Walk Boldly With Jesus

Human Judgement vs. Divine Judgement

John 8:7 “And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Last Sunday, for the Catholic masses, the Gospel reading was John 8:1-11.  This is the story of the day that Jesus was teaching in the temple and the scribes and Pharisees brought to Jesus a woman that was caught in the act of adultery.  The punishment for this according to Moses was to stone this woman to death.  They asked Jesus what He says they should do as they were hoping He would go against his law and they could find something to charge Him with.  However, Jesus didn’t tell them not to stone her.  He was bent down writing in the sand and when they continued to ask Him He said to them in verse 7, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”  There was not a single person there, besides Jesus, that was without sin and so they went away without anyone throwing a single stone.  

Our priest gave a really good sermon about this scripture verse and it really got me thinking, so I wanted to share the essence of it with you.  The priest’s name was Father Michael Kerper and he is a priest in Nashua, NH.  

One thing he mentioned at the beginning of his sermon that I am not sure I have thought of before, is that the sin of judging others is one that is rarely confessed.  I don’t think this is something we think about very often.  I think it is something that we do so often we don’t even realize we are doing it.  I wonder, if we were consciously aware of it, how many times a day would we notice we were doing it?  It doesn’t even have to be in big ways, like the example in this story.  We do judge people that break the laws and do things that we think are wrong.  If we read about people that have been arrested in the newspaper, we may judge them.  We feel as though they are wrong because they were arrested.  We know nothing about their circumstances, other than what is posted in the newspaper.  We may feel as though we are better than them because we haven’t broken any laws.  Just because we haven’t broken any laws yet, doesn’t mean we wouldn’t.  What if your family was starving and the only way to feed them was to steal, would you do it?  Does not doing it make you a better person than someone who did?  

I wish I could say the only time we judge people is when they had committed a crime.  This is not great, but at least it would be limited to a certain circumstance.  However, I can’t say that.  Our judgement of others does not seem to have a limit.  We judge the mom in the grocery store who is yelling at her child to behave.  We judge the mother who is giving her child snacks so that they will behave.  We judge the person driving too slow and we judge the person driving too fast.  We judge what people are wearing, what they are eating, what they like to do in their free time, what political candidates they believe in.  We are masters at judging other people.  We make comments, usually to friends and family, about how we can’t believe so and so did this or that.  

Father Kerper talked about how there is human judgement and then there is Divine Judgement.  He had three aspects of Divine Judgement.  First, the judgement happens face to face and alone, just you and God.  Jesus was talking to the woman after everyone left.  He did not talk to her in front of the whole crowd of people.  Second, Jesus never mentioned the sin to the woman.    All Jesus said to her is in John 8:10-11, “Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  “No one, sir,” she said.  “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” There is no condemnation of her sin.  He just gently and lovingly tells her to go and to leave her life of sin.  The third aspect of divine judgement was that God alone knows the whole story.  Jesus could see that the good far outweighs the sin for this woman.  

How often are we judging before we know the whole story?  I remember hearing a story one time, and I am not sure who told it.  I think it was Jeff Cavins or Matthew Kelly but I can’t be sure.  They were riding the subway one day and a man got on the subway with his several children.  They children we pretty young and they were not behaving well on he train.  They were loud and running around and people were starting to get annoyed.  The father just sat there.  He did not say a thing to his children.  I am sure you can picture the scene.  Maybe you have been in a similar circumstance.  There person telling the story wanted to tell the dad to get his kids under control. However, when he looked at the dad he could tell it had been a rough day.  Instead of getting upset with the dad and asking him to get his kids under control he decided to talk to him with compassion.  He went over to the man and asked if he was ok, or said something like, “looks like its been a rough day.”  It turns out the man had just left the hospital and his wife had just died.  The kids had just lost their mother.  He didn’t know what to do, what to think, his brain was in a fog.  How does one process that kind of information?  The person recounting the story stayed and talked with the man.  He gave the guy his number and offered to help in any way he could.  That man on the train did not need judgement, he needed compassion and understanding.

That’s the thing though, no one needs judgement.  Everyone is going through something.  Some things may be big things like the man losing his wife and the kids losing their mother.  Other things might not be that big, but important nonetheless. Someone might be wearing dirty clothes because they lost their job and can’t afford to wash them, maybe someone’s loved one is sick and so they spend all their time at the hospital?  We don’t know the whole story.  It is easy for us to judge others because we get to be on the outside looking in.  However, we don’t know the whole story.  Father Kerper said God’s judgement is merciful.  We must not abide by human standards when it comes to judgement.  We must look at others with mercy.  We must rise about judgement and when we do slip up, which we will, confess it.  Tell God what you have done and repent for it.  I think if we got in the habit of immediately acknowledging to God when we have judgmental thoughts, we would start to notice them more and then we could start to change them.  The first step to changing anything is noticing you are doing it.  Father Kerper gave us a challenge and I would like to pass it along to you.  Think about the spirit of judgement in your own life.  Where do you tend to judge people the most?  What do you judge about them?  How can you become more aware so that you can change this?  Father Keeper said we will be judged as we judge others.  Really examine your life and think about whether you are ok with God judging you the same way you judge others.  If you are not ok with it then start to change it.  God will help you if you only ask Him.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we do not want to judge, please help us to look at others with mercy and compassion instead of judgement.  Please convict us when we are being judgmental so that we can notice and change it.  Lord, help us to see that everyone is going through their own stuff and it is not our place to judge.  Our lives aren’t perfect and we are not perfect, so what gives us the right to judge.  Help us to see this Lord.  Help us to see you are the only one that has the right to judge.  Help us to leave that to you.  We are so grateful that we have you Lord.  We are grateful that you are willing to help us learn not to judge.  You are amazing and so wonderful.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow our guest for Witness Wednesday is Cathy K.  She will be joining us to talk about how God revealed to her that her husband was having an affair and then helped her through that very difficult time.  God is so good and He always shows up when we need Him too.  I hope you will join us tomorrow for Cathy’s wonderful witness.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day.  

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Why Do We Question The Lord?

