Category Archives: The Small Catechism
The Experiences of Advent Week: 1 Experience Great Joy! A sermon on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
The Experiences of Advent Week 1
Experience Great Joy!
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
† I.H.S. †
May the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ help you to experience joy as we enter His presence!
The Experiences of Advent.
In Matthew 13, Jesus describes the Kingdom of God with parables comparing the Kingdom to the great harvest. The first to be gathered up are the wicked, to be gathered and tossed into the fire. Then the good are gathered up, and enter into God’s presence!
Right in the middle of those parables, Jesus says this, “17 I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it.” Matthew 13:17 (NLT2) It echoes the thoughts of Jesus regarding Abraham, “56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see the time of my coming; he saw it and was glad.” John 8:56 (TEV)
You think of all who waited, from Adam and Even to Abraham, to Moses and Johus who knew the promised land wasn’t real estate but a home with God; to David—whose psalms looked forward to His Lord coming, and all the prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who warned taught people to prepare and long for the coming of the Messiah-Savior, to Mary and Joseph, and finally the shepherds, the first to leave everything behind them to see Jesus. And finally, we hear the words of Paul today,
“Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence.”
What incredible joy they had, as they considered the coming of Jesus, of seeing people come into the presence of Jesus!
Hmmm, did anyone catch what I did there?
When would Paul enter the presence of Jesus?
So, what in the world does that have to do with preparing for Jesus’ coming to His people in Advent?
Simple, the joy of knowing you are coming into the presence of God.
Think back to the quote from Augustine…we started with…
“Let us love him, for he made these things and he is not far off,44 for he did not make them and then go away: they are from him but also in him. You know where he is, because you know where truth tastes sweet. He is most intimately present to the human heart, but the heart has strayed from him. Return to your heart, then, you wrongdoers, and hold fast to him who made you. Stand with him and you will stand firm, rest in him and you will find peace.”[1]
What were they experiencing prior?
I want to take a moment to think about these people who longed for and looked forward to Christ’s coming, before hearing the good news of being in the presence of a loving, merciful God.
Abraham was a businessman from Ur. Moses was a foreigner, a man wanted as a criminal, an alien who worked in the fields of his father-in-law, tending his animals. David was pretty much written off by his family, given the most menial and meaningless job in the family. We can go through them all, servants and lesser priests. This is especially true after the destruction of the Temple and the removal of the Ark of the Covenant from the people of God.
They had one thing in common: they didn’t have a hope in the world beyond the next day.
What sense does life, suffering, and brokenness make if we don’t know what comes later? How do we deal with broken sin, both your sin and your brother’s sin, if you don’t have the encouragement and comfort that comes from knowing God’s mercy and comfort?
So what were they thinking? How in despair could they have been, or what were they ignoring in their life?
Just like the world, when they are stressed and overwhelmed, dealing with guilt and sin and resentment, with anxiety. Haunted by the past, anxious about the future, unable to find peace….
Wait- that sounds like some of us, as we forget the blessings we have in Christ…
Being reminded of them is the purpose of Advent – to remind us of life before Jesus entered our lives and cause us to rejoice as we look forward to the day Advent prefigures.
What were Paul, Mary and the Shepherds thinking.. “on the way”.
The Advent journey isn’t about the time before we knew about Jesus. It’s about the time we find out about Him and are driven by the Holy Spirit into His presence. It’s the reaction of the Shepherds when the angels told them the Messiah was born.
It’s the same reaction that Paul had, as he thought of the people of the church in Thessalonika… whom the Spirit was driving into the arms of Jesus. Hear his prayer for them, which has been our benediction for the last year,
“May the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. 13 May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen!
This is the effect of the work of Jesus, as the Holy Spirit prepares us to appear before the Father on the judgment day. It is the work we refer to as Salvation, as deliverance, a work driven by love and compassion, a work that knows what it means to come into the presence of God.
It is why Paul knew he would enter God’s presence with great joy, because of the work he witnessed in the lives of people, as He spoke and wrote to them—telling them about how God would cause them to love each other, strengthen our faith, set us apart as His kids—all looking to the day that Christ rejoiced He would bring about, as He died on the cross – to make sure it happens…
And this is the source of our joy – as we gather together to share in the laughter and tears that come along the way.
Enjoy the journey, and the knowledge that God will sustain you until that day…. And rejoice in His work in your life.
