Aloha Friday Message – March 1, 2024 – What do we do?

March 1, 2024

2409AFC030124 – What do we do?

The Road to Jerusalem Series #3

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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    Exodus 20:5 b– 6 – I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, 6 but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Psalm 19:8 – (GNT) [1]
8 The laws of the Lord are right,
and those who obey them are happy.
The commands of the Lord are just
and give understanding to the mind.

1 Corinthians 1:22-23 – (GNT) 22 Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom. 23 As for us, we proclaim the crucified Christ, a message that is offensive to the Jews and nonsense to the Gentiles

John 2:23-25 – 23 When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.

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 we are continuing the Journey to Jerusalem, and in today’s readings for Cycle B, we hear the 10 commandments. The Psalmist chimes in with a song about the laws of the Lord. The Apostle Paul tells us about the core of his testimony – Christ crucified, something which makes the Jews distrustful and the Gentiles baffled. The Gospel finishes up with Jesus driving the moneychangers and vendors out of the Temple Area with a whip made of cords. When confronted with the questions, “Who are you to do something like this?” He gives a mysterious answer: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” No one but Jesus understood what that meant.

In parishes where there are catechumens elected to receive the Sacraments of Initiation, the readings will be from Year A – God brings water from the rock, The Apostle Paul tells us that For Christ, while we were still helpless, died at the appointed time for the ungodly. The Gospel is from John 4:5-42 – Jesus met the woman at the well in Sychar. In that passage, Jesus reveals himself as the Messiah, and many in that small village near Jacob’s well on a parcel of land Jacob gave to his son Joseph. This is the Sunday of the 1st Scrutiny by which the elect – catechumens who have demonstrated their commitment to continue – begin a three-week examination of their commitment. This self-evaluation is supported by their community as well as the entire Church.  The Scrutinies are rites commemorating repentance and conversion – turning away from whatever might serve as a hindrance to accepting the Love of God – and encouraging them to continue to draw closer to Christ.

We can begin looking at today’s Key Verses with the passage from Exodus. Some folks use  this  verse, and others like it, to say that God is vengeful and flawed because he describes himself as being “jealous.” Further objections are raised about punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation. These objections arise mostly out of “selective hearing” they hear what they want to hear and tune out the rest of what is said. The phrase immediately following this segment is of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments. Let’s first deal with jealous.

The important distinction here is that this word connotes zeal, and God’s zeal is for his Chosen Ones. God’s omnibenevolent Love embraces everyone who will – in return – love and obey him. We love and obey, God Loves and protects. It is a jealousy of exclusivity, and the sense of it is “you shall not permit yourself to bow down to any gods other than me.” Does that sound familiar? “I AM the Lord, your God. You shall not have other gods besides me.” One might ask, “Why would God punish the children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren for the sins of their ancestors?” The answer is in the dichotomy between God’s illustrations. Correction – chastisement – lasts only a short while, whereas reward lasts until the thousandth generation. The purpose of chastisement is to instill wisdom and repentance. God zealously seeks to draw all men closer. (See John 12:32)

The Key Verse taken from this Sunday’s Psalm reinforces that Truth. The laws of the Lord are right, and those who obey them are happy. God is Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation. As rational beings we can see that it is irrational to want anything less. That irrationality is the result of our own unwillingness to properly use the faculty of Free Will. This consequence of original sin is reminiscent of Genesis 6:5 [2]– (NLT) The LORD observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. That was God’s assessment before the Flood and before the giving of The Law, the guidance he gave to his chosen people.

Once God had chosen Israel to be “the Best among the best,” it was his expectation that they would be the exemplars of Love and Obedience so that all other nations would want to know, love, and serve the God of Israel. Moses described it well in Deuteronomy 4:7-8 – 7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? Long story short, God says, “I chose you, now, you choose me in return.” If choosing God results in eternal blessedness and if rejecting God results in eternal penalty, I ask again, “Why would anyone want anything less?” Indeed, it’s a formidable mystery how we can be so oblivious to the obvious as seen in 1 John 4:16 – 16 So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.

Regrettably, that is not enough for – I’ll go ahead and say it – most people. Fewer and fewer earthlings are convinced of the reality that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent, and with good reason expects us to know that. I say “with good reason” because we are created in his image and likeness, and therefore his own beloved creatures among all of his Creation. “Creature? How come you call me a creature when I am a child of God?” Go to Chapter 1, verse 12 of John to be assured (↔ Music Link) you are a Child of God only by virtue your Baptism “in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” When that happens to us, we become Children of the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, and just as Israel was led through the desert by the Spirit of God in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, we will be led by the Power and the Light of the Holy Spirit. Only in the most general sense are non-Christians “children” of God because he created us in his image and likeness and put into us the breath of his own Life.

Do we really need miracles to convince of that Jesus is the Christ of God? The miracle of our own anointing as Priest, Prophet, and King evokes our family heritage. Do we need further insight into the Nature of God to be able to perceive his role in our salvation through Christ Jesus? Why do we preach “Christ crucified?” It was the death of Christ which accomplished our Salvation. It was the Resurrection of Christ which assured our reunion with God at the Day of Reward. If we choose – again choose – to make sense of that or to see proof of that, then that Old Serpent is having his way with us … again. God does not condemn those who have chosen to trust, Love and Obey him (See John 3:17-19) Why would anyone want anything less except that s/he chooses to reject that Gift?

While Jesus was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, “many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone. Whether the proof was wisdom or miracles, many in Jerusalem believed in him and his Name. That is what we do, we believe in Jesus and in his name, as in 1 John 3:23 – 23 And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

Belovéd, we have gone from the Ten Commandments to the Command of Jesus – God the Son – and we know that what we must do is in Micah 6: 8 (GNT) – 8 No, the Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God. That fits perfectly with Deuteronomy 6:5 – 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might – as well as John 13:34 – 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. That is what we must do, because Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romas 13:10) Jesus fulfilled the Law COMPLETELY. If we are doing what Jesus does, we are doing the right thing. (← Check it out!) That beautiful first Ten Commandments was the perfect instruction manual at the beginning of the Beginning of the B.I.B.L.E., God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan, and throughout that resource there is one constant theme: “Repent and Believe the Gospel” which is what we do because he created us to know and accept YOLO-F.

Perhaps we need to DO is decide on whom we should follow (↔ 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.

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

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

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

[2] Passages marked NLT are from the New Living Translation Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

 

Aloha Friday Message – February 23, 2024 – What do we see?

February 23, 2024

2408AFC022324 – What do we see? ← 😊 PODCAST LINK

The Road to Jerusalem Series #2

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

    Genesis 22:1 – After these things God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” (← This is like saying, “Behold! It’s me!” This link will show you a bunch of translations. My favorite – not shown here – is “READY!”

Psalm 116:9 – 9 I walk before the Lord
in the land of the living.

Romans 8:31 b-32 – If God is for us, (↔ Music Link) who is against us? 32 He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?

Mark 9:9-10 – 9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Today we continue our series on The Road to Jerusalem. We will stray a bit from the assigned Sunday readings – especially in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Sundays of Lent – so that we can draw from other passages in the synoptic Gospels that show different episodes of this salvific journey. We will see, along the way, how Jesus referred to his Passion and death, and no one seemed to catch on that he was talking about something that would completely change the World. Just a short way up the page from our Gospel Key Verse – in V. 2 – we read that Jesus was transfigured before them. This word is μετεμορφώθη (metemorphōthē) and it means to be completely changed in outward appearance whilst still remaining unchanged in identity. This word is related to our English word metamorphosis. If you’ve seen a kernel of corn grow into a tall corn stalk or seen a caterpillar morph into a butterfly, you have witnessed metamorphosis. Transfiguration caries a deeper sense of glorification into a divine form, in this instance perceptible to others.

Jesus, of course, knew what was coming, but I can only imagine how the three Apostles must have reacted. In chapter 8 of the Gospel of Mark, Jesus and the Apostles are near Cæsarea Philippi. A very impressive mountain is nearby, Mount Herman, and is usually designated as the site of the Transfiguration of Christ. At an altitude of 9,230 feet, it is nearly three times higher than any other mountain in the region. Our Scripture says that they “went up a high mountain,” so perhaps not all the way to the top. Nonetheless, you can see that it must have been a long and steep hike! I used to think this took place at night, but it would be all the more difficult then. We can speculate, perhaps, that the Transfiguration and the hike back occurred after dusk, but there’s no way of truly knowing. We do know that it was at or near Cæsarea Philippi that Jesus asked the Apostles, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” There follows the astounding profession of faith from The Apostle Peter, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” We see this in Matthew 16:13-20, and that passage also ends in Jesus telling them not to disclose his identity as the Christ of God just as he had told them not to tell others about his Transfiguration. You can find an interesting comparison of the three Synoptic Gospel account at this location (↔ Click Link)

It is also at this point in the Gospels that Jesus begins to inform the Apostles that “The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” This is stated in Mark 8:31, 9:30-31, and 10:32–34. Please take a moment and read each of these as each is slightly different and more detailed. In Luke 24:5-7 and Matthew 17:22–23 there are additional testaments to Jesus’ awareness of what would happen to him in Jerusalem. Seeing Jesus portrayed as clueless about his Passion, as in “Jesus Christ, Superstar,” is utterly false. At this point in the road to Jerusalem, Jesus leaves the area of Capernaum in Galilee and travels northward with the Apostles to Cæsarea Philippi, a city in part of the region which was predominately Gentile territory. The Gospels do not say exactly why he made this journey but I see two reasons that may have prompted this decision.

