Fw: Jesus - the Road from the Cave to Eternal Life

First, let me apologize for the spam that has shown up on this site. I am doing my best to wipe it out. But, it is proving very persistent.
Lou

Hi. Peace.

Today’s readings on this Feast of the Epiphany have filled my mind with all sorts of thoughts. Denise and I went to see “The Nativity Story” at the cinema on Friday and the timing could not have been better. Of course, most people won’t go see the movie because, as our college student remarked, “It doesn’t look too appealing from the advertisements.” We all know the story and we do not need to go see it again, right? Distraction and infatuation with worldly things is unfortunate when we could change the world by focusing on beautiful things and the truth and keeping the ugliness of life in proper perspective.

The truth is that God came into the world to reconcile His beloved creation with Himself. (That’s us, folks. We are His beloved creation. YOU are His beloved creation!)

The truth is that Jesus gave us the way to be reconciled with our Creator. He told us to reconcile with each other. He told us to love each other. He told us to share our possessions with the less fortunate. He told us to strive to be perfect as God, our Father, is perfect. And, then He told us to accept our crosses, the burdens that life sends our way, and to follow Him.

Here is a reality check for you: what could our United States have done with $500 billion and 5 years and the lives that we have sacrificed to the war on terrorism?

We could have created jobs for peace rather than jobs in war-machine factories.

We could have educated 10,000,000 people at $50,000 each.

We could have developed and begun building hybrid, electric, and fuel-cell vehicles rather than more 12 mpg F150 pickup trucks and Hummer 3’s, and Chargers.

We could have created a working health care system.

We could have rebuilt New Orleans.

We could have built an effective way of staunching the flow of illegal immigrants.

We could have shut down the influx of drugs that shackle our children and our population,

We could have done something good and lasting.

Here is a reality check for me: the President could never have ordered the spending of $500 billion on any of my ideas, above, because Congress would not have approved it nor would the American people.

But, here is a reality check for each of us: we are wrong to spend our resources on self-gratification whether that comes in the form of “recreational drugs”, alcohol, illicit sex, pornography, war, gluttony, laziness, convenience, luxurious comfort and surroundings, etc. And, God will have the final word with each us when we reach the moment of our judgment before Him. So, why not embrace the Child, thank God, read His Word, and begin living as He commanded?

Let us pray:

In thanks to God that Grampa Casey reconciled himself with God before his death,

That we will have the courage to seek reconciliation with those who have hurt us,

That we will each begin today to use more of what we have to improve life in this world,

For our family and friends,

For our sick and for the dying,

For our enemies,

For our businesses,

For our Church,

For our politicians and national leaders,

For our boys and girls in the military,

For our associate ministries,

For each other and our unspoken needs.

Father, God, mindful of the wounds ‘round His head, in His hands, in His feet, and in His heart and side which your Son suffered for me. I ask you, take me, cleanse me, fill me, use me. I ask this in the name of your Beloved Son, Jesus. Amen.

Be like Bartimaeus! Pray! Trust! Expect!

In Him and in His love,

Lou

PS “the road from the cave to eternal Life?” reality is that instead of reacting to violence as rational creatures and as Jesus would have, we find it easier to pick up the larger club and to kill and punish. If that was what God wanted of us, why did He not send a powerful King instead of a helpless Child?

Wonderfully Crazy Day!

Hi. Peace and every blessing to you and to your loved ones.

Today we had the “Blind Man Healing” from St. Luke’s Gospel. Wow! This reads the same as the healing of Bartimaeus! The blind man is so matter-of-fact with Jesus. “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asks. “Lord, please let me see,” he replies.

Not, “If you can…” or “If you want to….” But, “Lord, please let me see.”

Do you ask in fear that God might not want to give you your heart’s desire? Stop now. If your heart’s desire is good and worthy and in keeping with God’s plan, ask! Approach the throne of God with fear and trembling. Then lay your need before Him with every confidence that He hears and answers. The answer may come differently than you expect. But, if you are honest, you will see that He answers.

