tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13161509199560538462024-02-08T05:01:28.173-08:00 Thoughts On God And LifeProse, Prayers, Poems & PonderingsRichard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-2056905121312324042018-12-05T14:02:00.000-08:002024-01-05T08:23:23.219-08:00With Joy By The Holy Spirit
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">With
Joy By The Holy Spirit</span> </span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It was then that,
filled with joy by the Holy Spirit, he said, 'I bless you, Father, Lord of
heaven and of earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever
and revealing them to mere children. Yes, Father, for that is what it pleased
you to do.</i>” </span><span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">(Luke 10:21)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">How provocative to our
imagination!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What wonder could have precipitated
this impulse of Joy within our Lord?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Were his arms
stretched tight toward heaven …trying to get as close as he could to his Father?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Were his eyes welling with tears as this
Praise was thrust forth from his soul?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Luke is
silent to these questions, only recording that Jesus then turns to his disciples
and declares how privileged they are to witness this unfolding of the Kingdom
of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Luke captures the disciples in
the act of being Reborn, Re-Created into a Child of God who <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sees:</i> what is hidden from the arrogant; what is oblivious to the
complacent who have eyes that cannot <i>see</i> 'Jesus-The-Word' planted in millennia
past, within a mere a ripple, but now a Tsunami of Love …crashing upon creation
…crying, “Behold the Lamb of God!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The Holy Spirit is Fire and
Power and Joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This, is what seized Jesus to Exult with Praise to his Father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This, is what seized his disciples, what drew them from the seen to the
Unseen, from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">hidden</i> to the
Revealed -were Surrender flows into Unknowable Glory.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Georgia","serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Holy Spirit seize <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i>!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Re-Create <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i> into a mere child
with the eyes of your Father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Possess <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">me</i> with your Tumultuous Love, that in
serving you <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I </i>too, will be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">filled with joy by the Holy Spirit</i>; that
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I too</i> will give witness to your Saving
Power, to your Presence within my smallness; that all I am and do will Exult
and Praise and Glorify your Holy Name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>May this please you to do.</span></div>
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<![endif]-->Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-52594163609142060102018-11-16T09:11:00.000-08:002018-12-05T10:53:35.295-08:00A Child’s Prayer<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">My Lord
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> How else can I hope in you, that I dare to presume your
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You envelope my surrender with a Knowing Trust …as a Swaddled
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what I long for, I am at rest in Your Bosom, My Father.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can only praise you, My Lord and My God.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 18.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ask,
Seek, Knock</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I tell you, Ask and
you will receive; Seek and you will find; Knock and the door will be opened to
you.</i>” </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Luke 11:9)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My Lord Jesus, I am Asking you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am
admitting my utter dependence on you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am standing
before you empty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You
alone are my Hope.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My Lord
Jesus, I am Seeking you.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am
desperate for your Perfect Will in my life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You
have only Good things for me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My Soul
is ready.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My Lord
Jesus, I am Knocking on the Door of your Heart.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am
tugging on your Cloak of Mercy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Your
eyes behold my every need.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How can
I be afraid?</span></div>
Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-66652744710310553332018-06-22T09:10:00.000-07:002018-12-05T11:34:29.339-08:00"Do You Understand?"<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>"Do You Understand?"</b></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(John 13:12-18)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><span style="font-size: large;">“When he had washed their feet and put on his clothes again he went back to the table. 'Do you understand' he said 'what I have done to you?’”</span> </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Jn 13:12)</span><br /><br /> <span style="font-size: large;">Christ’s Chosen Ones were only beginning to <i>understand</i>. Having just been <i>washed</i> by the Tender Fingers of God, they were drawn onto the precipice of a New Horizon. How could they be expected to<i> understand</i> the Heart of God? Why did Jesus wash their filthy feet? Not because they were dirty, but because he wanted to rip them out of an unexamined reality. He wanted to open their eyes to his Father’s Mission to Love. So it was, that he took on the position of a slave, to give them a glimpse into a Kingdom not enslaved to Self, but enslaved to Love. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i>“You call me Master and Lord, and rightly; so I am.”</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Jn 13:13)</span><br /><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"> In order to grasp the magnitude of what had just taken place, the apostles needed to believe in the title with which they addressed Jesus. Jesus, <i>Maste</i></span></span></span><span style="font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></i></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>r</i> of all Powers seen and unseen, <i>Lord</i> of all Creation, submitted to the humblest of actions to reveal his Love. The Greatest became the Smallest; the Creator kissed the feet of the creature.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (Jn 13:13) </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><i><br />“If I, then, the Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you should wash each other's feet.” </i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Jn 13:14) </span><br /><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"> God is calling Man to become Godly. He is charging his disciples to a life of Love; to raise the lowly with the power of Lowliness; to see the Sinner as Beloved; to be an instrument for God.<br /><br /><br /><i>“Now that you know this, happiness will be yours if you behave accordingly.”</i></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;"> </span>(Jn 13:17)</span><br /><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"> This is an audacious promise, and a Vision Revealed. What is this secret knowledge; what is the “<i>this</i>” that is the key to happiness? It is behavior according to Jesus –to be a lover for the Source Of All Love. This is his Word of Truth waiting to be unwrapped in faith. It is our commission to act in his Name: our co-mission with Jesus.</span><i><span style="font-size: large;"><br />“I am not speaking about all of you: I know the ones I have chosen; but what scripture says must be fulfilled: Someone who shares my table rebels against me.”</span> </i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Jn 13:18)</span><br /><br /> <span style="font-size: large;"> This verse is packed with meaning. If we read it with our eyes wide open our hearts will bleed, so let us pray not to close our mind to its Truth. Jesus is saying that not all of his Chosen Ones choose him in return. He is speaking of Judas, the Son of Perdition; and he portrays him as “<i>Someone who shares my table [and] rebels against me</i>.”<br /><br /> Jesus<i> knew</i> Judas with all his flaws, but that did not stop him from choosing him. He still loved him, still trusted him with his confidence –in spite of<i> knowing</i> that he would <i>rebel against him</i> and hand him over to death. How easy it is to loath Judas, to be enraged by this one who exchanged his Master’s Love for selfish gain. But, Jesus washed his feet.<br /><br /> And what about us? Do we not share his table? Do we not eat his Body and drink his Blood, yet <i>rebel against him</i>? Does not Jesus <i>know</i> us whom he has chosen? Yet, he washes us clean and entrusts us to love with his Love. Do we <i>understand</i> the immensity of is Love for us? Do we <i>understand</i> the stupidity and smallness of our rebellion; or the price of our sin? </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> “<i>I know the ones I have chosen</i>…” The power in this Word is not that Jesus knows the identity of who he has chosen, for, in Truth, he has chosen every one of us. The miracle in this Word is that he knows the smallness of our hearts and still continues to choose us to serve in his Name. He believes in us when we do not believe in him. He trusts us to love for him when we do not trust in his Love for us. How can I remain a <i>chosen</i> son of God while in my Shadow is a Son of Perdition?<br /><br /> How did the Eleven become so different from the Judas they so resembled? Did they not argue among themselves for self gain? Doubt their Master? Abandon him? Deny him? What held off the fate they deserved? Surely it is because they found Forgiveness. They were so transformed by the Unchangeable Love of their Master that they became abhorrent to any thought or action that did not bring him pleasure. Being <i>washed</i> in his Love, they found the faith to <i>behave according</i> his Will.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> This Undeserving Love of Jesus is beyond my grasp. I cannot<i> understand</i> this Love; I can only Believe in it -because my Master has told me so. And I can Hope in it; that I will become what he sees in me -the son of his Father, his <i>chosen</i> brother. And if I too remain in his Love, then it will pour forth from me and <i>wash</i> the feet of his creation; and I may ever grow into a faithful servant, freed from the smallness of my heart.</span></span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-40733317630376671122018-03-16T10:30:00.000-07:002018-03-16T10:30:51.451-07:00Look Upon Jesus<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><b>Look Upon Jesu</b>s</span></span> (John 3:14-21)</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i>“and the Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” (3:14-15)</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /> The apostle John takes us back a thousand years before the coming of Jesus. The Israelites, turning against God and Moses, find themselves smitten by fiery serpents as a consequence of their sin. With Death opening their eyes, they repent of their rebellion, and beseech Moses to intercede. God relents and instructs Moses to raise up on a banner a bronze image of the serpent; and all who are dying in their Sin will live -if they look upon it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /> This foreshadowing of humanity’s journey -to faith through desperation- is both a reflection of our Depravity, and a revelation of God’s Mercy. Upon this ancient prophetic act of God, John roots the Good News of our salvation. The Sinless Son of God, taking on our Sin and Death, became a criminal -raised high on that banner of the Cross: that we might look upon him whom we have pierced, and find eternal life.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><i>“Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life.” (3:16)</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i></i><br /> This single sentence is a thimble that contains a universe, a Word that holds all understanding. It is a keystone that welds two conflicting truths: a World reeling in its rebellion against God; and God’s Love for the World which is desperate for a Savior.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> Throughout his Gospel, John uses the term <i>world</i> to describe that which is an enemy to God –a self idolatry, a state of Darkness which chooses eternal death over obedience to God. It is our fallen nature which, left to its own means, is lost to death. Standing on this incontrovertible truth, John simultaneously proclaims that, for all whose eyes are opened by their Death Sentence, if they believe in Jesus, if they look upon him to be saved, then eternal life is theirs.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> That the Futility of our Sinfulness is so joined to the Hope of God’s Mercy can only be the fruit of Divine Grace -initiated by the urging of his Holy Spirit, with Jesus ever interceding before his Father for us, as did Moses intercede before God for the stricken Israelites. If only we would not harden our hearts and listen to his Voice….</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><i>“For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. (3:17)</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br />God had to send his Son because unless we witnessed Christ’s Unconditional Love and his death on the Cross, we could not have believed we were so loved. We would have doggedly assumed our deserved condemnation. Before we could receive his Love, we had to receive his Forgiveness. God had to sacrifice his Son for us, before we could sacrifice our Self for him. Before we could be open to his Love, we had to be freed of the fear of a condemning God. Yet now, if we but look into the eyes of our Savior as he hangs dying on that Cross, we can never doubt his Forgiveness or Love.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><i>“No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God's only Son.” (3:18)</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i> </i><br /> If Jesus was sent not to condemn, then where does condemnation come from? It comes from our rebellious heart. God has no part to play in condemnation, except in providing grace to avoid it. Satan may tempt us, but it is we who choose it. As in Matthew 25, we will all be judged -by what we have done, and by what we have failed to do. And as in Sirach 15, verse 14 and 16, “He himself made man in the beginning, and then left him free to make his own decisions. …Man has life and death before him; whichever a man likes better will be given him.” God’s grace is ever available, but never forced upon us. We choose our eternity. It is the reason we were brought into existence. God wills all to be saved …yet many choose to remain outside his Will, refusing to look upon Jesus, lest they repent and be saved.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><i>“On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil.” (3:19)</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> This is a bottom-line text. There is no wiggle room here. It is absolute. It is God’s Word. It is also the source of my deepest pain because some whom I have come to love have shown they prefer Darkness to Light, and I cannot bear the thought of that eternal consequence. Some may say I am judgmental. I wish it were true, then I would need only to repent and be unconcerned for their eternity.