Judges 6:17-18 “Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”

Father Mike read chapter 6 of Judges the other day and while I was listening to him read I thought to myself, isn’t that just like all of us.  I didn’t want to read the whole chapter for you today so let me give you a brief summary.  The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, again and He gave them into the hands of the Midianites for seven years.  Do you see a pattern here?  I feel as though throughout the whole Old Testament we are reading how the Israelites turned away from the Lord, or they did something evil in the sight of the Lord.  The first thing that came to mind was, man, when will they learn, when with they get it together?  Immediately the Holy Spirit placed on my heart that we are not very different.  Most of us are probably not worshiping other Gods in the same way they were, and luckily human sacrifice is not a common things here is the United States.  However, we do often turn away from the Lord.  Our hearts are fickle and although we would like to say we would do anything for God, most of us mean we would do anything that wasn’t too difficult and wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.  This may sound harsh, but if you really think about it and were honest with yourself, I think you would agree.  

Back to the story now.  The Midianites were so oppressive that the Israelites cried out to the Lord for help.  Then an angel of God came to talk to Gideon.  The angel told Gideon that the Lord was with him and that he was a might warrior.  Did you get that?  An angel of God came to talk to Gideon and to tell him that God was with him. Do you know what Gideon did next?  He began to argue or dispute that God was with him.  In Judges 6:13 he says, ““Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

I think this is such a human thing to do.  We have an angel right in front of us telling us that God is with us and we want to just argue with it.  We want to complain and say that what God is doing is not good enough.  The angel doesn’t even get sucked into defending the Lord, or listing all the ways the Lord has helped them in the past.  The angel just continues to go on and to tell Gideon to go forward and save the Israelites.  What does Gideon do next?  He questions the angel again.  He says in Judges 6:15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”  Have you ever done this?  Has the Lord ever called you to do something and then you questions His judgement?  You question what He was thinking asking you to do this thing when you are clearly, in your mind, the least qualified person for the job.  It amazes me how we keep thinking we are smarter than God, that we know better than he does.  We may not think this is what we are doing, but when we are questioning His call, our actions are telling Him that we don’t trust Him, or we think we know better than He does.  God created the whole universe in 6 days, surely He can decide who is and is not capable of defeating the Midianites.  

The angel reassures Gideon that God will be with him and that he will in fact strike down all the Midianites and leave none alive.  Then Gideon says, “Gideon replied, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.” And the Lord said, “I will wait until you return.”  This is another typical thing many of us would do.  We want proof of what was being said.  Gideon asked God for a sign that it was really God talking to him.  How many times have you done this before?  How many times have you said, “God, if this is really you, show me.”  The angel said he would wait and when Gideon gave the angel food to eat the angel burned it with one touch to show Gideon that he was really an angel of God.  Finally Gideon realized that he was really talking to an angel of God.  I wonder what that moment felt like?  The moment he realized he had been talking with an angel of God.  I bet it felt amazing!

Towards the end of this chapter, Gideon sent messengers all throughout Manasseh, calling them to arms, and also into Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali, so that they too went up to meet him. Gideon was ready to go against the army God said he would defeat.  Now that it is time to go against the army, what does Gideon do?  He asks God for another sign.  In Judges 6:36-38 "Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—  look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.”  And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.” That is a pretty clear sign.  Gideon asked God for a sign and God gave him one.  Now Gideon is ready to go against the enemy, right?  Wrong.  Gideon gets the sign he asked for and then asks God for another sign, just to be sure.  In Judges 6:39-40 he says, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.”

My first instinct is to judge Gideon for asking God for signs. Not only did he need one sign, but he went back and asked for a second sign.  It was actually a third sign if you count the one at the beginning that he asked the angel for.   I would like to say that my faith is stronger and I wouldn’t need signs.  Then my rational brain looks at the circumstances Gideon was in.  He was facing not only the ruling force, the Midianites, who had been oppressing them for at least seven years, but he was also facing the Amalekites and other eastern peoples who joined their forces.  I can’t say with certainty that I wouldn’t want some sort of assurances from God that He was going to be with me.  I think we look to God for assurances even in our every day lives.  I can imagine it would be more so if we were headed into battle.  

When I heard this chapter talking about Gideon the other day it just made me smile thinking about how much I can see each one of us in him.  It made me smile when he asked God for something and then when he got exactly what he wanted he asked for something else.  It was just so hard for him to believe that God was going to be with him, he needed to ask for proof twice.  Can’t you picture yourself doing this?  Hey God, if this is really you, turn that red light, green.  Then He does and you ask something else.  You tell yourself that was too easy, or that was a coincidence and you ask God to do something else to prove it is really Him.  Have you ever done this before?  Why is it so hard for us to believe that God would talk to us or do extraordinary things for us?  If God says something He means it.  Why do we question Him?  Why do we ask for proof?  “Why is it so hard for us to believe that God would use us to carry out part of His plan?” Jesus said in John 20:29, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  Let us strive to be like those who do not require proof to believe.  Let us strive to believe and trust without asking for proof.  “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”  Let us dare to believe that God wants to use us in His great plan.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us to believe that you are with us without needing proof.  Help us to trust without testing you and asking you to jump through hoops just so we can believe.  Lord, we love you, you are amazing and we know this.  Help us not be scared when you call us to something.  Help us to know without a doubt that you will be there with us and you will give us the strength to do whatever you are asking us to do.  We are so grateful that you are always with us.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

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God is Calling You

Luke 5:31-32 “ And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick;  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

The reason I like this scripture so much is because it reminds us that we don’t have to be perfect for God.  It reminds us that God doesn’t expect us to have it all together, to know the right thing to do and to do it all the time.  He came to walk this earth with us because we needed Him.  He knows exactly who we are and he still calls us.  This is truly amazing to me.  Why is this so hard for us to understand?  Why is it so hard for us to believe that God can love and accept us just as we are?  Why is it that we feel like we are not good enough for God.  We feel like we need to have it all together.  We ask ourselves questions like, “Why would God help me, what have I ever done for Him”  We question and we doubt.  Why is this?

God is telling us right here in this passage that He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.  He knows we are sinners.  There is no use trying to hide it from Him, He already knows.  And yet he came to call us to Him anyway.  Will we except this call?  Will we step outside of our disbelief long enough to repent and accept the Lord’s forgiveness?  God gave some really powerful words of prophecy yesterday during my prayer group and I would like to share two of them with you now.  The first one I would like to share was, “My children, my children I call you not because you are great and wonderful and perfect I call you because you are little and weak and helpless. I call you because you just let me work in your life. That's why I love you.  Always be near me, always trust in me, for I AM powerful and great and perfect and I don't ask you to be anything but my lover.”  