But, oh, the reading that really caught my attention today was the passage from Revelation 2: 1-5, “I know your works, your labor, and your endurance, and that you cannot tolerate the wicked; you have tested those who call themselves apostles but are not, and discovered that they are impostors. Moreover, you have endurance and have suffered for my name, and you have not grown weary. Yet, I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first. Realize how far you have fallen. Repent, and do the work you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lamp stand [your sign of authority] from its place, unless you repent.”

Wow! Those of us who gauge everything and everyone by how closely they follow the Law must take warning. Love is first. If we love, we will keep the Law. The Law is important as Jesus says. But, Jesus came to take the Law beyond itself, to fulfill it. He tells us to (1) love God, (2) love neighbor, (3) love ourselves, (4) love our enemy, and (5) love one another as I [Jesus] have loved you.

Justice comes second to love.

Let us pray,

Father, God, we adore you. We worship you. At this special time in the US, we humbly lay all of our blessings at your feet and give thanks for your infinite love. We ask, Father, that you give us every opportunity to learn to love each other and even our enemies as your Son has commanded. We realize that faith is only real if we live by your commands. So, we strive to live by the Law. But, even more importantly, we strive to live as Jesus commanded, that is, in love for we know that first we will be judged as to how completely, readily, openly, and honestly we have loved. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

Be like Bartimaeus! Pray! Trust! Expect!

In Him and in His love,

Lou

The Coyote is Ready to Pounce

Hi. Peace to each of you and to your families.

Today is a really busy day. Yet, I took some time to email the Prayer Warriors internet prayer group for some support and happened to read into Dixie’s prayer list for this morning. Take a look at this “pearl of great price” that she included this morning:

Wait for the Lord; Be strong, and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14

In his book, A Turtle on the Fencepost, Allen Emery tells of a night he spent on the Texas plains with a shepherd who was keeping two thousand sheep. The shepherd prepared a bonfire for cooking supper and providing warmth. The sheep dogs lay down near the fire as the stars filled the sky. Suddenly Emery heard the unmistakable wail of a coyote with an answering call from the other side of the range. The dogs weren’t patrolling at the moment, and the coyotes seemed to know it. Rising quickly, the shepherd tossed some logs on the fire; and in the light, Emery looked out at the sheep and saw thousands of little lights. “I realized,” he said, “that these were reflections of the fire in the eyes of the sheep. In the midst of danger, the sheep were not looking out into the darkness, but were keeping their eyes set toward the Shepherd.” We’re to keep our eyes on our Shepherd, to be always looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. If a coyote is wailing within earshot of you, turn your eyes upon Jesus Christ our Lord and our Savior!

If you do not believe that the coyote is waiting in the dark ready to pounce on you, look again!

I ask the children, “Do you take the time to be sure you are properly dressed for your next social event but do not take the time to pray or go to church?”

I ask the children, “Is your social life more important than attending church each Sunday as the Lord has commanded?”

I ask the parents, “As you complain about the lack of faith and discipline in children today, do you look in the mirror to see and to talk to the most influential person in your child’s life?”

I ask each of us, “Do we pray as a family community to reinforce the concepts that we owe everything to God, that we must always stand humbly before Him, that His will is more important than our desires?”

How did we expect our kids to learn to love God? By osmosis? From the Sunday School teacher? From the minister? From the outside world?

If your children have left home, then all you can do is love them, pray for them, counsel them, butt-in if you see them doing wrong (moral error – we all remember the word “sin”), and plead that God will give them the grace to live the commitment they have made to their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It is hard to stand for moral living, that is, living according to the Commandments of God. You will be branded a bigot when you tell a fornicator that his or her activity is wrong. You will be branded a fool for not cheating on your taxes, or for not cheating on your spouse, or for not testing out the latest designer drug, or just for volunteering to be the designated driver. You will be the “odd man out” if you do not curse with the rest of the guys or listen and tell dirty jokes. You will be ridiculed, Mom, when you choose to stay home and raise your babies rather than pursue some other career so that you can buy that nice house or car or wide-screen TV. You will. But, if you call yourself Christian, you will thank God for the persecution that will come when you stand among a pack of coyotes and call out their error or turn away to follow God’s Commandments as best you can.