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /> Here’s the rub: It is not up to us to decide what is evil. It was established before time existed. It is laid out in Sacred Scripture and Christ gave us his Church to show the way. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life -in which evil cannot coexist. If we believe in him, then, we must live according to his Way, his Truth, and his Life. This is called obedience. Believing is not about feelings, or good intentions, or even espousing correct theology. It is about our Faith surrendered to Grace –manifesting itself in the deeds of our life upon which we are judged.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /> My pain for those living in disobedience –outside of his Way, Truth and Life- is that they seem convinced that sin is not really sin. They are content to pit their version of “truth” against God’s Truth. My sorrow for them cannot compare to the sorrow in our Lord’s heart, and so I can hope and pray with confidence that he will deliver them as he has delivered me, and continues to deliver me.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><i>“And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed;” (3:20)</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /> Most of us, at first thought, would most fear what others might think should our sins come to light. But, with deeper introspection, we might come to see that it is our own conscience we fear most, for if we admit to our sin, then we would have to admit to our guilt. In turn, we would then<br />have to change our sinful habits. Exposed to his Light, we would have no peace until we surrendered our entire self into the Will of our Creator. It is our Unsurrendered Desires which cause us to shrink from the Light. Only faith in God’s Love will give us the courage to be exposed to his Truth.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /><i>“but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God;” (3:21) </i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><i> </i><br /> This last verse is a call to Holiness. It is a fearsome challenge to come before God naked, boldly asking him to have his way with us, regardless of cost, to purify our lives of everything that hinders his Holy Spirit from working freely in us.<br /> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> This is a deeply personal Word, with the Spirit calling us to be brutally honest with ourselves before him, not trusting our opinion of ourselves, whether high or low, but begging him to expose the ugliness of our sin, that we may be horrified at the thought of willfully disappointing our Creator.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"><br /> We cannot trust our conscience. We are more capable of deceiving ourselves than the cleverest devil. With a mere tinge of spiritual fog, I can justify almost anything I crave. My righteousness perilously hangs on the thread of utter submission to Grace. Every day I must beg God to pierce my Darkness with his revealing Light -that I might plainly see if what I do is done in God. I must beg God, because he waits for my permission to expose what I have hidden.<br /> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;"> My Lord, I am a sinful man. You know all things -how I hide from my sins, yet you patiently wait. I believe in your Saving Love. I look upon you for Life. Deliver me from my lowliness, My Jesus, My Savior, My God.</span></span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-26450787169134693932017-11-20T09:01:00.000-08:002023-11-12T06:41:59.876-08:00Lamps, Light and Love <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-e226860d-da50-2640-cbd2-65c1b02e243f" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lamps, Light and Love </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then the kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were sensible: the foolish ones did take their lamps, but they brought no oil, whereas the sensible ones took flasks of oil as well as their lamps. The bridegroom was late, and they all grew drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a cry, "The bridegroom is here! Go out and meet him." At this, all those bridesmaids woke up and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish ones said to the sensible ones, "Give us some of your oil: our lamps are going out". But they replied, "There may not be enough for us and for you; you had better go to those who sell it and buy some for yourselves". They had gone off to buy it when the bridegroom arrived. Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall and the door was closed. The other bridesmaids arrived later. "Lord, Lord," they said "open the door for us." But he replied, "I tell you solemnly, I do not know you". So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">] </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Matthew 25:1-13)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The context of this parable of the Ten Bridesmaids (literally, Virgins) is foreign to our marriage customs today. Back then, after the marriage betrothal, the bridegroom would leave the bride with her father, and return to his father’s house to prepare a home for her. When all was ready, he would then triumphantly return to claim his bride. The young unmarried bridesmaids would go out to greet and usher him in, and the community would celebrate the union. This is my limited understanding of that ancient ritual. The following is my imaginings of what our Lord’s parable might mean for us today.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Most importantly, it is a love story –of our God who frames the culmination of life in Spousal Love. That the Creator, of all that is, joins himself to us in the intimacy of a marriage union, can only be mystery to which everything else in the story points to. As in all love stories, happiness is revealed against the contrast of tragedy. Here, the Faithful are rewarded with Eternal Joy, while those who did not persevere to the end, were unable to pass through Judgment’s Door. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This entire chapter is in fact, about the Great Judgment waiting to expose the film of our lives. It is inevitable, inescapable, and there are no do-overs. All humanity shares in the same drama: gifted with Life, destined for Love, we must struggle to accept or reject our Divine Purpose. This opening parable, I believe, speaks to this Judgment, to what is required of us, and to what will insure our success.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">First, let us acknowledge that all ten bridesmaids set out to meet the Bridegroom. Some were wise and some were foolish, but all had made the commitment to seek and join him; all of them discerned their Divine Purpose; all began the journey. They were Virgins, they were saving themselves for the Husband of Their Dream; they were unattached, free to throw themselves without distractions into their calling. And, if we were allowed to flesh out the details of this story, most certainly, there might be many other players beside the Ten: those who spurned the invitation to greet the Bridegroom; those who were not saving themselves for the Other, who only sought to please themselves; those who were beyond foolish, who were already Lost. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Ten, were a privileged lot. They found their Purpose, their Meaning in Life. They were a Consecrated People; set aside to bear light on the Light of Lights; to usher in the Source of all Light and join with him in Love. So it was that all on the journey carried a Lamp Burning. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What can this all mean? To be found with our light burning brightly is mission critical. We will either pass or fail. There is no second chance. This is our common destiny, our unavoidable test. That it will happen is certain, but when is never known. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The lamp’s Light is the Burning Fire of Love. But, it is not for illuminating the path, ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">going as we do by faith and not by sight’ </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">2COR 5:7)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, for, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">anyone who loves his brother is living in the light and need not be afraid of stumbling</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’ </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(1JN 2:10)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Rather, our Light, our Love, is to be a Sign: that we may be identified; that the Bridegroom will not say of us, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I do not know you." </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, ‘everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.’ </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(1John 4:7).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Love is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the reason for breath -what brings us into Eternal Light.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Oil must burn before it becomes Light, and we must die before we can love. The lamps then, are where Oil is sacrificed to become Light. If light is the product of something consumed, then the lamps are Occasions of Love -where Self is sacrificed; where Selfish Desire is consumed by Grace; where Will submits to Obedience. To carry a lamp is to be a Living Yes -to a God who only asks for Love. To carry a lamp is to give witness -to be a Reflection of our Creator; to be a consecrated Vessel of Love.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Oil is the fuel, the source, the Grace which ignites into Love. It is the essence of our Living Yes, yet it comes not of our self, but of God –it is, in Truth, God himself. That is why it is not our possession, to give away to one who has not. It can only be attained through surrender. The Oil is the Spirit of God, whose image we become in Love. It is Mystery manifested; the Incarnate becoming carnate, and the carnate becoming Divine. It is the Quintessence of Grace. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All of the Ten began with their lamps full of Oil, but only </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the sensible ones took flasks of oil.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> They understood more would be demanded, that the night would take them where they could go no longer, where their youth would be humbled, their exuberance shriveled, where a blood moon would cast them as a shadow of the Cross. Only the wise ones readied themselves for the midnight hour: where weariness closes eyes to Hope; where inner strength runs dry, and Darkness erases the memory of Sun. They knew that only ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall…’</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was, in this Midnight Hour, that the Foolish Five left their watch. Faith blinked within. Fear of Emptiness drove them away -just inches from journey’s end. It was also, in this Midnight Hour, that the Faithful Five dipped into their </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">flasks of oil</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. With flames burning bright, they shook off the Darkness and greeted the Bridegroom. Radiant with Joy, the Night became a New Day.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> And what might be these Saving </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">flasks of oil</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in our lives? We cannot persevere in Love without Faith and Hope. So, that which Anchors us in these virtues becomes our </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">flasks of oil</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">: Feeding on the Body and Blood of Christ; daily Prayer and Scripture; Christian Community -whatever calls us into Truth will root us in the Promises of God, where Fear and Darkness cannot coexist with the Light of Love. Faith and Hope then, ever renewed, ever regenerated by Truth, guarantees that we will be found in Love; that with our Light burning brightly, we will be Recognized, and the Door will be opened unto us.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-1898920085068636142017-11-13T09:19:00.000-08:002017-11-13T09:19:09.112-08:00An Inopportune Invitation<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-34ec9492-b649-8f6f-0540-e75405b4db88" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">An Inopportune Invitation</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'There was a man who gave a great banquet, and he invited a large number of people. When the time for the banquet came, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, "Come along: everything is ready now". But all alike started to make excuses. The first said, "I have bought a piece of land and must go and see it. Please accept my apologies." Another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen and am on my way to try them out. Please accept my apologies." Yet another said, "I have just got married and so am unable to come.” …</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then the householder, in a rage, said to his servant, "Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in here the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame." …“I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet”.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’ </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Luke 14:16-24)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In this parable, in the context of the moment, Jesus was illuminating the Jew’s rejection of God’s invitation, and how society’s outcasts will replace them as his Chosen People. This is dangerous to know, as it gives us cause to think it has nothing to do with us today. His parables however, and the bad actors within, have everything to do with us today. Their purpose is to disarm our pretences with a story, so that Truth may convert our hearts.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is not a great leap to see in this parable, that Jesus is also expressing his sadness for those today: who decline the Feast of his Body and Blood; or, for the Lost, who have no taste for his Eternal Banquet. This insight too is dangerous, as we still may think he is not speaking to us who are hungering for things that do not fill. And there is yet another Banquet to which he is calling us. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When the contemporaries of Christ broke bread together, it was much more than a social gathering. It was a mingling of blood -it made you brethren. So it is understandable that they were shocked by Jesus eating with the Pharisees. But he was not scandalized then for commingling with sinners, nor is he today. He still is the Physician who comes not for the healthy, but for the sick; and because we do not recognize our sickness, we also do not heed his invitation sup with him –to commune with him in our hearts; to receive his Quiet Presence; to consume his Words; to be consumed by his Love. This is the Banquet to which we are called every day of our lives and forever -to share the intimacy of his Love in the communion of prayer; where we exchange sacred words and thoughts and secrets of heart. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Unlike in other parables, where the bad actors are conniving hypocrites, here, they –the Invited Guests- are normal, happy, hard working people, not unlike us. They just all happened to be caught in a moment of fulfilling a dream of their life. There was no crime, or immorality, or flaw in their character. Their misfortune was that they were blessed with fortune. They were so excited about it they could not be bothered by an inopportune invitation -to celebrate with the God of their blessing. They were not guilty of premeditated sin; they were guilty of an unexamined life. They failed to see that their dreams could not compare with God’s Dream for them. They were too distracted by life to take time to commune with the God who gives them Life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus then, was not expressing vengeful indignation when he said </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">…“I tell you, not one of those who were invited shall have a taste of my banquet.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” These Words are not cold and cruel; they are to the contrary, sorrowfully mourning the rejection of those who could not recognize the Voice of his Father. He was only verbalizing the fate of unexamined lives –of those who could not comprehend the privilege of his invitation, who submitted to the tyranny of the moment only to forfeit Eternal Joy. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Indeed, in the end, it was the Fortunate and the Comfortable who mindlessly rejected the invitation into God’s Presence –who believed their own excuses; and it was the Sick and the Poor whose desperation made them hungry for the Master’s Banquet –whose suffering opened their eyes to God’s Grace.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord Jesus, every moment, every heartbeat is a privilege to be lived in your Grace. I am attracted to trivialities. I easily wander. I am too small to grasp the grandeur of your Will. Commingle your heart with mine -that I may live in you, with you and for you. Holy Spirit, open my mind to Father’s Plan for my life. Teach me to sit at the feet of my Lord; to exchange hearts with him; to receive him; to thank him; to worship him; to be possessed by his Love –to say yes to it with every breath. </span></div>
Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-24265548456837346482017-10-27T09:11:00.001-07:002017-10-27T09:11:24.068-07:00Fire, Not Peace?<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-f0c421b8-5e83-5ccf-e867-be837bf4192a" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Fire, Not Peace? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus and his Passion</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> (Luke 12:49-50)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus The Cause of Dissension</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on a household of five will be divided: three against two and two against three…</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Luke 12:51-52)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a hard Word -hard to understand and even harder to live. Jesus is Love, so shouldn’t he be about making things all warm and cozy? Certainly this is the prevailing view of our culture: ‘Let’s just all get along …You do what you believe, and I’ll do what I believe …You’re ok, I’m ok, it’s all ok.’ Yet, the words of Jesus bode otherwise. </span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-f0c421b8-5e93-0280-dbba-94291c516ce3" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Luke 12:49-53, as above, is presented as two separate topics, but the second can only be correctly understood in the context of the first. How is it that the Prince of Peace came to bring division? The answer is in the first two verses. Jesus came </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">to bring fire to the earth: A</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Fire that would arise out of his Baptism of Blood; a Fire that would be lit with the Passion of his Cross, with his Body, Soul, Mind and Divinity immersed into a Suffering that would forever remain burning in the hearts of Believers; purifying our body, soul, mind and humanity of Darkness and Sin –making us </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a people set apart (</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">1Peter 2:9).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Kingdom of God has a Warrior King, wielding the Sword of his Word, separating Sin from Truth, bringing about purification by Fire, that we may know his Peace. His Sword never feels peaceful, yet we must suffer its purification, of all that is not in his Image, before we can know his Gift of Peace. Yet, paradoxically, this Gift of Peace causes our hearts to bleed for those who know it not. It is for this reason we can answer with all our heart both “Yes” and “No” the enigmatic question, “Is the Kingdom of God a kingdom of Peace?” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Before God revealed himself to humanity we were without his Law, and, as St. Paul explains in Romans 7, sin was as dead, as there was nothing to be disobedient against. This all changed when God began revealing himself to us through Abraham, the father of our faith. Not surprisingly, from then on disobedience flourished. But, when God saw that we were ready for a Savior, he came among us, as Jesus our Lord. He gave us the fullness of his Word, and he released his Holy Spirit -to empower us to live that Word in the communion of his Church.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus came to usher in the Kingdom of God. A kingdom cannot exist without boundaries. So, when Jesus gave us his Word and established the authority of his Church on earth, he knew that in defining its boundaries, division was inevitable -that his Kingdom would be at war till the end of time defending those boundaries. Forever more, humanity would be confronted with a forced choice: “Are you with me or are you against me?” Until he comes again, the Kingdom of God will be at war with the forces of Darkness. Those who choose to live within the Kingdom will forever be locked in battle with those who choose to live outside. Those who abide in the Kingdom will know the Peace of Christ, but they will never be at peace with the forces of Darkness, nor with their separated brethren whom have fallen victim to it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">So what do we do? Do we throw up our hands, resigned to the fact that many are calling condemnation upon themselves, by warring against God? Did not Jesus himself tell the Seventy-Two to shake the dust off their sandals and walk away from those who refused to repent? Does not this give us permission to insulate ourselves within the walls of our church and forget about those destined to be Lost? I believe certainly not.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Seventy-Two preached to a people before God’s Ocean of Mercy was released from the Cross; before Christ’s Death and Resurrection; before the Power of his Spirit was released on Pentecost, where he sent us out to make disciples of all nations. We belong to the new Epoch of Hope. We have been commissioned and empowered to bring God’s Mercy and Salvation to all God’s Children.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Holy Spirit, may your Fire purify the sin in my heart, that I may become a Loving Vessel of your Mercy and Hope. May your Fire consume me with a Zeal to bring your Good News to my family, my friends, to all who cross my path. Thank you for saving me. Use me, I pray, to further the bounds of your Kingdom, that you may be Glorified by a great chorus of hearts on Fire with your Peace. Amen.</span></div>
Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-6958960477371812112017-10-06T10:33:00.001-07:002017-10-06T10:33:40.561-07:00If You Love Me You’ll Love My Dog<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-dd527da0-f28c-343f-50f1-1524cb1ce0b8" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If You Love Me You’ll Love My Dog</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together and, to disconcert him, put a question, 'Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?' Jesus said, 'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second resembles it: You must love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.'”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Matthew 22:34-40)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As a young man, when I first heard the truism, ‘If you love me you’ll love my dog’, I was struck by its clarity, by its ability to condense the essence of friendship into a single sentence. As I have grown in my walk with God, I cannot think of this truism without also thinking of his Great Commandments. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The first is to love God and the second is to love his Children. The second “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">resembles”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the first because, in fulfilling the second, we are fulfilling the first. Both are fundamentally the same action. If we love the Beloved’s Children, then we are loving the Beloved himself, for what we do to the least of his Little Ones, we do to him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Religion is our way of knowing God and expressing our faith in him. 1John 4:8 says, ‘anyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.’ Jesus frames the Great Commandments of Love by saying that all divinely revealed truth and laws -all religious structures- </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“hang”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> on them. The verb hang, as on a string, offers a stunning image: If you cut the string, then religion is disengaged from love …and it falls and crashes into meaningless pieces.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When the Pharisees and Sadducees posed life’s most important question to Jesus -What is demanded of me by God?- they were not seeking Truth but only to trip him up. Instead, Jesus exposes their emptiness. They went to great lengths to present their lives as pious, but their religiosity was devoid of love. They were as empty tombs. Jesus, never the less, offers them the Gift of Truth. We too are offered the Gift which they spurned, that we may drink of his potent for our emptiness.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus gave us the First Great Commandment as the key to Eternal Life, but he was aware of the smallness of our nature, so he gave us the Second to insure it. It is relatively easy to love a God who is Perfect Beauty, but to love his Children who have taken on sin and imperfection is another story. And too, though God is All Desirous, he is yet Spirit. He is abstract, unknowable to our senses, beyond the limitations of our mind. It is for this as well, that we are mercifully given the Second Great Commandment, which allows us to do the impossible -to bring the First into fulfillment. That is, by embracing the Children of God who we can see, we are embracing the heart of our God who we cannot see. In the eyes of God, it is the same action.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is not unreasonable to say we cannot love God without loving his Children. For certain, we cannot say we love God if we deny love to one of his Children. This is a huge problem for me, as I have a permanent flaw in my character which forever whispers, “Your love belongs to those who deserve it.” This whisper rings true at first, but the real problem is, my smallness wants to define who is deserving, while the vastness of God’s Mercy is calling me to much more. In fact, everyone is deserving of my love -because all have been created by, and therefore are prized by, the God I serve. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">My flesh, the Evil One, and the World, all, relentlessly urge me to place conditions on those who deserve my respect, my forgiveness -my love. Because I have accepted God’s Forgiveness and Love, I am forever bound to respect, to forgive, to love His Beloved –to be in the image of he who made me new.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you love me, you’ll love my dog -who belongs to me because he has stolen my heart. If I love God, then I must love his Children as well –not because they merit my love, but because they are cherished and belong to the God who has saved me.</span></div>
Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-80616176123063350292017-09-19T14:24:00.000-07:002017-09-19T14:24:21.392-07:00Put Out Into The Deep <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-9acf53ce-9bd9-a37c-7abc-c65ebcfbe638" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Put Out Into The Deep </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water and pay out your nets for a catch'.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Luke 5:4</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When I read these words a few weeks ago, they flashed on the page as if they were holding a vast wealth of untapped Truth. I reflected on them but no particular insight came forth. The context is a familiar story. Peter, a professional fisherman, had worked hard all night long and caught nothing, then, just as he finishes cleaning his net, Jesus comes along and tells him to put out into the deep. The day is now hot, Peter is exhausted, and it is an illogical thing to do, but he concedes to the Master’s advice, only to snag a catch of fish that threatens to tear his net. He calls out to James and John for help, and the two of their boats are filled to the point of sinking, causing Peter to fall to his knees and cry out, 'Leave me, Lord; I am a sinful man'. Today, as I ponder the events of hurricane Irma that has ravaged our state, those flashing words have begun to take on new life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Two days before the storm, as it was taking aim, I threw a shovel into the pickup and went off to the county’s emergency sandbag site. It was a much harder effort than I anticipated. I had to hold the bag with one hand and dump in the shovel of dirt with the other. I had to park about a half block from the sand pile and the rickety wheelbarrow could only handle two of the fifty pound bags, and then its wheel wobbled and squeaked the whole way, all up hill, as I pushed it through the many ruts. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I was exhausted as I returned the empty wheelbarrow on the last trip. Then I saw the elderly lady trying to fill a sandbag with a toy shovel. It was a ridiculous sight. How could she possibly think she could accomplish what humbled me with far greater strength? That is when I realized I was looking at a woman of Great Faith. She knew her God loved her and would provide for her. She knew she only had to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">put out into the deep water</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and God would do the rest. And that is when I knew I was sent to do the rest.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">She held the bags open and I filled them with dirt, hauled them up to her car and loaded them into her trunk. Half way up to her car, with two trips to go, I was feeling dizzy & stopped. I prayed a short prayer for the Lord to give me strength. With my head down and shoulders forward, I struggled to get the wheelbarrow started again, when two large arms attached to a young marine snatched up both sandbags –he was the Strength God sent my way, and he didn’t even use the wheelbarrow for the last two sandbags! Later that day I returned with my daughter and our Lord sent two more young marines to help us finish. God waits to fill our nets.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The day before the storm, my wife Katy </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">put out to the deep</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">. Just on the other side of our property line is a giant dying oak tree. It had a limb, about two feet at its base, which hung seventy-five feet out over to our shop. She prayed to God that he would not allow it to fall on the roof. The next morning we went out to survey the damage. Katy fell to her knees and cried a prayer of thanksgiving. The huge limb was twisted off, cast around its trunk, and off of our property. Again, God was just waiting to fill our net.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We had no electricity for four days. With a refrigerator and a garage freezer full of food, we were blessed to have the generator and fuel to keep them running, and run our water pump as well. The generator is not big enough to run everything at once, so I had to turn fuses on and off according to need. On the second day I made a serious mistake and accidentally turned on the main fuse which caused our little generator to be connected to all the houses and downed lines connected to our electric grid. When I returned a few hours later to check on it, I saw it was no longer producing electricity, and realized what I had done.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Three times I pushed the overload reset buttons and checked with my meter, but it remained dead. I turned the broken generator off and in the silence tried to come up with a plan to replenish our water, and to save some of the food. I was dejected and upset at my careless error. The prospect of its consequences drove me to an irrational act. Without thinking, I laid my right hand on the dead generator and prayed, “Lord, I am calling on your Mercy. I do not deserve to ask you this, but I know you can fix whatever is broken in this generator. In your Name, Jesus Christ, I pray you will fix it.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I felt silly praying that prayer, but desperation trumped my pride. Without giving myself time to wonder about the prayer, I restarted the motor and the generator came back to life as if nothing ever happened. It was my turn to fall to my knees in tears and thank God for his miraculous intervention. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Who can fathom the mind of God or understand his motives? It is futile to wonder why God took pity on me, a foolish sinner, while somewhere a mother may be burying a child. What happens in the world of Faith is mystery. Worthiness, logic, fairness, nor magnitude determines God’s response to our prayer. It is not for us to know how or why prayer works. It is only for us to come before our Creator with Faith in his Love for us. It is for us to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">put out into deep water</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> …to throw ourselves into the Ocean of His Mercy. This I know, he cannot fill our nets unless we do.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.999999999999998pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Holy Spirit, do not allow me to pass by the chance for my Lord to show his Love. Give me a heart quick to pray. Fill it with Faith in your Love and Mercy. Grant me the love and courage to pray for others who are in need of only what you can offer. Thank you Lord for loving me, for providing for me, for being Faithful when I am found wanting.</span></div>
Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-6705995876051577372017-07-28T15:33:00.000-07:002017-07-28T15:33:02.040-07:00Parable Of The Sower <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-d43ab7f2-8b48-fa14-0342-d962535b4075" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Parable Of The Sower </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'You, therefore, are to hear the parable of the sower.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">13:19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was sown in his heart: this is the man who received the seed on the edge of the path.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">13:20 The one who received it on patches of rock is the man who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">13:21 But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, and he falls away at once.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">13:22 The one who received the seed in thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke the word and so he produces nothing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">13:23 And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold, now sixty, now thirty.'</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Matthew 13:18-23)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For me, this parable has been a jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing -I couldn’t see the complete picture. I have had a quirk in my thinking when it came to absorbing what Jesus was saying: The soil that the seed fell on had no choice in its ability to give life to the seed. This perceived sense of determinism always distracted me from the fullness of the message.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As I reflected on these familiar words in my prayer time this morning, a new way of receiving them emerged –the Holy Spirit never gives up on me. I found a key to understanding it in Jesus’ initial explanation, in verse 19, in the words “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">was sown in his heart”.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Seed is sown in our heart, and it is what happens in our heart, which allows the Seed to accomplish its purpose, or prevents it from blooming into New Life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If there is determinism involved, it is that our Loving Father created us to know and love him for all eternity; that he is Eternally Determined to Hope -that we will choose to receive and return his Love; that we will use our existential freedom to find our True Destiny in him, and not use it to create our own destiny apart from him. It is with this Divine Courage that God loves us, like parents sending their child off to college.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But what is this Seed that is planted in our heart? Again, verse 19 tells us that the Seed is what we have heard, and what we have heard is the Word of God –it is Truth, with a capital tee, that is inserted into our spirit as Pure Gift, as Grace; and then, our response to that Gift determines how it percolates into our mind and becomes expressed in the character we manifest.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As the condition of the soil allows the seed to germinate, so too the condition of our heart will determine the fruit we bear. If God’s Word is received with faithful obedience, then our Fiat will put flesh on that Word and it will become Incarnate in our life, and to those whom we touch. Our heart condition will determine our eternal Life or Death. Jesus relates the conditions of our heart to various conditions of soil: three of which leads to Death and one which leads to Life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The first fatal heart condition is Not Understanding the Word. Jesus is not referring to an intellectual or theological understanding of the Word as much as </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">knowing</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the Word. If we do not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">know</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the Word, who is Jesus, then we do not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">know</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Jesus. When we do not </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">listen</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to the Word we hear preached; when we do not ponder his Word that leaps off the page in prayer; we remain ignorant to the Pearl of Great Price, leaving it unguarded, allowing Satan to steal it away along with our Soul –</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">not</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">understanding</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> what we have lost, or that we were even in a battle. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The second fatal heart condition is Spiritual Weakness. It is lacking the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">roots</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> of Church authority, of Christian community. It is falling prey to the illusion of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">individualism</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> – having rejected the suffering of laying down roots, we accept with joy God’s Gifts, but when trial inevitably presents itself, we have nothing to cling to but our delusions of independence. Satan crushes our house of cards, despair and hopelessness rushes into the void.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The third fatal heart condition is Greed, the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">lure of riches.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> It is the idolatry of self, where the desire to please God is subordinate to pleasing our self. It is an insidious condition, even innocent at first -often beginning with the pursuit of things good. But like cancer, it grows imperceptibly, slowly, extending its desirous tentacles -until pleasing self chokes off the Saving Blood of Christ. The thought of repentance, at this point, is unthinkable.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The one heart condition that leads to Eternal Life is the heart that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">hears the Word and Understands it.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> It </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">understands</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> because this heart has made itself available to the Word, it has submitted itself to the Word and not the Word to itself. This heart </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">understands</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> because it has become intimate with the Word. It </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">knows</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> the Word as Adam knew Eve and bore a child. It knows the Word as a bridegroom knows the bride and they bear Sacred Fruit. This heart abandons itself into the Love of God, fearless, certain of The Other’s intention for Good –Joyful, for what tomorrow will bring, and willing to Endure whatever will bring tomorrow.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Holy Spirit, enlighten the eyes of my heart that I may recognize the sin in my life. Jesus, emblazon your Sacred Heart before me, may I have eyes only for you. Abba, Father, behold your child. Your Love stands me here, before you now. You called me into being; you redeemed me by the Blood of your Son; you have breathed your Word into my heart and sealed me in your Spirit. Receive me, my Lord.</span></div>
Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-5376521030897947842017-06-26T07:59:00.002-07:002022-04-28T07:33:08.707-07:00God of All Consolation <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-4cf1bb9e-e4da-e0fb-2a35-d9b0c83a3cc9" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God of All Consolation </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, a gentle Father and the God of all consolation, who comforts us in all our sorrows, so that we can offer others, in their sorrows, the consolation that we have received from God ourselves. Indeed, as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so, through Christ, does our consolation overflow.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(2Corinthians 1:3-5)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This faith proclamation of St. Paul sings the praises of our Triune God: of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior; of God our Father, who is Supremely Gentle in his plans for us; and of the Holy Spirit, our </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God of All Consolation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, The Comforter, the Companion of Our Soul -made present to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">us in all our sorrows. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It can be argued that the most profound and deepest intimacy known is not found in love, but in shared suffering. So it is that our Suffering Christ loves us from the Cross.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In the heart wrenching moment when Jesus was leaving this Earth, as his disciples were feeling lost in sorrow, he promised that he would ask the Father to send us the Paraklete: the One-Called-Alongside; the Comforter; the Strengthener; the Helper; the Encourager. This Promised One, this Gift of Peace, this Spirit of Jesus and his Gentle Father, is given that we will never be orphaned in our need; that </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in all our sorrows </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">will he be made known. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">St. Paul, in this letter to the Corinthians, was not concerned with delivering them from suffering; only in leading them into the Transcendent Truth –that we are not alone in our suffering, rather, the tender, gentle Love of God overflows from our suffering, and he meets us there in the Intimacy of His Cross.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Good News Revealed is that not only are we not helpless victims of suffering, but because of knowing the Saving Love of God in our deepest pain, we become Conquerors of Death, Overcomers in adversity -Witnesses of his Saving Grace- able to shine his Light into the hearts of others darkened by suffering. The Spirit’s Gift of Faith is not just for our personal consolation. After raising us up, he then sends us forth to share his Hope.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For those of us who have seen God’s miraculous healings, we are tempted to expect that we, or our loved ones, be spared from all suffering. Yet, Paul was not ashamed of his sufferings or that of his beloved Corinthians. He knew that, unless the muscles of an athlete were torn by hard training, they could not grow stronger. He knew that without trial, character cannot take root. And he knew The Secret, that God is intimately involved in our pain, even more than in our joy -because that is where we need him the most, because our God is a Gentle Father.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">St. Paul lived life to the full. He expected a lot from God. He was fearless –undaunted by the impossible. His uncompromised faith left a legacy to the Church that is still unfolding two millennia later. Yet, Paul was familiar with trial, failure, rejection, persecution and suffering. Three times he asked God to deliver him from a thorn in his flesh and God refused him, telling him he was strongest when he was weak. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(2Cor 12/8)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">St. Paul was larger than life because he lived as if he were nothing without God. He accomplished the impossible because he knew all things were possible with Christ. He was unfazed by failure because he knew all things work out for the good for those who love God. He believed that God was Faithful, that his promises were true. Paul had Faith in God’s Love.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Faith is everything. It defines our eternity. It is our vocation. It is the key to eternal life. It is the only thing required of us. It gives order to our chaos. It is what makes us pleasing to God. It is Faith that allows us to love. It is Faith that opens us to Truth. And, it is for Faith that that we suffer -because without suffering, there can be no Faith.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Suffering cracks open our ego -exposing the truth within ourselves: that ultimately we are powerless; that our self sufficiency is an illusion. It is suffering that opens our eyes to our need for God, to our dependence on him for our breath. True Faith is born out of desperation. For me, I did not trust in God’s Provisional Love until I suffered enough to exhaust all other options for Hope. Even now, I am most prone to Sin when things are going my way -when I am lured into Forgetfulness and let go the Hand of God who is saving me.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Contrary to the Unbeliever’s cry, suffering is congruent with our Gentle Father’s heart. In his Mercy, he shepherds our suffering, gently allowing us to be brought to our knees –to a posture where we in turn allow ourselves to be found by him. It is the Desperate Heart which is open to Grace. It is the Broken Heart that searches for God. It is the Redeemed Heart which truly exults in the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God of All Consolation</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, and, it is this Transformed Heart which offers authentic witness to his Love.