Aloha Friday Message – December 22, 2023 – A Heart-Healthy Life

December 22, 2023

2351AFC122223 – A Heart-Healthy Life  (Fourth Sunday of Advent) ← Podcast

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

    Luke 1:38-b – “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

John 2:5 – 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” (← Check it out!)

2 Samuel 7:16 – 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever.

Psalm 89:3-4 –
3 You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to my servant David:
4 ‘I will establish your descendants forever,
and build your throne for all generations.” Selah

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him. I also pray that all of us will seek the Life that brings us a heart like King David’s heart, a heart after God’s own heart. Some days that seems to be to be an impossible goal. In fact, “some days” is a massive understatement. You may recall that in his youth, David lived and worked with and in the Holy Spirit … until he didn’t.

You might know that David committed some VERY BIG sins! So we wonder: how could a man whose heart was like the heart of God sin so terribly and still find favor (Grace) from God?  We can sum it up in one simple word: Repentance. David did indeed adhere to an important two-step  process: [1] He admitted his sins, and [2] he repented. You probably recognize that pattern as it comes up often in these pages: Repent and Believe the Gospel. For us, then, it is a three- step process: [1] believe the Gospel,[2] acknowledge our sins, and repent. Q: Why put “believe the Gospel” first? A: Because it is The Word of God and especially the Gospel which instructs us in the means of repentance. It is the same process which David used: honor the Giver by accepting the Gift.

The Gift is Life, the Giver is God, and the way we honor the Giver is by Gifting Him our obedience – our entire life as our “yes” to his Absolutely Perfect Plan for us. When God called, David said yes. He became a warrior, a ruler, a Prophet, a poet, a sinner, and he still was a man after God’s own heart because he loved God’s Word, and wiling and properly repented when he rejected the Gift of Grace. He turned around and went back to God and said, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord.” Whenever he made any accomplishment as a warrior, he always credited the victory to God. If he was sent out in a role of authority, he behaved wisely because he understood the way of God. David served God well in the pinnacle of his kingship, and even before he was anointed by Samuel in the sight of his father and brothers, God had determined that the Ultimate Messiah would be “of the house and lineage of David.” This is why God promised David, “ Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever.“

Now, we might say, “David had an edge! God had already clothed him with honor and all David had to do was keep coming back whenever he failed to keep his honor.” Isn’t it the same with you and me, Belovéd? Are we not already anointed Priest, Prophet, and King? Isn’t it true that all we have to do is keep coming back whenever we fail to keep our honor? Well, then perhaps it is too difficult for us to keep our honor. “Yeah! What did David have that I don’t have?” Do you mean other than a heart that was like unto God’s heart?  Well, David had that alright, but he possessed something out of God’s Treasure House even before he was anointed King. He loved, lived, breathed, dreamed, honored, cherished, studied, memorized, contributed to, and prophesied in God’s Law. The Word of God was the body and soul of his life. Ah, yes, he was a prodigious sinner! He was also a humble servant who knew the secret of being humble. Wanna be in on that secret?  COOL! Here we go!

Here comes one of those invitations for you to go “off-post” and do some reading on your own. Please follow this link to 2 Samuel 22, (↔ Click Link) especially verses 22-25 and 29-33. If you recall from last week’s post, this is a song that is not in the Book of Psalms, therefore it is referred to as a Canticle. It will take less than 2 minutes to read the whole thing and less than 1 minute to read the referenced selection. Please, pause here and give it a try.  I’ll wait. {/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\} Thank you! Wasn’t that terrific? Now, try remember what Mary sang after she entered the home of her cousin, Elizabeth? YES! “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, …” Mary’s response was a canticle of praise and thanksgiving.

Why? Is there a connection between the kind of heart King David had and the kind of heart the Virgin Mary had? You have answered rightly, ʻŌmea! They were both chosen by God and both had humble hearts that loved God. we know quite a lot about David’s life, but not much about Mary’s. Let’s digress for a moment and see what we do have.

Mary’s early life is not recorded in the canon of Scripture, but there are some pious traditions from other sources which are not part of accepted Scripture. They are fun to read, but only as fanciful anecdotes about that part of her life. There are many such speculative and alleged non-biblical materials that are interesting to read but cannot be rightfully woven into the Biblical Narrative such as the Book of Enoch, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Laodiceans, and several others. We do not encourage reading them. We have enough wonder and mystery presented to us in the biblical canon of Scripture (Greek kanon / Ancient Greek: κανών – a straight stick used for authoritative [official] measuring, hence the canon is the authorized collection of scripture). For Catholics that includes 73 book, for non-Catholics 66 books, and for all the world the Bible is one of the most read and most sold books ever. Somewhere around 4,000 – 6,000 years ago, the ancestors of Noah were in what would be later called Canaan. There is some evidence that homo sapiens were migrating out of Africa about 60,000 years ago. For our purposes, though, the World began with Genesis 1:1, and someday it will be dissolved in fire. (← Check it out!) I expect all of us would rather not witness that!

Now, there is another interesting word that connects with people who have hearts that are meek and humble, full of Love, and devoted to God. They are the witnesses, the martyrs, whose lives “magnify the Lord and rejoice in God our Savior.” When we encounter Jesus, or his Mother – or indeed any of the Saints who have gone before us – our souls, our hearts, and our entire lives conform to the healthy-heart state of joyful service, adoration, thanks-giving, and praise. In this actuality, we readily respond to Mary’s instructions to the servants at the Wedding in Cana: “Do whatever he tells you.” O, Dearly Belovéd, how often we hear that humble command and reply in our best four-year-old voice, “NO! I DO IT MYSELF!” Isn’t that what our First parents said? Isn’t it true that even David said something like that in his heart as he gazed upon Bathsheba, or when Abram and Sarai decided to get ahead of God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan and the result was Ishmael? Isn’t true that we must all admit that that willful child within us whose name is Pride is the most susceptible part of us when the Tempter and his henchmen come around? How can our hearts be healthy like David’s or Abraham’s, or Enoch’s, or Mary, or … Jesus, our Lord and our God?

“Well,” we might say, “Jesus and Mary were made perfect by God, but we lost our individual perfection a lo-o-o-o-ong time ago!” True again, esteemed scholar, so how do we restore that messed up heart to its proper health? How do we reclaim the heart with which we were created when we prefer to make excuses, rather than ask for help? (↔ Music Link) I bet you saw this one coming!

We regain our healthy heart – heart like the hearts of the Saints – when we [1] believe the Gospel, [2] acknowledge our sins, and repent. “And what does that have to do with the celebration of Advent, Old Man?” I suppose the best answer I have is …

EVERYTHING! During this time of reflection, prayer, and penance, we can learn to be just, merciful, and obedient so as to live righteously, and to be open to the absolutely astonishing power of God’s Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, and Eternal Salvation in Christ our Lord. I have often wondered about those shepherds watching their flocks by night. Did they carry the astonishing wonder of the message of the angels all the rest of their lives, and did they share it with their children and their grandchildren? Did a few of them feast on fish and bread in a deserted place near Bethsaida? Were any of them in Jerusalem to witness the Crucifixion? Did some of them influence the content of the Gospels by sharing their own Good News? It’s fun to meditate on those things, but the bottom line is that we, too, have our own Good News that we carry in our own healthy hearts. That Gospel is inspired by the Holy Spirit, and even if it is not canonical, it is restorative for the good of our Souls, and whatever is good for the Soul is good for Heart-Healthy Life. Where does our repentance begin?

Let’s look back at a couple of guys in Scripture that messed up big-time. We’ll go back through time to King David who went to the Source to begin repentance. Psalm 51 (↔ Click Link) is a record of his M.A.P. (← Check it out!) for returning to God. His plea was  His plea was “Create in me a clean heart, (↔ Music Link) O God,”” and his sincere contrition and effective repentance restored his heart to health. Another guy who was greatly blessed before his birth was Samson (Note: There is no letter “P” in the middle of that name.) His name was שִׁמְשׁון – Shimshon from shemesh – Sun. Samson was a Bright Smiling Sun that began the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines. Given the events we see nightly on the News, we recall that the name “Palestine” comes from the Romans, who renamed the area “Palestinia” in 63 BC after Rome conquered Judea and renamed it after the Philistines, Israel’s perpetual enemy. This was a lasting way to insult the Israelites.

Recall now that Samson refused to resist the desire to be tempted and moved closer to the territories of the Philistines. Long story short, he was the Jewish Superman for twenty years, counted among the Judges (foremost military leaders). He kept doing things that were right on the border of temptation; he desired to be tempted, and gave in to that desire one time too often. Samson was deliberately exposing himself to the danger of temptation – instead of fleeing from it – and as a result he got trapped in sin. That eventually cost him his pride, his vision, and finally his life; nonetheless he died repentant albeit it after many years lost in shame. When we constantly place ourselves in the path of temptation – you may recall the phrase “the near occasion of sin” – we are essentially risking our souls for the thrill of confronting God’s law. That’s not healthy-heart living by a long stretch! In the end, David and Samson both ended up winners because they trusted in God’s promise of forgiveness of sin. Samson got rest from his shame and his enemies. David got rest from his enemies and One of his descendants will indeed reign on his throne forever and subdue all enemies, including Death. With Death conquered, everyone will have a heart-healthy lifestyle for ever and ever. YOLO-F, amen! We, too, shall ask for a clean heart, because then – we will have a heart after God’s own heart, the heart of a Servant of God. (↔ Music Link) How do we reclaim the heart with which we were created when we prefer to make excuses? (↔ Music Link) Yes, Belovéd, we offer our El Shaddai our humble and contrite hearts. That is the Heart-Healthy Life God has had in mind since the very first time he said “Let there be …”

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

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

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Aloha Friday Message – December 15, 2023 – What shall we say?

December 15, 2023

2350AFC121523 – What shall we say?

