2536AFC090525 – Who’s on first? ← PODCAST LINK 😀

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Luke 14:33 – ³³ So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.

Philemon 17 – ¹⁷ So [therefore] if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.

Psalm 90:12 –
¹² So [therefore] teach us to count our days
    that we may gain a wise heart.

Wisdom 9:15 – (GNT) [1] ¹⁵ [therefore] because our mortal bodies weigh our souls down. The body is a temporary structure made of earth, a burden to the active mind.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! May Peace always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd! I feel badly about not delivering on my proposal to include biblical names in these posts, so – as we did last week – we will start with a look at a pair of sisters mentioned in the New Testament in Acts 24:24-27, 25:1-27.

The sisters’ names are Bernice and Drusilla. Here’s the back-story from Acts 24:1-23: The Apostle Paul is in prison in Caesarea having been accused as “a pestilent fellow, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.” See verse 5, where a lawyer named Tertullus, cites the accusations against him. The Apostle Paul waited patiently, perhaps smiling at the oily tone of the lawyer, and then told the presider, the Governor Felix, “This fellow has nothing on me.”. His wife was also present. Her name was Drusilla. She and her sister, Bernice, were the great granddaughters of Herod the Great – the same Herod who ordered every male child under the age of two to be slaughtered in the hope that he would thereby eliminate the child Jesus. Herod was the kind of guy that always had to be Number 1 for everyone – and if he wasn’t your #1, he’d kill you.

The father of Bernice and Drusilla was Herod Agrippa I – the Herodian ruler that murdered the Apostle James and imprisoned The Apostle Peter. We are told that he declined to honor God and an Angel of the Lord struck him down so that he died from being “eaten by worms for five days.” So, now, Bernice was married to Felix who kept interviewing The Apostle Paul in the hope that he would be offered a bribe to let The Apostle Paul off. This went on for two years, and then Felix was replaced by a guy named Porcius Festus. Felix kept The Apostle Paul in prison hoping to please the Jews who kept accusing him of being and enemy of theirs because of his teachings about The Way. Festus tried to adjudicate the case but neither side convinced him, and he had decided to send The Apostle Paul to Rome (we recall he is still a Roman citizen).

About that time, King Agrippa II and his sister, Bernice – Drusilla’s older sister who was the wife of Felix, arrived for a visit and took an interest in the proceedings. None of these people could find any reason for The Apostle Paul to be in chains much less any crime worth a death sentence. The sisters were as immoral as their ancestors and relatives. Each married or acted as a lover to more than one man, always seeking greater power, always wanting to be what we today would call “The First Lady of Jerusalem.” None of them was ever satisfied with their position in life. None of them lived a life that demonstrated any reverence for God. They apparently never even considered giving God Preeminence in all things.

Returning now to our Key Verses, we can start with the Gospel selection. We can imagine that when Jesus’ Disciples heard that sentence, they were shocked and dismayed. “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” Having a wealth of possessions was a sign of God’s favor in Jesus’ time. People who were poor or diseased were considered as punished by God for their sins or even the sins of their ancestors. To voluntarily give up one’s possessions and take up that stigma of low-class citizens was radically different from everything they had been taught. We can understand this better by looking at the original Greek to see what’s going on. The word used to express “give up” is apotassó (ah-po-TAS-so). This verb has a literal or denotative meaning of “to bid farewell (either when departing or sending away). It also has connotative meanings “to renounce, to set aside, to say goodbye.” Jesus is telling his Disciples that they must count the cost of discipleship; nothing else – no something, no person, no place, no idea, or ideal can be more important than being a Disciple. Giving less than all our best will get us the opportunity to hear from Jesus, “Depart from me you evildoers! I do not know you!”

We might try to understand it like this: our lives are like a tower of shelves. The upper shelves are where we keep our greatest treasures. Who among us always has God – our El Shaddai-Olam, THE Eternal Triune God – on the First Shelf? In our individualist society, we’re taught to “look out for number one.” That’s really GREAT advice – if we know who Number One is. Last week I gave examples of several things we can do that disclose our real priorities, and usually those priorities are self-centered – they feature us on the First Shelf. “Who’s on first?” ME! Me, myself, and I. That’s why I picked that Key Verse from Philemon.

Instead of The Apostle Paul saying that to Philemon, what if that were Jesus speaking to us about the Holy Spirit or God the Father? “So [therefore] if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.” Incidentally, I added the word [therefore] because usually in the New Testament that is a connotative meaning for “so.” Do we consider Jesus to be our Partner? Do we welcome the Holy Spirit or Our Father in Heaven into our lives as easily as we accept Jesus? Is the entire Holy Trinity on First? If not, then we really don’t know God, do we? Right now, I’m probably thinking what y’all are thinking: “This is a difficult question because it does not have an easy answer!” Nonetheless, we all aspire to “get it right.” There just isn’t any room for a wrong answer. Forget about how many Angels can dance on the end of a pin and ask, “How long can I stay on-point for God?” How many days do we have to try to keep God on First?

For some of us, not as many as we think. For others of us, more than we’d care to know. It seems we’re never really satisfied with how much Life we have – or don’t have. We’re always wondering if that or that or us or them or he or she or whatever will finally satisfy us. We just want that taste of The Good Life. “Taste and See” (↔ Music Link) the Goodness of the Lord.” We know that’s The Good Life! Fickle little creatures of habit we are to decide we must choose something that is “other-than.” That hymn is based on Verse 8 of Psalms 34. Whenever we are having a difficult time choosing The Good Life, or whenever we realize we have failed to choose it, this Psalm 34 is like a balm for our wounded soul –
⁴ I sought the Lord, and he answered me,
    and delivered me from all my fears.

AND

⁷ The angel of the Lord encamps
    around those who fear him, and delivers them.

AND

¹¹ Come, O children, listen to me;
    I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
¹² Which of you desires life,
    and covets many days to enjoy good?
¹³ Keep your tongue from evil,
    and your lips from speaking deceit.
¹⁴ Depart from evil, and do good;
    seek peace, and pursue it.

Once we learn how sweet The Good Life is, we return to the Lord and our Key Verse from the Psalms reminds us, ¹² So [therefore] teach us to count our days [aright]
    that we may gain a wise heart.
and, Belovéd, here is Wisdom : Every Day with Jesus is Sweeter Than The Day before. (↔ Music Link)

It turns out that most of the time we make the same mistake: we try to glom onto something/someone that will add goodness to our lives when what we really need to do is let go of all the useless, heavy, stumble-bumming possessions that weigh us down. We forget (again!) that Jesus is a Wonderful Savior (↔ Music Link) I heard this recently: “If ya can’t take it There, do ya really need to take it here?” Now, try to think of the One Thing we can take with us There. I vote for “The Joy of our Salvation,” and that is ours because He lives (↔ Music Link) So let me ask, “Do we think of Jesus as someone in the Bible as history, or like that song up there, is he alive in our hearts If we have that, we have all that we need, and really, would we ever want anything less? BUT, as always (here it comes again!) – WE FORGET! And, whenever we forget, our Almighty Triune God, El Shaddai-Olam is no longer on First and  [therefore]because our mortal bodies weigh our souls down. The body is a temporary structure made of earth, a burden to the active mind. As we’ve said a couple of times recently, we’re always tied to the mud, both coming and going, and as long as we’re trying to take care of our #1 mud, we’re gonna stay stuck. It seems there is only one way to avoid that: Give Primacy and Preeminence to God in all things at all times in all ways and all places so that God is all in all. Now, that’s something to sing about so I have a song (↔ Music Link) that Jesus gave me!

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

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

Who’s on first skit. ← Worth a few laughs. This is the original Abbot and Costello Skit “Who’s on First.”

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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

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

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

2535AFC082925 –  You’ll get yours. ← PODCAST LINK 😀

Read it online here, please. Reading it online allows the email version to reach many more subscribers. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
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Sirach 3:18-19* –
¹⁸ The greater you are, the more you must humble yourself;
    so you will find favor in the sight of the Lord.
¹⁹  Many are lofty and renowned, but to the humble he reveals his secrets.
* V. 19 does not appear in all manuscripts but is included in some

Luke 14:11, 13-14 – ¹¹ For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. ¹³ But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. ¹⁴ And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! If you did not get last week’s email, I apologize for the inconvenience. I’m still getting “bounce-backs” from MicroSoft stating “We noticed some unusual activity on your account.” I’m resorting to sending only the first line or so of the post in the emailed version in the hope that the decreased density will not trigger that response. In addition, the Todd Team is still recuperating from a bout with COVID-19 this past week, so my “powers are somewhat under a cloud” as Mark Twain once quipped.