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-80233681574651921832017-05-19T07:38:00.000-07:002017-06-18T07:04:12.689-07:00Remain In My Love<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-047a4fb5-2113-c1cc-048f-7f156ed3805a" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Remain In My Love </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(John 15:9-11)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">From these few Sacred Words, we receive from Jesus all that is sufficient to obtain happiness in this life and in Eternity…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(15:9a)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is why Jesus came, that we may know the Love God has for us; that we might hear it with our ears, see it spoken from his lips, and witness it both in the life he lived, and in the death he chose. Jesus gave his life for us. The Father gave his Son for us. This is how we are Loved.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God, Creator of the Universe, loves us as he loves Jesus –as an Only Child. He is not a Disinterested Entity who brought us into existence just to abandon us into chaos. He is a Loving Father who cannot cease longing for us, to exchange his Love with us. He created us to be eternally in love with him. This is our God -the Word made man, the Truth revealed.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Remain in my love.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(15:9b)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is not God demanding. It is Love pleading. God’s Love for us is unchanging, unaffected either by our virtue or our sin, it is eternal. Our love for him is what ebbs and wanes. The desire of God’s Heart is that we </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in his love; that we make our home in him; that we abide in him; that we choose him above all things; that every decision we make is an expression of our love for him; that our life is set apart, consecrated to knowing him as the fulfillment of our being. These Words are a Love Proposal -patiently calling, ever wooing us to give up our petty desires in exchange for his Wonderful Plan.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“If you keep my commandments you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and remain in his love.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(John 15:10) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus is not saying, that if we do not keep his commandments we will lose his love, for he cannot not love us. What he is saying is that being faithful to his commandments is the only Way to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in his Love. His commandment is that we love as he loved us. To turn our back on Love is to turn our back on Jesus. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, to love is to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">in him, to know Eternal Life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The essence of love is Sacrifice. Love is making our wishes subservient to the wishes of an Other. If we are to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain in his Love,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> then we must place his Will above our own, or better, make it our own. Faithfulness and Obedience are the expression of Love. Jesus showed the Way, he was Obedient unto death. No less than Jesus, we too must experience death to Self, if we are to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in his Love. In giving Jesus our mortal lives, he gives us his Eternal Life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> I have told you this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy be complete.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(John 15:11)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a Promise. God has made it. Let us believe it. He knows what brings us Joy -more than we know ourselves. He made us for Love. As a petal unfolds in the Light, so Joy springs forth from Love. Only in Love are we complete. Only in Faithful Obedience will we find true reward. Only in losing ourselves in him does our heart become transfigured –able to grasp the height and depth, the Beauty and Joy of knowing the Source of All Love.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “My Lord and my God, I want to know you as my Father. In vain, I have tried to earn your Love. So often have I fallen short. I know too well what I deserve and I have trouble giving my eyes to yours. I believe you love me. I believe I am forgiven. Yet still, it seems too good to be true. And in spite of all that you have shown me, of all that you have made so clear, when I am put to the test, your Truth seems but a shadow. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus, my smallness is awash in your Mercy. You are Faithful when I have failed. Never let me withdraw from your Love. I give you permission, in advance, to work in my life any way you see fit, that I may </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in your love, that I may be obedient to your command.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Holy Spirit, you are my reason to Hope. Release anew today your Grace to live fully alive, undaunted in my heritage –that I am Loved as an Only Child. By your Living Waters am I refreshed. In weakness you bring strength, in darkness you bring forth Joy. Because of you, because of the Father’s Love, which you pour into my heart, I shall </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in your Love. Amen”</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-22437208446932727882017-05-12T10:01:00.000-07:002017-06-19T09:02:13.177-07:00Forged In Fire <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-2cd95bdd-c115-c9ad-16d3-31672a5e5dab" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Forged In Fire </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him on the last day.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(John 6:44)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus tells us that His Spirit blows where it pleases, that like the wind, we cannot see it coming. Neither do we know where he might lead us when as submit our mind to his Word in prayer. He comes ‘in the moment’ -when we are not dressed; when we are weak; when we least expect to hear His Voice… </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have been watching a series called Forged in Fire. It is about metalsmiths who form magnificent swords out of common discarded steel. They begin by selecting the combination of metals that will produce the qualities they desire; then heat them in a fire until molten and white; then it is cooled to a blood-red soft ingot, where its impurities have floated to the top forming a black crust; this then flakes off as it is hammered and drawn (stretched) into a shape resembling a sword. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Many trips to the furnace are required before it takes on the desired form. Only then is the blood red sword immersed in a bath of oil, where the quenching process transforms its natural state into a super hard yet flexible material. But this is not the end. It is hammered again for straightness, then ground away at, until a perfect geometry is achieved which has a razor sharp edge to cut while still retaining a spine for the strength to survive a life of shocking blows. Only after many hard hours of labor does the metalsmith’s arm raise up a gleaming work of art. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">…And so it was with these images in mind, and reflecting on the morning’s reading from John 6:46, that the Spirit blew through my life-jumbled thoughts and allowed me to perceive, to peak, to glimpse into his Purpose for suffering. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As the raw metal is heated, hammered and drawn into a work of art, so must we be melted, beaten down and ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">drawn by the Father’. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Like the steel, we did not ask to be brought into existence -we were chosen. And like the steel, we cannot delight in the hammer’s blow. But unlike the steel, we, with our gift of sentience, must choose to conform to the Divine Purpose which preceded our being, or, cling to our smallness. Either way, we will encounter suffering; but only in the former will our suffering bring us to Eternal Life -where our Creator can say, ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I will raise him on the last day’ …</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">like a gleaming Work of Art. [</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To suffer in God's way means changing for the better and leaves no regrets, but to suffer as the world knows suffering brings death.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(2Cor 7:10)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">] Only Faith in the Master’s tender love, will secure a future of Hope… “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We know that by turning everything to their good God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those that he has called according to his purpose.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Romans 8:28) </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">These reflections of suffering brought me back to a moment, decades past, though still present…</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was a painful time –of brokenness and loss. I had just given my life to God, and he, was pulling me out of a deep, dark hole. I was recovering from a life apart from God, and, from the death of my brother Stan. I had a chemistry exam the next morning and tears were keeping me from reading the words on the textbook. What was most tearing at my soul was the profound sadness my mother was enduring. Stan was the second son she had lost, and now it seemed she was lost to grief. I was angry. I could not come to grips with the injustice. Why must my mother suffer for being guilty of love? </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It was an overwhelming time. I felt stuck in the hurt. I felt unbearably alone. I turned away from my textbook and just stared the Crucifix on my dresser. It was in this broken moment that the Mercy of God spoke. His Voice issued forth from the Cross. Twice in my life have I heard the Voice of God, both, in times of brokenness. In that darkness he said, “I suffered for you.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">At the time, I did not understand what those Words meant, but they awakened me to a knowing that I was not suffering alone. An Unspoken Truth was instilled into my spirit –that the suffering I bore was also being borne by The One who has walked that Hill before me. Those Words did not carry theological meaning then, only Peace. The hurt was still there, but the weight and anger was lifted. Instead of feeling crushed by the suffering, I strangely felt like it was part of a larger purpose. These were not thoughts in my natural mind, but rather an experience in my soul. The thoughts would come much later.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God does not make us suffer. Suffering is a condition of Life –it is part of the Privilege of being called into Existence. All creation suffers. Mountains are eroded into sand and steel is suffered into swords; animals suffer; innocent children suffer; and we, with our capacity to sin, have an even greater capacity to suffer. The fundamental question of life is not, ‘Why do we suffer?’ but, ‘How can we suffer?’</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus, Creator of the Cosmos, who embraced the condition of his creatures, showed us how to suffer. Even more, he bore our suffering for us. On that Cross he took on the Suffering of Humanity –past, present and to come. In assuming our suffering he was consumed into Death. And through his Resurrection, he, who joined himself to our Death, now joins us to his New Life. As we are joined to him, so too, our suffering is joined to his Cross –in a way that is as sacrificial as it is healing.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Through our Faith in the Resurrection, we now have the Grace, the Gift, to transcend our suffering –not to escape it, but to deflect its Death into Life- so much so, that our suffering is Redeemed; Re-Purposed; Transformed; and we can now in truth proclaim the Privilege of participating (as a Mystery Revealed but not grasped) in the Salvific Cross of our Savior. “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we are children we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his sufferings so as to share his glory.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Rom 8:16-17)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus, God Incarnate, suffered. So must we -but never alone or without purpose. That we, as creature, may not understand the Creator’s Design should not surprise. That we, in the Pure Love of a Gentle Father, are called into an Existence which demands suffering is a Fearsome Revelation -made Glorious with the Gift of Faith. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">… ‘No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who sent me, and I will raise him on the last day’ …</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">like a gleaming work of art.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-65345954736402656342017-03-21T07:47:00.000-07:002017-05-09T07:37:14.565-07:00Well Of Salvation <div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-ae7c4a00-f13e-e505-67c9-4cd7fc6cc3d2" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“…</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again: the water that I shall give will turn into a spring inside him, welling up to eternal life'.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(John 4:14)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">John’s account of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well has become one of the most popular Gospel stories, in no small part, due to the endless lessons to be drawn from it. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">After a half day of walking, Jesus sat down at Jacob’s well. He was tired. It was hot. Everybody was hungry and the food was gone. He sent the disciples to go to town for food, leaving himself alone under the noon sun. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For most of us, this would not be a good time to pray. But for Jesus, whenever he is off alone, we find him in prayer with his Father. And whenever he prays, something big happens. This inopportune prayer was no different, for it set up an encounter which has become a Window-to-God for all of history. Two millennia and billions of views later, I peeked into it this morning, as I reflected on this glimpse into the Mind of Jesus. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Samaritans were despised by the Jews for having mingled with pagan gods, and, this Samaritan woman was despised by her own people for adulterous relationships. She was a spurned woman of a spurned nation. And, based on her history of five ex-husbands, it is certain she knew loneliness. She went to the well in the heat of the day hoping to draw water, free from the crowd of insults. Little did she know that her encounter with Jesus would free her from all insults, that his Welcoming Presence would slack her thirst to be known and loved, that this Well-Coming would transform her life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When she set off in loneliness to the well, she had no idea she was approaching the Wellspring of Salvation. When she discovered Jesus, she encountered unconditional love. She spent her life hiding her real self to avoid rejection. Now, she encounters a man who knows her better than she knows herself, a man from whom there is no need to hide shame –for he knows all about her yet still gazes upon her with love. She thought he needed her for life giving water. Now, she recognizes Jesus as the Wellspring of Life. She came, tough-as-nails; now, her heart is melted by Love. She came ashamed. Now, she knows she is precious in the Eyes of God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus prefigures our encounter with him in prayer. When the disciples return, they urge Jesus to eat some food, but he replies, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” When they left him alone, he was really hungry, but, he was not really alone -he was encountering the Love of his Father in prayer. He was receiving the sustenance required to be obedient to the Father’s Will. He was finding the clarity to live in Truth.