God doesn’t love us despite our sins and weaknesses, he loves us because of them.  Our weaknesses make us humble and God can do His best work through those that are humble.  When we are struggling we turn to the Lord and we rely on Him.  When everything is going great, we tend to rely on ourselves.  That is until something goes wrong again and we go back to relying on the Lord.  This verse above and the words the Lord said during prayer group are not the only times that God has told us he loves us in our weaknesses.  Remember the conversation He had with Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.” God has always worked through ordinary sinful people.  I think we all know that God uses people to do His work here on Earth, however, sometimes we can ignore the call when we hear it because we think to ourselves, “God wouldn’t use me, I’m not holy enough, I am not smart enough, I am not liked enough…” Or whatever your version of not enough is.  We all have some version of not enough and we let that stop us from answering God’s call.  I saw a poem, or a list yesterday of a bunch of people that God used to do His work, and they were not perfect.  They were all sinners, just as we are.  Here is what I read.  It is titled Do You Seriously Think God can’t use You?  

Noah was a drunk, Abraham was too old, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses had a stuttering problem, Gideon was afraid, Samson had long hair and was a womanizer, Rahab was a prostitute, Jeremiah and Timothy were too young, David had an affair and was a murderer, Elijah was suicidal, Isaiah preached naked, Jonah ran from God, Naomi was a widow, Job went bankrupt, Peter denied Christ, the disciples fell asleep while praying, Martha worried about everything, the Samaritan woman was divorced, Zaccheus was too small, Paul was too religious, Timothy had an ulcer, Lazarus was dead.  Maybe you see yourself in one of these people from the Bible and maybe you don’t.  What is important to see is that God can use anyone.  It is important to know that God loves us, just as we are and He will use us and our weaknesses to carry out His will and to help build His kingdom here and now.  

Now that we have talked about how God uses each one of us even in our weaknesses and how He is calling all of us, I would like to share a call that He gave yesterday at our prayer group.  The Lord said “I have placed a call upon your hearts today. I call you to deep prayer, not the many words you would think, but from your heart. A deep prayer call me, call me to turn the tides, call me to forgive, call me to have compassion. Make your prayer a daily call.  Forgiveness is what I want, but no one listens. I ask you to be my prayer warriors this day. Daily come before me without words. Just listen and I will direct your path. Will you take this call? Just come.” The Lord is calling each and every one of us into deep prayer.  Will we accept His call? He is also calling us to forgiveness, will we accept that call?  And lastly He is calling us to be with Him and listen for Him to direct our paths, we will accept that call?

I feel as though the call to prayer daily wouldn’t be that hard, I could find five minutes to sit with the Lord.  Then I think about my day and I know I have five minutes, but do I give it to the Lord each day, probably not.  I let myself get distracted and I forget.  However, I do keep trying and that is what God wants, for us to keep trying, not for us to be perfect.  The next call was to forgiveness, I know some of you are disqualifying yourself from this call already.  You heard the word forgiveness and you told yourself you just can’t.  He isn’t calling you to forgive because He knows what you went though and He couldn’t possibly want you to forgive.  You are right, He does know what you went through and that is why He wants you to forgive.  He knows that you will be so much happier when you do.  He knows that until you do this thing that happened still has control over you. He knows all the graces it takes to forgive and He wants to give them to you. Don’t count yourself out.  Take up this call.  Tell God you will do your best to forgive, and then spend time in prayer each day and He will show you how.  

The third thing He asked us to do is to listen quietly and let Him lead our steps.  Can we do this?  Can we pause for a few minutes each day and ask the Lord how we should proceed?  Matthew Kelly talks about this in his book “Resisting Happiness.”  He talks about how different his life was once he started his days off asking the Lord what he wanted him to do, or what the Lord thought about the various decisions in his life.  Will you take up this call to give the Lord 5 minutes of silence a day to just listen and let Him direct your steps.  Some of you just heard that question and immediately told yourself that I am not talking to you, or God is not talking to you because you know you can’t hear the Lord.  You can give him 5 minutes, but you don’t think you will hear anything.  Maybe you have tried before and you never hear anything.  God is calling you to give Him that 5 minutes every day, even if you don’t hear anything.  God is faithful and if we are faithfully showing up God is too.  Even if you don’t hear anything, even if you don’t feel as though God is there with you, I assure you He is. He always shows up.  If He is not talking to you maybe He is silently working within you.  Maybe He is working on softening your heart so you can forgive, maybe He is mending your broken heart, maybe he is attending to your wounds.  Whatever He is doing, I promise you, if you show up God will show up.  He is there working within you.  

So, do you think you can answer God’s call?  Can you believe that God could be calling you, even in your imperfection?  If you can’t believe it, can you step outside that disbelief long enough to give God a chance?  He loves you just as you are.  He is not asking anything from you other than for you to love Him.  If you say yes to the Lord’s call, He will show you how to carry it out.  Just keep saying yes to the Lord, even if you doubt.  He will show you why He is wanting to use you.  Your weakness might be the exact thing someone else needs.  The Lord works in mysterious ways.  We won’t always understand.  God isn’t asking us to be strong or powerful, He is just calling us to say yes, and He will help us do the rest.  Remember what God said in the word He gave to my prayer group, “Always be near me, always trust in me, for I AM powerful and great and perfect and I don't ask you to be anything but my lover.”  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we love you and we want to answer your call, please give us the courage to do so.  Please help us to believe that you would use each one of us, even though we are flawed.  Help us to see that you have a purpose and that you are so amazing you can use anyone for your good.  Lord, help us to say yes even when we are scared or when we doubt.  Help us to find 5 minutes every day that we can give to you.  Five minutes that we can just sit and listen without any words.  Help us to hear you and to move forward in the path you have set out for us.  Lord, we hear you when you say you want forgiveness, and yet forgiveness is so hard.  Please help us, please soften our hearts so that we can forgive.  Lord, you are a true mystery and you are so powerful.  We thank you for being you and for loving us so much. We are so very grateful and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed weekend!