With prayers for all, for courage, for trust that God’s Plan is the best of all plans, and for all our needs….

Be like Bartimaeus! Pray! Trust! Expect!

In Him and in His love,

Lou

Keepers of the Temple of the Holy spirit

Good morning. Peace to each of you and to your families.

This morning’s readings focus on the beauty and sanctity and abundance to be found in God’s holy temple. St. Paul tells us that each believer is a temple of the Holy Spirit built upon the foundation that is Jesus Christ. St. John recounts the time when Jesus drove the marketers out of the Temple in Jerusalem. Jesus accused them of turning God’s holy place into a common marketplace, that is, of changing the focus from worship of God to worship of money and self.

Pulling the abundance concept from Ezekiel, the personal dwelling of the Holy spirit from Paul, and the need to focus on what is important from John, it should be clear that your and my responsibility is to jealously, yes, jealously guard the doors to our souls to ensure that evil does not worm its way into our hearts. Anything, anything which is not of God must be identified, exposed, and driven from within. Titillating little pleasures, drunkenness however we indulge in it, cursing and otherwise abusing our fellow men and women, cheating on God, our spouses, and our bosses behind the covers of our computers, and every other sin must be purged from ourselves if we are to present ourselves and represent ourselves as Temples of the Holy Spirit.

The money-changers and sellers did not just show up one morning in the Temple in Jerusalem. Neither does Satan in the temple of our souls. Satan sneaks in. We say, “Everybody does this. It is not a sin.” Or, “It’s part of our culture.” Or, “Oh, come on! How can this be a sin? It’s not against the law.” Pretty soon these little things become habitual. And, like any evil habit, they lead to the need for more and ultimately to self-destruction. A smoke leads to two packs of cigarettes a day. A raucous evening with friends leads to a weekly night out with the girls to enjoy a little freedom from the confines of family commitments. A subscription to a soft porn magazine leads to condoning “Gentlemen’s clubs”, X-rated movies, habitual masturbation or adultery and worse. Immersion in violent video gaming leads to violence in the office, in the home, on the street, and the justification of retaliatory killing.

Our best defense against Satan and our best protection against ultimate eternal death is to throw the doors of the temple open to all of the good things of God and to place armed guards at every entrance no matter how small the opening to aggressively defend against the relentless onslaught of evil.

Please say a special prayer that our newly-elected political representatives will stand firm for the greater good of our country, our citizens, and the world. Pray that they will recognize that they were elected to serve no to be served, to aid our citizens rather than to pile up riches, and to give example to us all of right-living rather than to fall prey to the temptations of position, money, and power.

Father, God, we adore you. We thank you for the bounty of your blessings. We pray for the grace to search out any evil in our hearts and our lives, to expose it to your Light, and to purge it from our selves, and to gleefully accept the fullness of You in its place. Help us, Father, to cleanse this temple of the Holy Spirit that it may be seen by you as a suitable dwelling place. May we, once again purified, rightfully begin again to witness You to the world that others may come to know Eternal Life and to turn from the road to Hell. We ask this in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Be like Bartimaeus especially in this prayer seeking purification of heart, mind, and soul. Pray! Trust! Expect!

In Him and in His love,

Lou

Maybe We Just Don't Want To Accept Pity

Hi. Peace.

My favorite Gospel!

"Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"

"Son of David, have pity on me!"

"What do you want of me?"

"Lord, that I might see!"

Bartimaeus,a blind beggar, in need, persistent, clear and convinced.

Do you recognize your need? Are you willing to seek the pity of God?

Are you persistent in your request?

Do you know the end result you seek?

I encourage you to be like Bartimaeus! Pray! Trust that God hears! Expect His answer! Look for it! Believe that it is coming!

Make that your plea, "Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!"