I want to begin this one with one of the Bible Character stories I promised but failed to deliver. This one fits into today’s theme. We can take a look at why Joshua never conquered the Philistines. Who were they anyway, and why did they never get wiped out like other nations in Canaan? The very basis of that story comes down to a single word very often associated with Israel: disobedience. God charged Israel to completely destroy the nations of Canaan and all their religious shrines, altars, sacred poles and sacred groves, and all the idols they worshipped. Israel was ordered to utterly destroy all those nations and not to leave alive anything that breathes (See Deuteronomy 20:16). They failed to do that. Instead, they took wives from the women left as survivors. They began using the idols and evil practices of the nations which were to be utterly destroyed. They ultimately made an idol of the Ark of the Covenant, worshiping the Ark itself instead of the One, True God who ruled them there. The Ark was captured by the Philistines when Hophni and Phineas, the sons of the High Priest at Shiloh – Eli – who was also among the Judges (military leaders) of Israel, committed grave sins in the Temple and in their duties as Levites. When they were killed in battle, Eli fell over backwards in his chair and broke his neck and died. They all got their abrupt and final reward because of the evil they committed or allowed.

Because of Israel’s disobedience, God left the Philistines and several other nations in Canaan to “be a thorn in the side of the Israelites.” God also decreed that these nations, and the Philistines in particular, would be a source of training in battle and war tactics for the younger generation which had not fought through the taking of the Promised Land. God removed those enemies from the Promise, again because of Israel’s own disobedience, evil, and decadence. What was promised in Covenant as victory became repeated ignominious defeat as punishment for breaking and blatantly dishonoring God by abandoning their obligations in the Covenant. In this God shows that he gives what he promises. Obedience brings blessing and prosperity. Disobedience brings calamity. In harmony with today’s topic, they got theirs – they got what they asked for not so much with their words but absolutely by there actions. Their direct and persistent disobedience became the recurring downfall of the nation over millennia. Israel’s failure to fully trust in God led to their fear of other nations which had mastered the fabrication of iron chariots which Israel could not withstand. Instead of relying on God to fight for them, they wimped out and compromised with their enemies.

One might wonder if today Israel is obeying God, and whether or not there is still any covenant to be obeyed. They certainly have enough enemies in this current day, and those enemies are in the same geographical regions at centuries upon centuries ago. Many of the names from those eras are with us today: Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza. Modern statements about the region point out that today’s Palestinians are not descendants of the Philistines. The Philistines were conquered, divided, deported to Babylon, Egypt, and Assyria. The ethnic identity of “Philistine” disappeared by the 5^th century BC. They got theirs because of their continued dedication to grotesquely evil religious practices and were ultimately conquered by Nebuchadnezzar II. We might phrase it in today’s jargon as “they thought they were too big to fail,” but God did not find that attitude acceptable, and so they failed completely.

Belovéd, when we behave like we are too big to fail, do we not also get chaos and disruption to be ours? Conversely, and most importantly, when we live a life of humble service to God and neighbor, we see clearly how our lives are blessed. Too many of us live as if we have only our knowledge of “the Historical Jesus,” when we ought to know – and live in the reality of it – that Jesus is alive, the Lord of all the living, “the Firstfruits of those who have died.” (See 1 Corinthians 15:20) In our Key Verses from Sirach, there is clearly stated Wisdom that is the key to unlock the richness of Providence in our lives. God always gives everyone all Good Gifts. No one is exempt from God’s blessings except those who refuse to accept them. How do we refuse to accept God’s Gifts? What can we do that turns a Bundle of Blessings into a heap of pain? That happens when we forget. (There it is again, that propensity to disregard what we’ve been taught is Right). We forget that God does not change. He said so himself in Malachi 3:5-6 – ⁵ Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired workers in their wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who thrust aside the alien, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.

⁶ For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, have not perished.

Today we do not have Prophets like Malachi who address us saying “Thus says the Lord, your God!” But we have many people – as God himself decreed – who speak from within God’s voice. Not often do we hear, “Thus says the Lord God,” but we do often hear things like, “God is expecting us to understand that …” These modern-day prophets speak out to us about the same things the Apostle Paul warned about: Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers – every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, vaunted pride, murder, strife, deceit, all forms of sexual dysfunctionality and abnormal practices including same-sex fornication, prostitution, and even bestiality; witchcraft, astrology, faithless and untrustworthy, practicing craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters who are insolent, haughty, gluttonous, boastful, inventors of evil, filled with foul language, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die – yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them. (See Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 5) To that list we must shamefully add murders of millions of innocents – babies, elders, political enemies, ethnic pogroms, and intentional destruction and failure of stewardship for our only home, Earth.

Adelphos, we all know without even a second’s thought that these are evil acts and intentions, that these are evil times, and that evil people are in every strata and vertical stay of everything. There is nothing any person can say or do that cannot be mocked or even destroyed, and there are few things that any person can do or say that have permanence in our interactions with others – including with our God. We state, and believe we are truthful, that we Love God with our total being, and we Love our neighbors as ourselves. We work hard, we profess, to be “in the world but not of the world,” but still break the Sabbath at Wal-Mart or A&W, or Micky D’s. We go 7 mph over the speed limit because we believe the police won’t stop us for speeding, then we go even faster when we’re certain there are no police around. We “slip” and use God’s name to curse someone, or don’t disclose we received more change back than we should have when we pay for lunch. Now, I harp on this one a lot because it is so common: We skip church because the Packers are playing (or whatever sport and team is an idol for us). Friends, neighbors, even our own children live lives of fornication “shacking up” and just boyfriend-girlfriend couples who also go ahead and produce children outside the blessings of Holy Matrimony. And “same-sex ‘marriages’” have become an acceptable model for the modern family.

Yes, I agree, most of these are things over which we have little or no control, but they are also things that are displeasing to God and a violation of his Law. We can at least “Lift up our drooping hands” (See Hebrews 12:12-17 to look for “repentance” right away!) and SPEAK OUT against these evils. Remember, we have often noted that “The Ten Commandments” is not a list of suggestions from which we can pick and choose. It is One Law, and infractions of any kind against any part of that One Law is an infraction against the Whole Law, and an affront to God. Therefore, we can thank God that he is known by his Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation. Our lives would be unlivable without those beatitudes surrounding us. Wherever God’s commands are blatantly transgressed in personal exaltation, everyone – everyone – falls under judgement. But for The Believer, a different reality arises.

For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Those who senselessly violate God’s One Law – and all the requirements that go with it – exalt their prowess in the World and basically dare God to cut them down. What they do not believe and cannot admit is Jesus’ promise for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous. We’re back to YOLO-F again here, because along with the Resurrection of the righteous there will also be the Resurrection of the unrighteous.” Let’s look back again to the conquest of Canaan. God gave the Kingdoms of Canaan 400 years to repent before he brought the Hebrews out of Egypt, specifically the Amorites, because “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.” On the occasion of the Covenant with Abram, God said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, ¹⁹ the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” (See Genesis 15:18-21) Now, what sort of sins would take 400 years to repent? Much of the above list: Incest, adultery, idolatry, worship of and consorting with demons, ritual prostitution, child sacrifice by burning alive in worship of Molech, homosexual acts, divination, sorcery, violence against other nations including refusal to allow Israel to enter the land and attacking them instead.

Remember the Psalmist wrote Your decrees are wonderful; therefore my soul keeps them  (See Psalm 119:129-130) – unless I foolishly try to characterize God as a liar, as The Apostle John told us. If it is the Light that makes moving forward safely in every circumstance, then why not walk in the light? (↔ Music Link) Jesus certainly knows where we are, where we’re going, and does everything he can to make sure we arrive at the Place he has prepared for us. Every single soul who has ever walked the Earth has full access to the saving Grace of Salvation. Untold numbers ignore that, oppose that, or – worse – are indifferent to that. The result is that they themselves vote themselves out of the Family of God. They vote with their feet by walking away from the Light. God will, and does, allow us to be stupid, disobedient, and rebellious while patiently waiting for us to wake up and do the right thing. He also wants us to speak up when we see the wrong thing, despite what ha-Satan, the Accuser, throws at us.

The thing is, there are endless, and I mean endless, opportunities to “settle with your accuser” (i.e., kick Satan in the butt ) before that last moment of Earthly life. After that moment, there are no do-overs. What’s done is done, and what we’ve won, we’ve won. God gives us the biggest and best opportunities to get it right and make a final smart move when he calls us by name, points to his son and says, “This is Jesus.” (↔ Music Link) Of course, Belovéd, we have that opportunity to see Jesus “every moment of every day“. (↔ Music Link) We also know that at any moment we can leave this Earth. Are we ready today, right now, for that irrevocable outcome at the end of our lives which is based on all our choices? Our making sure each of us is indeed fully and righteously prepared for that moment is the smartest move of all. How do we know? Try this: John 14:23 – ²³ Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Loving Jesus is a really smart move.

