Aloha Friday Message – July 8, 2022 – Four Alone Together

July 8, 2022

2227AFC070822 – Four Alone Together

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.

    Psalm 19:14 – 14 Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Philippians 4:5-7 – 5 let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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.  This Sunday’s Gospel is the familiar story of The Good Samaritan. Jesus’ parables help us understand what God intends for us to be, for us to do, and for us to share. At the end of this story, Jesus asks, “Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?” He [scholar of the law] answered, ‘The one who treated him with mercy.’ Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

We do not know any more about this Samaritan other than his nationality, and we can assume he was wealthy because of his generosity. He was “taking care of business,” and stopped to help a stranger; then he continued with his work and promised to follow up on his act of charity. Jesus’ point is straightforward: Do that. Recall that Jesus told this story because the lawyer tried to justify himself by asking, “And who is my neighbor?” In my heart and mind, I hope that lawyer blushed a little when he heard Jesus’ answer. It makes me blush, because I know that I, too, try to limit my charity and justify my lack thereof. “He’s just going to use that money to get wine / drugs / gambling / whatever.” “If I send them some money, they’ll keep sending me more and more appeals, and it gets to be nothing more than junk mail.” That’s not what’s supposed to happen. Jesus commands us: Overcome prejudice, overcome fear, overcome violence – and keep working at the tasks God has given you. Everywhere you go, go with God, and God will always be near. How easily we forget that sage advice and stubbornly walk away from God! We cannot expect to be filled with the Spirit if we say, “Not now. I’m busy. I can’t afford to get involved. Maybe some other time.” Not exactly what the Apostle Paul taught: Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. Seek him while – and where – he can be found. This is why it is so important to remember that in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. The result – both immediate and long-term – is the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. “Guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus?” Why are we afraid to help? Is it really because once we “start helping,” others will expect us to continue and even to help them? Is it true that “no good deed goes unpunished?” Even the simplest of things can be good deeds; we don’t have to wait for a “Good Samaritan Opportunity” to be generous, to be faithful, or to be respectful. These opportunities come to us often, and it always seems that when we decide something we do is OK with God, we really need to be sure we know his preference. As alluded to earlier of Facebook, I offer this example:

Pope Francis has said “The Eucharist is the bread of sinners, not the reward of saints.”

“When we receive the Eucharist, Jesus does the same with us: he knows us;” Pope Francis said, “he knows we are sinners; he knows we make many mistakes, but he does not give up on joining his life to ours,” the Pope said. “He knows that we need it, because the Eucharist is not the reward of saints, but the bread of sinners. This is why he exhorts us: ‘Do not be afraid! Take and eat.’”

I’ve been unable to find any such exhortation in any Scripture or the Catechism. I would rearrange Pope Francis’ statement as, “The Eucharist is the bread of repentant sinners, and thus the reward of flourishing saints.” I have, however, found this exhortation in 1 Corinthians 11:27 – 27 Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. In addition, Jesus himself said in Matthew 18:6-7 –  6 “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks! Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to the one by whom the stumbling block comes!  In the letter of James, we have this instruction to the Church: James 4:17 – 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin. When publicly unrepentant sinner comes forward to receive communion, that is clearly wrong and sets a stumbling block of doubt and confusion for others. A sincerely devout Catholic, for example, would never argue against protecting the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Let me give you another “good ol’ Catholic” example of knowing our faith.

When the Gospel is read during the Liturgy of the Word, there are some common gestures that have come into practice over the centuries. It may surprise some of us to learn that today’s Key Verse – Psalm 19:14 – has something to do with that. When the Priest or Deacon announces the Gospel, he says, “A reading from the Gospel according to St. _________.” Then he traces the sign of the cross over the page. Members of the assembly respond by saying, “Glory to You Oh Lord” and make a small sign of the cross with their thumb over their forehead, lips, and chest. Why? With this silent gesture, we are acknowledging that the Gospel is the Living Word of God so we consciously and intentionally remember to listen so that the Gospel will make a way into our minds, our speech, and our hearts – that is, if we remember to do that and if we remember WHY we do that.

We trace a cross on our forehead to remind us that the Gospel can illuminate our thoughts and purify our minds. We trace a cross on our lips to remind us our speech should be holy and influence our willingness to share the Gospel with others. Lastly, we cross our hearts as we invite God to increase our love for Him and for others. This short, silent prayer with the accompanying gestures is to remind us that being open to the Gospel will help us to know, to publicly acknowledge, and love Jesus even more. Thus we take steps to fulfill this passage’s meaning: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

It is such a little thing, but it can make a huge difference if we are not afraid to try it. Fear is such a foolish thing. You may recall we’ve often quoted Brendan Case here who said FEAR is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. There’s an excellent example of this in the book of Wisdom, Chapter 17. The writer is recounting the mind-numbing, heart-wrenching fear that incapacitated the Egyptians as they felt the weight of God’s judgment on them for the wickedness they had committed: Wisdom 17:11-15 – 11 For wickedness is a cowardly thing, condemned by its own testimony[*] distressed by conscience, it has always exaggerated the difficulties. 12 For fear is nothing but a giving up of the helps that come from reason; 13 and hope, defeated by this inward weakness, prefers ignorance of what causes the torment. 14 But throughout the night, which was really powerless and which came upon them from the recesses of powerless Hades, they all slept the same sleep, 15 and now were driven by monstrous specters, and now were paralyzed by their souls’ surrender; for sudden and unexpected fear overwhelmed them. (*See footnote) Their testimony is as “calculated arguments, thoughts” and emphasizes reaching a personal opinion, i.e. what comes out of a personal reckoning. This is the same fallacious reasoning behind relativism (← Check it out!). “What’s true for you may not be true for me ….” It’s also part of the practice of Satisficing (↔ Click Link) which is a decision-making strategy that aims for an agreeable or tolerable result, rather than the best-possible solution. “Ehh, that’s good enough.” No, it’s not. Let me show you something to think about:

 

A Cross (↔ Music Link)

What is the first thing that comes to mind? Is it Jesus? With or without the corpus (the crucified body of Christ), does the Cross remind you of anything when you consider The Wondrous Cross (↔ Music Link)? What if that was in your mind as you prepare to listen to the Gospel – even in a non-Catholic setting? Would we remember that Jesus came to die for us every time we see a Cross – even if it’s really just a telephone pole? Do we ever take “half-a-mo'” to remember that the Fullness of God was/is/will be Jesus? Colossians 1:19 – 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell[†] … And what of us; what will it take to fill even us? Here is what the Apostle Paul said to the Church in Ephesus:

Ephesians 3:16-19 – 16 I pray that, according to the riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner being with power through his Spirit, 17 and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love. 18 I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. How does any of this relate to The Good Samaritan and the meditations of our hearts? Simply this:

We can choose to be mindful of the Cross, the Christ, and the crisis of indifference, or we can be like the Priest and the Levite and refuse to make a difference. Too often what we fail to realize is that the choice to ignore the problem is just another way to make a difference – only a negative difference. We can live with and in The Word, or just walk on by as if it doesn’t really matter because we won’t really change anything by acting on our impulse for charity. If our impulse is self-serving, then are our actions like false prophecy? If instead 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. Ephesians 4:4-6 – all who know the name of God 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 who is my rock and my redeemer. When we are in The Word, we are where Love is, so that with HIM wherever we go there we are ALL FOUR OF US, Father Son, and Holy Spirit, in our minds, on our lips, and in our hearts all alone together together;  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That is certainly nothing to be afraid of.  It’s in the APP! Amen.

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

Portions based on 1928AFC071219

[*] The word used here for “testimony” is λογισμός (logismos) {log-is-mos’} thought, reasoning; false argument or reasoning, properly, “bottom-line” reasoning that reflects someone’s values, i.e. how they personally assign weight in determining what they find reasonable.

[†] πλήρωμα (plērōma) {play’-ro-mah} sum total, fullness, even (super) abundance; the body of believers, as that which is filled with the presence, power, agency, riches of God and of Christ.

Aloha Friday Message – July 1, 2022 – Testify!

July 1, 2022

2226AFC070122 – Testify!

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 10:16-20 – 16 “Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” 17 The seventy* returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” 18 He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19 See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. 20 Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” (Emphasis added) *This is also expressed by some scholars as seventy-two.

Romans 10:17 – 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

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. Surprise and OOOPSIE! I didn’t realize there was one more topic in the series I thought we had just completed. I guess we could say I got scolded a little for that. If we have so great a Gift as a Life in Christ, the “Christian thing to do” is share it! We are to testify. Jesus sent out 35 or 36 pairs of Disciples (“where 2-3 gathered are witnesses”) to share their faith by action. This was the precursor to what is referred to as the Great Commission found in Matthew 28:18-20 – 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Being a witness is “part of the deal” when we repent, believe, are baptized, and receive the Gift of the Holy Spirit. Once that indelible mark of Faith in Christ is infused into one’s soul, your life – the way one behaves around other people – is no longer entirely ours; it belongs to God through Jesus the Christ in the Holy Spirit. This is a very important line of reasoning because it leads us to understanding the purpose of Salvation: Reconciliation.

Reconciliation refers to the restoration of a right relationship with God – a state of Grace. We’re still sinful, still sinners, but we are forgiven sinners. The Apostle Paul wrote about this in 2 Corinthians 5:16-19 – 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. This echoes words in
Isaiah 65:17 – 17 “See, I will create
new heavens and a new earth.
The former things will not be remembered,
nor will they come to mind.