AMEN!
44 See Ps 99(100):3; Acts 17:27.
[1] Saint Augustine. (2012). The Confessions, Part I (J. E. Rotelle, Ed.; M. Boulding, Trans.; Second Edition, Vol. 1, p. 104). New City Press.
A God Who Loves Inconvenience
Thoughts that drag me to Jesus, and to the Cross
“The sons of Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. These were their descendants: Ishmael’s firstborn son was Nebaioth; the others were Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These were the sons of Ishmael.”…
“The sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Reuel, Jeush, Jalam, and Korah. The sons of Eliphaz: Teman, Omar, Zephi, Gatam, Kenaz, and (by Timna) Amalek. The sons of Reuel: Nahath, Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah.” (1 Chronicles 1:28-31, 35–37, NET
“The voice spoke to him again, a second time, “What God has made clean, you must not consider ritually unclean!”” (Acts 10:15, NET)
I have known some who were interested in the deeper life, but began asking questions: “What will it cost me—in terms of time, in money, in effort, in the matter of my friendships?” Others ask of the Lord when He calls them to move forward: “Will it be safe?” This question comes out of our constant bleating about security and our everlasting desire for safety above all else.
A third question that we want Him to answer is: “Will it be convenient?”
As I read Chronicles this morning, I had to think about it as I read about Ishmael and Esau’s descendants. I mean, they were the guys that were to be forgotten about, the covenant of Abraham ran through their brothers families–not theirs. They should have been forgotten about, except to log their sin, for they were exiled, put out of the family of God.
They didn’t matter. They weren’t the chosen people.
So why are their names here? Why do we know of their descendants?
Why go to the hassle, the inconvenience of tracking them? Why should their names be in the Bible?
Think about this – this book is somewhere between 800-1000 years after them….
God didn’t forget them, nor the promises he made to their mothers and to Ishmael and Esau. While the promise of the Messiah, the Lord who would come was to be through the lineage of their brothers, there was something to remember…
Jesus was coming to save them all.
They weren’t inconvenient, they were part of the target, the focus, the reason for the cross. We, the people of God, are to seek and save their further descendants, just as God promised.
As I read this, I am beginning to take inventory of my own actions and thoughts. Who do I dare consider inconvenient, ministering to whom is not worth investing my time and heart in? Do I consider them not worth including in my story of my journey with God?’
If there are people, I need to repent…
Which is fine, because God can handle that, granting me forgiveness and changing my heart and mine – as the Spirit works within…
Maybe its time for us to reconsider who our church considers inconvenient, and then rejoice as we engage and help them know God wants them in His Book as well!
Tozer, A. W., & Smith, G. B. (2008). Mornings with Tozer: Daily Devotional Readings. Moody Publishers.
The Glory that Empowers Trust: A Sermon on Jeremiah 17:5-8
The Glory that
Empowers Trust
Jeremiah 17:5-8
† In Jesus’s Name †
May the grace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ empower and strengthen your dependence on Jesus the Messiah!
Cursed are We?
The Old Testament passage this morning starts with such a encouraging word!
CURSED ARE Those who put their trust in mere humans!
My first reaction to this was to thank God for being, well, more cynical than most – and therefore I don’t trust anyone!
Part of that is growing up in a very cynical part of the country, part of that comes from working in the jails as a chaplain, and part of it comes from being a pastor, and part of it comes, to be honest, from looking in the mirror!
But while I say I don’t trust anyone… that isn’t true!
We trust people every day, from doctors and nurses to tax advisors and mechanics and family members and friends.
Some those things we trust to them are life-affecting decisions ranging from medical advice to whether our cars are safe. And if they are wrong, there is a heavy price to pay!
But this sermon isn’t titled “It pays to be cynical…” It’s about what happens when we trust in the Lord, and let Him care for us…rather than turning to human strength.
Dried out Shrubs
Jeremiah is pretty clear about the effect of relying on mankind for answers about life the universe and everything. Hear His words again,
(Those ) who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the LORD. 6 They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.
On the fringe of salt flats, barren lands you find these shrubs or trees that look more like weeds. Because the water in the ground, if there is any, has too high of a salt content, the water they have access to is limited and it won’t sustain growth.
They have no hope of becoming like the tree in last week’s sermon, no chances of giving shade and respite, or having branches which would let birds rest and fruit for humans and animas to be nourished by.
