#how can I show God I love Him? (John 14:21)

[poppitron360]

Wait. I wanna hear you Will Solace headcanons

Okay so be prepared for these to be wildly inaccurate because all I know about this guy is from fannon. Most of this is also me projecting.

1. Bass player. Yes that is 100% biased, as I am also a bass player (and I hc myself as a legacy of Apollo). No I have no basis on this claim other than Basses Are Just Cooler Than Guitars.

2. OR he’s the guitarist, Nico is the Bassist.

3. If there is a piano in the house, he WILL play it. For hours. Gods forbid you take him anywhere with a public piano.

4. Hates learning Music Theory, learns by ear and by feel. As an Apollo kid, he can instantly read both tab and sheet music, but uses neither.

5. Also has perfect pitch (can name any chord just by hearing it).

6. He’s a Star Wars fan, right? Can talk for hours about John William’s use of Lydian Mode in the score to convey a sense of majesty, and don’t get him started on the expert use of Vagnarian methods of leitmotif-

7. Okay, so maybe he knows a little music theory.

8. Writes terrible poetry that’s low-key kinda good.

9. Founder of the chb LGBTQ+ club.

10. Bisexual flags everywhere. He always at least one pink, purple, and blue pen on hand, doodles exclusively in those colours. His doctors notes are colour-coded pink, purple, blue.

11. BIG supporter of Trans rights- is qualified to help with Gender Affirming Healthcare for anyone at Camp.

12. Apollo is also god of prophecies. Will has the power of foresight ONLY for TV show/Film/Book endings. He is able to predict how a character would die with incredible accuracy after one episode. Morbid as fuck, so naturally Nico thinks it’s the hottest thing ever.

13. SWIFTIE!!!!!

14. Friendship bracelets. VERY swiftie-coded, he has a million of them on both arms, cutting off his circulation.

15. Paints Nico’s nails. Nico insists on all black, but gave in and let Will paint ONE nail fun colours, bedazzled with charms and shit. As long as it’s the middle finger.

Now, specifically my Will x Leo (Platonic) headcannons:

16. Will and Leo become very close at camp simply because Leo has absolutely zero sense of self-preservation. Like that kid does not value his life in any way at all, and so always ends up doing the most reckless shit ever, and, naturally, ends up spending a lot of time in the infirmary, usually only after being dragged there by Jason (“What’s the big deal? It’s just a broken arm. I’m ambidextrous! Besides, I’ve survived worse.”)

17. Will loves him because he’s never there longer than he has to be.

18. Except sometimes he does have to force Leo back into bed while Leo’s yelling loudly about how he needs to get back to his work, the Argo II won’t build itself, and to let go of him or he’ll burn you.

19. Will makes him wear enchanted plasters (band aids) that he can’t take off without doctor’s permission, to stop him absent-mindedly picking at old scabs and bits of skin. He also keeps fidget toys and stress balls to give to his patients. Leo has stolen ALL of them.

20. Like seriously, it is a problem. Leo has had to make them a whole bunch more fidgets because he’s taken and then overworked them until they all broke.

21. Both their southern accents come out more when they talk to each other. If a conversation goes on too long, they evolve into using so much fast-paced Texan slang that no-one else can understand them- it’s practically its own language.

22. BOTH SWIFTIES!!!!!

23. Leo helps out in the infirmary a lot- he’s useful if you need to sterilise equipment or cauterise any wounds.

24. It works sort of like an exchange of favours, where Leo also calls on Will anytime he needs a human flashlight to work on a project.

25. Leo has a lot of scars from his rough childhood. Will is one of the few people (aside from Jason) who’s actually seen them all. They never talk about it, and, as his doctor, he’s sworn to secrecy, but some of them are really disturbing. It will never not shock him that demigods can get hurt by things in the mortal world.

26. Leo makes sure Will uses accurate engineering jargon when writing Star Wars fanfiction.

27. Aside from Leo, Nico is the only one who reads his fanfiction

[ramrage]

How about another Fortune?

Chapter 1: Part 1

work rating: M

chapter rating: M

relationship: John “Soap” MacTavish x Simon “Ghost” Riley (endgame); John "Soap" MacTavish x Original Female Character (temporary)

characters: John “Soap” MacTavish, Simon “Ghost” Riley”, Original Female Character

tags: Freeform, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Straight? John “Soap” MacTavish, Cheating, Non-Chronological, this is a (gay) lovestory, Self-Discovery

summary: Soap is a heterosexual man in love, and everything is great. Really, it is. Factually speaking, no less.

Enjoy what you have, hope for what you lack. How about another Fortune? SecondFortune.com Lucky Numbers 19, 54, 37, 40, 47, 21

A/N: multimedia, nonchronological weirdness. pardon that. also, it doesn't start that way, but it's a ghostsoap (soapghost?) endgame. fret not.

ao3 link

part 2

part 3

John MacTavish with Ella Mitchell

💙

In a relationship with Ella Mitchell

February 14, 2014

67 Likes | 14 comments

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Ella Mitchell Congrats, Johnno. Really lucked out with that one :P <3 Like | Reply

PARADISE

Life is good. Can be, rather. So good that you’re drawn out of the moment for a split-second of awe, some shattering clarity of how fucking right things can be sometimes. And then you’re back in it, and somehow it’s even better.

“God, I fucking love you,” John breathes, not a post-nut bout of romanticism, short-lived. There she is: Ella. Sweaty, beautiful, and smiling. Sex on perfect fucking legs, and sweet. So damn sweet. “Fuck, I love you.”

He think it again when she looks away, shy, and looks back again with that wry smile, the one that has him love drunk and stupid every fucking time. “I love you, too, Johnny.”

And then the fucking minx rolls her hips, “but I’ve only cum twice. And you, my dear,” she muses, leaning forward to press a kiss to his cheek “promised me three.”

“Bleeding hell,” John thinks. “I’m gonna marry her. Mother of my future children.”

He makes good on his promise, of course. Lets her take his iPod and play the music she likes as he settles between her thighs afterwards, and throws in another for good measure, because of course. For her, it’s fucking nothing. Anything. Forever, and always, and all that other bullshit.

Time is a pesky bitch, is the thing.

And proximity is one hell of a drug.

HEALTH STATISTICS (UNOFFICIAL)

ORGASMS PER CALENDAR YEAR: 2021

SUBJECT: JOHN MACTAVISH SEX OF SUBJECT: MALE (REPORTED) SEXUAL ORIENTATION OF SUBJECT: HETEROSEXUAL, STRAIGHT

ORGASMS FROM PARTNERED SEXUAL INTERCOURSE

VAGINAL, receiving: N/A VAGINAL, giving: 8 ANAL, receiving: 0 ANAL, giving: 0 ORAL, receiving: 3 MANUAL, non-penetrative: 4 MANUAL, penetrative: 0 TOTAL PARTNERED SEXUAL INTERCOURSE: 15

ORGASMS FROM SELF-STIMULATION

ANAL, manual, non-penetrative: 0 ANAL, manual, penetrative: 0 PHALLIC, manual: 172 PHALLIC, oral: 0 VAGINAL, manual, non-penetrative: N/A VAGINAL, manual, penetrative: N/A NON-GENITAL STIMULATION, manual or oral: 0 TOTAL SELF-STIMULATION: 172

YEAR TOTAL ORGASMS: 187

COMMS TRANSCRIPT

VERDANSK, KASTOVIA 02 11 2022 21:07:33–21:07:38

21:07:33 G: Soap, you’ve got three enemies moving in East. 21:07:36 S: Copy. Permission to engage? 21:07:38 G: Give ‘em hell.

TROUBLE IN PARADISE, PT 1

They aim to call every week, even though they both know more often than not, it’s more of a monthly occasion. But it’s a low key Thursday, and for a change, John actually has time.

“So, how’d it go?” Ella sounds flat and tinny and terribly familiar over the phone. It feels like half the time they speak, her voice is like this. Compressed, still rising and falling with the gesticulations he can’t see, and wrong.

“Good, good…”

He can’t exactly say, “Nah, but don’t worry. The other guy got off much worse. Blew his head clean off his shoulders, actually,” so he tells her everything went well instead. It doesn’t exactly suck, and it isn’t exactly lying. “Yeah,” he continues, “can’t say much, but it was a tight operation. Clean.”

“And that’s why they call you Soap, eh?”

“Pretty and smart. I’ve won the lottery, haven’t I?”

“Mhm. Just gotta come and cash in your winnings is all,” and John’s stomach sinks because the anticipation he should feel is definitely anxiety. Any talk of coming home had slowly and consistently fallen from grace in his mind, and what used to be a respite feels more like faffing about in fairy land. For better or for worse (and in sickness and in health), he is married to his job. Thats how it goes with shit like this: too high-stakes to be anything other than wholly committed to.

Morality aside, two-timing is exhausting business and as John sees it, it just gives you two cakes that you can’t have, and can’t eat either.

PURGATORY

“Happy birthday, Johnny.”

Pulling away from Ghost’s lighter, Soap exhales that first draw, acrid as always, before chuckling. “Aye, cheers. Not how I expected it to go, but…”

“What did you have in mind then, eh? A little pub crawl out here in the middle of nowhere?”

Ghost manages to look nonchalant as he scans the blackdrop forest, leaning into the safe house’s dilapidated siding where he and Soap had posted up not too long ago. There’s bare little to see, bare little to do, so they smoke and shoot the shit.

Happy Birthday, indeed.

“Ha, fair. No point in making plans in this line of work.” He leaves out the part about Ella at home somewhere, filling the bin with pound shop birthday decorations. No use in reusing them. You only turn 30 once, after all. Ghost’s quiet, so he amends, “at least, not personal plans.”

“Had me worried there.”

“C’mon now, the planning is your’s and Price’s domain.”

“Watch it, sergeant. Arsekissing will only get you so far.”

“And how far it’s gotten me.”

“Ungrateful bastard. I got you the candles and everything.”

Soap snorts. “Aye, and you’re always hauling cake, so I reckon I’ve got that, too.”

“Fuckin’ hell.”

Thank god there’s no HR department in Arsefuck, Russia. Soap’d be toast by now. Or maybe not. This isn’t the first time he’s pulled this shit, and the reaction’s just about the same.

“I‘m just sayin’, ‘s not my fault you’re addicted to deadlifts.”

“Fuck—I wanna let you see another birthday, MacTavish, but you’re pushing your luck.”

“So you do like me.”

TROUBLE IN PARADISE, PT 2

“Hey, good-lookin’. How does this sound? You, me, a little takeaway, maybe a movie?”

John glances up from his phone. “What?”

“I was wondering how you felt about a night in.” Ella groans, noticing John’s eyes are still glued to his phone. A couple of snaps in his face, and John finally looks up. “I’m sorry,” she begins before he has a chance to apologize. “Am I interrupting something?”

