CJ Penn's Online Writing Hangout

The reason I write: To promote Christian truth and help Jesus get His Christianity back.

Tag Archives: Christianity


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Book Challenge Day #55 – Typing, finally

ghost writer

My hand-written first draft notes are all safely in my notebook, all except for the last chapter. But tonight is big not because of that, but because I started typing the first draft, beginning to make edits on the way. There is something special for me when I finally start typing a new book project. It feels more real, not like my barely legible hand-writing. I just finished typing chapter one and I’ll get started on chapter two as soon as I post this brief message.

This book project, driven along by my challenge to write and publish this book in three months, has really picked up momentum the past week. And I’d like to use this particular post to thank my co-writer… the Spirit of Jesus Christ, who lives within me, and probably within you too. He’s the real drive behind this project. His presence fills me with energy, excitement, and words. And I’m so grateful. Thanks

 

(September 9, 2015: day 55 down, 38 more to go, of The Challenge… to write a book, from concept to self-publish, in 3 months.)


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The Spirit Speaks – of Intimacy

spiritual hug

Do you desire quiet, intimate moments with the ones you love? I do. Are there times when your desire grows to an emotional craving, where it’s almost as if your wellbeing depends upon the hug you desperately seek? For me, nearly always.

I, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, crave intimacy with the ones I love. I crave intimacy with all of my Father’s children. Yet my intimacy is unique and very precious; I crave spiritual intimacy. I hunger for spiritual hugs.

You will find and feel my intimacy when you look inside your self: I am there, with my spiritual arms reaching out for you, waiting for you to reach out to me. Close your eyes, picture me there, within you. See me reach out to you. Now, step into my arms, lay your head on my shoulder, and hug. Feel the peace. Feel my strength. Feel the soothing calm. Stay with me here for a while, please. Oh how I love you my child.

Do you love me? Are there times when your arms ache to reach out and hug me, and to feel my arms hug you, my arms that once stretched out on the cross for you? For a spiritual hug, just look inside yourself. For a physical hug, hug a friend, for I may be there too, within them.


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The Spirit Speaks – of Guilt

daisy

Do you feel guilty about your sins? Are there influencers in your life, like friends or your church, who in some way tell you that you should feel guilty? Does pressure to feel guilty come from inside you, rather than from other people? Is there a seed of guilt, planted into your heart long ago that sprouts to full bloom with the slightest sin?

Then listen to this truth. I, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, come to you to tell you that there is no place for guilt in your life. There is no need for guilt in your life. You see, feelings of guilt about sins against our Father God are not what He desires. Rather than guilt, God desires that your faith in him grows to full bloom. Yet feelings of guilt are a sign of a faith that has not yet blossomed.

Please listen to me and believe. I took upon myself the guilt for ALL sins. I paid the penalty for all sins. There is no more call for guilt. Guilt is dead; it died with me, on the cross. It is done. It is finished!

Look inside your heart… I’m there within you. Come to me, and I will open your mind to this truth and give you rest from guilt. Faith will set you free from guilt. And as your feelings of guilt wilt, your faith will open to full bloom. And our Father will look upon you and smile.


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The Spirit Speaks – of Life

Life

Your life is such a special gift, given especially to you. Yet God did not intend this gift to be horded selfishly. I, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, ask you to share your life with others, and with me.

Yet life is often very difficult. You have periods of peace and comfort. And you have times of pain and suffering. You know this; you’ve experienced it. This mix of peace and pain, sometimes out of balance to the pain side, is just what life is, within the broken world of humanity. Yet again, it’s not what I intended. Sin entered into humanity and brought with it pain.

And some people choose to escape this broken world, and leave this life. Yet no matter how broken you may feel – your life, everyone’s life, is infinitely special and important. For through you, I can walk the earth yet again, on your two feet, with you.

If you feel that walking through life alone is too difficult, if you’ve ever thought about giving up on your life and running away, then please look to me. Instead of surrendering to fatigue and despair, surrender to me. Let me fully enter into your life, and make my home with your soul. And you never need to take another tiring step alone, for I will be walking with you, within you.

Just pray – look to me. Awaken your mind and soul, to stare on me. And soon I will come into focus and you will see me clearly, not with your eyes, but with your feelings, within you.


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The Spirit Speaks – of Emptiness

emptiness

Do you feel empty? Does it feel to you like something is missing from your life? Look to me, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, and I will fill you with my presence. I will fill you with my love, my compassion, my humbleness, and my peace. The peace I bring to you is not the fragile peace you find in your world; it’s an enduring and strong peace, able to stand against the stormy winds of life.

