***How to Experience Christ

         Be humble and open, show that you need him. After all, he is your Lord and your God. If you are too busy or have too much pride, forget it.

***Christian Joy Explained*

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus said to his disciples: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field." This explains why a Christian who has discovered Christ is always filled with joy.

**Sensible Reality**

        Today is the memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Psalm 59 starts out with these two verses: Rescue me from my enemies, O my God; from my adversaries defend me. Rescue me from evildoers; from bloodthirsty men save me. Evil is real here. It follows that goodness is also real. Then God and Satan, heaven and hell—they all must be real. Removing any one of them makes the whole thing fall apart. The ancient Chinese concept of the two opposing forces yin and yang makes sense now after all.

***Maximum Security Forever*

        Do you know that we can form the strongest possible bond with almighty God, our most loving Father? Once you become obedient to him, you become like him and your eternal happiness is assured. Now nothing outside of you will be able to take you away from him anymore! 

**God Sees Us!

         This picture popped into mind. A large one-way glass window exists between God and us. We can't see him, but he sees everything about us from his side. Of course, God doesn't need anything between us to see us, but retaining such a picture in our mind can help us watch what we do on this side of the window.

***Joy in Union

         Communion experience. The heavy part: The Lord was all mine and I felt overwhelmed. The light part: I was all his and I felt completely liberated. Either way, I was filled with joy.

***Biggest Problem of Our Existence***

                 SIN—it must be resolved before we die.

*****Our Most Crucial Challenge*****

        To not accept Jesus as our Savior is saying not only that he is not God and has come to us and died on the cross for nothing, but also that he is someone who had lost his mind and didn't know what he's doing. This is the unique challenge we face: He must be all true or all false. There is no one else like that! You just can't dismiss him lightly and be sure that everything will be fine, for you could lose you life for all eternity! To me, this is a clear mark of truth.

***Most Personal Lord***

        Communion experience. The Lord is the only one who can purify my heart and heal my soul! You can't get more personal than that.

*****Our Foremost Concern Now*

        Today is the the memorial of Saints Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. In the Gospel reading from John 11, Jesus told Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." Here Jesus made a bold proclamation and Martha gave a bold response. Because Jesus always speaks with great authority, he deserves our complete trust and obedience. In fact, since believing in Jesus determines that we'll live forever, that should be absolutely our foremost concern in this life!