborhood’s supermercatos and she was loading her produce into her car preparing to visit the community pool.  She overhead me attempting to converse with the cashier in Italian and -lit up- when she heard me butchering the local language.  She immediately asked my roommates and I to come and speak to her students in English; then they’ll speak to us in Italian. It is a win-win for everyone!

Marcella offered us a ride back to our apartment and our relief was palpable.  She said she had to rearrange some of her belongings in her backseat so all of us could fit. Then she pulled out in view some of the most detailed printed art I have ever seen.  On top was a sky with a moon and a sun intertwined in an infinity sign above a scale of justice.  My description of this work would weigh poorly on one of those plates.  She talked about how she wanted to sell it but something inside her stopped her.

Marcella said, “Maybe I’m not done with it yet…..or maybe it is not done with me?”  She then began explaining that she was redoing her entire apartment; she looked at me and asked what the word was for taking an old building and changing it. I immediately responded,  “Renovation.”

For the remainder of the ride back she spoke about what the word Renovation meant. It is from the Latin word renovatus: to restore and make new again, to repair. I got Goosebumps, right?  I knew then that Marcella was meant to receive the “Kingdom Key”, the first of my Father’s Keys.

****

I had a glimpse of God's Grace on Sunday morning as I slid into the pew at our Chuch and settling in I focused on the  service program in my hand and the cover art read "God's Restoration Project."  Our associate Pastor Whit Martin's Sermon would be "This Old House."  Even now as I write this piece I am in awe.  I can say just a few short years ago I may not have even noticed and if I did notice I would not have appreciated this message, this communication from the Creator.  The more I notice the more it happens! Oh and did I mention Pastor Whit's Sermon was right on time!

 

 







 

 

The Apostle Peter is at the center of the "My Father's Keys" project with my daugter Jeanne as he is at the center of Rome, Italy.  My second letter to Jeanne has already been sent to her and it has something to do with a walk on the water. Stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

Amen Sister

 

Bradford Bosworth

September, 2015