Your sense of emptiness is your soul speaking to your mind, telling you that it’s hungry for companionship, that it’s hungry for me.

Look to me, and I will fill you up.

 

“Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (James 4:10)


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The Spirit Speaks – of Love and Friendship

Friendship

Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command. And I, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, have only this command… love each other.

You are my friends if you love one another. Look, I’ve already taken all your burdens upon myself; I’ve already paid the penalty for your sins. All I ask of you, the only burden I leave with you, is to believe and to love.

What does it mean to you to be a friend? Does it mean being there when your friend needs you? Does it mean caring for what your friend cares about? Does it mean feeling pain, when they are in pain? Does it mean celebrating their joys, when they are joyful? Does it mean being a listener, when they need someone to share their concerns with?

This is what it means to me to be your friend. This is what I offer you, as your friend; I offer you love, compassion, sympathy, empathy, and a shoulder to cry on. And I’m always right here, by you side. More than by your side, I’m within you, living with your soul. Look inside yourself; your feelings will tell you of my presence. If you feel I’m not there, just look inside. This act of faith will open the door of your heart and I will enter.

 

“This is my command: Love each other.” (John 15:17)


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Book Challenge Day #49 – 5 Hours of Rapid Writing

commute traffic

Yesterday was a huge day of progress on the book I’m trying to write and publish in 3 months. I had to drive to San Jose for a work assignment – a comfy 2+ hour drive with typical commute traffic. So there and back, I was in my car for about 5 hours (traffic was a bit more than typical). This type of day can be boring and exhausting. But not yesterday. Using my iPhone audio memo app and with the ear-buds/microphone, I was able to record notes for the book while keeping both hands on the wheel (that comment is for those who tend to worry about me while I’m on these long commutes for work).

After 5 hours filled with frequent moments of high energy and excitement, I had recorded very detailed notes for the remaining seven chapters of the book. Once I transcribe these audio notes, the first draft will be complete!

But the best part is how this happened and what ended up coming out of my mouth. As I often do while driving, I’m in frequent conversation with the Holy Spirit of Jesus. I always find comfort in His presence. And yesterday, I believe He was giving me the words that I then spoke into my iPhone. And what great words – the book has taken an unexpected turn, and I’ve now added elements that will bring much more power to it’s message. That’s where my energy and excitement came from.

Dear Jesus, thank you so much for all you do, and for riding with me yesterday on my 5-hour commute.

 

(September 3, 2015: day 48 down, 45 more to go, of The Challenge… to write a book, from concept to self-publish, in 3 months.)


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The Spirit Speaks – of Love

Holy Spirit & Love

Dear one, I long to fill you with my love. I am the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As God is love, so am I. To have my Spirit within you is to have love filling every part of you. To know me is to know true love – unconditional, humble, other-centered love. My love, true love, knows no limits and imposes no requirements. It just is.

Yet do you sometimes hold back my love, as a dam holds back a wall of water? Look inside yourself. Is there a wall within? My loved ones often build such walls, with stones of pride, and fear, and doubt, selfishness, greed, guilt, and the world. Gently lower your wall and my love will flow and flood your entire being. My love will overflow you, and splash onto those around you.

Do you feel empty at times? That empty feeling is your soul, hungry for my love. Please, let me in.


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The Spirit Speaks – Seek & Find

seek and find

Do you wonder at my existence? Are you uncertain, yet curious? Am I really the Spirit of Jesus Christ? Do I really exist within your being, sharing your body with your very soul?

If such questions occupy your mind, maybe that’s because I occupy a space in your heart. Such questions come from me, within you. Your earth-bound rational mind will doubt, yet there is part of you that is able to escape the limits of your humanity and look beyond the things you can see, to me.

Look for my story within the pages of the Bible. Look for me within you. Seek, and you will find me in prayer. For prayer is where you and I come together. Prayer is where wonder and curiosity becomes reality… with me, within you.


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Avoiding The Mess

garbage

Look at all the evil going on in the world. Then there’s selfishness, hate, anger, stress, fear, arrogance, bigotry… on and on. My personal opinion is that humanity is a big malignant mess. And since I’m a typical human, I only add to the mess, even when I try not to. It’s just part of my prideful human nature. I also think all the messes have their roots in our natural pride and selfishness. Yet, is there a way for me to live without adding to the mess? Yes.

