Aloha Friday Message – December 31, 2021 – A Precious Jewel From Heaven

December 31, 2021

2153AFC123121 – A Precious Jewel From Heaven – An Aloha Friday Gift

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

      Isaiah 60:5-6 – 5 Then you shall see and be radiant;
your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
6 A multitude of camels shall cover you,
the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

Psalm 116:12-18 – 12 What shall I return to the Lord
for all his bounty to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
and call on the name of the Lord,
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his faithful ones.
16 O Lord, I am your servant;
I am your servant, the child of your serving girl.
You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
in the presence of all his people

1 Peter 2:7 – 7 To you then who believe, he is precious*; but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner stone”
* Precious – in Hebrew yaqar (yaw-kawr’) – precious, rare, splendid. In Greek timé (tee-may’) – a valuing, a price Usage: a price, of the honor which one has by reason of rank and state of office which he holds as in deference, reverence

“An’ POW! That’s all she wrote!” Thanks be to God 2021 is over. It won’t be long until this pandemic is endemic and the world settles in for the next crisis. So many people have lost so much in the past two years. Incredible weather phenomena (ma-na-ma-na!); despicable violence; tortuous contentions in politics, religion, and even science! Heresies abound, the courts are dealing with the life and death of innocents (↔ Click Link), the nation is struggling to cope with the largest numbers of immigrants ever witnessed, a war “ended” but still lingers on in oppression and terror, and the “gods” of many people around the world have been sidelined with COVID-19 VIRUS, nearly 5.5 MILLION (↔ Click Link) people have died – about 2% of the 282,356,994 infections recorded. The vaccine crusade is floundering in some parts of the world and we’re finding out that it’s probably going to take more vaccinations to get this to simmer down enough to go back to work. So much has been lost – most of it precious to us like family, friends, businesses, homes, perhaps even nations (e.g., Haiti), and yet the 2021 spending record for the “Holiday Season” was way higher than anyone predicted and ended up somewhere in the neighborhood of $859 BILLION. Just as impressive is the degree of kindness and charity we see as thousands pitch in to help the millions of persons displaced or reporting incredible damages to property and life. World-wide areas of drought have crippled farming in some locations endangering food reserves. Supply-chain backups are costing millions and there’s no end in sight. And we still have the 2022 midterm elections to suffer through. Nonetheless, we take time this Sunday (and I’m hoping every Sunday) to rejoice in the presence of our Jewel from Heaven.

One of the goals I set at the inception of the MBN was to “pray without ceasing” for each other. It’s just a short little prayer (↔ Click Link), maybe 30 seconds or less, but it is a prayer that covers all of us – and many, many more people – with the intentions of Light and Love and Life.

There is a deep spiritual reason for asking our El Shaddai-Olam to grant all of us that trio of blessings on a daily basis. The reason is that it helps us to follow Christ’s command to “love one another as I have loved (↔ Click Link) you,” and to “let your light shine (↔ Click Link) before all.” Your day-to-day life is given to you so that you can show the world the Light and Life of the Word. We use a special word for that – MANIFEST: demonstrate, show forth, exhibit, make plain, or reveal. We are to let the Light and Life of the Word become so obvious in us that it allows others access to a Spiritual Epiphany so that they, too, know the Light and Life of the Word.

The Feast of Epiphany is a commemoration of the Epiphany – the appearance, the revealing – of Christ to the World by recalling the visit of the Magi (↔ Click Link). Long story short, Jesus was revealed to the lowest and poorest (shepherds), the purest (Anna and Simeon), and the most clearly-defined outsiders (the Magi), before his own nation learned who he was. The “Three Kings” knew Jesus as THE King, the fulfillment of Prophecy. The Shepherds were told “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” Anna and Simeon (↔ Click Links) knew Jesus to be “a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.” Both of these Prophets were walking in the Holy Spirit because “the Holy Spirit rested” on them.

Beloved, guess what? THE HOLY SPIRIT RESTS ON US, TOO! Not only can we recognize Christ when he is shown to us, others can recognize Christ in us when we show him to them. That is AWESOME!! And I mean “awesome” in the way that it should be defined – overwhelming, amazing, awe-inspiring, wonderful, evoking respect, reverence, esteem, worship, adoration, praise, glory, and veneration. In John 8:12, Jesus says, “I am the light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” He is the Light. But remember this: He also says in Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the World … let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” How can HE be the Light and WE be the Light? You know the answer; his is in us and we are in him and the Spirit rests on us in unity with God the Father.

