**Pride Our Worst enemy

        Jesus' teaching has always been clear, straight forward, and easy to understand, even commonsensical. Yet it becomes tough learning for us when we are unwilling to submit ourselves to him. In theory, we can become saints in an instant, but some never learn much in their entire lifetime. Pride has to be our worst enemy. What a sad case!

**Dulling of the Conscience

         I corrected a mistake in yesterday's post "Warning, Miracle, and Punishment."  Listening to Conchita again told me that she knew the date on which the miracle would happen, not the warning. Then I am still not sure if God had already told her the date or would let her know when the time comes. Anyway, it should be on the way. I was impressed by what she said about the dulling of conscience with today's generation. It is true that morality has fallen so low that sins are no longer considered sins. I have lived long enough to see the decay taking place. People have always sinned, but they felt the shame before. Now the consciences have gotten so muddy that sinful behaviors are accepted as norms. The coming warning should give us new hope, but it's still up to us to accept God's mercy or not.

**Conversion Reminder

        We pray for the conversion of the whole world, but forget to pray for our own conversion! If we are not totally converted yet, we won't be very effective in converting others. Here, it's OK to put yourself first.

**About the Illumination of Conscience

         Ralph Martin of Renewal Ministries also speaks about the Illumination of Conscience, so you may be interested in listening to him. I have known about Ralph since the days of Charismatic Renewal in the Church. I've heard him speak and read some of his books. He is Spirit-filled and inspiring and I respect him a lot. 

***Warning, Miracle, and Punishment

         Today I came across this newly posted video made in 1980 showing an interview with Conchita, one of the four seers to whom Virgin Mary appeared in Garabandal, Spain, in the early 1960s. The seven minute video tells about the message, the warning, the miracle, and the punishment. It has English captions, but they were poorly translated from Spanish and contain many misspelled words. Besides, they go by too fast and become distracting. So I am posting the full interview lasting three and a half minutes longer with no captions so that you can concentrate on listening to Conchita speak. You may not catch all of what she says, but you'll get the gist of it. Since Conchita already knew the day the miracle is going to take place and will announce to the world eight days in advance, and she's already 72, things could happen anytime now. (You can find a video on the entire Garabandal story listed in the right column of my blog page under Good Websites, Blogs, Videos  . . .) 

****God to Be Experienced!*

         God has created us in his image. He once became one of us to appear on earth and many got to know him well. Even today, we can seek and attain union with him most intimately. So my message is that we can and are expected to experience him. He is not an abstract being or a figment of our imagination; he is more real than anything you see, hear, touch, or know, for he created all of them. And most of all, he loves and desires to know you totally. If you do not experience him, that's because you don't expect to ever experience him. To begin with, you need to have some humility. Cast aside all your doubts and desire to know him. Then open up yourself to him sincerely and you'll experience him. Once you experience him, you'll be so glad that you don't ever want to remain the same again. To shut him out of your life is to cut yourself off from the source of all life.

*****What You Must Realize!!!!!

          God (and heaven) are more wonderful than you can possibly imagine. Satan (and hell) are more horrible than you can possibly conceive. (If you think hell won't be all that bad, you'll be in for the shock of all eternity.) Know all this now, for you don't want to find it out later. If you have God, the God of Christ, you can forget all about Satan and hell. I am giving you the best possible information I have now.

***Obedience Begets Peace

          The Lord God does great things through us who are obedient to him. We do not know what he specifically wishes to accomplish nor how things are going to turn out. They do not concern us. Remaining obedient to him is all he asks of us. This is great, for it brings us peace. I am sure that in heaven all will be revealed to us.

God Strengthens Us

        The Lord loves us and tests us at various times.  He knows our strengths and weaknesses and will test us to strengthen us, not to fail us. So if we love and trust in him, everything becomes bearable and even a joy, no matter what we go through.

*Faith and Prayer Inseparable

         Some say that if you truly have faith, you would just pray for something to God, believe that he heard and will answer you, and that'll do. It sounds logical. Besides, it'd surely simply the spiritual life a lot. Then Jesus told us to pray and believe, and persist in prayer. He did not teach us the Our Father to pray just once. Besides, we need to keep communicating with the Lord through prayer to maintain an intimate relationship. Prayer is sharing ourselves with the Lord and nourishes the soul. We stifle the Holy spirit if we stop praying often. So we pray to the Lord because we trust in and love him. Pray unceasingly and our faith grows stronger too. Faith and prayer are indeed inseparable.