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Lay Aside Every Sin That Clings So Closely

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”

I got this verse from Diane’s witness yesterday.  I really like how it talks about how we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.  This is why I am so excited to be able to bring you a different witness each week.  When we get to see what other people experience and what other people struggle with it helps us see that we are not alone.  We see that other people struggle too.  Oftentimes it seems like everyone else is doing great and we wonder why we are the only ones that struggle.  We wonder why others have it so easy and everything seems hard for us.  You would never know just by looking at someone that they were struggling with unforgiveness, that their husband was dying, or that they lost a child.  This is only something you would find out when you got to know the person.  

This verse is calling us to lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely.  What is that sin for you?  What sins are we  clinging to, or are clinging to us?  Do you feel like when you go to confession you are always saying the same sins over and over again?  Do you feel as though you are struggling with having the same weight on your shoulders all the time.  For instance, maybe the weight God is calling you to lay aside is the worry about your loved ones.  Do you find that you are constantly worried and feel like you have to fix all of their problems?  The Lord is saying, look around you.  I am taking care of everyone else, I will take care of your loved ones too.  Look at the way I am helping others, you don’t have to worry, I have got them.  Maybe the sin you are struggling with is unforgiveness.  God is telling us, lay that sin aside, you can do it.  I know forgiveness is hard and I know that you can do hard things.   Remember Tina, it took her 20 years, but she did it in the end.  Look around you at how others are learning to forgive and learn from them.  

The next part of the verse says, “let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.”  What stuck out to me in this part are the words, set before us.  God has a plan for each one of us.  He sets out the course in front of us and shows us where to go one step at a time.  And yet sometimes we don’t want to go on that course.  We don’t want to run the race that is set before us, we want to blaze our own path, do our own thing.  God is patient with us and usually He will just keep calling us back on track.  Eventually we figure it out and we start to run the race He set before us, but we still have a few detours every now and then.  Why is this?  Why can’t we just stay on the path He has for us?  I think it because we don’t see the whole picture and so His plan doesn’t always make sense to us.  We don’t see why we have to do something and instead of trusting that God has it all worked out, we do what makes sense to us in our minds.  I don’t think we mean to stray off the path, I think sometimes we just don’t know what God wants because we are not taking the time to slow down and ask him.  It’s like when you are driving in a car and you are not sure what exit to get off at, or which turn to take.  Your passenger knows how to get where you are going, but are talking to them while you are driving and you don’t give them a chance to tell you to turn right at the next light.  If we want to know how to get to where God is leading us, then we need to spend some time listening to his directions.  

Life is hard and I can definitely see why God is telling us to run with perseverance because we can run into a lot of obstacles and without perseverance we might give up or give in to the worries and hardships of life.  I am sure this has happened to all of us at one point or another.  I am sure we have all had things happen to us and we wondered how we can still go on.  How we could ever feel better or how we could even heal.  I am sure Diane asked herself this after she lost her only son.  Some tragedies feel as if they are too much too bear.  In this verse God is telling us to keep getting back up when life knocks us down. Keep running the race that is set before you.  If you think you can’t keep running, you don’t have the energy or the power to get back up again, God tells us where to look.

The last part of the verse says, “looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.” Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.  If we want to know what we should do we can look back and see how Jesus would have handled it.  I remember a time when everyone was wearing bracelets that said “WWJD.” This stood for What Would Jesus Do.  This is a great question to ask ourselves.  We are not called to be perfect, we are called to be Holy.  God knows that we won’t always get it right and I think He is more than ok with that.  However, He does want us to keep trying to get it right.  He wants us to keep looking at Jesus and to do our best to be a reflection of Jesus to all those that we meet.  

Another really important part of this verse that I think is important to mention is the part where it says that Jesus endured the cross, disregarding it’s shame.  I wasn’t really sure what this meant, especially in some of the other translations.  When I looked it up it said that dying a cross was a shameful way to die.  However, Jesus, never once accepted that shame.  He accepted that He needed to die on the cross, but He didn’t feel shame for it.  He held His head high and never took the shame that people were throwing at Him in.  We can do this too.  Shame is not something that comes from God.  Shame is something that comes from the enemy.  Yes, God does want you to realize when you have sinned and He wants you to repent.  However, He does not want you to feel shameful.  He wants us all to know how much we are loved.    There is nothing we can to get in the way of that love.  There is nothing that will make God stop loving you.  Nothing you can do and nothing anyone else can do.  God loves you completely and He always will.  

Shame is a weapon the enemy uses to bring us down.  Shame is a weapon used to keep us in the dark and keep us away from God’s love.  If we are feeling shame then it is hard to feel God’s love.  We feel as though we are not worthy of God’s love and that God couldn’t possible love us if he knew what we did or what had been done to us.  Guess what?  God does know what happened and He loves you anyway.  When we are allowing shame into our lives, we are allowing the darkness.  This darkness can swallow up the Light if you allow it to.  Living in the dark in not fun for anyone, if you are living in the dark, know that you are not alone.  Look to Jesus, he is our salvation.  Look to Jesus and release yourself of the shame you have been holding on to.  If you can not release it on your own then keep bringing it to God and asking Him to release you.  He would be happy to!  God is calling us to lay aside every weight and sin so we can run the race set before us.  If you are unable to do this, ask for help.  God is waiting for us to turn to Him and ask Him for help.  What is taking us so long?  You don’t have to wait until you are ready to forgive to ask God for help.  He can help you get ready, if you ask.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, help us release our sins.  Help us to release any shame we may be holding on to.  Lord, help us to know that you love us no matter what we do.  Lord, we want to run the race set before us, help us to stay on the path you set out of us.  Help us to not get side tracked or to veer off course because we don’t understand your plan.  Help us to just trust that you are leading us on the best route.  Lord, help us to know, to really know, that we don’t have to accept shame into our lives.  Even if it is being given to us by those that love us.  We can reject shame and refuse to let it in.  We love you Lord, you are so very amazing.  We are so grateful for you loving guidance and the example you gave us in Jesus.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, Amen

Thank you so much for joining me one this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Do We Thank God Enough?

