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.
Wednesday, July 31, 2024
***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!
Tuesday, July 30, 2024
**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.
*****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.
Monday, July 29, 2024
***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!
Sunday, July 28, 2024
**God's Mercy vs. Our Stupidity**
The Lord God is most merciful. He waits patiently for us to surrender ourselves to him so that we may be saved. If we ignore him our whole life, then we simply get ourselves condemned in the end, which is the stupidest thing we can possibly do. I believe that in the following video, the Lord did give a nice sign to those who have offended him badly. The ball is now in their court. Pray that they will come to their senses before it's too late.
**The Lord's Humility
In today's Gospel reading from John 6, Jesus multiplied five barley loaves and two fish to feed a crowd of five thousand. After they had their fill, Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off to make him king, so he withdrew to the mountain alone. Here's the Lord showing his humility we can all emulate..
***The Big Picture
The Lord showed me that we need to look at the big picture and focus on the important issues and not so much on our trivial problems, as we approach our judgment day. (1) Fundamental issues we should always focus on: conversion of all sinners of the world; God crushing all evil ... (2) Current pressing issues: purification and restoration of the Holy Church; saving this nation as a republic; ending abortion ... (3) More immediate concerns: mercy on those performers who mocked Jesus and Christianity at the blasphemous opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics; healing of a parishioner friend suffering badly at a hospital; safe return of some family members traveling away from home ... (4) Trivial problems: water leaking from a bathroom ceiling at home (cause unknown); some plants dying in this hot weather ... You get the picture.
Saturday, July 27, 2024
**How to Be Truly Strong
We all want to be strong, but if you try to do it on your own, then you are going about it the wrong way. The right way is to be weak before the Lord to let him make you strong. Now you derive all your strength from him and become super strong. A Christian who lives in the Lord is alway backed by him in everything he does.
**It's so important that . . .**
our connection with the Lord God be completely open, most intimate, and absolutely secure.
**Questions
If we don't stop sinning, then we are doomed. This totally makes sense and I believe that most people would agree to that. Yet not many of them take it seriously—what gives? Are they simply asleep?
**Natural Consequences**
If we love God, we become like him and beautiful. And if we hate God, we become like the Devil and ugly. Every cause has its effect.
***A Reminder
To not do anything bad is not good enough, for we must do as much good as possible. How else are we going to love the Lord with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind?
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