****Our Most Important Realization****

        I have gotten over my COVID, but still have a lingering cough and a CT scan to go through. As I was resting in the family room this morning, I saw the photos of my grandkids on the shelves, my own photos hanging on the walls, and many other things that meant something to me. And there are lots of other things around the house that have been useful or enjoyable to me. I also realized that if I leave the world, I'd leave every single thing and person I knew behind—it's goodby forever. The only person I am going to face and answer to would be Christ the Lord. And we must be ready for that one moment. This has to be the most important realization for all of us. 

*****Only Division That Matters******

         In Luke 12, Jesus said to his disciples, "Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three; a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother, a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law." Now, we are all individuals with likes and dislikes and hold individual opinions and views, so we may agree or more often disagree about many things. But if we all love the Lord, all these differences can be overcome, for his love is so great that it can make you love even your enemies. But if we don't all believe or love the Lord, then our differences will result in division as great as that between heaven and hell! This is the only division that matters to us. It's because Christ is the Lord and God! Think about it. I am making the reality totally clear to all.

***Truly Loving God

        You know that God loves you. If you love God, do you also know that he knows that you love him? knowing this assures that you you truly love God.

***Avoid Living in Delusion

         In today's Gospel from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples, "Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.... Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil." What I want to focus upon is that last sentence: "Sufficient for a day is its own evil." We need to be aware that we live in a sinful world and face evil everyday. The spiritual warfare fighting for our souls is raging on nonstop. Every moment, it's either you are with God or you are not. Our solution is to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness first and not worry about anything else. To think that everything will be hunky-dory if you just mind my own business is to live in delusion.

***Living in Christ's Light

         In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples, "The lamp of the body is the eye. If your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light; but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be in darkness. And if the light in you is darkness, how great will the darkness be." All I know is that when I see Christ as my Lord and Savior and follow him, I am completely filled with his light, making me see the whole truth and enjoying my spiritual freedom.

****Critically Important Message

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 6, Jesus said to his disciples, "If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not Forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions." You probably are familiar with these sayings, but do you take them seriously? Here the Lord is telling us how we can have him forgive our trespasses! It's really telling us how much we need to love so that we can get to heaven! So the message is absolutely important and critical for me to heed. 

****Only One in Our Way

        From today's Psalm 51, we have the response "Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned" and the verses ". . . my sin is before me always: 'Against you only have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.'" So God alone is in our way, for we sin against the Lord only! This is a basic important fact to realize. The only way for God to be for us is we stop offending him. Another important truth we must reckon with. There is not another way. So be smart, obey the Lord and make all your problems with sin evaporate.

***Letting the Best Happen to You***

        If you truly trust in Christ, you know that you are in his hands and you don't need to worry about anything. This way you give the Lord complete freedom to do what he wishes with you, and, of course, he always wants to give you what's best for you. On the other hand, if you worry and project what might happen to you, then the Lord is not free to carry out his will, for he'll have to override yours first. In any case, our lack of trust won't help things a bit. To trust in God is to obey him!  

****What to and Not to Learn

         There is so much to learn, living in this world. What we need to learn most is the truth of Christ. Once you know it, your are ready to secure your eternity. All other things we learn are of secondary importance. We need to learn how to make a living for sure, but there are so many others things we shouldn't even touch, for they are evil and will enslave you and destroy you soul in the end. Stay away from them. Yes, this secular world is a dangerous place to live in. Securing our soul has to be our No. 1 priority.

*****God Most Real

        Allow me to use just common sense and simple reasoning to show you the conclusion I've arrived at. God is the creator of all things and life. If there were no God, there would absolutely be nothing in existence, no you nor me. So God is the most real being there is, in fact, the first and original reality. To acknowledge this fact is to live in reality. Otherwise, you live in falsity, remaining lost.