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3 "We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers.  We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

When I first read this verse the first thing that stood out to me were the words, “We always thank God…”  I think these stuck out to me so much because I was just talking a friend the other day and she mentioned how much God likes it when we thank Him.  She couldn’t remember where she heard it, but she said she had just read something about how God likes it when we pray and ask Him for His help.  However, it really melts His heart when we thank Him.  I am sure those weren’t the exact words she used, but whatever she said, this is the impression it left on me.  This isn’t the first time I have heard this.  I seem to hear this over and over again.  God does so much for us, the least we can do is say thank you.  In Luke 17:12-19 Jesus cures 10 men from leprosy and only one came back to say thank you.  Jesus asked in Luke 17:17-19, “Were not all ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?  Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?  Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”  

Jesus didn’t want the gratitude for himself.  He didn’t heal people so they would thank him or so He could feel good about himself.  He wanted the glory for His Father.  Have you ever gotten offended for someone else before?  For instance your parents do something really kind for people and yet no one thanks them?  Maybe you have a friend that does a lot at work and never gets a thank you.  Maybe yours spouse helps out his or her friends and yet, no thank you.  Do you ever get upset for them?  They don’t seem to mind, but you are annoyed and maybe you even mention it to the other person because you don’t like how it seems they are taking advantage of you parent, spouse, friend, child, whoever it is.  I know I have done this before and I can’t imagine I am the only one.  Showing our gratitude and saying thank you is such an important thing to do.  

I tend to talk about gratitude a lot because it is one of the simplest things you can do to change your mood.  It is also a really simple way to show God that you appreciate all He does for you.  Having a regular gratitude practice is also a really great way to open your eyes to see more of what God is doing for you.  If you train yourself to be in the habit of looking for reasons to be grateful, then you will start to notice things that you hadn’t previously noticed.  For instance, you might not usually pay attention to the weather, but suddenly you are appreciating the sunny days.  Maybe you start to notice less traffic on your drive, or more green lights, or the leaves changing or the flowers blooming.  Once you start approaching your day from a place of gratitude, you will notice a difference and you will find you are in a much better mood.  If you haven’t already developed a daily gratitude practice, I challenge you to start today.  Take a notebook, or a piece of paper and write down 3 things you are grateful for that are specific to this day.  If you don’t have a notebook or a piece of paper, you could use your phone to take notes, or you can even just think about three things and not write them down.  I like to go back and look through them, but maybe you just want to spend 5 minutes while you drink your coffee and think about all the things you have to be grateful for.  However it works best for you, that is the way to do it.  I promise it is a life changing habit.  If you don’t see an increase in your mood, let me know, I will be very surprised.

As I read past the first part of this verse I really liked the second half just as much.  I think it makes some really powerful points.  The verse says, “ We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Let me start with the first thing they said, “your work produced by faith.”  This is what they mean when they talk about faith in action.  Their faith produced work, they didn’t just sit around and talk about the faith.  They didn’t just gather at mass on Sunday and then the rest of the week do their own thing.  They put their faith into action and that produced work.  There are plenty of people that can talk the talk, however, the Thessalonians were also walking the walk.  They saw how Paul, Silas & Timothy lived among them and then when they left they continued to live out their faith.  It says in 1 Thessalonians 1:6-7 “ You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.”  Their work was produced by their faith.

Next it says, “your labor prompted by love.”  They weren’t laboring in vain.  They weren’t begrudgingly doing the work that God set them out to do.  Their work came from a place of love.  I think this is beautiful.  When is the last time that your work was prompted by love?  It is sometimes I think.  For instance, when I am making dinner for my family and I am excited because I know it is something they will really like.  I know this is prompted by love because I am joyful while I am making it.  I am not complaining, I am in a good mood, I probably have worship music or some podcast or audiobook on and I am in the zone.  I can tell when my labor is not prompted by love when I am grumpy, when I am complaining, when I am maybe even resentful that I have to do to it.  I am probably not listening to worship music or anything, I am just talking to myself under my breath.  Do you know what I mean?  Can you see the difference in these two states of mind?  Can you picture yourself in each state?  I wonder what we could do to try to remain in the first state more often than the second?  Maybe gratitude would help?  Maybe just reminding ourselves that we can chose to labor out of a place of love?  I don’t know what the solution is, but I do know that the first part of solving a problem is know that you have a problem.  Now that we know that we aren’t always laboring out of a place of love, we can notice it and try to change it.  

The third thing the Thessalonians were praised for is their “endurance inspired hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”  In 1 Thessalonians 1:8-10 it says, "The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”  They had endurance to wait for the coming of Jesus because of their hope that He would come.  The Thessalonians were able to turn from their idols and to serve the one true God.  This couldn’t have been easy for them.  Many of them probably worshiped these idols ever since they were children.  So, what gave them the power to turn away from these idols and serve the Lord?  The Holy Spirit did.  The Holy Spirit is very powerful and if you decide you want to do something, even if it is really hard, the Holy Spirit will help you.  Once the Holy Spirit helped them turn away from these idols, what helped them continue to serve the Lord?  Yep, you guessed it.  Their endurance inspired by hope in our Lord.

We all have various levels of endurance.  Our endurance is important because it helps us do things that are hard for us.  For instance if I wanted to run a marathon, I would need to have a lot of endurance to do so.  It is what would keep me going.  My endurance for that would be based on my ability to run, or to complete things I start, or my dedication to completing the goal.  However, this is not the same endurance that the Thessalonians had.  Their endurance was not based on a belief of their own abilities.  Their endurance was based on their hope in our Lord Jesus.  That is an unending faith and endurance.  They were able to get through the hard times knowing that Jesus was with them and that He would be coming again.  We know that they were suffering because the verse above said, “you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering.”  We don’t know what the suffering was but we know they were suffering and yet they were able to welcome the message of the Gospel and then put their faith into action.  I wonder if we can do that.  I wonder if we can live our lives in a way that someone would say this to us one day?  “ We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we ask you to be with us and we ask you to help us in our quest to thank you more.  Help us to be more grateful throughout the day.  Help us to be more mindful and to notice all the ways you help us throughout the day.  We love you so much and we know you do so much for us.  We are so very grateful and we are sorry that we don’t say it more often.  Lord, we ask you to help us be more like the Thessalonians.  Help us to have a faith that is fruitful and based on action not just words.  Help our labor to be prompted by love and our endurance to be inspired by hope. Lord you are amazing, you do so much for us every single day.  We are so lucky to have you as our Heavenly Father.  We are so grateful and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  Tomorrow we will hear a witness from my friend Diane who has more than her fair share of tragedy in her life.  She will briefly share it with us as well as how she got through it all.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!