John shakes his head. “Baby, no. Fuck, I’m sorry. It’s fucking work shite, shouldn’t take me too much longer.”

Ella doesn’t look appeased. Not remotely. Eyes burning mad above the dark circles, fingers tapping testily where they rest on the waistband of her joggers.

“How many times are ya gonna be sorry, John, eh?” Exasperated, she runs a hand through her brown hair, messing it up even more than it already is. “You’re gone for months on end, and that’s fine. I knew that was what I was getting into. But then when you’re actually fucking here, you couldn’t give a damn.”

“Elle, c’mon, don’t say that. I promise I want to deal with this shit even less than you do. You know I care, ba—”

“I don’t know that I fucking do, John. I don’t know that, and honestly, I don’t know if you really do care.”

John’s since put down the phone, but stands to wrap Ella in a gentle, rocking hug. She only fights him for a second before slumping against his chest. He likes it here, likes resting his chin on her shoulder where he can smell the lavender of her shampoo and her unwashed sleep shirt.

“Ellie, my darling. Give me five more minutes and I’m all yours. Put the order in on my card, and we can crack open the nice wine in the coat closet.”

“Dinner and drinks won’t just make it better, John,” she protests, muffled and half-hearted.

He leans back just enough to catch Ella’s eye, “No, it doesn’t.”

He jerks his head to the side, indicating she ought to let his hands guide her, turning until she’s facing away. She sighs and curses “that fucking MacTavish charm” when he starts kneading at her small shoulders. “That’s why I’m also planning on giving you a massage,” he begins to her answering hum, “a long one, and when you finally feel nice and relaxed and pampered, we can play that game you’re so fond of.”

“Which game?” she quips back despite knowing already what he means.

“Well, all you have to do is sit back and look pretty and let me see how many times I can get you off.”

“Mm, right, that one.”

“So, how does that sound for a night in?”

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HELL, UPPER CIRCLES

“Alright, fuck, get the fuck off me.”

Ghost relents and rocks back on his haunches, offering a hand to help Johnny roll to sit cross-legged. “You’re getting better.”

“Fuck off,” Johnny pants.

“Stronger, yeah. But smarter.”

“I’m plenty smart as is.”

“Weren’t always. Ya used to run in headlong, make stupid mistakes. You still do, granted, but not as often.”

“If that’s so, how’d I end up flat on my arse?”

Ghost shrugs, scratches the back of his neck through his damp mask. “I’m better.”

“Cocky bastard.”

“Takes one to know one.”

Soap rolls his eyes, wincing as he pushes himself up to stand. He squeezes a long stream of water into his mouth, missing near half of it before chucking Ghost’s water bottle across the gym.

He feels neither pleased nor surprised when Ghost turns the other way to lift his mask and drink. It’s what Ghost does.

“Five minutes and we go again,” Soap says, because it’s just enough time to catch his breath, “and this time, I’m fucking pinning you.”

“Fat fucking chance, sergeant.”

Enjoy what you have, hope for what you lack.

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(link to part 2)

[christ-and-love]

One of the first things I realized when I really sat down and **read** the scripture was the meaning of “life” and “death” in the Bible. Often times it’s not physical. But it’s a spiritual disconnect with God. We aren’t meant to live without him and while we can there’s a certain level of longing we will always have in our hearts. That’s not to say non-spiritual people can’t be happy, they can and millions are. But there’s an innate human need for spiritual health, and without it there is always a disconnect if we don’t have it.

The New Testament as well as the Old Testament talks about this a lot.

Some of the first versus that come to my mind are;

So that just as sin reigned in death,so also will grace will reign through righteousness, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.(Roman’s 5:21)

Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21)

There’s so many more. But the main point of this to me is that, life is through Christ and death ins through…Adam or sin as a whole. That doesn’t mean we have to be perfect. We aren’t and he doesn’t expect us to be. “It is not those who are well who need a doctor, but those who are sick. Hi and learn what this means: I DESIRE MERCY NOT SACRIFICE. For I did not come to call the righteous but the sinners. (Matthew 9:12-13). We are the sinners. He’s not a “sin and I will cast you out” God. He is a God who chases us and waits patiently for us to come home, he’s a God who..leaves the 99 on the hill to find the 1. You are not forgotten no matter what you’re going through he’s there. If you are in him you are alive. And there will be suffering, and spiritual strife, and physical pain. But He’s still *there* he’s still with you. Sometimes Gods plan is for us to suffer, not that he likes to see us suffer, but he uses us as instruments for others. Your suffering could lead someone else to salvation, your pain could be the model needed for someone else to see that light, even more so if you remain faithful through those hard times. Just remember, this life isn’t the end goal, our end goal is Him our end goal is to be home at rest with Him. No matter what happens around in the world, no matter how much pain, and persecution, and no matter how many other “Christian’s” and people try to twist his words or purpose. Stay strong, be the salt, and be the light. Don’t force God on people, he will open their hearts to him on his own, pray and lead by example. Be gracious and forgiving and love him, love everyone no matter what they do. And when people see your happiness and they see God in you that is enough. Don’t hide his light in you, show it, share it, love it.

Sorry if this all over the place, I have so many thoughts it’s hard to organize. I have so much more to say 😭

[frmartinshomiliesandreflections]

10th March >> Fr. Martin's Homilies / Reflections on Today's Mass Readings (Inc. John 3:14-21) for the Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B: ‘The light has come into the world’.

Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B

Gospel (Except USA) John 3:14-21 God sent his Son so that through him the world might be saved.

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son. On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.’

Gospel (USA) John 3:14–21 God sent his Son so that the world might be saved through him.

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed. But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

Homilies (6)

(i) Fourth Sunday of Lent

All of the great religions have a symbol that identifies it. The symbol of Judaism is the six pointed Star of David. The symbol of Islam is the crescent moon and star. The symbol of Hinduism is made up of three letters A, U and M. The symbol of Christianity is the cross. The cross speaks of crucifixion, a terrible form of death that the Roman Empire reserved for slaves and those considered a threat to public order. It is how Jesus was put to death.

When we look upon Jesus crucified, we can see what human beings are capable of doing to one another; we confront the sin that put Jesus on the cross. Jesus lifted up on the cross exposes the evil tendencies that resides in all of our hearts. Yet, when we as Christians look upon the cross, we see more than just the darkness of human nature. We also see the brightness of God’s nature. We see the love of God shining through the crucified Jesus. In the gospel reading, Jesus speaks of himself as the Son of Man who must be lifted up. Jesus had to be lifted up on the cross; it was the price he had to pay for remaining faithful to his mission of revealing God’s love for the world. As Jesus says elsewhere in this gospel of John, ‘No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’. Jesus’ death on the cross revealed his greater love for us, a love that was faithful to us, even when it meant his death. The love that shone through Jesus as he hung from the cross was the love of God. On the cross Jesus was showing the world that God is love. In the words of today’s gospel reading, ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son’. Jesus’ whole life, and especially his death, was a powerful expression of God’s love for the world and for each one of us personally. Saint Paul could say, and we can all say, ‘I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me’. Jesus was God’s greatest gift of love to the world and to each one of us personally.

Today’s gospel reading goes on to say that ‘God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world’. There was and is much to condemn in the world. The crucifixion of Jesus, the continued slaughter of the innocents, is a witness to the power of sin in the world. Yet, Jesus did not come among us just to condemn what was wrong in us. God sent his Son into the world to reveal a love that was more powerful than sin or evil, so that we could all be raised up by this love. God sent his Son into the world to release a power of love that would enable us to become the people God desires us to be, what the second reading refers to as ‘God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life’. If we allow ourselves to be touched by God’s love given to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we will begin to live fully human lives and we will enter into eternal life.

Saint Paul in the second reading stresses that God’s love present in Jesus is freely given to us. It does not have to be earned; it is not a reward for what we have done. As Paul says, ‘it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith… not by anything you have done’. No matter who we are or what has happened to us in life, God is for us, God’s love is over us to recreate us, to lift us up from our sin, so that we can live loving lives that reflect God’s love for the world. God’s love poured out through his Son is a gift to be received rather than a reward to be earned. Receiving this gift can be a gradual process in our lives. When Jesus went to wash Peter’s feet, Peter said, ‘You shall never wash my feet’. Peter struggled to receive Jesus’ gift of his self-emptying love. There is something of Peter in all of us. Yet, Jesus would not take no for an answer, saying to Peter, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me’. Peter had many flaws; he would soon deny Jesus publicly. Yet, Jesus insisted on washing Peter’s feet.

God’s love for us present in Jesus is unconditional, because God is love. One of the greatest challenges of faith is to allow God to be God, to allow God present in Jesus, our risen Lord, to bring me to experience his love for me in a very personal way. The light of God’s love never ceases to shine, but sometimes, in the words of the gospel reading, we can avoid this light. Our calling is to keep coming into God’s loving light. That will sometimes mean turning from whatever pockets of darkness are to be found in our lives. They need not come between us and the love of God because as Paul says in one of his letters, ‘nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’.

And/Or

(ii) Fourth Sunday of Lent

A painting hung for many years on the wall of a dinning room in the Jesuit house on Lesson Street. No one paid much attention to it until one day someone with a keen eye spotted it and realized that this could be something of great value. He had it further investigated by art experts, and it turned out that this painting was the work of no less a person than the great Italian artist Caravaggio. The painting of the arrest of Jesus in the garden now hangs in the National Art Gallery, and it is one of the Gallery’s great treasures. All those years it hung in the dining room of Lesson Street it was no less a treasure, but its worth, its value, went unrecognized. It hung there waiting to be discovered, waiting for someone to recognize its true worth, its true value as a work of art.

In the second reading this morning, Paul states that ‘we are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life’. Like the painting in Lesson Street, we can go unnoticed as a work of art, especially to ourselves. We don’t tend to think of ourselves as a work of art. Yet, as Paul reminds us in our second reading, God sees us as works of art. Like the person who spotted the painting in Lesson Street, God knows our true worth, our true value. As God said through the prophet Isaiah, ‘You are precious in my sight, and I love you’. We are as works of art to him, of great worth and value, precious in his sight.

We can probably think of people in our own lives that are as works of art to us. These are people we value greatly, people we treasure, whose worth to us is beyond price. Today is Mother’s day, and most of us think of our mothers in that way, whether they are still living or are with the Lord. When someone is a treasure to us, we don’t count the cost in their regard. We will do anything we can for them. We will travel long distances to see them; we will stay up half the night to be with them if they are ill; we will defend and protect them with all our passion when necessary. We keep faith in them; we are faithful to them, even when that makes great demands on us. How we relate to those we value and treasure is not determined so much by how they relate to us. Even if they do something that annoys us, we tend to make all kinds of allowances for them. We say something like, ‘that’s just the way he is, she is’. Their worth in our eyes, their value to us, is rooted in something deeper than what they do or fail to do. We value them, simply, for who they are.

