Aloha Friday Message – March 23, 2012 – Fifth Friday in Lent

March 23, 2012

1212AFC032312 – Catholic Letter Series

Read it online here.

KJV 1 Peter 2:4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

NIV 1 Peter 2:4 As you come to him, the living Stone– rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him– 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

NAB 1 Peter 2:4 Come to him, a living stone, rejected by human beings but chosen and precious in the sight of God, 5 and, like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Aloha nui loa, Beloved. Today we are going to look at a beautiful letter attributed to Peter, also called Cephas (KAY-phus) which means Rock in Aramaic and is also a Greek word for rock Κηφᾶς.

In this letter, Peter gives us many beautiful images, draws many examples from Old Testament writers, and presents a wide array of topics that address many aspect of life in the early Church. The one I chose for the open in this message is one of my very favorites. In this he makes a connection between Christ, “the stone which the builders rejected,” and believers who have become “living stones,” that is to say like Christ in that they are to be Holy, submissive to God, and to build a holy dwelling which will be a Holy Nation serving God. The word for “living” used here is ζῶντα zaonta {dzah’-on-tah} from za,w zao {dzah’-o}. za,w is the verb “to live,” and ζῶντα is “living.” But it carries a much deeper connotation that being “merely alive.” One example is in the term “living water.” This is water that has “vital power in itself and exerting the same upon the soul.” It is living that is fresh, strong, efficient, active, powerful, and efficacious. We come to Christ as living stones animated with the same capacity for holiness found in the Apostles because that holiness comes from and through Christ. What a mighty image that brings to mind!

Peter tells us Christ was “chosen by God and precious to him.” Christ, the Messiah is “called ‘elect,’ as appointed by God to the most exalted office conceivable.” And we are called to that same life as his servants. We are called the elect, the chosen because “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes” (Ephesians 1:4) This word is ἐκλεκτός eklektos {ek-lek-tos’} and it denotes the best of its kind or class.

As living stones, we are to be built into a “spiritual house,” a family for generations, offering up ” spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” WOW! That is such a powerful statement, because it describes not only our calling, but also the fulfillment of that calling.

In 1 Peter 1:8-9 Peter tells us, “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” What is that inexpressible joy and how do we feel it? How do we recognize it? It is the power of his love as delivered to us in and through the Holy Spirit that makes our hearts and minds leap for joy as we raise hearts and hands and voices to praise god for his generous love, unfailing promise, and awesome presence in our lives.

In 1 Peter 2:9 Peter tells us the reason God has fashioned us a living stone. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” God is Light. We are called to live in the Light, to let our Light shine, to be the Light shining in the darkness. In John 8:12, Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

There are dozens of power-packed images like that in this single short letter. Scholars generally agree that it was written by Peter, with help from Silas (who may have been a “professional writer,” helping Peter achieve a very polished Greek text which might have been a bit out of Peter’s reach normally). The letter is addressed to churches planted by Paul and his fellow sojourners in Asia Minor: Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. That may have been the order in which a courier might have delivered the letter to those churches.

The letter mentions persecutions, suffering with Christ as we daily take up our cross, even dying under persecutions for the Gospel and for the joy we have of being so close to our Savior and God. I looked at several analyses of how this letter is put together, and here is a listing based on those reviews:

 

  1. 1 Peter 1:1–12: The JOY we have in knowing God loves us so much he provided a Perfect Sacrifice for our salvation – his only begotten son.
  2. 1 Peter 1:13–2:3: God’s love should inspire us to v-be some much like him that we strive mightily to be holy as he is holy.
  3. 1 Peter 2:4–12: Israel, the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, was the People God chose to be distinctly his own, the People of the First Covenant. Despite the many times they ignored that, God honored his promises, and not only made Abraham the father of many nations, he also us part of Abraham’s descendants through Jesus sacrificial suffering.
  4. 1 Peter 2:13-23: We can share in, identify with, and submit to persecution and suffering with Jesus and for the Gospel. Whenever we do so, we die a bit to ourselves and to the world, but we also glorify God.
  5. 1 Peter 2:24‐25: Jesus’ expiation (The complete reconciliation of God and humans brought about by the redemptive life and death of Jesus) of our sins is a powerful, awesome, incomprehensibly valuable gift – it is a gift given through the Grace of God, and that brings us back to the “Shepherd and Overseer” of our souls – our Creator, God. How can we begin to measure how grateful that can make us feel?!?
  6. 1 Peter 3:1‐7: God is community as the Trinity. He established family as a community through the sacrament of marriage. Husbands and wives can honor this sacred vocation by honoring one another, loving one another as God has loved them. Dishonoring one’s spouse is point-blank dishonoring God.
  7. 1 Peter 3:8‐22: This passage begins, ” Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.” Peter goes on to say that under no circumstance or persecution and suffering should we seek to harm those who bring about that persecution and suffering. If we suffer for doing what is good, that is so much better than suffering for doing evil!
  8. 1 Peter 4:1‐11: The World wants us to be like them, and constantly entices us to live “in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.” They make fun of us for being “religious nuts,” but when Judgment comes, they will have one hell of a time coming to them. As for us, we are to ” keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins (theirs and ours). Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. Jesus blood cleansed you of your sins – the ways you have hurt yourself, your community, and your God; is blood also cleansed the sins of those who hurt you, hurt your community, and offend our God. His sacrifice covers all completely, permanently, eternally.
  9. 1 Peter 4:12‐19: “No matter how you struggle or strive, you’ll never get out of this world alive.” And struggle and strive as we might, we will always be facing situations where our suffering persists. Rather than wail and gnash or teeth, we can rejoice because are blessed, in that suffering when “the Spirit of glory and of God rests” upon us. ” Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.”
  10. 1 Peter 5:1‐6: When the World sees us acting this way – joyous in serving, joyous in suffering – they will want to know more about our joy and more about our shepherd. Those who are chosen for servant- leadership through the gifts of God will serve gladly, equitably, humbly – as did Christ. I probably will never be easy, but Peter tells us ” after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”
  11. 1 Peter 5:7‐14: God will do all these powerful and wonderful things to and for us because of his intense, eternal, infallible LOVE. No matter what Satan tries to do to us to destroy our relationship with God, that relationship is always restored when we reconfirm our alliance with God and rejoice in the wonder of his uncompromising love and care.

Share-A-Prayer

M&PC wrote to tell us, “We are praying for whole world for peace, safety, and wellbeing everywhere.” What an excellent prayer intention. Maybe you can add it to your list of intentions. So many places around the world are experiencing terrible weather, terrible acts of evil, terrible acts of violence. Pray that Peace will rule the planet, and let it begin with you.

Please continue to pray for the family of Baby Cheyanne. She lost her battle with multiple health problems. It has been so difficult for Mom and Dad, and for the whole family. They know Cheyanne has found 100% healing in the Light of His Glory and Love. The loss of that sweet child, however, was a hard blow. Pray for them to return to the joy they anticipated the moment she was born.

Pray for those who suffer for their faith. You would think that “in this day and age” religious persecution – even to the point of martyrdom – would be nonexistent. But it is not.

Pray for everyone who suffers poverty, injustice, hunger, loss of work or loss of income; for those who suffer through illnesses like cancer, mental illness, chronic disease, acute or chronic pain; pray for those whose family are falling apart and for those whose families are just beginning or just beginning to heal.

Finally beloved, pray for one another. You know there is a Daily Intercessory Prayer List. Whenever you pray the MBN prayer, that short prayer includes all of the intentions in the Intercessory prayer list – over 100 now.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.

chick

Aloha Friday Message – HOSANNA! – Sixth Friday of Lent

April 15, 2011

1115AFC041511

Happy Hosanna Friday, Beloved!

Today I am thinking about Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. What a wonderful story is there. We’ve heard it before, maybe seen it enacted in a movie or a play, and we have a pretty good idea of the events. I want to look at some of the characters and symbols in this story. In Matthew it goes like this:

Matthew 21:1 When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tethered, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them here to me. 3 And if anyone should say anything to you, reply, ‘The master has need of them.’ Then he will send them at once.” 4 This happened so that what had been spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled: 5 “Say to daughter Zion, ‘Behold, your king comes to you, meek and riding on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.'” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had ordered them.

7 They brought the ass and the colt and laid their cloaks over them, and he sat upon them. 8 The very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and strewed them on the road. 9 The crowds preceding him and those following kept crying out and saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord; hosanna in the highest.” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem the whole city was shaken and asked, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds replied, “This is Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.”

And in Luke 19 we have these details:

29 As he drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples. 30 He said, “Go into the village opposite you, and as you enter it you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone should ask you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you will answer, ‘The Master has need of it.'” 32 So those who had been sent went off and found everything just as he had told them. 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying this colt?” 34 They answered, “The Master has need of it.” 35 So they brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Jesus to mount. 36 As he rode along, the people were spreading their cloaks on the road; 37 and now as he was approaching the slope of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of his disciples began to praise God aloud with joy for all the mighty deeds they had seen. 38 They proclaimed: “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest.” 39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” 40 He said in reply, “I tell you, if they keep silent, the stones will cry out!”

In Zechariah 9:9 we read: Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. So the fact that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey was, in part, a fulfillment of scripture. But there’s more. In Jesus day, and in many Eastern cultures, a donkey is seen as symbol of peace. A king who rides in on a donkey is coming peacefully. A king who rides in on a horse is coming in war. It is also significant that the colt Jesus’ disciples borrow is one that has never been ridden. Here the King of Peace is so gentle and so humble that even a young colt never before ridden submits to Jesus’ presence. Instead of bucking him off, the colt meekly carries a full-grown man. It is interesting to me that the disciples who went to fetch it did so without question, and then they put their own cloaks on the back of the colt to make a more comfortable seat. I think it might have also been more comfortable for the colt! And you know, I think that colt’s mama walked next to him on that journey. Read it again and see if you think so, too. But how did this come about?

How did the owner know it was OK to lend his animal to Jesus’ Disciples? The gospels don’t say, but as often as Jesus traveled through that area, he sure must have had more friends than just Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. Since this must have been shortly after Lazarus was raised, maybe the guy who owned the colt had told Jesus, “If you ever need anything at all just let me know. It’s yours!” Just speculating about that is kind of fun, but really, we don’t know exactly what happened in that part of the story.

Jesus was in Bethany, close to Bethphage (“Place of new – or unripe – figs”) somewhere perhaps around the Mount of Olives. He gets on the colt in Bethany – about 2 miles from Jerusalem, and heads into town. On the way people who have seen him, who know him – some intimately, some only be reputation – get excited about seeing him, and they begin to remember Zechariah 9:9. They start pulling down palm fronds and laying them on the path in front of him or waving them in the air. The palm was a symbol of victory – even Holy Victory. In addition people were laying their cloaks down in the road and letting the little donkey pass over them. A similar event is reported in 2 Kings 9. [They hurried and took their cloaks and spread them under him on the bare steps. Then they blew the trumpet and shouted, “Jehu is king!”] Elisha had just anointed Jehu (“Yahweh is He”) as King of Israel, and had ordered him to go avenge the murders committed by Jezebel’s forces when she had the prophets slaughtered. The king, Ahab, had permitted this, and Jehu was told to destroy Ahab as well.

Spreading cloaks or other object to “pave the way” was a common demonstration of respect for the dignity and power of a person – a King, a general, even a prophet. So now we have Jesus on a baby donkey (my mind keeps hearing the Christmas Carol “Little Donkey, Little Donkey, With a heavy load,”) and everyone is shouting and happy and cheering and dancing and running ahead and coming back and just going nuts over what Jesus is doing. He is finally defining himself as the Messiah, the Ruler of Israel, The Son of David! And, they surely thought he was about to kick the Romans out of town as the Rightful Ruler.

But, he was on a donkey, not a horse.

Can you imagine what’s going on in Jesus’ head? He’s going to Jerusalem in just six day to celebrate Passover for the last time. Then he will die a most horrible, terrifying, painful death. And he will be forsaken by his Father. On the way into town he looks out over Jerusalem and sheds tears because of what they have missed out on while he was with them, and then He just goes into town and busts up … Not the Romans! The Temple!!

Whoa! That was a surprise! And from there on, things sort of unfolded into The Last Supper, The Garden of Gethsemane, the pavement at Gabbatha, and finally Golgotha. In less than a week he went from “Hosanna” to “Crucify him!”

Now you know a little about the story. When you are holding your palm branches Sunday, think about that little donkey and what a privilege it was to carry Jesus. Beloved, you can carry him too; in your heart, not on your back. Spread out your best things for him and invite him to have a seat. Carry him wherever you go and once in a while, just for the sheer JOY of it, shout, I said SHOUT, “HOSANNA!!”