First, this was shortly after the death of John the Baptizer. Although they were cousins, it appears they grew up quite separately as each does not know the other. Secondly, that region was less-densely populated, and would foster better opportunities to spend time together with way fewer interruptions. Jesus’ Miracles had generated quite a buzz in the towns of Galilee, and everywhere he went, everyone was looking for him to see what sort of amazing things he would do. They had relocated to Bethsaida right after the murder of John the Baptizer, but huge crowds followed him there so they withdrew to a “quieter” spot and spent some time together. I think of this time with Jesus as precious to him who, knowing what was coming, had this time to bond even closer with those he had sent out (See Matthew 10 and Luke 9).

Reflecting further on the conversation between Jesus and his Apostles there in Cæsarea Philippi, we also recall that Simon’s name שִׁמְעוֹן Shimoun Bar Younah – Simon son of Jonah – was renamed Peter, or Πέτρος, Petros ( made-up masculinized for Petra “Rock” ) in Greek and in Aramaic the name כיפה (pronounced “keifa”) also, of course, means Rock. This is truly the beginning of the Church, for Jesus has just named the head of his Church, when Jesus said, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” At this point in the Journey to Jerusalem, Jesus kept building on his instructions to the Apostles. Each day a little more was added, and each addition was – at the time – overwhelming, even confusing. Several times we read that the Apostles did not understand what Jesus meant, for example, “what rising from the dead meant.” When we look at that from our 21st Century lens, we might wonder how they could be so dense; however, remember that everything in Jesus’ ministry was NEW – no one had ever heard or even dared to think of calling God “Father.” No one could understand how a man could be tortured to death and then rise from the dead three days later … no one but Jesus, that is.

We must now return to the title of this segment and ask “What do we see?” We see someone we know and love as Jesus the Christ of God traveling with cherished companions whom he sent out as Apostles (“Apostle” means one sent). We see an astonishing vision of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah discoursing together about Jesus’ “Exodus” – his coming Passion, death, and Resurrection – on a high mountain. We see a cloud overshadowing three Apostles and three Prophets of God, one of whom is God’s Only Begotten Son. We see the Prophets attentively listening and the Apostles fearfully prostrating themselves as this vision comes to a close. And God the Father’s Voice booms out “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.” Then we see The Apostle Peter, so shook up that he figures Moses and Elijah must be there to celebrate The Feast of Booths (↔ Learning Link) that he blurts out “‘Tis Good, Lord, To Be Here! (↔ Music Link) Let’s build tents for each of you!” Then, in a wink, just the four earthlings are standing on the mountain top. In my mind’s eye, I see Jesus picking his way among the brush and rocks going downhill to the villages below, and the three faithful followers whispering among themselves trying to fathom what had just happened and what Jesus could have possibly meant by telling them , again, that he was going to Jerusalem to die.

Belovéd even after 2000+ years, we still wonder at the Wonder of God’s Only Begotten Son willingly going to his death, a death so horrific that only Jesus could have chosen it. Jesus was and is The Perfect SACRIFICE. (↔ Music Link) We know that Golgotha was followed by Resurrection Day, but Jesus’ contemporaries did not, could not, would not have believed that. Even after they saw him in his Glorified Body they scarcely could take it in. We recall Thomas who said, in essence, “Seeing is believing,” and we see Mary Magdalene running back to the Cenacle with the news, the Good News, “He’s alive! I saw him, ALIVE!” But, ʻŌmea, all of that is farther down the road. We’ll pick up more of this Journey to Jerusalem next time when we ask, “What do we do?” All y’all come back, y’heah?” A hui hou! As we look toward living out these 40 days of lent, let our prayer be Transfigure us O Lord (↔ Music Link) Perhaps Jesus will invite us to stand with him and sing Let the Heaven light shine on me. (↔ 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.

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – February 16, 2024 – How do we know?

February 16, 2024

2407AFC021624 – How do we know?

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

   Genesis 9:11, 15 – 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 15 “I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.”

Psalm 25:4-5 (GNT) [1] –
4 Teach me your ways, O Lord;
make them known to me.
5 Teach me to live according to your truth,
for you are my God, who saves me.
I always trust in you.

1 Peter 3:18-19 – 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison [2]

Mark 1:12-15 – The Temptation of Jesus 12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news  of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, Belovéd, the Time has finally come. The season of Lent is upon us! In Cycle B, the Gospel readings are – for the most part – from the Gospel of Mark. You may recall that this Gospel is the  oldest, and the one from which the Apostle Matthew and his followers borrowed, but then expanded upon, a good deal of material (without plagiarism). I really hope you read the above Scripture passages attentively because today we are going to hear several familiar themes, and probably a few definitions, too. Let’s begin with the word Covenant.

Last week we said:

God gave us himself In The Beginning – “I will be your God and you will be my people.” God gave us a Covenant – and exchange between persons – before he gave us Commandments. God formed and hallowed a Relationship before he gave us any rules about living that Relationship. God made us to be Eternal Beings like him (Yup. YOLO-F) and God made us to be wholly Holy like him as in Leviticus 19:2 – 2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Why would he do that to us? Why would he expect us to be Holy when it is clear we are sinners? So, Belovéd, how does a covenant work?

A covenant is an agreement between two (or more) persons. It is not a contract because in a contract, the establishment sets the requirements and rules and measures the workers’ compliance. The workers agree to adhere to the stipulations of the contract. In biblical terms, a covenant is a shared agreement between God and his chosen creations, namely, those who solemnly promise through their sworn oath to live according to the qualifications set by God. God sets forth promises regarding his future actions. He spells out the terms of those promises and the rewards (whether positive or negative) for compliance. The terms of a covenant between God and his chosen ones require a commitment of one’s life to the Covenant Maker. The Covenant Maker gives a Symbolon, an equal and equitable sharing in the benefits of the Covenant. The Symbolon was originally a physical object like a coin, a parchment or a token which was split in half and carried by each member of an agreement as a form of identification. Both participants agree to keep their part of the covenant, and can confirm their right using the Symbolon. Our Creed is the Symbolon for Christians.

The sacrifice is sealed in blood as part of the covenant holder’s redemption in faith – a full acceptance of the covenant. I’ll take a quote from Fr. Mike Schmitz here: “At the heart of religion is worship, and the heart of worship is sacrifice.” God promises to give us his Life in exchange for our lives. In the covenant set with Noah, God promised the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. Once was enough because enough was completely effective! On Noah’s part, the Symbolon of the covenant was the sacred sacrifice of the conserved animals. On God’s part, it was the rainbow. (Incidentally, folks, God wants his rainbow back and used for what he intended it!) what we really need is a source of learning about this covenant. That’s why we turn to the B.I.B.L.E., the teaching of God in his Church, and the traditions handed down to us by the Apostles.

God’s steadfast love (that means Mercy) is always available. (Remember Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation?) Because that is true, the Psalmist’s words are also true: Teach me your ways, (↔ Music Link) Lord; make them known to me. Teach me to live according to your truth, for you are my God, who saves me. I always trust in you. That is F.A.I.T.H. in action! I remember the first time I actually listened to that passage. I was trying to figure out how to answer that perennial question, “What does God want?” Well, surprisingly he wants us; even as messed up and broken as we are, he wants us, and he wants to repair the damage we’ve done to ourselves so we can be more like him. Like the guy said, “Go figure.” That also applies to Noah and the Ark. How long did it take to build that thing anyway?

We know for one thing that it was a big enough project that it had to wait until Noah’s three sons (Shem, Japheth, and Ham) were old enough to marry. Shem was born when Noah was 500 years old (really!) In all the reading I could dig up, the best estimate is around 75 years to build that, get the animals and food on board, and gather together Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives. There is no mention of Noah having daughters, and I have no idea how a five-hundred-year-old man could generate progeny. Those folks back in the book of Genesis had some amazing genes! Still, if it took 75 years ± a few, you’d think other people would notice. Apparently, everyone was just ignoring “that crazy old man and his whole tribe of loonies.” The whole story is available in Genesis 5-11. When I reflect on that long span of information there are a few things that stick with me every time:

First: it was a long time coming. In Genesis 5, we have a list of 10 generations between Adam and Noah. Second: there was plenty of warning before the beginning of the deluge, and only 8 people acted on those warnings. Third, it did not just “rain cats and dogs” (they were in the Ark 😉). You know the story – it rained HARD for 40 days and nights, and “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” so that the Earth was covered in water. Check out Genesis 7:11–24 – especially verse 16 – for a description of this. This was really – and literally – over the top. Every tall mountain was covered to a depth of 15 cubits (close to 23 ft or 7 m). It rained so hard that it took 110 days for it to run off and expose land. Fourth, after the total of 150 days, the covenant was fulfilled and remains in place to this very day. We know this because in many areas of the Earth, there are geologic layers that separate pre- and post-flood life. (See this link for an interesting look into this idea.) Fifth, and most surprising, God shut the door to the Ark after all he commanded to be preserved was onboard. Then everything that had breath in its nostrils outside the Ark died. That was God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan. There’s more!