The simply dry up and die, to be blown about by the wind, never having a home, never having a future.
Spiritually, that is exactly what happens when we give up on God, when we dismiss Him to trust in some human to provide for us what we need to sustain life and hope, to help us get through the challenges, to deal with guilt and shame.
That is the curse, the inability to deal with the broken relationships, here on earth and with God.
That is a curse to heavy to bear, a pain that echoes through an empty soul.
Replanted!
There is hope for those so “cursed”
“But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. 8 They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought!
The picture here for planted is God carefully removing us from the barren, salted soil, to be in a lush valley alongside the river bank, where the ground is full of the nutrients we need to grow.
That is the relationship we have with God, where He cares for us, provides for us and puts in a place where we are hidden in Him.
That’ why we aren’t bothered by the heat or drought- for God draws us deep into His love, deep into this place where He knows our needs, and we can rely on His care.
This idea of being planted and/or replanted in a good place is important. To have the power to trust God includes the trust to know we are where we should be at, among the people we are called to be alongside – and that God provides the trust to dwell with Him there. But He is the one who plants us there, He is the one who removes from us the barrenness, the lack of love and mercy, the absolute dry bones, and gives us life!
And that is why Jeremiah can confidently state, “Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.
The more we see God at work here, the more comfort He gives us, the more we realize how He is working through each of our lives. We produce life – in the leaves and in the fruit because His life works its way through us.
That’s Jesus take on this, as those He takes root in produce 30,60 and 90 times their own life as it is invested in others.
This is the effect of trusting in Jesus, of knowing we die with Him and are raised with Him, AMEN!
Do They Know His Attitude Towards Them?
Thoughts on the One, Holy, catholic and Apostolic Church.
These three articles of the Creed, therefore, separate and distinguish us Christians from all other people on earth. All who are outside this Christian people, whether heathen, Turks, Jews, or false Christians and hypocrites—even though they believe in and worship only the one, true God—nevertheless do not know what his attitude is toward them. They cannot be confident of his love and blessing, and therefore they remain in eternal wrath and condemnation. For they do not have the Lord Christ, and, besides, they are not illuminated and blessed by the gifts of the Holy Spirit.[1]
But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in Baptism are members of Christ’s body, and have a right to be called Christian, and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church.[2]
It follows that the separated Churches and Communities as such, though we believe them to be deficient in some respects, have been by no means deprived of significance and importance in the mystery of salvation. For the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as means of salvation which derive their efficacy from the very fullness of grace and truth entrusted to the Church.[3]
The irony was not lost on me, within an hour of having breakfast and a great discussion on our faith and the Lord’s Supper with a very devout Catholic Priest who I’ve known for a decade, and a Nazarene pastor who I met that morning, I was called a heretic by a catholic apologist on social media, and a similar label by another self-appointed theologian who claimed to be a confessional Lutheran.
In some very important ways, I am separated in my doctrine and practice from three of the four people. Serious divisions, one that would necessitate great care, especially when it comes to the sacraments, and how we see grace applied to our people.
But the first two, I would not hesitate to say are my brothers in Christ, nor would they hesitate to return that identification. We share something more important than doctrine, we share a dependence on Christ and the work He has promised to do in our lives. I see that faith, and realize that Vatican II has a point – none of of us are deprived of the justification by faith in Christ’s work–applied in Baptism. That is the same concern as Luther – to know we can depend on Jesus
Luther seems to agree–for he acknowledges the difference between an attempt to worship God, and knowing God’s attitude toward us. I am sure my two brothers know this! I have heard one preach, and talking to the other, I am sure that is part of his message as well. That dependence on Jesus sees them moved from the ranks for false Christians, Heathens, Turks etc. That doesn’t blind me (or them) to the significant difference in how we see Jesus working, or how we should respond to it.
And there is the core of the position – salvation not based on the sign in front of the church, but on the Lord we cry out to, confidently, to have mercy on us.
[1] Martin Luther, “The Large Catechism” Kolb, R., Wengert, T. J., & Arand, C. P. (2000). The Book of Concord: the confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (p. 440). Fortress Press.
[2] Catholic Church. (2011). Decree on Ecumenism: Unitatis Redintegratio. In Vatican II Documents. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
[3] Catholic Church. (2011). Decree on Ecumenism: Unitatis Redintegratio. In Vatican II Documents. Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
What Good are our Broken Lives? More than you know!