Share-A-Prayer

• A special request from WT to pray for J. Joseph who was admitted to the hospital in her continuing fight with cancer. Pray for hope, healing, and health.
• Our MBN friends I Haiti report that many of the children and the workers too are ill. Sounds like a virus is sweeping through their numbers. Pray for return to health, and that the many new infants they have with them can stay hydrated and be strong enough to recover.
• Thank you for your prayers over the past few weeks. Please go back and look at the prayer requests from the beginning of Lent. I believe as you take the time to look at them, God will move your heart to make a special effort to embrace one or more of those requests.
• Thanks for the family of EW for sharing the news that E had gone to meet his Lord. He was – and still is – a remarkable man. You might remember him here.
• Thanks also from KV who reports prayer has been working for her and she feels pretty darn good!

Thanks everyone. Next week the message will be about Good Friday – sort of. Please watch for it on a computer screen near you!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved!

chick

Aloha Friday, August 10, 2004 – The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

August 10, 2004

437AFC081004
Aloha, dear friend! Another week comes to an end. For so many people, this has been a week of severe testing – Florida, Iraq and Afghanistan, Sudan and Indonesia. For some it has been a struggle in their own homes, and for others a deeper struggle in their own bodies, or their hearts and minds. How are we supposed to respond to all of this? It is, in all honesty, overwhelming.

These difficulties are so prevalent that we can sometimes feel – and see – hope is defeated. Not so. If you look at the terrible and difficult things that are happening in the world and in our lives, it sort of follow that old Pareto rule, that 80/20 thing. Pareto’s rule states that a small number of causes is responsible for a large percentage of the effect, in a ratio of about 20:80. Expressed in a management context, 20% of a person’s effort generates 80% of the person’s results. The corollary to this is that 20% of one’s results absorb 80% of one’s resources or efforts. And we could extrapolate that to say that 80% of the things that try our spirits are caused by 20% of the things that happen. Or maybe even that 20% of the things that we view as catastrophic are natural physical events – like volcanoes, tornadoes, hurricanes, lung cancer, plagues of locusts, and the like. The other 80% might be spiritual like war, terrorism, pornography, crack and speed, infidelity, hopelessness, depraved indifference to human life from the moment of conception to the moment of death, and so many other things that often make being alive more difficult than it should be for so many millions of people.

What can we do about all this? Perhaps we can choose to live a spiritual life at home, at work, at school, at play, and even (incredible!) at church. Here’s a little quote from NIV Bible:

Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Well, at least there shouldn’t be. We find ourselves confronting those “unwritten laws” that say living a spiritual life is not acceptable; we are out of touch with reality if we believe such things really make a difference. In the world’s views, that is. In God’s view, these things ARE life. And they’re not so difficult to live with either. In a recent article that appeared in THE CATHOLIC HERALD the diocesan newspaper for the Diocese of Honolulu, Fr. William J. Byron, SJ, had this to say about these seven gifts of the spirit:

Love is service and sacrifice.
Joy is balance at the center of the soul.
Peace is good order.
Patience is the ability to endure whatever comes.
Kindness is attentive regard for the other.
Generosity is the habitual disposition to share.
Gentleness is courageous respect for other.
Self-control is a voluntary check on the appetite for success.

We are created in God’s image, and part of the heritage of that image is the gift of self-determination. If we choose to remember what these things actually mean, we can bring that choice, that spirituality into our lives, our world, our 80/20 mix. Here’s the thing: It’s also true that 80% of the good things in this world come from the 20% of our spiritual gifts we share with each other. Today I challenge you to go for 21%. Print out this note, or cut and paste Fr. Byron’s examples into another document you can print out and hang on your wall (I made a really pretty one with fancy lettering and images). It’s just a reminder, but it’s also just a way to change the world and maybe even the future population of heaven.

Love in Christ,

Chick

PS: Here’s a bonus just for you. http://m11.t3media.net/t/15274/8554348/694/0/

Aloha Friday Message – April 25, 2025 – A New Look at Mercy

April 25, 2025

2517AFC042525 – A New Look at Mercy 😀 ← PODCAST LINK**

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

Micah 6:8 – 8 He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

Hosea 6:6 – 6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Romans 11:30-32 – 30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, 31 so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. 32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.

Joel 2:12-13 – 12 Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This coming Sunday is called Divine Mercy Sunday – for Catholics around the world. For Christians of other denominations, it is the first Sunday after Easter. I want to touch again on the topic of Mercy. There was a short series on Mercy back in November-December of 2013. Today I’ll start with some thoughts recently gathered, and occasionally touch on older material from that series. What we will try to shed some light on is how and why Mercy is part of God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan. Like Jesus, and Cleopas with his companion as they walked to Emmaus, we will take a look-back at what the Prophets have to say about it, including our understanding of The Divine Mercy {Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet here. Audio with meditations.}. We know the Lord is Kind and Merciful (↔ Music Link)

In addition to the celebration of Divine Mercy Sunday, there are some current events that have tugged at my heart which affect the way I want to approach the subject. Let me begin with another item occasionally mentioned previously; it’s from a conversation between Abram and God found in Genesis 15:13-16 – And they shall come back here in the fourth generation; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” (Click the link to see this in context.) To me, this is significant because it speaks to the patience of God – itself a Mercy. This statement occurs on the day God and Abram entered into the Covenant Promise that Abram would become Abraham, the Father of Many Nations. He would be the progenitor of the people who eventually took over the Promised Land, the Land of Canaan. But that would not happen until the fourth generation – about 400 years from that day in Abram’s history. God knows the life-course of every living soul. He patiently waits for each soul and each nation of souls to acknowledge his Sovereignty and to return to him. The Amorites were very powerful as a nation – and also very wicked. Nonetheless there were some good persons among them as well, and some of them became allies of Abraham, and later even of the nation Israel.

The point here is that eventually, despite God’s good patience, they reached a point of no return, where they would never repent; and when that point is reached and God’s patience is exhausted, God allows that the “wages of sin” overtake the sinners, and thereby they are removed from life. There are other instances where this kind of thing happened. One of them, perhaps the most notable, is Noah. God had reached the limit of his patience with the evil that was perpetrated on the Earth and reluctantly decided to start over; but, he kept a remnant of Creation – one family, and at least one pair of all living creatures. I have always felt strongly warned when, in the account of the Deluge and the Ark, we read in Genesis 7:16 – 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in. God shut Noah, his family, and all the creatures in; and on the flip side of that, he shut everyone and everything else out. Is there a point in a sinner’s life where God can act like that; shut the sinner out of his presence?

Yes.

If we believe there is a Heaven, there is also a Hell. To put it in the simplest terms, Heaven is Eternity in the Presence of God and Hell is Eternity in the Absence of God. But, God is patient, and because of his Mercy we have access to forgiveness, salvation, and Eternal Everlasting Life. That phrase in not a redundancy. Eternal means life without end. Everlasting means Life which is constantly renewed and revivified. If we don’t believe in Heaven or Hell, or God for that matter, then God will patiently wait for us to figure out that we’re missing something until such time as we are out of time and stand before Jesus on The Day of Reward (usually called Judgment Day). On that day, we will receive the Reward for the conduct of our lives, and that reward will be possible on the basis of Christ opening the doors to Heaven and Hell and dividing the souls before him between those locations. It is going to happen. But there is still God’s Mercy. That is in the center of his Perfect Story that ends in the Light of Eternal Glory. [1] Remember – Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation? We know this is true because

LIGHT ≡ GOD ≡ LOVE ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ FOREVER ≡ MERCY ≡ JUSTICE

What are we to do? How will we know this Mercy? We’ve seen Micah 6:8 (Follow this link) here many times. It is the clearest statement I know of declaring God’s expectations of us. We must do the right thing, be merciful to others, and walk humbly before God. It seems very simple in concept, yet surprisingly elusive in practice. God wants us to be loving and merciful because HE is loving and merciful. The whole point of Creation, Salvation, Revelation, and Life itself is that we are created in his Likeness and Image, and all he wants from us is to live with that in mind. What could be simpler? Ah, but the way he placed that before us, and what seems to cause us to botch that up, is that we have to choose to be loving, just, obedient, and merciful. Instead, we usually choose the opposite – indifferent and cruel. Think about it. All of us have multiple opportunities to be compassionate and generous every day. Most of those opportunities go unanswered; yet God is still patient and supplies us with thousands more opportunities in our lives to be like him – a chip off the old block so to speak. God will never, ever require us to sin; we must – and do – choose to sin by ignoring his law and replacing it with our own “laws,” the rules we make up to justify why we are intentionally rebelling against him. Yet,we still know he IS the God of Mercy (↔ Music Link)

Everyone is “imprisoned in disobedience” for “all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.” We all live in sin. Weare his people, but we are his broken people. We can be – and are – all forgiven when we do as God intends: “Return to me with all your heart.” What is so hard about that? Surely we can see that being with and in God is far better than being with and in Satan – yet we make that latter choice so often one begins to wonder if humankind has any sense at all. There is so much evil that we wonder where there can be found any good. Do you remember that in 2014, Canadian aborted fetuses were being shipped to a power plant in Oregon and used as fuel to provide electricity? Such depravity should not – indeed could not – occur in a culture that knows it must act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. God wants US to be with him, here in this life and eternally thereafter. He GAVE us Salvation through his Only Begotten Son. It is a Gift beyond value in this life on Earth. Jesus told the crowds, in Luke 12:32-24 “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” That is what justice, obedience, love, mercy, and humility look like when put into practice in our lives. We choose to sin. We can also choose not to. We can choose to answer his plea, “Come Back to Me.” (↔ Music Link)

You may remember this from December 6, 2013 (See the whole Mercy Series here.)

Proverbs 10:16 – The wages of the righteous is life, but the earnings of the wicked are sin and death.

Romans 6:23 [2] – Sin pays its servants: the wage is death. But God gives to those who serve him: his free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Isaiah 3:10-11 –
10 Tell the innocent how fortunate they are,
    for they shall eat the fruit of their labors.
11 Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are,
    for what their hands have done shall be done to them.

God’s patience with our sin is the hallmark of his Mercy. Whether we remember his Mercy as part of a religious celebration or as a moment of clarity in our lives (hopefully both!), God is Kind and Merciful, his mercy endures forever (↔ Click Link). He wants us to have The Kingdom, but how do we get it? Like all of God’s gifts, we receive it by accepting it in Love. Love him as much as we can. That will always be enough, and we will be AMAZED at what he does with it! That is how Mercy is made manifest in our lives. God’s Mercy is an additive gift; it’s part of the Kingdom, The Absolutely Perfect Plan of God for us. TheDivine Mercy of God cmes to us only through the sorrowful Passion of Jesus who patiently waited for the right time and then willing went to his death as recompense for our sins. That act of Mercy holds open the Door to Eternity just a little wider and just a little longer. And yet …

How long will it be before God says of us, “Their iniquity is filled up; they shall be no more.”? Perhaps – maybe even probably – it will be beyond our lifetimes as a nation. But what about today in my life, in your life, in our lives in or outside of the Kingdom of Heaven, a gift from our El Shaddai Olam – עוֹלָם שַׁדָּי אֵל – Almighty Everliving God? When that Day of Reward comes, could it be that God will pull shut the doors of Heaven? If so, will we be closed in or closed out? If we choose to accept his Mercy and all that comes with it, we will be closed in – with him and all the saints who have gone before us. Refuse that Mercy, and be locked out at the Day of Resurrection.

There is no refuge from that day. Much is spoken nowadays about “Sanctuary Cities and States.” Some foolishly compare them to Cities of Refuge in the Bible. In the United States and Canada, a “sanctuary city” is a city that minimally cooperates with the government at the National level for the purpose of helping people who are illegal, or undocumented, immigrants so they can potentially avoid deportation. This in no way whatsoever parallels the Biblical concept of Cities of Refuge. Here is the record of those cities: Deuteronomy 4:41-43 – 41 Then Moses set apart on the east side of the Jordan three cities 42 to which a homicide could flee, someone who unintentionally kills another person, the two not having been at enmity before; the homicide could flee to one of these cities and live: 43 Bezer in the wilderness on the tableland belonging to the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead belonging to the Gadites, and Golan in Bashan belonging to the Manassites. This clearly has nothing to do with immigration of any sort. Rather than so-called mercy, these “sanctuary cities” are a way to harbor criminals who have intentionally broken the law.