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

    Isaiah 61:10-11 –
10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my whole being shall exult in my God;
for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation,
he has covered me with the robe of righteousness,
as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
11 For as the earth brings forth its shoots,
and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up,
so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring up before all the nations.

Luke 1:46-48-a – 46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
47     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed”

1 Thessalonians 5:16-22 – 16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise the words of prophets, 21 but test everything; hold fast to what is good; 22 abstain from every form of evil.

John 1:19-23 – 19 This is the testimony given by John when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed and did not deny it, but confessed, “I am not the Messiah.”[a] 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the prophet?” He answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you? Let us have an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said,

“I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness,
‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’”

as the prophet Isaiah said.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! I open with the following greeting with you specifically in mind:

1 Thessalonians 5:23-25 –  23 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. 24 The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.  

25 Beloved, pray for us. ⇐ Now, Belovéd, why is that text a different color? SO glad you asked! In fact I REJOICE that you asked! Who remembers the Latin name of this coming Sunday in Advent? Yes! It is Gaudete Sunday. That word means Rejoice, and it is the first word of the Introit (Entrance Verse) at the very beginning of the Mass. In our Advent Wreaths, the “pink” candle will be lit. I put the work pin in quotes because the actual liturgical name for that is “Rose.”

A few paragraphs from now we will look at the different terms in the Bible that are translated as “Rejoice,” but first I ask you, “Who is rejoicing, and why?” What shall we say to that?

In the passage from Isaiah, he starts of by saying, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.” Remember that this remarkable collection of prophecies is handed down to us as poetry. In this passage, the Prophet has personified Jerusalem by speaking in the first-person-singular. If you follow the link above, look at the GNT version which says, “Jerusalem rejoices because of what the Lord has done.” Isaiah, numbered among the greatest Prophets in Israel’s history, wrote often about the military and political errors, corrections, the hope for liberation from oppressors, and the famous “Servant Songs” in chapters 40-48. Chapter 61 speaks of the Anointed Bearer of Glad Tidings. He, Isaiah, has been anointed by the Lord to convey the extraordinary news to the suffering Nation that Zion – the Holy city of Jerusalem – will be restored (pray God it will be so again soon!). Isaiah is commissioned by the Lord to announce this news, and what he says does indeed gladden hearts and evoke rejoicing. That spirit of rejoicing is also found in the familiar “song” of Mary spoken when she visited her cousin, Elizabeth. See if you hear something like Isaiah’s words, then say them with her.

Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. This is the beginning of the canticle often referred to as “The Magnificat.” Two definitions may be required here for some of our readers. What is a “canticle?” It is a song, like all the Psalms for example. “So, Chick, why isn’t it called a Psalm?” It is called a canticle because it is a song which is not included in the Book of Psalms in which all the song-poem named “Psalm” are recorded. There are canticles in Exodus, Deuteronomy, and 1 Samuel – the Song of the [Red] Sea, the Canticle of Moses, and the Canticle of Hannah respectively. You can find a nice list of Canticles in the Bible HERE. In this Canticle, Mary is not personifying herself as “Jerusalem” as in Isaiah; however, nonetheless, her Canticle echoes the words of Isaiah because in her fiat (unconditional yes), she embraced the possibility of Hope and Redemption for not only Zion, but also for the entire World. What she said was “Scriptural, Biblical, and Spirit-inspired.” It was like that aphorism, “God said it, I believe it, and I’m stickin’ to it!” “Magnificat” is the first word – in Latin – of Mary’s canticle. In this season of the Liturgy, we share our joy as we come together – around the world! – to Joyfully Adore (↔ Music Link) Jesus the Newborn King. (↔ Music Link)

The Key Verse from our Epistle for the 3rd Sunday in Advent is very similar to the passage that gives us the name Gaudete. The introit is based on Philippians 4:4 – 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. In this passage, the Greek word is Chairete which, as described above, is Gaudete in Latin. (Use that link to see more Bible passages like that.) Let’s pause here for a moment to reflect on what rejoicing is, and what it means for us. We can begin with several of the words found in Scripture which are usually translated as “rejoice.” You can find the list and a fuller exposition of the Gift of rejoicing in 1650AFC120916 – Rejoice already! Here is the improved list list so we’ll know what we say:

Samah – שָׂמַ֖ח – Jubilant, spontaneous dancing, signing (simhach) – 1 Chronicles 29:9
Alaz – עָלַז – Exult – Burst into leaping with joy – Habakkuk 3:17-18 – “Jump for JOY!”
Nagilah – נָגִ֖ילָה – Let us rejoice – Psalm 118:4
Euphraino – εὐφραίνω – To gladden the mind – Revelation 12:12
Kauchaomai – καυχάομαι – Glory in success and boast against – 1 Corinthians 1:30-31
Synchairo – συγχαίρω – Rejoicing together (συγ- -), with others – Luke 15:6
Agalliao – ἀγαλλιάω – Rejoice Greatly, to exult; jump for joy – Revelation 19:6-8
Chairo – χαίρω – Rejoicing over experiencing God’s Grace; be glad in the Lord – Luke 15:32

So, as you can see Belovéd, rejoicing is a very human thing to do because we have so many ways of expressing it. The Apostle Paul tells us at least two dozen times to rejoice, and there are over 260 occurrences of some form throughout the Bible. The Apostle Paul says “Rejoice” because our hearts rejoice “In the Lord” and our spirits “in God our Savior.” O, Belovéd! When we pause to take in the Magnificence and Magnanimity of God, we cannot help but rejoice and be JOYFUL (↔ Music Link) in our adoration of our King and God. And how is it that Isaiah, Mary, Moses, Tobit, David, Solomon, Sirach, Zechariah, and oh so many more could rejoice in God? Right again, fellow travelers! It is in the Power of the Holy Spirit! And what does HE do for us? Well, we can hark back to the Gifts and Fruit of the Holy Spirit to see what The Apostle Paul says about these.

There is so much JOY to be found in The Holy Spirit! We know about the fruit of the Holy Spirit. All of the things mentioned as the Fruit of the Spirit are things that make us happy. We can find them in Galatians 5:22-23 – The Fruit of the Holy Spirit
Love is service and sacrifice.
Joy is balance at the center of the soul.
Peace is good order.
Patience is the ability to endure whatever comes.
Kindness is attentive regard for the other.
Generosity is the habitual disposition to share.
Gentleness is courageous respect for other.
Self-Control is a voluntary check on the appetite for success.

We’ve also explored the Gifts of the Holy Spirit

The Word of Knowledge
The Word of Wisdom
The Gift of Prophecy
The Gift of Faith
The Gift of Healing
The Working of Miracles
The Discerning of Spirits
Different Kinds of Tongues
The Interpretation of Tongues

We have this Fruit and these Gifts to help us learn to be happy – to REJOICE IN THE Lord, ALWAYS! It’s important to remember what it takes to be happy, to be always ready to rejoice. We just have to remember these 7 simple rules for REJOICING:

  1. Free our hearts from hatred and fill our hearts with Love.
  2. Free our minds from worries and fill our minds withs F.A.I.T.H.
  3. Live simply in the rejoicing of today.
  4. Give more for those who have less.
  5. Expect less and rejoice in the wealth of blessings we find.
  6. Share the Joy as we pass The Word along – AND REMEMBER …
  7. Joy isn’t completely fulfilled until it is shared.

We can rejoice alone – and this often happens when rejoicing in the Spirit – but when there is someone to rejoice with us … that is really REJOICING! Now, imagine rejoicing with Jesus – in our houses, in our churches, in our cars, in our hearts – ALL THE TIME!!! Now, think about this: if the Word of God mentions rejoicing so many times, can we conclude it is something our Lord thinks is important? Indeed it is important, and essential, too.  ʻŌmea, will you commit to rejoicing with me in and for and because of HIM? Rejoice with one another, Belovéd. Pray for, with, and about one another (← Start here). Remember what He said: “Whatever you do to the least of these…” and “I AM coming tomorrow.” (↔ Music Link) I want him to find us REJOICING, that’s what I say!! Now, get up and – not say, but – shout HALLELUIAH!! ALLELUIA!! PRAISE THE Lord! (↔ Music Link) Our God – the Holy Trinity – is with us today. Please remember that when we say the name of God here, we mean the entire Trinity.

Carry me …

Only in God will I find Joy. Only in God will I find Justice tempered with Mercy. Only in God will I find forgiveness and the power to forgive. Only in God will my faith sustain me through my trials as well as yours. Only in God is the Father of Lies utterly defeated by the Father of Life. Only in God will I find that all of life’s answers I need were all given to me while shepherds watched their flocks by night and angels from the realms of Glory sang praise to God the Father in celebration of the birth of God the Son, Jesus. And if there were to be no God to be the Giver of All Good Gifts, how and where could I find anything that is Good? Only at the Manger and the Cross do I find the Power of God Who IS Christ Jesus to lay down my life before His Throne. Only through the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit can any of us find hope that our sins, as well as the sins of those who sin against us, have been forgiven. God grant us each the sense to use the Grace He gave us to accept this simple fact: The reason for Jesus is us. And now, Belovéd, what say we rekindle the quieter side of our adoration with a gentle lullaby. What do y’all say?

Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay (↔ Music Link)
Close by me forever, and love me, I pray;
Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care,
And take us to Heaven to live with Thee there.

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

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

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

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

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

 

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Aloha Friday Message – December 8, 2023 – Peace be with you

December 8, 2023

2349AFC120823 – Peace be with you.  (2nd Sunday of Advent) ← Podcast

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

Isaiah 40:3-5 –
3 A voice cries out: (↔ Music Link)
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5 Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Psalm 85:8-10 –
8 Let me hear what God the Lord will speak,
for he will speak peace to his people,
to his faithful, to those who turn to him in their hearts.
9 Surely his salvation is at hand for those who fear him,
that his glory may dwell in our land.
10 Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
righteousness and peace will kiss each other.