The evil earthlings of the prior Earth were all dead, and some among them, we can suppose, might have not been entirely evil, and perhaps were only slightly less righteous than Noah. Then – after many more generations and a few other covenants – there finally came the Perfect Covenant, Jesus. You probably can recount many episodes of his life, his ministry, and his Passion. But after the Passion, what came to be?

Jesus joined the dead. He went to Sheol – Hell, Hades, the Abode of the Dead. How do we know? John 5:25-29 – 25 “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. 26 For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; 27 and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. 28 Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. 1 Peter 3:18-19 – 18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19 in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison. 1 Peter 4:6 – 6 For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does.

How do we know? The B.I.B.L.E. tells us so! (↔ Music Link) As we go through this Lenten Season, we will travel with the Lord on his way to Jerusalem. There’s a link at the top of this post that tells you the route we will take. All along the way we will be encouraged to use the M.A.P. (Follow this link) – your Measure of Actual Progress. We will think about the Three Pillars of Lent – prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; maybe not in that order and possibly more than once depending on what the Holy Spirit says about Living Lent. (←This is a really cool link!)

So, that’s how we know – Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and around 2000 years of the Teaching in both of those. We need all three in order to arrive at a stable and balanced knowledge and understanding of how God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan includes and affects – perhaps effects as well – every living soul with his breath in their nostrils. Next time, though, it will not be water but fire that cleans up our mess. Get ready for that! It might be closer than you think. YOLO-F!

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

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

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

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

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

[2] This short online article (↔ Click Link) at the Catholic Answers website give some additional information on the phrase in the Apostles Creed, “He descended into Hell.” See also CCC §631-637 (Follow this link)

The Road to Jerusalem Series

February 14, 2024

2024 Lent Schedule
TABLE:

The Road to Jerusalem Series
Week Date Gospel Title Number
1 2/16/24 Mark 1:12-15 Temptation How do we know? 2407AFC021624
2 2/23/24 Mark 9:2-10 Transfiguration What do we see? 2408AFC022324
3 3/1/24 John 2:13-15 Money Changers What do we do? 2409AFC030124
4 3/8/24 John 3:14-21 Nicodemus Where do we go? 2410AFC030824
5 3/15/24 John 12:20-33 Passion Prediction Why didn’t we listen? 2411AFC031524
6 3/22/24 Mark 14:1-15:47 THE PASSION Who has done this? 2412AFC032224
7 3/29/24 Easter Sunday When did we know? 2413AFC033124

 

Aloha Friday Message – February 9, 2024 – The Sole Soul Cleaner

February 9, 2024

2406AFC020924 – The Sole Soul Cleaner ← 😊 PODCAST LINK

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

    Leviticus 13:46 – 46 He shall remain unclean as long as he has the disease; he is unclean. He shall live alone; his dwelling shall be outside the camp.

Psalm 32:5 –
5 Then I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not hide my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah

1 Corinthians 10:31 – 31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.

Mark 1:40-41 – 40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, “If you choose, you can make me clean.” 41 Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I do choose. Be made clean!”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. Before I go another line I have to insert here something that has been tingling in my heart for the past several days. It is a don – one I learned as a  kid – and it says a great deal about “Full- service.” (Please take a look here (↔ Click Link) to see what that means to me.) Parts of this song started tapping on the windowsill of my mind last Friday morning while I was thinking about what to do with this post. Enough jabber-jabber. Here is the song and its lyric.

Take My Life and Let It Be
Consecrated unto Thee (↔ Music Link)

1 Take my life, and let it be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee;
Take my moments and my days,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise,
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.		 2 Take my hands, and let them move
At the impulse of Thy love;
Take my feet and let them be
Swift and beautiful for Thee,
Swift and beautiful for Thee.
3 Take my voice, and let me sing
Always, only, for my King;
Take my lips, and let them be
Filled with messages from Thee,
Filled with messages from Thee.		 4 Take my silver and my gold;
Not a mite would I withhold;
Take my intellect, and use
Every power as Thou shalt choose,
Every power as Thou shalt choose.
5 Take my will, and make it Thine;
It shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart; it is Thine own;
It shall be Thy royal throne,
It shall be Thy royal throne.		 6 Take my love; my Lord, I pour
At Thy feet its treasure-store.
Take myself, and I will be
Ever, only, all for Thee,
Ever, only, all for Thee.
7 Take my will and my desire,
Purge them in Thy Holy Fire.
Take my spirit unto Thee
There to dwell eternally,
There to dwell eternally.
Lyrics 1-6 Frances Ridley Havergal, 7: Me.
Melody Henri Abraham Cesar Malan

Our Old Testament reading for this week’s Liturgy is from the book of Leviticus. This is a book of the Bible that many people never read, and those who do mostly skip through it. It’s full of rules, precepts, and laws about Ritual Sacrifices. It is the middle book of the Pentateuch, the first 5 books of the Torah and also of our Bible. It is called Leviticus because most of it deals with the tribe of the Levites who have the responsibility for the Priestly service for the Israelites. Honestly, the text really turns some people off. There’s a lot of blood, a lot of sacrificial slaughter, a lot more blood, and endless fire and smoke from the Altar. In addition, there are lots of “guidelines” (significant rules we would today call MYOB-rules) that are designed to guide a thoroughly idol-oriented, pantheistic aggregation of people who have been enslaved for 10 generations into a strong, monotheistic, and cohesive society that can stand on its own as a nation in the midst of really dreadful nations like the Assyrians, Philistines, and the Amalekites. On 21st century maps Assyria would be the region of northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, southeastern Turkey, and eastern Syria. Some people consider the descendants of the Amalekites and Philistines to be Palestinians because in the Bible, those nations vigorously opposed the seizure of Canaan as the Promised Land of the Hebrews. As we well know, that conflict is still raging after 3,300 years, and there’s only one end in sight: The Return of Christ at the End of the Age of the Church. I agree with The Apostle Paul who agreed with Jesus that the End of the Age could be any day now. I think it’s safe to state that that process will be pretty messy for anyone who is unprepared; but, prepared for what, and how?

The “what” is easy: Judgment on the Day of Reward when we collect the wages of the life each of us has led. The how is the thread that runs through our Key Verses: “Be made clean!” In that passage in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is described as being “moved with compassion.” The Greek word used there is akin to what we would call a gut-level emotional response. The same response appears several times in the Gospels, and Jesus’ response to the Widow in Nain whose son was being carried to his grave is a prime example. (See Luke 7:11-16) Jesus was always moved with compassion when he saw how deep and great was the need for people to be healed, and his administration of healing was not limited to bodily healing, but also included healing of the soul. Acknowledgement of sin and the accompanying repentance are presented several times. We often see that touch is involved in those healings. People would even touch the tzitzits (← Check it out!) of his tallit. In this case, he reached out and touched the leper.

THAT was a big NO-NO! It was forbidden to touch a leper. As you can see from the passage in Leviticus, they were outcasts – literally not allowed to be around other people who were “clean” of the disease. They were excluded from worship because they could not enter the camp (later the city) much less the Tent of Meeting (later the Temple). Again we see that Jesus is doing something intentionally radical: He is going above and beyond the Law to usher in Mercy. That’s a very Godly thing to do, isn’t it, to be Merciful beyond what is required and then all the more beyond what could be expected? That leper, I envision him as a young man in his early 30’s, knew the law, knew what he was supposed to do, BUT he also knew what Jesus could do when confronted with F.A.I.T.H. He admitted his condition – unclean – and asked to have it changed knowing that Jesus would do so if it was God’s Will. It worked. “Immediately the leprosy left him.” Now, look at what we see in the Psalm:

    I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah When I hear that passage I think of the Pharisee and the Publican (See Luke 18:9–14). There was the self-righteous Pharisee telling God what a good boy he was, and back in the corner stood the Tax Collector – a hated collaborator with Rome. We sometimes see ourselves as “God’s Good Little Child,” and behave as if we have no reason to impute guilt in us. Silly rabbit! What can we hide from God and where would we hide it?!? Let’s face it. We have all tried that, and it never worked. We can tell it never worked because after trying that, we do not feel cleansed of guilt – we feel guiltier for lying! Like the old folk song says, “When Will They Ever Learn?” How has clinging tightly to our sin ever made our lives better? It’s not too hard to understand.  IT’s not something to far away that we can never reach it. It’s not so high above us that we have to send someone to bring it down to us. God himself gives the lesson, the exam at the end of the lesson, and the means to pass the exam They’re all open Book! (Please follow this link and look for the green text.) The preparation is so easy: whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. now, all we have to do is figure out what gives Glory to God. Hmmm. How about Whatsoever you do? (↔ Music Link) How about Love God and Neighbor (↔ Music Link) with all my heart? In our annual Dedication Mass for our Son Timothy, his part was the last stanza from Christina Rosetti’s Poem A Christmas Carol.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a Wise Man
I would do my part, —
Yet what can I give Him,
I’ll give my heart.