Remember, we are held accountable when the people we should have warned die unrepentant. A great example of a bad example is the Wisest Man in the World, Solomon. God allowed Solomon to keep on defying him in the hope that – like his father, David – he would repent. Every time Solomon took in another princess from another forbidden country or another concubine from another forbidden family, he was apparently thinking he was making another smart move to preserve his wealth, honor, and security. Actually it was just the opposite. He only impoverished himself and his people, he lost all honor from God and men, and enemies sprouted up all around and within Israel. Time was running out for Solomon to repent. There is no word in Scripture that he ever got to that stage. He may have died unrepentant, and that was definitely not another smart move. He took his chances and he got his reward. We’ll get ours, too, and that is all the more reason to speak out against what we know is wrong and to defend and to respect what is Right. Solomon failed at that. DON’T BE LIKE SOLOMON. To those four marvelous attributes of God I listed again earlier in this post, we can also add “Immutable Justice,” because it is an inexorable attribute of his Divinely Absolute Nature. In all things at all times in all ways and places, God’s Immutable Justice metes out whatever we ask of him by our obedience, or lack thereof, including his Mercy or his Retribution. Many are lofty and renowned, but to the humble he reveals his secrets. The Secret of Mercy is Obedience, and the secret of Obedience is Love. Yep. Love of God and neighbor is the secret we must know when getting ours – a Blesséd life for all of our YOLO-F.

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

2534AFC082225 – Mud in the wine. ← PODCAST LINK 😀

Read it online here, please. Reading it online allows the email version to reach many more subscribers. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
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Luke 13:24, 29-30 – ²⁴ “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. ²⁹ Then people will come from east and west, from north and south, and will eat in the kingdom of God. ³⁰ Indeed, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Isaiah 66:17-18 – ¹⁷ Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the center, eating the flesh of pigs, vermin, and rodents, shall come to an end together, says the Lord.

¹⁸ For I know their works and their thoughts, and I am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory,

Hebrews 12:5-8 – ⁵ And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—

“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
    or lose heart when you are punished by him;
⁶ for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
    and chastises every child whom he accepts.”
⁷ Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline? ⁸ If you do not have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and not his children.

Ezekiel 8:1-4  (GNT) – Idolatry in Jerusalem  ¹ On the fifth day of the sixth month of the sixth year of our exile, the leaders of the exiles from Judah were sitting in my house with me. Suddenly the power of the Sovereign Lord came on me. ² I looked up and saw a vision of a fiery human form. From the waist down his body looked like fire, and from the waist up he was shining like polished bronze. ³ He reached out what seemed to be a hand and grabbed me by the hair. Then in this vision God’s spirit lifted me high in the air and took me to Jerusalem. He took me to the inner entrance of the north gate of the Temple, where there was an idol that was an outrage to God.

⁴ There I saw the dazzling light that shows the presence of Israel’s God, just as I had seen it when I was by the Chebar River.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! It seems lately I’ve been given topics – titles for the posts – that are a little strange. I sincerely hope that by the time we finish today, you and I will both have a better idea why we’re talking about Mud in the wine. In this post, we will look at some pretty stark words from Jesus to his Disciples. In the 2000 or so years since these words were spoken, there has been much analysis of the text and other passages connected to it. We’ll look at a little of that today, but mostly I want to write about why “narrow” is such an important word in Christian life, and what it means to put a dollop of mud in a glass of Shiraz or White Zinfandel. Are you ready? Then let’s begin by examining the teaching mentioned in 1 Timothy 4:1

Last week we looked at how Jesus talked about bringing division and fire. These persons who learn and reteach demonic messages are the jesters of the universe – trying to claim they speak for Jesus – saying they want the world to sing the same song and share a Coke (although many prefer a toke instead). They claim to have heard the Word, but somehow it doesn’t apply to them because they have transcended that outdated collection of myths and mistakes. Here’s what happens to them as told to us in James 1:23-24 – ²³ For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; ²⁴ for they look at themselves and, upon going away, immediately forget what they were like.

Here are several additional passages that relate to today’s Key Verses:

Matthew 7:13-14 – ¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. ¹⁴ For the gate is narrow and the road is hard (constricted) that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”

Mark 10:25 – ²⁵ It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

Matthew 7:15-19 – ¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Matthew 24:3-5 – ³ When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” ⁴ Jesus answered them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. ⁵ For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many astray.”

Let’s begin with Matthew 7:13 – that broad highway to destruction of which Jesus speaks. What does he mean by destruction? The Greek word used there is ἀπώλειαν apōleian from ἀπώλεια (apóleia) {ap-o’-li-a} “cut off” as someone or something is completely severed from whatever could/should have happened had they not strayed off from what is righteous. This is the same Greek word used and translated as “perdition.” Those “bound for perdition” (See Revelation 17:11 for example) will be utterly destroyed. That road that leads to utter, eternal destruction – the road to Hell – is wide and lovely (paved with good intentions, heh?), and many wish to follow it. They believe in the dawn of a New Age.

In this New Age, there is the evolution of a new consciousness. This revised reality comes from an “enlightened” understanding of how the universe acts on our behalf to show us the inner deity we all possess but do not recognize. The evidence is right in front of our eyes in the Aquarian Age and was clearly predicted in the “Mayan Great Cycle.” We, as the Children of Gaea (“Mother Earth”) will be able – if we raise our level of consciousness to full realization and actualization of our inner divine being – to capitalize on this “tremendous opportunity for spiritual growth” so we can readily and properly embrace genuine humanitarianism that unites the whole world into one massive village where, according to one of the principle theme songs of this “great movement,” there will be one government, one way for all, as we unite in group-consciousness and realize we are all gods because we at last understand “Christ Consciousness.” Adelphos, this BS is summed up in one word: IDOLATRY.

Belovéd, there are literally “billions upon billions” of aspiring luminaries who believe that horse-puckey. In their cosmogony of the universe, they believe that the spiritual masters they have been anticipating have arrived and (paraphrasing Pogo) “They are US!” That is a very Wide Road indeed, wide as the whole wide world. The problem of course comes up when it’s time to leave the road on Earth and go to the Road Beyond. You see, there’s a bit of a “bottleneck” there: The Narrow Road and the Narrower Door.

Many will try to enter that narrow door, but they cannot; it is too difficult for them because they want to “take it all with them” – after all they are gods – and that just doesn’t work because that’s not how God created it. Jesus was telling the Disciples quite plainly that choosing to follow him was not going to be a walk in the garden. It would be hard, treacherous, and even lead to death.

It is super-important to remember Jesus’ summary of the Law and the Prophets. what is the first and most important, most permanent Law? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the Prophets.” Now, this is where we take the mud of last week’s lesson, plop a spoonful into a glass of wine, and use that to portray what sort of sins beleaguered Israel from day three in the desert (yep it took them only three days) up to Jesus’ day, and is still a problem today. We earthlings, whether male or female, ultimately come from mud, and we keep trying to find ways to worship that mud because (apparently) we reckon God can go ahead and do his thing, but we want to add something we know directly – something we make with our own Intellect and our own will, something we can see, and touch, and control through worship and sacrifice.

Remember, ALL cultures have religion, the heart of religion is worship, and the heart of worship is sacrifice. God tells us repeatedly “Don’t do that.” And what do we say to that? “God I know what you want, but I don’t really want you to put yourself out so much. I’ll just go ahead and do what I want. I’ve got this. I can handle it. I’ll take it from here.”

Now, God  has distinctly, repeatedly, and unequivocally made it clear that we are to have no other God but the Real, True, and only Living God of Hosts (and that term, Jehovah Sabaoth, means more than just God’s Army; it means everything God has created). He does not want us to worship idols, things that we make with our own hands, things that cannot speak, or move on their own, things that are nothing more than things. This is what Isaiah was talking about “going in the garden following the one in the center”– an idol. I believe I understand that clearly enough, but I also know that all of us can plop an idol into our lives, even as part of worship. We already have two examples of this in our Key Verses from Isaiah and Ezekiel. In the passage from Ezekiel 8 – Idolatry and abomination in the Temple, they actually set up secret altars to idols in the area of the temple! This has always been a problem because we earthlings, the mudders, just can’t seem to get over the fact that God requires our complete and undivided commitment to him. Everything that we are, and everything that we have, are his Gifts.

God’s gifts are always Good, always Pure, always Wonder-Full. Remember that line, “My cup overflows.”? OK, imagine a “table of feasting set up in the sight of my enemies,” and imagine a crystal goblet filled with a light and luscious wine in a decanter that is never empty. After sharing our umpteenth glass of this fabulous wine, we notice someone has dropped a teaspoonful of mud into the bottom of the glass. Why? So we could acknowledge our ties to Mother Earth, to Gaea, because we want to share the credit for our blessings with our Creator and the Source of our creation – mud.

I hope that sounds ridiculous. It should, but way too many times we muddy up God’s Good and Perfect gifts with other idols like televised sports that we watch instead of going to church. Or soccer practice with the kids. Or watching the Pokémon Championship Series. Or fishing in that secret spot in the mountains where we get back to God through Mother Nature.

Nope. Not gonna fly. Belovéd, we do well to recall the Parable of the Wedding Banquet in Matthew 22:1-14 – especially that last verse: ¹⁴ For many are called, but few are chosen. Some believe there are exactly 144,000 souls in that “few.” Others believe you can’t follow the road unless you find the road. I’m in that group. Sometimes I wander off-road and get lost in the brambles, but when I come back I find that the road I follow is like a straight pencil line drawn across a humongous floor upon which many have applied great quantities of paint, and sand, and riches, and filth, all set in swirls and splatters; but the line is always there, always straight, always narrow, and always findable.