Our experience of how we relate to those we value, and of how people who value us relate to us, gives us a glimpse of how the Lord relates to us. God loves us in a way that does not count the cost. The gospel reading today expresses that truth very simply: ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son’. God sent us his Son out of love for us and that sending became a giving when his Son was put to death on a cross. Here was a love that did not count the cost, a sending that became a giving when that was called for. As Paul says in the second reading, ‘God loved us so much that he was generous with his mercy’. We are of such value in God’s eyes that God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all. It is not surprising that the cross has become the dominant symbol of Christianity. This is not because we glorify suffering in any way, but because we recognise that the cross is a powerful sign of how much God values us, how precious we are in God’s sight, the extent to which God is prepared to go to express love for us.

Our love for those we value is bestowed on them for who they are more than for what they do. The same is true of God’s love for us in Christ. It is pure gift. As Paul says in the second reading, ‘it is not based on anything you have done’. Some of us find it difficult to really believe that. We find ourselves asking, ‘how I done enough?’ Yet, when it comes to someone in our lives whom we know truly loves us, we would rarely ask that question of them. Why should we ask it of God, when even the greatest of human love is only gives us a glimpse of God’s love? God loves us for who we are, people made in his image, and, therefore, works of art.

What is asked of us in relation to God is that we receive God’s love, or in the words of the gospel reading today, that we come into the light. The light of God’s love falls upon us, but we can hide from it. Children fear the darkness very often. But as adults we often fear the light, because we suspect that the light will expose us in some way. Yet, the light of God is not a harsh light, the kind of light that is trained on a suspect in an interrogation room. It is a strong, yet warm, light that brings healing and generates new life. It is an empowering light that enables us to ‘live the good life’, as Paul says in the second reading. We pray that, as the hours of day light increase in these days, the life-giving light of God’s love would renew us and fill us with a desire to serve him.

And/Or

(iii) Fourth Sunday of Lent

Children are often afraid of the dark, as the parents here in the church will know. A dim light is sometimes left on while children sleep, so that if they wake up it is not in pitch darkness. Many of us as adults find total darkness disconcerting too. Those of us who live in cities never really experience total darkness. It is different out in the country away from villages, towns and cities. I remember going on a holiday as a young person to the Arran Islands and being struck by just how dark it was at night. There was very little in the way of artificial light to dispel the darkness. The experience of near total darkness after night fell was disconcerting.

Although most of us would claim to prefer light to darkness, in today’s gospel reading Jesus declares that some people ‘have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil’. Most crime is committed during the hours of darkness. Those who are intent on doing wrong are drawn to darkness because it provides them with cover. As today’s gospel states: ‘Everyone who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed’. One of the many security measures that have become popular in recent years is an array of bright lights that come on at night whenever anyone steps into an area that is out of bounds. Light is considered, with good reason, to be a deterrent to the person who is intent on committing crime. Indeed, there is a sense in which we all fear too much light just as we do too much darkness. Many of us prefer to stay in the background, in the shadows; we don’t like the spotlight being shone on us. We all have secrets that we would wish to remain in darkness, away from the bright lights that human curiosity and inquiry might like to shine on them. There are aspects of our lives that we would prefer to remain in darkness because we are not sure how people might respond to us if a bright light were to be shone on them. We only bring our deepest selves out into the light in the presence of those we really trust.

The gospel of John frequently refers to Jesus as light. On one occasion, Jesus says of himself: ‘I am the light of the world’. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus says with reference to himself: ‘Light has come into the world’. The gospel reading also declares that the light that has come into the world in the person of Jesus is the light of God’s love. In one of the most memorable statements of the New Testament, the gospel reading declares, ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him… may have eternal life’. The light of Jesus is not the probing light of the grand inquisitor that seeks out failure and transgression with a view to condemnation. Indeed, the gospel reading states that God ‘sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world’. The light of Jesus, rather, is the inviting light of God’s love, calling out to us to come and to allow ourselves to be bathed in this light, and promising those who do so that they will share in God’s own life, both here and now and also beyond death.

At the beginning of today’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks of himself as the Son of Man who must be lifted up. It was on the cross that Jesus was lifted up, and it was above all at that moment that the light of God’s love shone most brightly. It is a paradox that those who attempted to extinguish God’s light shining in Jesus only succeeded in making that light of love shine all the more brightly. God’s gift of his Son to us was not in any way thwarted by the rejection of his Son. God’s giving continued as Jesus was lifted up to die, and God’s giving found further expression when God raised his Son from the dead and gave him to us as risen Lord. Here indeed is a light that darkness cannot overcome, a love that human sin cannot extinguish. This is the core of the gospel. This is why the fourth Sunday of Lent is known as Guadete Sunday, Rejoice Sunday.

When we are going through a difficult experience and darkness seems to envelope us, it can be tempting to think that we will never see the light again. This is the mood that is captured in today’s responsorial psalm: ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept’. Today’s readings assure us that there is a light that shines in the darkness and that the darkness will not overcome, a light that heals and restores, in the words of today’s second reading, a light that brings us to life with Christ and raises us up with him. It shines in a special way whenever we celebrate the Eucharist. As we gather around the table of the word and the table of the Eucharist, the light of God’s love revealed in the death and resurrection of Jesus shines upon whatever darkness we may be struggling with in our lives.

And/Or

(iv) Fourth Sunday of Lent

We have become very aware in recent weeks of how much longer the days are getting. We are half way through the month of March and already it is bright up until after six o’clock. We have even brighter days to look forward to, especially as the clock goes forward next weekend. The brighter evenings brings everybody out. With the increase in light, there is also an increase in growth. The first blossoms of spring have already come out. Nature is coming to life after a time of hibernation.

The gospel reading this morning is in keeping with what is happening in nature. It declares that ‘light has come into the world’. The light there is a reference to the light of God that has come into the world through Jesus. Both the second reading and the gospel reading make clear that the light of God is the light of love. The second reading declares that God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy; it speaks of God’s goodness towards us in Christ, the infiniteness richness of God’s grace in Christ. The gospel reading declares that God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son. In the light that Jesus brings from God we find mercy, compassion, great love, kindness, infinite grace. Sometimes we don’t like too much light. There is a certain kind of light that can expose us mercilessly, like the light of the interrogator’s lamp. However, Jesus brings a light that need hold no fear for us; it is a divine light that lifts us up, just as the Son of Man was lifted up, in the words of the gospel reading. Here is a light that assures us of our worth and that helps us to see the goodness that is within us and the good that we are capable of doing. It is a light that, in the words of the second reading, allows us to recognize that ‘we are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live a good life’. It is the light of a love that shines upon us regardless of what we have done or failed to do. As the first reading reminds us, God’s grace, God’s love, comes to us not on the basis of anything we have done. It is not something we earn by our efforts; it comes to us as a pure gift. When God gave his Son to the world, did not ask whether the world was worthy of his Son or whether the world was ready for his Son. Even when the world crucified God’s Son, God did not take back his Son from the world. Rather, God continued to give his Son to the world, raising him from the dead and sending him back into the world through the Holy Spirit, through the church. Here is a light that shines in the darkness and that the darkness cannot overcome, in the words of the gospel of John.

We all long for that kind of light, a light that is strong and enduring, a light that can be found at the heart of darkness and that is more resilient than darkness. We have all experienced darkness in one shape or form. It may be the darkness of sickness, or of the death of a loved one or the darkness of failure; we may struggle from time to time with the darkness of depression, with those dark demons that tell us that we are worthless and that life is not worth living. Something of that darkness of spirit finds expression in today’s responsorial psalm. It was composed from the darkness of exile in Babylon. ‘By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept, remembering Zion’. We may have known our own experiences of exile in its various forms, times when we felt cut off from what gives meaning and purpose to our lives. The readings this morning assure us that in all those forms of darkness, a light shines - the light of God’s enduring love that is constantly at work in our lives so that we may have life and have it to the full. In the words of the gospel reading again, ‘God gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him... may have eternal life’.

Even though this wonderful light has come into the world and wants to shine upon us all, we can be reluctant to step into that light, and allow it to shine upon us. In the words of the gospel reading, ‘though the light has come into the world, people have shown that they prefer darkness to the light’. This is the mysterious capacity of human freedom to reject the light, to turn away from a faultless love and a boundless mercy. Yet, our coming to the light is often a gradual process; it can happen slowly, at our own pace. The Lord is always prepared to wait on us; he waits for our free response. We are not used to a love that is as generous, as merciful, as rich in grace and goodness as God’s love; it takes us time to receive it, to believe in it, to embrace it. Receiving God’s love and then living out of that gift is the calling and task of a life time.

And/Or

(v) Fourth Sunday of Lent

My father loved fresh air. The bull wall was one of his favourite places. Like many men of his generation, he was a smoker and, sometimes, his breathing became a struggle. He loved to get out in the open where there was a good wind blowing that could fill his lungs. My mother was much less keen on fresh air, especially of the windy variety. It tended to leave her hair in what she considered a mess. After having experienced an abundance of fresh air at my father’s prompting, she was often heard to say, ‘I’m like the wreck of the Hesperus’. As children we were mystified as to what the ‘wreck of the Hesperus’ was. It was only many years later I discovered it was the name of a rather tragic poem about a shipwreck in a storm by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, published in 1842. However, as children, we knew that when our mother came out with this expression it meant that she didn’t like the look of herself. In those moments, Saint Paul’s statement at the end of today’s second reading wouldn’t have cut much ice with her, ‘We are God’s work of art’.

Perhaps, we all find it difficult to really believe that we are God’s work of art. We admire the workmanship of great artists, like Michelangelo, Raphael, Caravaggio, and we recognize their creations as works of art. Many of these great artists were people of faith who were very aware that their ability to create works of art was a gift from God. They understood that God was the supreme artist, and they sensed that they were sharing in God’s creative power. Every new born child is God’s work of art, because they are an image and reflection of God, the supreme artist. In that sense, we are each God’s work of art. Just as a work of art can deteriorate over time and need cleaning and restoration, so, as we go through life, we do not always give full expression to our inner identity as God’s work of art. In that second reading, Saint Paul says that ‘we are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life’. We don’t always live the good life that does justice to God’s work of art that we are.

Yet, what we do or fail to do does not fundamentally undermine who we are as people made in the image and likeness of the great Artist. Indeed, not only have we been created as human beings in the image of God, but that identity has been enhanced through God’s sending of his Son into the world and our communion with God’s Son through baptism and faith. Jesus was the perfect image and likeness of God. He was God’s greatest work of art. The closer we come to Jesus, the more he lives in and through us, the more we will grow into our true identity as God’s image and likeness, God’s work of art. We could imagine Jesus as the great restorer of God’s work of art, humanity. As Saint Paul says in that second reading, ‘when we were dead through our sins, he (God) brought us to life with Christ’. Through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God recreates us in his image and likeness, restores our identity as his work of art. Having created us out of love, God recreated us, restored us, out of love. That is the core message of today’s readings. The gospel reading declares that ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son’. God’s renewing love embraces the world, all of humanity who have been made in his image and likeness, and, indeed, all of creation. Paul in the second reading states that God’s ‘goodness towards us in Christ Jesus’ shows ‘how infinitely rich he is in grace’. Paul goes on to remind us that God’s loving initiative towards us through his Son is pure gift; it is not a response to anything we have done, as if we had to build up credit with God first.