What does the Lord God want? Only us. Isn’t that simple? We already have everything he wants – us – and all of that “us” is what he gave us to become us. And therein lies the mystery and the key to unlock it. We are his because he made us his by making us like himself. We are not gods, but we are God’s. Let us take up our cross and follow him (↔ Music Link) as ones who are consecrated unto him. You guessed it, Belovéd; it’s the APP.

God gave us himself In The Beginning – “I will be your God and you will be my people.” God gave us a Covenant – and exchange between persons – before he gave us Commandments. God formed and hallowed a Relationship before he gave us any rules about living that Relationship. God made us to be Eternal Beings like him (Yup. YOLO-F) and God made us to be wholly Holy like him as in Leviticus 19:2 – 2 Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them: You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy. Why would he do that to us? Why would he expect us to be Holy when it is clear we are sinners? One more Psalm and one more song:

Psalm 41:4 –
4 I said, Lord, be merciful unto me:
heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee. (AKJV) [1]

Indeed, the Lord our God is the Healer of my soul. (↔ Music Link)

In Preface III for Sundays in Ordinary Time we will hear:

“For we know it belongs to your boundless glory, that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself, that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation, through Christ our Lord.” He, our Lord, the Christ of God – Jesus – is the sole soul cleaner, and is eternally available to each and all of us Every Moment Of Every Day (↔ Music Link). He is standing before us, and so we can say, “Jesus, if you choose, you can make me clean.” You and i know in our hearts, in our minds, and in our very souls what he will say next.

“I do choose. Be made clean!”

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

 

Aloha Friday Message – February 2, 2024 – Good hopes for Better

February 2, 2024

2405AFC020224 – Good hopes for Better ← 😊 PODCAST LINK

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

    Job 7:6-7, 16-19 –
6 My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,
and come to their end without hope.
7 “Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.
16 I loathe my life; I would not live forever.
Let me alone, for my days are a breath.
17 What are human beings, that you make so much of them,
that you set your mind on them,
18 visit them every morning,
test them every moment?
19 Will you not look away from me for a while,
let me alone until I swallow my spittle?

E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika’i ‘oe, ʻōmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) This weekend we will be hearing a passage from the Book of Job. This is a very ancient piece of literature, probably composed around 2500 B.C. – and many believe it came into being even earlier than that in the 7th, 6th, or 4th centuries B.C. The passage above is from the Judeo-Christian Tradition, but there is also a so-called “Babylonian Job” called The Ludlul-Bel-Nimeqi. There are a few similarities, but generally the two are quite different. The one thing they both have in common is the apparently unjust and horrific suffering of a genuinely righteous person. Both stories take up an old, old question: “Why must there be suffering?” Rabbi Harold Kushner took up the question again in 1978 with his book When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He concluded that basically God was not powerful enough to eliminate evil. We saw some time ago in Isaiah 59:1 See, the Lord’s hand is not too short to save, or his ear too dull to hear. He does have the power, and chooses not to use it. Still, suffering and evil are mysteries we deal with in our daily lives – daily lives. We can’t help but ask, “WHY?” This is an especially important question if the one suffering is us. At the outset we need to recognize that some suffering is a mystery meant to be offered lovingly to our Abba on behalf of others. The Apostle Paul had this to say: Colossians 1:24 – 24 I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. This redemptive suffering is our participation in the sufferings of Christ, and can always be offered in the hope of better for all.

Many times this question takes the form of “Why is God doing this to me?” Another form is “How can a supposedly loving God allow this to happen?” I want to focus on those two questions first. “Why me” is rooted in the idea that God uses suffering as a punishment for evil. The Old Testament is often cited as a proof for this supposition, and superficial reading makes it appear God is old and vengeful. Perhaps the most elaborate construct of this idea is the conquering of Canaan by the Israelites. Think back to our lesson on Jonah (↔ Click Link). The Ninevites were a thoroughly evil people. God had it in mind to destroy them. Nonetheless he sent Jonah to warn them. The Ninevites repented and were spared – for a while. When they reverted to their evil ways, they were destroyed (click here for an insightful look into Nahum 3). Yet it took centuries of opportunities to change before their demise was accomplished.

The same was true for the inhabitants of Canaan. They too were thoroughly evil and had many opportunities to change. They did not. In fact, in the case of the Amorites God gave them roughly 450 years to get it together. My point is that we are not being punished. God is getting our attention by correcting us, by showing us the consequences of our choices to be stubborn and selfish. In the book of Proverbs we read at Proverbs 3:12 – For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights. (New Living Translation). Paul cites this passage in Hebrews 12:6-7 – “… for the Lord disciplines those whom he loves, and chastises every child whom he accepts. Endure trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what child is there whom a parent does not discipline?” We are given an opportunity to change. We can choose to do so because we have free will.

Sometimes, though, it is true that the things that happen to us are not our fault. They are not God’s fault either. Sometimes something painful happens so that something better replaces it. In his book, A Grief Observed, C. S. Lewis wrote, “What do people mean when they say, ‘I am not afraid of God because I know He is good’? Have they never even been to a dentist?”  He continues with more examples: Have you ever had a broken bone that had to be  reset by a doctor?  Have you ever seen a marble sculpture? Sometimes painful things result in better things. Sometimes the things that hurt make us better in the long run. We have to look beyond the hurt and accept that good comes from it. Here are some additional insights from The Apostle Paul:

Romans 8:18 – I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 – So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

Romans 8:28 – We know that all things work together for good (↔ Music Link) for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. Another way to say that is in all things God works for Good. “Eat your spinach. It’s good for you!” may seem like suffering at the time, but it’s nothing compared to having a healthy body which comes from healthy eating.

Sometimes the suffering we have to endure comes from the way others have treated us. There’s no denying that there have been gaggles of parents who abused their children but claimed “it was only discipline.” The same goes for other interpersonal relationships – siblings, spouses, children, other relatives, elders, coworkers, supervisors, authority figures, or neighbors. We would be disingenuous to say that such abuse does not exist and does not seriously impact many lives. This reality is often the root of that second question, “How can a supposedly loving God allow this to happen?” That question is especially relevant when innocents suffer at the hands of great evil as when parents murder their own children (especially when they are unborn children), or when sociopathic killers torture and murder people. One I see quite often these days relates to ISIS and Hamas and the horrific and egregious acts of terror they commit. How can people, in the name of a god (whom they call Allah), do those things? As I have said here before, these acts are committed by heretics, and Allah is not Jehovah. At some points in history just about every major religious – and even antireligious – group has committed atrocities. Whoever the perpetrators are, it is still atrocious, still evil, and still a choice. We are not commanded to annihilate the earthlings that are different from us. We are commanded to love and forgive them.

Hebrews 12:15 – See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled.

Ephesians 4:32 – and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

1 John 1:8-10 says, 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Matthew 6:14-15 – For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 22:37-40 – He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

In 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22, Paul tells us to be at peace with all men, return good for evil (not evil for evil), to take care of the weak and be patient with everyone (not only others, but ourselves as well), to pray without ceasing and “in everything give thanks,” so as not to quench the Spirit, and to abstain from all appearance (and practice) of evil. That’s a pretty tall order! Yet throughout the entirety of our Bible, God tells us to love him and each other.

So, does “love your neighbor” mean we complacently allow these evil persons to perpetrate crimes against us? Of course not! We have a moral responsibility to combat evil. The Two Greatest Laws do not say “Do No Harm.” God’s Law says to put God and neighbor first and we are to follow the whole Law. One commandment (5th or 6th depending on how you number them) forbids intentionally destroying human life. Some argue that this forbids war. Yet there are times when the so-called “just-war doctrine” compels us to take a stand. In this question, too, the key consideration is that we have a choice, and our choice should be guided by Christ’s Law of Love. Still, enduring evil and suffering – even if we do so within the guidelines of Scripture – is not easy, and we nevertheless want answers. Let’s return to Job and see how he was answered.

In the book of Job, God never tells Job why he was suffering. When we read the first part of the story of Job – Job 1:6-12 (← Read this) – we see that Satan – the Accuser הַשָּׂטָ֖ן ha-Satan {häś·śä·ṭän} – obtains permission to demonstrate his belief that Job is a good and upright man only because God has surrounded Job with divine protection. Equally important in the story, Job consistently denies that the reason for his suffering is his sin. In answer, God comes down in a whirlwind and asks Job dozens of questions, and all of them are unanswerable! See Job 38:1 – 42:6 (←FASCINATING READING!). God never tells Job to stop complaining, either; even though the suffering we looked at in the beginning of this essay is pretty harsh, God never said Job should stop. Job listens in silence and his response is also silence. He is humbled before God, and that is the posture we need to take when our lives seem to be only suffering, evil, and pain. We always have that choice to defer to him, to reverence him, to kneel in awe before him, and to surrender everything to him. What do I mean by everything?