I walk the line, stumbling off to one side or the other at times, and I see the Narrow Door up ahead of me. When I get there, Someone will hold it open for me. Let’s go there together, then, and cross that threshold to the Place where God is on his Throne, and where we are called to minister there in the Eternal Banquet beyond the narrow door through which only Saints – True Servants of God –  can pass. They can find and follow the Narrow Way. (↔ Music Link)

That door, that gate at the end of the Road – it’s not a swinging door that opens for ingress and egress. It is, perhaps, much like that quote attributed to Rev. C. H. Spurgeon which describes it something like this: Over the front of Heaven’s gate is a sign which reads “Whosoever wills let him come.” Upon entering we discover that a sign above the inside of the door says, “CHOSEN IN CHRIST (↔ Music Link) BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.” 

Now, that’s the Pure, Sweet, Fine Wine that brings Joy to the Heart and rest from our labors. That is waiting for us at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb – our Heavenly Banquet where there will never be mud in the wine.

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

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

2533AFC081525 – The Struggle in the Mud

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Hebrews 12:1 ^a-b – 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

* ὄγκον onkon – hindrance, distraction, besetting sin, a bulky mass of useless burdens

Psalm 40:2 –
² He drew me up from the desolate pit,
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.

Jeremiah 38:4 ^a 5-6 – ⁴ Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to be put to death, because he is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, and all the people […] ⁵ King Zedekiah said, “Here he is; he is in your hands; for the king is powerless against you.” ⁶ So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. Now there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

Luke 12:49-50 – ⁴⁹ “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! ⁵⁰ I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!”

May the God of Peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! And welcome to Post #1031. This blog site usually gets updated – rented, paid – at the end of September, and so far things are going great! Well, mostly. I bought a new keyboard and mouse and my typing errors have increased because I have to sit up and use all of it properly. Otherwise the keys get stuck like my old Royal Typewriter. Well, not really exactly like that, but it does slow me down when I have to go back and correct something that happened because I was being careless about how I use my tools. Well, sort of. Another part of it is because – like the Tin Woodsman – my parts are a little rusty. The osteoarthritis in my fingers, back, and feet slow me down, and I really should not spend hours sitting at the keyboard because my feet swell up and fire off the peripheral neuropathy pangs. Most of these are hindrances that get in my way because I didn’t do the right things when I was younger. Remember that song, “I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger.”? Ditto.

There are things I can do to lessen or ameliorate those limitations which can bring some relief, but the bottom line is some of it I just have to accept as “the new normal,” and then just keep on truckin’ until I get Home. I get plenty of help, though. Crucita puts up with a lot of baloney from me with my moans and groans, slow walk, cane falling over all the time (and so many times I hobble off on my own and forget it). She helps me with Salonpas, does my haircuts (since 1972!!), and we share the kitchen and household duties. I’m not much good outside though, so she still mows the lawn, and trims the trees and bushes at age 81. In a way, I am a burden for her because of my disabilities, BUT we do have a handicap parking card so, there’s that. Even so, she is true to her vows and sticks with me for richer or poorer (got the latter kinda worked out), in sickness and in health (not much of the latter in that one), and quickly points out when I am wrong or unhelpful (which, I have learned, is often). These are all things old, married, and patient couples deal with in some way or another. We have to work with the cards we’re dealt; but we all know some folks who have to cope with more glitches either by their own actions or by the actions of others. There’s some insights in today’s Key Verses we can use as glitch cleaners.

In our Old Testament reading from Jeremiah – who is always in some sort of fix because of God’s messages through him – the Prophet is tossed into a cistern by his enemies who are hoping he will die. The cistern was full of mud – the water it had to held had been used up and all that was left was silty, gooey mud; some might even liken it to quicksand. Raise your hand if you can remember someone else who was left to die in a cistern. Right! Well done, scholar! Joseph got tossed into a cistern and then sold into slavery. This was done because his older brothers did not appreciate their little brother telling them they would one day bow down to him.

Joseph was speaking a Prophecy given by God which later came true. Jeremiah was speaking a Prophecy given by God that Jerusalem would be Captured and burned down if King Zedekiah, and the people in and around Jerusalem, did not surrender to the Chaldeans a.k.a. the Babylonians. Four bigshots in the government complained to the king that Jeremiah was demoralizing the soldiers and frightening the people. He was a traitor and must be punished. Zedekiah was a wicked, crooked, conniving 32-year-old creep. He was carted off to Babylon and died there. He should have listened to Jeremiah. Instead he chose to hold onto his lifestyle and his baggage. It killed him. And thus, Jeremiah’s Prophecy came true.

Jeremiah had compared the people of Jerusalem to a cistern carved and paved inside by humans. This metaphor was used to tell them their “do-it-my-way” form of religion was displeasing to God. It was full of idolatry and disloyalty, The Law was ignored – even scoffed at – and the “cisterns of their souls” were broken and empty as compared to the cisterns of God’s Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation where were gathered the Springs of Living Water. It seems that they preferred living in the muck and mire of an empty cistern under siege by a far greater power and without the assistance of the God who took them out of slavery in Egypt. The result of their obstinacy was that they became slaves in Babylon instead. “God we know what you want, but we don’t want that. We want what we want when and how we want it.” And that right there, Belovéd, is one very clear definition of sin with a capital S.

This idea of a cistern, or pit, is frequently used in the Old Testament. “Going down into the  pit,” for example, is symbolic of dying, or being imprisoned, or enduring great hardship and oppression. King David had down-days like that – lots of them. Even though he committed several whopper-size sins, he had sense enough to repent and return to God. He was smart enough – and faithful enough – to know it was better to jettison whatever was displeasing to God and to proceed only with his God-given Gifts, not the heavy, chunky, junky burdens he grabbed on his way through life. All that sort of trash just gets in the way when we’re trying to play those cards we’ve been dealt – it’s like carrying 30-pounds of wet rags while trying to win a foot race. It gets worse when we’re spiritually out of shape and short of breath – the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul is using this metaphor of making a journey or running a race when he talks about getting rid of the things that hold us back, wear us down, or betray our trust (as all idols do). When he says we are surrounded by “a great cloud of witnesses,” he is referring to the previous long list of Israelites whose faith kept them squarely in obedience to God’s will. From Enoch to Abraham to Moses, and many others he states that “By faith” they achieved God’s will and received God’s promise.”

The letter of James (See James 2, particularly vv. 18-26) also makes reference to some of these heroes who gave God the Glory for their lives rather than take idols unto their graves. The Apostle Paul uses this word ὄγκον onkon to describe that 30-pounds of wet rags as the worries and sins we carry. Do we really, really need that sort of hindrance? During Eastertide back in 2012 I told a story about 1218AFC050412 – 127 Degrees (← JIC). It involved seeking shelter in a desert while it was 127°. The “shelter” was the winter coats we wore to a Halloween party when I was in Junior High in Denver. We were instructed to “get rid of one article of clothing you don’t need in the desert when it’s 127 degrees.” Apparently we weren’t very smart at that age. Click on that link for the story to learn how it turned out. Sometimes the things we least need are the things we cling to most tightly. We have a very broad array of idols to cling to these days – some of the most obvious are drugs, alcohol, pornography, abusive relationships, and other forms of carnal desires. We are indeed idolators when we carry these in our lives instead of devoting our hearts to giving primacy and preeminence to Our Almighty Everliving God.

When we still fail to get rid of those old, wet rags – or when our enemies – spiritual or physical – throw us into a muddy hole, or under the bus, we have a consistently available recourse in Psalm 55:22 (↔ Music Link) –
²² Cast your burden on the Lord,
    and he will sustain you;
he will never permit
    the righteous to be moved.
The Apostle Paul put it in this Sunday’s passage from the Letter to the Hebrews this way:

Hebrews 12:2 (GNT) [1] – ² Let us keep our eyes fixed (↔ Music Link) on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from beginning to end. He did not give up because of the cross! On the contrary, because of the joy that was waiting for him, he thought nothing of the disgrace of dying on the cross, and he is now seated at the right side of God’s throne. What The Apostle Paul is telling us here is that it’s easier to win the race if you keep your eyes on the finish – and the prize. (↔ Learning Link) “Eyes forward” as the saying goes; we’ll probably never get where we’re going if we keep our eyes trained on the review mirror. And when our inevitable Cross looms ahead, that is not the time to give up! The human man, Jesus, could have said, “That’s it, I’m outta here” at any point in his Passion by calling upon his Divine Nature. HE DID NOT, but instead suffered human pain and died a human death. That is what he was talking about in our Gospel Key Verse: “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” It wasn’t just the nails that held him to the Cross. It was his persistent Obedience to Love. Every single one of us has a Calvary in our future, and that is where each of us crosses the Finish Line (unintentional pun there). That leads us to an important – albeit not too obvious – question:

Do we want to cross the Finish Line with an armload of wet rags, or would we rather do that with empty hands? St. Augustine wrote – “It is good for the rich man to acknowledge his poverty. If he thinks himself full, this is mere puffing, not abundance. Let him recognize that his hands are empty so that God can fill them.” [2] Now think of this: What if we could fill our frail human hands with God’s hands? God always initiates contact with us – not the other way around – and he always meets us more than halfway. What if we reached UP to him from the muck and mire, or from the rocky crag, or from the mountaintop, standing on our tippy-toes and reaching out with our fingers and yelled (or whimpered) “Abba, help me.” What do you think? Consider these as you decide:

Matthew 11:28-30 – ²⁸ “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
1 Peter 5:6-7 – ⁶ Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. ⁷ Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.
1 Corinthians 15:58 – ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
And what is our “labor?” To Love and Glorify the Lord, to do his will, to be just and merciful, and to love justice. All of these things are simpler without toting a pile of wet rags or struggling to run while up to our necks in mud. Do you see that key in the clouds up there? The clouds are the witnesses who have proven that F.A.I.T.H. is essential. The Key represents the F.A.I.T.H. of each of us. What do you think? Might it also be the Key to the Home of Eternal Light?