We are all aware of the good we have failed to do and the wrong we have done. As a result, we can be prone to condemning ourselves, and others can look in judgement upon us. Yet, God is not primarily in the business of condemning. In the words of the gospel reading, ‘God sent his Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but so that through him, the world might be saved’, might have life and have it to the full. The eyes of love always see goodness and beauty in the beloved even though he or she may leave a lot to be desired. Those we love deeply remain works of art to us, even though our shared journey may have had many ups and downs. God’s love for us, revealed in his Son, is infinitely greater than any human love. God continues to see us as his works of art, even though our lives may be tainted by sin. He continually gives us the gift of his Son and of the Holy Spirit so that can grow into that work of art more fully. All God of asks of us is that we keep opening our hearts to that gift of his Son, that we keep coming out into the light, in the words of today’s gospel reading.

And/Or

(vi) Fourth Sunday of Lent

A painting hung for many years on a dinning room wall in the Jesuit house on Lesson Street. No one paid much attention to it until one day someone with a keen eye realized that this could be something of great value. It was further investigated by art experts, and it turned out that this painting was the work of the great Italian artist Caravaggio. The painting of the arrest of Jesus is now hangs one of the National Gallery’s great treasures. All those years it hung in the dining room of Lesson Street it was no less a treasure, but its value went unrecognized. It hung there waiting to be discovered, waiting for someone to recognize its true value as a work of art.

According to the particular translation of the letter to the Ephesians we read from this evening, we are all ‘God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life’. We don’t tend to think of ourselves as works of art. Yet, like the person who spotted the painting in Lesson Street, God knows our true worth, our true value. We are works of art to God; we are of great worth and value in God’s sight.

We can all think of people in our own lives whom we value greatly, whose worth to us is beyond price, because to us they are works of art. Today is Mother’s day, and most of us think of our mothers in that way, whether they are still living or are with the Lord. When someone is a treasure to us, we don’t count the cost in their regard. We will do anything we can for them. We will travel long distances to see them; we will stay up half the night to be with them if they are ill; we will protect them with all our passion when necessary. How we relate to those we value and treasure is not determined so much by how they relate to us. Even if they do something that annoys us, we tend to make all kinds of allowances for them. We say something like, ‘that’s just the way he/she is’. Their worth in our eyes is rooted in something deeper than what they do or fail to do. We value them, simply, for who they are.

Our experience of how we relate to those we value, and of how people who value us relate to us, gives us a glimpse of how God relates to us. God loves us in a way that does not count the cost. The gospel reading today expresses that truth very simply: ‘God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son’. God sent his Son out of love for us and that sending became a giving when his Son was put to death on a cross. Here was a love that did not count the cost, a sending that became a costly giving when that was called for. As Paul says in the second reading, ‘God loved us so much that he was generous with his mercy’. We are of such value in God’s eyes that God did not spare his own Son, but gave him up to benefit us all. It is not surprising that the cross has become the dominant symbol of Christianity. This is not because we glorify suffering in any way, but because we recognise that the cross is a powerful sign of how much God values us, how precious we are in God’s sight; it shows the extent to which God is prepared to go to express love for us.

Our love for those we value is bestowed on them for who they are more than for what they do. The same is true of God’s love for us in Christ. As Paul says in the second reading, ‘it is not based on anything you have done’. Some of us find it difficult to really believe that. We find ourselves asking, ‘how I done enough?’ Yet, when it comes to someone in our lives whom we know truly loves us, we would never think of asking them, ‘Have I done enough?’ Why should we ask such a question of God, when even the greatest of human love is only gives us a glimpse of God’s love? God loves us for who we are, people made in the image of God’s Son, and, to that extent, works of art.

What God asks of us is that we receive God’s love revealed and made present in Christ, or, in the words of the gospel reading today, that we come into the light. The light of God’s love falls upon us, but we can hide from it. Children fear the darkness very often. But as adults we often fear the light, because we suspect that the light will expose us in some way. Yet, the light of God is not a harsh light, the kind of light that is trained on a suspect in an interrogation room. It is a strong, yet warm, light that brings healing and generates new life. It is an empowering light that enables us to ‘live the good life’, as Paul says in the second reading, ‘to do good works���. As the hours of day light are increasing in these days, we pray that the life-giving light of God’s love would renew us and fill us with a new desire to serve him.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

[scribeforchrist-blog]

Fearfully Relying on God  

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK

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+ Ephesians 5:8 For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

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VERSE OF THE DAY 

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+ Psalm 33:18-19 But the Lord watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love. He rescues them from death

and keeps them alive in times of famine.

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** SAY THIS BEFORE YOU READ; HERE’S SOME CHRISTIAN TRUTHS **

I AM RELYING ON GOD

I AM FEARFUL OF GOD 

I AM SAVED 

I AM WATCHED BY GOD 

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READ TIME: 7 Minutes

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THOUGHTS:

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    I can look back over my life many times, and I know God was watching out for me, and we all can do that; God has made a way out of no way for us, and a lot of times, we think, how did this happen and we should know in our heart it comes from him. Still, when we are fearful of the lord, he watches over us; he doesn’t want us to be afraid to talk to him. 

    Still, he does want us to reverence him; many people don’t take the time to do that. Many people don’t say, God, I thank you for the food I have, or God, thank you for my family, nothing like this. Many people see him as someone who is supposed to do this, and God doesn’t have to do this for us; God will give us what we need if we ask him and trust him. We must trust in God; he will move sometimes without our trust. Still, if we genuinely want to build a relationship with him, we must trust in him and know that when we fear him, when we need him, he’ll rescue us from all danger and death and pain,

   1 Peter 3:12 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to their prayers. But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil.”

      The Lord hears our prayers when we genuinely build a relationship with him. We all sometimes forget that we must build a relationship with Christ, and we do this by reading our word, spending quiet time with him, meditating, and praising him. This is us showing we love him, and this isn’t saying that hard times won't come. This is saying I know that when I do have times, I know who to look towards, who to give glory to, and that’s the lord.

  His ears are forever listening to us, and no, this doesn’t mean he will give us everything not at all, but it means when we are in need, he hears us; a lot of us feel we aren’t heard and that no one cares but God cares ,he cares for us in everything we do, we have to make sure we see God as he is which is lord, a lot of us don’t, but we must start. We must stop treating God like he’s a person, but God is the creator of everything, and to treat him like anything less than that, we aren’t being fearful at all. 

     Psalm 147:11 No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear him, those who put their hope in his unfailing love.

      His love can't be beaten. We can find the love of our lives and fall in love for the first time, but God's love can't be beat. It is so much better than any love you ever experience, and I wish sometimes I could give him that same love, but the love we give him will never match his love for us. We can show God love by spending time with him and obeying his word, and his word says this

  • John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

 

* John 14:23 Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

  • John 14:21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love and manifest myself to him.”

  See, we can show him love by obeying his commandments; we show we love him by listening to him; we miss out on his promises when we do what we want instead of what he wants of us. Loving God every day is the most beautiful thing we can do, but we must be willing to listen and obey, it’s a difference between listening to God and doing what we want; we can do whatever we want; we have free will but to walk in step with God it means we do as he says, and no God doesn’t want us to be robotic. Still, he does want us to hear him. Do you hear him? Do you crave to do the things he wants of you??

   ***Today, we learned about being fearful of God and relying on him alone. Many can rely on different people to help us through our difficulties. Still, God wants to be the only one we run to for our moments; he wants to be the only one we cry out to and long for, just like Peter when he walked across the water immediately when Peter saw the winds or felt the winds he went under. He didn’t call on anyone else but the lord to save him.

    Matthew 14:30 0 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

    A lot of us are going through unknown waters, and we don’t know who to call on; we must call on the name of God; he will be there so quickly, but instead, some of us whether go under then to call upon the name of God, he’s an anchor when we can’t stay grounded , he’s our life jacket if we are drowning, he’s our light in darkness God can be what we need, but we must let him be. If you’re having problems, make sure you call on God, and he will be there. ©Seer~ Prophetess Lee

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PRAYER

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for today. We ask you right now to be with us and cover us in your blood. Lord, we need you so badly to save us. We are saying right now we can’t do it without you, lord; we give you everything; we thank you for giving us a fresh anointing; we thank you for hearing us when we speak. Lord, give us an understanding of this devotion; lord, we praise you for everything; in Jesus' Name, Amen 

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REFERENCES 

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+ Mark 14:38 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit, indeed, is willing, but the flesh is weak.

 

+ Matthew 8:24-25 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.”

 

Psalm 3:7 Arise, O Lord! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked.

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FURTHER READINGS 

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 Proverbs 15

John 20

Romans 6

2 Timothy 2

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[theprayerfulword]

June 21

Psalm 93:4 Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea — the Lord on high is mighty.

Hebrews 12:9 We have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!

Psalm 103:2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all His benefits.

1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of Him.

Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

May you seek the Giver of life, that you may live. 2 Kings 1

May you humbly approach God in reverence and fear, realizing your personal inadequacies and fully aware that you represent no authority or power that can stand in the presence of the Creator of the universe, acknowledging His majesty in praise and worship before making your requests known. 2 Kings 1

May you follow the path of righteousness as the Spirit leads, never stopping when tired or turning back when struggling, but remaining focused amidst the distractions, knowing that you will receive the promise of God if you endure to the end. 2 Kings 2

May you bring the presence of God into every situation you are in, seeking His face and speaking His praise, changing the atmosphere as the light and the fragrance of God is imparted to those around you through the power of the Spirit and the love of the Son, sweetening bitterness in relationships and make barren hearts productive. 2 Kings 2

May you teach the young by example to respect all and honor those who are occupied with showing compassion to those God loves, so that the ones who will listen may preserve their lives. 2 Kings 2

My child, know that My abundance is available for the asking, My wisdom is provided freely when requested, My gifts are given without repentance, and My strength is within reach of all. My disciples preached salvation through My name first to the Jews at Jerusalem, the chosen, the ones who bore My name, before ever going to the Gentiles. Many Jews received Me in faith and rejoiced, but those who rejected Me were often the ones whose earthly needs were so well-supplied through entrenched tradition that they could not see the spiritual needs they shared in common with all people. I was then received gladly by the Gentiles who knew they were in bondage and rejoiced to see My light in their darkness. Even so today, My hard worker, you find many who are called by My name rejoicing to find that a deeper walk with Me is available, but so many who profit from the form and tradition that has been established around My truth refuse to see their own need, not realizing they are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked in their spiritual walk. Those appointed to salvation have often been mistreated and rejected by the world system, pushed to the fringes, hungering and seeking for more than they could find in tradition. Do not be blinded by your natural sight, My dear one, but learn to see as I see, understand with My understanding, and recognize the seeker for My truth within the battered frame before you. Learn to trust My Spirit when you hear the whisper and feel the nudge to speak to someone who has followed a different path than you and bears the marks of their journey. They have stepped through doors you have eschewed, and can reach others who will not listen to you. Do not call common or reject as impure those who are heeding My call and seeking My path. I have accepted them, and who can gainsay My choice?

