Ps 27:4 One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.

The GLBT community is probably the most self focused community there is because we have been denied much. The law and society and the church is against us.

It is said that Gays are the new black, which is partly true but African Americans have always been allowed to marry. But the Gay community is denied even basic rights and freedoms to exist.

We can't be wounded healers of the wider community, when we have not even the basic rights and freedoms in our community. We have nothing to give, inwardly and outwardly.

We are the least, at the very bottom of society. It's not the prostitutes for even they have their admirers at Geylang. Even the poor have their sepcial housing, rental and support by the Government, but we can't even buy government housing.

When we are denied so much in life, we tend to be inwardly focused on our own desires and needs. We are a sucker fish for love, attention, and are drama queens.

Even in GLBT churches, we have reduced it to love - loving ourselves, and loving others, forgetting that it starts first by loving God.

God is not some mysterious spiritual entity common in all faiths, but is One God of Israel whose attributes and character known and distinguishable. The people of Israel were commanded to have no other gods! hence the commandments.

But the religious laws weren't enough for the written law cannot change our hearts of rocks. It could only change when God came down, in Christ Jesus to touch our hearts where we are, and to die for us at the Cross so that we are righteous because Christ is righteous.

When Christ is our righteousness, no more are we inward looking whether to comply with the religious laws of not sinning, or to do acts of good works of loving others. The attention is no longer on self but on Jesus first.

In the midst of our busy work and holiday schedule, the important things in life we missed out. We are worried about tommorow - our job, our health, and partners. Will we be able to take care of ourselves as many of us will have no children.

What is our desire today? for a commonwealth of earth, for a good life partner, for sustaining wealth - all urgent matters, but the most important thing is our desire for Jesus.

We may even talk about God in church, to worship God, but is this the God of the bible? or is this a God of our own creation - reduced to universal love and common humanity.

God is  manifested in our midst when we break bread and have communion reflecting Christ. We need to take communion mindfully to be effective. It is not a time to be religious to reflect our own sins and failing to do more acts of love, but a time of rejoicing that Jesus is God, and that Jesus is our righteousness, healer, and our banner.

Loving God means an allegience to the God of Israel amongst the many different gods and spiritual entities. We are owned, and belonged to Jesus Christ.

In our post modern and progressive theology, we focused on the intellect, but the spiritual realm with the many gods, demonic powers and spiritual entities exist and is foremost above the physical realm. We deny what we cannot see or comprehend by our intellect.

Hence, for the intellectual, we are very limited and self focused by our physical and intellectual sight. We can't see the spiritual realm by our understanding or human reasoning.

We enter into the spiritual realm not by our intellect or human reasoning, but in prayer and worship, and through the power of the Holy Spirit of God. The power of the Gift of the Holy Spirit is that it allows us to transcend into the supernatural. We cannot see God unless we are filled with the Holy Spirit. This infilling is not a one time event. The greatest stumbling block is our mind.

God looks at our heart and not our religious practices or our theological intellect, or even going to church. In liberal churches, we worship our humanity. In mega churches, we worship blessings and the pastors. In the Anglican and Methodist churches, they worship tradition and orthodoxy. In Catholic Churches, the church hierachal and human ways to God is exalted.

But God looks at our heart, whether we desire first to seek Jesus. Could we simply dwell in our prayer altar to worship and be in the presence of Jesus? do we behold at the beauty of Jesus and the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit?

There is only One Thing, that God asked us to desire. It is to desire to dwell in the House of God, to be in God's presence, to be sitting at the footstool of Jesus.

What do we desire for the Lord to give us today? Jesus promised that when we desire Him, He will meet us there where we are.

Let us live each day, desiring to be in the presence of Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit of God, and living with the expectation of God's abudnance grace in our lives through the Cross of calvary.