God bless you in this year of 2022! May he bless you with an irresistible affinity for HIM and an irrepressible commitment to Love others as he has loved you. You are the light of the World, the salt of the Earth, the hope of things to come. When I love you as HE loves you, his Love is multiplied. When you love him as I love you, his love is multiplied again. When you love me as he loves you, his love is multiplied. When we give all of that love back to El Shaddai-Olam, his love is multiplied. When our Gift to him is all of that love we have multiplied, his Gift to us is the Light and Life of the Word.

Let us pray: Almighty Triune God, our El Shaddai-Olam, our gift to you today is the love you gave us which we then multiplied in the love we give to others, the lovely and lovable people you gave to us to love. Our love for them and our love for you is our thanks-gift to you today. Grant that this gift may increase so that it will be more fitting tomorrow. Through Christ our Lord. Amen

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

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

For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven, and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate, He suffered death, and was buried, and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.

In Latin, that phrase “for our sake” is etiam pro nobis. It might also be translated “he was crucified even for us. For something like 50 years, that is the way I have thought of that part of his life and that part of our creed – “even for us” who repent and sin only to repent and sin again, and again, and again. Even the best among us – whom we admire for their saintly righteousness and service to God through service to their fellow earthlings – even they still fall under that phrase “even for us.” Everything that has anything to do with “Salvation From On High” was done, became reality, and miraculously was set into place “even for us.” Here’s the thing to learn from the Feast of the Epiphany and the Visit of the Magi:

The “us” in “even for us” is all of us. Christians know that Jesus lived, and died, and rose from the dead to free every living soul from sin, including the ones who want nothing to do with that whole scenario. When Jesus entered into the world as that tiny baby on a cold night in a tiny village a few miles away from the capital of a nation once again under foreign domination, he carried with him a power of Grace so immense that it could actually redeem every soul that has now, has ever had, or will ever have been born of a woman and still there would be an immeasurable amount of that Grace left over. The magi demonstrated that God sent that child for the entire world to know and to love. It doesn’t really matter if they rode camels or donkeys, if there were three or two or even thirty of them. It doesn’t matter if they didn’t kneel around the manger. It doesn’t matter if we named them Caspar, Balthazar, and Melchior. It does matter quite a bit that the gifts were highly symbolic. Myrrh is an aromatic resin. It was used in preparing the dead for burial. Gold reveals that the baby born to a virgin and at someone’s house under a special star is actually a king. The frankincense tells us that the King the magi came to honor was none other than God incarnate. And the capper is that the myrrh tells us that he has come to die.

What we have lost in the past two years is infinitesimally small compared to the richness of the Jewel from Heaven more precious than all the gems, all the cattle on a thousand hills,(↔ Music Link) the wealth in every mine, more precious tha all the gold in them that hills. This extraordinary Jewel from Heaven is a gift from Our Father. Honor the Giver by accepting the Gift. For Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice. Then you will sing joyfully What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of Salvation and call on the name of the Lord. O Lord, I am your servant; I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. Precious in our hearts is the showing forth – long expected arrival (↔ Music Link) – of the Son of God. O, come – let us adore him. (↔ Music Link) more precious still is the death of the Christ “even for us.”

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

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – December 24, 2021 – It’s All In The Family

December 24, 2021

2152AFC122421 – It’s all in the family

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

1 Samuel 1:26-28 – 26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. 27 For this child I prayed; and the Lord has granted me the petition that I made to him. 28 Therefore I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives, he is given to the Lord.”

She left him there for the Lord.

Luke 2:51-52 – 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13 Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! And Merry Christmas leading to a Happy New Year – or, as we say around here, Mele Kalikimaka me ka Hauʽoli Makahiki Hou, ʻŌmea! This coming Sunday – December 26, 2021 – we celebrate The Holy Family. And what a family it was! Today we will look at a few ways we can and cannot be like them.

Let’s start with the most obvious: Joseph, Mary, and Jesus were not ordinary people. Joseph was a construction worker – perhaps primarily in carpentry – in a small village in Northern Israel called Nazareth, a community in Lower Galilee. Mary was a teenager, a young woman pledged to Joseph and planning on being his wife when God revealed to her that she was to be the Mother of HIS SON. Her child would be called Jesus – Yeshua – the Son of God. Jesus came into this world fully-human and fully-divine, certainly no ordinary child with that kind of family background! Joseph took on the role of protector and Prophet by being the foster father for Jesus and confirming Mary’s fiat to raise God’s only begotten Son. Only God and his angels knew this part of the story. The rest of the World did not, and that is because of all of the ways their family was like ouR families – at least, how our families should be.