What is mercy then? In the Old Testament a frequent equivalent is “steadfast Love.” See (Psalm 118:1-4 for example.) It is kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, toward those who – through their own doing – have distanced themselves from God – joined with his desire to help them. It is deeply-rooted compassion that overrides and obviates evil that is deliberately and knowingly committed, then recognized and repented. It is God’s loving-kindness for those who turn to him instead of themselves or to God’s enemies. And how do we know God’s enemies? I strongly recommend reading – OUTLOUD – the Letter of Jude. It’s only 24 verses long, but it will help each of us choose how to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.

What will we choose today? Will we choose God’s mercy, or will we help him shut the door against us? I close with this reminder from John 5:28-29 [3]– 28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, 29 and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

Which do you choose?

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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.

Creative Commons License Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com

** I apologize that this is so long. God’s Mercy is so important to me that, once I get started, I can barely stop. Luke 6:36 – 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful is the “bookend” to Micah 6:8 in my walk with the Lord, so I will end this and bless you for reading all of it.

[1] Special thanks to Deacon Andy Ragasa of St Catherine of Alexandria Catholic Church in his homily for Wednesday in the Octave of Easter, April 23, 2025

[2] J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.

[3] Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV) KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK. Used by permission.

Aloha Friday Message – April 18, 2025 – Prayers for Resurrection Day

April 18, 2025

2516AFC041825 – Prayers for Resurrection Day  😀 ← PODCAST LINK

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

Luke 22:15 – And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.

The Key Verse image for today is St. Peter, The Apostle Peter, holding a key and a book. These are the traditional symbols associated with his image.

Today is Good Friday. Why and how did we get that name? There are no clear explanations for it, and it seems that is only the name in English-speaking countries. In the Eastern Rite churches it is called Great and Holy Friday. In German it is called Karfreitag, Suffering Friday or Sorrowful Friday. In some places it is called Black Friday, and in others Easter Friday. In French it is Le Vendredi Saint – Holy Friday. In Spanish is Viernes Santo – also Holy Friday. According to some catechisms, the term Good Friday is a reflection of Christ’s victory over death through his Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Christ, by His Death, “showed His great love for man, and purchased for him every blessing.” Good, in this sense, means “Holy.”

Good Friday is the middle of the Triduum, the ending of Lent (also a word used only in Western Christianity). The Triduum is a single, albeit long, celebration which starts with the evening service commemorating the Last Supper of Holy Thursday and continues to the evening of Easter Sunday. Though chronologically three days, they are liturgically one day unfolding for us the unity of Christ’s Paschal Mystery.

The single celebration of the Triduum marks the end of the Lenten season, and leads to the Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord at the Easter Vigil.
The liturgical services that take place during the Triduum are:

  • Mass of the Lord’s Supper
  • Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
  • Mass of the Resurrection of the Lord

Today I will share with you several Easter Prayers for a variety of sources. I hope you will find one or more of them will resonate with your heart and soul. Have a joyous and Holy Easter. And go easy on the candy this year. It’s not that good for you, you know? Except for the Peeps. Peeps are probably OK.

Easter Prayer

God our Father,
by raising Christ your Son
you conquered the power of death
and opened for us the way to eternal life.
Let our celebration today raise us up
and renew our lives by the Spirit that is within us.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Traditional Easter Day Prayer

Christ is Risen: The world below lies desolate
Christ is Risen: The spirits of evil are fallen
Christ is Risen: The angels of God are rejoicing
Christ is Risen: The tombs of the dead are empty
Christ is Risen indeed from the dead,
the first of the sleepers,
Glory and power are his forever and ever
St. Hippolytus (AD 190-236)

An Easter prayer for teenagers

Jesus, you have overcome death
And conquered every fear I could imagine
Help me to live each day remembering that You are alive
That You are bigger than anything or any situation
And that Your power is real
Jesus, you’re my hero and I’m walking with you.
Amen.

Anglican Prayer for Easter Sunday

Almighty God, who through your only‑begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life‑giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Source: Book of Common Prayer, 1979 version, Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA.

A Prayer for Easter Morning

0 Lord Jesus Christ, who upon this day did conquer death and rise from the dead,
and who are alive for ever more, help us never to forget your Risen Presence forever with us.

Help us to remember,

That you are with us in every time of perplexity to guide and to direct;
That you are with us in every time of sorrow to comfort and console;
That you are with us in every time of temptation to strengthen and to inspire;
That you are with us in every time of loneliness to cheer and befriend;
That you are with us even in death to bring us to the glory of your side.

Make us to be certain that there is nothing in time or in eternity which can separate us from you, so that in your presence we may meet life with gallantry and death without fear.

You turn our darkness into light, in your light we shall see light.

Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Christ the Lord is risen today!
ALLELUIA!! by St. Francis of Assisi

— Adapted from ThisIsChurch.com

Most High, glorious God, enlighten the shadows of my heart, and grant unto me a right faith, a certain hope and perfect charity, sense and understanding, Lord, so that I may accomplish Thy holy and true command. Easter reminds us that each time we deny you, Lord, another nail is sharpened; and each time we defy you, Lord, into your hand it’s hammered. When faith is weak, when temptation is strong, and courage fails, forgive us, Lord and once again become that risen presence within our hearts. Amen
Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/prayers_Easter.htm#ixzz2OsW39Mkb
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Easter Thanks
We give thanks to you, Lord, for you have done marvelous things! When we were walking in darkness you were there, you were there, when we were kneeling in weakness you were there, you were there, when we drew near feeling worthless you were there, you were there, when we were needing forgiveness you were there, you were there, when we were searching for your grace you were there, you were there. We give thanks to you, Lord, for you have done marvelous things! Help us be as Faithful as you are Faithful. Never allow us to depart from you or to abandon you in any way!
Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/prayers_Easter.htm#ixzz2OsW73Ya6
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Easter People Prayer

We are often not the Easter People that we should be, living in the certain knowledge of your great mercy and love. Distracted by the world around us we fail to hear your voice, or hide when faith is challenged as we wander off the path. Forgive us, we pray; restore the love that we first had, a faith that can endure. We will keep our eyes fixed on you, Lord, and with you at our right hand we shall not be shaken.
Read more at: http://www.faithandworship.com/prayers_Easter.htm#ixzz2OsWBKRIH
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

Beloved, I pray the Lord will greatly bless you in all you think or do or say throughout this Holy Triduum so that the Holy Trinity might be glorified in you. Let us think of the Resurrection of Christ as the Eighth Day of Creation wherein the Old World passed away and the advent of the New heavens and New Earth dawns upon us with the Easter Sunrise, the Dawning of the Age of The Church.

CCC – 349. The eighth day. But for us a new day has dawned: the day of Christ’s Resurrection. The seventh day completes the first creation. The eighth day begins the new creation. Thus, the work of creation culminates in the greater work of redemption. The first creation finds its meaning and its summit in the new creation in Christ, the splendor of which surpasses that of the first creation.

CCC 2174 – Jesus rose from the dead “on the first day of the week.” Because it is the “first day,” the day of Christ’s Resurrection recalls the first creation. Because it is the “eighth day” following the Sabbath, it symbolizes the new creation ushered in by Christ’s Resurrection. For Christians it has become the first of all days, the first of all feasts, the Lord’s Day (he kuriake hemera, dies dominica) Sunday: We all gather on the day of the sun, for it is the first day [after the Jewish Sabbath, but also the first day] when God, separating matter from darkness, made the world; and on this same day Jesus Christ our Savior rose from the dead. CCC 2191 The Church celebrates the day of Christ’s Resurrection on the “eighth day,” Sunday, which is rightly called the Lord’s Day (cf. SC 106).

Walk with us to Emmaus, and pray, “Were not our Hearts Burning Within Us?” (↔ Music Link) Remember now, that happen on Resurrection DAY ONE! Remember, what Jesus made possible, the Holy Spirit makes actual. Therefore let us pray that we may receive the Grace – that Marvelous Grace – that initiates our response to God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan. Remember, too, that YOLO-F, so celebrate this Sacred Triduum as something less than a way to show off our new outfits and more that an opportunity t demonstrate was can and will Repent and believe the Gospel!. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,  who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,  to whom be the glory forever and ever. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

From our home to yours, from our Parish to yours, from the God and Savior of all of us to each an all of you: May God continue to richly bless you on this most extraordinary Resurrection Day Celebration! Come. Walk with us, (↔ Music Link) as we shed a little Light on The Word.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!


Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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.

Creative Commons License
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com

Aloha Friday Message – April 11, 2025 – Consummated, Too!

April 11, 2025

2515AFC041125 – Consummation, Too! 😀 ← PODCAST LINK

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site. Originally posted in part under Aloha Friday Messages at http://www.aloha-friday.org  – The Moon Beam Network – 1513AFC032715 – Consummation!

Genesis 2:1 – Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all their multitude.

In Hebrew, that verse looks like this: וְהָאָ֖רֶץ הַשָּׁמַ֥יִם וַיְכֻלּ֛וּ  

The Hebrew word for finished is וַיְכֻלּ֛וּ way-ḵul-lū which comes from the root word כָּלָה (kalah) { kaw-law’}. The expression finished here means “consummated” or ” to perform the last act which completes a process, to accomplish, fulfill.” Everything that needs to be done has been done. It is a fully-completed, made-to-order, exactly-right process concluded properly and correctly in every possible way. Whatever can or needs to come next can succeed because the perfect preparation for it has been completed. Remember? The verse immediately before this one says 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. (Genesis 1:31) All the other days of creation ended with “And God saw that it was good.” At the end of the sixth day, indeed it was very good, so good in fact, that God could rest for a day after all the work he had cone creating the Heavens and the Earth and all that is in them. It was the perfect ending of all he had done. Now, with that in mind, let us look at today’s word from the Cross:

John 19:30 – 30 When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

“It is finished.” In Greek, this is Τετέλεσται, (Tetélestai) {teh-TEH-les-tie}. Some translations read, “It is consummated,” which is another appropriate translation of the word Τετέλεσται. This expression comes from a Greek word τελέω teléō  {tel-eh’-o}, which also means consummation, or to complete a process all the way through the final step which means everything that needed to be done has been done. It is a fully-completed, made-to-order, exactly-right process concluded properly and correctly in every possible way. Whatever can or needs to come next can succeed because the perfect preparation for it has been completed. Wait. That sounds familiar! So, could it be that way-ḵul-lū in Hebrew and teh-TEH-les-tie in Greek have the same denotative and connotative meanings? Certainly! Jesus was there when the words of Genesis 2:1 were spoken (think of John 1:3a – All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.)

Jesus had not gone to his death completely unaware of what was happening, what would happen, or what the results would be. As is prayed in the Eucharistic Prayer, “He entered willingly into his Death. ”He fully understood what was in that cup he asked his Father about in Gethsemane. He completely emptied that cup so that it was fully-completed, made-to-order, one exactly-right process concluded properly and correctly in every possible way. He completed that process in the same way that Adam had undone the perfection of creation.

  • Adam’s fall and death came through the use of his free will to disobey.
  • Jesus’ death and resurrection came through the use of his free will to obey. You might think of these two events as mirror opposites.
    • Adam fell and died through disobedience.
    • Christ died and rose through obedience.
    • Eve, mother of all the living, received life through the flesh of the sleeping Adam.
    • Mary, Mother of the Living God gave flesh to Jesus in her womb because of her conscious decision [fiat] to be the handmaid of the Lord.
    • The sin which brings death through Adam becomes the death of sin through Christ.
    • Sin is finished, forgiven, and forgotten – conquered by the Lamb of God that was slain for our salvation. But it is not unmade yet. There is still much to wait upon in God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan! We need to look back to our Old Friend, Abraham,

Rather than the ceremonial Kittel often worn by one presiding at a Seder Meal, Jesus was stripped of his clothing and exposed in ways that were atrociously demeaning to Jews. Yet, he endured all of this willingly. Abraham, we recall, accepted God’s request to perform a ritual sacrifice of his only son through Sarah – Isaac – on the mountaintop because Abraham reasoned that God’s promise was trustworthy and somehow – no matter what Abraham did to Isaac, God’s promise that a host of nations would come from Abraham would be a fully-completed, made-to-order, exactly-right process concluded properly and correctly in every possible way. Whatever can or needs to come next could succeed because the perfect preparation for it had been completed.

Wait! That sounds familiar! That is the APP! Many generations later, Moses and Aaron would lead the children of Isaac’s son, Jacob, out of Egypt – another fulfillment of God’s promise of salvation. Salvation came to us in our present-day World through the Only Begotten Son of God who is “a Priest forever.” And who was the Priest to whom Abram (before he was renamed Abraham) gave a tenth of all his possessions in thanksgiving to God for a victory over his enemies? Check this passage from Genesis:

Genesis 14:18-20 – 18 And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine; he was priest of God Most High. 19 He blessed him and said,
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
    maker of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High
    who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”
And Abram gave him one-tenth of everything.