If we are newly created (a.k.a. “born again Christian”), that means we no longer idolize things and/or persons of the World, but instead think of and act in things of Heaven. Whatever there is in our lives that does not serve to worship and praise God for the Gift of Reconciliation is idolatry. Rather than continually falling into that trap, we are called to testify – to be a witness of the Grace and Goodness of God. We become the Kingdom of God whenever we testify just as we are. (↔ Music Link)

A witness (n.) is one who testifies. To witness (vt.) is to see personally in one’s present reality. A Martyr is one who gives up life for the sake of a promise to God. To martyr someone is to kill them because of their faith. In this day and age, in places around The World, hundreds – perhaps thousands or even tens of thousands – are responding to Jesus call, “Can I get a witness?” Stephen said yes. Paul said ye0s. Peter, James, John, and Bartholomew said yes. Who among us can say yes? Who will shed her/his own blood for Christ?

Not many are ready to be martyrs. Not all are called and prepared as was “My Old Friend, Abraham.” (↔ Click Link) I know some Priests who could be called bloodless martyrs or “white martyrs.” These are people who give their lives to Christ and the Body of Christ which is the Church so completely that every act, every breath, every moment is offered up as a sacrifice of adoration, thanksgiving, and praise on behalf of The Faithful and of sinners. One was a missionary in Africa, another a missionary in Chinle, AZ. Almost daily we hear of people who are martyred – not only Christians, but Muslims, Buddhists, and persons of other faiths – across Africa, Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma) where the Rohingya-genocide occurs, Thailand, Indonesia, Guatemala, and San Salvador – all experience martyrdom, oppression, persecution, even genocide.

American Christians often cry out that we are victims of persecution. It is certainly not anything like what the experiences of millions of people elsewhere in the world experience! We hear claims that we are oppressed in our Religious Freedom because of the abuse of our FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS. The US Constitution certainly does provide for protection concerning religion, verbal and written expression, to assemble for cause, and the right to ask for rectification of the perceived oppression. If we were to look into who is actually being martyred here, we’d find mighty few examples. Most of what we complain about doesn’t rise even to the level of bloodless martyr. Our idea of being a witness for Christ pretty much stops at getting up in a tent-revival meeting and answering the altar call. But there are remarkable exceptions. Many of us – whether Catholic or Evangelical fundamentalists, or Buddhists, or Jews, or you-name-it-faiths – are content to quietly go to services and live unmolested about our faith when in society. We often barely have courage to “Stand Up for Jesus.” (↔ Music Link). What’s that you say? You disagree?

“Hey! Wait a minute! YOU of all people should know that we who receive these messages make our faith known daily. And you just said, not everyone is called to be a martyr.” You’re right of course. I’m “preaching to the choir.” Yes, all of us are called to witness for Christ. Not all of us are called to witness to Christ and struggle against sin “to the point of shedding blood,” as the Apostle Paul reminded us in Hebrews 12:4-11. If, then, we are called to witness – to testify, to give evidence of our faith, to be a witness to the Power of The Spirit, how will we, how do we, how can we do that better?

The World’s most favorite Saint, St. Francis of Assisi, allegedly quipped, “Preach the Gospel at all times and only if absolutely necessary, use words.” Well, whether or not he actually said that, it certainly is an ultra-brief summary of the New Testament’s admonitions to share the Gospel. I only wish to encourage you to take the dare that the Apostles took: Be the Kingdom of God. If ever we find ourselves pulling our heads into our shells like a frightened turtle at a time when we have an opportunity to testify, then we are hiding our faith, denying Christ, and missing out on the blessing of being a witness. Being a witness means being ready to “lay down one’s life for a friend.” Sometimes that’s just as simple as saying, “I’m a Christian, and I believe that _________ is wrong because it is contrary to what God has told us.” If we’re willing to compromise on something that simple, if we have to deny our cross and turn aside from The Way, then we are not the witness (↔ Music Link) Jesus called upon to leave The World behind to become The Kingdom of God.

     An important passage on this idea is found in Luke 17:20-21 – 20 Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”

If the Kingdom is in you, shouldn’t everyone be able to see it all the time? It is an opportunity – and a reason – to testify. Can I get a witness?

That might be challenging if we are so fixed to the TV during sport seasons that we decide to ignore God, then use his Name in vain when our team loses. I challenge you to hear, accept, and act on The Word. The first challenge is, “Do you know some person or some location where The Word is unheard? Help pump up the volume by delivering it. Do it contemplatively through fervent prayer or actively through fervent evangelization. The second challenge is this: “Do you know someone that has heard the Word of Christ but rejected the Grace of Faith? Evangelize them. Give him or her the reward, the gift, the Grace of the Good News. Share your Testimony.” TESTIFY! (↔ Music Link)  

     Christian Fundamentalist, Christian Evangelical, Orthodox Christian, Catholic, Protestant, Universalist, Mormon, or even just “Religion-Curious,” whatever your particular persuasion, you have been called to hear, and by hearing you are called to faith, and by faith you are called to accept the Gift of Love in Christ Jesus. Did you know you can be the voice through which The Word is heard? Last week we read, “Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.” Beloved, consider making your life an audio-book as well as a pop-up action book. Whatever your calling in Christ, honor the Giver by accepting – and sharing – the Gift of The Living Word.

Do you have a child, a parent, a friend, a relative, a neighbor, or an acquaintance that needs to hear the Word for the first time, or hear it again? Do it now. Both of you might not have another chance later. There is a New Heaven and New Earth coming because we know full well that Jesus is coming. That’s not an “Evangelical thing,” (nor is being born again) – it is a FACT and things are looking favorable for it to be soon.

The Word summarizes these points in 1 Peter 4:7-19 – 7 The end of all things is near; therefore be serious and discipline yourselves for the sake of your prayers. 8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Be hospitable to one another without complaining. 10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received. 11 Whoever speaks must do so as one speaking the very words of God; whoever serves must do so with the strength that God supplies, so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.
12 Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the spirit of glory, which is the Spirit of God, is resting on you. 15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, a criminal, or even as a mischief maker. 16 Yet if any of you suffers as a Christian, do not consider it a disgrace, but glorify God because you bear this name. 17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; if it begins with us, what will be the end for those who do not obey the gospel of God? 18 And
“If it is hard for the righteous to be saved,
what will become of the ungodly[1] and the sinners[2]?”
19 Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good.
*Proverbs 11:31 – 31 If the righteous are repaid on earth,
how much more the wicked and the sinner!

Oh, most dearly Beloved! How our hearts ache for Life in, through, and with God! How much the more should our hearts ache for those who refuse him! Who will help them find LOVE? Acts 1:8 – “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Let us return to the Spirit as witnesses (μάρτυρες – martyres) to testify of his LOVE. To give personal witness without holding anything back. Is your witness one that will live after you, or will the good you have done have a lasting effect? Will the evil you have done live after you, and will the good be interred with your bones? Think on that. OR will you clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. (See Colossians 3:12-15) And can you top that off with what you yourself most want? Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

The Spirit speaks and says, “Can I get a witness?” (↔ Music Link) Well, can he? Who among us does NOT have that potential? When you enter eternity, which threshold will you be crossing? Remember, both names start with H. If you testify, your outcome will be the Best! How is the World going to hear if we do not speak?!?! Remember “Whoever listens to you listens to me”

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][1] Ungodly – asebés: lack of reverence, failing to honor what is sacred – especially in the day-to-day living sense.

It is the antonym of sébomai (“respecting what is holy”)

[2] The cross reference is the verse in proverbs listed – Proverbs 11:31

Aloha Friday Message – June 24, 2022 – Eyes on the Prize

June 24, 2022

2225AFC062422 – Eyes on the Prize

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 9:62 – 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! 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. Today we wrap up the “Invisible Series” I’ve alluded to a few times. It turns out this series is actually called “Living The Christian Life.” Now this is by no means an exhaustive list of strategies for living as a Christian, nonetheless, there is some value in understanding the package-deal we make when we surrender to God just as his Son surrendered. Jesus’ Father told him about his plan that he should “suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” We know he told his Disciples these words from his Father at least three times. This Sunday we will hear how Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. (See Luke 9:51 and also HERE) The idiom used here for “resolutely  is “he set his face toward Jerusalem.” Here are the parts and a brief summary of the main points –

 

Christian Life Series Titles Index Date Main point
1 Follow the leader 2217 4/29/2022 “FOLLOW ME.” I, you, we – together – must go where HE goes because he’s The Leader. WE REPENT, BELIEVE THE GOSPEL, AND FOLLOW HIM. 1, 2, 3 – EASY AS CAN BE.
2 Read the instructions 2218 5/6/2022 Truth will prevail, Love will endure, Virtue will remain unblemished for all who read the instructions, then trust and obey!
3 Do the right thing 2219 5/13/2022 God is Infinitely Just which allows him to be Infinitely Merciful because he has Perfect Integrity. His Mercy endures forever – for those who trust in his ways.
4 Give God the Glory 2220 5/20/2022 Christ willingly entered into his sacrifice. If we follow him, we have to go where he goes. Who will be next to willingly sacrifice her/his own will to the Will of the Father? I got subpoenaed. Did you? We can go and Give God the Glory!
5 Daily Complete Offering 2221 5/27/2022 “Lord, I offer me as an offering to you every day. Thank you for offering Jesus as an offering for me. With all my Love – Amen.” All you need is Love, and God offers that in abundance!
6 Call upon the Name of the Lord 2222 6/3/2022 Call in the Holy Spirit! “Come Holy Spirit” is all it takes to get started on a friendship so vast and beautiful that we’d be foolish to ignore it.
7 Wholly Holy, Lord! 2223 6/10/2022 We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who Love and cherish us – one-by-one – since the dawn of Creation which was brought about with Wisdom! That makes me want to sing Bless the Lord O my Soul (↔ Music Link).
8 Shattering Evil 2224 6/17/2022 Evil cannot overcome our Divine Fellowship if we shatter evil everywhere and every time we find it. We must “hunger and thirst for righteousness” above all else. That’s God’s APP and we gotta stick to it
9 Eyes on the Prize 2225 6/24/2022 Don’t look back if you don’t want to go back. Satan will do everything he can to distract us. “Confront the Devil and he will flee.” Eyes on the Prize!