Pray for all our families, pray for Jack and Stephan, pray for Kay and Larry, pray for Edwena's visa, pray for our clergy and all who proclaim the kingship of Jesus Christ, pray that our children will have the courage and the grace to turn from the many horrors that plague our society today, pray for the safety of our volunteer forces overseas, pray for people to get out and vote in this mid-term election, pray for our politicians, pray for each other.

Father, we adore you. We worship you. We seek you. Have pity on us, Father, as your Son had pity on Bartimaeus. We are as needy as he. We seek your healing. We seek your love. We seek your grace. We seek to become a holy people. The world besets us with bad example and myriad temptations to sin against you. Walk with us, Father, protect us from evil. Help us to focus on you and your promise as did Bartimaeus. In Jesus' holy Name we ask these things. Amen.

Pray! Trust! Expect! Be like Bartimaeus!

In Him and in His love,
Lou

RE: Getting It So That God Can Use You/Correcting a Horrible Typo!

This should, of course, read, “God has made it possible for you to share Eternal Life with Him.”

Satan is a sneaky guy, isn’t he? Even spell-check missed the typo and I missed it when I read it prior to sending. My deepest and sincerest apologies to you and to our Father in heaven!

Sheepishly in Him,

Lou

PS Funny I would use “sheepishly” since I am just proving why I am but one of the smallest and weakest and least sheep in His wonderful flock.

---

From: Lou Soileau [mailto:soileau49@earthlink.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 8:21 AM
To: Comunidad Del Cristo
Subject: Getting It So That God Can Use You

Hi. Peace to you all. Thank you for your prayers for Jerry and his whole family. The funeral was very nice and well attended. One of our brothers gave us some very fine and deep thoughts to consider. All will miss Jerry. But, all are at peace that he is in the arms of His Savior and reunited with all who have loved him in this life.

Today, Fr. Mark Link poses a good question: "What might I do to forgive and forget...as God has done for me?

God has forgiven you your every sin - the venial and the mortal. God has made it possible for you to share Eternal Lie with Him. What greater gift could there be? God did this by allowing His Son, Jesus, to suffer the agony of persecution, ridicule, horrible physical abuse, crucifixion, further ridicule while hanging from the nails through his hands and feet, and a slow, terrible death. Have you suffered so grievously at the hands of any human being? No. Jesus forgave you for your part in His agony. Our earthly pains and sufferings are trivial in the face of what Jesus endured for your sake. So, can you not forgive others for the pain that people have caused you?

Father, God, we adore you and we thank you for our lives. You give us everything. Everything is yours to take away. We will praise you before men and angels in the pleasure of our joys, in the face of persecution, and in the pain of our suffering. We ask you to love those whom we love, to care for the sick (Demeris, Gabriel, Steve, Stephan, and so many others), to give us the grace to forgive those who have hurt us and to love our enemies, to guide our leaders, to lift up our Church, your Body, so that through us the world will find its way to You, to care for our loved ones and children who have volunteered to risk their lives for the safety of others, to hear our prayers, acknowledge our deepest needs, and answer us in ways that further the accomplishment of Your Divine Will here on earth. We ask all this in the Name of Jesus, your Son. Amen.

Be like Bartimaeus! Pray! Trust! Expect!

In Him and in His love,

Lou

Getting It So That God Can Use You

Hi. Peace to you all. Thank you for your prayers for Jerry and his whole family. The funeral was very nice and well attended. One of our brothers gave us some very fine and deep thoughts to consider. All will miss Jerry. But, all are at peace that he is in the arms of His Savior and reunited with all who have loved him in this life.

Today, Fr. Mark Link poses a good question: "What might I do to forgive and forget...as God has done for me?

God has forgiven you your every sin - the venial and the mortal. God has made it possible for you to share Eternal Lie with Him. What greater gift could there be? God did this by allowing His Son, Jesus, to suffer the agony of persecution, ridicule, horrible physical abuse, crucifixion, further ridicule while hanging from the nails through his hands and feet, and a slow, terrible death. Have you suffered so grievously at the hands of any human being? No. Jesus forgave you for your part in His agony. Our earthly pains and sufferings are trivial in the face of what Jesus endured for your sake. So, can you not forgive others for the pain that people have caused you?