2 Peter 3:9-10, 14 – 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and everything that is done on it will be disclosed. 14 Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish

Mark 1:2-3, 7-8 – 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”

7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope and Peace. Before we go any further with this post, I wish to pause and acknowledge that today, December 8, 2023, is Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This celebration is not well understood outside the Catholic Church, and – in all honesty – not many Catholics understand it well. Often when asked what “The Immaculate Conception” means, folks will state it’s when Mary got pregnant by the Holy Ghost. Not even close. The Immaculate Conception refers to how Mary was conceived as the daughter of Saint Ann and Saint Joachim. God prepared her as a special vessel to carry the Christ of God, and he did so before her birth by allowing her to be the first to be redeemed by Jesus’ willing and loving sacrifice on the Cross. Mary was the First Disciple, and the First Apostle because she was the first to know who Jesus was, is, and would be, and because of that God allowed her to be conceived without the stain of original sin. If we think that is difficult to understand, that it is because it is a Mystery of Faith, and we simply must trust that God, who cannot lie, is telling us the Truth about this tender child he chose for a very BIG responsibility. Much to his delight – and to hers and ours as well – she humbly said “Yes. Let all this happen as you have said.” But sixteen or so years before that, she came to this world as a sweet little infant girl-child who grew up loving God and all his works and words. THAT is what we celebrate today, the conception of the Ark of the New Covenant. I believe pretty much every kind of Christian there is in this world can agree with the fact that Mary, as the Mother of Jesus, is a V.I.P. in the inception and spread of Christianity.

Now, let us begin with today’s post. Every day now for over a year, I have prayed for peace in Ukraine with Ukraine remaining independent and Putin disempowered. The war rages on. For months now I have been praying for Hamas to be wiped out and for Israel to honor its moral obligation to minimize noncombatant deaths. The war rages on. For months and months, I have been praying that ethnic-based violence and racial prejudices be eliminated in East Republic of Congo, Somalia and Darfur in Sudan. The war rages on. I have prayed sporadically for years for the Islamic oppression in Iran to end there and around the world. I’d like for all of them to become Christians. It is changing ever so slowly. All of us in some way with some sort of frequency pray for Peace even if it’s only in the General Intercessions on Sundays. Peace always seems to be elusive, perhaps even impossible. “Let there be Peace on Earth” is a beautiful anthem that just doesn’t seem to get off the ground. Recently I came to understand that perhaps it’s because we forget the second line of that prayer – “and let it begin with me.”

Sometime in the late 60’s I wrote a lyric called “Man of Peace.” I mentioned it in a post in 2019 called 1945AFC110819 (←find it here) – ALL For Christ (←read this Scripture first) The gist of it went like this:

I am a man of Peace. I own no other name.
I stand before you, gird about with gifts of Love.
You ask me of my Peace, and how I hold it so.
Good listener, I do not hold my Peace.
I am held in Peace.

During Advent we prepare for the coming of the Prince of Peace, who is the King of Glory, and a Priest in the Order of Melchizedek. As we prepare, we ask ourselves, “Am I ready for him?” Oh, Belovéd! How much of our energy is spent “getting ready for Christmas,” or living for the Happy Holidays, or caught up in the powerful Joy of Chanuka? We know there are other celebrations of other interests that occur during this same time. All of these celebrations celebrate Peace and Brotherhood, and most of them have been taken over by worldly commercialism. The Reason we’re easin’ into the Season is lost in the tinsel, glitz, greediness, and confusion of what to do about a gift for so-and-so. There are cards and letters to send (which reminds me, I haven’t written our 55th annual Christmas letter yet!). Here’s the rub: TOO MUCH HUBBUB! “So, Chick, you’re saying to ignore all that and just get all Holy and everything?”

Well, no, not exactly, but the Key Verses today have some useful ideas about making Advent more than just a shopping adventure. What great amounts of time we waste when we spend hours at the mall, and what small amounts of time we chafe against to spend an hour with the Lord in the Eucharist! [1] We feel anxiety waiting for the FedEx truck because we want granny’s present to be on time, but we can’t watch for Jesus in the people around us. How do we make waiting for the Lord more like Peace?

Take the passage from Isaiah, for example. We all know it – almost by heart we’ve heard it so often. The literal sense is pretty clear: God’s going to do something amazing so we need to get ready. The wilderness is a tough place to be with mountains and valleys and deserts, and bandits, and … Scary Stuff! But if we listen intently to the whole reading this Sunday, there’s a lot to be excited about. God is coming to relieve Jerusalem from all the chastisement they have received for their sin. There is a reason for the sentinels to cry out with joy about the Hope the Lord brings! God the Almighty is coming, but he comes as a wise shepherd who carries the lambs in his arms and guides the expectant ewes with care. That is an Advent of Peace as in “he leads me beside still waters.” You know how to look up that one!

   The Ideal Shepherd Isaiah talks about is the Davidic Shepherd in Psalm 23, and in Ezekiel 34, especially 34:15-23 (←Don’t skip this!). Isaiah portrays this shepherd carrying the lambs (←read this post) with tenderness and care. Little lambs have a lot of energy, but they also tire easily. When they are moving with the flock as they graze, the little guys sometimes get tuckered out and just can’t go any farther. The good shepherd will pick up that little one and carry it for a while so it can rest without being left behind. As for the ewes, especially those still carrying their progeny, they must be led with care – slowly, with an eye toward safe paths, gentle slopes, adequate water, and quietly so as not to endanger their lives. When Jacob and Esau were going through the process of reconciling with one another, Jacob makes a comment that driving the herd hard would kill the future of the herd – the ewes and the lambs they carried. Here’s the thing: If there are lambs around, there will soon be more during the herd’s birthing season. A wise shepherd will lead (not drive) his flock over gentle slopes, still waters, and find rich, verdant pastures. That is the kind of Shepherd Isaiah is speaking about.

Isaiah says to make the roads in the wilderness straight and level. Why that allegory? In ancient times, when an important leader was coming to town, the roads would be leveled out, cleared of debris, the hills would be lowered and the valleys filled up to make the journey of the dignitary easier. Isn’t that somewhat like what we can do with our lives? We can level with God, tell the truth, reduce our pride and fill up our shortcomings with humility. We can stop muting our conscience and tune in to those broadcasts about using moral decisions to map out our lives instead of our materialistic wants. Doing these things only once makes that act an historical moment, but doing that always makes that a lifestyle – a Christian lifestyle. When we get to the sorting of the sheep and goats, Jesus won’t be standing there with a Sorting Hat. He will look for the evidence that we lived according to the Word of Truth. The Book of Life has left and right pages, just as our Judgment has left and right outcomes. And we must remember, it is The Book of Life, so YOLO-F definitely applies. That Word of Truth contains a lot of good information about Peace, so instead of just asking God to do something about it, how about we do something about it?

Let me hear what God the Lord will speak … Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. That’s a pretty big hint, isn’t it? Our Key Verse from The Apostle Peter says when Jesus does return, there won’t be any escape and there will be nothing recognizable left. What is his advice about that? Therefore, beloved, while you are waiting for these things, strive to be found by him at peace, without spot or blemish. How in the World can we do that? (←Trick question!) You are right, camper-in-the-know (or now)! We cannot do that in the world. We can only be found by him at peace by learning to cultivate Peace in all we do. That is so HARD! Indeed. It is surely difficult, but think about another passage about Peace in The Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the church in Corinth:

2 Corinthians 12:10 – 10 Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Paul’s statement should not be interpreted as fatalism, or as false humility, either. In his perspective there is a complementary and harmonizing connection between suffering and sanctity. When his mind, his spirit, and his body are at rest in Christ, he is “in the world but not of the world.” The verb translated “content” in the above passage is εὐδοκέω (eudokéō) { yoo-dok-eh’-o} which carries connotations of to think well of, or to choose gladly, or willingly accept, or to think best. It is like our expression “It comes with the territory.” If someone had told Paul that his stance was heroic, Paul would reply much the same way suddenly-noticed heroes do: “I’m no hero. I was just doing my job.” And so, Beloved, we are called to look on our own actions when encumbered with weakness, mistreatment, hardship, persecution, and difficulties suffered for Christ. Do we become histrionic like the Pharisee in the temple, tooting our own horn about how deeply we suffer? Do we become tranquil and self-restrained like Paul? Not that The Apostle Paul didn’t moan and groan a little about his suffering as a prisoner; he let others know he was hurting, but he also let others know that the hurt he experienced was gladly and fervently offered up for the sake of the Body of Christ (← Check it out!). Belovéd: All who are of the Body of Christ are called to serve as Paul served – For the Sake of Christ. (↔ Music Link) NEVER forget! We are the Body of Christ (↔ Music Link) – the Church – because we become what we eat. 1  That’s the Absolutely Perfect Plan.

That Grace-at-work (↔ Music Link) fortifies, enlivens, and encourages us. Through this, we show others the centrality of Jesus in our lives and God is therein glorified. Though on the Road to Calvary, we are also climbing the road to Zion and God’s own Heaven. When we are humble enough to glorify God, we are strengthened in ways that overcome every trial, every false accusation, every painful torment our adversary imposes on us. In that way, also, the adversary is defeated and Christ is victorious.

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

Become the Presence of Christ as an intimate part of the Life of Christ 1. For example, being humble enough to wash and kiss the feet of the outcast, sharing food, giving shelter, being compassionate to all as Christ is compassionate. We can work at living as he lives as a living presence. We are commanded to go tell the Good News, the Gospel, at home, at work, on the soccer field; wherever we are, there we are to share the Gospel by how we live. 1 That is our mission – to be Jesus for everyone around us. Please call to mind the words of St.Francis: “Preach the gospel at all times. Use words only when necessary.” And “Start by doing what is necessary, then what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

We don’t have to limit ourselves to being “with Peace,” as in “Peace be with you.” We can – and should – carry Peace within and around us at all times. That may sound difficult, but it is necessary if there is to be Peace anywhere at all. It is possible to carry Peace with us, and as we do that, we can eventually arrive at an intimacy with Jesus where we are enough like him that we can BE Peace. And so, Belovéd, I say to all of us now:

John the Baptist said, “I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” We say in return, “Come Holy Spirit, and enter the hearts of thy faithful.”