By “everything” I mean whatever we have in our lives that is contrary to the Life God created in us. Can we and do we say “I hate!”? Then we have not surrendered that act of unlove to God. Do we and can we claim that God has given us more than our share of suffering and that none of it is the consequence of our own choices? God does not give us suffering. God does permit us to feel the consequences of separating ourselves from him in the hope that we will choose not to make that separation the choice we select for eternity after our resurrection. “Why is God doing this to me?” “How can a supposedly loving God allow this to happen?” “Why doesn’t God fix this/me/them?” We have seen that some of the heinous evil that brings great suffering is the consequence of the same free will which makes Love possible. We know that the end of our life on this Earth is not the end of everything, because we are created in the image of God and are therefore eternal beings. We know that God can (and will always) bring great good out of great evil – think of the stories of Joseph in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New Testament. God does not cause evil, he redeems evil. The bottom line is that suffering and evil – like salvation, creation, the trinity, and other Divine Mysteries – are things we just cannot understand. Whatever our appeal to God’s Mercy is, this one thing is clear about evil and suffering: It does not come from God. It comes from our fallen nature and is part of our journey back to the life God intends for us – eternal, sinless, and glorious just like him. We know this because we know God truly does understand our suffering. Look to the life, passion, death, and resurrection of his Only Begotten Son. There is Hope for our reunion! (↔ Music Link) Check out Sirach 40:26 (← Try it! You’ll like it!)

Belovéd, the suffering we are enduring now in Ukraine, Gaza, Nigeria, Darfur Province, and tens-of-thousands (← IMPORTANT learning link!) of other locations look like a game of “Farmer In The Dell” compared to what the Assyrians in Nineveh did. Jonah had right reasons to fear them; nonetheless he accomplished God’s goal – albeit with much reluctance and pouting – and from that, not only was Nineveh so thoroughly destroyed so that even today we’re not sure where it was, but also God brought better things from the good he created by removing that evil. Today, there is yet another evil which flourishes in that area which is near and in the city of Mosul. That is near where ISIS made its last stand in 2022 before moving to Nigeria and Northern Mozambique. That may not seem good, but it IS better. Our work is not yet done. We must confront and destroy evil wherever we find it, even if it means a Just War. One other consideration previously reported here:

  • The World population is around 1 BILLION (↔ Click Link)
  • The number of persons who claim to be Muslim is around 2.1 BILLION, about 26% of the World’s population
  • The estimated percentage of terroristically militant members is around 2% which comes to about 40,000,000 (FORTY-MILLION) willing to kill, maim, and torture non-Islamic entities. The 9/11 attacks were committed by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists.

Be humble before God. Seek justice, mercy, and obedience (↔ Music Link) instead of prejudice, persecution, and rebellion. For each of us, our perception of what is evil can be countered by our reception of all that is Good. Everything that is Good is of God, and God is always better than good. Therefore we must See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and through it many become defiled. Furthermore, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. If all the available choices are evil, be the Good that changes that. Choose the Hope of Peace. (↔ Music Link)

Oh! And don’t forget to read Nahum 3 !! Whatever is Good (or even Best) can still be made Better through HOPE! It’s in the Absolutely Perfect Plan.

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

 

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

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

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 Message – January 26, 2024 – A Word to the unwise

January 26, 2024

2404AFC012624 – A Word to the unwise

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

   Deuteronomy 18:15 – 15 The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a Prophet.

Psalm 95:7 c – 8 –
O that today you would listen to his voice!
8   Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah,
as on the day at Massah in the wilderness …

1 Corinthians 7:35 – 35 I say this for your own benefit, not to put any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and unhindered* devotion to the Lord. * (ap-er-is-pas-toce’) without distraction, without being distracted – having full devotion; being completely undistracted, without hindrance or reservation.

Mark 1:23-27 – 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching — with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” (emphasis added)

May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Has anyone ever introduced a word of advice to you by saying “A word to the wise?” The entire maxim appears in the Talmud as, “A word to the wise is sufficient, but for a fool not even a stick helps.” Sometimes, perhaps in a social-media post or TV show, we see someone behaving foolishly and say “They walk among us” meaning that their brainpower is somehow less-than-normal. If we are honest with ourselves, we will surely admit that there are times when we substitute poor judgment for rational thinking. If you’re nodding your head right now, you’re probably remembering a dark moment or two in your past; me, too. If we take but a moment longer, we may be able to recall several such times of poor judgment.

How is it that we know what is right but still do what is wrong? Is it not true that many of the times when we fail most miserably, it is because we are being prideful – which is a form of selfishness – and we are self-certain that what we are doing is right? Now, it is also true that sometimes we truly are ignorant about a certain situation, but act on what we reason to be right – only to find out our reasoning is flawed. And sometimes, Belovéd, we just don’t know what we’re into and shouldn’t be into it because we are ignorant about how to proceed. Imagine trying to bowl overhand because it seems more efficient. If we can judge among ourselves – or indeed within ourselves – about what is right and what is wrong, what is prudent and what is foolish, then how much more must we turn to God to obtain his judgment, his Wisdom? If we catch ourselves out as being foolish, should we not know that God sees it infinitely more clearly? Let’s look at a couple of examples. Some of this may require a quick off-the-page excursion as in this example from Numbers 12. In this account from the Journey in the Wilderness, Miriam and Aaron are angry because Moses has married a Cushite (Ethiopian) woman. God overheard them (of course!) and called them out. He told them that when he calls Prophets, he speaks to them in visions or dreams, but not so with Moses. He tells them he speaks to Moses face-to-face, not in riddles, and Moses can even behold his form – something no one else can do without dying. Because Miriam – Moses’ sister – spoke out against him, she was covered with leprosy and cast out of the camp for seven days. Though that was harsh in that setting, she actually got off easy. You don’t dis God’s friends and expect to get away with it. Sometimes we forget that good advice. What, then, shall we do?

   “If today you hear his voice, (↔ Music Link) harden not your hearts.” When we hear that line of poetry, we recall Moses and the Hebrews in the desert when God brought forth water from the flinty rock. That was in last week’s post. Here is an excerpt from that episode: Exodus 17:7 – 7 He [Moses] called the place Massah [Test] and Meribah, [Quarrel] because the Israelites quarreled and tested the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?” The Apostle Paul echoes that in the third chapter of his letter to the Hebrews, especially starting a Verse 7 where The Apostle Paul warns against unbelief. He clarifies that those words were spoken by the Holy Spirit. That seems like a Source to whom we should also pay attention! After all, the Hebrews had seen when God sent plague after plague on the Egyptians, then the Passover, crossing the Red Sea, manna and quail miraculously supplied, the renewal of the Covenant at Moab, and the Bronze Serpent which prefigured the “lifting up” of our Lord at Calvary.

There’s a great verse in the book of Wisdom about that episode in the desert: Wisdom 16:11 (GNT) [1]– 11 They were bitten** so that they would remember your commands, but they were quickly rescued, in order to keep them from forgetting you completely and depriving themselves of your kindness. ** By the seraph serpents. This refers back to Numbers 21 (↔ Learning Link) and the story of the Bronze Serpent where the Israelites rebelled against Moses and against God. God sent the “fiery (seraph) serpents” and many people were bitten and died. Moses – at God’s command – made a “bronze serpent” on a pole and whoever Looked on the icon in faith, God would heal them. They had claimed God’s Gifts of manna, quail, and water were “miserable.” Can we imagine anything given by God as being contemptible? Wouldn’t we look at that and say, “What were you thinking?!?” More appropriate, perhaps, would be “How can you think that?” The obvious answer to that question is, “That’s just wrong.” There is a follow-up on that story of the bronze serpent. Years later, the Israelites forgot that God did the healing when they looked at the serpent in faith. instead they started worshiping the lifeless metal serpent and believing IT healed them!! King Hezekiah was forced to destroy it so quash that foolishness.

In our Key Verse from 1 Corinthians 7 (← Read this), The Apostle Paul has been telling the Church in Corinth about love and marriage. He counsels that whatever we do with regard to celibacy, abstinence, or matrimony, we should do it in, with, and for the Lord. He expressly says to consider carefully how to live with or without a spouse so that our devotion to Christ may be unhindered. I put a note there about the Greek word he used – ἀπερισπάστως (ap-er-is-pas-toce’) – because it means having full devotion; being completely undistracted, without hindrance or reservation. Matrimonial and family life can be distracting, but TOGETHER (husband, wife, and children) we are to give our full and undivided devotion to God; it’s like J.O.Y. – Jesus, Others, You. To do otherwise would be foolish. That is why God consistently and constantly gives advice to the unwise – that’s all of us y’all – and it’s up to us to heed his advice. Since we have Scripture that is from front-to-back and top-to-bottom inerrant, we can conclude that God is serious about forsaking Wisdom in favor of Folly. If a word from Jesus can cast out a demon, resuscitate the dead, make the blind see and the lame walk, or cure a leper who asks to be made clean, then we must also listen when he – through ALL of  Scripture – tells us to be faithful, thankful, joyful, prayerful, and dutiful to God in and through Christ Jesus. Would it not be foolish to hold forth that “he didn’t really mean that.”? God says differently. Here’s  a look at something from the beginning of The Book of Proverbs:

Proverbs 1:30-33 – (GNT) [Wisdom speaks] 30 You have never wanted my advice or paid any attention when I corrected you. 31 So then, you will get what you deserve, and your own actions will make you sick. 32 Inexperienced people die because they reject wisdom. Stupid people are destroyed by their own lack of concern. 33 But whoever listens to me will have security. He will be safe, with no reason to be afraid. Now, doesn’t that sound like something a loving father would say to a rebellious child? That is Our Father, God, speaking to us! Note that we say he is OUR Father! That was a way of seeing God that was considered blasphemous at Jesus’ time. Our Father wants us to listen to him, not to our minds, not to our hearts, not our Aunt Suzy, not some guru, but to God and God alone. “Who is God that I might listen to him, and where can he be found that I might see him?”

