Believe in Christ and you'll have eternal life. The flip side of this truth: "Reject him and you'll die in sin forever." In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 10, Jesus commissioned the Twelve to go to the towns and villages of Israel to proclaim the kingdom of heaven at hand. He told them, "Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet. Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town." Rejecting the Lord matters as much as believing in him!
Thursday, July 9, 2020
**We Choose Either Death or Life
Romans 6.23: The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. As sinners, we must choose if we want to die or live! Ignore it and everything will not be fine. In today's alleluia, Mark 1.15, Jesus proclaimed "The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and Believe in the gospel." There's our answer.
**Seek Refuge in God Now
Read the Old Testament and you'll find that people turned away from God again and again, forgetting all he had done for them. It's the same today. This is why I strongly urge you to seek union with the Lord. You want to cement your relationship with him completely so that you'll never ever want to leave him. It's so important to do this when we are now being assaulted intensely by Satan and tested by God. Before the Second Coming, there'll be continuing trials and tribulations coming our way. Seek refuge in the Lord now to safeguard your soul.
Wednesday, July 8, 2020
*Have I Gone to Extremes for Christ?
To those who say that I've gone to extremes believing in Christ: It's not me wanting to tell you about Christ; it is the Lord drawing me to him, wanting me to spread the good (fantastic) news to you for your sake. I am just his messenger. If it hadn't come from the Lord, then I would be crazy. I don't expect you to understand, since you don't know him yet. That's OK, for it's not about whether I get my way or not. Besides, it's a great blessing to be misunderstood for Christ's sake.
Foolish Earthlings
We are just passing through, stopping briefly on earth. So who gives us the right to consider that anything here is ours? We can't take anything with us either when we leave. So it's extremely foolish to let the world shackle us and weigh us down. We'd only be holding onto things that also pass for a short time and depriving the soul of its freedom to ascend to God.
Tuesday, July 7, 2020
**How to "Control" God
Simple. You want God to be on your side, so you join him. You surrender yourself to him and he and you become one. Now, your wish is his wish which becomes his command.
**Settling Believing in God or Not
Business investors look at the benefit/cost ratio. If the number looks good, they put in their money. If I receive an offer that would benefit me in some way, I look at the reward/effort ratio. Would it be worth my effort to get that reward? Now, consider if we should believe in God or not. Here the benefit or reward is infinite because you get to go to heaven! Infinity over any number is still infinity. No other ratio can possibly beat that. So, I should believe in God at any cost or effort.
***Ultimate Humility
When God chose to come down to earth to go through agony, scourging, being mocked at, and finally crucifixion, experiencing it all as one of us, this is ultimate humility! Besides showing how much he loves us, he is showing us that the most exalted one is most humble. So be like him to be exalted by him.
*Heaven Makes Us Forgetful
Once you arrive at heaven, you'll be so joyful that all the pains you suffered on earth will be forgotten in an instant. A hundred million years of pain on earth is nothing compared to one second of joy in heaven. Our goal is to return to our creator so that we may fully enjoy his love again. Christ has shown us the way by his example. All we need to do is to follow in his footsteps.
***Boundless Mercy***
What is so wonderful about Christ is that you can always begin anew with him! You may be a habitual sinner, but as long as you repent you sins, no matter how great they are, you become clean again. There is no limit to how many times he will forgive you. His mercy knows no bounds. That's why he wants us to forgive others too. In him, there is always hope! This is something to appreciate. Otherwise, we don't stand a chance of being saved. Of course, the door will be shut when we die. What we need to do is to be smart and get inside that door before it closes!
Monday, July 6, 2020
***A Relationship Made in Heaven***
One greatest joy is to share everything about yourself with your Lord. Guess what, he in turn shares everything about himself with you. And you have a relationship that's completely open and honest, with you and the Lord becoming one and soulmates with each other! Can you imagine that now there are absolutely no barriers between you and the Lord anymore? Time to rejoice in the Lord forever!
***Trying to Understand Faith
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 9, a woman suffering hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind Jesus and touched the tassel on his cloak. She said to herself, "If only I can touch his cloak, I shall be cured." Jesus turned around and saw her, and said, "Courage daughter! Your faith has saved you." And from that hour the woman was cured.
I am still trying to understand faith more. If I cut my finger, it would be nice that I pray to the Lord for healing and it's healed instantly. In reality, it doesn't happen like that. First of all, I know that the finger will heal in a few days and the pain I feel is not bad at all, and I really don't want to bother the Lord for that. In other words, my strong desire to be healed is absent. Should I be suffering as much as the woman with hemorrhages, I probably would strongly desire that the Lord heal me and he very likely will do just that. So faith comes forth from our heart's desire in a natural way. I'd like to mention again the time my son could have died from a virus attack. While he was in critical condition in ICU, I walked up to him and said without hesitation "Be healed in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," while making the sign of the cross on his forehead. Three days later, he recovered and was sent home. So I think the secret is to trust in the Lord with all your heart and pray when you are called to pray. You cannot force yourself nor the Lord.
***The Father We Need
Without a father, none of us would be here. A father can guard us, guide us, support us, and inspire us. Unfortunately, not all of us have a good earthly father. As a result, their children go astray and become lost souls. But the great news is that we have a Father in heaven who is perfect and most loving, someone in whom you can totally abandon yourself. Obey him and you'll go to him to enjoy eternal bliss when you leave this world! This has to be the best news ever! So follow Christ to know the Father who knows and will always give you what's best for you. The riddle of life is no more!
Sunday, July 5, 2020
*What Makes You Wise and Learned
In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 11, Jesus blessed the Father for having revealed the mysteries of the kingdom to the littles ons, but not to the wise and the learned. Of course, the wise and the learned of the world are not not truly wise and learned if they do not know or understand the kingdom of God. It is believing in the Lord that makes you truly wise and learned, for you now know the truth.
**Letting the Spirit Give Us Life
From today's reading 2 from Romans 8, "If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you." If we belong to Christ, his Spirit dwells in us and we become the temple of the Holy Spirit. Certainly, this Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is capable of making us holy and perfect. Remain in this Spirit to let him transform you anew. Then you can be whatever you want to be and be most pleasing to the Lord at the same time. This is exciting news for all of us!
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