Lay that burden down adelphos. (↔ Learning Link) Reach up to God’s hand and get out of the cistern’s mud. Get rid of what is unneeded. Go to God with your hands empty and leave it all behind, because we know with absolute surety that` there’s something far better ahead.

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

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

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

[2] (Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings. 1988, Mahway, NJ. Paulist Press. 244.)

2532AFC080825 – How Big Is Your Hope?

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Wisdom 18:7-8 –
⁷ The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies
were expected by your people.
⁸ For by the same means by which you punished our enemies
you called us to yourself and glorified us.

Psalm 33:18-20 –
¹⁸ Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him,
    on those who hope in his steadfast love,
¹⁹ to deliver their soul from death,
    and to keep them alive in famine.

²⁰ Our soul waits for the Lord;
    he is our help and shield.

Hebrews 11:1-2, 8 (GNT) [1]– ¹ To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. ² It was by their faith that people of ancient times won God’s approval. ⁸ It was faith that made Abraham obey when God called him to go out to a country which God had promised to give him. He left his own country without knowing where he was going.

Luke 12:48 ^b – From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! It’s Aloha Friday! Praise the Lord for that! Bless his Holy name! Praise the Lord! What is Hope? Or, should we ask, Who is Hope? It’s astonishing how much has been written about Hope! I’ll begin with one of my favorites:

“Hope” is the thing with feathers—

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

                    ~~Emily Dickinson

The last two stanzas speak to me in the way I understand Hope. Hope comes from humble Love because Hope is neither selfish nor proud. Indeed, Hope is selfless and humble. There is a Latin phrase, “Semper Idem, Semper Fidelis, Spes Numquam Deficit.” This means: “Always the same, always faithful, Hope never fails.” A similar aphorism is “Semper idem, semper fidelis, spes non frangitur.” Always the same, always faithful, hope does not break.

Hope is always the antecedent of Peace. Peace is the realization of Hope. I mentioned that back on Valentines day (← Check it out!) this year. No matter how rough the storm, that little feathered thing called Hope still sings, still nests in the heart, still calls us to move with confidence wherever the Holy Spirit leads us. All of this is done for us, with us, and in us without requiring so much as a tiny crumb of compensation. How else could something like that happen except that it be a Gift from God? When we acknowledge and accept that Gift of Peace, we find the other two sisters of Hope – Faith, and Love. It is a Gift of Unmerited Favor, and what is that, adelphos? That is Hope – a Divine Gift from God, a gift of Grace, Grace that is greater than all our sins. (↔ Music Link)

Hope is just so amazing – and I’d surmise that is because it is based in Grace which we know is Amazing – and The Apostle Paul got it absolutely right when he said To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see. Belovéd, what if our F.A.I.T.H. was so huge that our Hope became as powerful as that little bird who weathers every storm and the chilliest of starless, stormy nights? Dare we ever Hope for such Grace? Beloved, Grace builds up Faith. Faith builds up Hope. Hope builds up Love. And Love is our greatest treasure. Why? Because, the only reason we have it is so that we can give it away! Faith is All-that-is-Good because it is Good for All, and everything that is Good for All is from God as a Gift of Grace. Again we see these Three Sisters named Faith, Hope, and Love.

Here we are reminded of Saint Sophia and her three daughters who were martyred by the Emperor Hadrian. He is infamous for his vicious destruction of Jerusalem, even more vicious persecutions of Christians, and the absolute crushing of the Jewish Revolt in 135 AD. It was Hadrian who banned Jews from living in the lands along the Eastern Mediterranean Coast. He destroyed Jerusalem and then “rebuilt” it as a pagan city. St. Sophia (whose name comes from the Greek word for Wisdom) was a Christian widow who had three daughters named Faith, Hope, and Charity. They were brought to Hadrian who tried to force them to renounce their Faith. They refused repeatedly. The girls were submitted to unspeakable tortures and then beheaded all without denying Christ. Their mother later perished over their graves. You can find out more about that here (↔ Click Link). It was Hadrian who named the lands on the western coasts of Israel “Syria Palestine,” and we all know how that rankles to this very day.

This is the story of but four Holy Martyrs who had so much Hope that they willingly died for the Faith and Love that Bolstered that Hope. We know that hundreds-of-thousands of Christians were martyred – most through great suffering – over the past 25 centuries. Many of you might know that in this present age of dark violence, there are hundreds more Christians martyred for their Faith. This is especially true across Africa and Asia. (←See a link to an informative map here. I strongly urge you to take a look so as to understand how grave the persecutions are around the World.) You may notice that in North Central Africa the Nation of Chad appears to be free or nearly free of persecution, yet Boko Haram and other similar Islamist groups are trying to change that and are increasingly active there.

Now, I must ask you, what if Boko Haram, ISIS, HAMAS, ISIL, Al-Qaeda, and other Jihadists could muster a large enough hope that they could overpower the nations and peoples they oppose? Could that happen? We know for a fact that in the past there have been nations that instituted NATIONAL restrictions and persecutions for various groups – most prominently Christians, but others as well. My answer would be NO. Because why? Because they may be able to generate high hopes, but those hopes are based on Hate, errors in faith (wrong gods), and their hope is therefore in vain because at the end of it all, they do not have Faith, Hope, and Love as Graces from the One True and Living God, the Father of our Lord, Jesus, the Christ of God, and the Holy Spirit the Unity and Love of the Father and the Son. Without that surety of Grace, they can never succeed. Nonetheless, they can make one horrific mess of everything for billions of people, and that is why they must be opposed – in Love – at every twist and turn of their campaigns of violence. Their acts, their plans, their goals are utterly unrighteous! That is because they dwell in Darkness; but we, instead, radiate the Light of Truth (↔ Music Link) in Righteousness. And what does Wisdom say about the Righteous?

The deliverance of the righteous and the destruction of their enemies
were expected by your people.
For by the same means by which you punished our enemies
you called us to yourself and glorified us.

Why?

Psalm 124:8 –
⁸ Our help is in the name of the Lord,
    who made heaven and earth.

And also
Romans 15:4 – ⁴ For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

So that
1 Peter 1:3 – ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

So then What is Hope and why do we have it? Where do we get it, and from whom? In Hebrew it is  tiqvah (tik-vaw’). The root is literally the word for cord, as in a measuring line. In Greek it is elpis (el-pece’), the expectation of what is certain. In either language it implies patience – hupomoné (hoop-om-on-ay’) – literally “remaining under” as in to endure steadfastly whatever challenges God allows in our lives. Hope is patient-waiting for something we are confident will eventually be ours. We wait in the Hope of his steadfast love. The wait-and-watch Hope of Mercy (steadfast love) comes from our innate desire for what is Good, and that desire comes from God himself, as do all things that are Good (See James 1:17). Hoping is a way we patiently and vigilantly wait for something better, something encouraging, something we trust as well worth waiting to obtain. It is not complacent, vegetative waiting; it is active preparation for a future Blessing and so we act in Hope because of Hope.

Our hope was first promised in Genesis 3:9-23 when God promised that earthlings would eventually overcome the evil caused in Eden, all through “the seed of the woman.” (See = zera (zeh’-rah) Descendants, offspring, child/children) This is a very important fact to remember, because it is the Source of our Hope as well as the process through which it will be fulfilled. God told Eve and Adam that their sin conferred on them the curse of mortality; their inheritance would be Death. In God’s infinite Wisdom, that mortality was also the means through which humanity would be restored to unity with God. Here is how that Miracle is expressed in the Preface to Eucharistic Prayer III:

For we know it belongs to your boundless glory that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself so that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation, through Christ our Lord.