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

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

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

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

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

[1]  From the Mission presented by Reverend Father Herman Gomes, SS.CC. at Saint Catherine of Alexandria Catholic church December 5-6, 2023. Used with the presenter’s permission.

 

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Aloha Friday Message – December 1, 2023 – Wait and Watch

December 1, 2023

2348AFC120123 – Wait and Watch (1st Sunday of Advent)

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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    Isaiah 64:4-5-a, 8 –
4 From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.
5 You meet those who gladly do right,
those who remember you in your ways.
8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; (↔ Music Link)
we are the clay, and you are our potter;
we are all the work of your hand.

Psalm 80:3 –
3 Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved.

1 Corinthians 1:9 – 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Mark 13:33, 37 – 33 Beware, keep alert [and pray]; for you do not know when the time will come. 37 And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! The grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. We have come at last to the First Sunday of Advent. It is a time of J.O.Y. as well as a time of reflection, Love, and hopefully of true giving from grateful hearts. We give a lot of thought about gifts we can give to loved-ones at Christmas time, and somewhere in our heart of hearts we remember that all this hubbub has been built up around the genuine and True reason for celebration: the coming of the Messiah, the Bread of Life, as a wee little babe in a manger (↔ Music Link) in some little cave in Bethlehem – The House of Bread. Also coming up as quickly is the first Monday of Advent! I think somewhere along the line in my working days, I ended up developing an allergy to Mondays. 😉 Really, though, a Monday can be a challenge if we aren’t prepared to accept whatever happens with that attitude of gratitude that ol’ geezer Chick Todd keeps talking about.

ANYWAY, what have we got that inspires gratitude in us? Well, we all know the practiced answers:

  • I am a child of God
  • God loves me
  • I am saved by Grace and Faith
  • Jesus is my personal Savior.
  • I can go to church and do my part to be present in the worship
  • And so on.

All of those are great answers, and you could preface each of those statements with the declaration “I am grateful that … .” What about all the tiny little things that make your day miraculous? The trees on your way to work, the toddler in the supermarket that grins and waves at you, the lady who steps to the side so she can pull the door open for you, icicles that look like monsters’ teeth, a tiny ant carrying a leaf 6 times his size and weight, a phone call from your friends, a picture of your grampa, the smell of pecan pie and coffee, and all the other simple but amazing things? Do any inspire gratitude? So, happy camper, how long does it take to say, “Thank you Lord (↔ Music Link) ”? That’s just “the small stuff,” but like we always say, “It’s all small stuff if it’s not God’s stuff.” And what is there, anyway – other than sin and its wages – that is not God’s stuff? Everything we do, think, say, are, have, hope – all of it, all of it – comes from God. WE can have F.A.I.T.H. in the fact that he starts anything and everything in our lives.

Now, imagine you know that God has created you to be among his Most-Prized Possessions (He did you know). You are created for him, in him, through him, and by him so that you will recognize the personal relationship you have with him is RELIGION. Religion is all about relationships between us and Someone supremely superior in every aspect of Being. Wherever there is Religion, we will find at the very core of it WORSHIP, and Worship always, always includes, depends on, and rewards SACRIFICE – the giving-up-by-offering-up of something that is uniquely ours. And – no surprise here! – that offering is something God provided to us. Why?

Why does God give us “stuff” and then ask us to give it back? It’s simple math – in the Absolutely Perfect Plan anyway: whatever we give back to God is multiplied by the Love he bestows on us and our gift. Who else but God would do that? Who else but God could do that?? When we worship him with adoration, thanksgiving, and praise, we receive Graces and Blessings, and Gifts in overflowing quantities. We can’t possibly hold on to all of it, so it spills over onto the people around us – even to people we don’t know if only we will love them. When we gladly do what is right, when we remember to do things his way, he reaches out to us to give us strength, and speaks to our hearts to give us ever-greater Love. That’s why Isaiah can say
 From ages past no one has heard,
no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who works for those who wait for him.

Isn’t that amazing? “Thank you, Father!”

This is how we know God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-19 – 16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. YOLO-F! “We reap what we sow.” (See Galatians 6:7-9) The Apostle Paul tells us there “God is not mocked. He gives what you choose to keep.” And when the time comes for the End of Time, whatever we have kept will be our key to one of  the two rooms that begin with the letter “H.”

“Ahhh, baloney! ‘End of time.’ HA! The Earth has been here like 13-BILLION years, and there’s a good chance it will be here for that and many more later.” Grand idea, Friend, but we have been told to watch and wait, because The End of Time is coming, and now, right this very minute, would be a great time to take inventory of all the little things we’ve tucked away in our rucksacks. Why? Because we know that a lot of that stuff isn’t of any value other then our own selfish sentimentality. Those meaningless things could result in not having much to say when our Master asks, “What have you done for the anawim?” (↔ Click it) What shall we say, “Behold! I saved up all this stuff for them to have after I die.” Whew! That sounds … well, not appropriate for the situation. Junk-hoarding is not the same as watchful waiting. Ask anyone whose had to deal with cancer – either in their own bodies or in the body of a loved-one. Junk-for-later isn’t much help. Ever. Waiting is, though.

Did any among us (other than Crucita and me) ever read Robert Heinlein’s fabulous, Hugo-award-winning story called Stranger in a Strange Land? (↔ Click Link) Released in 1961, it got snapped up by the hip-60’s crowd and they went around grokking everything. It was controversial, had a lot of jabs at politics, it most certainly was a life-raft for the free-love mentality, and took some salty potshots at religion. Water was portrayed as sacred, and a blessing from the main character to his “water brothers” went, “Drink deeply, and never thirst.” Another common aphorism was “Waiting is. Fullness coming.” We can leave Heinlein’s pseudo-mysticism behind (it was in the rucksack), and just say that his eponymous character engaged in passive waiting as he described it. The “fullness” was an intuitive but thorough understanding of some object or person or situation – grok. Here’s the thing, though.

WE are not called to passive waiting. Something has to be going on inside us – meditation, anticipation, elucidation, edification, just a whole bunch of –ation words. Those words describe the actions, the processes, of DOING something. Or, to jump to another fantasy writer for Harry Potter, we have the character of “Mad Eye Moody” repeatedly proclaiming “CONSTANT VIGILANCE!” Absolutely! Never, never, never, never, never quit … WATCHING! Watching for what? All the eschatological hints in Daniel, Revelation, Psalms, all the Prophets, and Matthew 24 – IMPORTANT (↔ Click Link) and in Mark and Luke as well. It is in those passages that the Christ of God tells us he is on his way.

We have been told for centuries that Jesus can return “any minute now.” Well, that is true, and while we Believers have nothing (we hope) to fear about that, there are billions of people we don’t really know who don’t know he’s coming, and furthermore, don’t really care that he’s coming. Sadly a portion of folks in that group claim to be Christians, and that they wait only passively, being certain that they can explain some sort of answer to the question “What have you done for the anawim?” and most certainly there is an immensely larger group that think the whole thing is just a fairy tale to placate our primordial fears of death. As we often say here, all of those folks are in for one Hell of a surprise!

ʻŌmea, will we watchfully wait together; share what we see and hear and know; encourage, challenge, and Love one another as he has Loved? You wait with me, or I’ll wait with you, or better WE wait while we watch, and watch while we wait. What we’re waiting for is worth watching for. What we’re watching for is absolutely worth waiting for! AMEN? (↔ Music Link)  A-a-a-a-a-a-MEN! If HE built it, he WILL come! And so, Belovéd, let us wait together for his coming. When others ask us, “What are you waiting for?” our answer ought to be, “Not what, but Who.” Waiting can be boring, so let’s think of some of the things we can do as we wait and watch. How about this?

Ephesians 4:31-32 – 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice 32 and be kind to one another, tenderhearted*, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. *Greek –  eusplagchnos (↔ Click it) (yoo’-splangkh-nos) deeply, viscerally, and mercifully compassionate in humble deference. See also 1 Peter 3:8 – 8 Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. And while we’re at it, we might as well make sure that the way in which we wait is worthwhile and doable, that is, as we wait and do something, that something might as well be useful for our meeting with Christ. As The Apostle Paul told us in Galatians 6:9-10 – 9 So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. 10 So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. We – the adelphos, the anawim – must not wait away from the House of the Lord (God’s family), but rather be in the Presence of the Lord in the land of the living: Psalm 27:13 – 13 I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. ʻŌmea, wait and watch, and do that together like ohana and as those who gladly do right.

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

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

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

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

Keep Watching

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Aloha Friday Message – November 24, 2023 – King of the Anawim

November 24, 2023

2347AFC112423 – King of the Anawim

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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    Ezekiel 34:11-16 – God, the True Shepherd
11 For thus says the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12 As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14 I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. 16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.

Psalm 23:1 – 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

1 Corinthians 15:22-26 – [ … ] 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. 23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. 24 Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, after he has destroyed every ruler and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

Matthew 25:40-41 – 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. Ah, Belovéd, it’s “Black Friday,” (↔ Click Link) and I hope you’re enjoying preparing leftovers from yesterday as you hunt for great bargains. We all want to be careful, however, that we remember to provide for the poor, downtrodden, marginalized, and afflicted. These are the people who are named in the Bible as the anawim (ענוים or עֲ֝נִיִּ֗ים anayim). That word is also translated as the humble, the weak, the wretched, the lowly, and the oppressed. God continually directs his people – even us, ʻŌmea – to be mindful of the poor, the widows and orphans, and all those who have no standing or rights under the Law.