 

I’d like to share two little stories with you from the Todd Travelogue. The first took place 6-7 years ago at Mass. Our Parochial Vicar, Fr. Rex Rilveria, started his homily by asking, “How many of you want to go to Heaven?” Scores of people raised their hands. “Very good,’ he said, “most of us want to get there! How many of you are ready to leave NOW?” Can you guess who was the onliest guy in the entire assembly to raise a hand high? The second story happened somewhere around 1989. Our son, Timothy, was invited to a “music camp” in Logan Utah. One afternoon I was thinking about some difficulties at my workplace and decided to take a walk to ponder my choices. As I approached one storefront, I saw a scrolling-lights sign that read DON’T LOOK BACK. That really shook me, because that’s exactly what I was doing! Then the sign changed and read UNLESS YOU WANT TO. Wow, that was certainly something to think about. I barely had time to file that idea away when the sign changed again and read GO BACK. DON’T LOOK BACK UNLESS YOU WANT TO GO BACK. I knew I did not want to go back to the mess I was analyzing. I knew I wanted to start heading in a new direction and make new kinds of progress. I never would have thought that a scrolling-lights sign would spell out prophecy!

ʻŌmea, is there a Prophet speaking to you today? Do you hear in your heart the irresistible affinity for God’s love and is it telling you as we learned in Isaiah 30:21 – 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”? That word we hear is The Word. When we trust in the Lord, and we do his good will, what a glory he sheds on our way. Listen to the Prophets and we gain all that is Good. Shut them out and we lose that; but, God will still give us Blessings because he Loves us. My dear friends in Christ, let’s all go together to that Heavenly shore, walking closely together (↔ Music Link), arm-in-arm, heart-in-heart, hands holding onto Jesus as he speaks only and all that God gives him to speak. As we walk this lonesome valley, we shall listen and we will know a Prophet walks among us, too, so that we experience no loss. Perhaps Jesus will be gladdened by our stronger Faith! Here is the Apostle Paul’s description:

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 – 24 Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. 25 Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. 26 So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; 27 but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified. And there is also this: Colossians 3:1-2 – 1 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. (emphasis added)

There is a Prize awaiting anyone who can and will resolutely set their face toward Heaven. I mean, that’s where we want to go, right? So how is it we get distracted so often and forget we’re after the Prize and not the praise? We have to focus so that we continually have a fixed frame of reference, a spot on the horizon we use to get our bearings. The horizon is a visual resting point for our eyes. It provides us with context within the landscape. It shows us where we are, in relation to where we could be, and helps us see a path toward that goal. The horizon changes as we make progress toward that fixed goal and we see our surroundings more clearly. We get plenty of help along the way, too. There is that voice that keeps telling us, “This is the way; walk in it.” We have the companionship and fellowship (koinónia) of other believers who are sharing our sojourn in this world on the long stretch of the Road to Home.

That road can be a little wonky if we don’t pay attention! Here’s an example of what I mean. This is the meaning of Jesus’ adage about the plow. If you’re always looking back, you can’t watch the horizon. None of us who drive could get anywhere by watching only out the rear-view mirror! The Apostle Paul must have been a bit of an athlete. Here’s what he had to say about getting to the Prize in Hebrews 12:1-2 – 1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely,  and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

That’s a destination based on hope. In our Old Testament reading this week, we have Elijah commissioning Elisha, and part of that story is about Elisha plowing with 12 oxen. I can’t even imagine how that could be done, but I am sure that he knew how to keep his furrows straight. He didn’t know what God would require of him, but he did know that whatever it was, he was ready to go. He destroyed his pathway back by using the wood from the plow to prepare the oxen for his family, and went to live his calling. We have been called. (↔ Click Link) Are we ready to go NOW? Is that where our future will be found? What about the past and what we leave behind? Think about this: Go out into deepest space and build a 12X12X4 wall. Everything on that side of the wall is the Past and beyond your reach. Everything on this side of the wall is the future … and beyond your reach. Don’t look back unless you want to go back. Stand on the top of the wall and look forward with eagerness to everything that will come your way for all of it will be a blessing to you if you accept it as a gift from God who gives you only the Good Gifts which you need so that you will know him better, love him more, and serve him well – all through HIS Eternal Power. If, however, you try to use your own power to bless your own life, your destination could turn out to be uncomfortable at best or even disastrous. This is a mistake we earthlings very often make.

Keep your eyes on the prize Belovéd. You can’t earn it, you can’t buy it, but you can reach it. You know what lies ahead. So did Jesus. Please read this very short passage in Wisdom 2:17-24. This passage was likely written about 50 or so years before Jesus was born; it is conceivable that he was aware of it. ʻŌmea, I heartily urge you to click on the link provided. It will show you the entire 2nd chapter of the Book of Wisdom. It is a compelling prophecy of the persecution and death of the Messiah. Please do read it, and as you do, think about the Mission of the Christ and the magnitude of his suffering in his Passion. He went that far for us. If we will follow him we will go that far, and beyond, to where he lives – Heaven. Let’s go! We will keep our eyes on the horizon and our ears tuned to that voice behind us. Here’s a little something to help you remember: Proverbs 20:12 – 12 The hearing ear and the seeing eye —
the Lord has made them both. Open My Eyes & Open my Eyes That I May See (↔ Music Links)

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

 

Aloha Friday Message – June 17, 2022 – Shattering Evil

June 17, 2022

2224AFC061722 – Shattering Evil

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.

    Matthew 5:6 – 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

OR

6 Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God enjoys His favor and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied! Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

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. Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Have you guessed yet how this series of posts started and when it will end? Me too! However, I am having fun getting there. And I am just delighted that you’re going there, too. Raise you hand if you know the theme of this coming Sunday’s Mass. Yep, it’s Corpus Christi time again! We actually give it as more traditional syntax by defining it as The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Today we will be putting together a very large string of Scripture about evil, and by the time we reach the concluding remarks, we will – I hope – better understand the astonishing POWER of the Eucharist. I’ll be using the New Revised Standard Version (Catholic Edition), but each link will give you access to at least two other versions of the same passage.

We know tha Jesus willingly sacrificed his life once for all and by doing so he completely wiped out the wages of our sins. (See 1845AFC110918 – Once is Enough) He destroyed evil, conquered death, and restored us to the innocence we had before that old snake messed us up.

“Oh, yeah? Well, look around buddy. There is a TON of evil and death out there every day, brought to us every evening on the News so we can see what the real sinners are up to.” Yes, we are seeing the effects of that tsunami of evil discussed here many times over the years, and it is terrifying! Is this the “End Time?” Or are we blessed and fortunate enough to be just experiencing the “birth pangs” of the Tribulation? (See Matthew 24:1-8)

God gave us Jesus’ willing sacrifice to counter Satan whose designation is Death. Because of Jesus, to put it in the Borg parlance, “You cannot be assimilated. Resistance is highly effective.” We can shatter evil, but first we have to know what God does about it, and then what we can do. Here is a (sort of intimidating) table to follow. In the right-most column are links I hope will spark your curiosity.
TABLE:

2224Order TEXT SITE ONLY
Deuteronomy Deuteronomy 17:2-7 – 2 If there is found among you, in one of your towns that the Lord your God is giving you, a man or woman who does what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, and transgresses his covenant 3 by going to serve other gods and worshiping them—whether the sun or the moon or any of the host of heaven, which I have forbidden— 4 and if it is reported to you or you hear of it, and you make a thorough inquiry, and the charge is proved true that such an abhorrent thing has occurred in Israel, 5 then you shall bring out to your gates that man or that woman who has committed this crime and you shall stone the man or woman to death. 6 On the evidence of two or three witnesses the death sentence shall be executed; a person must not be put to death on the evidence of only one witness. 7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first raised against the person to execute the death penalty, and afterward the hands of all the people. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
1 Kings 1 Kings 21:25 The most evil King
Job Job 4:8 Reap and Sow
Psalms Psalm 35:6-8 – 6 Let their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.7 For without cause they hid their net for me;
without cause they dug a pit for my life.
8 Let ruin come on them unawares.
And let the net that they hid ensnare them;
let them fall in it—to their ruinPsalm 57:6 – 6 They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my path,
but they have fallen into it themselves. SelahPsalm 34:21 – 21 Evil brings death to the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be condemned.Psalm 109:7-8 – 7 When he is tried, let him be found guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin.
8 May his days be few;
may another seize his position.		 Psalm 34:21 Evil brings death

 
Proverbs Proverbs 16:27 – 27 Scoundrels concoct evil,
and their speech is like a scorching fireProverbs 14:22 – 22 Do they not err that plan evil?
Those who plan good find loyalty and faithfulness.Proverbs 28:5 – 5 The evil do not understand justice,
but those who seek the Lord understand it completely.		 Proverbs 17:15

Proverbs 11:21

Proverbs 10:16

Proverbs 5:20

You’ll get yours

 
Isaiah Isaiah 46:4 – 4 even to your old age I am He,
even when you turn gray I will carry you.
I have made, and I will bear;
I will carry and will save. Isaiah 25:1 – 1 O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you, I will praise your name;
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure. Isaiah 49:9 – 9 saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
They shall feed along the ways,
on all the bare heights shall be their pasture;Isaiah 47:13 – 13 You are wearied with your many consultations;
let those who study the heavens
stand up and save you,
those who gaze at the stars,
and at each new moon predict
what shall befall you. 