May your words be sweet and your heart toward God, so that when God moves in a new way, you will not be found resisting the Lord or following the flesh. Acts 13

May you try the spirits in any dissension, not looking to the personalities, but seeking the purposes of God, to know the way you should follow. Acts 13

May you be filled with the strength of His joy and the power of the Spirit when following Christ in the discipline He leads you through. Acts 13

May you speak boldly in favor of the Lord when you minister in the face of opposition, for He will confirm the message He gives you with signs and wonders, polarizing the people who hear. Acts 14

May the Lord search you and know you, from your sitting down to your rising up, when you are traveling and when you are at home, perceiving your thoughts from afar, and understanding all your ways intimately, knowing your intentions completely before you say a word or take an action, for you are the apple of His eye, and He desires to be known by you even as He knows you. Psalm 139

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Children of God

1 Consider the incredible love that the Father has shown us in allowing us to be called “children of God”—and that is not just what we are called, but what we are. Our heredity on the Godward side is no mere figure of speech—which explains why the world will no more recognise us than it recognised Christ.

2 Oh, dear children of mine (forgive the affection of an old man!), have you realised it? Here and now we are God’s children. We don’t know what we shall become in the future. We only know that, if reality were to break through, we should reflect his likeness, for we should see him as he really is!

3 Everyone who has at heart a hope like that keeps himself pure, for he knows how pure Christ is.

Conduct will show who is a man’s spiritual Father

4-6 Everyone who commits sin breaks God’s law, for that is what sin is, by definition—a breaking of God’s law. You know, moreover, that Christ became man for the purpose of removing sin, and he himself was quite free from sin. The man who lives “in Christ” does not habitually sin. The regular sinner has never seen or known him.

7-9 You, my children, are younger than I am, and I don’t want you to be taken in by any clever talk just here. The man who lives a consistently good life is a good man, as surely as God is good. But the man whose life is habitually sinful is spiritually a son of the devil, for the devil is behind all sin, as he always has been. Now the Son of God came to earth with the express purpose of liquidating the devil’s activities. The man who is really God’s son does not practise sin, for God’s nature is in him, for good, and such a heredity is incapable of sin.

10 Here we have a clear indication as to who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. The man who does not lead a good life is no son of God, nor is the man who fails to love his brother.

11-13 For the original command, as you know, is that we should love one another. We are none of us to have the spirit of Cain, who was a son of the devil and murdered his brother. Have you realised his motive? It was just because he realised the goodness of his brother’s life and the rottenness of his own. Don’t be surprised, therefore, if the world hates you.

Love and life are inter-connected

14-15 We know that we have crossed the frontier from death to life because we do love our brothers. The man without love for his brothers is living in death already. The man who actively hates his brother is a potential murderer, and you will readily see that the eternal life of God cannot live in the heart of a murderer.

16-18 We know and, to some extent realise, the love of God for us because Christ expressed it in laying down his life for us. We must in turn express our love by laying down our lives for those who are our brothers. But as for the well-to-do man who sees his brothers in want but shuts his eyes—and his heart—how could anyone believe that the love of God lives in him? My children, let us not love merely in theory or in words—let us love in sincerity and in practice!

Living in love means confidence in God

19-20 If we live like this, we shall know that we are children of the truth and can reassure ourselves in the sight of God, even if our own hearts make us feel guilty. For God is infinitely greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

21-23 And if, dear friends of mine, when we realise this our hearts no longer accuse us, we may have the utmost confidence in God’s presence. We receive whatever we ask for, because we are obeying his orders and following his plans. His orders are that we should put our trust in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another—as we used to hear him say in person.

24 The man who does obey God’s commands lives in God and God lives in him, and the guarantee of his presence within us is the Spirit he has given us. — 1 John 3 | J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS) The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Cross References: Genesis 4:8; Leviticus 19:17; Deuteronomy 14:1; Deuteronomy 15:7; Deuteronomy 19:11; 2 Samuel 13:22; 2 Samuel 22:27; Job 19:26; Job 22:26; Psalm 17:15; Psalm 38:22; Psalm 119:3; Proverbs 14:31; Proverbs 29:27; Ezekiel 33:31; Matthew 4:3; Matthew 5:19; Matthew 7:7; Matthew 12:28; Matthew 13:38; Luke 20:36; John 1:12-13; John 1:29; John 2:23; John 5:24; John 10:11; John 13:4; John 13:34-35; John 15:13; John 15:18; John 17:19; Acts 23:3; Romans 8:9; Romans 8:14; Romans 8:34; Romans 14:22; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 3:12; 1 John 2:1; 1 John 2:3-4; 1 John 2:21; 1 John 2:26; 1 John 4:4; 2 John 1:1; 3 John 1:11

[ongolecharles]

DAILY SCRIPTURE READINGS (DSR) 📚 Group, Sat July 20th, 2024 ... Saturday of The Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time, Year B

Reading 1

---------

Mi 2:1-5

Woe to those who plan iniquity,

and work out evil on their couches;

In the morning light they accomplish it

when it lies within their power.

They covet fields, and seize them;

houses, and they take them;

They cheat an owner of his house,

a man of his inheritance.

Therefore thus says the LORD:

Behold, I am planning against this race an evil

from which you shall not withdraw your necks;

Nor shall you walk with head high,

for it will be a time of evil.

On that day a satire shall be sung over you,

and there shall be a plaintive chant:

"Our ruin is complete,

our fields are portioned out among our captors,

The fields of my people are measured out,

and no one can get them back!"

Thus you shall have no one

to mark out boundaries by lot

in the assembly of the LORD.

Responsorial Psalm

-------------------

Ps 10:1-2, 3-4, 7-8, 14

R. (12b) Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

Why, O LORD, do you stand aloof?

Why hide in times of distress?

Proudly the wicked harass the afflicted,

who are caught in the devices the wicked have contrived.

R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

For the wicked man glories in his greed,

and the covetous blasphemes, sets the LORD at nought.

The wicked man boasts, "He will not avenge it";

"There is no God," sums up his thoughts.

R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

His mouth is full of cursing, guile and deceit;

under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

He lurks in ambush near the villages;

in hiding he murders the innocent;

his eyes spy upon the unfortunate.

R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

You do see, for you behold misery and sorrow,

taking them in your hands.

On you the unfortunate man depends;

of the fatherless you are the helper.

R. Do not forget the poor, O Lord!

Alleluia

----------

2 Cor 5:19

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ,

and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

-----------

Mt 12:14-21

The Pharisees went out and took counsel against Jesus

to put him to death.

When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place.

Many people followed him, and he cured them all,

but he warned them not to make him known.

This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet:

Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,

my beloved in whom I delight;

I shall place my Spirit upon him,

and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not contend or cry out,

nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break,

a smoldering wick he will not quench,

until he brings justice to victory.

And in his name the Gentiles will hope.

***

FOCUS AND LITURGY OF THE WORD

As I sit here on my couch writing this reflection, my mind keeps coming back to a couple of questions:  Which one am I?  Am I a wicked one who sits on his couch, scheming how to get ahead at someone else’s expense (as in Micah); and then boasts proudly as he “glories in” accumulated riches (as in today’s Psalm)?   Or am I a gentle, Spirit-following soul who seeks to bring justice to all?  The reality lies somewhere in the middle of those two extremes, even though I hope like it is more to the justice-seeking side. 

If the choice is between (a) cheating, stealing, murder and blasphemy (evil traits described in Micah and the Psalm) or (b) caring, loving, and bringing justice, most of us would emphatically declare “B”!  However, we rarely find ourselves called to decide between such extreme options.  Instead, we find ourselves confronted with a series of smaller choices each day, and we may not recognize how our choices direct our paths.  Too often time is spent on the couch, binge-watching a show, considering potential vacation destinations, or thinking about home enhancements or a new car, when it should be spent off the couch actively seeking to do God’s will.

Christians are called, as I John 2:6 reminds us, to live as Christ lived.   I marvel at those individuals who emulate Christ as they interact lovingly and compassionately with co-workers, grocery store clerks, restaurant workers, crotchety neighbors, difficult family members – in short, with everyone in just about every situation.  Their actions appear effortless and natural, and perhaps it seems so because I know how effortful and unnatural those actions seem when I try them.  A useful parallel can be found in music.  When a great pianist plays a beautiful piece, the music almost flows from their fingers.  My musician friends tell me how much they dislike it when someone attempts to compliment them by saying “I wish I could play like you” because they are tempted to respond: “No, you don’t, or you would work really hard to do so.”  The less informed may think that the beautiful music is just because of talent, a gift from God; but the musicians know that, in addition to talent, many, many, many hours were spent practicing scales, eliminating wrong notes, and developing intimacy with their instrument so that playing becomes second nature.  Even then, they keep practicing so that their artistry continues to seem effortless.

If I really mean it when I claim that “I wish I could live a Christlike life” like the people at whom I marvel, then I need to put in the necessary work so that it becomes second nature.  I must practice showing love, extending forgiveness, and seeking justice on a regular basis.  Fortunately, God provides ample opportunities to practice each day with multiple small situations that allow me to work on the basics (practice the scales, if you will) and to eliminate the mistakes (and there will be mistakes).  My planning time on the couch (to revisit the Micah metaphor) should be focused on developing intimacy with the Holy Spirit who will work with me and through me to bring justice.  As I demonstrate trustworthiness in a few small things, Matthew 25:21 indicates that I will be trusted with more and bigger chances.  Even more exciting, many of the small things – that is to say, things that seemed small to you – will turn out to be really big things for someone else.  

***

SAINT OF THE DAY

Saint Apollinaris

(d. c. 79)

Saint Apollinaris’ Story

According to tradition, Saint Peter sent Apollinaris to Ravenna, Italy, as its first bishop. His preaching of the Good News was so successful that the pagans there beat him and drove him from the city. He returned, however, and was exiled a second time. After preaching in the area surrounding Ravenna, he entered the city again. After being cruelly tortured, he was put on a ship heading to Greece. Pagans there caused him to be expelled to Italy, where he went to Ravenna for a fourth time. He died from wounds received during a savage beating at Classis, a suburb of Ravenna. A beautiful basilica honoring him was built there in the sixth century.