Jesus pointed out the foolishness of putting on a show of importance in a public gathering in the Parable on Humility and Hospitality in Luke 14:7-14. He told the guests at the banquet that the host might come over and ask you to take a less preferable seating if someone more important showed up. Jesus was not all that kind to people who tooted their own horns (or had someone do it for them on the street corner). Jesus himself was poor. Born in a stable not belonging to his family, raised in a community ruled by a vicious king and an occupying world power, threatened with death as a toddler so that he had to become a refugee, brought back to a tiny village as a youngster, raised to work in the construction industry and an apprentice to his foster father, and never had anything he could call his own except his name. He was even murdered in the cruelest possible way, crowned with thorns on his throne of the cross. He fit right in with the anawim. That is, until his Resurrection.

As the Resurrected Christ, he exchanged the cross and his crown of thorns for a seat at the right hand of God, his father, and a Crown of Everlasting Glory. He never gave up his love and care for the meek and lowly as he had always done. Take a look at our Key Verses from Ezekiel. God is addressing his ire to the Priests in Ezekiel’s time and telling them they are lousy shepherds of his chosen people. In that line there in verse 16 that says “but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice,” God is declaring that he will call out the ones who are bullying his sheep, pushing them around and being all rich, fat, and self-important.

These shepherds – who are also among God’s sheep – must undergo God’s discipline because they act differently, disappointingly, and wrongly toward those whom God has given over into their care. They are fat because they are selfishly-overindulgent in their appetites willing to steal or even destroy the property and/or reputation of others. They abuse the power of their authority and suffer no pangs of conscience for it. Their power in the community of the Israelites they are consecrated to serve is corrupted to the point of absolute abhorrence. They are useless shepherds, endangering the flocks entrusted to them for protection. These shepherds “forgot” they were answerable to the Creator who is the King of Israel: Isaiah 43:15 –
15 I am the Lord, your Holy One,
the Creator of Israel, your King.

Our God is the God who loves and protects the underdog, who favors the youngest or the second-best, who commands that we who are not relegated to the bottom rungs give preferential assistance to all who are less fortunate. When we bless them, we bless God, and God in turn blesses us. It is an Absolutely Perfect Plan – when we follow it. We recently called to mind one of God’s anointed who was called by name 150 years before he even existed: Cyrus. (← Check it out!) He was a worthy ruler because he ruled as God directed. He ensured that “everyone had a shot at being better.” He kept an appropriate balance in the nations by keeping the powerful in check while promoting the standing of the powerless. We pointed out in that study that Cyrus – and all kings of God’s people – were referred to as anointed – מָשׁוּחַ “mashiach.” God himself named and anointed Cyrus with the Holy Spirit. Now, consider what it means when we say that Jesus is King of the Anawim, King of the lowest, And King of the Universe.

That is a king who is King of kings and Lord of lords. (See Revelation 19:16 – 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, “King of kings and Lord of lords.” (↔ Music Link) God has made his Christ (which means Mashiach which means Anointed) the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega, the refulgence of the Glory of God, and an exact image of his Father. (See Colossians 1:3-a – 3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being) That is some King who rules over everything from land and sea to our galaxy and the entire Universe … ALL OF WHICH HE CREATED. That is a power beyond any earthling’s power and beyond any mortal’s understanding. We are broken in our spirits and blinded by our sins of jealousy for such power. There are people who want and respect power more than truth. All of us know a guy like that. He convinced Eve and Adam they should follow his example and try to be more than God had created them to be. They got that for which they lusted – the Knowledge of Good and Evil – but the wrapping on that package was not something they expected:

Wisdom 2:24 – 24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his company experience it. And there’s the admonition we must heed when we accept or reject the Kingship of The Christ of God, because “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” Our King of Everything has done that.

If we pledge our loyalty and accept him as our King – of everything from the anawim to the Universe – then we are blessed to dwell eternally in his Kingdom. Conversely, if we reject his claim to our loyalty, we reject Eternal Life and instead experience the bitter pain bound upon us by the effect of the Devil’s envy: Death Everlasting. Thus spake The King: 40 And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one (↔ Music Link) of the least of these who are members of my family, [ἀδελφῶν – my brethren – adelphon] you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;  and only The King of kings has the Authority to speak those words. Perhaps we can give him this reply:

“My King and my God, I will always praise you, love you, adore you, worship you, and thank you for revealing your Great Glory through Christ Jesus you Son. Lord Jesus Christ, Only Begotten Son of the Everliving God, have mercy on me – a miserable sinner – forgive me my sins and bring me to Everlasting Life. Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me so that , in your presence, I will always remember Our God Reigns. (↔ Music Link) AMEN. Jesus, let me be always and everywhere among my brethren, the anawim to whom you give yourself and all else, for you show us that ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.’”

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

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Aloha Friday Message – November 17, 2023 – Use It or Lose it

November 17, 2023

2346AFC111723 – Use It or Lose It

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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        Proverbs 31:10-31
10 A capable wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.

1 Thessalonians 5:1-3 – 1 Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers and sisters, you do not need to have anything written to you. 2 For you yourselves know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3 When they say, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape!

Psalm 128:3 – (Click →HERE← for a (↔ Music Link)
3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.

Matthew 25:29-30 – 29 For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 30 As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. We have arrived at the 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, the last Sunday of that Liturgical season. The next Sunday is The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. After that as the Season of Advent, a time of reflection, anticipation, and JOY. This final Sunday in Ordinary Time in Cycle A reminds us that there is much good in God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan for families that have the Love of God as a foundation and the service of others as a framework. The First Reading is from the Book of Proverbs. The link above is often titled “Ode to a Capable Wife.” That passage is also referred to as a description of “The Proverbs-31 Woman.” I can tell you there really are women who truly are that remarkable. If you would please read the entire passage – not just the three verses I supplied – you may perhaps have someone come to mind that is represented by the characteristics there. We must also realize that not all women are like that capable wife; some are a bit better, some are a bit worse. When we encounter them, they light up every life and locale they enter with the golden glow of graciousness. We looked into that a few years back in 1145AFC111111 – Virtuous Woman. I have known more than one in my life, and God blessed me with one for my wife.

You might have noticed that all the Key Verses for today mention women. Please bear with me when I repeat my statement that women are simply better than men because they are made better and chosen better. “Men are made of dirt. Women are made of flesh and bone. Women bring forth life. Men support life.” Isha – Woman – became Hawwah (חַוָּ֑ה)  – Eve – mother of the Living who was the helpmeet of Adam (הָֽאָדָ֛ם) man of Earth. The Apostle Paul tells us the coming of Christ again will come suddenly like labor for a pregnant woman. This is a very instructive simile. A pregnant woman carries new life beginning at conception and culminating in labor and birth. There is a long period of waiting and anticipation. There are visible and invisible signs that the pregnancy is progressing. There are varying degrees of discomfort throughout the pregnancy. Sometimes there are unforeseen consequences that endanger mother and/or child. Sometimes everything goes so well that the experience of pregnancy is more easily borne. Then, on some unpredicted day at some unexpected hour, suddenly there is a gush of water, a series of painful waves inside her, the effort of pushing that new life out of her and into the world, and finally the JOY that only a mother can know, remember, and understand. It is one of the most amazing things that can be seen! And so, too, will be the return of the Lord. (↔ Music Link)

There will be (has been) a very long period of waiting as more and more signs visible and invisible come into place. There will be a sudden change, and rather than a gush of water there will be a whirl of Angels and Saints in the sky. Then the New Heavens and New Earth will be formed. The Bride of Christ and her Groom will meet together at God’s Great wedding Feast. The hazards, trials, even pains for all the world will also point toward that moment of sudden, albeit long-expected, change. To me, it is significant that the process is more like birth than death. Everything that is born into existence at HIS return will be New Life. And if being present at the birth of a child is completely amazing, how much more so will be the birth of a New Heavens and New Earth! There will be absolute elation for all the Faithful Departed. Conversely, there will be absolute misery for all the unfaithful and unrepentant. Those who see themselves as the deliverers of Peace and Security claiming all is well because they say so will fall prey to their own deceptions and perish forever. YOLO-F. There will be no escape from either of these destinies when the Lord calls his family home!

Family life is the life God intended for all earthlings since Adam and Eve. Family is the basis and the epitome of community. We say so often here that God is community – “The Father loves the Son and The Son loves The Father with such power that their shared Love becomes the Person of the Holy Spirit.” God is a community of Love. A family is an image of the Community of God. Remember, Love is the Core of the APP. In Psalm 128:3, the Psalmist’s description of family comes to us as an image of a family seated at table for a meal – a prefiguring of the Heavenly Wedding Feast – and at the table the prudent man sees his “Proverbs-31 Woman” to be like a fruitful vine, bringing their household stability and the prosperity provided only in covenantal Love between husband, wife, and Creator. Their offspring are like olive sprigs holding the promise of extended productivity and prosperity. The entire family is blessed in their devotion to the Lord by the fruits of their handiwork. All those who live and Love in the Lord will know the generous, unfailing, awesome Goodness of God. There is more, though, because all those who do not live and Love in the Lord will reap what they have sowed. The rejection they give to the Lord will be returned to them.