That crosses back to Psalm 110:4 – The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind,
    “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”  The Apostle Paul writes of this encounter in Hebrews. Hebrews 5:5-10 – Christ did not glorify himself in becoming a high priest, but was appointed by the one who said to him,
“You are my Son,
    today I have begotten you”;
6 as he says also in another place,
“You are a priest forever,
    according to the order of Melchizedek.”
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered; 9 and having been made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him, 10 having been designated by God a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

Paul finishes up in the seventh chapter (take the time to read it, please) of Hebrews with an astute analysis of God’s fulfillment of his plan of Salvation (that Glorious APP) tying it all to Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek. Truly, that plan was consummated when Jesus pronounced, “It is finished.” But, for us, Beloved, it all began there!

Jesus’ willing sacrifice made in obedience was the one and only fully-completed, made-to-order, exactly-right process concluded properly and correctly in every possible way. Whatever can or needs to come next can succeed because the perfect preparation for it has been completed. Next week we will examine the one remaining statement made by Jesus on the Cross. Until then, I pray you will have a wonderfully transforming Holy Week beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Easter Vigil. Please, let us all allow Jesus to love us – we do have a choice you know – so let us give him permission to change our hearts (↔ Music Link)  and souls according to HIS Absolutely Perfect Plan.

“Change my heart? How? What? Why?” Ezekiel 36:26-28 – 26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will remove from your body the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my spirit within you, and make you follow my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. 28 Then you shall live in the land that I gave to your ancestors; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. What does that mean? Belovéd, we are broken people, hard-hearted, stubborn, willful (with our Free Will), and repeatedly sliding back into our wickedness and selfish pride – and that is Satan’s Abysmally Persistent Threat – his SAPT. All he needs from us is a little sandy grain of rebellion, and he can turn that into a heavy, stony, insulting rejection of God’s Perfect Love in, through, and with Christ Jesus. Again we ask, “Why?” Because you shall be my people, and I will be your God. What does that get us?

“Τετέλεσται, (Tetélestai) {teh-TEH-les-tie}

. That means that the wage of sin – the DEATH PENALTY – has been taken off the table. Our permanent record has been changed– “if indeed the Spirit of Christ is in you,” and our Debt is marked “PAID IN FULL” because of a fully-completed, made-to-order, exactly-right process concluded properly and correctly in every possible way. Whatever can or needs to come next could succeed because the perfect preparation for it had been completed. No more stone inside us, only a heart of, and for, Love. The only other stone we will ever possess is mentioned in Revelation 2:17 (GNT) [1] – 17 “If you have ears, then, listen to what the Spirit says to the churches!
“To those who win the victory I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give each of them a white stone on which is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it. “What does that mean?” I don’t know. It’s a mystery. But I can hardly wait to find out! “Because why?” I have learned that knowing such things helps me to remember MEMENTO MORI. It is logical to me that if we are not ready to die today, it is unlikely we will be ready by tomorrow; therefore, every day for me is a chance to go see God face-to-face, and so I spend it praying, and singing hymns. Regrettably, I manage to fit in enough time to sin as well, and so that makes me look forward to tomorrow with constantly-renewing conversion AND the intent and the Power to do right things better and better things right. All of that is mine because of what happened back there in Genesis 2:1. God IS SO-O-O-O GOOD!

Holy Week is as terrific a time as any to send God a knee-mail to request a new heart. This is why I Have Decided to Follow Jesus. (↔ Music Link) We remember how he loved us to his death (↔ Music Link). Time to trade in our sandy, stony, heavy, broken hearts and live in the Life of Love. Let our entire lives become Consecrated in The Promise and Consummated, too.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Aloha Friday Message – April 4, 2025 – Spirit and Life

April 4, 2025

2513AFC040425 – Spirit and Life 😀 ← PODCAST LINK

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

John 6:63 – 63 It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

Ezekiel 37:14 – 14 I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.”

Psalm 130:5 –
5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits,
    and in his word I hope;

Romans 8:8-9 [1] (GNT) – 8 Those who obey their human nature cannot please God.
9 But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to — if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Romans 8:11 – 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.

John 11:1-2 – 1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Spirit of Almighty God accompany us and guide us in the disciplines of Truth. Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! I HAVE CHOSEN THE READING FROM Year A for the Third and final Scrutiny this coming Sunday. We trust in the Lord because he is The Logos and everything he speaks is only what the Father speaks through the Holy Spirit. From CCC 254 – “He is not the Father who is the Son, nor is the Son he who is the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit he who is the Father or the Son.” They are distinct from one another in their relations of origin: “It is the Father who generates, the Son who is begotten, and the Holy Spirit who proceeds.” The divine Unity is Triune.

This is hard to grasp, to comprehend, to capture in our minds and hearts. But it is as True as Love is True, because God IS Love. It follows then that whatever God speaks is Love because the Word, the Logos, who IS God speaks word of Spirit and Life through and in the Holy Spirit. WOW! That’s a big chunk of Mystery to process! Where do we start? It is always best to begin at the beginning, so “In the Beginning …” The entirety of Creation was spoken into being by the Trinity. It was the Spirit, the ruach – the Breath of God – that shaped the Earth, the Cosmos, the creatures of sea, air, and land. It was the Spirit that sought, originated, and Gifted Life to a lump of clay who was the First Earthling. All of these acts were originated in, by, and through the Word. It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless.

We believe in the presence of the Spirit – don’t we say we are “body, mind, and spirit” when we search for our true identity? HE HAS GIVEN US HIS WORD: “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken and will act, says the Lord.” God plants us in the place he chooses because that is where we can bloom into the blessedness he created us to become, to be, and to share with him eternally. We are, as he has said, created in his image and likeness. An aspect of that likeness is that we are created to be eternal as he is Eternal. It follows, then, that we must strive to become Love which for us is Life, and that Life is ours because “God so loved the World that he gave his only Begotten Son …” He is Gifted to us because as the Word of God He IS spirit and life. We say out loud, “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope.  That Hope is extraordinary because it is a Hope that envisions a Truth beyond the flesh of the life we hold on the Earth.

Nonetheless we know this Truth, that we do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to — if, in fact, God’s Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. If indeed it is true that the Spirit of God lives in us as the Word, the Logos of God, then ALL of God dwells within us, and that is … incomprehensible. And yet, “We follow and rejoice” (↔ Music Link) because that indwelling is the Word of Life, the Bread of Life, which sustains us until we may enter into Eternal Life with God in Three Persons, the Blesséd Trinity. And just why are we so certain that this is True?

It is because we know, and believe that If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. That is his promise. He gave us his Word on it, and in it, and through it. So, then on this Sunday, as we listen to the very familiar story of Lazarus return to life from death, we must listen for the points in that account which are affirmations of Jesus’ declaration The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. In the Gospel Key Verse for this post we have a restatement of the episode when Mary of Bethany broke open a phial of expensive spikenard and anointed Jesus feet and dried them with her hair. This is an interesting chronological transposition since the event is described in Chapter 12 of the Gospel of John – after the resuscitation of Lazarus when Jesus said “Lazarus! Come Forth!” (↔ Music Link). This is one indication of how the oral Sacred Tradition of the Gospel preceded the written Gospels.

Mary and Martha know that Jesus is the Messiah, and that their brother will be reunited with them at the final Resurrection. What they do not know is what Jesus will do next. If indeed our minds, our lips, and are hearts are open to the flow of The Word, then we have Spirit and Life because “Your words, Lord, are Spirit and Life” (↔ Music Link) . 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all. (See Ephesians 4:4-6) All who know the name of God know that God is Holy for His name is HOLY. (↔ Music Link). And whenever we are with him, then he is with us, and together we and he testify to the Truth of Charity, which is Love, empowered by FAITH – being Fully Aware I Trust Him “Whom all the  world cannot contain Comes in our hearts to dwell.” When we are in The Word, we are where Love is, so that with HIM wherever we go there is Love Eternal in Three Persons – Blesséd Trinity – Wholly Holy God entirely in Unity because God is – as in CCC 255 (↔ Click Link)  – “Because of that unity the Father is wholly (entirely) in the Son and wholly (entirely) in the Holy Spirit; the Son is wholly (entirely) in the Father and wholly (entirely) in the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is wholly (entirely) in the Father and wholly (entirely) in the Son.” AMEN! The Word IS Spirit and Life because The Word IS! That is why we say he is I AM.

Now we will take a look at one of the Judges in the Bible. Let’s start by recalling that the term “judge” is more than what we think of today – a person in a long black gown seated on an elevated platform and discerning the Law as a couple of lawyers try to convince her/his mind that one of them is telling the truth and the other is not. In the Bible, these persons were military leaders called by the Hebrew word שָׁפַט shaw-fat’, which means to judge as in to administer justice, govern, vindicate, punish. They were the Sheriff, if you will, or perhaps like Marshall Dillon who kept everyone in line. Gideon was called by God to deliver Israel from the Midianites – descendants of Abraham through his second wife, Keturah. She bore for him (see Genesis 25:2) Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak, and Shuah. Sometimes the Midianites were allies and sometimes enemies. At this point in history, they were one of the enemies. This is the story of Gideon. (↔ Video Link!) The least of the least became the best of the Best!

The Israelites at that time were deeply immersed in the idolatry of the surrounding nations. God allowed the oppression of the Midianites – who raided villages, stole crops and herds, and women of the Midianites – who hated Israel because they had slaughtered their rulers and taken many women captive – used their “feminine wiles” to entice Israelites to be unfaithful to Adonai – ha-Shem – and, despite being direct descendants of our Old Friend Abraham, were never regarded as part of the “Covenant People.” The exploits of Gideon are found in the Bible in Judges 6-8, was originally named Jerubbaal and/or Jerubbesheth. That was the name given to him by his father after he and 10 of his buddies took a very strong bull and pulled down the altar to Baal his father had built.

Chapter 6 contains The Call of Gideon ( גִּדְעוֹן ghid-ohn’ his name means “hewer” or “one who cuts down”) He was threshing wheat in the winepress instead of the threshing floor (to hide it from the Midianites), and as we read in Judges 6:11-12 – 11 Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the oak at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press, to hide it from the Midianites. 12 The angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, you mighty warrior.” One of the most famous episodes featuring Gideon is the test of a sheep’s fleece. He laid it out and the dew welled up around it but not on it; then laid it out again and the dew was on the fleece but not around it. I certainly would not test God in that way! Nonetheless, by this Gideon was convinced that he had been called to defend and deliver Israel.

I encourage you to read  Judges 6-8 because it is a fascinating account of bravery, strategy, and the merciful intervention of God. The most famous story is when Gideon ended up taking a mere 300 Israelite soldiers against the enemy. He started out with an army of 32,000 and God whittled that down to the 300 armed with trumpets, torches, and jars. God had Gideon test the soldiers by how they drank water. Those who lapped the water like dogs (putting their hands to their mouths) were chosen, while those who knelt to drink were sent away. That’s in Judges Chapter 7.

Throughout the history of Israel, whenever they disobeyed God and committed idolatry, God chastised and corrected them by allowing someone or something to oppress them until they cried out to him, changed their ways, and got back to living in, with, and for his Spirit and Life. Belovéd, let us commit to never testing God like Israel did so many times. HOWEVER, since we are indeed broken, sinful people like them, let us resolve to employ the Gift of metanoia, then Repent and believe the Gospel! And having done so, return to the true and original SNL – Spirit and Life. It’s no joking matter, and nothing we should forget or ignore. God IS Spirit and Life and those who trust, love, and obey him as he explicitly commands will experience the fullness of Gracious Glory originally intended for us: Life in his presence forever. Wouldn’t that be so much better than the alternative the Israelites kept choosing? Keep on the Sonny Side, always on the Sonny Side. Keep on the Sonny side of Life. It will help you every day, it will brighten all the way, if you keep on the Sonny Side of Life! (↔ Music Link) I Love you, but our Triune God Loves you infinitely more! Believer, COME FORTH! You are a MIGHTY WARRIOR!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

 Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Aloha Friday Message – March 28, 2025 – Lay that burden down!

March 28, 2025

2513AFC032825 – Lay that burden down ! 🙂 ← PODCAST LINK

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

Isaiah 66:10-11 – 10 Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her,
    all you who love her;
rejoice with her in joy,
    all you who mourn over her—
11 that you may nurse and be satisfied
    from her consoling breast;
that you may drink deeply with delight
    from her glorious bosom.