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Your God My God

Ruth 1:16 "But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

I was listening to the Elevation Church podcast yesterday with Pastor Steven Furtick.  He did this talk on the book of Ruth and it was really good.  If you have not read the book of Ruth it is a great book and it is a short one so it wouldn’t take you long to read it.  Ruth is the daughter in law of Naomi.  They leave their home because of a famine and they go to another land.  Then Naomi’s husband dies, and 10 years later both her son’s die.  She decides to go back home and tells her daughter in laws to go back to their homes.  Orpah decided to go home to her family.  However, Ruth refused to leave.  This is where the verse above come in.  Ruth said to Naomi, “Do not press me to leave you or to turn back from following you! Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.”

Steven Furtick said something in his sermon and as soon as he said it the Holy Spirit said, yes, that is what I want you to talk about.  Steven repeated “your God my God,” and said this is true for all of us and the people we hang out with.  This hit me with such conviction.  In Exodus 20:2-3 God says, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery;  you shall have no other gods before me.”  We may think this is easy as we don’t live in a time where people worship a lot of false God’s, like when we had the greek gods.  There are some other religions that may worship other gods, like the god of fertility or the god of death, however, it is not everyday that people are talking about them like it was back in the day when the Bible was written.  We probably hear this verse and say to ourselves, I’ve got that commandment down, or at least I do.  When I am thinking about confession I think that I don’t have to worry about breaking this commandment as I know that the Lord is my one true God.

Just when I am sure I don’t have any other God’s before our God, I hear a sermon asking if I am worshiping other things like TV, alcohol, food, or other things.  You see, it doesn’t have to be another God that you are worshipping, it could be something as simple as TV.  It could be anything that you are putting ahead of God.  Have you ever sat there and watched TV when you knew you should be doing something for the Lord?  How many hours do you watch TV vs. how much time you spend with the Lord?  Have you ever decided that your morning cup of coffee or your breakfast was more important than fasting an hour before you receive communion?  Have you decided that your sleep was more important than waking up and going to church and praising God?  I won’t speak for all of us, but I seem to find plenty of things to put before God.  I don’t think of these things as putting other God’s before our God, but it is what we are doing a lot of the time.  

What is first in your heart?  What do you think about the majority of the time?  Where do your loyalties lie?  Who we spend our time with matters more than we know.  Jim Rohn famously said that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with.  Think about this for a minute.  Think of the five people you spend the most time with.  Can you see aspects of them in you?  I know when I spend a lot of time with someone then I start to talk like them, we all do, we can’t help it.  Think about the type of person that you want to be.  Do the people that you spend the most time with help you be that person?  Do they encourage you and lift you up?  A lot of the time we just fall into our friends group and we just stay with the same group of friends for our lives, or at least a really long time.  There are not a lot of people that intentionally choose their friend group.  Usually we meet people at work, or our neighbors, or we are friends with our kids parents.  How many of us go out and search for friends that will be positive roll models, build us up, and help us to grow?  I am going to guess, not many.  Although if you have done this then kudos to you because it is so important.

It’s interesting to me that as parents we know how important it is for our kids to have great friends.  Whatever their friends are into they are into.  If they are hanging around good kids, they have a tendency to be a good kid.  If they are hanging around kids that get into trouble then they tend to be a kid that gets into trouble.  We know this for our children and yet we don’t think of it for us.  Even as an adult, who you hang around with matter.  As it says in the verse above, “your God my God.”  If your friends are sports fanatics then you might discover that sports are what you are putting above God.  You might see that you are missing church more and more because there is a really good game on and you don’t want to miss it.  You might hang out with people that love TV and talk about all the shows that they binge watch and so you start to watch more and more TV.  However, if you find friends that love Jesus and the Lord and you can openly talk about your faith with them, you will grow in your faith.  Having a faith community is a great way to grow in your faith.  

I have grown leaps and bounds in my faith since joining the Charismatic prayer group in 2017.  However, ever since I got married I have been involved in some sort of Catholic women’s group.  The reason for this is because I knew I needed help staying focused on the Lord.  I knew if I was going to grow, I would need help.  If we surround ourselves with those that love the Lord, then when we run into an issue, they can help us through it in a way that is consistent with our faith.  I remember I was listening to one of my mentors once and she was talking about how she was fighting a lot with her husband.  She picked her friends up at the airport and was complaining to them about her husband.  Some friends might join in and even add to what she is saying.  However, these friends value the vows of marriage and also know how important family was to my mentor.  Instead of joining in they questioned her in a loving way and reminded her that marriage is hard and no one is perfect.  What do your friends do when you complain?  Do they just listen and reassure you things will get better, do they offer advice consistent with your values, do they pray with you about it, do they dismiss your concerns, do they jump on the negativity band wagon?  Our friendships are meant to build us up, make us feel secure, and help us to grow.  That is not to say our friendships will be perfect.  We will sometimes get upset and argue, we are human after all.  However, if you have a friendship with someone and you feel they are pulling you away from the Lord, it is time to reevaluate that friendship.  As the verse above says, “your God my God.”  Their interests will start to become your interests, is this a good thing?  

If you are concerned because you don’t have 5 people that you hang out with, or you don’t want to be a combination the 5 people you hang out with most, you can change this by surrounding yourself with TV, movie, books, or music of people you want to be more like.  For instance if you listen to a lot of sermons, you will be surrounding yourself with the world of the Lord.  Or if you read the Bible daily, or listen to podcasts from people you admire, watch documentaries or TV shows about good wholesome topics.  Your brain will be full of whatever you decide you want to put in it.  If you can’t surround yourself with people that can help you grown in your faith, then you can read books and watch show, and listen to podcasts or worship music and this will also help you grow.  Brendon Burchard says, “where your focus goes, your energy flows.”  Where is your focus?  Are you focused on the Lord, or are you too busy with other things?  Are you waiting for your life to slow down to focus on the Lord?  We have control over what we put into our mind and it starts with the people we surround ourselves with.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this podcast today.  Lord, help us to see if we have people in our lives that are distracting us from you.  If so, show us how you would like us to change the situation.  Lord, we want to put you first.  Please show us all the ways in our lives where we are putting other things before you.  Convict our hearts to change this.  Lord, we ask that you bring faith filled people into our lives to help us grow in our faith and trust in you.  We want to know you more and more and grow closer to you Lord, please help us.  We love you so much.  You are amazing.  We are so grateful for all you do for us and we ask all of this in accordance with your will an in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day.

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The Refiner’s Fire

Romans 8:31 “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?”