For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. I confess that for many years, this one baffled me! Now that I am older ( much, much older!), I stopped seeing this as a description of material wealth – like the “money makes money” preachers – and understood it as his Blessings to me. When I heard the Pastor talking about “Time, Talent, and Treasure,” like many others I supposed that he’d soon be asking for more money, or for more volunteers to give their time and talent. All of us have abilities that God has placed in us – some have talents like music, or administration, or prophecy, or other gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some of  us have the charism of Time which we can offer in service to God and neighbor. All of us have the Treasure of Love which should be the first Gift we offer of all that we offer. (↔ Music Link). I reiterate, Love is the core of the APP, and God calls on us to make it our top priority, even in worship. Everything we need to know about love is in the B.I.B.L.E. Here are two examples: Deuteronomy 6:5-6 – 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. AND John 14:21 – 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them. Remember? Trust and Obey. (↔ Music Link)

Obedience is an authentic expression of Love, and since Love came before Obedience (and even before disobedience), we truly must make Loving God our priority because when we do that we are blessed with the capacity to Love our neighbors. And it gets even more astonishing when we go through the laborious process of Loving our most irritating neighbors and giving birth to the formation of a new community of love and caring. We can all see and understand that the Absolutely Perfect Plan is exactly that – Absolutely Perfect! All who are faithful in these two things will indeed do the will of their Father, and that is the “more” that will be given to those who have more … but more what?

More faithfulness is the seed for more faithfulness. Those who have little to no faith have nothing valuable to reap because they have not sown much of value. Our spiritual “muscles” are developed and strengthened by vigorous and judicious exercise – working hard on one’s wise choices. Those who are spiritually decadent and impoverished by their refusal of God’s abundant Grace available for the attainment of individual holiness will be all the poorer because they will lose even the Grace to accept Grace. What a sorry state of life that must be! And yet, dearly Belovéd, everywhere we go today we see billions upon billions of persons who flatly reject the Love of God.

We present The Apostle Paul’s list of these squanderers of Grace often (See 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 in 2343AFC102723). Each of us knows persons whose lives are characterized by 1, 2, 3, or more of those characteristics. Those in that list who live in the World already have a reward of sorts – living as Dead before dying. Those in that list who live as brothers and sisters – adelphos – in the Church have an even more “prodigious” reward. Whatever Graces they have received will be stripped away when the Lord tells them, “Depart from me! I never knew you!” Their Great Reward will be Death Everlasting. If we have loved-ones in that category, we will be held accountable if we do not attempt to convert them through conviction in the Word. Selah.

We are given Grace upon Grace, Love upon Love, freedom upon freedom. Every living soul has that treasury consecrated to them as a free, though unmerited, Gift. Honor the Giver by accepting the Gift, then putting it to use as best befits its nature. God is Good, and all, ALL his Gifts are Good! We are called to carefully and lovingly use them, because if we don’t, we lose them. Use’em or lose’em. Our El Shaddai-Olam will certainly honor our choices and repay us in kind. If you love someone who is on the brink of losing everlasting life, hold them tight and tell them “DON’T DIE! REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL!” Remember the Big Blue Button? Here’s another way to look at it, and why you don’t want your loved one to die. Tell them this:

“If that elevator will be going up, the instant you die, you will see an Angel coming up to you to take you by the hand and lead you to the Chariot that will be carrying you home. (↔ Music Link) If the elevator will be going down, in the instant your soul leaves your body, you will see the blackened hand of a demon reaching up from below the Earth to grab you by the heel and drag your soul straight into Hell.” Yes, ʻŌmea, the idea is to simply scare the Hell out of them. That’s a wonderful way to Love and Obey the Lord God and Jesus, the Christ of God and our Faithful Companion, Advocate, and Friend, the Holy Spirit. Use them, and you can’t lose them – nor Heaven either. AMEN.

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

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

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

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

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Aloha Friday Message – November 10, 2023 – ARE YOU READY YET?

November 10, 2023

2345AFC111023 – ARE YOU READY YET?

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.

   Wisdom 6:15 – 15 To fix one’s thought on her [Wisdom] is perfect understanding,
and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care

Psalm 63:4 –
4 So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 – 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about those who have died, so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

Matthew 25:10 – 10 And while they went to buy it, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut. Aloha pumehana, a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! Warmest Aloha, and may God bless you, Belovéd. What I’m about to do ordinarily would be done in large gathering rather than an essay. The basis of this comes from a homily delivered several years ago by Fr. Rex Rilviera. He opened with a question – I’m going to have to paraphrase since that engram is long gone. It went a bit like this:

  • Fr. Rex – How many of you want to go to Heaven?
    • Most of the assembly raised their hands
  • Fr. Rex – How many of you want to be a Saint in Heaven?
    • Quite a few hands went up, but fewer than previously
  • Fr. How many of you want to be a Saint in Heaven today?
    • According to witnesses at the scene, only one hand was raised. Yep. It was mine. I was arrogant enough to think I was ready. That’s our focus for today – ARE YOU READY YET?

This Sunday will be the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time in Cycle A. This set of readings causes me to smile – usually because I love the readings – but also because of that exchange with Fr. Rex. Today, they speak to a deeper understanding, especially when I hear so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. This has been a season of grieving for tens-of-millions across the globe. Here in Hawaiʻi, we have daily reminders of the immense and tragic loss of lives, history, property, and beauty left after the wildfire that wiped out Lahaina on Maui. We grieve for the lives lost in two terrible wars – one in Ukraine and one in Gaza. We grieve for the lives lost in the recent earthquakes (← Check it out! IMPORTANT!) in Afghanistan, Nepal, Indonesia, and lesser quakes with lesser consequences around the world (use the link above. It’s an eye-opener!) We grieve for the lives lost in mass-casualty shootings (↔ Learning Link) – now over 550 this year in the USA alone. Even more deeply do we grieve for the 600,000+ abortions every year in the US. We are pummeled daily with this sort of news – death and destruction, hate and violence, and unspeakable evil. It could make life look hopeless – except we have the Greater Hope.  If we continue on with the Key Verse from the epistles, we read in 1 Thessalonians 4:14 – 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. That is indeed good news and great Hope! Jesus was known as The Man of Sorrows, (↔ Music Link) and yet in his Death we have Hope!

20-week-0ld HUMAN

But that hope does not take away the pain and suffering of loss. For most of the World, grief is a response to the loss of persons, places, or things that we hold dear. Every life is precious in God’s eyes, and every life must be respected as a life God allowed to be conceived. I want to share a quote from the Catechism of the Catholic Church §2378 :

2378 A child is not something owed to one, but is a gift. The “supreme gift of marriage” is a human person. A child may not be considered a piece of property, an idea to which an alleged “right to a child” would lead. In this area, only the child possesses genuine rights: the right “to be the fruit of the specific act of the conjugal love of his parents,” and “the right to be respected as a person from the moment of his conception.

It is not the parents’ right to give birth to or to abort a child. Pregnancy begins with HUMAN DNA which progresses through maturation to become a human person. In the occurrence of a pregnancy, it is only the CHILD that has any rights – the right to live as God intended inside and then outside of the womb.

In all of these examples, the persons who lost their lives were deprived of the liberty to continue living safely without harm or danger. It is that for which we also ought to grieve – not just that someone we loved is gone, but that someone whom God Loved had their life “cut short.” They did not get the opportunity of answer that question about readiness. How do we get ready? Jesus’ The Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids in Matthew 25:1-13 gives us another example – one that is similar to the Parable of the Wedding Feast (↔ Learning Link). It is similar because the message focuses on “Constant Vigilance.” ALWAYS be ready to go! What does that mean? Remember the song “Leavin on a jet plane?” – All my bags are packed / I’m ready to go / I’m standin’ here outside your door …” Well, if we are going to be ready to go, we’d better have our bags Unpacked! “Ya can’t take it with ya” is a very true aphorism and it applies to all our earthly possessions as well as our earthly connections. When we’re gone, we’re gone, and that’s that. “But why? Because God needed another angel?”

   No, certainly not. It doesn’t work that way. We refer back to that Big Blue Button with the Big white H. If you take a few moments to look back to 1745AFC111017 – God Did That, you can find the answer, but I’ll give you a hint. The 5 Foolish Bridesmaids we not ready. They lacked the wisdom to bring extra oil, and so they were left out! Or as we have heard in popular culture lately, they were left behind. God does do that. He shuts the door and tosses the foolish into the darkness, each bound hand-and-foot where there is “wailing and gnashing of teeth.” God shut the door on the Ark, and he will shut the door on us if we are not ready. What can we do? We can call upon God’s Friend, Helper, and Life Coach – Wisdom! To fix one’s thought on her [Wisdom] is perfect understanding, and one who is vigilant on her account will soon be free from care (my emphasis). How do we acquire this Wisdom? Well, of course, we look in the B.I.B.L.E. and read all the Wisdom Books: Proverbs, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Wisdom, and Sirach. If we do that, and place ourselves in the story about the bridesmaids, we will be the ones who prepare. We would put a little oil in our lamps (↔ Music Link) – hint: it’s FREE in the B.I.B.L.E. –  and keep it burning. We know not the day nor the hour, (← Check it out!) but the wise can see that now is the birth pangs (← Check it out!) and we can proceed with confidence because we are prepared through God’s own Wisdom. We become completely ready when all we have left is our Light having laid all else aside to wait for the Groom. This is possible because we don’t abide by Sinatra’s anthem, but by Jesus’ tender song for our hearts so that he might have our lives HIS way. (↔ Music Link)

   The illumination we need comes to us via the Holy Spirit, the LORD, the Giver of Life and Light. Even if we have days when we have to endure a hard and painful struggle, (See Romans 5:3-5 about endurance) the Light is also our strength and guide. It is the Light of Love, the brightest and best of all Light. When his Light shines from you, you can live out the Gospel as in Matthew 5:14a, 16b – “You are the light of the world…let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” SO shine on! (↔ Music Link) We not only reflect the Light of Christ, we radiate that Light from our Sprit-Filled hearts. And what does that look like?

Some of my favorite examples of shedding the Light of Life on the World are found in the book of Psalms. Today’s Key Verse from Psalm 63 (↔ Music Link) is one of those examples: My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God. I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. In this passage the antecedent of “you” is God. “How can I bless God? He’s God and I’m not worthy to even speak his name!” True, but again I ask that we look back to 1540AFC100415 – Bless God! where we find this dialogue:

Q: What can my puny existence add to his Glory?
A: Nothing.
Q: What does God need from me?
A: Nothing.
Q: Then what can I give to God?
A: Everything.