Thoughts which call me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross..
43 “A good tree does not produce bad fruit, nor does a bad tree produce good fruit. 44 Each tree is known by its own fruit. People don’t gather figs from thornbushes, and they don’t get grapes from bushes. 45 Good people bring good things out of the good they stored in their hearts. But evil people bring evil things out of the evil they stored in their hearts. People speak the things that are in their hearts. Luke 6:43-45 NCV
LORD Jesus Christ, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter my sinful heart; yet, Thou deignest to recognize my great poverty and need. Therefore, I fervently desire Thy presence, to nourish, comfort, and strengthen my poor soul. Speak Thy word to my soul and it shall be well with me. Amen.
‘Remember, man, that thou are dust, and unto dust you shall return. There are implications to be found in this. If man had been fashioned from something that could evaporate, then there would be nothing for him to return to. But a man, even while he is living in the flesh, can return to his constituent element: He does this the moment he is ready to be what God has made him. Dust may not be romantic, but there could be nothing more real..”
When I read the words of Jesus, like those in red above, I feel diseased, depressed, for I look at some of the ways in which I live, and I don’t see good fruit. If I see any fruit it is at best too sour, to overripe, and usually too rotten–if it exists at all. I am not sure I count myself as evil, but if the judgement has too choices, good or evil…. well the preponderance of evidence is not always favorable.
And think about that, guilt and shame builds. I see myself as wretched and as a failure, (Please don’t argue – this is how I and many others feel with such a passage being read or meditated upon. ANd there is hope to come!)
So Loehe’s prayer is simple – and archaic, but the words are encouraging – and often mirror where I eventually come to, the prayer that God doesn’t belong in one such as me–but He doesn’t care what I think and know. He knows me enough to know I needed the cross, I needed HIs presence, and as I encounter it, and the love He has for a sinner like me–oh how I want it even more.
And then comes Zeller and Hanson, reminding me of the blessing of Ash Wednesday – the idea that we can return to the dust we were before our creation, and God can recreate us, by the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead. We can exchange that dust and ash for beauty, we become His new masterpiece, we become His…again.
The guilt and shame is removed, and for a moment we glimpse of the God who is ours, whom we are united too in baptism, who we commune with in the Eucharist, who we rise with from death and dust to a new and everlasting life.
Hevenly Father, let us know the weight of our sin, if only for an instant, that we may realize our need for Jesus, and for the healing which You so eagerly work in our lives. We oray this in Jesus name, amen!
Lœhe, William. 1914. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Translated by H. A. Weller. Chicago: Wartburg Publishing House.
Hubert con Zeller, “The choice of God”, quoted inJohn Hanson, Coached byJosemaria Escriva, (Scepter,NY, 2024), 54
Why My Opinion Doesn’t Really Matter….(does yours?)
Devotional Thought of the Day
2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NLT2)
Whoever, therefore, gives himself up to obedience, must needs detach himself totally from his own opinion. “What though each one,” says St. Francis de Sales, “has his own opinions, virtue is not thereby violated; but virtue is violated by the attachment which we have to our own opinions.”1 But alas! this attachment is the hardest thing to part with; and hence there are so few persons wholly given to God, because few render a thorough submission to obedience.
True faith requires that we believe everything God has said about Himself, but also that we believe everything He has said about us. Until we believe that we are as bad as God says we are, we can never believe that He will do for us what He says He will do.
It is one of our modern idols.
It’s not made of gold or wood, or bronze, but it is as surely an idol for modern times.
We believe we have the right to our opinions, we believe we have the right to think and say whatever comes to mind.
Not only do we believe we are entitled to our opinions, but the world is entitled to them as well. And we will freely tell in them on our Instagram page, our Twitter, our Facebook page, and our blogs.. (err…hmmmm)
De Ligouri had it write when talking about the need to slay these idols, and this attachment is the hardest thing to part with in our lives. It cannot save us, it cannot bring healing to our lives, it cannot be trusted, swayed by our emotion, and our fallen logic.
Our opinion can create a false sense of pride, or it can abuse us. THat is why Tozer reminds us to believe what God has said about us, both that we are bad, and that He can take care of that…. and has. Only dwelling in Christ, believing in God’s opinion do owe find what we truly need, and then with that, we find His comfort and His peace. When we lay aside our opinion, and seek Christ, we see things far differently, for His opinion matters, and ours is revealed for what it is… and falls aside.