Isaiah 65:1-2 – 1 I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that did not call on my name.
2 I held out my hands all day long
to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices

 

 Isaiah 57:1-5 – 1 The righteous perish,
and no one takes it to heart;
the devout are taken away,
while no one understands.
For the righteous are taken away from calamity,
2     and they enter into peace;
those who walk uprightly
will rest on their couches.On the other hand, the end of the evildoer is well-known
3 But as for you, come here,
you children of a sorceress,
you offspring of an adulterer and a whore.
4 Whom are you mocking?
Against whom do you open your mouth wide
and stick out your tongue?
Are you not children of transgression,
the offspring of deceit—
5 you that burn with lust among the oaks,
under every green tree;
you that slaughter your children in the valleys,
under the clefts of the rocks?

 

Isaiah 29:17-21 – 17 Shall not Lebanon in a very little while
become a fruitful field,
and the fruitful field be regarded as a forest?
18 On that day the deaf shall hear
the words of a scroll,
and out of their gloom and darkness
the eyes of the blind shall see.
19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord,
and the neediest people shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
20 For the tyrant shall be no more,
and the scoffer shall cease to be;
all those alert to do evil shall be cut off—
21 those who cause a person to lose a lawsuit,
who set a trap for the arbiter in the gate,
and without grounds deny justice to the one in the right.

 

Isaiah 32:6 – 6 For fools speak folly,
and their minds plot iniquity:
to practice ungodliness,
to utter error concerning the Lord,
to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied,
and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

Isaiah 3:11 – 11 Woe to the guilty! How unfortunate they are,
for what their hands have done shall be done to them.

Isaiah 13:11 – 1 I will punish the world for its evil,
and the wicked for their iniquity;
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant,
and lay low the insolence of tyrants.
Jeremiah Jeremiah 13:23
It ain’t easy!
Matthew Matthew 25:41
Exit stage left
Matthew 16:27
and get it all
Mark Mark 16:16
Repent and believe
Luke Luke 12:5 – 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!
Romans Romans 1:24-28 – 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done.

Romans 13:1-4 – 1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Do you wish to have no fear of the authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive its approval; 4 for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for the authority does not bear the sword in vain! It is the servant of God to execute wrath on the wrongdoer.
1 Corinthians 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 – 9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, *idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. * consensual sexual intercourse between a man and especially a single woman who are not married to each other; “shacking up,”  “hooking up; ” just living together”
Colossians Colossians 3:2 – 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,
1 Peter 1 Peter 3:8-12 – 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. 9 Do not repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse; but, on the contrary, repay with a blessing. It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing. 10 For

“Those who desire life
and desire to see good days,
let them keep their tongues from evil
and their lips from speaking deceit;
11 let them turn away from evil and do good;
let them seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

(Based on Psalms 34:12-16)

That should give a good idea of what God thinks about evil, what he will do about it, and what we can do to shatter it. Our communion is with God in and through Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:4 says 4 Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. Evil cannot overcome that Divine Fellowship if we shatter evil everywhere and every time we find it. We must “hunger and thirst for righteousness” above all else. That’s God’s APP and we gotta stick to it!

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

Aloha Friday Message – June 10, 2022 – Wholly Holy, LORD!

June 10, 2022

2223AFC061022 – Wholly Holy, Lord!

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.

    Proverbs 8:22, 30-31 – 22 “Adonai made me [Wisdom] as the beginning of his way,
the first of his ancient works. [ … ]
30 I was with him as someone he could trust.
For me, every day was pure delight,
as I played in his presence all the time,.
31 playing everywhere on his earth,
and delighting to be with humankind.
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB) Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Psalm 8:4-5 – 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God*,
and crowned them with glory and honor
*Some authorities translate the Hebrew word elohim as “angels”; Elohim is one of the Torah names of God (↔ Click Link, please) for example in Genesis 1:26.

Romans 5:1-2 – 1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

John 16:12-15 – 12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you, ʻŌmea! This coming Sunday is called Trinity Sunday. Can you guess what we will cover in this post? Well, let’s get going and see if your guess was right.

Looking at all these verses gives me great Joy and Hope. God created the Earth with Wisdom – Wisdom was the first Quality of God he called forth. Everything he made, he made for Loving. He made the Universe because he Loved it, and he made us – his earthlings – so he could Love us and we could Love him, too. Then his new earthlings messed up and fell into sin and death – that was NOT what he had planned; BUT he already had an Absolutely Perfect Plan to deal with it – Redemption and Salvation through Christ Jesus. Jesus told his Apostles – and they tell us – that God would send the Holy Spirit to help them (and us!) to remember everything he taught and that the Holy Spirit would also defend us against the Devil. Thinking about that is so reassuring; in fact it gives all of us Blessed Assurance (↔ Music Link). Sometimes it’s hard for us to wrap our head around that Love and Forgiveness. But then we think about what the Psalmist said, and it’s even more amazing.

When one looks at the totality of Creation and realizes how Magnificent it is, it is astounding that so Great a God could make all of that, put us in it, and still care about us when we turned our back on him! Who are we that so Great a God could care about us after that? He created his earthlings to be a tad-bit lower than the Angels but still crowned them with glory and honor. He can do that because his Glory and Honor is above All Things, Times, and Places. He is Great and Wonderful in every way, and when we look toward him we cannot help but think, “My God, How great though art! (↔ Music Link)

Yet, even though he is betrayed by us day-by-day, one-by-one, we still can find Peace and safety in his Glorious Grace through faith in Christ Jesus through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. For someone created “just a tad-bit lower than the angels,” that is a BIG step up! It would be impossible without Grace because we do not have the power to procure our own Salvation. “Being true to oneself” isn’t a ticket to Heaven by any means. It is a fruitless exercise to work out DIY exercises to save any soul.

In fact the best advice is DDIY – DON’T Do It Yourself! (↔ Click Link) We need to remember that that’s how Lucifer was tossed out of Heaven. We earthlings, on the other hand, need to rely on God’s Amazing Grace (↔ Music Link) because only through the willing sacrifice of his Only Begotten Son is there redemption. What a tremendous blessing there is in that admission of loss and conversion. It is through conversion, remember, that we come to know God: “Repent and believe the Gospel.” When we do that we are able to share in the Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Do you remember those?

“Open your Bibles to Galatians 5:22-23 and read,” 22 By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things.” Against what things is the Apostle Paul making contrast? If you’ll click on that link for Galatians you’ll see this Scripture passage in context. There’s some pretty nasty stuff in that part – the kind of stuff we see on the evening news all the time. We would rather have a blessing of benediction (↔ Music Link) from God than an accusation of our sin from the World. (That benediction can be found in Numbers 6:24-26. Follow this link to see it presented in phonetic Hebrew.) That kind of Peaceful rest in God’s Mercy is wonderful, but – if we think further on it – it makes us want to jump up and Praise the Lord. Here’s what the Psalmist had to say about it:

Psalm 148:1-2 –. 1 Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
praise him in the heights!
2 Praise him, all his angels;
praise him, all his host!

We all know a tune usually referred to as “The Doxology.” (↔ Music Link) It is a brief hymn of praise and is often regularly included in worship services. We praise “God in three persons,” the Holy Trinity, in those words just as we praise the Trinity when we sing “Glory to God (↔ Music Link) in the highest. I hope you are not tired of seeing this because I feel I must insert it again.

(Music Link ↔) LIGHT ≡ GOD ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ LOVE

We are blessed to have the Holy Spirit in our hearts making our bodies a Temple unto the Lord. “With the Father and the Son he is adored and glorified.” (↔ Click Link) when we surrender our lives, our hearts, our wills to Christ, he will make us wholly Holy so that we will be able to be reunited with God – his Father and our Father – for ever-and-ever. And that is because –

We have Christ! Christ is ours! Christ is our Light, so we let our light shine! I just want to encourage you to Take Time To Be Holy (↔ Music Link) and to remember You Can’t Be A Beacon if your light don’t shine (↔ Music Link) so that God may be all in all. It’s just like Jesus said in one of our Key Verses – He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine. And ʻŌmea, if your light is shining, then someone else might be able – in God’s Good Grace – to say I Saw The Light (↔ Music Link), and wouldn’t that be a terrific Gift to our Heavenly Father? We have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit who Love and cherish us – one-by-one – since the dawn of Creation which wasbrought about with Wisdom! That makes me want to sing Bless the Lord O my Soul (↔ Music Link). Now, please, everyone fold your hands, bow your heads, and let’s lift our hearts, and minds, and voices together to sing and to pray –

AMEN!