Huh?

Q: If he’s got everything and he created everything and he is everything and he’s in everything, and everything I have comes from him … how can I give him anything much less everything?!?
A: By extolling, praising, exalting, applauding, revering, lauding, adoring, worshipping, glorifying, and thanking God. That is how we bless God.

And Belovéd, when once we begin to Bless God, then Worldly things begin to pass away so that we have oil in our lamps which is Eternal. Then we will be ready for the Groom to come to his Bride – the Church – and when the Door is shut at last, we will be safe in the Court of the Lord. Blesséd God forever in his Angels and his Saints! The thing about Heaven is that everyone is dying to get there! One last thing, though.

I know you’re a busy person, and you have a lot of demands on your time. Still, I’m going to ask you to read the entire ninth chapter of The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrews. (Follow this link)  This is such an important letter! It is masterfully written and portrays Christ as the sole mediator between God and all earthlings. This chapter describes how the sacrifices made by the Priests under The Law were inadequate insofar as having redemptive power. He demonstrates that there is no longer any need for that kind of sacrificial offering because Christ’s sacrifice atones for all sin. The enlightenment, illumination, of which Paul speaks comes through Baptism and the Word. While at some point the recipients of this Epistle to the Hebrews had endured persecution and loss of wealth, prestige, and security, Paul urges them to persevere, to hold on to the Truth, or we might say to stay in the Light of His Glory and Grace. (↔ Music Link)

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.

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

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Aloha Friday Message – November 3, 2023 – Take Time To Be Holy

November 3, 2023

2344AFC110523 – Take Time To Be Holy (↔ Music 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.

   1 Thessalonians 2:8 – 8 So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.

Matthew 23:11-12 – 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.

Malachi 2:10 – 10 Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Why then are we faithless to one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

Psalm 131:2-a –
2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. Today’s title is taken from an old hymn, “Take Time to be Holy” by William Dunn Longstaff (1822-1894). I hope you will take time to listen to the Bowers Family Singers as they sing this beautiful and poignant hymn from the late 19th century. Time is the only resource that is equally accessible to everyone. My late friend Joann Hauler used to say, “We all get the same suitcase. How we pack is what makes the difference.” There are 168 hours in a week. If we suppose that it takes 30 minutes to get dressed and go to church, an hour in church, and 30 minutes to get back home, that’s two hours a week given to God. Two divided by 168 = 1.2% of a week. That’s a pretty small tithe! A true and willing tithe – 10% – would be about 17 hours a week. Seventeen divided by 7 = 2.4 hours per day. Not many of us are able (or willing!) to arrange our lives to put in that much time daily. Still, how can we follow The Apostle Paul’s teaching to “pray without ceasing?” Well, one way is to make our whole day a prayer as described in 2221AFC052722 – Make me an offer(ing)! You can find a suggested format here.

These suggestions are offered as ways to use our time rightly instead of unfruitfully. That’s what the Prophet Micah was writing about. This book of prophecy was written around 730-700 BC – a contemporary of the prophets Isaiah and Hosea – during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Jotham was a godly king. His son, Ahaz, was a complete opposite of his dad. Eventually, Ahaz’s son Hezekiah became a godly king who reopened the Temple built by Solomon. He saw to it that only the True God was worshipped and did away with the abominable practice of setting up idols of other gods inside the Temple! If we apply our theme for today, Ahaz and Hezekiah made time to be holy and saw to it that their “family” – the Kingdom of Judah – had time for that, too.

We can see in our Key Verse from Micah that his declaration was proclaiming Jehovah as the one father of Israel. The priests and other components of the national governance desecrated the convenance established in the Shema: Sh’ma Yis’ra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. “Hear, Israel, (↔ Music Link) the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” This declaration by Moses is so powerful! The connotation is “hear, listen to this, and obey.” In this “hearing” one achieves consent, agreement, and understanding because what is heard is so undeniably clear it goes straight to our hearts. We know we have heard Truth speak, and when Truth speaks, there is Life. Do you remember what Jesus said about truth? John 8:32 – 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” And Truth? John 14:6b – “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

That is the Life that comes from the listening. It is Everlasting Life that renews us. That renewal is testified to by God himself during Jesus’ Transfiguration. When we take time to be Holy, when we make our day-to-day lives a prayer, then we are getting a taste of that Everlasting Life – the Good Life. Have you heard this before: “Why would you ever want anything less than that?” Yeah. Me too. That redundancy is one of the reasons we have this weekly study. It might add 10-15 minutes to our 1.2%; listening to the (↔ Music Link) (not this one, though) might add an additional 0.2% so that we end up with (1.45/168) X 100=2.1%, a pretty decent increase. So, that’s part of why these end up in your inbox. But there’s more to it than that. The Apostle Paul gave us a hint.

“So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us.” I have absolutely no doubt about the origin of this ministry. It is the accepting of the Gift by accepting the Promise of The Call. That Call was “Preach my Word” when I was a sophomore in high school, but that morphed a bit when I converted in 1969. I understood that Call as “Teach my Word.” That mission started around 1951-52, and I still haven’t finished responding to that Call mainly because there is such JOY in teaching! I agree with The Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Church in Philippi in Philippians 1:3-5-a  – 3 I thank my God every time I remember you, 4 constantly praying with JOY in every one of my prayers for all of you, 5 because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. And that’s the Truth! On one hand, it makes me excited to get to the keyboard and letting the Holy Spirit pull things together. On the other hand, it is calming to be in his presence and feel my hands following his leading. It is like the Key Verse from Psalm 131 above – “2 But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother.” A nursing baby is fussy and restless, but a weaned child is contented and at rest. It is that kind of contentment I feel as the pages fill up.

Sometimes (last week for example), it’s more difficult; usually, though, I just relax and let it flow in JOY.[1] That JOY is a product of living in Hope. Back at the end of September when we spoke about Nemo, we read about Hope: “It is the Grace of Hope. Godly Hope is the combination of desire (it’s what we want) and expectation – (we believe we will receive it).” Well, just what – exactly – are we desiring and expecting? There’s a really great answer in 1 Peter 1:5-7 – 5  [you] who are being protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you rejoice, even if now for a little while you have had to suffer various trials, 7 so that the genuineness of your faith – being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire – may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. That’s quite a huge Hope! But, wait a minute – what about those different kinds of troubles? Are we experiencing that as well?

According to report from Open Doors Research (↔ Learning Link): North Korea is the most dangerous place for persecution of Christians; world-wide last year 5,621 Christians were martyred for their faith; over 2,000 churches were attacked; and 140,000 Christians were displaced. (see the link above for more details). That’s from last year. In 2023 we know it’s going to be much, much larger. These data include only Christian persecutions. They do not include Muslim or Jewish murders and persecutions, or deaths from warfare. That is indeed a heaping heap of “difficulties.” Reports of corporate, governmental, and even inter-religious prejudices, mistreatments, and shady activities are “in the news” almost daily. I put that in quotes because there are maybe only a handful of news agencies that cover “nothing but the facts, ma’am.” How can so many groups be so hateful about so many other people? “I’m offended,” and “You’re a threat” are the go-to accusations in this era of decline in faith, worship, and morality. The resulting decline in real justice and corresponding need for constant, efficacious prayer leaves one breathless. How can the Body of Christ aspire to holiness under all this persecution (even if we in the US of A are not in the top-50)? Our Gospel Key Verse points the Way.

Matthew 23:11-12 – 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted. During his ministry, does it seem to you that Jesus might have been persecuted – not just during his Passion, but during the long, circuitous path he and the Apostles traveled while delivering the Gospel. What is the greatest way to be great? It is to be humble which is why we use this as a reminder: Be Humbe Like Jesus. How does that work, anyway?

    Once again, we can turn to the first letter of The Apostle Peter. 1 Peter 1:14-16 – 14 Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” OK, how do we start on that. Let’s check out The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians 5:18c-20 – … be filled with the Spirit, 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Here’s an example of one I found recently – although it’s not the one by Thurlow Spurr and the Spurrlows. It’s called Happy Am I (↔ Music Link).

In closing (finally), I’ll just say I’m recommending that instead of “make time” to be holy, just be holy. I know, that’s a big ask, but we have a Big God, and  and he created us so he could Love us and then we can Love him in return (See 1 John 4:19 again because it’s the core of the Absolutely Perfect Plan. YOLO-F!  Seriously, look it up, now). It can seem hard at first, but if we start at the beginning of each day, we’re off to a good start of a good day! Knowing that all the praise we can offer to God for his goodness is never really enough, we can humbly try to do just a wee-bit more each day to BHLJ, and then pray and sing like only God and all his Angels and Saints are watching. Believe me, with them as an audience, we never need to feel nervous. Next time we sing the Goria at Mass, remember that the Angels (including our guardian angels!)are also singing with us. Try listen. It’s always holy, humble, and heartening. GBUA!

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

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

[1] Why do I capitalize JOY? It’s an old “formula” I learned in Vacation Bible School – probably about 4th grade. The formula describes an easy way to arrange our time and interactions, even our giving: J is for Jesus. O is for Others. Y is for You. When we make that ordering of our priorities, we truly do TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY.

 

 

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Aloha Friday Message – October 27, 2023 – Look, Taste, See, Learn

October 27, 2023

2343AFC102723 – Look, Taste, See, Learn. Lotsa words here.

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Aloha Friday Message – October 20, 2023 – God did that!

October 20, 2023

2342AFC102023 – God did that!

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

    Isaiah 44:24a, 28-45:1 – 24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, … 28 who says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd,
and he shall carry out all my purpose”;
and who says of Jerusalem, “It shall be rebuilt,”
and of the temple, “Your foundation shall be laid.”

