"Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

Monday, December 20, 2010

Be Open to God

        Be open to God to let him enter to accomplish what he wants done in or through you, just as Mary opened up to the Holy Spirit for her to conceive and bear a child, our Lord.  Nothing is impossible with God! 

Think Before You Sin

        When you sin, it's like putting up an eviction notice asking the Lord to get out of you.  How do you think he would feel?  Can you bear not having him staying with you?  You'd better think twice before you sin. 

How to Pray

        Present your prayer to God as if it's a most beautiful gift you have found for him.

A Time of Giving

        Christmas is a time for giving ~ so let us give to God all we have and shouldn't have: our life, health, soul, talents; our family, material possessions; our sins, fears, worries, angers, pains, hang-ups, bad habits, plus any other thing you can think of ~ the more the merrier. 

No Sin, No Fear

        It came to me that we have fears because we sin.  Jesus committed no sin, so he never had any fear.  Agony yes, but never fear.  A sinful person does not trust in God and never feels secure, so fear easily sprouts from his heart.  A holy person feels secure in God and has no room for fear to take hold in him.  Where the Holy Spirit dwells, fear does not exist.    

Saturday, December 18, 2010

A Christmas Exhortation

        Christ is the light of the world.  If you turn your back to hide from this light, you shall remain in darkness.  But if you turn to this light to let it shine upon you, you will feel its warmth and gentleness and also the love and mercy of God.  Reject this light in this life and you shall never see it again.  Accept this light now and you are on your way to living eternally with God.  It's that simple, so don't make it hard on yourself and on God.  

On Accepting Our Crosses

        If Jesus accepted his Cross and we are to follow him, how can we not take up our little crosses? 

Holy Communion Thought

        As I received the Lord today, I realized that I was a great sinner, yet he reached way, way, way down to offer himself to me ~ it's pretty hard to believe, and I felt great gratitude for his mercy.          

Thy Will Be Done

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 1, we also learn that Joseph did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him in a dream and took Mary into his home.  This is a good example for us.  If we feel uneasy when we say "thy will be done..." in praying the Lord's Prayer, then it's clear that we and God are not really in accord with each other yet ~ a sign showing that more submission is in order.  Remember that taking orders from God does not mean that you'll be given an unpleasant task to perform.  On the contrary, you'll always feel rewarded and peace after obeying him.  Pray that we'll develop a zeal to anticipate and be ready for God's call at any moment.         

Abortion Is Dead Wrong

        Today's Gospel reading is from Matthew 1.  It tells how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.  Through the Holy Spirit, God made it possible for the child to be conceived in Mary.  I am thinking that today, abortionists through their own will make it possible for the child to be killed in the mother ~ the opposite of God's doing.  Just intuitively, I see that abortion is dead wrong.