God is our Creator, and he is Spirit and Truth. He listens to all our prayers as well as everything else we say. He also speaks to us through his Creation, through his Word, through his Church, and in our own hearts and minds we can hear him directly – if we only listen. That he listens and speaks to us incessantly is incomprehensible to us as humans, but that’s because God as Divine is incomprehensible. His Word is not like that. It is in and through his Word that we see, feel, know, and even understand God’s place in our lives. The demon said “I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” We know who he is too, so if we wish to truthfully and spiritually claim that we recognize Jesus as the Holy One of God, well, … “What we do says who we are. Actions speak louder than words.” That’s a genuine Word to the Wise. The best Word to the unwise in this essay is “If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” We’ve just got to be somewhere listening (↔ Music Link), and that “somewhere” can be anywhere (↔ Music Link) and any time (↔ Music Link). After all, we have been told “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a Prophet.” So, with a Song in the air, (↔ Music Link) God sent his Son. Jesus is the archetypal Priest, Prophet, and King. We heed him. We need him. We can choose to be wise, and not unwise, by heeding whatever fools ignore. Never fear. Jesus is near. There is work to be done for God’s Only Begotten Son. He has called  us by name. He has chosen us. (↔ Music Link)  John 15:16 – 16 You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. Only a fool would not answer the call.

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

Aloha Friday Message – January 19, 2024 – Turnarounds

January 19, 2024

2403AFC011924 – Turnarounds (←😊 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.

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Mark 1:14-15 – 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent*, and believe in the good news.”
*metanoeite (←Click) – Reconsider, “think differently after,” “after a change of mind“; to repent (literally, “think differently afterwards”) In short, do a 180°.

1 Corinthians 7:29 a, 31 b – 29 aI mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short, 31 b the present form of this world is passing away.

Psalm 25:8-9 –
8 Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way. (↔ Music Link)
9 He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.

Jonah 3:4-5, 9-10 – 4 Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s walk. And he cried out, “Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” 5 And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 9 Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.” 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) Today we come to another extraordinary set of readings on repentance. You’ll see I have them in reverse order – Gospel, Psalm, Epistle, and Old Testament. Yup. That’s the first turnaround in this post. I suspect it will not be the last.

The words for repent, repentance, turn, turn around, and reconsider occur over 140 times in Scripture. That’s enough times to make us realize God is serious about this command. And yes, it is a command! “Turn [around] to me and be saved”(↔ Music Link) isn’t a question or a suggestion – it is a direct order. In this Great Battle against The Darkness who would dare disobey? In the New Testament, John the Baptizer socked it to the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for Baptism in Matthew 3:7-12 – (Follow this link) and refers to them as a “brood of vipers.” Now, remember that a brood is a group of young critters born around the same time – like a brood of baby birds or reptiles. Jesus echoes these words in Matthew 12:34, and 23:33 (↔ Click it).

The inference drawn from that by the Pharisees, Sadducees, listeners, and Disciples (including us) is that they are sons of “that old Serpent, Satan.” That’s a pretty serious insult, but also well-deserved. Because why? Because they were unrepentant. We’ve commented here often about this being the first message of the beginning of the Gospel, the start of the Good News. Repentance is called for and presented in all of the Gospels including the Gospel of John. Nitpickers will complain that even though the noun for repentance {Metanoia} occurs 22 times in the Old Testament and the verb for repent (metanoeó) occurs 34 times, neither of those words occur in John’s Gospel. However, as an old aphorism states, “Absence of Evidence Does Not Mean Evidence of Absence.” John uses a more direct phrase – “sin no more,” to tell  sinners  to turn about from their former life of sin and to live in surrender and obedience to God.

In the Gospels, then, we have a continuation of God’s command to turn back to him, to make a turnaround in our lives, as this symbol represents permission to make that sort of reorientation. Let’s think about what this means for a moment. If I am in traffic and see this sign, I know it is permissible form me to cease going forward, to cross the center line dividing traffic flow, and to begin traveling in the opposite direction. Nowhere on this sign do we read, “When safe,” or “When appropriate,” “On green arrow only,” or even “When necessary.” We are left to use common sense to make this maneuver safely. We know to be careful when we do this because someone else in the oncoming traffic might not expect us to turn around. In The Kingdom of God, we are instructed to make a U-Turn regardless of the oncoming traffic. Now, as some of us know, that can still be a dangerous thing in some situations. Take the example of abusive relationships.

It could be said that deciding to get out of a situation like that is like making a U-Turn; I think of it more as taking an exit ramp without using a turn-signal. It could also be said that making a U-Turn in an abusive relationship could mean staying and battling back by being more assertive or even equally aggressive. That could be as dangerous as turning into oncoming traffic which might not yield to our change of position. With God, though, when it comes to sin, we are dealing only with God and – usually – only with oneself. That is because repenting of our own sin requires taking responsibility for our own behavior. Earthlings have always found that difficult to do. Recall that Eve blamed the snake, and Adam blamed Eve. It’s a tendency as old as Creation, so how do we get to that curve in the Road Back Home?

Well, the most obvious reason, it seems to me, is to weigh the consequences. The Apostle Paul has some sage advice, as usual, in our Key Verse from 1 Corinthians. I’ve “telescoped” the language there, so please use this link to see the passage in context. He is talking about the condition, the state-of-living, of his readers. He counsels them on the basis of his experience not to make any changes in whatever circumstance they find themselves as earthlings. If married, stay married; if unmarried, stay unmarried; if employed as a servant, don’t strive to be came a freedman; if free, be a slave only to Christ. The reason for this is what I have presented in our Key Verse – the World as we know it is passing away. Now, we recall that The Apostle Paul and many, if not most, of the Christians of that era sincerely thought that the return of the Lord was imminent – in a couple more weeks and Tah-Dah! We Christians have been believing that – faithfully for sure – for about 1,900 years give or take. IT IS STILL TRUE, but in 2024, the important concept is “the appointed time has grown short.” If it was short in The Apostle Paul’s time, it is even shorter in our time! As we are reminded often, we do not know the day or the hour. (↔ Music Link) All the more reason, then, to listen to what the Lord has in his teaching in the Key Verse from the Psalms.

God is a Good God, rock solid in all his promises. Do you remember the Four Core Attributes of God we have listed before? Our God is known by his Perfect Integrity, Endless Mercy, Everlasting Love, And Eternal Salvation. His integrity is always primary because he is always One, yet his Mercy is endless because his Love is everlasting. Now, that’s really upright! To top it all off, he meticulously teaches us, encourages us, sustains us, and saves us without ever abandoning us. That is why God, and God alone, can require our conformity and authentic commitment to his Law – first as the Law of Governance and – in these final days – as the Law of Love. For millennia, he has instructed us in the way of righteousness for his Name’s sake. The only prerequisite for learning from him is for us to listen and obey as his humble children, and to desire to love him and to serve him all the days of our lives. That can sound like a really big commitment until we accept the fact that he provides everything we could possibly need to handle it. That is the Perfect Integrity of Love, and it is always there for us to employ and enjoy. What a GOOD God we have! Now, let’s turn our attention to a guy who found that out in a very big way, and then got angry about it.

I’m talking about our old friend Jonah. What a life he lived! He was “employed” as a Jewish Prophet. He lived around 785 BC in the town of Gath-Hepher which was in the region of Galilee (Zebulun) not far from Nazareth. He got a call from the Lord to travel to Nineveh to warn them they God was going to destroy them because they were so evil. Nineveh was the capital city of Assyria, and the Assyrians were cruel oppressors of the Israelites. They ruled for nearly 1,900 years over the region from what we would today call Eurasia through the entire middle east, and over into Egypt. Check out this map (↔ Click it) to get a grasp of their territory. Jonah knew how cruel the Assyrians were, and he simply refused to go. We all know the story. He hustled over to the coast to the city of Joppa and caught a ship headed toward Tarshish, 2,200 miles across the Mediterranean. I guess he thought God wouldn’t go that far to find him. Well, after a bodacious storm, getting swallowed by a huge fish for three days, and, making it back to the coast, he set off for Nineveh – a mere 600+ miles from Jerusalem.

This was no easy journey! He had plenty of time to think about what he had to say and plenty of time to imagine what might happen if he said it! Then he started walking through the city. It was about 60 miles across – a three day walk according to the Bible – and 96 miles around. By the time he had made it ⅓ of the way – one day’s walk – announcing “40 days more and Nineveh will be destroyed,” everyone in the city repented, including the animals! So, as we see in our Old Testament Key Verse, God decided to accept their repentance. We read in Jonah 4 that Jonah was displeased with that result and became angry because the Ninevites repented and thereby escaped destruction. He stomped off in a snit and sat under a shady little hand-made booth to see if they would remain repentant or go back to their old ways and still get destroyed. That didn’t work either. God prepared a bush for him, and he was happy about that, but then God sent a worm to wither the bush, so Jonah was angry again. After the sun rose, God sent a sweltering wind so warm that Jonah was about to faint. At every change, he kept saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.” At every change God asked, “Is it right for you to be angry about [this change]?” Finally God said, “And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” There is the Absolutely Perfect Plan in action!

