2421AFC052424 – Famous Last Words ← 😊 PODCAST LINK
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Deuteronomy 4:39 – 39 So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.
Psalm 33:6-9 –
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and all their host by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathered the waters of the sea as in a bottle;
he put the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear* the Lord; *reverence
let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
Romans 8:12-15 – 12 So then, brothers and sisters,* we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh — 13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba!** Father!”
* Greek adelphos – brethren ** Aramaic word for “Dad”
Matthew 28:18-20 – 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. This weekend we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity. (↔ Music Link) This is one concept that baffles us. There is a saying, “If you have faith, you don’t need proof. If you need proof, you don’t have faith.” It seems to me that all Mysteries are like that – black or white, true or untrue, avoidable or unavoidable. If we accept the Truth of a Mystery we are called gullible or astute. If we deny the Truth of a Mystery we are called … gullible or astute. What, then, are we to do with this fundamental Mystery of Faith – One God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity? (↔ Music Link)
Perhaps the most basic question is “How would we know?” How would we know if God is Three Divine Persons? How do we know if God is? If God’s True Name is I AM THAT I AM, and the Shema says “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One,” then I AM is One. The Catholic Encyclopedia (↔ Click Link) states: An absolute mystery is a truth whose existence or possibility could not be discovered by a creature, and whose essence (inner substantial being) can be expressed by the finite mind only in terms of analogy, e.g., the Trinity. Logically, one cannot be three; but Mysteries are not logical, and so no logical explanation is possible. We have to use another source to understand Mysteries, and that source is also a Mystery: Scripture.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us – 16 All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work. God’s Word is inspired by God, and as such would not exist had God not decreed it. Yep. Circular logic. If we know God, we believe his Word. If we believe his Word, we know God. for that to be True, God must be Universal, and SURPRISE, SURPRISE, Moses told the Israelites that “The Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.” In our Key Verse from the Gospel, Jesus tells the Apostles and Disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” Jesus has the same authority as God, so is he a “second God” who is Holy and Worthy of Praise? (↔ Music Link)
No, that is a heresy; in fact that supposition might fit into a number of the many heresies that plagued the Church over the past 2000 years. I refer to this kind of heretical supposition as “superstitious knowledge.” The folks who come up with this baloney (mostly men!) claim to possess knowledge imparted specifically to them as unsurmountable proof of their convictions which are rarely (if ever) actually “inspired by God.” In other words, their “guesses” about the nature of God are based on no substantive reality. It’s kind of like saying a clock tells time “because maybe the rays from the sun move the hands on the clock.” Should we all claim to be agnostic then? Is God so unknowable that we shouldn’t even try? Who can answer that for us? The answer is – and is not – surprising.
God – our Triune God – can answer all the questions we have. Let’s take a look at Romans 8:26-27 – 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Christ has the authority of God over Heaven and Earth and there is only one God with only one authority, and that God is the Holy Spirit who intercedes with the Father and the Son on behalf of all Believers. The Apostle Paul begins this proof by pointing out the testimony God has given to us about himself in Romans 1:18-21 – 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; 21 for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened.
“The Truth is out there,” and in our hearts and minds as well. We only have to look and see. I’m going to hop in the Wayback Machine to 2012 for a bit where I wrote about radiolarians.
Here’s what my heart and mind tell me: Whether you’re talking about Intelligent Design and Irreducible Complexity or Random Systematic Evolution and Natural Selection or “In the Beginning, God…” it all comes down to “How do I know God exists?” I personally see and feel the evidence of His existence which he has placed before me. I recall a time at Huntingdon College during my Junior Year when for the first time I saw a radiolarian through a microscope. The one I saw looked a lot like this one:
One type of radiolarium
This is a living microscopic protozoan called a radiolarian (↔ Learning Link). Well, it was alive once. The one I saw was fixed and stained on a microscope slide. There were others like it on the same slide, and other radiolarians that were quite different. There are so many different kinds of these things that one wonders how they were ever given names. And there are people who devote their lives to finding, studying, and classifying these amazing microscopic critters that end up as part of the plankton soup that runs the oceans. When I saw it, I recall saying, “I don’t see how anyone could look at this and not believe in God.” Now someone else can look at the same critter and say, “I don’t see how anyone can look at this and not believe in Intelligent Design.” Or even, “I don’t see how anyone can look at this and not believe in the power of evolution.” What’s the common factor in all of those statements of belief? Give yourself a few seconds here to think up an answer.
<<<<<<PAUSE>>>>>>
Yes, you are correct. None of those statements say, “I don’t see how anyone can look at this and not realize it created itself.” Did it evolve? Some think so. Did the Id of Creation make it? Perhaps. Did God do that? Probably; but, I only say probably because it is only one radiolarian. When I know there are bazillions of them just within a mile of the coasts of Kauai, and then think about how many are in the entire width, breadth, and depths of all the saltwater oceans of the world and have been there since the time oceans first existed, I see something bigger and better than Intelligent Design, or Evolution; I see Creation, and that is the beginning of the dawning light. Remember I said (See the previous post at 1222AFC060112), “If you, as a human being, take on any part of the ‘Is God Real’ 
question, you ultimately end up buying into the entirety of the Mystery of Faith” earlier in this post? That’s one first-part and there are about as many ways to find a first-part idea as there are radiolarians in the sea. The evidence for God and his Creation are everywhere. From the inside of our bodies, to the entirety of the ocean, to the immensity of the universe. The evidence is there. God is not the Universe (nor is it the other way around). God is in the Universe and in everything that is in the Universe (including you and me), but he is separate from everything in and of the Universe. How do I know? The Bible tells me so. (↔ Music Link) “Yeah, but who can believe the Bible? What kind of argument is that?” It is precisely the kind of argument The Apostle Paul warned us about in Romans 1. In fact, if you can find a good Bible study about the book of Romans, get it! We’re going to close with the best evidence God gave us to help us understand that he is God and we are not.
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba!** Father!” John 1:12 – 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. 2 Timothy 1:6 b-7 – 6 b I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; 7 for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. Jesus’ Power is the Universal Power of our One God in Three Persons. He clothed the Apostles with his Universal Power by giving them a Universal Mission – to make disciples of all nations. When we believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, we are united with the Most Holy Trinity through the Rite of Baptism by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That is because For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. All of that brings us to the beautiful and famous last words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew: And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. How could he be with us as Emanuel unless he is here? I know, it’s a Mystery. AMEN.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.
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Dearly Belovéd, please join with us in prayer for our Great-Niece Marie A. Johnson. A recent very serious illness has decimated her health. She is being moved to hospice. Please pray for her family – husband and son and daughter – as well as her mom, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles, friends and all of us who have been the beneficiaries of her steadfast Love. A miracle is not out of reach. Thank you.
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