ʻŌmea, the Key Verse icon for today should be a GIF file. If the copy you received does not move, you can see what it was supposed to do HERE. (↔ Click Link) Have a wonderful Glorious, Joyful, and Edifying Trinity Sunday! Make it wholly Holy!

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

 

Aloha Friday Message – June 3, 2022 – Who ya gonna call?

June 3, 2022

2222AFC060322 – Who ya gonna call?

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.

    Psalm 104:29-30 – 29 When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
when you take away their breath, they die
and return to their dust.
30 When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
and you renew the face of the ground.

1 Corinthians 2:14 – 14 Those who are unspiritual[1] do not receive the gifts of God’s Spirit, for they are foolishness to them, and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

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 title has a familiar ring to it. We’ve had that question from “Ghost Busters” several times (↔ Click Link) before, but never answered the question. Today, that is what we will focus on – Who ya gonna call? There’s a bunch of Scripture here, so here we go!

I am led to begin with a personal story. On Labor Day, 1999, I became very ill. I was on call for drug testing at the hospital where I was the laboratory manager. We had a contract with the local casinos just outside of Phoenix for testing their employees. I was called out to collect the specimens used for testing. I did not realize it, but I had a very high fever. Perspiration from my head and chest actually soaked the forms I was filling out. The next day I went to see my doctor. He thought I had Valley Fever and gave me medicines for that. I got worse. I went back to the doctor and X-rays were taken. There were signs of a serious pneumonia which might have been Valley Fever but did not act like that. I felt some better when prescribed antibiotics, well enough, in fact, to take a trip to Kauaʻi for Christmas week. When I got back I was getting even more congested, weak, and feverish. They sent me to see a pulmonologist. He accurately diagnosed me with a very serious and advanced infection that was destroying the middle section of my right lung. He put me on some powerful medications and sent me to bed-rest. Over the next several weeks I lay in bed, feverish, sweating, and coughing. We had to put a liner under the bottom-sheet to keep the mattress from getting wet. I lost 25% of my body mass. Finally I recovered enough to go back to work – light duty, half days only. I had a great many hours to think and to pray. During that time my heart and soul prompted me thus: “Get to know the Holy Spirit. You have time, now, so make Him your Friend.” Surprisingly, this illness was not one of my three round-trip excursions down that long tunnel with the bright light at the end.

Many hours during the day and night I asked the Holy Spirit to come to sit with me on the edge of the bed and to hold my hand. I held out my hand to accept his touch. Even to this day, I am surprised to be able to say, “It worked.” In fact, the Holy Spirit became my greatest friend, and I talk with him, work with him, pray with him, listen to him as much as I can. Sometimes I do not listen as well as he wants, and I get a not-so-subtle reminder to wake up and pay attention. Every time I sit down to write one of these posts, I start by using this prayer:

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And You shall renew the face of the earth.
O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, instructed the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.

I cannot claim to have any extraordinary piety because of this relationship because there is, in fact, nothing extraordinary about it. Everyone who has been properly baptized and confirmed has the Holy Spirit dwelling within and around them. In baptism – as instructed by Jesus himself – a person is baptized “in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,” and the Holy Spirit is conferred upon the new member of the Church through the laying on of hands after anointing with chrism (a sacred oil), the bestowing of a white garment, and the Ephphatha – the opening of the ears to receive the Gospel and the mouth to proclaim the Gospel. Baptism produces an indelible mark on the soul of the baptized. It is permanent and cannot be eradicated. Not only does this mark make your heart and soul a place of sanctity, but also it serves as a warning sign to the Devil that we have been claimed for God in Christ Jesus. Here’s an example of that.

We are further gifted with the presence of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation. Ideally baptism and confirmation should be chronologically close. There was a period in the Church when confirmation was deferred until high school age, but many dioceses have returned to the “normal order” of baptism followed by confirmation when the Bishop or presiding Priest says “Be sealed with the Gift of the Holy Spirit.” In the epistles of the Apostle Paul and other letter-writers, that is how it happens – baptism and then confirmation in the Holy Spirit. Now, why go into all this detail about something that most of us generally overlook? I want us to refocus on the F.A.C.T. that we are all Following All Christ Taught, and one of the most important things he taught was that His Father would send to them “Power from on High,” the Holy Spirit who would teach them all things and remind them of everything he had told them. See Luke 24:49 and John 14:26 (← Check it out!), I’ll wait. What are we supposed to do with that information? It’s simple – PRAY.

Who among us prays to the Holy Spirit? Do we know that we can? Do we know how? Do we know why? Let’s start with that, the “why.” In the opening prayer, have you ever heard something that sounds like this: “O God, creator and redeemer of mankind, who have given us the pathway to your heavenly Kingdom …”? Our ears momentarily want to hear “who has given us.” But God is community, Trinity – plural. We pray to God the Father, we pray to God the Son, so why not pray to God the Holy Spirit? When I first considered that question during my recovery period back in 2000, my response was, “What do I say?” Guess what happened next?! The Holy Spirit answered and said, “Anything you would say to the Father or the Son.” At that point it all fell into place. I had asked – prayed – for the Holy Spirit to sit by me, to hold my hand, to comfort me. I also prayed to Jesus and the Father, mostly for healing or at least relief and release, but I invited the Holy Spirit to be with me. It was then that I first learned the prayer “Come Holy Spirit,” and I know it is a True and Effective prayer, because he does come and he does speak. I again urge you to visit “Hearing the Voice of God” which is a one-month course of daily teachings and meditations that will help you understand and recognize that God have always been speaking to us. We’re just not listening! In fact, many of us have chosen to be deaf and blind when it comes to speaking to and hearing from God. When we cannot see or hear him we are dismayed. When we cannot access the Spirit of God, we are dead and return to the dust. When we at last do respond to his sending forth his Spirit, we are renewed in New Life. (See our quote from Psalm 104 above). As the Apostle Paul tells us, we cannot discern the Holy Spirit because his presence and Gifts are spiritually discerned, not empiracally deduced. Here are a few other clues about hearing the Holy Spirit:

Romans 8:12-13 – 12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

Romans 8:14-17 – 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children[2] of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children (↔ Click Link for an image) of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

John 20:22 – 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This is the Ruach (↔ Click Link) of God who moved across the face of the waters in Genesis.

I also invite your careful attention to §2670-2672 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. There you will find this excellent prayer: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Heavenly King, Consoler Spirit, Spirit of Truth, present everywhere and filling all things, treasure of all good and source of all life, come dwell in us, cleanse and save us, you who are All Good.” Our every breath is confirmation of our Creation. The Blessed Trinity are our Creators and we are their creation. All creation rightly gives them joyful thanks and praise – ALL of them. Here is another prayer that helps us hear him and willingly cooperate with his promptings:

A Prayer to the Holy Spirit by St. Augustine of Hippo
Breathe in me, O Holy Spirit, that my thoughts may all be holy. Act in me, O Holy Spirit, that my work, too, may be holy. Draw my heart, O Holy Spirit, that I love but what is holy. Strengthen me, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard me, then, O Holy Spirit, that I always may be holy. Amen. And there are a couple of music links you might wish to try:

Veni Sancte Spiritus by Mozart (↔ Music Link)
Come Holy Ghost which dates back to the eighth century (↔ Music Link)

ʻŌmea, I need all the help I can get in this messy life of mine, and since the Holy Spirit is always here, and since we’ve become friends, I enjoy all the time I can spend with him – because he’s right here ALL THE TIME. With the Psalmist, then, we commend our souls, our hearts, and our love to God the Father:
Psalm 51:11 – 11 Do not cast me away from your presence,
and do not take your holy spirit from me.

Now, after all this, “ Who ya gonna call?” Call in the Holy Spirit! “Come Holy Spirit” is all it takes to get started on a friendship so vast and beautiful that we’d be foolish to ignore it. Do you see yourself in this image? Don’t call “Ghosts Busters!” Call the Holy Ghost, in the name of Jesus the Christ who lives and reigns with God the Father Almighty, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, the Lord and the Giver of Life.”COME HOLY SPIRIT!” (↔ Music Link) Be quietly confirmed and conformed in his presence. He wants you to welcome him because he’s already here.

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

Come, I AM is here.

Repent and believe the Gospel.

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] “Natural” (psuchikos) i.e., given to carnality, of or like bestial – brutish as an animal; earthlings’ “lower nature” and given over to sensuous concupiscence as in powerful sensations of physical desire. Sharply contrasted with pneumatikós (“spiritual”) – the higher, clearly spiritual aspect of humanity that develops through faith in God and acknowledgment of the invisible realm of the Holy Spirit in, through, and by which humanity encounters the Trinity.

[2]  Through Baptism and Confirmation (in which we are strengthened and established in Faith and in the FACTs and conformed to the Will of God in the Holy Spirit)

Aloha Friday Message – May 27, 2022 – Make me an offer(ing)!

May 27, 2022

2221AFC052722 – Make me an offer(ing)!

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 17:24-26 [1]  – 24 Father, they are your gift to me. I wish that where I am they also may be with me, that they may see my glory that you gave me, because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, the world also does not know you, but I know you, and they know that you sent me. 26 I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.” New American Bible (Revised Edition) (NABRE) [

1]

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Last week we looked at the idea “Offer It UP.” We saw – Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory! Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Normally this weekend I would be writing to you about the biggest event in my Christian life – the Ascension. Why do I say “in my Christian life?” I say that because of all the events in Jesus’ life, that moment gives me the greatest hope; it confirms everything else that Jesus said. Today I am going to just ask you to look at this essay posted in 2017 called Look Him Up. It contains my thoughts about what the angels said to the Disciples as Jesus ascended into heaven. Now on we go to today’s topic.