This verse is interesting to me because when I first read it was I was all fired about how if God is for us, then no one can really be against us.  However, when I sat for a few minutes and just thought about what I was going to write about the thought came into my mind that if God is for us, it seems like there are more people against us.  My friend said today that it seems like the more you pray the more problems that come up in your life.  However, she said this is a good thing because those things need to come to the surface so that you can deal with them.  I think this is a great point that I had never really thought of before.  I guess not in this context.  The closer we are willing to get to God, the more He transforms us into His likeness and image.  He created us that way and then original sin happened and now we struggle to resemble the Lord.  However, the more we open our hearts and minds to Him, the more He can transform us.  

How does God transform us?  What keeps coming back to my mind over and over again this week is purification through fire.  Maybe it is because I was talking about going through hard times yesterday and how those hard times change us and prepare us to live into the person that God created us to be.  I just feel like I am supposed to tell you about a story I heard once about a refiner’s fire.  You may have heard this before as I was able to find it pretty easily on an internet search, so I think it is well known.  It is called The Refiners Fire.  I am not sure who wrote it.  I heard it at a meeting once and I have never been able to forget it.  I will read it to you now.  

“As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: ‘He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.’ (Malachi 3:3) She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, ‘How do you know when the silver is fully refined?’ He smiled at her and answered, ‘Oh, that’s easy — when I see my image in it.’”

Isn’t this an amazing image?  I can just picture our heavenly Father holding us in His hand through the hot spots of our life.  Keeping His eye on us, never looking away, ready to take us out at the perfect moment.  My very favorite part is when she asked the silversmith how he knew when the silver was fully refined and he answered, “when I see my image in it.”  That is when God will know that we are fully refined, when He looks at us and sees His reflection.  I am not sure why this story touches my heart so much.  To me it paints a picture of a loving and attentive Father.  One that is always paying attention and never sleeping on the job.  If you have ever been around children you know how hard it is to keep your eyes on them at all times.  Now imagine you have over 7 billion children.  God is remarkable!  

The silversmith said that if the silver was left a moment too long, it would be destroyed.  Sometimes we feel like we have been left in the fire too long.  We feel like we can’t go on for one more second.  I like this analogy because it shows us God knows what He is doing.  He did not just put us in the middle of a fire, walk away for a lunch break, come back and then take us out again.  He has his eyes on us the whole time, just waiting for the perfect moment.  He didn’t take us out too early and He didn’t leave us in too long.  If you feel like you are ready to give up, like God has forgotten about you, rest assured that He hasn’t.  He is there with you, holding you, watching you, and ready to take you out as soon as He can see His reflection in you.  

A second reason why we seem to have more problems when we grow closer to God is because the enemy starts to get nervous.  Satan is not worried about those with luke warm faith.  In Revelations 3:15-16 it says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you were lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.  The Lord is not interested in those with lukewarm faith, therefore, satan doesn’t have to worry.  He is already sure he will get their souls.  He is not concerned with those that have turned away from the Lord.  Satan is most concerned with those that are trying to grow closer to the Lord.  Their is a battle for your soul and Satan is not about to give up without a fight.  I remember when the boys were little I would get so frustrated because on the days when I would have home rosary group and Bible study, my morning would be awful. Everything that could go wrong, would go wrong.  I remember asking God why this was happening.  I would tell Him I was trying to do the right thing, shouldn’t it be easier?  Shouldn’t You be helping me out?  

I mentioned it to the home rosary group one day and one of the ladies said it is not God that is messing up your mornings, it is the enemy.  Who would benefit from you being so frustrated that you stop going to the meetings?  

I can see how Satan would want to make our lives harder so that we give up and stop trying.  Can you look back at your life and think of a time when you felt as if you were doing something really good, something where you felt you were growing closer to the Lord, and yet you stopped because it just became too difficult?  I definitely have done this over the years.  I have seen others do it as well.  Especially when they were really getting  a lot out of it.  For instance, I find Eucharistic Adoration really powerful. For me, it is great to set aside that time each week to sit and be in the presence of the Lord.  However, things keep coming up during that time and so I have to cancel or find someone else to take my spot, and my mind keeps telling me to just give up my spot.  This is the enemy and I know it.  I know he wants me to give up my adoration spot because if I do not have a commitment to go each week, then I won’t go.  I will want to, but I will allow other things to get in the way and I won’t end up going.  

None of us want to go through trials.  None of us want to be tested through fire.  Yet we all want to grow closer to the Lord.  As we grow closer we may realize that things seem to be getting more difficult.  We may be encountering a lot of issues that make us want to give up and stop trying.  If this is the case I ask you to remember this verse.  “If God is for us, who could be against us?”  Who is stronger than God?  We are on the winning team.  Don’t give up when things get hard.  Keep fighting for the things that you know are helping your grow closer to the Lord.  We must guard and protect the time that we spend with the Lord.  The enemy will keep putting obstacles in the way to distract you from your goal and your purpose.  He doesn’t want you to grow closer to the Lord.  Keep jumping over the obstacles.  Keep getting back up when you get knocked down.  Keep showing up, even when it’s hard.  If the enemy is attacking you that means you are a threat to him.  It means he is worried you are getting too close to God. This is a good thing.  This means you are doing something right.  Keep doing what your doing.  God has His eye fixed on you and He will pull you out of the fire at there perfect moment.

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord we are so thankful that you keep your eyes fixed on us.  We thank you for refining us, even if it hurts.  We thank you for wanting to grow closer to us and helping us grow closer to you.  Lord, we thank you for protecting us from those that wish to harm us.  We thank you for pulling us out of the fire.  Lord we ask that you give us the strength and perseverance to not give up when the enemy tries to derail us from those things that bring us closer to you.  We ask that if we have already allowed the enemy to derail us that you give us the courage to start back up again.  Lord, we don’t want to be luke warm.  We want to be on fire for your love Lord.  We want to be like that perfect piece of silver.  We want you to look at us and see your reflection.  Help us oh Lord.  We are so grateful for how well you look out for us.  We love you and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you on Monday.  Have a blessed day!