Reflection

---------

Following Jesus involves risks—sometimes the supreme risk of life itself. Martyrs are people who would rather accept the risk of death than deny the cornerstone of their whole life: faith in Jesus Christ. Everyone will die eventually—the persecutors and those persecuted. The question is what kind of a conscience people will bring before the Lord for judgment. Remembering the witness of past and present martyrs can help us make the often small sacrifices that following Jesus today may require.

***

【Build your Faith in Christ Jesus on #dailyscripturereadingsgroup 📚: +256 751 540 524 .. Whatsapp】

[roman-catholic-mass-readings]

10th March >> Mass Readings (Except USA)

Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) - Proper Readings and also The Man Born Blind.

Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) - Proper Readings

(Liturgical Colour: Rose or Violet: B (2))

First Reading 2 Chronicles 36:14-16,19-23 God's wrath and mercy are revealed in the exile and release of his people.

All the heads of the priesthood, and the people too, added infidelity to infidelity, copying all the shameful practices of the nations and defiling the Temple that the Lord had consecrated for himself in Jerusalem. The Lord, the God of their ancestors, tirelessly sent them messenger after messenger, since he wished to spare his people and his house. But they ridiculed the messengers of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets, until at last the wrath of the Lord rose so high against his people that there was no further remedy.

Their enemies burned down the Temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, set fire to all its palaces, and destroyed everything of value in it. The survivors were deported by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon; they were to serve him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. This is how the word of the Lord was fulfilled that he spoke through Jeremiah, ‘Until this land has enjoyed its sabbath rest, until seventy years have gone by, it will keep sabbath throughout the days of its desolation.’

And in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, to fulfil the word of the Lord that was spoken through Jeremiah, the Lord roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to issue a proclamation and to have it publicly displayed throughout his kingdom: ‘Thus speaks Cyrus king of Persia, “The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth; he has ordered me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may his God be with him! Let him go up.”’

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 136(137):1-6

R/ O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

By the rivers of Babylon there we sat and wept, remembering Zion; on the poplars that grew there we hung up our harps.

R/ O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

For it was there that they asked us, our captors, for songs, our oppressors, for joy. ‘Sing to us,’ they said, ‘one of Zion’s songs.’

R/ O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

O how could we sing the song of the Lord on alien soil? If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!

R/ O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not, if I prize not Jerusalem above all my joys!

R/ O let my tongue cleave to my mouth if I remember you not!

Second Reading Ephesians 2:4-10 You have been saved through grace.

God loved us with so much love that he was generous with his mercy: when we were dead through our sins, he brought us to life with Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and gave us a place with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus. This was to show for all ages to come, through his goodness towards us in Christ Jesus, how infinitely rich he is in grace. Because it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith; not by anything of your own, but by a gift from God; not by anything that you have done, so that nobody can claim the credit. We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning he had meant us to live it.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation John 3:16

Glory and praise to you, O Christ! God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son: everyone who believes in him has eternal life. Glory and praise to you, O Christ!

Gospel John 3:14-21 God sent his Son so that through him the world might be saved.

Jesus said to Nicodemus:

‘The Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. Yes, God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. For God sent his Son into the world not to condemn the world, but so that through him the world might be saved. No one who believes in him will be condemned; but whoever refuses to believe is condemned already, because he has refused to believe in the name of God’s only Son. On these grounds is sentence pronounced: that though the light has come into the world men have shown they prefer darkness to the light because their deeds were evil. And indeed, everybody who does wrong hates the light and avoids it, for fear his actions should be exposed; but the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

--------------------------

Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) - The Man Born Blind 

Liturgical Colour: Rose or Violet.

First Reading 1 Samuel 16:1,6-7,10-13 David is anointed by Samuel.

The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have chosen myself a king among his sons.’ When Samuel arrived, he caught sight of Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed stands there before him,’ but the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Take no notice of his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him: God does not see as man sees: man looks at appearances but the Lord looks at the heart.’ Jesse presented his seven sons to Samuel, but Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’ He then asked Jesse, ‘Are these all the sons you have?’ He answered, ‘There is still one left, the youngest; he is out looking after the sheep.’ Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send for him; we will not sit down to eat until he comes.’ Jesse had him sent for, a boy of fresh complexion, with fine eyes and pleasant bearing. The Lord said, ‘Come, anoint him, for this is the one.’ At this, Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him where he stood with his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord seized on David and stayed with him from that day on.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 22(23)

R/ The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want. Fresh and green are the pastures where he gives me repose. Near restful waters he leads me, to revive my drooping spirit.

R/ The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

He guides me along the right path; he is true to his name. If I should walk in the valley of darkness no evil would I fear. You are there with your crook and your staff; with these you give me comfort.

R/ The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

You have prepared a banquet for me in the sight of my foes. My head you have anointed with oil; my cup is overflowing.

R/ The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

Surely goodness and kindness shall follow me all the days of my life. In the Lord’s own house shall I dwell for ever and ever.

R/ The Lord is my shepherd: there is nothing I shall want.

Second Reading Ephesians 5:8-14 Anything exposed by the light will turn into light.

You were darkness once, but now you are light in the Lord; be like children of light, for the effects of the light are seen in complete goodness and right living and truth. Try to discover what the Lord wants of you, having nothing to do with the futile works of darkness but exposing them by contrast. The things which are done in secret are things that people are ashamed even to speak of; but anything exposed by the light will be illuminated and anything illuminated turns into light. That is why it is said:

Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.

The Word of the Lord

R/ Thanks be to God.

Gospel Acclamation John 8:12

Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God! I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life. Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

Either:

Gospel John 9:1-41 The blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. His disciples asked him, ‘Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?’ ‘Neither he nor his parents sinned,’ Jesus answered ‘he was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

‘As long as the day lasts I must carry out the work of the one who sent me; the night will soon be here when no one can work. As long as I am in the world I am the light of the world.’

Having said this, he spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man, and said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (a name that means ‘sent’). So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

His neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said, ‘Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘Yes, it is the same one.’ Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him.’ The man himself said, ‘I am the man.’ So they said to him, ‘Then how do your eyes come to be open?’ ‘The man called Jesus’ he answered ‘made a paste, daubed my eyes with it and said to me, “Go and wash at Siloam”; so I went, and when I washed I could see.’ They asked, ‘Where is he?’ ‘I don’t know’ he answered.

They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. It had been a sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man’s eyes, so when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to see, he said, ‘He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see.’ Then some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man cannot be from God: he does not keep the sabbath.’ Others said, ‘How could a sinner produce signs like this?’ And there was disagreement among them. So they spoke to the blind man again, ‘What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?’ ‘He is a prophet’ replied the man. However, the Jews would not believe that the man had been blind and had gained his sight, without first sending for his parents and asking them, ‘Is this man really your son who you say was born blind? If so, how is it that he is now able to see?’ His parents answered, ‘We know he is our son and we know he was born blind, but we do not know how it is that he can see now, or who opened his eyes. He is old enough: let him speak for himself.’ His parents spoke like this out of fear of the Jews, who had already agreed to expel from the synagogue anyone who should acknowledge Jesus as the Christ. This was why his parents said, ‘He is old enough; ask him.’

So the Jews again sent for the man and said to him, ‘Give glory to God! For our part, we know that this man is a sinner.’ The man answered, ‘I don’t know if he is a sinner; I only know that I was blind and now I can see.’ They said to him, ‘What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?’ He replied, ‘I have told you once and you wouldn’t listen. Why do you want to hear it all again? Do you want to become his disciples too?’ At this they hurled abuse at him: ‘You can be his disciple,’ they said ‘we are disciples of Moses: we know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.’ The man replied, ‘Now here is an astonishing thing! He has opened my eyes, and you don’t know where he comes from! We know that God doesn’t listen to sinners, but God does listen to men who are devout and do his will. Ever since the world began it is unheard of for anyone to open the eyes of a man who was born blind; if this man were not from God, he couldn’t do a thing.’ ‘Are you trying to teach us,’ they replied ‘and you a sinner through and through, since you were born!’ And they drove him away.

Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you.’ The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him. Jesus said:

‘It is for judgement that I have come into this world, so that those without sight may see and those with sight turn blind.’

Hearing this, some Pharisees who were present said to him, ‘We are not blind, surely?’ Jesus replied:

‘Blind? If you were, you would not be guilty, but since you say, “We see,” your guilt remains.’

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

Or:

Gospel John 9:1,6-9,13-17,34-38 The blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

As Jesus went along, he saw a man who had been blind from birth. He spat on the ground, made a paste with the spittle, put this over the eyes of the blind man, and said to him, ‘Go and wash in the Pool of Siloam’ (a name that means ‘sent’). So the blind man went off and washed himself, and came away with his sight restored.

His neighbours and people who earlier had seen him begging said, ‘Isn’t this the man who used to sit and beg?’ Some said, ‘Yes, it is the same one.’ Others said, ‘No, he only looks like him.’ The man himself said, ‘I am the man.’

They brought the man who had been blind to the Pharisees. It had been a sabbath day when Jesus made the paste and opened the man’s eyes, so when the Pharisees asked him how he had come to see, he said, ‘He put a paste on my eyes, and I washed, and I can see.’ Then some of the Pharisees said, ‘This man cannot be from God: he does not keep the sabbath.’ Others said, ‘How could a sinner produce signs like this?’ And there was disagreement among them. So they spoke to the blind man again, ‘What have you to say about him yourself, now that he has opened your eyes?’ ‘He is a prophet’ replied the man.

‘Are you trying to teach us,’ they replied ‘and you a sinner through and through, since you were born!’ And they drove him away. Jesus heard they had driven him away, and when he found him he said to him, ‘Do you believe in the Son of Man?’ ‘Sir,’ the man replied ‘tell me who he is so that I may believe in him.’ Jesus said, ‘You are looking at him; he is speaking to you.’ The man said, ‘Lord, I believe’, and worshipped him.

The Gospel of the Lord

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

[phatburd]

(Fic Writer Asks) Multiples of 7~

7. What character(s) captured your heart?

If by “captured your heart” you actually mean, “I want to stick you under a glass slide, so I can run an electron microscope over every part of you in high resolution detail,” that would be Michel Ney and Jean-Baptiste Bessières. Oh, boy, these guys.

(The rest of Napoleon’s Marshals will get their turn.)

14. What were your shortest and longest fics this year?

If you count the stories in my ficlet collection, Dying comes in at 68 words. Once Was All There Was is the longest at 22k+ words and it’s still not complete.

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

"What's this? Didn't they teach you to make proper incendiaries in the Marine Corps?" Booker groused at Nile, when he noticed her look of shock mingled with horror at what he was mixing in the kitchen.

Her voice rose to an outraged squeak. "Book, I know that rioting is like a national sport in France, but is this napalm you're making? In your new apartment?" She craned her neck to look around him. "Oh my God, are you making Molotov cocktails?"