Belovéd, what is the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? “Make sure the coffee is ready.” “Let the cat [or dog] out.” “Get ready for a run. (Ugh!)” “Thank God for waking me up.” I don’t do any of those things, at least not first-thing. Nearly 60 – sixty! – years ago I wrote a short little Gospel chorus called “I Greet the Lord.” (↔ Click Link) the lyrics say

“I greet the Lord when I get up each morning and I thank him for the day. Then we go out to help the World together. He’s beside me all the way. Thank you Lord, Almighty God, for saving me each day. I only hope that someday soon I can help someone else to say, ‘I greet the Lord when I get up each morning and I thank him for the day. Then we go out to help the World together. He’s beside me all the way.'”

And it is true. Every day starts like that. “Good morning Lord! Thank you for this day. Show me what you have for me today so we can help the World together. Teach me and help me to be just and merciful, to live righteously, and to walk humbly before you wherever your Spirit guides me. Let the constant Hope I have in you be the light that drives away the darkness and draws me and everyone I meet to your Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, and Eternal Salvation through Christ our Lord. Amen.” When we were living in Chinle, AZ my Spiritual Director was Fr. Blane Grein. Even after all of these years, I still think of him in that role. One of the things we talked about was the Apostle Paul’s admonition to “Pray without ceasing” as we read in 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 – 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. That’s a tall order indeed! How does one do that? I think I sort of blundered into the answer when I realized I could make my entire day a prayer by starting it with a prayer for all my thoughts, words, and actions. Then I came across this prayer in something sent to me by the Priests of the Sacred Heart (↔ Click Link) in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. Here is a copy from the USCCB site (↔ Click Link):

O Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
I offer you my prayers, works, joys, and sufferings of this day
for all the intentions of your Sacred Heart
in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world,
for the salvation of souls, the reparation of sins, the reunion of all Christians,
and in particular for the intentions of the Holy Father this month.
Amen. (Written in 1844 by Fr. François-Xavier Gautrelet; found in Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers, pg. 48)
That became, over the years,

“O my Jesus, through the Immaculate Heart of Mary our Mother, I offer you this day,
All of my thoughts, words, and deeds,
My works, my prayers, my joys, my sorrows, my victories and my defeats,
My fears and anxieties, my heart’s desires, everything I do and everything I fail to do,
All than I am (↔ Music Link), all that I have, everything that I can become,
My body, mind, Spirit, and pain – all of it is yours.
Even my temptations and my sins I lay at your feet so that you might possess all of me.”

Anyone who knows me knows that on many days my ways are not all sparkling shine-a-gemic perfect. I can be a real loud-mouth grump, come back with a cutting quip, or storm around like a three-year-old in a tantrum. I can walk right by a panhandler, take a verbal punch at a politician or late-night “comic” (not the usual word I use), and overdo it at the table. None of those are things I am proud of, and all of them are things I wish would not and could not be part of my day. BUT THEY ARE. They are part of me, a part of me I’d like to leave stranded in the desert. All of these defects are part of my daily offering. After all, isn’t everything I think, say, and do part of all of me? One of the phrases in the Act of Contrition is “I detest all my sins.” That is also true, and as much as I detest them, repent of them, and try to be wary of them, I am still a sinner, and I own those thoughts words and deeds. They start in my heart – especially when I don’t want them to – and tarnish my Daily Offering. (See Mark 7:18-23)

My El Shaddai-Olam hasn’t sent me to jail, zapped me with lightning, or parted the heavens to proclaim my doom. I envision him watching me and sadly shaking his head. Then he speaks: “Come here, son, try to keep up. Pay attention. You nearly stepped right off that precipice.” That’s embarrassing, but also essential because I asked for it when saying “teach me and help me to be just and merciful, to live righteously, and to walk humbly before you.” He is, was, and will be SO-O-O-O-O good to me!! I belong to him, (↔ Music Link) and every day I acknowledge and renew that relationship. Everything I have and am comes from him. I am part of Creation even in my chaotic disobedience. I am part of the Gift God the Father gave to God the Son in

god the Holy Spirit. At this very moment, as I look at those words on my screen, I am unable to understand how, or why, I can be part of that Gift. But I am, and so are we all, Belovéd. When Satan tries to accuse me of being disloyal, sinful, a reprobate, Jesus says, “All true, but he’s still mine. I paid for him, and I’m keeping him.” Knowing he says that  doesn’t make me any less Loved. I can always repent and believe the Gospel. Whenever I do, Satan’s accusations fall flat – like I said last week – “Dismissed for lack of evidence.” Jesus included us – the Believers – in his offering to his Father. Jesus offered his prayers, his forgiveness, his Love, his Peace to God on our behalf. He even offers up me, and if he’s willing to do that, then I want to follow Jesus and do what he does; I want to offer up me. I want him to have ALL of me – no secrets, nothing hidden in the recesses of my heart, nothing to be left without being offered. Right or wrong, it’s all his. He gave his all for us because he Loves us. We can give our all, too, because we love him. I know because he said so: “… that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. We are sanctified in him when we offer him all of each of us as a gift that is wrapped up in our Love. And here’s how that works.

We read it in Hebrews 2:10-18. Please read that. It will help you understand this: God the Father has given us as a gift to his Only Begotten Son because he loves him. We, too, give gifts to those whom we love. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We don’t love him because we have to prove our love by being obedient. When we Love God as he loves us (“This is my command that you love one another even as I have loved you” See John 13:34-35 and Romans 13:10) that is how we keep the Commandments “You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart and all you mind, and all you strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Can you think of any Gift God greatly desires? We are that Gift when we completely offer our entire life to the One who loved us first, last, and always. Performing the works of the Law of God cannot save you; they never could. Obey because you love the Creator, letting your love prove whom you serve. After all, that is what God longs for – Love; for God is Love, so make him an offering – the gift that Lives forever – Us

Our offering becomes his offering if we give it in and through him: A Morning Offering (↔ Click Link): “Bless and approve this offering, sanctify it and make it Holy, so that it becomes for you a living sacrifice Holy and acceptable to You, O LORD, my Strength and my Redeemer – an offering made in Spirit and in Truth.” I believe in God’s Infinite Mercy and that he will always remember me as part of his Creation. The parts of us that are not connected to his memory are to him irrelevant once we have repented, believed the Gospel, and done our best to make use of all the Good Gifts he gives us every day. In our hearts we want and need to do that every day. How wonderful it is that God looks upon the hearts and not the appearances! “Lord, I offer me as an offering to you. Thank you for offering Jesus as an offering for me. With all my Love – Amen.” All you need is Love, and God offers that in abundance! Remember this?

GOD ≡ LOVE ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ MERCY ≡ LIGHT ≡ LIFE

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] Some of the scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition© 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Aloha Friday Message – May 20, 2022 – I got Subpoenaed

May 20, 2022

2220AFC052022 – I got Subpoenaed

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 14:27 – 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

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. I’ve hinted recently that the last few posts have been “part of an unnamed series.” I still don’t know the name, but I now see the parts:

1:  Follow the leader
2:  Read the instructions
3:  Do the right thing
4:  Give God the Glory

I suppose we could call that Series “Living The Christian Life.” Whatever we call it, one thing is sure: We can find all the guidance we need in the B.I.B.L.E. Living as a Christian means letting go of a lot of false assumptions. Jesus himself told us it wouldn’t be easy, there would be persecutions, friends and family would turn against us, and we might be called on to suffer martyrdom in some form. In fact, that’s how today’s title came up. Each of us who claims to be Christian has been subpoenaed to witness for the Defense. The Prosecutor is that Old Rascal Satan. Before we get much farther in this, let’s look at the meaning of that word, “subpoena.”

Quoting from the website: “A subpoena (↔ Click Link) is a legal document that commands a person or entity to testify as a witness at a specified time and place (at a deposition, trial, or other hearing), and/or to produce documents or other tangible objects in a legal proceeding. Subpoenas are time-sensitive with court-imposed deadlines.” Well, that nails it down well enough. A legal document could be a set of rules or laws that prescribe certain actions, attitudes, and/or appeals by a higher authority. A legal document like that could be used to demand that we testify as a witness. You’ll remember, I hope, that testify and witness are associated with the Greek word marturion. Marturion is the root of our word martyr. We discussed that at length in 1646AFC111116 – Can I get a Witness? I encourage you to look into that if you feel inclined to branch out a bit. Today, though, I want to look into the role of that Prosecuting Attorney. I have no reluctance to say I don’t like him one little bit, and he sure doesn’t like me, either! Boy howdy, he sure has gotten me in a lot of trouble. And that statement right there is a sample of the trouble that comes from witnessing. Satan doesn’t get me in trouble – I do! Flip Wilson’s character “Geraldine” always claimed, “The Devil made me do it.” Nope. That’s not how it works. Here’s a longish passage from the Letter of James: James 4:1-7 – 1 Those conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war within you? 2 You want something and do not have it; so you commit murder. And you covet something and cannot obtain it; so you engage in disputes and conflicts. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose that it is for nothing that the scripture says, “God yearns jealously for the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?  6 But he gives all the more grace; therefore it says,
“God opposes the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.”
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

If we resist the Devil, we will be speaking the Truth. If we are speaking the Truth, we will be witnessing. If we are a Witness for Christ, we will face persecutions, trials, and tribulations during multiple full-orbit circles around the sun – BUT the retirement plan is literally out of this world! Our days will be filled with sunshine sometimes, but every moment of every day (↔ Music Link), we will experience Son Shine. OR, we can just stay in the dark, and suffer needlessly without God’s Mercy. It is up to us to choose. God gives us that right, the privilege to choose the Light or The Dark. It’s not “THE FORCE” we choose. It is our Creator, our God, our Friend, our Companion, our BROTHER we choose. As I often say, “Why would we want anything less?!?!?” All we need to do is witness to Christ, stand up to the Accuser, and give it our all – and Peace will arise in our hearts and minds.