Joshua 5:9 – 9 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt.” And so that place is called Gilgal * to this day.
* גָּלַל – galal – { gaw-lal’} To roll, roll away, roll down, roll together. This metaphor indicates God has relieved his people of the heavy burden they have been carrying – the humiliation of their slavery in Egypt.

Psalm 34:6-7 – (GNT) [1]
6 The helpless call to him, and he answers;
    he saves them from all their troubles.
7 His angel guards those who honor the Lord
    and rescues them from danger.

2 Corinthians 5:20 c-21 (GNT) – We plead on Christ’s behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends! 21 **Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God .

** [5:21] This is a statement of God’s purpose, expressed ironically in terms of sharing and exchange of attributes. As Christ became our righteousness (1 Cor 1:30), we become God’s righteousness (cf. 2 Cor 5:14–15).

Luke 15:31-32 – 31 Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Our opening Key Verse for today is the introit – the entrance hymn – for the fourth Sunday of Lent. Already we are past the half-way point this Season of Lent. Sunday is Laetare Sunday so named because of the introit (entrance antiphon) in Isaiah 66:10-11 which in Latin begins with “Laetare Jerusalem: et conventum facite omnes qui diligitis eam: gaudete cum laetitia, …” which means “Rejoice, O Jerusalem: and come together all you that love her: rejoice with joy, …” For this special Sunday, the vestments and church appointments are rose-colored (“pink”). This passage also contains the Latin word gaudete which also means Rejoice.

This passage is declaring the future restoration of Jerusalem. He promises True Worship will prevail, wickedness will be banished, the entire World will unite in Righteousness to dwell in a New Heaven and New Earth. As stated above “God has relieved his people of the heavy burden they have been carrying – the humiliation of their slavery in Egypt.” In this metaphor, Egypt stands for the evil and oppression in the World. That burden will be lifted through the Power of the Holy Spirit. It is such a wonderful message that Jerusalem, and all the world with her, will literally jump for joy. God will take away our hearts of stone (↔ Music Link) and replace them with hearts for Love alone. There is a caveat, however.

God created us in Love and for Love. His expectation – his command – is that we love and obey him. These acts of obeisance – homage, respect, and binding loyalty to him – are the implementation of his Grace in our lives. He gives us gifts. We use them to give him praise and thanks. He rewards us with even greater gifts – the restoration of our Original Innocence which we lost by Original Sin. That burden of Original Sin, the Egypt of our existence – is rolled away by the restoration of Love between God and all his Creation. What a great cause for rejoicing! Our future is the fulfilment of all for which we Hope.

In the passage from Joshua, this Hope is explained as having been rolled away. Envision a multitude of people gathered together to transport a gigantic stone across a long distance. Although they are weary, they continue to work together – mostly. There are a few grumblers and some slackers, too, but still they all move forward.

Then comes The Word of Proclamation, “I AM rolling away that burden. Rest, and rejoice!” Even the grumblers and slackers get relief because I AM restores them as well. Every angel guards those who honor the Lord, and rescues them from danger. In the presence of those Angels, (↔ Click Link) we will sing God’s Praise! The helpless call to him, and he answers; he saves them from all their troubles. Our exodus from Egypt is accomplished through Christ’s descent into Sheol and exodus from there to the Land of the Living by his Resurrection. This is because Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God. And thereby we are liberated from the burden of Sin – Original as well as personal but still with the caveat above – our burden is lifted (↔ Music Link). We are further blessed when Jesus commands us to help roll away the burden of our neighbors. It is reminiscent of the stone rolled away at the Tomb. That which is prefigured in the Old Testament is revealed in the New Testament. Our God is SO good!

Now, I owe you 2 “Person of the Week” stories. Let’s begin with the person God called Israel. You can find that account in Genesis 32:22-32. Here’s the back story: Jacob, the second son of Isaac and brother of Esau, the first son of Jacob, was going through Esau’s territory. There was still deep division between the two because Jacob had stolen his brother’s birthright by tricking him to cede it to him for a bowl of pottage. Jacob was afraid Esau would do him harm. God had told him to return to the land of his father and to settle in another corner of that territory, and so he had brought all his possessions – thousands of animals and people – including his wife, children, and servants. He sent all of them across the river Jabbok with many gifts for Esau hoping that the Gifts would soften his brother’s heart.

After Jacob had sent everything over the river Jabbok, he an “a man” wrestled all night. Jacob was winning, and he kept at it until it was early dawn. The man – whom we infer to be a divine being – admits Jacob has prevailed and signals to end the contest. Jacob refuses to quit until his opponent gives him a blessing. The opponent agrees and asks, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he replied. Then we read – Genesis 32:28 – 28 Then the mansaid, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” This name is Israel יִשְׂרָאֵל (Yisra’el) { yis-raw-ale’} The meaning is: He struggles with God or God prevails. In all of that region, the descendants of Esau and Ishmael pronounce the name of Israel’s descendants as Isra-Elis (EEsrah-AYlees). Israel’s comment after that event was “I have striven with God and prevailed!” He named the place Peniel which mean “Face of God,” for he said “I have seen the face of God and lived.”

That’s one, and here’s two: Esau! We’ve already pointed out he was the first son of Jacob which means he was entitled to a double portion of the inheritance and the leadership of the family. The inheritance would be divided between both of Isaac’s and Rebekah’s sons, and the eldest would receive ⅔ of the inheritance, not just ½. In Genesis 25:19-34 at verses 22-23, we read – 22 The children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it is to be this way, why do I live?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. 23 And the Lord said to her,
“Two nations are in your womb,
    and two peoples born of you shall be divided;
the one shall be stronger than the other,
    the elder shall serve the younger.”

Esau came out first, and he looked fully mature – covered with hair, and reddish in color. That was the derivation of his name. Jacob was second, and – according to the account in Genesis 25:26 – 26 Afterward his brother came out, with his hand gripping Esau’s heel; so he was named Jacob, Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.

Esau grew up to be a skilled hunter and was not one much for the religious side of life. After he moved away from Isaac’s territory, his descendants were called the Edomites and the land THEY occupied was often called Idumea. We read God’s words conveyed by Moses in Deuteronomy 23:7 – 7 You shall not abhor any of the Edomites, for they are your kin. You shall not abhor any of the Egyptians, because you were an alien residing in their land. Esau is a noteworthy person in the Patriarchal narrative, and – as with Ishmael – the tensions between their descendants continue to be felt today.

That’s if for this post. Thanks for coming along! We’ll see all y’all next week as we continue our Lenten journey. We continue to REJOICE, secure in the hope that our prayers and sacrificial offerings as stewards of God’s Love will free us – as well as our friends, neighbors, and relatives – from all that burdens us while we continue to remember that he says, “Adelphos – you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.” And what does God have for our inheritance? How about his Everlasting Love?!? (↔ Music Link) The Peace of the Lord is with us always!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Jacob’s trip from Haran to Edom

Aloha Friday Message – March 21, 2025 – Stoking the Fire of Praise

March 21, 2025

2512AFC03212 – Stoking the Fire of Praise

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

Exodus 3:13-14 – 13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.”[a] He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’”

Psalm 103:1-2 (GNT) [1] –
1 Praise the Lord, my soul!
    All my being, praise his holy name!
2 Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and do not forget how kind he is.

1 Corinthians 10:12 – 12 So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall. (See also 1 Corinthians 10:12 for more versions)

Luke 13:6-9 – 6 Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7 So he said to the gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ 8 He replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. We are now approaching the third week of Lent. I hope you have had a chance to go over the readings for this coming Sunday. If not, you can find them here. (↔ Click Link) These are the readings for Year C. This Sunday, Catechumens will be entering The Scrutinies, and readings from Cycle A will be used. Next week, the Fourth Sunday of Lent, will be Laetare Sunday. More about that next week. It’s often suggested that we look into the readings 1-3 days before Sunday – that would take us to Thursday. Today I invite you to carefully read the link I gave you for Sunday’s reading before you continue. With that said, let’s get into the Word again.

The first reading this Sunday is the account of “Moses and The Burning Bush.” Those of us of a certain age have seen Charlton Heston in the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments, the story of the Israelites’ Exodus out of Egypt. The scene about the burning bush is an easy one to recall. You can see that with this clip (Follow this link)  – part of “The Bible According To Cecil B. DeMille.” It was in that Fire – that burning, speaking, prophesying bush whereby God commissioned Moses to deliver Israel to be the People of The Lord. The phrase I glom onto every time is “He revealed his Word to my mind, and the Word was God.” That starts at about 4’ 50” And after that my heart leaps at “It is not by the sword that they shall be delivered but by the staff of a shepherd.” Indeed. And so it was from the Dawn of Creation. Perhaps we are reminded of the words of Psalm 103:1-5 (featured in 2508AFC022125) –
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name.

Over the years we have written about what it means to bless God. It means to make him happy; to love, serve, and obey him; and to praise him for his Majestic Being, Incomparable Wisdom, and Immense Creation – and everything else that we learn and know about him. And yet, somewhat like Moses, we are usually at a loss about what to say. How do we fittingly bless and praise God? Our human tongues have no words that are even minimally sufficient. As is common among earthlings, we might be looking at the wrong thing. Sufficiency is not what is important. What is important is acting on it, trying it, doing it as well as we can. God knows our hearts (↔ Music Link). He knows our words long before we speak them. His endless love burns brightly in our souls and yet consumes and reduces to ash only that which is not harmonious with his Love. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!

Now, like that burning bush that was not consumed by flame (Why? Remember, it was growing on Holy Ground, all of which was harmonious with his Love; because his love was all there was to burn, nothing could have been reduced to ash), we can be set afire by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This intimate, exciting, glorious experience really can be truly life-altering. For example, when we are Baptized, we receive Gifts of the Holy Spirit. When we are confirmed we receive the Person of the Holy Spirit into our hearts. In these, and all other encounters with the Holy Spirit, we receive the Gifts of his Love and the Fruit of his Presence. Just as a refresher for all of us (yep, me included), here are those two lists again.

Gifts: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude, Knowledge, Piety, and The Fear of (Reverence For) the Lord.
Fruit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control. Taken altogether, these are the charisms of the Holy Spirit.

Now, think of those Gifts as something like kindling, and the Fruit as something combustible that will give light and warmth like a home’s hearth. We might also consider that those things might become the fire that rises up to destroy that which is ungodly and evil in the World. All of us – each and every one of us – has at least some of the charisms incorporated into our lives by our Creator. Isn’t that amazing? Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!

For just a moment, let’s “hark back” a couple of weeks to this excerpt from 2510AFC030725 (↔ Click Link) ~~ Always, always, all ways remember this: John 14:15 – 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And also Those who love me, I will deliver. Loving Obedience is extraordinary Praise. Obedient Loving is extraordinary Praise. Praise is extraordinary Obedience to Love. That gives us reasons to give God our permission to Love us, and to save us. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! From whom are we saved? We are saved from being the broken persons we have become because of our cooperation with Satan and his agents – willingly or unwillingly. For that we sing Praise To The Lord, the Almighty (↔ Repeat WOWZER Music Link!) Now, I can feel that Flame of Love being kindled, and I know you just might feel it too. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! But, we’ve said our words just seem so inadequate. Again, like Moses, we might ask God, “What am I supposed to say?” Would we be willing to accept a suggestion list from one of God’s most favoritest Prophets ~~ from King David? Try reading this OUTLOUD:

Psalm 150:1-6 –
1 Praise the Lord!
Praise God in his sanctuary;
    praise him in his mighty firmament!
2 Praise him for his mighty deeds;
    praise him according to his surpassing greatness!

3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
    praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
    praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with clanging cymbals;
    praise him with loud clashing cymbals!
6 Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord!

In summary: Praise him with all of everything he’s Gifted you!

And we can find a whole slew of other ideas in 1 Chronicles 16:8-32. (↔ Click Link) Please set that link aside for your next Quiet Hour of Prayer (↔ Music Link) sometime and use your own Lectio Divina or just marinate in the beauty and Power of that passage. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Our Lord has given us everything we need to know about how to Praise and Bless him – we just need to learn it and use it. A Daily Offering (↔ Learning Link) is one place to start, but really the simplest thing to do is to just be mindful to thank God every time our senses detect something beautiful. Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Do you love the place where you live? Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Do you hate the place where you live, but still have his strength to help you endure it? Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Is there someone in your family, your neighborhood, your church, your workplace who inspires you to do a better job of being a joyful Christian? Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Would you like to know the best way to stoke the fires of prayer?