Now, to me, that is completely amazing – a remedy out of mortality itself. In other words, it is Grace upon Grace. For me, that is Hope. When I look around the world and see loved-ones suffering; innocents being murdered, persecuted, tormented, and terrorized; natural disasters overwhelming the great and the small alike; the oceans, the lands, and the very sky above us polluted and dying; then I turn my eyes toward Jesus, and I see HOPE. It is such a great and wonderful Hope that I don’t mind waiting until (↔ Music Link) the Darkness fails because what I’m waiting for will be Great and Wonderful! And yet I wonder if my Hope is anywhere near as big as the Hope of St. Sophia and her daughters, or of St Pope John Paul II, or St. Mother Teresa, or “God’s influencer” St Carlos Acutis (See image at left). These last three are people who are my contemporaries, and should be my exemplars ; but then so it is with Sts. Sophia, Faith, Hope, and Charity and so many others like each and all of the Apostles all of who were martyred in grotesque ways. They died for HOPE; not fashion, not adulation, not for anything to do with feelings.

In today’s world, feelings are more important than Truth, and that’s a very sad fact. The World takes delight in shaming and persecuting us; nonetheless, we can – and must – endure in firmly-declared and patient Truth. DO we want to be liked more than we want to be truthful, or reverent, or righteous because we Love God? How easily we have forgotten that nothing, nothing in this World is worth dying for! Only that which is beyond the muck and smut of the World is worth dying for because only those things are worth living for. If your Hope is in Christ Jesus, it will always be big enough to hold the Hope of all the earthlings who have ben, are now, or will be inhabitants of this Earth which is merely a speck in the eye of the cosmos (and it’s even big enough for all of the rest of that cosmos, too!)

Because of our Great Big Hope, we have been given charisms, Holy Gifts from God, which we must use to Love and Serve God and each other. Those Gifts are just big enough to fill up our lives if we use them. They are generally the more-than-enough kind of Gifts, so when we get them, we are expected to use them by giving them away and in that way whenever we are gifted with much, much will be expected from us. If Love was like a jet airliner, maybe Hope would be the jet fuel. Big Jet – Big Hope. I’m looking forward to a soft landing!

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

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

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

2531AFC080125 – Working on a living ← PODCAST LINK 🙂

Read it online here, please. Reading it online allows the email version to reach many more subscribers. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
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Ecclesiastes 2:22-23 – ²² What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? ²³ For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.

Psalm 90:17 –
¹⁷ Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
    and prosper for us the work of our hands—
    O prosper the work of our hands!

Colossians 3:5-10 – (GNT) [1] ⁵ You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry). ⁶ Because of such things God’s anger will come upon those who do not obey him ⁷ At one time you yourselves used to live according to such desires, when your life was dominated by them.

⁸ But now you must get rid of all these things: anger, passion, and hateful feelings. No insults or obscene talk must ever come from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits ¹⁰ and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself.

Luke 12:18-21 – ¹⁸ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹ And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ²¹ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! May Peace always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd! A little housekeeping at the start. Wednesday, July 29^th, we had a “non-event” Big Day In The Ocean. An earthquake of magnitude 8.8 – which is a whopper – stirred up a tsunami wave which eventually reached Kauaʻi and all the rest of the Hawaiʻian Islands, as well as the Left Coast of the Continent. The bottom line is, we’re OK here. No big whup. There are currents to deal with as an aftermath, and that  caused some jostling that continued into Thursday. Crucita, Timothy, and I had nothing to worry about, regardless, because we are living well above the inundation zone. We appreciate the prayers for all the persons impacted, especially those where the wave arrived more forcefully. Now, on to the work at hand.

I think we’ll take them in order today so Ecclesiastes first. It seems this guy, Qoheleth (קֹהֶלֶת) (ko-HEL-eth) ,who is the preacher, teacher, philosopher, sage, wiseman, and so forth is the alleged writer of this book. We’re not exactly positive who wrote this collection, and I suppose we could speculate is was “done in committee,” but we have a vague notion who it might have been. He introduces himself as Son of David, king in Jerusalem, so it seems it might be (might as well be) Solomon (shel-o-moh) the third king of Israel. He also gets credit for the Books of Proverbs and Song of Songs; these three together are grouped as the “Wisdom Literature of Solomon.” The Book of Wisdom has a pseudepigraphical attribution to Solomon, but that is just a slick way to fluff up the credibility of the author(s) who were putting it together as a sort of indoctrination document to distract young Jewish males from the influences of Hellenism in First-Century Alexandria.

Qoheleth spends pages and pages lamenting the worthlessness of just about every human enterprise. The most-readily recognized passage, thanks to the Byrds (↔ Music Link), is chapter 3 “For everything there is a season …” so, by this point in his tome he is saying that the reason we all toil and trouble is because God has chosen things for us to do that keep us busy. In Ecclesiastes 3:14-15 (GNT) ¹ he says, ¹⁴ I know that everything God does will last forever. You can’t add anything to it or take anything away from it. And one thing God does is to make us stand in awe of him. ¹⁵ Whatever happens or can happen has already happened before. God makes the same thing happen again and again. This is not a proposition of reincarnation, but perhaps a rather lyrical way to signify the timelessness of God for whom all Times and Seasons are one instance. All the work we do for the sake of work is pointless work. All the work we do for the Glory of God is Godly work, and that is work that is worthwhile and productive because it fulfills the purpose of our creation. Some of us will remember this:

• Q: Why did God make you?
• A: God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in heaven.

Ecclesiastes encourages us to see – that apart from knowing, loving, and serving God – pretty much everything else is useless so we might as well enjoy our lives and loves which are a gift to us from God so we can know, love, and serve him. Yep. He does that over, and over, and over and … ! Get it? Got it! Good!!

Now then, knowing that, we can see that Solomon’s Pappy – King David – was right on target when he said, Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands. Work done outside of God’s favor and blessing does not prosper. Oh, some folks might get rich at it, but their lives are empty. Look to Hollywood or politics for evidence of that. Or even just look at the schlemiel in our Gospel reading. He’s a rich guy who got richer (and the implication is that it was God’s doing, not his) and so he decides to pack away his good fortune by tearing down his own barns and silos and building bigger ones. Just like that, he goes from schlemiel to schlimazel because he’s dead before that project ever gets started. The point in Jesus’ parable about the Rich Fool is that being wise about your earthly holdings is of small consolation when it comes to your Treasures in Heaven. Like they say, “You can’t take it with you.” When we ask God to “prosper the work of our hands,” it is for the purpose of HIS Glory, not ours. It should always be that when others see the magnitude and diversity of God’s Blessings, Gifts, and MERCIES in our lives, they should see it as God’s doings, not ours. Most of us would have to confess that we don’t always get that right in our day-to-day living.

OK, I took that out of order for a reason, because we’ve decided to finish up with the Key Verse from Colossians. This is one scalding scolding! The Apostle Paul lists a bunch of things we must, must, lay aside because we are “a new creation” through the New Covenant in Blood established by Jesus. I’ve inserted some explications in the following excerpt:
The Apostle Paul lists: sexual immorality, indecency [immodest dressing, sexually suggestive actions], lust [Disordered selfish desire focused on the creation, not the Creator], evil passions [cherished infatuations], and greed [the idolatry of desires]; anger [impulsive, indignant punishment], passion [nurtured wrath], and hateful feelings [heaping wickedness and worry on others]. No insults [“trash talk,” gossip] or obscene talk [filthy speech or, worse, blasphemy] must ever come from your lips. ⁹ Do not lie to one another.

All of us, sometime, somewhere, have notched one or two of these into our belts.

Thankfully, we have a superlative way to deal with that fact: God’s Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation as part of his Absolutely Perfect Plan. We might be tempted to ask, “Why does God make the same thing happen again and again; or God seeks out what has gone by; or God requireth that which is past; or God restores what has passed away. (←Look it up here.) Could it possibly be that we are negligent, unfocused, inattentive servants who learn obedience and then promptly and completely forget it again and again? The B.I.B.L.E. tells us repeatedly that is the case. It also tells us God notes our sin and then promptly and completely forgets it. That is, when we confess our sins, admit we were, are, and will be wrong, and seek and accept his forgiveness. Anything else, adelphos, is indeed a vanity of vanities.

If we are actually working on a living, it’s best not to put all our thought and energy into working on a living here! We need to be working on a living There. Here are a couple of wise words for our work in this life. First from Matthew 6:19-21 – ¹⁹ “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven (↔ Music Link), where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” We can see that working on a living is a HEART thing. Here’s how The Apostle Paul amplifies that in 2 Corinthians 4:7-10 – ⁷ But we have this treasure in clay jars (↔ Music Link), so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. ⁸ We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰ always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. Now that’s the way to work on a living by Living a Life in Christ! (←Learn more here. I use it every day!)

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In such a life there is not vanity or loss, but only humility and eternal J.O.Y.

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

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

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

2529AFC071825 – Choose the wiser choice  ← PODCAST LINK 😀

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.
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Colossians 1:24-26 – ²⁴ I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. ²⁵ I became its servant according to God’s commission* that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, ²⁶ the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints.