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> When we commit to a daily time of prayer, we are establishing a Well-Coming with Jesus; where he pours the Love of his Holy Spirit into our heart; where we will discover our true worth –that we are prized by the Father of Creation; where we are freed from shame and dare to gaze into his Loving Eyes; where we will find the nourishment to persevere in faith; where we encounter that spring ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">welling up to eternal life’.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-26179068808443840612017-03-03T15:42:00.000-08:002017-03-03T15:42:16.103-08:00A GOOD DAY TO DIE<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-3c0b6f34-9684-1210-8c04-f1500c2609cd" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A GOOD DAY TO DIE</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Then to all he said, If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Luke 9:23)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lent begins with our Lord’s call to pick up our cross, and it culminates with Christ’s Passion. In reflecting on verse twenty-three, it became apparent that not only does everyone have a cross, but that we have one every day. And, somehow, every cross has to do with renouncing our Self. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">That each day contains a cross is not up to us. Suffering is a condition of our existence –only to be understood in fullness when we are claimed into The Fullness. However, Jesus’ invitation to pick up our cross clearly implies that we have choice -to embrace its suffering as we follow in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> footsteps; or to reject it as an obstacle in </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Our</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> path. How am I to understand this call? With these thoughts I settled into prayer.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Dying is hard Lord,” I complained to God. In my imagination, his response did not appeal to my plea for sympathy: </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“And water is wet!” he replied. “What did you expect? I learned obedience through suffering and so must you. I was obedient unto death on The Cross in order that you may have Life in Truth. As you are obedient to the death of your self-centered life, I will raise you up, and you will be born again, into New Life in me. I am the only Way to the Father, and the Cross is the only way to me. It is the Tree Of Life which demands your death.”</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“Your obedience </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">requires</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> suffering death. It requires that you trust only in my love for you –believing that you belong only in me; that you exist, not because you live, but, because I love you. Obedience leads to the Cross, where weakness vanquishes pride and exposes the illusion of self sufficiency.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“The Cross is required of you, to crucify those fears and desires which imprison you within a false reality, where you are bound from trusting in my Love. The Blood of my Cross has broken the Lies that now chain you. Come, follow me. Take up my cross in this season of Brokenness, of Littleness, of Sacrifice. Bow your head unto Death. Surrender your </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">spirit</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, your</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> hopes</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, your </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">dreams</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">, your </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">fears</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> and your </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">sins</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.”</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> “Believe in my love which eternally sustains you. Let go! Release your Self into the stream of Water and Blood flowing from my Wounded Heart -pierced by your sin. Allow my Holy Spirit to wash over you, to carry you away -into my Father’s Bosom. Now is the time, today is a good day to die into New Life. By my stripes you are healed. I have suffered for you. I am suffering with you. You are never alone in your need. I am with you always. Do not be afraid of today’s cross. I bear it with you. I had Simon of Cyrene, but you have me. Come, see my footprints already cast –I know The Way. The road </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">is</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> hard, but with me, the night has no Darkness, and your burden will be made Light.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-5169316025281800592017-02-24T11:58:00.000-08:002017-02-24T11:58:22.736-08:00Get Behind Me, Satan!<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-ccfd87dc-71a6-d826-f1fd-77d9c163fa3c" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Get Behind Me, Satan! </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And he began to teach them that the Son of Man was destined to suffer grievously, to be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and to be put to death, and after three days to rise again; and he said all this quite openly. Then, taking him aside, Peter started to remonstrate with him. But, turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said to him, 'Get behind me, Satan! Because the way you think is not God's way but man's.'</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Mark 8:31-3)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hearing this stinging rebuke by Jesus used to leave me feeling a little embarrassed for him; as if these words accidentally slipped out of his mouth in a moment of passion and could have been better framed if he had a second chance. It seemed they were angry, cutting words –not in tune with the tender Heart of my Lord. I felt bad for Peter; both, because his feelings were hurt; and, because he was reprimanded for reasonable and loving advice given discretely, away from the crowd.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This all changed, one morning prayer, a few years ago, when the, till then unseen words in that passage, leapt off the page: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">But, turning and seeing his disciples...” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> As I tried to picture that exact moment, my imagination threw me back into time –into that dramatic scene, as if it were frozen with meaning.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Peter was crying. His eyes were begging. He was clasping Jesus’ left hand within his own hands -pressing it against his own heart. His voice was desperate; his mind wheeling –he could not bear the thought of his Messiah and friend absent from his life; of Jesus leaving and taking all Hope with him. The pain in Peter’s heart poured into the Breaking Heart of Jesus.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus’ eyes too, began to fill with tears, causing him to break away from Peter’s eyes –for, if but an instant more, he too would have been weeping. Turning toward his disciples, he blinked hard -to clear his welling tears- but their faces remained blurred. Like the blind man whom he had healed by putting spittle into his eyes, he now could only see distorted figures; lost sheep staring back, befuddled; his chosen companions whom he so cherished; and his Mother, whose heart the Sword of his Cross had now begun to pierce.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus was like us in all ways but sin, he experienced our weakness… </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Hebrews 4:15)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> He did not want to die. He was in love with his Creation and it needed him so. There was so much left to do; so much more he could give; but the looming Cross was now casting its Shadow –a life so bright was now made Dark; and Peter’s plea was wrenching his gut. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If Jesus, like all humanity, possessed an Achilles heel, then surely he would have been most susceptible to spiritual attack through the Passion of his Heart -since his logic and Truth were impenetrable. His Heart was bursting within him as he searched the faces of his bewildered flock so confused and afraid. Their faces, to the one, were pleading, ‘You must not leave us!’ And now, in the Voice of his beloved Peter, Satan too, was entreating him to forsake the only thing that could save them –the Cross. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus’ battle with Satan during the Forty Days in the desert was but a preview of the Enemy’s guile. Now, Satan was using the full weight of Jesus’ immense Love to weaken his resolve –a Supremely Evil attack upon Divine Vulnerability. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As Jesus’ Heart was battling his Mind, the Spirit echoed his Word yet proclaimed, ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">For it is not against human enemies that we have to struggle, but against the Sovereignties and the Powers who originate the darkness in this world, the spiritual army of evil in the heavens...’</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Eph 6:12).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Driven by Holy Anger and riled with rage against the Dark Powers waging war upon the Children of his Father, Jesus unleashes his rebuke upon the Voice seducing him from the Cross… </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'Get behind me, Satan!’ </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In this pivotal moment of Salvation History, Peter’s feelings are but a speck of dust on the scale against the weight of humanity’s Eternal Life. Jesus, though subjected to Compassion’s Scream, remained submitted to Truth –that he came as the Lamb of God whose Blood would Redeem the world.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-2155349973557921152017-02-17T08:57:00.001-08:002017-02-18T09:43:20.836-08:00Why All This Talk Of Bread?<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-040a64ac-4cef-54c0-848b-06dd9900a450" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why All This Talk Of Bread?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus and his band of brothers climbed into a small boat and embarked on a journey to the opposite shore. They had just witnessed the second miraculous multiplication of loaves, as well as the willful unbelief of the Pharisees demanding a sign. From the view of a gull circling above, it was an idyllic scene –of men united, crossing a sea, sharing a common purpose. But from the Spirit, which discerns the hearts of man, it was something altogether different.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Someone forgot to bring the bread, and the disciples, preoccupied with their grumbling stomachs, were arguing about who was to blame. Jesus, lost in the realm of the Spirit, was processing the miraculous works of his Father and how the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">other side</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> would lead him to the Cross, when he blurts out: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'Keep your eyes open; be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod'</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Mark 8:15). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Lost in their own world, the disciples were clueless to the obscure Words of Jesus, thinking </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'It is because we have no bread'</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(8:17).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Jesus replies, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you not yet understand? Have you no perception? Are your minds closed? Have you eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear? Or do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?' They answered, 'Twelve'. ‘And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many baskets full of scraps did you collect?' And they answered, 'Seven'. Then he said to them, 'Are you still without perception?' </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(18-21)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.” </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To lack perception is to be unaware of what is happening around us, leaving us unable to see where we are heading –not unlike being lost at sea without a compass. What we choose to remember, what we become preoccupied with, becomes the default heading in the compass of our life -leading us, for better or for worse, to that destiny. In the case of the disciples, their arguing, blaming, and preoccupation with their personal needs was leading them away from Jesus’ plan; earning them a rebuke, for pettiness, in light of his Father’s Abundant Provision.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In their preoccupation for bread, they were blind to the Bread of Life in their midst; to the Truth Who Saves; to their Safe Harbor; their Wellspring of Life. Because of his Sacrificial Love, we possess the Bread of Life. In this Gift, we have a Compass which will lead us in all ways to Truth –to the Father’s destiny for our lives. It is this Eucharist Encounter which sustains us in our journey; and directs us toward our Destiny in Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In consuming his Divinity, he consumes our Sinfulness. In possessing Him, he possesses us. In offering him our Brokenness, he offers us his Healing. We are delivered from the pettiness of our personal needs, and empowered to live a Life beyond what we can dream – a Life that our Father dreams for us; a Life freed from Self; surrendered to God; a Life of Eucharistic Union.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span id="docs-internal-guid-040a64ac-5251-3759-54e5-f1804b842607" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> For this, Jesus warns against the yeast of the Pharisees, which beguiles us into Self-Sufficiency, into acts of Dead Religiosity -in place of Acts of Love. And for this, he warns against the yeast of Herod which seduces us to be our own god –free to define Truth, and Good, and Evil according to our pleasure. Jesus is guarding us against that yeast which disguises the Suffering of the Cross.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Only the Unleavened Bread of Life can sustain us into this Death-to-Self so willed by God. Only the Bread of Life can draw us beyond our need and into the Surplus of God. The Baskets of Surplus are the Father’s sign of his Provisional Love –lavished and without end. In surrendering the little that we have, our neediness is transformed into Grace -to love; to embrace his Cross; even, to knowing Union with God.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">perception </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that Jesus is asking of us. This is the Truth he is offering us, free of the World’s Yeast which corrupts the offering of our Self. Let us then, talk of this Bread. Let us become preoccupied with this Bread. May all our Hungers lead us to this Bread of Life, for it will point us always to the Father. </span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-35888568393118441142017-02-12T07:26:00.000-08:002017-02-12T07:26:57.721-08:00Light And Joy<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-a990d561-32e4-13b1-1dba-efc21d365c4a" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Light And Joy</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He also said to them, 'Would you bring in a lamp to put it under a tub or under the bed? Surely you will put it on the lamp-stand?