That best manner of Praise to and of our Holy Triune God is summarized for us in Matthew 22:37-40 – 37 b  “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the greatest and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.” To coin a phrase (not really), “ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.” When our hearts are overcome with the Joyous Love of our Savior, we are like the man described in Jeremiah 17:8-10 – (GNT)


8 He is like a tree growing near a stream
    and sending out roots to the water.
It is not afraid when hot weather comes,
    because its leaves stay green;
it has no worries when there is no rain;
    it keeps on bearing fruit.

9 “Who can understand the human heart?
    There is nothing else so deceitful;
    it is too sick to be healed.

10 I, the Lord, search the minds
    and test the hearts of people.
I treat each of them according to the way they live,
    according to what they do.”

Let’s apply that to what we hear in Jesus’ Parable of the Barren Fig Tree. The owner looks at it for the third year in arow and finds no fruit. He’s ready to cut it down. What might happen to a fig tree that is cut down? How might it be treated in accordance with its fruitless life? It might be used for firewood, or for artistic carving, or perhaps even for kitchen utensils, but never again for being fruitful. It has “forfeited” its chance for that. The gardener says, “Let me give it a little TLC and we’ll see. If it doesn’t improve, it’s a goner.”

OK. Quick parallel lesson here. It’s been dead on the job 3 years. A body 3 days old was considered dead and on the fourth day a stench would arise. At the end of the 3rd year, the gardener steps in to resuscitate the tree with food and water. It is called back to life at the brink of decay. Hmmm. Might we also be called back if we do not stretch our roots out to the Stream of Living Water? (↔ Music Link) Do we dare to believe that is possible? OF COURSE WE DO! Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!

If we think we’re standing so firmly in God’s Good Graces that we have nothing to worry about, we better go back and READ OUT LOUD Ezekiel 3:17-21 (← WORD to the Wise!) Again, a terrific way to Praise the Lord is to Love and Obey him. Or, make like the Psalmist and Sing your praise:

Praise him! (↔ Music Link) Or start every day praising him as The Blesséd Trinity (↔ Music Link) or even proclaiming the Greatness of God’s Faithfulness (↔ Music Link). We can just play that on the little radio in the left back corner of our brain while we do our daily chores or travel to work, school, or shopping. Whatever we do, however we decide, either to give it just a little try. or to tackle it full throttle, Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!

This is already too long, so I will double up on The Person of the Week next time. Until then ~~ a hui hou! And remember: Everything we do, or think, or say that honors and resounds God’s Love for us is a great method for Stoking the Fire of Praise  and we can (guess what’s coming?) Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name!  THEREFORE, the very next time you hear someone say, “The Body of Christ,” as you say AHHHHMEN! (↔ Music Link) listen for that little voice in the right back corner of your brain as it declares

Praise the Lord for that!

Bless his Holy name!

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Aloha Friday Message – March 14, 2025 – THE Power of THE WORD of God.

March 14, 2025

2511AFC031425 – THE Power of THE WORD of God

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

Genesis 15:17-18 – 17 When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces. 18 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates

Psalm 27:13-14 – (GNT) [1]
13 I know that I will live to see
    the Lord’s goodness in this present life.
14 Trust in the Lord.
    Have faith, do not despair.
Trust in the Lord.

(NRSVCE)
13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

Philippians 3:19-20 – 19 They (unrepentant sinners) are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world. 20 We, however, are citizens of heaven, and we eagerly wait for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven.

Luke 9:34 b -36 – a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!” 36 When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.

La grazia del Signore Gesù Cristo, l’amore di Dio e la comunione dello Spirito Santo siano con tutti voi. OK. I admit, that’s not fair. Most likely many of us will recognize that those words are in Italian, and perhaps a few of us can decipher it closely enough to know that it says “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” It is in our Bibles in 2 Corinthians 13:13. We might also recognize it as one of the responses at the beginning of every Mass (← Check it out!) in any language. When we realize that everything in every Mass is based on Scripture and Tradition, then we begin to understand how constantly and patiently Our Father in Heaven speaks to us – always conveying the same message: “I created you in Love so that we could Love each other.” Those words are the substance of the Word of God – I LOVE YOU. God started it by saying it first, and we perpetuate it by replying “I Love you, too.” There is an important difference between his statement and our response.

What God speaks becomes what is. He says it, and it happens. His Word causes action and change. Our words, on the other hand, can be superficial and lacking in spiritual power. We are subjected to many distractions and prone to “phone it in” sometimes. That’s why, I believe, God keeps sending us the same message: I AM here for the sake of your necessary Salvation. This is my Word. LISTEN! Sometimes our response looks like, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I love you, too. Let’s circle back to that in a bit. No worries. I’ll get back in touch asap.” Many people will find that this approach leads to being deaf and blind to the Word. If they do still go to Church, they become what I call “fencepost Christians.” They stand, or sit, or kneel when everyone else does, but they do not sing, or pray, or engage in the Mass. (See 1908AFC022219 – Our Call to Mercy) It seems to me quite clear that the very reason we have the Word of God – Sacred Scripture – is to cause our edification about how to use, to engage in – the dialog between us and God. If what God speaks becomes what is, then we should strive to do everything we can to mirror that action and make what we speak become what is.

“I believe in God the Father Almighty,…” Do I? Am I always aware that he is THE Creator, that he created everything that exists – from all the starry cosmos with its strings and photons, quarks and dark matter, nebulae and black holes – and he even took a quick nanosecond or two to create you and me? Is there ever a moment in any day that I do not recall that This Is My Fathers World (↔ Music Link)? We are unlikely to be always aware of God’s perpetual presence in the life of every living soul at every single moment. And when we do acknowledge how many moments of our lives have been stored up as things that cause us to ignore The Word, they add up to something like Fibber McGee’s Closet. It all comes tumbling out  in a terrible racket if ever we open our heart to try and let God come in. That’s embarrassing, and it should be because, as Molly always said, “Tain’t funny, McGee.” (↔ Learning Link) In our Key Verse from Genesis for today, we have the account of the establishing of an unending covenant between Abram and God. Abram was willing to give up all doubt of God’s WORD, give up the fear of the darkness, the appearance of the visions of the brazier and torch, and accept and commit to God’s promise even though it seemed incomprehensible. Shown here is a map of the lands God promised to Abram and his descendants. Those descendants did not obey God in subsequent centuries, and so what they were able to claim was far less than what God had promised. It was less because they chose less. This is Our Father’s World, and he can give it to us however he wants. How we accept it is USUALLY quite different!

Let’s see if we can figure this out then, why don’t we pay attention to what Our Father in Heaven says to us? Since the best place to start is the beginning, let’s start with the narratives of Creation and The Fall in Genesis. God spoke, and everything he spoke came into being. He created earthlings to be like him – good, spiritual, loving, and eternal; but he  added a part in us to make us accountable for our faithfulness. He Loved us so much that he allowed us to choose whether or not we would Love him in return. Our First Parents made that choice, and instantly Sin entered the lives of every earthling after them. In that same instant as well, God provided for our Salvation – The Absolutely Perfect Plan – and at that same moment, the Word of God prepared to take on our likeness, to become flesh, and to live among us and finally die for us and for our Salvation. Even though we inherited that unfaithfulness and still perpetuate it with our life-choices, God always remains faithful to his Word because The Word is God. I am reminded of a musical expression of Our Heavenly Father’s faithfulness whenever I hear Great is Thy Faithfulness (↔ Music Link).

It is true that “As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided. Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.” All of us must most likely confess, “I cannot say that about me.”

And in the instant we say that, God’s persistent, consistent, immersive Love affects all of our senses and we have the opportunity to also confess that we can and “will live to see the Lord’s goodness in this present life.” Why? How? The Psalmist gives us the answer – Trust in the Lord. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the Lord. The Apostle Paul was able to trust in the Lord so deeply that he expected to continue to serve him even after death. We are reminded of this famous passage in 2 Timothy 2:11-13 (GNT) which may have been an early Christian hymn or perhaps a teaching slogan:


11 This is a true saying:

“If we have died with him,
    we shall also live with him.
12 If we continue to endure,
    we shall also rule with him.
If we deny him,
    he also will deny us.
13 If we are not faithful,
    he remains faithful,
    because he cannot be false to himself.”

The KJV version of that passage starts with, “It is a faithful saying.” Can we dare to imagine that “if we are not faithful, he remains faithful, because he cannot deny himself.”?

What Wonderful Words of Life (↔ Music Link) these are!! The Apostle Paul received from Our Father in Heaven the assurance that Scripture is THE Power of THE WORD of God. We can, therefore, declare that whatever God says becomes All that is. I know several good preachers who often proclaim that Jesus talks about Hell more often than he talks about Heaven. Others insist that the opposite is true. Neither of these pronouncements are important. What really is important is that he mentioned both of them often enough to demonstrate that whichever one we choose, that will be our permanent, eternal residence! Even more important is that we have the power to choose between the two.

“With great power comes great responsibility,” and if we want to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, then we have to be responsible about consistently choosing not only to receive that which is good, but also to give that which is good. There’s an old adage that says, “Give God what is just and right, not just what is left.” The Apostle Paul is in full agreement with Christ (and the Church is in agreement with both) that They (unrepentant sinners) are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think only of things that belong to this world. Those disordered appetites we nurture in ourselves make us unable to do what we know is right and instead do what we know is wrong. (See Romans 7:15-20) It is the sin that lives in us, present in every earthling since the earlier referenced Fall in Genesis which we permit to direct our actions even when we don’t want that to happen. It is clear that what we say does not always become what is. But, “not always” is not “never” and so sometimes we do get it right; and to our great relief God is there to accept that odd moment of goodness we somehow manage to accomplish.

How, then, do these rare moments of clarity come about? Well, we get a little help from our Friend, the Holy Spirit. If only we would remember to begin our quirky expeditions in life with a quick prayer saying, Spirit of God Descend upon My Heart (↔ Music Link). Here, in the land of the Living, we can call upon the Lord to help us “To check the doubt, the rising rebel sigh; teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.” In response to those Divine gifts, we can offer up our Praise to Our Father in Heaven as a Love offering more precious to God than our most articulate prayers. It is a familiar and faithful saying – “Acknowledge (confess) your sins and repent,” as well as “Repent and believe the Gospel.” We may feel, may even know, that the Power to do that is within reach, but we may not feel we can possess it. That is when we must recall the rearranged title of this post: Scripture is THE WORD of THE Power of God. When we speak the Scriptures – silently or boldly aloud – we speak THE WORD of THE Power of God, and whatever God speaks becomes what is. He has clearly spoken to us through the Apostles what we are to do about the Word: “This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!” It could not be any more clear. Belovéd, we are his chosen and adopted children. We must listen to him, THE WORD of God!

I apologize for the length of this so far. I’ll make only a brief few statements about our person of the week. Purim, a Jewish holiday commemorating the deliverance of the Jews in ancient Persia, begins on the evening of Thursday, March 13th, and continues through Friday, March 14th. Purim is a joyous holiday celebrated by Jews worldwide, commemorating the story in the Book of Esther where Queen Esther and her cousin Mordechai save the Jewish people from a plot to destroy them by the wicked Haman. Esther is one of the most outstanding female protagonists in Scripture. She is the epitome of the bold and beautiful servants of Our Heavenly Father. The story has been somewhat fragmented across the millennia, but it is fascinating. I recommend looking for it here. I assure you it is well worth the time. And to all who cherish Purim, שָׂמַח samach with great שִׂמְחָה simcha! I may not have gotten that right, so Rejoice with Great Joy! Amein! Our Hope is in the Lord!! 

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

Please remember DT, TT, KG, MC, RB, OC,

and the people suffering hatred, violence, war, and famine

all across the Globe.

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

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Aloha Friday Message – 1st Sunday of Lent – Repent! Believe! Confess!

March 7, 2025

2510AFC030725 – 1st Sunday of Lent – Repent! Believe! Confess!

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

Luke 4:9-12 – 9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,
‘He will command his angels concerning you,
    to protect you,’
11 and
‘On their hands they will bear you up,
    so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

12 Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 

Romans 10:6-11 – 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) 7 “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). 8 But what does it say?
“The word is near you,
    on your lips and in your heart”
(that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); 9 because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. 11 The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.”