*οἰκονομίαν (oikonomia) {oy-kon-om-ee’-ah} → management of a household; more accurately, a stewardship, a position of management (administration) by which a person looks after another’s business and resources. He has been made a servant of Christ’s ecclesia – ἐκκλησία – ek-klay-see’-ah See Matthew 16:18

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Today we will look at another of those passages that is easily skipped over. What could the Apostle Paul possibly be telling the people of Colossae (Greek: Κολοσσαί), and why? How can he be “completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions?” He states he is the servant of the Church, a steward of the Gospel for their benefit. We will study this passage in the tone of the readings for the 16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Hospitality as one of the four pillars of Stewardship.

The Old Testament reading is from Genesis 18:1-10. It is the story of three visitors – Angels of God (or perhaps even Jesus was there???) – and Abraham invites them to stay awhile and be refreshed by him – he will bathe their feet (are you remembering The Last Supper?) and get them a snack (about 5 gallons of bread dough, a fattened calf, and a batch of cheese!) before they continue their travels. They are on their way to Sodom and Gomorrah to see how bad things really are there. Two angels continue on the road, The Lord tarries with Abraham as Abraham pleads for the lives of the people there. This story is often remembered in Hebrews 13:2 – ² Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Notice also that Abraham’s hospitality is “over the top” because his very deep humility sees the Majesty of his Guests, and so his offering is worthy of their Presence.

The Gospel is Luke 10:38-42 – the story of Mary and Martha. Martha is fussing around in the kitchen – trying to demonstrate her “over the top” capacity for hospitality through “much serving” – and her sister Mary is just sitting at Jesus’ feet, doting on him and what he is saying. Martha wants Jesus to scold Mary and make her help with the preparations; but Jesus says Mary has made the wiser choice and “will not be deprived of it.” Hospitality is important, and has its place, but there are other things that are more important – listening to The Word for example. Might that be an even greater form of hospitality – to pay attention to one’s guest?

The Apostle Paul mentions hospitality, or the quality of being hospitable, especially in reference to the qualifications for leaders of the Church which he describes as The Body of Christ. As you can see by our illustration here, hospitality is part of The 4 Pillars of Stewardship; the other parts are Prayer, Formation (learning about God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan), and Service (helping the Body of Christ in addition to others outside the Church). The Apostle Paul states he has received from the Lord a “commission,” an assignment to spread the Gospel.

In this passage the Apostle Paul is addressing a congregation he has never met, and so he expresses his responsibility and qualifications for the work he is doing on their behalf. As he presents this information, he indicates that the Master in this economy of Faith is God inasmuch as it is God who is providing the resources for our Salvation – in other words, God is being “over the top” hospitable for us. As part of that economy to be managed, God assigned the responsibility of conveying the Gospel to the gentiles to the Apostle Paul. He describes how that assignment is carried out in 1 Corinthians 9:17 – ¹⁷ If I were volunteering my services of my own free will, then the Lord would give me a special reward; but that is not the situation, for God has picked me out and given me this sacred trust*, and I have no choice. Living Bible (TLB)[i]
*This sacred trust is the stewardship of the Gospel
 – to deliver it freely without expecting a return, to prayerfully lead the community of faith, to contribute to their proper and thorough knowledge of the Truth of the Gospel, and to serve God by serving those whom God has called. It is this service to which the Apostle Paul willingly gives his whole life – even the great sufferings (which Jesus had promised him at the time of his conversion) he endured for the sake of the Gospel. Here we see a man who does not count the cost of fellowship and service. He simply gives whatever is needed. In the NIV (New International Version) it is expressed this way: Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.  

We’ve all heard – and perhaps even used – the expression “offering it up to the Lord,” or “joining my suffering with the sufferings of Christ.” The Apostle Paul is suffering for those who would not be able to bear the suffering promised to all who follow Jesus. His compassion for the people in Colossae, whom he had never met, is so closely bound to the afflictions of Christ and the Church that he gladly and willingly steps in to suffer on behalf of others. You’ll find a very clear explanation of this kind of suffering in 1 Peter 4:12-19 which ends with this statement: ¹⁹ Therefore, let those suffering in accordance with God’s will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator, while continuing to do good. (Please use that link to see this in context.)

The Apostle Paul is NOT saying that Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross was incomplete (as some will try to tell you); he is saying that the Church, the Body of Christ, has much suffering to do, and he is willing to take on more than his share because Jesus commissioned – appointed, authorized, and contractually commanded – that he do so. As a Steward, the Apostle Paul gets my vote for being an exceptional example of the entire concept of Stewardship. When we first read (or skim over?) this passage, our hearts and minds may hear the faint echo of disbelief saying, “Say what?” Now, perhaps, when we hear this we will better understand that being a good Steward means more than just managing and sharing our Time, Capabilities, and Worldly Wealth. It means doing everything in our power, and beyond (for with God all things are possible (← Check it out!) for your sake. The Apostle Paul would have been familiar with the concept of the “Messianic Woes,” the sufferings in the end times that prepare the World for the Advent of the Kingdom of God. He willingly submitted to suffering those preparatory disruptions in his own flesh – marked with the wounds of Christ (certainly at least the scars of multiple scourgings and perhaps even the stigmata) – for the sake of people he never met – you and me, for example.

Let me share with you a couple of passages about how much he suffered. One of them I will ask you to read rather than reproduce it here. First, check this out: 2 Corinthians 11:23-27 – ²³ Are they ministers of Christ? I am talking like a madman—I am a better one: with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless floggings, and often near death. ²⁴ Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶ on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters, ²⁷ in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked. As you can see from this image, being hit full-force with this device just once would take out most of us. Imagine what it would feel like to get hit 39 times. Some scholars speculate that Jesus got more than 40 with something even more vicious than this one. If I meditate on that for even a few moments, that is an excessive amount of suffering The Apostle Paul was willing to endure for the sake of Christ. (↔ Music Link) He accepted his own weakness and trials as well as the sufferings others could not bear! Pay careful attention to the bridge in this song:

He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves.
Oh, live for Christ who gave his life, and now is raised on high.

That’s over-the-top all the way, and it has no end. Because why? Because God’s Grace was enough (↔ Music Link). Enough for even this:

On top of that he and his traveling colleague, Silas, endured beating with rods. Can you imagine willingly – indeed willingly – submitting to this? Read all about in Acts 16:19-36 – PLEASE read this passage so that you will understand this image better! Remember, Paul was a Roman Citizen and therefore subject to Roman “justice” including punishment. He was also a Jew and subject to their punishment – which also included flogging – as well. He endured all of that from and for people he didn’t even know. Imagine the scars he carried on his body from “countless floggings.”  Locked up in stocks and bound with chains, he could still praise God. He was able to do all this because HE GAVE God PREEMINENCE. That is the Wiser Choice even though it might seem reckless, Jesus prophesied that we would have extraordinary rewards along with persecutions. If I, if you, if we are not feeling especially persecuted today, consider that it might be because someone somewhere is offering their suffering as sacrifice for what we cannot endure.

If we understand our faith, if we know – intimately – the Spirit that dwells within us, then we know that Jesus willingly endured more than we can understand for “by his stripes we are healed,” and “he laid upon him the iniquity of us all.” It is that nearly-unimaginably intense level of generous hospitality that saved us. You might think of it as Jesus telling you, “I’m dying to meet you.” See if that won’t rock your soul! And you now know that God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan worked. Despite all his sufferings, The Apostle Paul joyfully wrote in Ephesians 2:8-9 – 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.

So therefore Beloved, Rejoice! God created you with a purpose and is absolutely thrilled when he sees you devoted to Him and to His purpose. This is HIS WORLD (↔ Music Link) after all! That is certainly a cause for great rejoicing. He will surely look with favor on his devoted servants who willingly offer their lives in sacrifice to take on the commission to be Stewards of the Gospel who willingly, joyfully, Lovingly, extravagantly lay out their (our!) lives for The Other – the one whom God loves just as much as you and me. Be like Mary of Bethany and choose to pay attention to the Message and to all the opportunities of service and sacrifice it brings to us. There, indeed, is The Wiser Choice.  How can we prepare ourselves to make that wiser choice more often?Here are 3 wiser things we can start on today: [1] Strive to find an opportunity for conversion every day, yours and/or someone else’s. [2] Every time we participate in Mass, we should always expect to be changed by the time we leave. [3] Look for the stories of people who have inspired you and tell those stories to others. The best stories are those found in the B.I.B.L.E.

BONUS MUSIC LINK! (Yep, click on it to listen)

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

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

[i] Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

2528AFC071125 – Oh! There you are!   😀 ← PODCAST LINK

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

Deuteronomy 30:11-14 – ¹¹ Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will go up to heaven for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” ¹³ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross to the other side of the sea for us, and get it for us so that we may hear it and observe it?” ¹⁴ No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe”

Psalm 69:33 –
³³ For the Lord hears the needy,
    and does not despise his own that are in bonds.