In this Key Verse passage, Jesus is saying goodbye. It is goodbye to the constraints of his human body, goodbye to his followers, shalom and welcome to his perfect obedience to his Father. He knows and sees what lies just a few hours ahead, and still he ministers and shares fellowship with those sitting at table with him. The Peace that he gives is the Peace in which he rests, and that Peace is the equilibrium of all of terror and rescue, sin and mercy, and obedience unto death. Jesus’ own True Peace he freely gives to us, “not as the world gives,” but with “no strings attached.” It is the Peace of innocence, the Peace of Understanding – it is the Peace of God restored to us through Jesus’ willing sacrifice of himself for us. It is the Peace that is possible only in Love, and Jesus empties his human life as a renewal of his Divine Life in the presence of the Trinity. That same Peace is with and in all who accept it. Once we accept it, we too are transformed so that we are able to pour out our own human life in anticipation or our own Resurrected Life as our eternal reward.

We “own” that Peace that surpasses all understanding. The Apostle Paul tells us about the effect of that assurance we find in conquering our fear in Philippians 4:6-7 – 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The Apostle is telling us exactly what Jesus told us: Don’t be afraid. Trust in his Love. Be thankful for God’s Gifts. He will always be with us. When we know that, truly and deeply know, that Jesus’ words are completely True and his promises belong to us, we begin to live a life of testimony. We are witnesses. We are witnesses who are subpoenaed to answer for and defend our Faith in Christ Jesus. The Accuser can rant about our sinfulness or cunningly try to smooth-talk his accusations against us, but we have an Advocate who defends our testimony and defeats Satan’s most diabolical maneuvers to try to make us selfishly disobey.

Disobedience and selfishness can never gain victory over obedience and charity. Humility always defeats pride. Kindness always defeats envy. Diligence always defeats apathy. Jesus defends us, the Spirit counsels and protects us. Recall what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 8:33-35, 37b – 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect people? It is God who acquits them. 34 Who is going to convict them? It is Christ Jesus who died, even more, who was raised, and who also is at God’s right side. It is Christ Jesus who also pleads our case for us.
35 Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible) It is Christ Jesus who willingly and completely satisfied the wages of sin once for all. We testify to that Truth when we willingly and completely live in his Love which commands that we Love (agapate) God and neighbor as he – Jesus – Loves God and neighbor. We can, and will, testify to “the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth.”

Now this next point seems almost ironic to me, but when I reflect on this subpoena to give testimony we have been given, it is the Bible that calls us to testify and – much to the annoyance of the Prosecutor – it is that same Bible wherein we find the means of our defense. Every Truth that Satan tries to disparage and ridicule is contained in and supported by Scripture. His attempts to charm and disarm us always backfire if we stay True to the Word. Our testimony is sure, our defense in impeccable, and his defeat is certain. The problem is, he just doesn’t know when to quit. I suspect that’s because he knows he can never stay ahead even if he “gets the upper hand” sometimes. God’s total and Everlasting Love is always victorious. As The Apostle Peter put it in 1 Peter 4:8 – 8 Above all, maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins. When our daily lives show, moment to moment, the scope and power and effect of the Love of God in Christ Jesus, our testimony will lead to all charges against us being dismissed for lack of evidence. Our sins, as they are forgiven, are remembered no more. That is the Truth, and the Truth will set us free.

Here is Jesus’ own TRUE promise of that Truth: John 8:31b-32 – 31  … “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Here’s how Jesus followed up on that: John 12:48-49 – 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And – as Disciples – we are commanded to say and speak whatever The Word says. What will be the affect of our testifying and prophesying (speaking on God’s behalf) to those who have not believed? There’s a good example in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 – 24 But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all. 25 After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, “God is really among you.” (↔ Music Link) The Lord is asking us “Can I get a Witness?” (↔ Click Link) Our subpoenas have been served. Will we comply? Whenever we do, we assist the Holy Spirit in applying the Law of Love. Christ willingly entered into his sacrifice. If we follow him, we have to go where he goes. Who will be next to willingly sacrifice her/his own will to the Will of the Father? I got subpoenaed. Did you? If so, we may have some tough choices to make about our testimony. Through those choices we will Give God The Glory. Alleluia! Amen! There is Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart! (↔ Music Link)

“Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

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

Aloha Friday Message – May 13, 2022 – To Do What Is Right

May 13, 2022

2219AFC051322 – To Do What Is Right

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 13:34 – 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love* one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
Isaiah 56:7c – … for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.

*Aloha pumehana, a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! Warmest Aloha, and may God bless you, Belovéd! You know how I love to go find our “What Does The Word REALLY SAY?” and so I pour over you the biblical language for that Scripture. That is the case today, and I’m going to pour it on thick because this is such an important word – and concept – to understand. What, then, as the Word used for Love in the Gospel of John (and throughout the New Testament)? Jesus commands – not suggests, not hopes, not hints at – that we Love one another. Here is the Greek insight into that. Please, instead of just glossing over it, actually read it so that you see how clear and concise this command truly is. I’ll have more to say about it at the end of this loaded paragraph:

“Love” in this verse is *agapate from agapaó love (primarily of Christian love); to show or to prove one’s love; to long for, to desire; to place first preferentially in one’s affections; referring to a preferred companion – see agapé 26 agápē – properly, love which centers in moral preference. So too in secular ancient Greek, 26 (agápē) focuses on preference; likewise the verb form (25 /agapáō) in antiquity meant “to prefer” by choice. In the NT, 26 (agápē) typically refers to divine love (therefore it refers to what God prefers). Consider the verb agapáō – properly, to prefer, to love; for the believer, preferring to “live through Christ” (See 1 John 4:9-10), in other words embracing God’s will (choosing HIS choices) and obeying them through HIS power. 25 (agapáō) preeminently refers to what God prefers because “HE IS LOVE” (See 1 John 4:8-16). This passage ends with this edifying statement: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.” (Read full chapter)

The word “as,” or “even as,” or “just as” does not refer to the extent of His love, but to the ubiquity of it – the way it is conferred on others. We could paraphrase it by changing “love one another” to “Prefer above all others” like this: 34 I give you a new commandment, that you prefer one another above all others. Just as I have preferred you above all others, you also should prefer one another above all others. Fulfilling this command would be to fulfill the Divine Command in Deuteronomy 6:5 – 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, it is shown this way: καὶ ἀγαπήσεις κύριον τὸν θεόν translates as “and you shall love the Lord your God.” The verb form is indicative future tense (agapēseis).

I show this to you to make the point that NOTHING HAS CHANGED since Moses’ days on the mountain top! God is Love. He created us with, in, and for Love. That is why we read in 1 John 4:9-10 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Who is God’s Son? Jesus, namely God The Son. Who are Jesus’ adopted siblings? We are HIS brothers and sisters so God is our Father, and we are to Love our Father the way HE Loves us, and He loves us the way WE must love one another – it’s a TWICE-ORDERED COMMANDMENT! Now comes that irritating question: ” Waddaya gonna do about that?

For more than 40 years I have been asking a similar question, “What do you want to do?” We taught our children to answer, “The right thing.” I’ve asked adults the same question in management training courses and RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). How can we learn to Love as Jesus loved? The best answer I have is “We can’t … without Grace we would fail, but by his Grace we can Love in and through his Love.” The best part of this conundrum is that Grace is free – all we have to do is take it and use it. All of us know that. All of us also know that – at times, not always – a we forget that Grace is a two-part process: Receive it and use it. When we accept Grace, we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. When we use Grace, we confess that God is Love.

Grace has an amazing effect when we can do some very simple things such as these:

James 4:17 – 17 Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin.

Hosea 10:12 – 12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

      There it is. “Do the right thing.” We “hunger and thirst for righteousness”  if we are doing the right thing – rather than oppress others – violently or passively, personally or institutionally, willingly or ignorantly – we are to uplift and care for others; ALL others, not just the ones who share our personal proclivities for evil, or personal preferences for Love. How does one find a list, or an instruction, or some guidelines or boundaries to at least get started on such a mission of mercy and peace with our fellow earthlings? Virtually the whole Bible gives us that instruction, but there are a few passages like those here in this post that help clarify our To-Do list.