"Abso-fucking-lutely," he answered with a smug smirk. "Come here and I'll show you how to make one properly, not like how Hollywood does it."

"Wait, there's a proper way to make Molotov cocktails? Fuck, nevermind that, you're not doing this inside! What if you fuck it up and burn the entire apartment block down!"

"We're immortal, Nile, we don't die. That's kind of a bonus here. And I opened the windows as a safety precaution.”

"That's not the point!"

28. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

This is going to sound kind of pretentious, but it’s built into the question, no?

I go for the Scalzi Burrito approach to writing.

The Scalzi Burrito is named after science fiction author John Scalzi, and his notorious way of making burritos. Which is to use whatever he has in his fridge, put it all together in a tortilla, and eat it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Sometimes the result is delicious. Other times it's, “What the fuck were you thinking?” Either way, you learn something from it.

That’s kind of how I feel about An Awfully Big Adventure right now.

I like the premise, I love the idea. I’m stalled out because there’s some ugly bits I’m not sure how to approach. And I still learned a lot from it, mainly what my limits and tolerance level as a writer are. I still want to complete it, maybe skipping over some bits to do it. It might be cheating, but it would get things flowing again.

Thanks for asking! 😄 ILU

[sapphymayeyeplease]

Have you ever had a relationship with GOD/YHWH? Have you asked HIM things, for help/understanding?

What is stopping you from pursuing a life w/ someone WHO will never leave you and has your best at heart?

𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱: 'If you do not know where you want to go, then it doesn't matter which path you take.'

I'm always saying I don't know what is happening or why I'm feeling despondent

— so I agree we don't know how to live.

We're all unique snowflakes, but I think divorce & drugs and alcohol exists so we can try to calm down from all the anger and rage we feel when 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 �� or the way we want to be treated or remembered.

1.]  If 𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘀 𝗺𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿,       Hell is basic entry level for everyone, &

2.]  If GOD sent HIS SON to die on the cross in our       place to avoid this Hell and lead us thru life by       HIS HOLY SPIRIT; &

3.]  HE says there is only 1-way forward & JESUS       is the way/truth/life, that no one comes to       the FATHER except thru JESUS. [John 14:6]

Why would we ever avoid HIS easy yoke? Why wouldn't we ask HIM in to show us the way?

We clearly don't have life/truth/way to GOD, unless we accept JESUS, & life/death begins forever after we're ejected from earth.

I wonder if you were to die in your sleep suddenly: Are you ready to be drop-kicked into eternity?

Case in point...

Rose you say you think about your mentor Albert a lot that he passed away suddenly [5:37] maybe that's the take away lesson here:

In the Bible it says there was a rich man who had so much money/wealth that he was thinking to himself he had more than enough to retire & live at ease for the rest of his life.

The problem was,

Luke 12:20 | ²⁰ But GOD said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be required of you. Then who will own what you have accumulated?’

This Easter maybe try going to Church & learning about how you can store up millions in Heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. [Matthew 6:19-21]

sorry anon i love divorce a whole lot :(

[beyond-the-northern-lights]

Unwilling to Research Who You Follow?

I so-called triggered the snowflakes, any time I write something about the Abrahamic religions the posts with it become so hard to save 🔥

.. afraid to learn who you are truly following? that fEAr - Rev 21:8

It is said that if you follow his dark side, he especially does not care about what happens to you - following this unloving light side is still bad though 🧬 Satan, of darkness yet disguised as a being of light!

It is supposedly said by an alien, that his fellow elites are his pawns and that a number of these elites help him control mankind. I heard they get possessed, their boss brags that they’re horrified of him 🐍

In the Nag Hammadi texts, OldTestamentGod said to steal light!

  tNHt says Yaldabaoth is a thief: steals light and given light 🔥

In the Japanese version, Malik leads those called the Ghouls.

said that Enlil and Enki lead Dracos - they get possessed by genies?

It is said that when An, Ki split that the dragon of the earth was born!

In the bible, Satan is called the dragon while the Devil is as well 🔥

In tNT, Jesus says only God is good and Yah admits to doing evil 🤔

   supposedly his words Isa 45:7, call him a liar? vs Exo 32:11-14

I read how Satan (*a dark side of Lucifer*) is a jinn, smokeless fire!

angels said to be made of light, angel of darkness vs angel of light

I see how fiery serpents aka the Seraphim push Rev 22:13 Jesus 🔥

I note how John 15 Jesus seems to imply Lucifer is Rev 22:3 Jesus!

the dragon is said to rule the first beast aka Yah!

It is said he can be in multiple places at once 🧬

said An(u) went to rule in heaven, Enlil and Enki rules on earth 🐍

   I see how Lucifer is said to describe An as light, Enki as light

In tNHammadi texts, Yaldabaoth (*aka Enlil*) called darkness itself!

   It is said that Yaldabaoth, with stolen light, is called Yaldabaoth

       * light side, dark side of all of us going by our same names

I see 1 John 5:7, when the Word in the flesh talks of “the father” 🤔

In John 1, it says that God became flesh so then Mark 10:17,18 🦅

If so merciful, why make any unbelievers then punish them for that?

It is a trick via him - he lacks the power he claims, uses fear 🔥

If any claims to have not created sin, cannot be the creator of all?

  nothing exists outside of that energy, good vs evil and fanfiction

In a post one below this post.. sections eight-nine then a, b, c, d 🚩

It is crazy how an alien arrived, and many still worship him now 😅

   bible shows how this flesh eater, magic user is Satan in disguise

so he performs lying signs, wonders - many’ll literally bow down 🐍

and he wants to be God - uses tech, fEAr as a way to fool many 🔥

.. and yet, he “the LORD” does these six things in the bible 🤔

-----------

I feel a need to add it:

.. just because the antichrist is bad, it does not mean Christ is good!

the being, Lucifer, warps definitions and if any read all of tGAtJohn?

In certain cases, he will mix good with bad energy as “Enki” 🤔

ashtarcommandcrew.net/profiles/bl

ogs/message-from-lord-enki-december-2013

so Thoth (*aka Ningishzida*) is the god of

the narrative - I mean, the god of writing 📜

so much positive about him, suspicious 🪄

bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_whitebrotherhood02.htm

I know Bob Sanders says they say they rule our incarnation system!

so-called ascended masters support ‘em! sounds as if shining ones?

It’s said there’s a reason this word HARM is in the word pHARMa 🧬

many love the world in such a way they’ll follow the tricky Lucifer 📜

[inherpower]

Where is the love?

I have a deep yearning to know and feel God’s love. I’m in an interesting season in my life. There are some relationships that I have upheld as a form of identity for myself and through those relationships I have loved as deeply as I knew how to. All of those relationships have transformed and no longer provide the same sustenance that they once did. I’m being broken down, my sense of identity completely shattered. It’s as if God has inserted himself into my life and decreased my interactions, changed my heart posture so that all I could do was come to Him. In reading 1 John 4:7-21, John tell us that God is love and when we love, we know God.

"We love because he loved us first"  -- 1 John 4:19

But what if you’re view on love and how you were giving and receiving love gets damaged? I find myself having to start fresh and go back to square one, learning what love truly is and is not. I often tell a story of how back at the start of 2020 (before the pandemic hit) I shouted to God at the top of a mountain saying that I am ready to be who HE created me to be. My life utterly broke down after that prayer. In fact I’m still clearing out the rubble as I write this. God stripped me of all perceived safety and security in anything that was not Him. Now I spend a great amount of my time praying and allowing God to rebuild me. This hasn’t been easy. If you are married, a parent, an exalted child, a person of status in your career, imagine that position or title that you hold most dear being adapted into what God desired for you, not the other way around.

One thing I’ve asked God in the past and I’ve heard other people ask is why would God allow for a certain situation and circumstance to happen? God broke it down. Bear with me. At times we get ourselves into situations that weren’t even what God wanted for us in the first place and then we ask why He allowed it to happen. God gave us free will. We made those decisions of our own volition. In fact God loves us so much that He will often send us a messenger telling us hey, that might not be the direction you wanna go in and we may get defensive and push back on that message and say that WE have a right to choose. And if the situation or circumstance that we may be getting into is really bad, God many send a messenger multiple times in many different forms. So why be mad at God? 

Yeah I know it’s a hard pill to swallow but the beauty is that we can come to Him when it all comes down and He will rebuild us and set us on the path that He designed for us. When I asked God to come into my life He cleaned house. All that I had known, believed and stood on was dismantled. Initially I called out to God asking why. Why was I being punished? To make matters worse I had to be silent and not clap back or defend myself when I wanted to. In rare moments when I was crying and pleading to take action He would tell me Do nothing. Say nothing. Let me take care of it. It took some time but He calmed my storms. My conversations with God turned into prayers then they turned into praise. A situation would come along and try to knock me off my square and I started thanking God for His love and protection. I may have been rattled for a bit but I got back to center and grounded myself in God’s love.

So back to what I was initially presenting in regards to my relationships. In each realm of my life (family, friend, self) God has revamped my relationships to show me how loved I am. And for the relationships that still need some work, He has set them aside and is taking care of them on my behalf. While He does that I lean into Him to nourish me. That’s all He’s ever wanted is for me to come to Him so that He can wrap himself around me and remind me that I am loved. There is a verse that has been my beacon of light when it comes to love. When you have a chance read all of Ephesians 3:14-21 but I will share the parts within this larger text that I rest on.

"...that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith - that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."  -- Ephesians 3:16-19 ESV

I’ll come back to this passage in another post and dive deeper into this cause it’s so good. But I want to end here with this and let you meditate on these words.

[thejesusmaninred]

"The Antichrist." From Mark 14: 17-21.

Slavery, Jesus said is the result of what is called Judas Iscariot, AKA the popularity contest. Once the human race decides who gets to win the contest, the rest suffer. Black people, Jewish people, Muslim people, gay people have always lost the contest. Now Latins, Haitians, Russians and Ukrainians are also on the list of losers thanks to politics in America. We have ruled out their humanity because a bunch of vociferous fuckups who have found religion have decided they need the suffering of these persons in order to maintain their positions.

Jesus denounces this practice altogether saying anyone who denies anyone else for any reason rejects God as well and cannot sit by His side. Anyone who dips their bread in this bowl, starts it rising and shows bigotry is no longer worthy of the Kingdom.

Evening is when decisions are made, they are acted upon during the day. Some decisions should not make it through the night. The decision to hear or subscribe to prejudice is one.

17 When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. 18 While they were reclining at the table eating, he said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.”

19 They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?”

20 “It is one of the Twelve,” he replied, “one who dips bread into the bowl with me. 21 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

Christians peddle a lot of rubbish about Jesus. The one that irks the fuck out of me the most is the fact they think they can do whatever they want and Jesus will always love them. Jesus says no such thing. Instead, he says His words are rock solid: Do not engage in apartheid or ye shall deserve to die.