</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Mark 4:2)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> On New Year’s Eve I was feeling more than a little cynical regarding any impending personal epiphany, and my many past resolutions, which had faded out as whimpers, left me in no mood to begin another. But the Holy Spirit was not giving up on me so easily -even in the presence of my obstinacy. That morning’s daily reflection suggested listening for a “Word from God” as a guide for the new year. I had considered the idea, and was actually in the very act of dismissing it, when three Words abruptly overrode my thoughts: “Light and Joy”. God’s Word had broken through my crusty heart.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Chastened, like a crotchety old man by God’s unrelenting Mercy, I repented of my negativity, and received his Word as personally tailored to guide me through this year. I did not experience this as an epiphany moment, yet I knew with certainty those simple Words were calling me toward one. They had no profound meaning, yet I was sure they would.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Every day they have been percolating into my consciousness, as if rain preparing the earth. They were seeds of Hope yet expressed, but still, taking root. Today, in reading Mark’s Gospel about the parable of the lamp, that personal Word broke through the soil of my soul. That pregnant Word which had remained formless, now, by the Breath of the Spirit, is beginning to show Itself to me. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It began with my pondering of the ridiculousness of Jesus’ question –Why would anyone bring in a lamp just to hide it under something? What if he posed this question because its ridiculous scenario is a real problem that needs to be confronted? Surely I would not be so foolish? Could he be illustrating such a self-defeating action in order to point to something amiss in my life? What Truth is his silly question speaking?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The parable of the lamp fundamentally addresses God’s purpose for our life; as well as the consequence of living inside of, or, outside of that purpose. A lamp is created to emit light. Its purpose is to bring light to what is hidden in darkness. We too, are created as vessels of Light. To live our life outside of this purpose is as foolish as placing a lamp under a basket.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">St. Matthew speaks to this point: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill-top cannot be hidden</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(5:14) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">We have been created to be a Light to the world. If we live our lives outside of our Divine Purpose, then Darkness remains around us. If we live according to his purpose, then Darkness is expelled -for, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God is light; in him there is no darkness at all</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(1John 1:5)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By itself, a lamp cannot produce light. It merely holds the flame -burning the oil which was placed within it and ignited. So too, we are not the source of the Light of Christ which we bear. We are merely holders of the flame of God’s Love which lives within us. And just as there is a vast difference between an ember and a roaring fire, so are there differences in the intensities of Light emanating from our lives. The brightness of our Light is according to the Fire of Love in our heart for God. And the Fire of Love in our heart correlates to the Faith, Hope and Love that is lived out in our life –to the degree we are living according to our Divine Purpose.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The more alive we are in Faith, Hope and Love, the more Darkness is expelled around us. And, it is a spiritual law that a life in Christ bears the fruit of Peace and Joy. This is what my Personal Word “Light and Joy” is speaking to me: if there is Light in my life, there is Joy; if there is Joy in my life, there is Light. The two cannot exist apart. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Joy then, is a dependable indicator of my spiritual health. Not the giddy feel good joy of fickle happiness, but the deep joy of Peace, of knowing I am cupped in the Hand of God. If I am lacking in Joy, I need only to increase the Light in my life –to renew the exercise of Faith, Hope and Love. If I offer these to the world, then there will be the Light of Christ, and its Fruit will be Joy. </span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-54756334945849343592017-02-03T08:07:00.000-08:002017-02-03T08:07:29.301-08:00Behold Your Child<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-7272be45-04ae-cd81-64cd-15378f439d32" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Behold Your Child</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">And when the day came for them to be purified as laid down by the Law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord- observing what stands written in the Law of the Lord: Every first-born male must be consecrated to the Lord</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(LK 2:22+)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Ever faithful to the Mosaic Law, Mary and Joseph bring their Precious Jesus to the temple, to be presented into the service of God, to be set apart, dedicated, freely given to do His bidding –thus, establishing the feet of The Only Son, onto the path to Calvary. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As soon as they enter, Simeon, a saintly old man seized by the Holy Spirit, joyfully snatches the Fated Child from Mary’s arms, and prophesies: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">… 'You see this child: he is destined for the fall and for the rising of many in Israel, destined to be a sign that is rejected- and a sword will pierce your own soul too- so that the secret thoughts of many may be laid bare'.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Luke 2:34)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">St. Luke takes us, from the joyful beginning of the Good News, and thrusts us into the darkness of the Crucifixion, where the murderous thoughts of humanity are </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">laid bare</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> -through the Blood of Mary's Lamb.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By custom, a Jew’s heritage is verified via the mother -as a child’s father could be uncertain. And so Jesus, whose Father was hidden, hanging on that Cross…“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seeing his mother and the disciple he loved standing near her …said to his mother, 'Woman, this is your son. Then to the disciple he said, 'This is your mother'.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(John 19:26-7)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> As his last wish, Jesus, wanting his Beloved Disciple to know his true identity, consecrates him to his Mother. Pronouncing John ‘son of the Mother of God’ confirms him as Brother to the Savior of the world -son of the Father. And Mary, with her soul pierced by the Sword of the Cross, was ever consecrated to mother His Beloved.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Now, we all are His Beloved. And Mary eternally retains her mantle as ‘Mother of His Beloved’. So we too, can be sure of our heritage, for in looking upon his Beloved John, Jesus saw our needy faces, and pronounced His Mother as our own.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As we read then, Luke’s Presentation of Our Lord, let us pause …close our eyes …and see our Mother …with her heavenly mantle …lifting us up and saying… “Holy Father, behold Your Child, whom I consecrate to do your bidding, to follow wherever the footsteps of my Son will lead –fill this son, this daughter, with the fullness of your Spirit, to be His Light unto the world.”</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 14pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Father, in the Name of your Son, Jesus our Lord and Brother, hear this perpetual prayer of His…of Our Mother. </span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-6997473282637573372016-12-16T08:45:00.000-08:002017-05-09T08:35:03.029-07:00The Gift<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-d7de7ba3-087b-5968-7c4f-b67ba6d49270" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Gift </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I am a sucker for time travel movies. I pride myself as logical, yet, I find myself seduced by the implausible –hoping against hope. They all have the same plot: the protagonist living in regret, lamenting a future made dismal by an event from the past, is given the chance for a do-over. Of course, time travel stories are based on the premise that the impossible is possible, that the consequences of the past are undo-able. And, since the past is changeable, there must then, exist alternate realities to add to the storyline’s intrigue. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Not strangely, the Gospel Story speaks to this same universal dream –that there exists for us a chance for a do-over; to un-do the sins of our past; to change the course of our future. And this is the Advent message of John the Baptist, that in our repentance we will find The Gift; The One Sent; The Savior; The One who uttered the Ancient Word, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I know the plans I have in mind for you - it is Yahweh who speaks - plans for peace, not disaster, reserving a future full of hope for you.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">JER 29:11).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Unlike the fantastical offered by time travel movies, the Gospel offers, in Truth, The Gift which holds out to us the chance to erase our past sins and to receive a New Life, with </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">a future full of hope.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Luke records these Words of Jesus regarding the Voice crying out in the wilderness, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">All the people who heard him, and the tax collectors too, acknowledged God's plan by accepting baptism from John; but by refusing baptism from him the Pharisees and the lawyers had thwarted what God had in mind for them.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(LK 7:29).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Here, Jesus poises the Present Moment as a point about to diverge along two alternate realities: those who accept John’s call to Repentance receive The Gift of a New Life, to be Born Again with a new future; and those who refuse to repent, remain mired in their Sin, and thwart the wonderful future that ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">God had in mind for them’.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The world was then, and still is today, divided into those who receive The Gift, and those who reject Him.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Earlier, in chapter three, we read of John, “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He said, therefore, to the crowds who came to be baptized by him, 'Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is coming? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruits…”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Lk 3:7). </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> All in the crowd had sinned against God, so, all had earned the title ‘</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">brood of vipers</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’ –all were under the </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">retribution</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> of their Sin. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The answer, to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">who</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">warned</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> them to flee from it, is none other than the Spirit of God within, the Voice of conscience, bending to the gravity of what they have done. This repentance is the gift that introduces them to The Gift. It is the Seed that leads to a Death which is raised up to New Life. And it is this Death which is evidence of </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">the appropriate fruits </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">–a life lived for God</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Some in the crowd heard John’s call to Repentance; accepted Gods’ plan for their lives; turned from Sin and made straight the path in their hearts to receive the One Sent, the Savior of the world. And some in the crowd did not.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Father, this Advent as I gaze upon The Gift of your Son, may your Spirit gently gift me with the revelation of my wretchedness, with the gravity of my Sin, that I may fly to your Mercy, that I may Live Anew in all ways pleasing to you. Jesus, you are The Gift of my desire. I submit to John’s baptism of repentance –I stand washed in the Water gushing from your Wound on the Cross, washed of the Sin I renounce. Baptize me now, in your Holy Spirit and Fire –empower me to live in the Light of your Truth. This, my plea for your Mercy, is the only gift I have to offer. I wrap it in Faith, Hope and Love.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-505651853037523912016-12-09T08:34:00.000-08:002016-12-28T09:46:31.508-08:00A Sign For You<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-11dc14fb-e459-151f-35c5-a64e965db88b" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A Sign For You</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“And here is a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Luke 2:12)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Let us set the scene: They were lowly shepherds. Too poor to have a roof to cover their heads, they lived in the fields of the sheep they tended. It was The Night upon which every day prior, and every day after, marked its place in time. Heaven was rent open and the Glory of God shown about them, and the angel of the Lord appeared to them and said, “… </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I bring you news of great joy …Today …a savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” Immediately, the shepherds set off and found Christ the Lord, The Baby, clothed in rags, in a manger –and they glorified God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Why did God entrust the greatest newsflash in history to unconnected, unimportant, homeless sheep herders? Why was the King of Kings born into a stable adorned in hay and manure? Why was the Prince of Peace wrapped in rags? Why did the Almighty Savior debut as a helpless baby? Maybe it is because Jesus has come as The Sign pointing to Truth. “…</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">he was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(2Cor 8:9). </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> …“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross …But God raised him high and gave him the name which is above all other names…” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Phil 2:6-9)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The Humble Baby, in humble rags, in a humble manger became The Sign pointing to our God. In his Poverty we find our Richness. Poverty is the Signature of Christ; the Pathway to Life; the Source of our Meaning. Only in our emptiness, in our powerlessness, in our poverty, can we recognize The Baby, dressed in rags, in the manger. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Herod happened upon the Truth as the Magi sought directions, but Herod did not want to find God –he wanted to be God- so he tried to kill The Truth among the Holy Innocents. Thirty-three years later, his successor did, but only for three days -as it lay hidden conquering Death. The Rich Young Man was seeking Truth, but impoverished by his wealth, he turned his back on Jesus. And the Pharisees and Sadducees, smugly comforted in their religiosity, could not recognize their Savior. But, the Shepherds, the Sick, the Destitute, and the Thief on the Cross –all faced life and came up Empty; and all, recognized the Humble Face of Jesus. Such is the Mystery of Mercy. Only in surrendering to our Brokenness, to our Emptiness, are we ripped open and rendered to Truth.