Here’s one I find particularly clear; read the underlined part carefully: Isaiah 58:6-11 – 6 Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin? 8 Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rearguard. 9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, 10 if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday. 11 The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. If I use that as my checklist, I still have a lot of work to do! I choose, therefore, to begin with blessings rather than curses, with understanding rather than resentment, and with the resolve to work even harder to do the right thing. I thank the Lord for his blessings on me (↔ Music Link) and counting them (↔ Music Link) is far better than worrying about what life would be like without them. There is something in the Book of Numbers that often comes to my mind. I have adapted it for use as my own personal blessing on some occasions. You’ll find it in Numbers 6:24-26, and it goes like this: 24 The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. To that I add, “May Almighty God bless you, and I bless you, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” as I trace a cross on a person’s forehead. It’s a small thing, but it also is a right thing. Let’s take a moment to look at the full text of our second Key Verse for additional guidance:

Isaiah 56:6-7 – The foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, ministering to him, loving the name of the LORD, and becoming his servants — all who keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, (for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.) In my heart and mind, I find I must confess that it is difficult for me to accept that “all peoples” belong in the house – the family – of God. What I have often failed to realize is that it is not I who gets to make that decision; I am not the one to discern between us and them, this and that, you and me. God’s Word alone is our judge, and he always judges with fairness and rules with equity. If I truly want to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with … God, then I have to do the right thing. It’s what I want; it’s not always what I get; it is always what I need.

To Do What Is Right is sometimes difficult because we are sinners. Let us resolve then to live in his Grace by loving as he has loved. These words from the Apostle Paul to the Hebrews are always a great comfort even in these difficult times: Ephesians 2:4-10 – 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved — 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God — 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

That’s just how simple it is. It’s enough to keep us singing. (↔ Music Link [loads slowly]) We sometimes slip and fall, but God’s arms are for reaching out to us, to give us someone to lean on (↔ Music Link) when things are tough. It is then and there that we learn “To Do What Is Right.” We need only to recall what the Apostle Paul told us in 1 Thessalonians 5:15 – 15 See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all. So many people these days – all around the world – go out of their way to curse, to violate, to denigrate, and to discriminate against everyone who doesn’t think like them. We ignore instructions such as those in 1 Peter 3:8 and 1 Corinthians 1:10 to have (as The Apostle Peter puts it) unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. “Ah!” you say, “you forget, not everyone is Christian. Non-Christians will never accept that.” Actually, only the most evil persons cannot accept that. ALL major religions at their core preach and teach respect for each other and encourage peace as the preferred way of life. Even people who have nothing to do with any religion can be good and kind and generous. Hate is definitely a perversion of God’s intent for human nature. God wishes to bless everyone, even the unjust, and he does so in many ways (← Check it out!). That is because God is Infinitely Just which allows him to be Infinitely Merciful because he has Perfect Integrity. His Mercy endures forever – for those who who trust in his ways (↔ Music Link). For those who do not trust in his ways, his justice falls heavily on those who will not accept the Power of his Grace. Therein shall they learn with us To Do What Is Right.

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – May 6, 2022 – Read the instructions

May 6, 2022

2218AFC050622 – Read the instructions

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.

     Psalm 100:3 – 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

John 10:11 – 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep

John 10:27 – 27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.

Isaiah 60:3 – 3 Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Luke 2:32 – [Simeon said] 32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

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. This coming Sunday is the Fourth Sunday of Eastertide. It is commonly referred to as “Good Shepherd Sunday” because the readings – regardless of the Gospel cycles – focus on Jesus proclaiming that he is the Good Shepherd. You can find details about that idea here (↔ Click Link) and here (↔ Click Link for other names referring to Jesus). We’ve looked into Jesus’ words about being a good shepherd, and that claim is sharply contrasted with the Prophets’ warnings to the Priests of Israel telling them that they are unfaithful, and even brutishly stupid (See Jeremiah 10:21). Jesus called the Pharisees “blind guides” and characterized them as pompous hypocrites. We recall that the word “hypocrite” comes from a Greek word hupokrités – literally under or behind a mask – a pretender, an actor, a two-faced performer whose words are contradicted by their actions. There is a disconnect between what they profess and how they progress. God had definitive instructions on the behavior he expected and time after time after time those instructions were ignored. Let’s go back to the beginning of Israel – to the Promise made to Abraham about the land his seed would inherit.

We can start with Genesis 15:16-21 where God describes an immense area extending from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates, from Dan to Beersheba. You can get a sense of that here (↔ Click Link). As you can see from the list in verses 19-21, God instructed Israel to take away the areas of 10 nations. He instructed them to utterly destroy all of those people because they had become so evil. In the promise to Abraham, God said Abraham’s descendants would possess all of that in the fourth generation – roughly 400 years later! They did not follow his instructions. We have the story of Achan who did not follow the “rules of the ban,” and he took some of the treasure of the spoils and hid it in his tent. He didn’t think God would see. When Israel went to battle with Ai, they lost because they were overly confident in themselves rather that trusting in God and what he had instructed them to do. How often do we transgress because we think we know better than God what we should do? The honest answer is “Most of the times that I’m wrong.” We end up in a dark place, scared, uncertain, hoping that somehow God will understand, reach into the mess we’ve made, and save us  –  AGAIN. Why oh why do we jump into those dark places? What is so attractive about sin that we just can’t seem to avoid it? Why is it so discouraging? (↔ Music Link) Scroll back up and look at the first Key Verse from Psalm 100. Psalm 100:3 – 3 Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture

We know God made us and we are his … until we forget and pretend (actors are we) that we are ours. Like a four-year-old we insist, “I do it myself! No, Belovéd, we needn’t even try to do that; we will fail because we did not follow instructions. Let me share with you an example.

When I was doing Management Training work, I sometimes used “A Test for Following Directions.” You can view the test (and download it) by using this link. The directions say to “read all of the directions before beginning this test.” That instruction is also read orally at the beginning of the exercise. Then there follows a ridiculous series of tasks until you get to the last instruction which says to ignore all the previous instructions and that’s the end of it. The point of the exercise is that many (sometimes “most”) of us will plow right in and start doing these ridiculous things because we are conditioned to start promptly and work hard. When I was a kid, all the “standardized test” instructions included something like “Work quickly and well.” We have to read the instructions. So now it’s time to spring my little surprise!

This is the follow-up message in a so-far-unnamed series. Last week we learned Jesus’ simple but powerful instruction to the Apostles: “Follow me.” (↔ Music Link) That is how sheep work with the shepherd. He leads, they follow; they know his voice. God has established that sort of relationship with his chosen people – he leads, they follow – except they forgot; or more properly stated they chose not to follow. HE is God. WE are not (sounds familiar, yes?), and it is his loving care that guides us. Jesus takes on the role of shepherd because the shepherds God had appointed and anointed failed to lead as God decreed. They didn’t follow his instructions. Oh they read them, memorized them even, but when it came to the nitty-gritty of following them, they failed the test. The Chosen People chose poorly. They chose not to put every structure and living creature under The Ban “The Ban” is God’s order to utterly destroy each nation in Canaan – men, women, children, infants, cattle, buildings, homes – everything absolutely, completely, unreservedly, fully demolished. The people in the Ten Nations under The Ban were too evil to be allowed to exist – much in the same way God looked at the world in Noah’s time and decided to save only 8 of them. In Canaan God decided to save the obedient people in Israel (the disobedient were also to be eliminated), but to wipe out everyone else. They didn’t do that, and we’re still seeing the results of that failure today.

God chose Israel to be “a light to the nations.” By their obedience and Love they would shine like the sun before other nations so that nations not chosen would look at Israel and say, “What other nation has a God so powerful, and laws so fair, or wisdom so fine as the nation of Israel?” (See Deuteronomy 4:31-40 for Moses’ instructions to Israel on this. It’s a great read!) Isaiah said it well in one of our Key Verses – Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. In their humanness, they could not complete that instruction. It would take a human from God to be that light, that Salvation, that fulfillment of God’s intent for Adam and Eve. He not only told us he is the Good Shepherd but also that he is the Light of the World. I’m going to place John 12:46-50 here so you can see how important it is to know and understand what Jesus means (my emphasis added):

46 “I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”

Jesus can, will, and does follow God’s instructions. If we are in him and he is in us, then we are in the Light and the Light is in us; we no longer belong to darkness. In this quote from Camus, where it says “within me,” substitute “in Jesus.” (You Biblicists out there will doubtless want to look at the First Letter of John especially 1 John 2:1 – 3:6. It is a most consoling passage full of good instructions.) I’m going to give you 1 John 3:6 for the edification of those who did not go and read the longer passage: 1 John 3:6 – 6 No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. OUCH!

I do not know any living person in the World who does not sin, but I know of billions who abide in him, whose sins are forgotten, disremembered, g-o-n-e GONE! “How does that happen?” you might ask. They are the ones who follow instructions. “Where do they get these instructions?” you say. In the B.I.B.L.E., a beneficial feature of the APP which is activated each time we repent and believe the Gospel. But, like Israel, sometimes we forget. No worries! God has posted sentinels to watch for the enemies of God. They are our Prophets, and this is how they are instructed and respond:

Isaiah 21:6-9 – 6 For this is what Adonai said to me: “Go, post a watchman to report what he sees! 7 If he sees the cavalry, horsemen in pairs, riders on donkeys, riders on camels, he must be on alert, on full alert!” 8 He calls out like a lion: “My lord, I stand on the watchtower all day long, I stay at my post all night.” 9 Then, as they appeared — the cavalry, horsemen in pairs — he spoke these words: “She has fallen! She has fallen — Bavel*! All the carved images of her gods lie shattered on the ground.” *Babylon Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

You see, Truth will prevail, Love will endure, Virtue will remain unblemished for all who read – AND OBEY – the instructions from the one who is a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to [God’s] people Israel. Little children of the Belovéd, come to the light! It’s shining for us. (↔ Music Link) Come! Let us follow him who made us wholly Holy! He is calling. (↔ Music Link) What will we do? (↔ Music Link) Read the instructions, then trust and obey!

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

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