What is the point of all these turnaround Key Verses? God Loves the heart that is contrite and repents. Whoever will turn around and go back to God will be greatly blessed. Belovéd, is there a turnaround in our future? If not why not, and if so – when? In our Key Verse logo for today, which key-holder is the repentant one? [HINT: The one facing away with the key in his right hand.]

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

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

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – January 12, 2024 – He knows you!

January 12, 2024

2402AAFC011223 – He Knows You!  (2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time) ← 😊 PODCAST LINK

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

1 Samuel 3:9 c-10 – So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 Now [again] the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

Psalm 40:1 –
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry. {emphasis added}

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple* of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. *   Also translated ‘sanctuary/’

John 1:41-42 – 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas [kepha –In Aramaic – Rock]” (which is translated Peter [petra – Rock – in Greek).

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, and to call him by Name as he has called you by your name. (↔ Music Link) The part of that sentence in italics is from Ephesians 1:17. Today I will start with the illustration for the Key Verses. Can you see the label on the gold key? It says “Your Name.” It is our names that unlock much about who we are. “Hi there! What’s your name?” is often the first question adults ask children. We are known by our names. My given name – also referred to as my Christian name, my baptized name, my family name – is Charles Olin Todd, III. Since 1964, the world has pretty much known me as Chick Todd – a name I gave myself. We are not our names. When we say “ostrich” we think of an animal, a flightless bipedal galliform. When we say “That ostrich’s name is Gertrude,” we know the meaning of both of those names. A noun represents (is the name of) a person, place, thing, or idea, but is not actually the essence or corporeality of the object named.

“OK. The grammar police are here again! What’s the point, Captain Wallaby?” The point is that over the centuries, the giving and using of names is an essential part of being in community with one another. If we go back to Genesis 2:19-20, we read 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name (↔ Music Link). 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So, even to God, the idea of names was and is important. Adam was named because he came from earth (dirt, like I always say) – in Hebrew Adamah. God was Adonai because he was the Master, the Creator.

Let’s look at another famous name – Noah. In Hebrew that is Noach (no-ahkh’) It means “rest.” His father was Lamech, a son of Seth, and in Genesis 7:28-29, Lamech (at the ripe old age of 182) names his son Noach: 28 When Lamech had lived one hundred eighty-two years, he became the father of a son; 29 he named him Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” What Lamech could not have known was that ALL OF HUMANITY would experience that “relief from work” would be the annihilation of every earthling except Noach’s family. Lamech knew that the world in which he lived was way bad, messed up, gone dreadfully wrong (even worse than today!).

Let’s also recall Jacob whose name means “supplanter” because at birth he was second-born of twins but came out of the womb grasping his brother Esau’s heel. (See Genesis 25:19-28 for this really cool story) Later, he wrestled a being who was an angel, and his name was changed to Isra-El (Yisrael) “God Strives” which comes from a root word sarah which means to persevere or to have power as a prince (or Princess in the case of Abraham’s wife!).

We know in the Bible that names are important, but what about today? Many cultures name children, locations, even animals after natural characteristics or aspirations for future providence. Perhaps we know of parents who have carefully named their children with names that denote Peace (e.g., Katherine), or Richard (Brave ruler). Crucita is named for her father Cruz (“cross” in Spanish) with a female-diminutive suffix “-ita” which means small. My first name means “Strong,” my middle name means “recalls [his] ancestors, our last name means red or fox (from Eastern Scotland), and the III is the designation that I am the third person in my family with that name. (There is also a IV and a V in the family!) My “Confirmation name” is Timothy (which I gave to my son along with “Olin”) and Timothy – from Τιμόθεος – means “honouring God.” Now, perhaps we can recall that God calls us by name.
Isaiah 43:1 –
1 But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine. (↔ Music Link)

Did God choose to name me with that name of my ancestors? Perhaps, in a way we could consider that, but the name he gave me which I love the most is “son.” And, Belovéd, isn’t that the name all the children of God treasure most? Even שְׁמוּאֵל – Shemuel whose name meant “Name of God” was literally called by name in today’s Key Verse. If you access the passage in-context, you’ll see that Samuel spoke to God directly the first time God called him by answering, “Here I am.” The next two times he ran to Eli – whom he assumed called him. Finally Eli got the picture so to speak and told Samuel to reply, “Speak Lord. Your servant is listening.” Ah, dearly Belovéd! Would that all of us would quickly answer like that on God’s first call! Sometimes, though, it is difficult to hear his call amid all the distractions in our daily lives. Nonetheless, we can rely on our Heavenly Father to make it easier. When we feel we cannot quite reach high enough to whisper into God’s ear, God helps us out as the Psalmist wrote: he inclined to me and heard my cry. God is always listening, always answering. Why?

Because he loves us! Pretty much everyone knows John 3:16 – for God so loved THE WORLD … and we’re part of everything God Loves because God Loves all that he created. “But what about Noach, and all the people – and everything else! – that died in the Flood? Or what about all the people in Canaan against whom God ordered genocide? And Sodom and Gomorrah?” God Loved them, and gave them many, many chances to repent. They did not cease their sinning; and what are the wages of sin? “But what about mercy? Where was the mercy in all that?” Mercy is the Love and forgiveness we most need and least deserve. Mercy is the outcome of God’s Grace working in God’s Power. Grace is unmerited favor from God, a Gift only he can give, and gift that is ours to accept or reject just like obedience is a gift we can offer or deny to God. For example, God gave us these totally-incredible, living, yet fragile machines originally made from Adamah. He gave them to us in the hope we would take care of them just as he gave the Earth to us in the hope we would take care of it.

Here’s one of the Bible verses we often slide right past: Genesis 2:15 – 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. – from שָׁמַר (shamar) {shaw-mar’)  to keep, watch, preserve protect, defend. Adam’s job was to defend the Garden and everything in it. He flubbed it by letting in a Serpent who tricked his wife into disobeying God by lying to her. That slicked-tongued beastie should never have gotten into the garden in the first place. When Adam saw it, he should have clubbed it a good one and tossed it outside the Gate. God already had an Absolutely Perfect Plan that immediately went into effect. God did not place the Serpent in the Garden for God tempts no one. The “Angel of Light,” ha-Satan, the accuser, was beautiful and at the same time terrible. Read about his beauty in Ezekiel 28:11-19, and understand that this was no hissing, forked-tongue, talking reptile but instead a magnificent creature on his exterior and a completely malevolent creature on his interior. Our First Parents fell for appearance over substance. We still make that mistake today, don’t we?!? God named that creature as loathsome and abhorrent. We still occasionally see him as beautiful and desirable.

The Apostle Paul reminds us in our Key Verse from the Epistles that our bodies are to be a Temple of the Holy Spirit, the bodies we received from God. We say in our hearts and in the pride of our eyes, “This is my body and I shall do as I please to pleasure me.” The Apostle Paul says, “Do you not know you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” And what was that price? Well, it was not a price we had to pay, was it? For those among us in the world who cannot bring their bodies to conformance and their hearts to repentance, the price is ruined health and perhaps physical death. The Eternal price for those sinful choices is eternal Death, and the Eternal Gift for repentance is Eternal Life (Yup. YOLO-F). Seems like an easy choice, doesn’t it? Yet in just one sitting watching or hearing the Syndicated Mass Media Organizations we can be convinced that MOST (yes, I MEAN most) of the World is making the wrong choice. (Singular because there is only one Choice: Obedience or Death.) What shall we do?

How about we follow the example of one of the first evangelists, the Apostle Andrew. Here is our Key Verse from the Gospels: John 1:41-42 – 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas [kepha – In Aramaic – Rock]” (which is translated Peter [petra – Rock – in Greek). First, he understood that Jesus must be the Messiah. Then, he went and found someone to tell – his brother Simon, AND he brought Simon to meet Jesus (and Each-One-Bring-One hadn’t even been invented yet!). Just imagine the surprise of these two brothers when Jesus looked right at Simon and said “You are to be called כֵּיפָא Cephas.” (Κηφᾶς is pronounced kay-fas’ not see’-fus, כֵּיפָא is the Aramaic word Kepha). John politely gives us the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic word Kepha as πέτρα (petra) – a very nice word-play in Greek. Now, if Jesus taught in Aramaic or Hebrew, how could he be doing Greek word-play? Well, everyone in Jesus’ day spoke some Greek. Koine Greek (↔ Significant Learning Link) was the “lingua-franca” in the Roman Empire – a bridge language, also called a trades-language, used throughout the region as a language that could be spoken by nearly everyone so that language barriers were more easily overcome. English is the lingua-franca in today’s World. In English, because of John 1:12, we are named “Child of God.”

Belovéd, it is our name that unlocks our future with God, and if our name is “Child of God” as in John 1:12, then our future is absolutely endless. Use that name, “Child of God,” to unlock the Treasure House of Blessings prepared for us since the Words “Let there be …” were first spoken, and the next-to-the-last thing was us.