That’s why I try to surrender my life to Jesus so that His Spirit can live through me. I want my “self” to step aside, making room for Jesus to fill me with His Self. Then, this person called CJ can be a part of humanity without adding to the mess. It’s not easy, for me anyway. But it’s my hope.

What do you think about this?


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The Spirit Speaks – of the One True Church

One true church

When I walked the earth as Jesus Christ, space and time trapped me by their physical limits. You know how this feels. Yet I now have no limits. I can be everywhere, within everyone, all at the same time.

In this way, I can bring unity to humanity. With me within you, and if I’m also within your neighbor, then you and your neighbor are firmly connected to each other, through me.

This is the true Church of Jesus Christ… all Spirit-filled believers, united by their common bond with me. The true church is not a building or an organization run by men. The church is you, if you believe in me and recognize my presence within you.

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? … for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17)


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The Spirit Speaks – I’m Always With You

Holy Spirit in you

Dear friend,

I, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, am forever and always with you. My eyes never close. My mind is never somewhere else. I focus my being on you.

Your mind scampers from one thing to another throughout the day, sometimes landing on me. Yet you will soon step off and chase after other thoughts. Such is the way in the world – it can be difficult to stay with me for more than a moment. Then at night while you sleep, you lose all control of your mind, and you may rarely come to me in your dreams.

But I’m forever and always looking upon you. I’m standing right here, next to your conscious mind, waiting for you to turn to me. How does that feel, to know that I’m always here within your very being, hand-in-hand with your soul?


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Book Challenge Day #41 – The Deadline

Deadline

My 93-day window of time to write a book is well over a third of the way closed (or open, depending on how I choose to look at it). And I’m far from a third finished. At this point, panic is an option. Or at least rising stress – that would be my usual response. Yet while praying this morning, another window began to open for me, a window of understanding and trust.

What began to seep into my mind while praying is this: my three-month deadline is artificial and has no meaning beyond the meaning you or I may give it. My prideful self would choose to make the deadline a matter of success or failure. That’s where the stress and eventual panic would come in.

Or, I could choose to give no meaning to the deadline and just focus on trusting Jesus – trusting Him to show me the way to the completion of this book, with no concern for when that happens. The deadline then becomes only a fun way to help motivate myself to write this book, with no stress, only trust.

Guess which one I’ve chosen.

 

(August 24, 2015: day 40 down, 53 more to go, of The Challenge… to write a book, from concept to self-publish, in 3 months.)


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The Spirit Speaks – From Within You

Holy Spirit inside

I, the living Spirit of Jesus Christ… I know how hungry life is for all your conscious thoughts. The world around you is greedy, not content with anything less than your full attention. And I know how difficult it can be to wrest your mind away from the world and look to me.

But I’m always here, just below the surface of your thoughts, waiting for you to look my way. Look inside yourself – you will find me there. While I walked the earth as Jesus Christ, I promised all of humanity that I would send my Spirit to live within you. Not walking with you, side by side, but living in you, sharing your body with you. Your soul and my Spirit living together as one, just as our Father and I are one – this is my promise to you.

Does it feel like you don’t know me? Do you doubt my reality? Then please, look inside yourself – you will find the truth of me there, living within you, patiently waiting for you to look my way.


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The Spirit Speaks … to You

Holy Spirit

When your alarm goes off and you pull yourself out of bed, you’re not alone. As you go about your day, you’re never alone. All day long, I am there with you – the living Spirit of your eternal friend, Jesus Christ. I died for you – I now live with you.

Do you not believe in me, or does your belief feel weak and uncertain? My love for you is not a measure of your belief. My love for you is overflowing and unchanging. And my love is patient – I will not chase after you. My love will wait for you to turn to me.

Yet when you turn, you will find me right there. You are never alone. I’m always here with you, just a thought away.


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Book Challenge Day #38 – Back in the Saddle Again

This blog, and my personal book challenge, has been very quiet for the past few weeks. I’ve been traveling for three weeks, and though I had hoped to find lots of time for writing and blogging, there was actually very little. I made almost no progress on the book. But I’m not worried… yet.

You see, whenever I do find time to write, and as long as I am able to quiet my mind and focus on the Spirit of Jesus within me, the writing just happens. I focus on Jesus and the words seem to flow through my hand and into my notebook. This morning I effortlessly finished the first draft of chapter 4 – thirteen more chapters to go.