Lord, this day, take into captivity any thoughts, any opinions which are not from You. Renew our hearts, souls and minds by the power of Your Spirit, and help us to enjoy the peace and comfort there is, as our minds reflect the mind of Jesus. Amen!
Alphonsus de Liguori, The Holy Eucharist, ed. Eugene Grimm, The Complete Works of Saint Alphonsus de Liguori (New York; London; Dublin; Cincinnati; St. Louis: Benziger Brothers; R. Washbourne; M. H. Gcill & Son, 1887), 410.
A. W. Tozer and Marilynne E. Foster, Tozer on the Holy Spirit: A 366-Day Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007).
Why I… pray the Lord’s Prayer
Thoughts for this day, that draws me closer to God….
7 When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. 8 Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him. 9 “Therefore, you should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:7-13 (CSBBible)
At dinner on the day after Pentecost [ Martin Luther said], “One shouldn’t think of any other God than Christ; whoever doesn’t speak through the mouth of Christ is not God. God wants to be heard through the Propitiator, and so he’ll listen to nobody except through Christ.
We can always trust the moving and the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in our experiences. On the other hand, we cannot always trust our human leanings and our fleshly and carnal desires.
I have never gotten tired of talking about prayer, and with God’s grace I never will. I remember that, back in the thirties, as a young priest, people of all kinds used to come to me looking for ways of getting closer to our Lord. To all of them, university students and workers, healthy and sick, rich and poor, priests and laymen, I gave the same advice: “Pray.” If anyone replied, “I don’t even know how to begin,” I would advise him to put himself in God’s presence and tell him of his desires and anxiety, with that very same complaint: “Lord, I don’t know how to pray!” Often, humble admissions like that were the beginning of an intimate relationship with Christ, a lasting friendship with him. Many years have gone by, and I still don’t know of a better recipe. If you think you’re not quite ready to pray, go to Jesus as his disciples did and say to him, “Lord, teach us how to pray.”18 You will discover how the Holy Spirit “comes to the aid of our weakness; when we do not know what prayer to offer, to pray as we ought, the Spirit himself intercedes for us, with groans beyond all utterance,”19 which are impossible to describe, for no words are adequate to express their depth.
I find it odd, that when people talk about repetitive prayer, they often mention the verse just before Jesus teaches the disciples to pray… the Lord’s Prayer. Don’t babble on, or don’t be vain and repetitious as others translate the passage. And then comes the Lord’s prayer, which people say is vain and repetitious.
I will be the first to admit I have used it that way. Back in junior high school, we had races to see who could say it the fastest, or the entire rosary (I went to a Catholic parochial school.) And in doing so, we sinned, violating the
command about using God’s name in vain, for we didn’t think about Jesus when we prayed, we focused on speed and diction… not even the meaning of the words. There are days when I say it in church – that my thoughts are not focused on the words as much if we are saying it. (Which is why we more often sing it) It is easy to disengage. but that does not change it… just me.
As I have grown older, there have been more than a few times where I did not know how to pray. The words would not come through the anxiety, the words wouldn’t come through the tears, or even the times, where so overwhelmed, I
couldn’t cry. Finally, out of frustration, I would cry out, and pray the Lord’s prayer, letting the words of Jesus burrow through all the debris crushing my heart and soul.
And then, as St Josemaria put it, it was up to the Holy Spirit. Indeed, in those times, it is only the comfort of the Holy Spirit that brings that prayer to mind, who uses these words of Jesus to bring life where there is no life.
Tozer is dead on accurate with his point – it is the Spirit we need to trust, as we pray as Jesus said. For Satan loves to deny us hope, and peace, and the realization of God’s love.
And so by praying as Jesus taught, we again admit we don’t know how to pray, and in that humility the intimacy with God grows, we hear what He’s told us He will provide – from His kingdom, to His perfect Will occurring in our lives, to
what we need daily, food, the ability to know we are forgiven and the enabling of our forgiveness. What wonderful things! He goes on to provide us a way from temptation, and rescue us from evil….. WOW….
Because I didn’t know how to pray in the brokenness of the moment, I pray, and as the Trinity hears, my heart is reminded of what God provides.
And somehow, miraculously, I find peace in the storm.