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Evil Has Been Defeated

John 16:20-22 “Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.  A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

This verse comes just after Jesus explains to His disciples that He is going to go away for a bit and then He will come back again.  They don’t really understand what He is saying.  How could they?  He did not tell them exactly what was going happen to Him as I am sure it was hard for Him to explain, and even harder for them to wrap their heads around.  How does one wrap their head around the idea that Jesus died for our sins?  If they new exactly what was going to happen they would have tried to stop it, just as Peter did when Jesus was first met in the garden.  Judas had led the soldiers and some of the officials from the chief priests and Pharisees to find Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.  When they tried to arrest Him Peter took our his sword and cut off the ear off of one of the high priest’s servants.  It is our human nature.  We want to protect those we love.  Many of us want to protect those who are hurting, even if we don’t know them or love them personally.  

Tony and I have been watching the TV show Doctor Who lately.  The Doctor is a time Lord that can travel through time and space.  He usually saves a lot of people. However, the Doctor talks about how some things are fixed in time.  They are things that must remain the same.  Even though he knows this, he often finds himself in situations where he wants to help anyway.  Yesterday we saw an episode where the Doctor happened to end up somewhere on the exact day these people were supposed to die.  He wanted to help them but he knew it had to happen in order for the other things in the future to happen. What happened to these people sparked so many other amazing things in the future.  Things that may not have happened if he had saved them from this fate, yet he had to try anyway.  This Doctor has lived for hundreds of years and knows the consequences of trying to change things that are meant to happen.  If it was too difficult for him not to meddle and try to save these people, how hard do you think it would be for the rest of us normal people?  

We all want to save our loved ones from their troubles.  However, what if those troubles were the very thing they needed to go through to become the person they were created to be?  For instance, we want to save our child from getting their heart broken in a relationship however, if they don’t break up with that person they will never meet the person they are supposed to be with forever.  We all grieve when one relationship ends and then our grief turns to joy when we enter another relationship.  The verse above talks about how a woman is goes through a lot of pain to bring a baby into this world, and yet she forgets about the pain when she sees her beautiful baby.  I don’t know if she forgets about the pain, but definitely thinks the pain was worth it.  Right now a lot of us are going through a time or trial.  I know several people that have been sick for months, I know several people who are struggling with parenting their children, I know several teens who are struggling.  Many people I know right now are in a time of grieving.  This verse can give us hope that a time for joy is just around the corner.  

The disciples didn’t know what Jesus meant when He was talking to them.  They didn’t understand why he had to die.  Sometimes, we don’t understand why we have to go through our circumstances either.  I am sure the disciples felt like Jesus was needlessly killed.  They didn’t understand why he was killed and they didn’t understand that he would rise again a few days later.  I wonder if they truly understood that if it would have made it easier in the days just after his death.  I would like to think it would have, however, we all know that he rose again and I still get really sad every time I think about all he went through.  He had a really awful and painful death.  Not only the beatings and the hanging on the cross, but the breaking of His heart knowing that people were turning away from Him, that his disciples were abandoning Him and Peter would even deny knowing Him.  As much as the disciples would have liked to save Jesus from His death it needed to happen.  

My friend was doing a talk about a book she had read by Fulton Sheen titled The 7 Words of Jesus and Mary.   In this book Arch Bishop Sheen says “What do the scars of Christ teach us?  They teach us that life is a struggle.  That our condition of final resurrection is exactly the same as His.  Unless there is a cross in our lives there will never be an empty tomb. Unless there is a good Friday there will never be an Easter Sunday. Unless there is a crown of thorns there will never be a halo of light. Unless we suffer with him we shall not rise with him. The scars are not only reminders that life is warfare but they are also pledges of victory in that war. Our blessed Lord said, “I have overcome the world,” by this he means he has overcome evil and principal.  The victory is assured only the good news has not yet leaked out. Evil will never be able to be stronger than it was on that particular day. For the worst thing that evil can do is not to ruin cities and to wage wars against the good in the living. The worst thing that evil can do is to kill God. Having been defeated in that, in evil’s strongest moment, when evil wore it's greatest armor it can never be victorious again.”

I thought this explained so well why it is necessary for us and our loved ones to go through hard times.  I also loved how it explained that evil was defeated on that day.  I think this is something that we often forget. Sometimes it feels like whatever we are going through is more than we can handle.  We feel as though we are drowning in our circumstances, like they will overcome.  We feel as though we just can’t go on anymore.  When we are feeling like this we must remember this line.  Evil was defeated in it’s strongest moment.  Jesus won the battle between good and evil.  The devil through everything he had at Jesus and Jesus rose again.  Therefore, evil can never be victorious again.  I hope we can all remember this are we go through our trials.  God never promised us there wouldn’t be trials.  He did promise to be with us in those trials and He promised we would save us.  I remember someone told me once that there are three ways that God saves us from the fires of our lives.  Sometimes He saves us from the fire all together.  Sometimes He saves us through the fire.  And sometime He saves us on the other side of the fire, meaning He saves us from this world by brining us to join Him in our eternal life.  

We usually all want to be saved from the fire and I totally get that, I am right there with you.  However, as Jesus is saying in the verse above, our grief will turn to joy.  We don’t know what our trials are for but I assure you they are necessary. God isn’t needlessly punishing you for something just as Jesus didn’t needless die on the cross.  Your trials have a purpose and as much as we would like to be saved from them or to save our children from them, hopefully we can take some comfort in knowing we will be better people for having gone through them. I know if can feel as though you can’t make it one more day sometimes.  God is with you, even if you can’t feel Him.  He is giving you the strength you need, even if it is just the strength to get through the next 10 minutes, I promise He is there and will give you the strength you need for the 10 minutes after that as well.  He has got you and your loved ones.  He is there with them as well.  Don’t try to save them from their problems, they are necessary, just be there for them like our heavenly Father is there for us.  

Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today.  Lord, we thank you for being with us through our hard times.  We ask you to give us the courage and strength to go on when we don’t feel like  we can.  We are grateful that sometimes you save us from our trials, and we are also grateful for our trials that you allow us to go through because they help us become who you want us to be.  Lord, there are a lot of people struggling right now and we ask that you help the know that you are there with them. We ask that you fill them with your love and your peace.  Help them to know that they are not alone.  Lord, give us the strength to not try and save our loved ones from their problems but for us to be patient and just be there for them through it all.  We love you Lord, you are amazing.  We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!

Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus.  I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow.  Have a blessed day!
 

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Click Here if you would be willing to share your witness with me. 

www.findingtruenorthcoaching.com

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

CLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring 

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CLICK HERE to sign up for free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily life

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