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

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

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

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – January 5, 2024 – The Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel

January 5, 2024

2401AFC010524 – The Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel   (Podcast 😊 Link)

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    Isaiah 60:1 –
 1 Arise, shine; for your light has come, (↔ Music Link)
and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

Psalm 72:11 –
11 May all kings fall down before him, (↔ Music Link)
    all nations give him service.

Ephesians 3:5 – 5 In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit

Matthew 2:9 b –12 – … there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

¡Que la bendición esté siempre con ustedes y que Dios los bendiga, Amados! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd!)  welcome to 2024. At the end of this year we will either finish post 1,000 or be on the brink of it for 2025. I’m inviting you today to go on a journey back through the years as we reorient ourselves to the miracle we are about to celebrate.

Today is January 5, 2024, and in just a couple of days it will be the Feast of the Epiphany. Over the years we’ve always had something to say about that so, for 2024 let’s see what previous years held in store. We will only go back as far as 2012. As you will soon see, that’s way far enough! First, though, why “The Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel?” Our orientation will always be what we read in John 1:1-12 (← Check it out!) Pay special attention to this: “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” John confirms that the Christ of God was in the beginning and through him all things were made. THAT is the Light at the beginning of the Tunnel. Perhaps we will have something to say about the other end when we get there. As we go, I will leave links (the index numbers NNNAFCNNNN) to the previous posts – JIC you’re operating in Vay-Cay mode and want to do some additional reading. Let me tell you, the Holy Spirit has had some pretty good stuff for us in these preceding years! Here we go!

1201AFC010612 – An Epiphany Message:  An epiphany is a showing forth, or shining forth. It modern times it has come to mean a sudden realization that puts everything into perspective – a paradigm shift where our understanding is “suddenly” brighter and clearer. I put that “suddenly” in quotes, because generally an epiphany comes about after much laborious thinking and working. Those “A-HA” moments are rare, but they are usually preceded by intense effort even if the moment of understanding seems to come effortlessly. Famous “epiphanies” in recent history might include Isaac Newton and Arthur Fry (he invented Post-It Notes), and there have been a few in politics recently which we will not mention today. The basic idea is that genuine innovation comes through inspired thinking based on hard work. They are wonderful experiences whether we feel them ourselves, or watch others “see the light go on.” That experience is the Central Joy of Teaching!

For Christians, Epiphany is the commemoration not so much of the visit by the magi, but the fact that Jesus is revealed to the whole world – Jew and gentile, rich and poor, righteous and sinner, young and old, and whatever other earthling set of opposites you can think up. He came here for every single soul on earth before or after his birth. All of us can turn our eyes toward Jesus and see God with us – Emanuel. That always gives me goose-bumps. God. With. Us. The Manifestation of The Christ. Born of a virgin in abject poverty in a tiny village outside Jerusalem, he grew up in obscure places in Egypt and Galilee, and was anointed with the Holy Spirit at about age 30 (we assume).

   1501AFC010215 – Watch out! (←one of my favorites) Beloved, watch out! Satan is always on the prowl for “silly little, harmless mistakes,” our flirtations with evil, and one by one these little easy betrayals of God build up until – like Samson – we are captured by the very sins we dared to try. That is when we realize that what Paul said about the wages of sin is true. It is death. Better to put the temptation to death by knowing the purpose of the Devil’s deceptions. Remember, his “little mistake” was the sin of rebellion. Read what God says about that in this passage from 1 Samuel as he prophesies against Saul. And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obedience to the voice of the Lord? Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is no less a sin than divination, and stubbornness is like iniquity and idolatry. Trusting in occult practices is rebellion.

Don’t.

1701AFC010817 – Showing Up (a personal epiphany) “80% of the job is showing up.”

That’s what we’ve told employees, musicians, teachers, students, and church-goes for years and years. We can’t get the job done, we can’t contribute, and we can’t get the benefits if we don’t show up. Why is that? Because that’s the way God intended it to be. “Oh come on!” you say, “God never said anything like that!” Well, there’s another expression that covers it. “What we do says who we are. Actions speak louder than words.” When God sends people, they show up. When God calls people, they show up. When God blesses people, they show up. When God saves people, they show up – forever! How do we know? We can look at the action God takes when he shows up.

When God calls us, he has expectations. He doesn’t call us to come and sit by him during lunch. He calls us to do something, usually something important to him, and he expects us to show up. Just like members of a band, or a team, or an army, there is a purpose to being called. We are called to ACT, to go and do something. We’ve heard this one: Don’t just stand there. DO something! In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us: “Don’t just do something. Stand there!” (↔ Click it) In this case the “something” we are to do is to “stand firm.” We must definitely show up to do that!

1801AFC010518 – The Fruitful House of Bread A year ago we looked into the idea of Showing Up. The importance of showing up cannot be overemphasized. If you’re not there, you can’t be part of what’s happening. In school, it means you are unavailable for instruction. At work it means you are unavailable for production. In church, it means you are unavailable for praise. In life, it means you’re not available for days, nights, or weekends. In that message from a year ago, we looked into the day the Magi showed up at the house of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus. We don’t know if that house was in Bethlehem – the place where Jesus was born – but we should know a little more about that place – Bethlehem of Ephrathah. It is a very interesting name and an even more interesting place. Let’s start with the word, Bethlehem.

לֶ֣חֶם בֵּֽית־ Beit-Lechem or Beyth Lechem {bayth leh’-khem} means House (Beyth) of Bread (Lechem). What a perfect place for the birth of The Bread of Life! It is the place where Jacob buried Rachael. It is in the Tribal Possession of the Tribe of Judah. That area was very beautiful and fertile, abundant in figs, grapes, almonds, and olives. The country is what we’d call “hilly,” gently-rolling hills. It is just a bit uphill from Jerusalem and about 5.52 miles south of Jerusalem (straight line distance). ]In this post, you will find a table which show the rise in elevation from The Temple Mount (Moriah) to Galilee – a difference in elevation of about 3,314 ft ](← Check it out!)

1901AFC010419 – A Star is Born Belovéd, I’m going to have to skip most of this. I hope you will look at it because it lists the Scriptures that tie up the entire tunnel of The Light from Abram to Mary. I’ll just quote this: What’s a magus?

They were followers of a very ancient religion called Zoroastrianism  Zoroastrianism (↔ Learning Link). Zoroaster, also known as Zarathustra, was an ancient prophet from the region which is what is now southwestern Afghanistan or northeastern Iran. His writings represent what might be called the first monotheistic religion based on the belief that there is only one God. In his writings there were two distinct persons, very much opposite, that held control over all creation and life. They were called Ahura Mazda – he is omnibenevolent (absolutely good), and Angra Mainyu who is his opposite and therefore “omnimalevolent” (absolutely evil)

Abram and his family originated in the same part of the world that Zoroaster inhabited. Perhaps the Magi who came to see the newborn king of the Jews also traveled from that region following a star that hovered over a location somewhere around Bethlehem – the House of Bread – and gave Jesus’ family things they would need later in life when the World came to realize that the King of Kings is the Bread of Life and The Rising Dawn – the Morning Star, the Lilly of the Valley (↔ Music Link).

2001AFC010320 – A King-Size Dose of Reality Psalm 72:10 – 10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the Isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts.
Psalm 72:15 –  15 Long may he live! May gold of Sheba be given to him. May prayer be made for him continually, and blessings invoked for him all day long. (Please take a moment to see Psalm 72:10-15 to understand this in context.)
Isaiah 60:6 – 6 A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

In these passages, we see the Three Gifts – gold, frankincense, and myrrh. [Explanations of the gifts and their significance are included in this post]

2101AFC010121 – Head for the Light Psalm 72:10-11 – 10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. 11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service. The short interpretation is that this passage signified “the whole world and every nation in it.” In fact, let me suggest that you read Psalm 72 top to bottom; David did an amazing job of describing today’s world. There’s more about today’s world in Isaiah chapter 60 – the source of our Key Verse. (↔ Click Link)

And finally!

2201AFC010722 – In the Beginning Genesis 1:2-4 [1] –
 2 The earth was barren,
with no form of life;
it was under a roaring ocean
covered with darkness.
But the Spirit of God
was moving over the water.

The love of God is like the ocean, you can see its beginnings but not its end. The Grace of God is the Ocean of His Love. He is the source of the Ocean of Grace. When you acknowledge Him, it is as if you are submersed in a vast ocean being fed by a fountain of purest water. You are standing in that fountain in the center of the center of the Crystal Sea drinking from a crystal cup of the Endless Grace and Love, and this is available to every human soul alive today in Heaven and on Earth who chooses to stand in the Grace of God .  This is “so that God may be glorified in all things through Jesus Christ. To him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.” And that’s the TRUTH!

And so, at the end we have The Beginning, the Light at the Beginning of the Tunnel. Stand in the Light, Belovéd. It is there, shining for thee (↔ Music Link) just like the star in Bethlehem, the House of Bread where was born the Bread of Life. Like that star, let the Light of Christ shine in you like a beacon. (↔ Music Link) That Light in you is the Light of Christ (↔ Music Link)  at the end of the tunnel. It’s all in the Absolutely Perfect Plan. YOLO-F!

 

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

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

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

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

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

[1] Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society For more information about CEV, visit www.bibles.com and www.cev.bible.

 

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