That is why I pray the Lord’s prayer, it is where God leads, and the comfort it brings is extraordinary.
I pray you may as well!
Martin Luther, Luther’s Works, Vol. 54: Table Talk, ed. Jaroslav Jan Pelikan, Hilton C. Oswald, and Helmut T. Lehmann, vol. 54 (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1999), 155.
A. W. Tozer and Marilynne E. Foster, Tozer on the Holy Spirit: A 366-Day Devotional (Camp Hill, PA: WingSpread, 2007).
Escrivá, Josemaría. Friends of God . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Dealing with a Spiritual Fog
Devotional Thought of the Day:
14 My friends, while you are waiting, you should make certain that the Lord finds you pure, spotless, and living at peace. 15 Don’t forget that the Lord is patient because he wants people to be saved. 2 Peter 3:14-15 CEV
Prayer cannot be reduced to the spontaneous outpouring of interior impulse: in order to pray, one must have the will to pray. Nor is it enough to know what the Scriptures reveal about prayer: one must also learn how to pray.
But we still cannot change God, can we? No, we cannot. But is that why we pray? To change omniscient Love? Isn’t it rather to learn what it is and to fulfill it? Not to change it by our acts, but to change our acts by it.
To be sure, God’s name is holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may also be holy for us.
Time for some honesty.
I am struggling through my devotional time this morning. Too many distractions, phone calls, texts, emails. Add to that the weariness of 202 days of COVID. Back pain worse than usual adds to the total, not to mention grief and stressors that are there. I feel like I am in a deep fog…spiritually.
This is where I need to be, oddly enough, still trying to pray, and meditate, searching for my Lord’s voice, eventually, this is where my heart will find its rest.
Part of my mind hears other, save yourself for work, you have tasks to do. I’ve been mocked by others, who say they don’t need such a time, they pray throughout the day, holding conversations on the fly. I’ve got others who see no pragmatic reason for prayer, since God is all knowing, all powerful and what He does is for our best anyway. (Assuming of course that we love Him and are called according to His purposes. ) So if we can’t change what God’s going to do… why bother?
It’s time to breathe. to slowly and simply pray, to e quiet, and realize where I stand is holy ground – as is the place where you are standing. We aren’t professional prayers, there will be days of struggle. God knows that too, that is why there is the Holy Spirit there to comfort us, to empower us, to help us find the will and desire to keep seeking, to keep struggling to hear His voice.
in that process, God will strip away everything that divides us from Him. The anxiety, the grief, the pain will help sharpen the focus, and the sin will drift away. Been through this cycle enough to know this, even as I am stuck in it once again.
God is here, He sees us, and is working even now… and knowing His patience and desire guarantees that I am not alone in this struggle. that I am not alone in working on this moment.
He is here, so I can pick up the tablet again, and read His word, and see the stories of those who struggle as well. Struggle though I may, I know He struggles with me.
Lord, please don’t only have mercy on us, reveal that mercy clearly! AMEN!
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 637. (#2650)
Peter Kreeft, The God Who Loves You (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2004), 147.
Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 346.
We have a place in this world!
Photo by Wouter de Jong on Pexels.com
Devotional Thought of the Day:
46 But Paul and Barnabas bravely said: We had to tell God’s message to you before we told it to anyone else. But you rejected the message! This proves that you don’t deserve eternal life. Now we are going to the Gentiles. 47 The Lord has given us this command, “I have placed you here as a light for the Gentiles. You are to take the saving power of God to people everywhere on earth.” Acts 13:46–47 (CEV)
1533 Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist are sacraments of Christian initiation. They ground the common vocation of all Christ’s disciples, a vocation to holiness and to the mission of evangelizing the world.
THE FIFTH (Commandment)
“You shall not kill.”
10 What does this mean?
Answer: We should fear and love God, and so we should not endanger our neighbor’s life, nor cause him any harm, but help and befriend him in every necessity of life.
As I was working through my devotions this morning, in the back of my mind was lurking the idea of what difference do I make in this world. I know I am not the only one who is pondering this. This virus situation has taken away from so many how they perceive they are valued, as jobs, schools, and interaction with people that would normally give their life meaning has been stolen away.