*****The Christian Joy

         The joy of being a Christian is substantial, making life absolutely worth living. I'll just mention the basic freedom, peace, and joy you experience from knowing Christ. Even suffering for his sake becomes a joy. When you attain union with God, that joy reaches a maximum. But wait, the present joy is nothing compared to the joy we'll experience in heaven! Up there, we become totally freely from sin, the worse cause of unhappiness here on earth. Without our present physical body, we'll be free from all physical burdens and able to soar in total freedom. Most of all, we'll be enjoying fully the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and communion with all the saints. We'll be more alive than ever, fully aware of the joy impossible for us to comprehend on earth. I for one certainly wouldn't want to miss all that.

*****Truths About God's Love

        (1) God's love is pure and unconditional. He continues to love us, even if we don't love him back. On the other hand, we easily love those who are nice to us, but wish to have nothing to do with those who turn us off. By God's standard, we really don't have any love there. Know that Christ wants us to love even our enemies. (2) To truly love someone, you must be concerned about that person's soul. To use one example, we have parents today who have no faith in God but claim to love their children. They spoil them by giving them all kinds of material goods to keep them happy and comfortable, while not teaching them any truths. These children will grow up to be another generation of lost souls. With zero concern for the souls of their children, these parents have no true love for their children.  

*The Position We're In*****

        There are many things Jesus said that we mush pay attention to, for if we wait until we die to find out, it'll be too late. Some of these things are the following: Heaven and hell are real and our soul will enter one of the two after we die. He will be our final judge, and no one can go to the Father except through him. These are just a few of the things he has revealed to us. He never grabbed us and forced us to believe in him. He simply informed us and let us exercise our free will to make the choice. If you can prove that Christ is all false and wrong, then you are perfectly free to dismiss him. If not, then you cannot afford to ignore him. This is the position the Lord has put us in. To me he is the true God and our only hope. Do the right thing and we'll be most blessed.

*****There Is Nothing More

        This time I came to Southern California with my own agenda, then the Lord stepped in, gave me COVID, and completely thwarted my plan. The lesson is clear here. Let me start from the beginning.

          God loved us so much that he came down from heaven to die in our place so that we may live in heaven forever. We must recognize this and make going to heaven our No. 1 priority. It's not just to benefit ourselves; more importantly. it's to comply with God's wish! To accomplish this goal, we only need to obey the Lord completely.  If we go about doing whatever we want to do, we force the Lord to correct our course of action from time to time, and we would have wasted much of our valuable time. If we live to serve the Lord alone and not go off on our own, then our eternal happiness is assured. Otherwise, we're still gamboling with our eternal future. Living a more disciplined brief life now so that we are sure to enjoy heaven forever is no doubt worth following.

***Any Time Is End Time!

        Many of us sense that we are in end times. I am not talking about the the end of the world; I am talking about that we are at a time people have turned away from God so much that in order to save us from destroying ourselves, the Lord is going to shake us up with something big. This may well be one of his last acts of mercy. Anyway, my thoughts are that we should always see ourselves in end times, for the moment we die, we reach our end. Whether it's end times for mankind or not, it's meeting our own end that matters the most to us.

***Lord, Have Mercy!***

         God bless you, Fr. Altman.

****Our Unique Calling

        While still in isolation, trying to beat this COVID, I have more time to reflect inwardly. I see every one of us as a unique creature made in God's own image. Billions of us in existence are different from each other, yet all molded in the same way. We are truly special! The Lord wants us to appreciate the way he has made us. If we are not happy with ourselves and wish that we were someone else, that can only come from the evil one. Our God has made me fully capable of becoming like him, holy and full of love, so that we may enjoy eternal bliss when we return to him! Got it?

*****Critically Important Reminder*****

        Jesus has come and died for our sins, revealing God's pure love for us. God our Father has completely paved the way for us to get to heaven. He's been patiently waiting for us to turn and submit ourselves to him every single moment. There is nothing more he can do if we choose to ignore or reject him. Then we'll be judged when we face him next. **This will absolutely be the cutoff point for us, for beyond it what happens to us will remain fixed for all eternity! Therefore, we only have now before judgment time to shape our eternal future! It is critically important for us to be aware of this! Essentially, we are becoming lost forever or on our way to paradise, depending upon how we respond to our most loving Father.