Psalm 91:14-15 –
14 Those who love me, I will deliver;
    I will protect those who know my name.
15 When they call to me, I will answer them;
    I will be with them in trouble,
    I will rescue them and honor them.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Adelphos, we are finally here! It is the 1st Sunday of Lent. This incredibly rich Season of Scripture and Praise, and Service and Love is NOW, so we bring out all the purple, violet, orchid, thistle, and plum colors to signify our willingness to recognize the necessities of introspection, repentance, preparation, meaningful sacrifice, transformation, and restoration. Boy! That’s lot of things to work on. Holy Mother Church wisely gives us 7 weeks – 40+ days of recapitulating Israel’s 40 years in the desert, and Jesus’ 40-day time of prayer and preparation in the desert. What a glorious opportunity to get down to basics and resume our daily face-to-face, heart-to-heart, communication with our Creator. I want to begin today by telling why I refer to all of us as earthlings. It has a direct connection with Ash Wednesday.

“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return,” or “Repent and Believe the Gospel.” Those ashes coupled with these words remind us that we come from the Earth, from the fiery act of creation, from the patient molding of all creatures, space, and time as an integral part of the Universe. I am, you are, we are created from the Earth. Have we ever reflected on what that means? Pick up a handful of soil and look at our origins. And remember that God made the Earth to be our origin and our home and the rest of the universe to teach us how incredibly Great and Majestic and Powerful our God is! This scripture is a special passage I want to share with you because it is a great way to open our daily prayers with the sacrifice of praise. Imagine looking over to God and saying these words from 1 Chronicles 29:11-12 – 11 Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might; and it is in your hand to make great and to give strength to all. God himself told us “Let Judah (Praise) go up first,” [See Judges 1:2,(GNT)][1] so Judah (God is to bepraised) is – in effect – the spearhead of our prayers, and God says when Judah goes first, he will assure the victory. Way cool! I mean, that’s exciting stuff!. Now, I want to look at the Gospel Key Verse a bit.

Old Scratch told Jesus he would give him the Earthly kingdoms and power that were (and still are) under his control. He needs a copy of a book like “Temptation Strategies for Dummies”  because he was (as always) using his DIY plan because he hated the APP. Can you imagine offering The King of the Universe a puny little gift like a ball of dirt and water? That Evil One led Jesus to Jerusalem and put him on the parapet – the highest point of the Temple – and said, in effect, “go ahead and jump from here. Your Father’s Angels will catch you and then you can have all this mess.” Jesus left behind even greater Powers and Grandeur than that for one simple reason: Love. I’ll ask you to listen to one hymn here. It was my dad’s favorite, and I’ve sung it many times. If you’re reading this on the blog site, you can follow along with the image of a page from the hymnal we used when I was a kid. Scroll down to the Prayer Request line) It’s called “Out of the Ivory Palaces.” (↔ Music Link) Jesus gave up everything so he – as the Second Person of the Trinity – could fully experience the condition of being made from the Earth (which he created, BTW!) and do that without sinning. That is breath-takingly astonishing. Jesus’ answer shut down the Devil’s sketchy plan and so he left … for a while. Alrighty then, what does the Key Verse from The Apostle Paul tell us? This is one of the most quoted passages of New Testament Scripture. Romans 10:9 (AKJV) [2] – 9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. The NRSVCE has it as above – 9 because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. So, adelphos, we have to actually say it out loud, Jesus IS Lord, AND then believe in your heart – in the from your lips and eyes all the way in to the very Core of your Spirit, the Life God put into you with HIS OWN BREATH (Ruach, Spirit), then anchor the belief in Hope, and that is Praise that goes up to God first!

Always, always, all ways remember this: John 14:15 – 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And also Those who love me, I will deliver. Loving Obedience is extraordinary Praise. Obedient Loving is extraordinary Praise. Praise is extraordinary Obedience to Love. That gives us reasons to give God our permission to love us, and to save us. For that we sing Praise To The Lord, the Almighty (↔ Wowzer Music Link!) Lent, the season that teaches us to patiently lovingly, and to peacefully wait for the Passion, death, Resurrection, and ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus, the Christ of God. What a privilege and humbling honor it is for a bagful of mostly-water with some dirt made of stardust dirt to express wonder, awe, Praise, Worship, Adoration, and Consecrated Service to El Shaddai-Olam. Why, in this amazing creation of God, are we invited to acknowledge his Generosity, faithfulness, Mercy and Grace? What can we tell him that is at least a small step toward adequacy?

Here’s an idea. You know I’ve told you there is always at least one song going on in the back of my head. At this very moment it is this hymn – I kid you not – that is guiding my clumsy arthritic fingers: Great is Thy Faithfulness (↔ Music Link). I am sorry, my dear friends, to submit you to my Scripture Juke Box, but I do so in part to encourage you to find some little thing – a daily occurrence or an unexpected blessing – you can chip in to make Lent even more beautiful for each and all of us. See a pretty flower? Praise the Lord! A gust of wind refreshes you? Praise the Lord! Your spouse or your kid or your friend or your coworker blesses you with a kind moment? Praise the Lord! You wake up and get out of bed in the morning? Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!

During Lent, we should use the Gift of our imagination to see what Jesus sees in the daily readings during Lent. There are some amazing opportunities to enter in to that face-to-face encounter with our Creator. Jesus would not ever miss that for the World even if the Devil threw in half of the universe too. NEITHER SHOULD I, NEITHER SHOULD YOU, NEITHER SHOULD WE. It’s time to get down to what really matters – Walking with Jesus (↔ Music Link) straight to Calvary.

Repent! Believe! Confess! Experience the Blessed Assurance (↔ Music Link) of God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan which he made just for you when he Loved you and me so much that he created us to Love him, to serve him, and to Live forever with him in Heaven. Say it out loud! Sing it even louder!

Who shall we choose for person of the week? Today I chose one of the three sons of Abraham who ended up being Patriarchs of three great nations. The first of these sons was יִשְׁמָעֵאל Yishma`e’l {yish-maw-ale’} in English, Ishmael which means “God hears” because Hagar called out to God in her labor pains. Ismael is a good example of a bad example. Abram’s wife, Sarai, knew God had promised her husband that he would be the “Father of many nations.,” and yet, Sarai had not yet gotten pregnant. She became impatient, and decided she would take the matter into her own control. That is a classic example of how we earthlings choose the “DIY route” instead of LG&LG – let go and let God. Sarah decided to skip a few steps in the APP and sent her maidservant, Hagar, to Abram in the hope that she would conceive. Sarai mistreated Hagar and Hagar hated Sarai. Abram listened to the voice of Sarai, and so the progenitor of the Arabian Peoples came into being. However, he was the child of slavery and disobedience, and not the Child of Promise.

Sarai wanted to short-circuit the APP and use her DIY idea to speed up the process of getting Abram a son. Abram “listened to the voice of Sarai,” and agreed. Hagar did get pregnant, and treated Sarai with contempt. Sarai kicked her out of the camp and into the desert. She ran out of water and fear she and her child would die. The Angel of the Lord appeared to her and ordered her to go back and submit to her mistress, and to name the child Ishmael. She delivered a son, and Abram named did him Ishmael because God had her the cries in the desert. The angel told her (See the whole story in Genesis 16) Genesis 16:9-12 – (GNT) 9 He said, “Go back to her and be her slave.” 10 Then he said, “I will give you so many descendants that no one will be able to count them. 11 You are going to have a son, and you will name him Ishmael,  because the Lord has heard your cry of distress. 12 But your son will live like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He will live apart from all his relatives.”

The expanse of their territories was eventually quite large. They were nomadic people and Ishmael’s sons also became leaders of large tribes. Even today there is tension between the descendants of Ishmael and the descendants of Isaac. One of the many lessons we can learn from this story is that it is always better to keep God in control instead of taking the DIY path against his Will. It is said, and it is True: “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.“

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

 Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

[2] Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV) KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.

Aloha Friday Message – February 28, 2025 – A Daily Life Spent Without Evident Greatness

February 28, 2025

2509AFC022825 – A Daily Life 😀 ← PODCAST LINK

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

Sirach 27:7 –
7 Do not praise anyone before he speaks,
    for this is the way people are tested.

Psalm 92:1 –
1 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
    to sing praises to your name, O Most High (Elyon)

1 Corinthians 15:58 (GNT) [1] – 58 So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless.

Luke 6:45 – 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today’s title is drawn from the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) §531 where we find the phrase “a daily life spent without evident greatness.” It Isaiah description of the “hidden life” of Jesus and the Holy Family of Joseph – his foster father, Mary – his Blesséd Mother (and ours, too), and Jesus for all those years between infancy and age 12 and then twelve to presumably age 30 or so. What did he do? Where did he go? How and where did he learn all the things he later said? Was he really a carpenter? What kind of food did he like – or not like? Did he really bring a kid back to life when he was a kid? Did he make a bird in his own little hands and it flew away? The answer to all of these questions is, “God knows, but he’s not telling.” Why? Those things are not important. A couple of pages previous in the CCC we find this:
The whole life of Christ is a mystery

§514 Many things about Jesus that interest human curiosity are not mentioned in the Gospel. Almost nothing is said about his life in Nazareth, and even a large part of his public life is not narrated (cf. John 20:30). What is written in the Gospels is written “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). What is written in the Gospels is written “so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31). That which is important, that which we need to learn and believe is what Jesus did in selfless obedience to his Father, and what he said during his Sacred Pilgrimage to Calvary. Think about this: if we did not have Scripture and Tradition, how would we know who Jesus was and what Jesus did? And, if we did not have the teaching authority of the Church – the Magisterium – how would we know and understand what Jesus said?

What he said and what he did are important and inseparable. Of  these two things, one cannot be sustained without the other. If we rely only on Scripture which tells us only what Jesus said and did, we have what is called Sola Scriptura – Scripture Alone – which leaves the teaching and understanding of Scripture open to many sources of understanding – hence we now have about FOUR-THOUSAND+ different ways to interpret, understand, and apply Scripture. That is because, without the Magisterium there is no unified standard of catechesis.

If Scripture and Tradition are inseparable, is it possible that one is more important than the other? Personally, I don’t think so. Sometimes each can be used separately. We know that Tradition precedes Scripture – the texts that are in the Canon were originally transmitted through spoken words – and we know that Scripture follows Tradition in form and function. Remember this: Everything that has ever existed in Time and Space began with the spoken Word of God.

When we wish to better understand Scripture, we look to Tradition for context taking note of what was said, and where, and why, and how, by whom, to whom – the era, the conditions, the languages, the genre – and our understanding is fortified by that knowledge. When we wish to examine Tradition, we use Scripture and the Magisterium to illuminate what has been passed down to us ahead of, within, and by, and through those resources. We could sum it up in a sort of extension of what is often expressed here:

What we do says who we are.
Actions speak louder than words.

and

What we say reveals
how we walk in The Way.

We know it is true that Scripture and Apostolic Tradition were generated through the spoken Word. Words tell us about deeds and deeds tell us about purpose. This is how we know that everything done by God from creation to the present moment is for the purpose of establishing the Salvation given to us in the Grace of God. Without the words that tell us of the deeds, we would not know anything about everything. Think of it! We would not know about Creation, the Fall of earthlings, the promise of Salvation, the calling of Abram, the Priestly Order of Melchizedek, or anything else between “Let there be,” and Revelation 22:21 – 21 The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen. Nonetheless, there are a lot of “blank spots” here and there, times of silence and even Mystery.

One of those Mysteries we’ve just mentioned: “Why don’t we know more about Jesus growing up, where he went to school, and who taught him?” As we always say for such Mysteries – from why I banged my elbow to how Jesus was raised from the dead – “It is a Mystery.” Why is that? Why won’t God fill in those answers for us? We really want to know; however, all of the “files” containing those data are marked “NTKO” and “EOG” – Need To Know Only and :Eyes Only: God. See, all of that stuff is stuff we want to know, but “God doesn’t always give us what we want. He only gives us what we need.

God’s silence is every bit as Powerful as his Word. When he does not speak or act (same-same in his actuality), nothing in Eternity changes because it is his will that it does not change. Our perception of change or lack of change doesn’t have any effect on the origin or outcome of his silence. He will not tell us those things we do not need to know. Now comes the question that often comes up in sophomoric arguments: “if we want to know something but we don’t need to know it, how can we learn what we don’t need to know.” The answer is simple: LOOK and LISTEN for an answer. If none is apparent, we don’t need to know. It’s OK to ask. It’s not OK to pout about God’s silence on the matter.

Should we really just dismiss everything that we can’t comprehend as “one of God’s Mysteries?” No. We do not dismiss God’s Words, and neither should we dismiss his silences. Our Blesséd Mother has sound advice on dealing with God’s Words and God’s Silence. She told her experiences to the Apostles, and eventually Luke wrote down her account of it in Luke 2:19 (GNT) [1] – 19 Mary remembered all these things and thought deeply about them. I try to remember it this way: Those things about which God is silent are things of Heaven, not of Earth. In Heaven, the only thing there that is of the Earth are the scars (↔ Music Link) in the hands of Jesus. In a future post we’ll talk about why those scars were still visible after the Resurrection.