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> As we stay the course, let us pray that we become ever more Desperate -for Truth. Let us pray that in confronting our Poverty, we not deny it, but embrace it; that we recognize the Face of our Lord -a Sign that Salvation is near: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A cry goes up from the poor man, and Yahweh hears, and helps him in all his troubles.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Ps 34:6).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> With Joyful Hope, let us gaze upon The Baby, wrapped in rags, lying await in the manger. Let us Rejoice that God is among us to save. </span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-12340885924045588832016-12-02T11:35:00.000-08:002016-12-03T04:53:37.979-08:00Lord, Lord<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-55f16711-c0f0-08a1-f5b8-2961744da3e9" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord, Lord </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Matthew 7:21-27)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">'It is not those who say to me, "Lord, Lord", who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">’ </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Mt 7:21)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> This warning of Jesus is addressed, not to the unconverted, but to his followers. And paradoxically, it is these followers who are most unaware of their need to hear it.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus then takes them to the Last Judgment: </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">‘When the day comes many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, cast out demons in your name, work many miracles in your name?” Then I shall tell them to their faces: I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">' </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Mt 7:22-3) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This is a most perplexing Word –Jesus has called men evil that spent their lives doing very good things in his name.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How can this be, especially since he had just finished teaching about how we will be judged by our fruits? </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Mt 7:19)</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Would not prophesying, casting out demons, working miracles –all in the name of Jesus- be considered exemplary fruit of a Christian? At first sight it might seem like we are literally damned if do and damned if we don’t –those who did not bear good fruit are condemned, and, those who did bear good fruit were also condemned. A superficial reading of these neighboring verses might leave one conflicted.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A startling encounter, over three decades ago, has given me an insight into this perplexing Word of Jesus. I had crossed paths with a renowned evangelist who was an inspiring preacher with a ministry for healing eyes –which my wife personally experienced. The last night of his ministering, after a particularly moving healing service, he invited me to dinner. We talked about the Lord and the wonderful things that had happened, but then, the conversation took a surprising turn -he was propositioning me! I was stunned as I stumbled away from that dinner table.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It took a while to process what I had witnessed –how God allows the sinful to speak and do wonders in his Name. I came to see that I was not all that different from the fallen evangelist. As a leader in Christian community, I too spoke and did good things in the Name of Jesus; and I too struggled with sin not known to others. All of the Twelve did wondrous things in the Name of Jesus; and all of them struggled with inner weakness and sin; but only one was eternally defined by betrayal. What can explain the difference? Could the answer lie in Jesus’ concluding parable on Judgment Day?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He tells the story of two men who each built a house. The sensible man’s was on rock and the foolish one’s was on sand. Both weathered severe storms –only the one built on rock remained. The house symbolizes the sum total of our life. The ‘falling’ or ‘standing’ is our eternal destiny. And the foundation (not the storm) determines that destiny. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The house on sand is a life founded on serving selfish desire. The house on rock is a life based on the Father’s Will. Our house may be magnificent, but if it is built on sand, it will fall when subjected to the Storm of flood and wind –the Last Judgment. But the house built on the Rock of Faithfulness, even if it appears small and simple, shall endure into Glory. So it is that we cannot judge by appearances. A Life that appears tidy and secure may be in grave danger of damnation; and a life that seems amiss may be silently forging Eternal Reward.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> So what can we learn from this alarming Word of Jesus? For one, ‘Faith without works’ is dead, and, ‘works without Faith’ is just as dead. But for me, the most urgent lesson is the insidious nature of Sin. The “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Lord, Lord”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> followers of Jesus were on the path to damnation. They were beguiled by the good works in their lives. Blinded to their sin, and justified by their righteous works, they came to believe the lie that they lived, instead of the Lord they served when first begun. What makes this so dangerous is that these Deceived Souls, active in ministry, forgot their need for a Savior.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">This deception does not happen overnight. It begins with our tolerance of “small” sins. Maybe we excuse a sinful behavior because of the stress we are under as a result of doing good things; or maybe we justify a shady act in order to accomplish a good that we want; maybe we just feel like we “deserve” this one little sin. Imperceptibly, but inevitably, if not repented of, these “small” sins define the character of our soul. The exception becomes the norm –Sin rules our soul and our house is now destined to collapse if subjected to Storm’s Truth.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus provides the answer: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Therefore, anyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like the sensible man who built his house on the rock.”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Mt 7:24) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To listen to and act on the words of Jesus is the definition of Obedient Faith. Obedience is a binary choice –yes or no. It is never ‘mostly’ or ‘maybe a little not’. We can never allow ourselves to willfully choose to disobey the Will of God. Likewise, Faithfulness is a binary condition –we are either Faithful or Unfaithful. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To say that I know Jesus, and yet willfully choose to violate his Word, is to place those horrific words into Jesus’ mouth: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">I have never known you; away from me, you evil men!”</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Imagine this scenario: I have publicly professed to be a follower of Christ, yet willfully invite Sin into my life. I die suddenly and find myself exposed to the Light of Truth. Could I have the audacity to look into the Face of God and beg for Mercy? Could I lie to Him and say I do not deserve condemnation? And, if finding myself in the Flames of Hell, would I be eternally consumed with the question “What was I thinking?” Is this the Price of Sin?</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus, save me from my sins. Holy Spirit, instill in me a hatred for Sin and a Love for my Father’s Will. Father, I desire to be a Faithful Son. Possess me and displace all Selfishness with your Love. I give you permission to do whatever it takes for me to be conformed to your Purpose for my life. Make it so, Lord.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-38141475928476742372016-11-25T07:29:00.000-08:002016-11-25T07:29:11.788-08:00What About Me?<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-d7d4cec3-9c01-d5a2-8b00-fa47bedf16c4" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">What About Me?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“…</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all this happens, men will seize you and persecute you; they will hand you over to the synagogues and to imprisonment, and bring you before kings and governors because of my name - and that will be your opportunity to bear witness.</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(LK 21:11-3)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Calvary is only days away. Jesus already told his disciples he is about to die. Now, instead of giving them a pep talk, he tells them about the fearful and terrible things to come, and how they will suffer for knowing him. Not only that, but they are to see this as an </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">opportunity to bear witness</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">! How could they have received his Word?</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There is a radio commercial that so irritates me I find myself turning the channel until it’s over. This guy keeps repeating, that at his business, “It’s all about you.” Who actually believes that?! But the deeper question is how many of us want to believe that. And the sobering answer is we all do. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Deep in our soul, at the core of our untamed flesh, lives the delusion that we are the center of the universe, and it will remain there -resisting Truth till we draw our last breath. It is why foolish commercials</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">work, why sin can rise from its ashes to humiliate our love for God, why we need a Savior.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As a young child in religion class, I was challenged with the most fundamental question of life –Why did God make us? It was well within the childish capacity of my mind to learn the simple answer –God made us to know, love and serve him. Yet a half century later, my soul is still learning to unwrap this Defining Truth.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To the soul deceived by the Father of Lies, this Other-Centered belief is foolish if not reviling. To the soul penetrated by the Light of the Father of Love, this belief is the beginning and end of Life –that we exist to know, love and serve God is glorious privilege.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">It is only in possessing this Life Defining Truth that we can receive these Words of Jesus with joy –that we can embrace the suffering of knowing him and, in so doing, give witness to the God who gives us Life. In being freed from the selfishness of our inner child, we are freed from the need to serve our Insatiable Self –we are freed to serve the God who created us. In all ways, serving God is loving and Love is the Preeminent Witness -for God is Love. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As a toddler wanders into the path of a car, the mother does not stop to consider ‘What about me?’ before scooping up her child. Love does not count the cost to Self –‘What about me?’ is absent from the vocabulary of Love. To lay down one’s life is to give Witness to our Savior’s Death. Life is not at all “all about us” -it is all about his Sacrificial Love for us.</span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Father, you gave your Son into suffering and death -that I might live. Jesus, you did not count the cost to free me from Sin. Holy Spirit, possess me -that I may give Witness to your Sacrificial Love.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1316150919956053846.post-16222417039391447092016-11-18T07:50:00.000-08:002016-11-18T07:55:51.098-08:00Remain In Me<div dir="ltr" id="docs-internal-guid-84706f18-781c-1b3a-d920-a6050dbebe24" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 10pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 24px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Remain In Me </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(John 15:1-8)</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">“</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Make your home in me, as I make mine in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit all by itself, but must remain part of the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.” </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in Christ is to live in his Word, to put on the Mind of Christ, to Believe in him, to be Obedient to his Will. To </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in him is to </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">make our home</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in him, to abide in the Life of Christ, to abandon our soul into the Trinitarian Embrace –to be grafted, through the Faith of Baptism, to the Vine of Life.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Thus does the Branch receive freely from the Vine to have its needs met. The Vine knows what the Branch needs and provides for it -as blood gives life to the body, so does the Branch of Christ, give his Holy Spirit to his Branches. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">To be in union with Christ, is then, the key to faith’s doorway: “</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">.” For Jesus himself, the Eternal Intercessor, standing before the Father, gives Voice to our needs </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 13.333333333333332px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">(Hebrews 7:25) </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> –because the Vine is in Love -in Union with- the Branch. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">As we </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in him, we receive the Substance and the Sustenance of Life. The Substance, the Body and Blood of Christ, comingles us with God. The Sustenance -the Holy Spirit- is the Infilling of the Father’s Love, the Breath which brings us to Life. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In making our </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">home</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in Jesus, we witness his bringing forth Life from Death. It means we eagerly submit our sins to the Father’s pruning shears, because our Faith and Hope guarantee we shall </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">bear much fruit –</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">that we shall bring much </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">glory</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> to our Father as Faithful Stewards of his Love. It means that the cost of Loving others, as Christ Loves us, is infinitely miniscule compared to the reward of Knowing God –of Abiding in his Love.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Jesus, in abandoning my heart into your Mercy, I become possessed by you. In consuming the Bread of Life, the God of Life consumes my Darkness, exchanging my heart of stone for your Heart of Love. In drinking your Cup, I surrender to your Will –your Precious Spirit becomes the Blood of my blood, my Source of Life and Love. </span></div>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Jesus, I </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in you only because you </span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">remain</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: "georgia"; font-size: 18.666666666666664px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> in me. All praise is due to you, All Faithful Lord. You bore the Cross that this lowly branch may be grafted to The Divine. What Grace, what Gift –to bear your Name, to know your Love, to make Home in my God.</span>Richard Swiderskihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11709961305497490770noreply@blogger.com0