Psalm 69:33 – Turn to the Lord in your need, and you will live. (↔ Music Link)

Colossians 1:19-20 – ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Luke 10:36-37 – ³⁶ “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” ³⁷ He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

Gratia vobis et pax a Deo Patre nostro et Domino nostro Iesu Christo in Spiritu Sancto.

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord – Jesus Christ – in the Holy Spirit. Today is the Memorial of Saint Benedict, Abbot, and that is why I chose a greeting in Latin for us. He lived from 480 to 547. He founded the Benedictine Monastery at Monte Cassino and is rightly regarded as the father of monasticism in the Western World because he established The Benedictine Rule. As a young man he became disgusted with the debauchery and decadence in Rome and withdrew into solitude in a cave not far from the palace of Nero at Subiaco. He advocated and required a life of balance consisting of roughly equal periods of prayer, work, and study each day. In Chapter 19 of his Rule, “The Discipline of Psalmody” he directs thusly:

“We believe that the divine presence is everywhere and that in every place the eyes of the Lord are watching the good and the wicked (Proverbs 15:3). But beyond the least doubt, we should believe this to be especially true when we celebrate the divine office.”

We have previously confessed the omnipresence of the Lord: When God speaks the name of one of his servants, the ones who are committed to serving him and him only, and they reply in humble readiness, it reminds me of the response we were trained to give in the Armed Forces: Sir! Yes Sir! We enthusiastically show our readiness to serve as did the Psalmist in Psalm 40:7-8 – ⁷ Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me. ⁸ I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.” We know our duty – to Trust and Obey – and we discharge that duty without reserve.

God establishes servants wherever service is needed. That makes sense, doesn’t it? If something needs to be done, bring in those who are capable of doing it. And we can readily see that God’s servants know what he wants because they are prepared for whatever he asks (See in context Deuteronomy 30:11-14 – ¹⁴ No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.) In Isaiah 58:9, we have a prefiguring of the promise in Genesis 2  – the presence of God in the lives of his earthlings. After all, it is his Spirit that makes us living souls. God is always here, always near, always and all ways Always, and that means he knows us more intimately than we know ourselves. (See my “2^nd-most-favorite-Psalm,” Psalm 139:13-16) God chose to make his Son – his ONLY BEGOTTEN SON – manifest in flesh, flesh like ours. He is always present (Omnipresent – here I am, not “here I will be”) He calls us to be present (Here I am Lord) (↔ Music Link) and when we respond, great things happen! We find Grace, Power in the Holy Spirit, Peace surpassing all understanding, surrender to God as he lays hold of us, our willingness to serve escalates, our preparedness is sharpened, we are aglow with the Presence of God. Of course, we are not as refulgent as Christ was as he spoke with Moses and Elijah, but we do shine! Have you ever heard God’s voice? I have. I have shared this before, but I want to share it again today.

Suppose we start out with Isaiah 6:8 – ⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” I always liked that. It was, in a special way, part of my decision to give my life to “Full Time Christian Service” at age 10 at Camp IdRaHaJe – which is an abbreviation for “I’d Rather Have Jesus.” (↔ Music Link). Later – in high school – I thought I had a calling to the Ministry in the Reformed Church in America. Long story short, one thing led to another, the Draft happened, and that idea faded away. The message for that calling was “Preach my Word.” Once I was in the Air Force, I was led to my conversion in the Catholic Church. Just two weeks after my first fully-Catholic day, I married the love of my life – Crucita – and not long after, the message in the call became “Teach my Word.” I’m still working on that directive. Here is one way that happens:

The Psalm I love best is Psalm 138(← Check it out!). It is my all-time-favorite Psalm. The first two verses are filled with wonderful praise:
Psalm 138:1 – I thank you, Lord, with all my heart;
in the presence of the angels to you I sing. New American Bible (Revised Edition)(NABRE)

I like that part about singing in the presence of the Angels. It reminds me of Psalm 22:3 which says that God “inhabits the praises of his people.” The rest of the Psalm is so reassuring. God will surely hear the cry of the suffering.

There is a passage in 1 Corinthians that steadies me with grateful conviction – conviction that enables my service because it matches up with my “Sir! Yes sir!” The Apostle Paul is describing how he received the Gospel, “as to one born abnormally,” when Jesus met him on the road to Damascus. 1 Corinthians 15:10 – ¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them—though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. This verse always reminds me that I have not yet worked as hard as I should, or as hard as I can, on behalf of the Gospel. I am what I am by the grace of God, though, and he constantly challenges me to be a better steward of the many, many gifts he has presented me in my life.

I often remind myself and others to “Honor the Giver by accepting the Gift.” When I look at the faith of my Old Friend Abraham, or reflect on the determination and courage of Moses, or recognize in David a heart that God called “a man after my own heart” (See Acts 13:22), I know I fall far short of the servanthood to which I aspire. One of the many reasons for that is that he gifted me with words, and sometimes (way too many times) the words I use are not the Word from God’s own heart. Then he calls, and I remember.

When he calls us, we remember that he chose us, we did not choose him. To him, we are not “hey you” because he has called each of us by name. I remember that he comforts and consoles as well as corrects and counsels because he has given us his Holy Spirit – not just me, but all the faithful in Christ Jesus. Nothing can stop, divert, sully, or prevent his Love from filling our lives. We are victors, conquerors in Christ, and we have not only the Victory, but also the spoils of the victory: The repudiation of every evil that has tried to harm us. We have an indefatigable and inexhaustible source of Love and Protection called “God’s Providence.”

Now then, if God is all around us, within us, and he expects us to listen to him, how is it we can be found hip deep in the mire and muck of the Swamp of Pride, struggling in the darkness? At the risk of being redundant but none the less repetitious, I will remind all of us that WE FORGOT!! The only way we can know that Darkness is not where we belong is to know we have been in Light, and remember that Light is in us. Remember, God is used to hearing us say, “I forgot.” He forgets stuff all the time – for example sins for which we have been forgiven. There in the “depths of despair” we are assaulted by desires and doubts that feast on us like a cloud of voracious gnats and occasionally we have the presence of mind to say, Jesus, help me!

Maybe we don’t hear an explosion or see a burst of impenetrable Light, but if we’re not too foolish to listen we might hear the Word in Isaiah 58:9 ^a
9 Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
    you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
When I hear that, when I lift my hands, my eyes, my heart, and my mind to that Omnipresent Voice I understand those last three words as HEAR I AM. And honestly adelphos, I feel that assurance of his presence is spoken with what I’d call a loving chuckle. It’s like “What are you doing in this mess, kid?” and then the Holy Spirit speaks reminding me of 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.”  

His commandments are not burdensome, they are – as we have been told –very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe. We know that when we go to him he tells us
³³ For the Lord hears the needy,
    and does not despise his own that are in bonds. When we hunger and thirst for righteousness(↔ Click Link) the I AM who is near will fill our hungry hearts (↔ Music Link).

HE
will
REDEEM
us!

How can that be? Trust and obey. It’s the only way. Walk with those who “walk with the Lord in the Light of his Word,” and you will become fully aware that ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. By now we in the MBN know that all if this is in God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan. Because why? Because YOLO-F! We are to be whole and mature in all our works because that is how God created us to live.

 OK campers, take out your note books and get ready for a pop quiz!
Q: What was St. Benedict’s motto? (Just kidding about the quiz)
A: St Benedict’s motto was Ora et Labora (prayer and work).

I’ll end with a few of St. Benedict’s “Tools for Good Works” from Chapter 4 (← Check it out!)  of His Rule
1 First of all, love the Lord God with your whole heart, your whole soul and all your strength, 2 and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:37-39; Mark 12:30-31; Luke 10:27).
20 Your way of acting should be different from the world’s way;
21 the love of Christ must come before all else.
41 Place your hope in God alone.
42 If you notice something good in yourself, give credit to God, not to yourself,
43 but be certain that the evil you commit is always your own and yours to acknowledge.

44 Live in fear of judgment day
45 and have a great horror of hell.

If we have known and shown Mercy, we will know God’s mercy. Remember the lesson from the Parable of the Good Samaritan: “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” As we carry out our Mission to advance the Gospel, we can stay out of the Swamp of Pride by humbly trusting that by showing mercy, we all obey God who told us – Surely, this commandment that I am commanding you today is not too hard for you, nor is it too far away.

Belovéd, some days we are searching for Love in all the wrong places because we are blinded by sin. Therefore I urge you, Don’t just do something. Stand there! and expect the Presence of God. There is no place we can be that God does not already occupy. We recall a beautiful prophecy from Jeremiah 23:23-24 (GNT) [1] – ²³ “I am a God who is everywhere and not in one place only. ²⁴ No one can hide where I cannot see them. Do you not know that I am everywhere in heaven and on earth?

Isaiah 55:6 –
⁶ Seek the Lord while he may be found,
    call upon him while he is near;
God is everywhere all the time ready with his help. Acknowledge his Presence and you will say, “Oh! There you are!” Then he will say, “Welcome back, kid. Come on in.”

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

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

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