In our first Key Verse today we read we should wait until we hear someone speak before we praise them. If what they say is praiseworthy, then we should let them know. If not, we should just turn away, or confront them so that they will flee (Follow this link to discover how!) We ask therefore, “Is what the Lord God Almighty says praiseworthy?” Most assuredly! God is Infinitely more trustworthy, praiseworthy, and worthy of all Glory and Honor than any earthling in all his Creation. That is why the Psalmist says It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High (Elyon). We recall that The Apostle Paul told us to Rejoice always, (↔ Music Link), pray without ceasing. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:16-17) How do we do that? well, one option is a Daily Offering (Stop here and read this.) because that basically makes your entire day a continuous prayer. You can give it a boost by following The Apostle Paul’s advice about saturating your day with the presence of Christ: Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless. AND

Ephesians 5:14 c-20 –

“Sleeper, awake!
    Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

15 Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil. 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, remember our Gospel Key Verse, Luke 6:45 – 45 The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks. If we but combine the words of The Apostle Paul and Jesus, we can give ourselves to God at the start of every day and then brighten the day by singing all those Wonderful Words of Life (↔ Music Link).

Jesus’ quiet, hidden life isn’t given to us in the Gospels because we don’t need those things for the purpose of knowing about his saving Grace and why God gives us that Grace in Christ Jesus. All we need to know is that everything, everyone, every place, and every time is given to us through Love. We should not want more, and we need nothing less. If our lives seem to be “a daily life spent without evident greatness” not to worry! We’re in good company! And besides, our Lord and God certainly knows the content of all the “blank spots.”

Today we also recall another extraordinary woman in the Bible – Sarah. That name was given to her by God when he established his covenant with Abram. He told Abram (See 2503AFC011725) he would be the Father of Many Nations and changed his name to Abraham. He also promised Sarai that she would bear a son and call him Isaac. At that time God changed her name from Sarai to Sarah. Sarai means Princess or my Princess. She was the Princess of her household and probably of he Tribe. When God established that covenant, the tradition was to ratify the covenant which was the creation of a new relationship with God. the symbol of that ratification was the new names given to Abram and Sarai – Abraham and Sarah – which was a symbol or Type of a new relationship based on faith and the joint promise of a new life and greatly enlarged lineage. Sarah’s hopelessness in being barren was totally reversed by God’s Gift of extraordinary Graces to her.

Adelphos, we share in their covenant-joy as we are grafted in to that lineage! Our God is SO GOOD!!!

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!

Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

About the keys by the Key Verses: they look like something is missing, but what is missing is not important because they still unlock or lock whatever they were constructed to manage – just like Scripture and Tradition. The key-ring in the middle is like the Magisterium which keeps the two connected so that neither is lost while using the other.

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

[1] Passages marked (GNT): Good News Translation (GNT) are from the Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)© 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.

Aloha Friday Message – February 21. 2025 – Do not harm God’s anointed

February 21, 2025

2508AFC022125 – Do not harm God’s anointed Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
Do you know someone who enjoys Bible study, or who might like to read this? Ask them to email us or to subscribe on our blog-site.

1 Samuel 26:23 c – I would not raise my hand against the Lord’s anointed.

1 Corinthians 15:48-49 – 48 As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.

Psalm 103:1-2 –
1 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and all that is within me,
    bless his holy name.
2 Bless the Lord, O my soul,
    and do not forget all his benefits

Luke 6:38 – 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

(GNT) [1]38 Give to others, and God will give to you. Indeed, you will receive a full measure, a generous helping, poured into your hands—all that you can hold. The measure you use for others is the one that God will use for you.”

La grâce du Seigneur Jésus-Christ, l’amour de Dieu et la communion du Saint-Esprit soient avec vous tous. Well, “pardon my French” for this opener. I’ve had salutations in Spanish, Hawaiʻian, and English, one with a touch of Latin, and – since I spent about 8 years in school (5th – 12th Grades) studying french, I decided, “Why not?” That translates as The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. As I prepared for this topic, my inmost-self felt a comfortable and desirable communion with you. It’s quite likely that if you are reading this, you have been sacramentally anointed. That anointing makes us members of the same family.

It is a HUGE family – an estimate of more than 2.5 billion living all around the Earth in 2024. And that’s just the LIVING family members! Over the past 2000 years or so it is estimated that over 2.4 TRILLION persons have lived their lives as Christians. If I did not believe that is possible, I would call it incredible – but it is not incredible! It is very credible! And every Christian is anointed with the Holy Spirit. It is one of those very important things that is obvious because it is so prominent, but the very nature of its ubiquity is cloaked in its Mystery. What does it mean to be “anointed?”

This is a practice that goes w-a-a-a-a-y back. Priests, Prophets, and Kings were anointed to signify that they were consecrated to service of God and community and to strengthen them in their roles as leaders. In the history of Israel, the anointed were “ha-Meshiach” – the Anointed – and Meshiach is the root-word for Messiah. We see this, for example, in Leviticus 4:3 – 3 If it is the anointed priest who sins, thus bringing guilt on the people, he shall offer for the sin that he has committed a bull of the herd without blemish as a sin offering to the Lord. The word anointed is הַמָּשִׁ֛יחַ – ham-mā-šî-aḥ – and the anointing is for a Priest who has been consecrated to God. In today’s Key Verse from 1 Samuel, David, already consecrated by Samuel to be King, will not harm Saul who is chasing David with the intention of killing him. David refers to Saul as “the Lord’s anointed” (↔ Music Link) because Samuel had anointed him to be Israel’s first King at God’s command. David, too, was the Lord’s anointed, so Saul should not have been seeking ways to kill David. It would be a great sin to harm The Lord’s Anointed. It was indeed a great sin for Saul, one for which he soon had an opportunity for repentance. He did repent – then – and David’s life was spared because he had spared Saul’s life. For the second time! It’s a great tale of bravery and daring and you can read it in 1 Samuel 24 and 1 Samuel 26.

Well, there you have it. David said not to harm the Lord’s Anointed, and he followed that teaching to the letter when it came to Saul. BUT, when it came to following that teaching not to harm the Lord’s anointed, David failed to apply it to himself. Belovéd, isn’t that what we also do? We are the Lord’s anointed if we are Baptized. We are the Lord’s anointed if we are set aside for him, that is, if we are consecrated to him. We are under the same teaching as David, and Saul, and Samuel, and Elijah, and Ezekiel, The Apostle Peter, The Apostle Paul, and … Jesus! He is, I am, you are, we are the Lord’s anointed, (↔ Music Link) and we are taught – we might as well say required NOT to harm the Lord’s anointed. That means, to my thinking, that we should not do harm to any of God’s anointed – including ourselves. Do we, can we, should we, must we refrain from harming any of God’s anointed? Wouldn’t that include Jesus as well? Isn’t it apparent that we must not harm ourselves because we are the Lord’s anointed? If we have a crucifix nearby, we can take a quick peek at that and ask ourselves what our own degree of culpability we have to shoulder because of that image of Truth. Can each of us say with genuine conviction (think about what that word means), “I did that. he would have done that for me if I was the only earthling on the planet!”

We are each born of dust and return to dust, except that dust is not all that we are. We are also spirit, and if that Spirit has been dedicated to the Lord, if that Spirit belongs to the Lord, then the image of dust will be left behind and the image of Spirit will go forward because Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. Now there is a GREAT reason to say Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits! And how do we bless the Lord?

We bless the Lord when we [1] acknowledge his Gifts, [2] thank him for his Gifts, and [3] make good use of his Gifts! When we choose to Bless the Lord, we choose to make him happy, and when he’s happy, we’re happy, too.  God made everything beautiful and blessed it … but we broke it, and it stays broke. Still, we can rejoice in thanking him for the beauty of the Earth. (↔ Music Link) Why? Because we are of the Earth, and the Earth is Beautiful and Good, Why? Because God SAID SO, and continues to do so every moment of every day, because God is Good. (↔ Music Link).

So don’t harm the Lord’s anointed within or outside of your own life, and you will make God happy. Happy God – happy you. And you must surely know that, as God’s anointed, whatever we Gift to God, he returns to us 30-, 60-, and 100-fold. Whatever measure you use to give back he uses that measure to bless you. And here’s how that works whenever you Gift to God from the Gifts you have received:

The Measure of Giving and of Return
Your measure		Your returnGod’s next step
A thimbleA thimbleful brimming overA teacup
A teacupOverflowing into the saucerA coffee mug
A coffee mug“Bottomless” refillsA stewing pot
A stewing potAdd a sauce panA horse & cattle trough
A horse & cattle troughIncludes a windmill pumpA tanker truck
A tanker truckA double tanker truckA boxcar
A boxcarDouble-stacked three packsA cargo ship
A cargo shipAFRAMAX (↔ Click Link)An Ultra-super-tanker ship
You get the idea! If you give what you get, you get what you give, only you get more of it for giving next.

Alrighty now, let’s look at our person of the week. This time I chose two men who were kings in Israel and Judah – Hezekiah and Jehoshaphat.

Hezekiah – Righteous King of Judah probably around 715-687 BC. He was the son of the very wicked king Ahaz. His mother was Abijah (recall that the Queen Mother is always named in the succession of kings because she served as the regent). Hezekiah was 25 years old when he ascended to the throne, and for 29 years he reformed the religious practices in Judah, reversing the foolishly idolatrous policies of Ahaz. He made many religious reforms, reorganized the Priesthood which had been corrupted by his predecessors, abolished and destroyed the idols and “sacred poles” used to worship false gods, repaired the temple and the Temple implements, and revived the observance of Passover.

Toward the end of his reign he chose to cease paying tribute to Assyria’s King, Sennacherib. Sennacherib laid siege to Jerusalem around 701 BC, but the Lord came to Hezekiah’s   aid and slew 185,000 of Sennacherib’s army. Sennacherib later claimed he had left Hezekiah “trapped like a bird in a cage.” Sennacherib was later assassinated by his sons. In these writings, we have often referred to Hezekiah 9:9 – God helps those who help themselves. Since there is no book of the Bible named Hezekiah, this popular saying is most definitely not in the Bible. The following passage describes how Hezekiah’s reign was remembered.
2 Kings 18:5-8 – 5 He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel; so that there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah after him, or among those who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following him but kept the commandments that the Lord commanded Moses. 7 The Lord was with him; wherever he went, he prospered. He rebelled against the king of Assyria and would not serve him. 8 He attacked the Philistines as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city.

Jehoshaphat – Do you remember this guy on the leff? One of his famous sayings was “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” Yosemite Sam used a lot of musza-rabble, frackadackus, syllabackus-skunkadunk language. The consonance in Jumpin’ Jehosaphat fits his style of commentary. Are things going well? OK! “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” See something unusual? “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” Find Bugs Bunny standing behind you? “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” For those of us “of a certain age” who watched Looney Toons Cartoon every Saturday morning, “Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat!” (↔ Enjoyable Learning Link) was part of our lingo. But was there really a guy name Jehoshaphat and why was he jumpin’?

The name Jehoshaphat means “YHWH will judge.” He was the fourth King of Israel , succeeding his father, Asa. Azubah was the queen mother of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah. She was the daughter of Shilhi and the wife of King Asa. He also made many reforms and is considered one of the “Good Kings” (a rare occurrence). He made peace with the King of Israel (Ahaz). He relied on the words of the Prophet, Elishah, when allied with Jehoram, King of Israel, and an unnamed governor of Edom appointed by Jehoshaphat. He went to war against the King of Moab (Mesha). Elisha prophesied that, for the sake of Judah, God would deliver these three kings. In the end, Mesha lost the battle because, believing he could appease his gods, he took his firstborn son who was to succeed him, and offered him as a burnt offering on the wall. And great wrath came upon Israel, so they withdrew from him and returned to their own land. The alliterative phrase Jumpin’ Jehoshaphat obviously has nothing to do with history. It’s just a handy phrase used by a rootin’ tootin’ six-gun-shootin’ big little sonuvagun voiced by the inimitable Mel Blanc (and others in later years).

Remember,
LIGHT ≡ GOD ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ LOVE
so,
May the God of Peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Do no harm to God’s anointed.

(including you and me and Jesus and them)

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
Please pray with us here at Share-a-Prayer.

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

Creative Commons License Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Pages Email Newsletter
Categories Archives Connect