Becoming God's Beloved

         After Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, a voice came from the heavens, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." (Matthew 3:17) When Jesus was transfigured on Mount Tabor before Peter, James, and John, the three saw him conversing with Moses and Elijah. Then a bright cloud cast a shadow over them and again, from the cloud they heard a voice saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." (Matthew 17:5) Now, if Jesus is our beloved Lord, that'll surely make us God's beloved children! 

*It Is a Sin . . .

 to deliberately reject Jesus when you know about him and why he came into the world to die for us.       

**Most Appropriate Prayer

        If you think that you are a pretty good person, then you are not good enough for God. Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18? The Pharisee took up his position and prayed, "O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity—greedy, dishonest, adulterous. I fast twice a week, yada yada." On the other hand, a tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner." Jesus said to all, "I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." Indeed, the most appropriate prayer for us to say is "O God, have mercy on me a sinner." When you truly say it from your heart, you are drawn instantly close to the Lord. To humble ourselves is to imitate the Lord Jesus, always the right thing to do.

**Treasured Information for Us

        Also from today's Gospel's reading from John 5, Jesus said, "Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life." We see that the Son identifies himself with the Father and how we can pass from death to life. Such information is to be treasured!

**Proof that Jesus Is Our Savior

          In today's Gospel reading from John 5, Jesus said to the Jews, "Just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes." I am reminded of Jesus' healing of the paralytic in Matthew 9. People brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Courage, child, your sins are forgiven." At that, some of the scribes said to themselves, "This man is blaspheming." Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, "Which is easier, to say, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Rise and walk'? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins"—he then said to the paralytic, "Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home." He rose and went home. That Jesus had the authority to heal the paralytic is proof that he had the power to forgive sins. Similarly, the Resurrection of Jesus is proof that he has the power to give life to whomever he wishes as he claimed in today's Gospel reading. He is our Savior.

***Easy Road to God

        Again from today's reading from Isaiah 49, the LORD says to the prophet: "He who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water. I will cut a road through all my mountains, and make my highways level." I really feel that the Lord has done all the work to remove all the obstacles and made our road to him level. Jesus had done the work and now we can get to heaven easily! The Lord wills something to be done and it's done. Well, we simply will to go to heaven by believing in Jesus and it's done for us! God has made everything easy for us; we just need to make it easy for ourselves.

***Face the Lord and Live

         From today's first reading from Isaiah 49, the LOAD says, To those in darkness: Show yourselves! This is a powerful command. Every sinner needs to show himself to the Lord. What's the point of hiding from him who already knows everything about you? If your are afraid to show yourself, it only shows how much more you need to do it. Show yourself and the Lord will place you in his light and you'll never want to go back into darkness again. So show yourself now or continue destroying yourself in hiding. 

***How to Stop Sinning*****

         I've mentioned that one of the great benefits of being in union with God is that you no longer tend to sin, as you are now aware of God's loving presence within you at all times. We sin when we always want to do what we want to do. Once you wish to follow only the will of God, you see all things as he sees them and no longer judge others. You are then free, have peace, and stop sinning. The days of feeling that you need to go to confession again are gone! To recap, you have all of God, you are completely satisfied, you no longer follow your own whims and desires, you stop sinning, and you enjoy the Lord's peace. It's so very straight forward and clear. (One side benefit worth mentioning: you do longer get stressed out about anything and you blood pressure remains normal at all times. You probably would live longer too, but that's up to the Lord and shouldn't matter to you.)

***Heaven or Hell?

        I like hearing Fr. Corapi talk because he comes right to the point, unlike some others who speak a lot of words but don't have much to say. I love what Jesus said in Matthew 5.37: "Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.'  Anything more is from the evil one." Here's Fr. Corapi's new 3-minute  straight talk.

**Playing Game with God

        Even though a lot of us avoid looking at God, I feel that that they are still playing a sort of staring contest with the Lord. They want to be their own lord, not letting him be the Lord, and see who would win. Of course, we won't be able to beat the Lord at any game. In fact, the moment you intend to play a game with God, you already lose. The Lord does not play games. If you are smart or wise, you'd just listen to and follow him. 

***Jesus Is Trustworthy

         The Gospel reading comes from John 4. Jesus returned to Cana in Galilee. A royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum went to Jesus to beg him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him, "You may go; your son will live." The man believed what Jesus said to him and left. While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. He asked them when he began to recover. Thy told him, "The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon." The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live,"
         Let me stop here because at this precise point the Lord overwhelmed me with an unstoppable joy. I had to stop until I recovered. It's caused by the realization that whenever Jesus says something will happen and it happens just as he'd said. This is something very beautiful that touched me deeply. Let me finish the story with the happy ending: "and the royal official and his whole household came to believe."

***Most Merciful Lord

        The Lord is so merciful to us because he understands our weaknesses so well. After all, he created us and even became one of us to live among us at one time. The one who had taught us to forgive even our enemies wants to give us every chance to repent of our sins and turn to him. He only wants to save us and keep us from getting ourselves condemned! We must see this clearly. That we have such a loving and patient Lord is certainly cause for rejoicing. 

***Most Beautiful Relationship for Us!

        Do you know that God loves us so much that he wants to be in complete union with us? The most beautiful relationship we can ever have awaits us to be formed. This is our prelude to heaven!

****God Reveals Truth to Us

         In Matthew, when Simon Peter said to Jesus, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father." This was Peter's great revelation. I know that only Christ (or the God of Christ) can save us—it is my revelation from the heavenly Father too. How do I know? I know because when God revealed something to you, you just know that it is true in your heart. No explanation needed and no further explanation I can provide.

***Only Sign We Need***

         Yesterday Fr. Mark Goring in his video talks about Medjugorje's 3rd secret revealing that there will be a permanent sign left by God at the apparition site presumably in the near future. Father mentioned past signs of the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the spring at Lourdes, and the miracle of the sun at Fatima. The Lord does show signs to convert unbelievers. The miracle of the sun was indeed spectacular as witnessed by 70.000 people. No doubt that many became believers. The thing is that people tend not to connect themselves with anything that happened in the past. The Fatima miracle took place in 1917. The greatest sign has to be the Resurrection of Christ himself. That it did happen you cannot deny. (I had recommended the movie "The Case for Christ" to watch in case you still doubt about Christ's Resurrection. It was based upon a true story. I am going to leave the 2-minute long trailer below in case you're interested in watching the film.) The Resurrection rejuvenated all the disciples and got the Church going. What's true remains true forever. It is a big mistake for us to ignore any true sign just because it happened so long ago!

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***Being Good Not Good Enough*

         Of course, we should try to be a good person, but believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior matters infinitely more than just trying to be good on your own. For with Jesus, your sins get take away for sure. Without him, they remain with you. 

***Superior Way of Living****

         It's not easy to let the past go. I saw an unhappy family blaming each other for the past mistakes they'd made. It'd be better to live in the present, making the best of what you have now. Then I see the superior way of living in Christ, which will take care the past, the present, and the future for us. Dwelling in the eternal Lord, we become eternal as well.

*Patience Needed in Following God

        These thoughts came to me as I walked this morning. God is in control and the good righteous people he will always defend while the bad wicked ones he'll punish. Things may not happen quickly as the Lord follows his own time schedule, so we must remain patient and keep our faith. Take care of our own soul and pray for all others—that's all we are expected to do.