Father, God, we adore you and we thank you for our lives. You give us everything. Everything is yours to take away. We will praise you before men and angels in the pleasure of our joys, in the face of persecution, and in the pain of our suffering. We ask you to love those whom we love, to care for the sick (Demeris, Gabriel, Steve, Stephan, and so many others), to give us the grace to forgive those who have hurt us and to love our enemies, to guide our leaders, to lift up our Church, your Body, so that through us the world will find its way to You, to care for our loved ones and children who have volunteered to risk their lives for the safety of others, to hear our prayers, acknowledge our deepest needs, and answer us in ways that further the accomplishment of Your Divine Will here on earth. We ask all this in the Name of Jesus, your Son. Amen.

Be like Bartimaeus! Pray! Trust! Expect!


In Him and in His love,
Lou

The Challenge to Persevere

Hi. Peace. May this rainy day (in Texas and Louisiana and, possibly, in Georgia?)) bring drought relief to both your area which is such need of rain and to your heart and soul.

Please keep Denise and her family in your prayers. Their father passed away peacefully yesterday morning. He just stopped breathing. No stress. No heart attack or stroke. He just stopped.

God is so good. At about 6:45 AM Sunday, Jerry’s second daughter was leaving the hospital room to speak to the nurses. She leaned over him and whispered, “It’s time to go, Daddy. It’s ok.” I, too, had awakened sometime in the early morning and pleaded, “I know I asked that you be gentle, Father. But, isn’t it time?” And, there is no telling how many others in our family had asked God to act. God heard and answered and He blessed us and He blessed Jerry with a gentle transition into eternity. Please pray for Jerry although any of us who knew him closely realize that he is already joined to his loved ones and stands amid the throng praising God with full voice and spirit. Please pray for Jerry’s children, step-children, surviving brother and sister, grand and great grand-children. This is a heavy loss. And, ask God to cover them all as they travel home for the funeral.

Today, St. Paul reminds us that we are children of the New Covenant. We are not bound by the chains of the Law and the Old Covenant. We are called to live according to our Faith in Jesus by loving all, everyone, our enemies, those who do not believe, and even those who are bound by the Old Covenant and the Old Law. How far are we supposed to take this “love” commandment? Well, in my life, the only way to overcome my own sinful tendencies has been to “die to self” and to trust in God’s love for me. The surest way to solve a disagreement seems to be to offer an apology and hope that the other party will reciprocate. Of course, you run the risk of appearing “weak” when you do that. At the other extreme is martyrdom and today we consider martyrdom a waste, the choice of a nut case. No. Really. Few of us would accept death without a fight – for whatever reason. Few of us would allow the violent non-believer take our life because we believe in Jesus Christ. Yet, the Apostles, St. Paul, many of the saints, and even our recent example, Cassie Bernall, the little girl at Columbine High School, all stood for Christ and braved a violent death for Him. Why? Because they understood Jesus’ promise of Eternal Life to anyone who would believe in Him and follow His commandments. They all chose love rather than violence. It is as St. Paul says it. We are not bound by the Old Covenant. We are bound by Love. We have a choice. We can choose sin. We can choose self-preservation. Or, we can choose Christ.

Let us pray for the strength of character to deny our passions for the sake of Eternal Life, to choose Love rather than violence, to accept our cross and to walk with Him on the way to Golgotha rather than to avoid the trials of life, to accept His discipline at all times, and to remain optimistic that His plan, regardless of what it means to our savings, our businesses, our lives, is always better than our plan.

Pray for our entire membership. Pray for our struggling businesses and problems at work. Pray for everyone with financial troubles. Pray for those of us who harbor secret addictions. Pray for the humility and the trust to make a good confession. Pray for all that we might embrace the Gifts of the Holy Spirit which have come to each of us through the Sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. Pray that all Christians and all priests and ministers will be faithful to the flocks entrusted to them by God. Pray!

Be like Bartimaeus! Pray! Trust! Expect!

In Him and in His love,

Lou