So now that I’m back home and into my familiar writing space and daily routine, it feels like I’m “back in the saddle again.” And I hope to continue to blog about my experience with this personal writing challenge. The highs and lows – they’re out there, waiting for me to reach them.

I think challenges are good in how they stretch us and help us grow. How might I grow through my book writing challenge? It will be fun to find out, and maybe at times a bit painful. Stay tuned.

 

(August 23, 2015: day 37 down, 56 more to go, of The Challenge… to write a book, from concept to self-publish, in 3 months.)


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Book Challenge Day 20 – Forgetting 

Miles away from home. I think I left my mind there. Well, my writing mind anyway.

I’m now one week into a three week trip. The only progress on the book challenge was a brief window of time on the airplane. After that, for the most part, the book has been forgotten. But I’m committed to my personal challenge to write and self-publish this book in three months. This trip, with all its distractions, certainly adds to the challenge.

Actually I think I’m grateful. I want to be grateful, for the added challenge pushes me to rely on God more, and myself less. As John the Baptist said in speaking of Jesus, “He must become greater; I must become less.” For me, that may be the best part of this book challenge. 

(19 days down, 74 to go)

Thumbed in on my iPhone. 


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Book Challenge Day #13 – Out of Focus

Out of focus

Work has been crazy busy. Yet my self-imposed challenge to write and publish a book in three months is still standing tall right in front of me. In my minds eye this project sometimes appears as a large person scowling at me, with their arms crossed and boldly proclaiming, “I’m waiting!”

Though this book is gradually growing within my mind and on the pages of my notebook, it’s often out of focus. My sites are mostly set on other things, like work. Work is demanding and ever hungry for all my time and thought… 24/7. So I have to fend off works hunger just to pry my gaze away long enough to let my mind focus on the book.

I get mini moments with the book. Just a few minutes at a time, it seems. But God is so good to me, because He honors my brief moments of focus and fills those seconds with more of the book – from His heart, to my mind, to my notebook. And I’m so grateful.

 

(July 29, 2015: day 12 down, 81 more to go, of The Challenge… to write a book, from concept to self-publish, in 3 months.)


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Book Challenge Day #12 – As the story pours onto the page

clay pots pouring water

For the fiction book I’m trying to write and publish in 3 months, a couple of days ago I dictated the essence of chapter 2 into the memo app of my iPhone. This morning I worked on transcribing those notes into my notebook, and converting them into more of a story. BTW, I enjoy handwriting rather than typing directly. I read somewhere that handwriting uses more of the creative portion of your brain than typing, and thereby can add to the creative output. I’ll type my handwritten draft later.

Well, I don’t know much about how to activate the creative portion of my brain (other than a glass of wine or beer in the evening), but this morning the story of chapter 2 seemed to pour out of my mind and onto the pages. I would listen to a snippet of my notes, and then while focusing my thoughts on the Spirit of Jesus within me, the words began flowing down my arm, out my fingers, into the pencil and onto the paper. I so enjoy this part of writing, this free-flowing creative part, especially when I’m not writing alone, but collaborating with Jesus.

Is He really guiding my hand? I believe so. I almost feel it. Maybe not with every word. But when I look back at what’s been written, I’m convinced it’s not all from me. It’s too good to come from me.

 

(July 28, 2015: day 11 down, 82 more to go, of The Challenge… to write a book, from concept to self-publish, in 3 months.)


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Book Challenge Day #11 – This is not my book project

ghost writer

I’m writing this post just to remind myself this is not my book challenge project. As I believe the idea came from the Spirit of Jesus within, I want to remember not to try to wrestle control from Him. My ego, of course, will want control. My ego will want to make a certain amount of progress each day, gain a certain number of new followers interested in the challenge, and make sure the book is actually published by the October 17th deadline.

But I must remember, this is not my book project. It’s God’s. The daily progress isn’t important. The number of people who follow the project isn’t important (though the people themselves are very important – I just felt like adding that), and the deadline isn’t important.

What’s important with how I deal with this book challenge is the same thing that’s most important with the everyday challenge of dealing with life… my focus on God. As long as I keep my heart, mind, and soul focused on God within me, all is just right. The book challenge is not my purpose; it’s just an outcome of my purpose, which is to live with the Spirit of Jesus living through me.

 

(July 27, 2015: day 10 down, 83 more to go, of The Challenge… to write a book, from concept to self-publish, in 3 months.)