I have friends whose children are graduating from junior high school, high school, college, and graduate degrees. They cannot celebrate these accomplishments in normal ways, stealing from them the celebration of their endurance. Preschool teachers I know, who live for interacting with their kids, and getting hugs, cannot. In my case, my primary joy is communing people – the 50-70 people that show up on a given Sunday, and have not been able to for the last 8 weeks. This has been my dream and desire, and I believe my calling since I was 8.
It is brutal to our psyche, to our mental health.
It is wearying, and those around us, who are going through the same things, feeling the same pressures, are struggling with each other.
And hope is given and taken away with every newscast, with every internet article. The roller coaster of our heart and soul seems to have no one at the controls, as we are wildly whipped around, and unable ot catch our breath.
The Catholic Catechism, notes our common place in life is found via the sacraments. That in that grace pouring out on us as we are cleaned and united to Jesus, we find our place.
We find we are being made holy, that we share in the same vocation as the Apostle Paul, as those tasked with sharing the news that God loves us, that God is with us, that we can, (and should) help other people know this! Not just in church on Sunday morning, but throughout our week, in our homes, our zoom meetings, our telephone calls.
God has placed us here, (even as the Father sent Jesus) to be a light to the gentiles. e
We do this by loving them, and helping them and befriending them in every possible way. Including the incredible necessity, they may not be aware of, the necessity to know God’s presence. The necessity to know they are loved, the necessity of knowing they have a place, and God redeems the world.
This is hard to see and easy to get distracted from by the cares and pressures. It is a place that takes up our entire lives, and yet..happens best when we don’t force it, but we simply live in this amazing relationship with God.
This is our place.. this is where we find out ultimate meaning in life, as the ones whom God loves, as the ones He shares His greatest work with, the recreation of everything.
Let us find our peace and joy, there, as we work side by side with Him. AMEN!
Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 383.
Theodore G. Tappert, ed., The Small Catechism from The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. (Philadelphia: Mühlenberg Press, 1959), 343.
Defeating the Idol of Time…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
While you are prisoners in foreign lands, your own land will enjoy years of rest and refreshment, as it should have done each seventh year when you lived there. 7 In the land of your enemies, you will tremble at the rustle of a leaf, as though it were a sword. And you will become so weak that you will stumble and fall over each other, even when no one is chasing you. Leviticus 26:34-37 CEV
684 So your talents, your personality, your qualities are being wasted. So you’re not allowed to take full advantage of them. Meditate well on these words of a spiritual writer: “The incense offered to God is not wasted. Our Lord is more honored by the immolation of your talents than by their vain use.”
We live in a culture that adores action, even as it hates inaction. Ambition is a virtue in today’s culture, and someone content with where they are at in life is odd and perhaps more than a bit eccentric.
Those who aren’t always moving, working their plan, aren’t considered lazy, or lacking motivation and drive. Everything in our society must be put to use profitably. We’ve made time an idol to serve, a god that demands all that we have, and more.
In the Old Testament, there were times of rest – Sabbaths. Weekly, monthly and even every 7 years, everything was supposed to rest, finding what it needed, not from work, but from the hand of God. In fact, part of the punishment for Israel’s sin in the captivity was due to not hearing God’s call to stop, to rest, and let the land find its rest. So during the captivity, God provided for the land what we did not. A time of rest, a time to recover, a time to let God provide.
I think this is St. Josemaria’s point in the quote from “The Way” I read this morning. I didn’t like it at first, for I understand the feeling that comes from inaction. I may have gotten past the idea of leaving food on my table as wasting it, but I can’t abide “wasting time” or even worse, not being able to use what God has gifted me with to help or disciple others.
Yet there are times to rest or to use Biblical/Agricultural terms, to lay fallow. To get past the guilty feeling, to simply leave it in God’s more than capable hands. Offer the stillness, the inactivity to Him. Indeed, to spend that time with Him. No agenda, no purpose, simply enjoying His presence.
A time where we don’t notice the passing of time. We just are there, in the moment, with Jesus.
The challenge is desiring this time, looking forward to it, not feeling guilty, but realizing it is time God would have us set aside, with Him. Yet that is the reward…time, with Him… communion with God, and the peace we need, in our lives.
Take the time, waste it in the world’s view, but take it and please God with offering it to Him.
Lord, help us realize the need to find rest in you, not just when we are exhausted and overwhelmed. Help us to not get to the point where like the Israelites, You have to take us captive, to get our lives and homes to rest, and the peace be restored.
Escriva, Josemaria. The Way . Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