The Values in Gematria are

v. 17-18: One of you will betray me. The verse says the Disciples were reclining at the table. To recline is 213, באג a bug, meaning they saw what was going on; how well and how poorly their revolution against Rome was going. Nonetheless, they completed the Passover Feast.

The Number is 16144, או‎ידד‎‎, "a friend." "Alas, encourage anyway."

So when you see a schmuck mistreating people, do not let it happen.

v. 19: They were saddened, and one by one they said to him, “Surely you don’t mean me?” The Number is 4857, דחהז‎ ‎‎ ‎, dahaz, "to understand what one sees, specifically, what is good and evil in the self."

"The verb חזה (haza I) is a poetic verb meaning to look, see or behold (Song of Solomon 7:1, Isaiah 33:20), to experience a prophetic vision (Numbers 24:4, Ezekiel 12:27), or to understand/perceive (Job 34:32, Psalm 63:2). The more regular verb meaning to see is ראה (ra'a), but its usages seem parallel."

Each one of the Twelve Disciplines has an evil counterpart. These have to be rooted out during the Pesach or one cannot be redeemed.

Jesus ≠ damnation

Peter, the rock≠the sandbar

James, self control ≠ out of control

John, gracious ≠ stinginess

Andrew, man of liberty ≠ man of tyranny

Philip, the military man ≠ the traitor

Matthew, gift of God ≠ ignorance

Thomas, circumsiced ≠ uncircumcised

James Alphaeus, the instrument of crossing over ≠ an instrument that dulls

Bartholomew, who plows the soil ≠ who salts the soil, poisons the well

Judas Thaddeus, who confesses truth ≠ who lies and slanders

Simon Zelotes, "who leavens with honor" ≠ who leavens with disgrace

v. 20-21: Jesus said it is one of these that will betray the rest and start the Anti-Ablative Process also known as the Antichrist.

The Number is 15424, י״הדב‎, y'hadev, "what will be will be together."

So Messiah and Antichrist alike are aspects of the self rolled up into the collective. Jesus said to be mindful of this.

[scribeforchrist-blog]

Seeing & Helping Everyone

MEMORY VERSE OF THE WEEK

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+ 2 Timothy 2:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

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VERSE OF THE DAY

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+ 1 John 3:17-18 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but indeed and in truth.

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SUBJECT: Seeing & Helping Everyone

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** SAY THIS BEFORE YOU READ; HERE’S SOME CHRISTIAN TRUTHS **

I AM CARING FOR OTHERS

I AM FILLED WITH JOY

I AM KIND

I AM FAITHFUL

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READ TIME: 8 Minutes & 48 Seconds

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THOUGHTS:

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  Caring for someone is the most easiest thing we can do , I for one love to feed the homeless , I use to make sandwich’s and passed out water bottle with my devotional included to the homeless , but they told me they didn’t like the sandwiches and that discouraged me a lot to be honest, I stop doing it because I didn’t know what else to give them and so now I randomly see a homeless people I would go buy them food an bring it back to them , and that I feel is helpful not the way I wanted but it’s me showing I care.

Alot of people don’t like to help out others because they feel it’s taking away from them but honestly it’s not this is our way of showing we can care about someone and we aren’t looking at our pocket books , or wallets we are looking to help someone as if this was us that needed help what would you want someone to do for you if you needed help , we would want them to help us and to give us what we need and we all need food and water and those are essentials we all can take care of.

 The Bible tells us this about caring about our fellow man

* Philippians 2:4 Let each of you look not only to his interests but also to the interests of others.

* Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

* John 13:34-35 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know you are my disciples if you love one another.”

  The Bible tells us not to look at our interests but at the interests of others. To be kind and tenderhearted, a lot of us need to ask God to help us to be more like him, to be compassionate and loving; the loving part is something we are missing, maybe because we feel that we don’t have to be this way or maybe we feel that people aren’t kind to me why do I have to do it, we do this because this is something Christ commanded us to do, we as believers must do precisely what he asked because if we say we love Christ we will do like he ask “John 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

 I love caring for other people, and caring for others is tough, but look at it this way: if you were in need, you were without; what would you want someone to do for you? Would you want them to care enough to help you or to look over you? The Bible speaks on this as well in Proverbs 21:13. Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered. “

This is not saying that you're going to be poor because you didn’t help, but this is saying that one day you are going to need help, and no one will hear you or the lord might see to it that you will need help, and no one will see about you. Because of the way you have treated someone else, we talked about reaping and sowing, and this is the very case; we get what we sow if we sow a harvest of bad conduct and other things, that’s what we will get, but if we are always seeing about someone and helping others God will make sure we are taken care of, reaping and sowing can be seen in every area of our life, what we give to other will be the same measure we have given us.

  One thing we talked about this week is pleasing God; not only can we please God with what we do, but we can please him by not pleasing the flesh, and we do this by denying our flesh every chance we get because some things our flesh wants us to do will be the total opposite of what God wants for us right now in our life

  Romans 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

We no longer should be trying to please our flesh; when we were in the world, yea it was something we did a lot because we didn't know any better, but now, being a child of God, we don’t live this way “Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. “

This brings us to something else we discussed this week: just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should do it; just because I can do something of the flesh doesn't mean I should feed my flesh; we should always try to feed our spirit man, not our fleshly desires.

  1 Corinthians 10:23, you say, “I am allowed to do anything,”—but not everything is good for you. You say, “I am allowed to do anything,”—but not everything is beneficial.

Everything we do in the flesh wont benefit our spirit man it won’t benefit our relationship with God a lot of us don’t take into count that somethings we do creates a bridge between us and God ,and every day I’m asking him father if I did anything if I said anything forgive me lord help me to make you happy help me to please you because our actions can show something else and cause us to have a problem with hearing God , because our sins doesn’t draw us closer to God it draws us away from him , and when this happens God won’t be a permanent residents he will start to become a visitor because our heart no longer will want the things of God.

Our heart will start to want the flesh and we can’t serve two masters, but God desires to be a permeant resident , he desires to be there and stay there but our actions can show we don’t want him there, every day we have the choice to do things to show we want God and we have a chance every day to show who we truly love ,do we love him or do we love our own selves more , and God want us to love our sleeves by giving more of our selves to him , by spending time with him.

  ***Today, we learned a lot from our week; our devotional this week was about spending time with God and about how our actions can show something different, which is more of the flesh; we can do whatever we want; God gave us free will but to live in a life of Christ to live in the light of God we must obey him and please him, yes we can smoke we can drink, we can fornicate sure but does those things please God ? it doesn’t.

  1 John 3:17-18 But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but indeed and in truth.

   A lot of times, we look at things that we like to do and say, this can’t hurt God; no, it can’t, but it hurts our relationship with him, every day we should want to build a relationship with him, not tearing ours down and that’s what we do when we choose sin. Choose God today and pick the things of the spirit not things of the flesh and remember to love one another always . ©Seer~ Prophetess Lee

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PRAYER

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for today; we ask that you show us how to hear you when you speak. Lord, give us the strength to care more for others. Lord, help us apply this devotion to our lives. Help us have a better week than we had; we give you every situation and problem, and we ask you to walk with us through our hardest times. Lord, whatever we do that’s not of you, please show us we are so grateful for your mercy and grace. In Jesus' Name Amen

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REFERENCES

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 + 1 Peter 4:9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.

+ Hebrews 13:1-2 Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

+ Matthew 25:35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,

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FURTHER READINGS

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 Proverbs 5

2 Kings 2

Deuteronomy 19

Exodus 4

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[theprayerfulword]

October 31

Isaiah 38:16 Lord, . . . You restored me to health and let me live.

2 Thessalonians 3:3 The Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

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

1 John 3:8 For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil

John 14:12 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father

John 21:15 Jesus said to [Peter], “Feed my lambs.”

May you see how defeat comes from within, from rebellious choices, sinful decisions and personal confidence, not because the enemy is strong; so turn to God, Who is your strength, acknowledge your weakness, and seek out the Lord, Who is your righteousness, turning from your personal agenda, and wait upon the King, your Master, humbly quieting yourself before Him. Lamentations 4

May you acknowledge the Lord, Who reigns forever, Whose throne endures from generation to generation, for He will not always be silent, nor will He be absent for ever, but He will restore you to Himself and renew your days as of old. Lamentations 5

May you pay careful attention to what you have heard so that you do not drift away, for this salvation is sure, which was first announced by the Lord, and God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His will, demonstrating how great He is that He should grant us these blessings now, and how wonderful will be our end if we embrace, and persist in following, His promises. Hebrews 2

Even though you do not yet see everything subject to Him, may you see Jesus, Who for a time was made lower than the angels to share in our humanity so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, and having tasted death for everyone, bring many sons to glory, freeing them from a lifetime of slavery to the fear of death, overcoming by His love. Hebrews 2

In the world, My child, those who feel strong will intimidate and attack others, taking what they want, while those who feel weak and threatened will hide or run. In My kingdom, the One who is strong shows mercy to all who need it and accepts each one who comes in humility, so that every one who is honest in their weakness can approach the throne of righteousness to find grace in time of need. In the world, those who are considered wise are crafty and well-versed in manipulation to achieve their goal of self-promotion and personal gain at the expense of others who were too slow or not ambitious enough to be ruthless. In My kingdom, those who have received the wisdom which comes down from above are first of all pure, then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. They are not envious of others around them, but rejoice with each one who achieves a worthwhile goal or receives a well-deserved promotion. Your goal, My dear one, is to know Me and your purpose, My love, is to be all that I have in mind for you. Striving toward this end will absorb all of your energy; by seeking Me in prayer and through My word, I will show you the harmful things to lay aside and the distracting things to forsake. By yielding to My Spirit in loving obedience, I will empower you to forget what is behind and to focus on pressing in to receive the heavenly prize which lies ahead at the end of the race.

May you understand that your experiences, your trials, your circumstances, once you submit and yield your will to the Lord as Master and Shepherd, are training and practice, shaping and tempering, not punishment or judgment, not retribution or reaping, for you will be His ambassador to others, and you must understand what they face and realize how they feel so that you can help them in their struggles with compassion, acceptance, and mercy. Hebrews 2

May you praise the Lord with all that is within your soul, exalting His name and remembering all His benefits, for He forgives all your sins, heals all your diseases, redeems your life, crowns you with love and compassion, satisfies your desires with good things and renews your youth, working righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. Psalm 103

May you confess that the Lord does not treat you as your sins deserve or repay you according to your iniquities, for He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love, not accusing continually or harboring anger forever, but making known His deeds and His ways, because of His great love, to those who fear Him. Psalm 103

May you fear the Lord, revering Him in respectful awe and obeying Him with reverential respect, for He knows how you are formed and remembers that you are dust, and in His compassion, He removes your transgressions from you as far as the east is from the west, so that from everlasting to everlasting the Lord's love is with those who fear Him and His righteousness is with their children's children, who keep His covenant and remember to obey His precepts. Psalm 103