Exodus 15:2

The Lord became my helper and the shield of my salvation;
He is my God, and I will glorify Him;
My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

Encouraging Words

It is indeed encouraging to be able to look back on my life and my relationship to my God and recognize that my God is also my father’s God. To have been raised in a family who loved God passionately and attempted to pass that love on to the next generations is indeed an honor and something to be thankful for. It does not have to mean that we worship our God the same way but that we all still worship God. It is my desire that someday my children and their children will be able to look back and proclaim this same thing and project their worship of our God, our helper and the shield of our salvation. Glory be to God,

NO SORROW, NO ENVY, NO ANGER

Sirach 30:21-24

Do not give yourself over to sorrow,
And do not distress yourself deliberately.
Gladness of the heart is the life of man,
And rejoicing by a man lengthens his life.
Love your soul and comfort your heart,
And put sorrow far away from you;
For sorrow has destroyed many,
And there is no profit in it.
Envy and anger will shorten your days,
And worry will bring premature old age.

Personal Challenge

Life is comprised of choices. Every thing we do or don’t do, every where we go or don’t go, ever thing, is boiled down to a choice. Even if something is thrown at us that is completely out of our control, we still must make a choice of how we will deal with this. Sirach points out some very important, life changing, things that we have a choice to make about. There will always be things in our lives that cause sorrow, but we must choose to not give ourselves over to that sorrow. We must choose to not deliberately distress ourselves for there is enough stress in the world already. We must choose to put sorrow away from us, to run from envy and anger, and to not let worry shorten our lives. Doing this will give us a much better life. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Level, have mercy!

Matthew 7:24-25

Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock.

Personal Challenge

Salvation is a process and not just a one time event. I know that there are many who will argue this point with me but that is fine. Jesus Christ gives us our salvation through His works of incarnation, sinless life, death and resurrection. Our faith in Him begins the journey of our salvation process, often called sanctification. As Jesus, Himself, proclaims in this passage, as well as many others, we must not stop at proclaiming Him as our Lord, but do what He tells us to do. We are to build upon that faith by doing His works.The core essence of His work is to love God and love our neighbor. The love your neighbor part is the one that is getting so abused by those who are proclaiming to be Christians. Who is my neighbor? Republicans! Democrats! Independents! Joe Biden, Donald Trump, and the rest of the current and former elected officials. Immigrants and those who have been born in this country. Those who are gay, straight, married, unmarried, you name it. And the list goes on and on. My neighbor is anyone and everyone who breathes air and has a heartbeat. We may not agree with what the believe or do, but we are still to love them as people created in the image of God. We CANNOT proclaim to be Christians in one breath and then spew hateful conspiracy theories and other harmful rhetoric in the next. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have master! Lord, have mercy!

Exodus 8:11

But when Pharaoh saw there was relief, his heart was hardened; and he did not heed them, as the Lord said.

Personal Challenge

We all have difficult times that surface in our lives. Often we will turn to God and make promises to Him that our behavior will change if He will just help us with our difficulty, one more time. We pray more. We go to more church services. We even read the scriptures. Then, when God responds and starts helping us through the challenge, our hearts change, they harden, and we renege on our deal with God. God wants us to be true to Him all the time, for He is true to us all the time. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Matthew 7:21

Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Personal Challenge

One of the institutions that Jesus was in conflict with was the church itself. Between the sadducees and the pharisees, the pomp and ceremony of the church became more important than the people within the church. Jesus makes it clear that many people who proclaim the name of the Lord, do not actually know Him and are therefore at risk of not entering the kingdom of God. What God wants is for us to be obedient to him, not putting on a show for him. Are we loving him and doing what He desires of us? Are we feeding the poor, clothing the naked, caring for the widows and the orphans amongst us? Are we pursuing the lost sheep and leaving the 99 to take care of themselves while we bring the lost one home? God wants us to be Christians all the time and not just talk about being Christians. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Exodus 3:5

So He said, “Do not come any closer. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”

Personal Challenge

Here we find Moses standing before the burning bush and in the presence of God. He is told to take off his sandals because he was standing on holy ground. This makes me think that we, the modern day Christian, have become too “familiar” with our God. We no longer hold Him in awe because of His holiness and majesty. We treat Him as just another person around us. This leads us to a place where we no longer heed Him as our Lord and Master, we follow Him frivolously, we ignore His commandments to love Him above all else and our neighbors above ourselves. We must continue to recognize God as God and submit entirely to Him, obeying Him, and loving those around us. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Matthew 7:15-16

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

Personal Challenge

According to 1 John, what is the core essence that should be in the heart and life of everyone who proclaims to be a Christian? Love! Love for our God and love for our brothers and sisters, our neighbors. What does this have to do with false prophets and ravenous wolves? When our churches become more focused on the glorification of our liturgical and worship practices, the performance of choirs and leaders, the less we become focused on the simple, loving, and transparent teachings of our Lord. The practice of “doing” Christianity becomes our god that we worship rather than the God that calls us to “be” Christians. This is when even the leaders of our churches, the priests and the pastors, become the false prophets and ravenous wolves. This is when those who have a love for our Lord that focuses on being His light and salt are pushed out of the their churches because their message and belief is challenging and uncomfortable. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!