45 1 Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped
to subdue nations before him
and strip kings of their robes,
to open doors before him—
and the gates shall not be closed!

Isaiah 45:4-6 –
4 For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I surname you, though you do not know me.
5 I am the Lord, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god (↔ Music Link) .
I arm you, though you do not know me,
6 so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the Lord, and there is no other.

Psalm 96:1 –
1 O sing to the Lord a new song (↔ Music Link),
sing to the Lord, all the earth.

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 – 2 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Matthew 22:21 c – “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. Today is Friday, October 20, 2023. It is the 293rd day of the year. There are 72 days left in 2023. I think all of us will agree this has been an extraordinary year so far, and it’s likely to get even more extraordinary before 2024 opens up before us. Many of us have had a difficult year. Some of us have had a horrible year. A few of us have had a great year. ALL of us have memories of 2023 that will last us for the rest of our lives, memories we will end up sharing with our grandchildren who will pass them on to their grandchildren. In my heart of hearts I hold the hope that somehow all this chaos will be resolved; but, that little man in the right-rear quadrant of my brain keeps saying, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

Recently we’ve mentioned the “birth pangs” Jesus spoke of when describing the “end times.” If, indeed, what we are seeing now is just the birth pangs, then the pandemonium lurking just outside the door (see Genesis 4:7) is something I don’t want to see or endure. That’s kinda crazy, because if these days are the birth pangs, and if the next item on the program is The Tribulation (with or without the Parousia), then – as a person of Faith – I should be jumping for joy because everything is going as planned, and the Day of Resurrection is in sight. The World would judge me as just plain crazy, another religious nut. You’ve probably seen this little meme before, so you’ll understand why it is very important that we do not pay attention to the World’s judgments!

We know the way God works – he does everything perfectly! (Remember the Absolutely Perfect Plan). We don’t do that because we can’t do that. We are broken, imperfect because of sin. That’s why he’s God and we’re not (despite what certain Hollywood nuts say). This Sunday, we’re going to talk about one of the guys God stirred up to do what God had planned. It’s a pretty good story. We’ll hear about Cyrus, ruler of the Medes and Persians – the same guy who defeated Babylon and returned the Jews to Jerusalem after 70 years of exile there. Here’s the back-story on that.

One of our Key Verses today is from the book of the Prophet Isaiah. Isaiah’s prophesies were made the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, all of which ruled in the closing years of the eighth century B.C. (ca. 740 – 701 B.C.). What’s really cool about this prophecy is that Isaiah specifically named Cyrus, who wasn’t even born yet! Cyrus was born around 585 ± 5 BC, around 150 years later! He was not a Jew, but rather a gentile. God refers to him as “his anointed” in Isaiah 45:1 – 1 Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped to subdue nations before him and strip kings of their robes, to open doors before him — and the gates shall not be closed. ALL the kings of Israel were anointed, and Cyrus was a Gentile whom God himself anointed with his Spirit. (See 2012AFC032020 – Anointed for Good for more information). After being whupped by just about every empire in history and carted off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, I imagine the Jews looked at this new, young military leader as just another oppressor. “Here we go again. Now what?” They seem to have forgotten that God himself had chosen Cyrus and told them “Cyrus will do what I tell him to do. Jerusalem will be rebuilt and all of you will go there.” From Genesis to Malachi, God tells his people I am the Lord over 160 times. You’d think they’d remember! Another of our Key Verses says 5 I am the Lord, and there is no other; besides me there is no god. So, what are we supposed to do with that?

Cyrus was the leader of the Persians, conquered the Medes and united the Iranian people under one ruler for the first time. Cyrus became the first king of the Persian Empire; under his remarkable leadership he was able to establish one of the largest and most enduring empires in history. He was very tolerant of other religions (he himself appears to have followed Zoroastriansim), and in short order determined that the violent and dehumanizing repression of Babylonia against the Hebrews must be reversed. He sent several delegations back to Israel with instructions to rebuild the altars, the temple, and the city walls. It was at this time that the Second Temple was built.

(This is where I’m supposed to insert Micah 6:8 again. We should all have that memorized by now.) We should also be thinking about the two greatest commandments – love God completely and love our neighbors (including our enemies) the same way Jesus loves us. That’s God’s plan for us – the APP. It’s a pretty simple plan if you really think about it. Trouble is, it seems to be “too simple for our complex minds and hearts.” The folks who manage to figure out how it works and get’r done are the folks we name as Saints. Now, of course, all of the people saved by Grace are “the Saints of God,” but the exemplary ones are those who “do small things with great love.” We are all called to that kind of greatness. We who are baptized are also anointed Priest, Prophet, and King. If we think it was amazing that God would have Cyrus named as “his anointed” 150 years before it happened, then how great is it that millennia before we came on the scene, God named us – each and every person reading this – as his anointed? Yes! God did that! If God has prepared that for us, what ought we to prepare for him? I am not a Priest like Saint Pope John Paul II, I am not a Prophet like Isaiah, and I am not a King like Cyrus; but, I am chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. (See Ephesians 1:4) I am, you are, we are chosen and anointed by God, in God, and for God. As we hear in the Eucharistic Doxology, it is our call to live this proclamation as a core value in our lives: “Through him, and with him, and in him, O God, almighty Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, forever and ever. Amen.” We are a community of faith. We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3 remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Everyone in our lives is affected by our anointing. For most of us, though, that’s no big whoop; that is, unless we are counting our burdens instead of our blessings. That sort of focused awareness is pretty depressing because we concentrate too much on what we don’t have and overlook everything we do have. If we are living in accordance with Christ’s Law of Love, we know, see, and understand how God’s Grace gifts us with extraordinary treasures. That kind of focused awareness gives us a predisposition to value God’s Love deeply and also inspires us to make a return on that love. God invests us – clothes us in Christ – so that when we return the Love of Christ to God and to neighbor our blessings are increased. If we give whatever belongs to God to someone or something else in the World, we should not be surprised that our investing in the World does not produce spiritual blessings. Those investments only satisfy our liabilities to the law. Investing in the World is about the same thing as paying our taxes. That’s the lesson Jesus was teaching when the Pharisees plotted to entrap him by asking, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” (See Matthew 24:17). Jesus told them, “Show me the coin used for the tax.” Now we recently said something about this particular coin. It was a Denarius showing the image of Tiberius Caesar, Emperor in Jesus’ day. It was a tribute tax, a way of paying Caesar for his “protection” (under his thumb!). Jesus held the coin so the Disciples of the Pharisees could see it and said, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” 21 They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Sometimes we earthlings have trouble sorting that out. Just what does belong to God? Let’s take a look at what Scripture says:

Psalm 24:1-2 – 1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, 2 for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

1 Chronicles 29:11 – 11 Yours, O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heavens and on the earth is yours; yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all.

Deuteronomy 8:17-18 – 17 Do not say to yourself, “My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth.” 18 But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors, as he is doing today.

Job 41:11 – 11 I am in command of the world and in debt to no one. Contemporary English Version (CEV)

The short answer, then, is that everything belongs to God. He made it, and it’s his to do with as he pleases. If you’ve ever received a gift that was far beyond anything you could have imagined, that’s what God’s Grace is like. He gives us more than we can comprehend or repay, so he just asks us to share a little of it with him and with our neighbors. It may look like we have a house, a car, a deed to property, a bank account, but all of those things come from God, and if they are his, we should use them as best befits their purpose – to give God the glory, the praise, the thanks, the adoration, and all the Good that flows from his generosity. We can use God’s car to take a friend to work. We can use God’s groceries to feed a grieving family. We can use God’s living room in our home to host a prayer meeting or Bible study. Whatever we have, we can use it for something greater in the Kingdom than what it is in the World. In fact, whatever we do in the Kingdom, whatever we add to the Kingdom, whatever share to the Kingdom has come to us from and through God. (See John 1:3-4) Even so, we can “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The reason is simple: Everything belongs to God, ultimately even the things that belong to Caesar.

If everything belongs to God, then it follows that everyone belongs to God. Our life, our love, our worshiping, and honoring of God and neighbor belong to God. If we offer all that we have – body, mind, and spirit – to God and neighbor, what becomes of us and of our gifts? I believe the answer is in John 15:13 – 13 No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. All Good things come from God, so whatever is Good in our lives comes from him, but who can repay him – and how? If we give him All That We Have (↔ Music Link), could it ever be enough? Could we give God and each other All That I am (↔ Music Link), and still come up short? We want to Love God for the Greatness of his Love, but in the Light of his Love ours is Only a Shadow (↔ Music Link). Still, I am certain you have felt moments in your life when you and God are very much in sync and you know firsthand that Great Things Happen (↔ Music Link) when God mixes with us! As we wind this up, let’s look at another amazing incident in God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan by turning to Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 2:

Acts 2:7-11 – 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs – in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.”

Here we have a list of locations that include much of Cyrus’ empire. All these nationalities are brought together by Cyrus as commanded by God through the authority and protection of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, God’s Anointed, the Christ of God, establishes the Authority of God in Heaven and on Earth, over the Divine and the Human. The “Promised of Ages” has come to rule the World, not through the power of might, but through the Authority of the Law of Love – the same Law through Which and by Whom all of Creation was formed. It was, is, and will be through God’s Authority that the universe – including you and me – was created. In God’s Omniscience, he meticulously pronounced the name CYRUS 150 years in advance to show how the Mercy of God surpasses any human expectation or understanding. There is no greater Authority than Truth, and the LORD declares “I the Lord speak the truth, I declare what is right.” The Truth is what is right. God did that “etiam pro nobis,” – even for us. He placed in us the Light of the World so we could be a Light to the Nations. (See Isaiah 49:6) Yes, Belovéd! God did that!

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

≡ ONE GOD IN THREE PERSONS

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.

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

Belovéd, we are chosen for greatness in and through Love. Isn’t that great?

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

 

 

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