One of the attributes of the Holy Family which we rarely discuss is HONOR. Mary honored God’s Sovereignty and request with her fiat. Just as a refresher, that Latin word means and immediate compliance and acknowledgment of an authoritative command or request. Mary’s reply was “Let it be done with me according to your word.” Her compliance was complete and unreserved; she held nothing back from God but rather surrendered every aspect of her life to his Will. Joseph honored God’s request to be the protector for Mary and Jesus and to live a productive life doing the work he was trained to do to provide for his small family. Mary reared and weaned her baby, washed him, changed his diapers, sang to him, taught him stories, and – together with Joseph, her chaste spouse – she Loved Jesus and showed him how to show love to others. Joseph provided food, shelter, and protection for his family. Mary cooked and cleaned for her family. Jesus learned and grew for his family, and he was obedient to his parents.

Obedience is another way we see the Holy Family is like our families. Children are to obey their parents. You’ll recall we discussed Ephesians 6:1 – 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. That is echoed in Colossians 3:20 – 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. One of the earliest memories I have is of my first-grade Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Wright having us memorize Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents (in the Lord), for this is right. My mom used to love to tell the story of the first time I recited this verse in her class. When I said it, it came out, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord for Mrs. Wright.”

Honor and obedience are clearly attributes that are important to God. Think of the Ten Commandments (Hebrew mitsvah commands, ordinances). The first three teach us how to love and respect God who reveals himself to us in the ways we commune with him. The Fourth Commandment begins a “package” of 7 additional commandments about how we are to live in ways that convey the virtue of charity – Love – in our relationships with others. Commandments 1 – 3 are about Loving and serving God while commandments 4 – 10 are about loving and serving one another. Looking back at Ephesians 6, verses 2-3 say 2 “Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise: 3 “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” What does that mean, “the first commandment with a promise?” It refers back to Deuteronomy 5:16 – 16 Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. There are actually three promises there – long life, success, and the Lands promised to Abraham for a permanent dwelling place. Ah, but there’s where things go a bit awry. The Hebrews – later knows as Israel – were to KEEP the Ten Commandments and to be “a light to the nations.” As we well know, they failed at that repeatedly; nonetheless God treated them fairly, with discipline and forgiveness.

Here we see another way God intends for us to live as families – fairly with discipline (which differs from punishment) and lovingly with forgiveness. I submit that it is impossible to be fair in discipline without honor and obedience from the children for their parents and honor and devotion from the parents for their children. A family cannot do the work of “being family” without those connections of respect, Love, honor, and obedience. Now, this brings us to what I hope will be a vast difference between the Holy Family and our families: Respect.

One of my pet peeves is the adage “Respect must be earned.” I vehemently object to that. If it were true that respect could be earned, that makes it a commodity that can be bought and sold, traded for or denied. “No,” I say, genuine respect must be a Gift that is always available to everyone we love (remember that included enemies and persecutors). If the Gift of Respect is received, it is automatically returned by the adage “Respect the Giver by Accepting the Gift.” In what way is that markedly different in the Holy Family? I don’t think anyone has ever pictured Jesus as a smart-mouthed teenager showing his parents disrespect by lying to them, stealing from them, deceiving them about his activities … well, you get the picture. I am constantly amazed by videos we see of little children – kids 2-6 years; old – asked by a parent or caregiver “Did you eat the candy?” (or use the lipstick, or shave the dog or sibling) and this supposedly innocent child lies while clearly covered in chocolate, lipstick, or dog hair! Where do kids learn that? From their parents? Probably not (although the “naughty words” kids know are most like from parents or older siblings). This is the result, I am convinced, of Original Sin, and even when a child has been baptized, that propensity for sin remains – in our families, but not in the Holy Family. They were AND ARE HOLY. We may aspire to be like Jesus, but we cannot be Jesus for our parents; and our parents cannot be Joseph and Mary. We are all imperfect. The Holy Family was not.

BUT WE CAN BE BETTER AS PARENTS AND CHILDREN! How do we start, and more importantly, how do we keep it going? Can we give our lives to God as completely as Mary did? (↔ Music Link)

Honor, Obedience, Respect, Trust, Discipline, and Knowledge. All of these traits, these Virtues, are learned. God teaches them to us through his Commandments, his Messengers the Prophets and Judges, and through his Word, the B.I.B.L.E. Parents need to learn and model these. Ideally, those who are parents now should have learned that from their parents. If you look around these days, that clearly has not happened as extensively as necessary. Parents have the responsibility of being the first teachers of their children and this cannot and should not be pawned off on school teachers, Sunday School teachers, Scout Masters, or even Priests and Religious. It is the PARENTS’ role, and that requires a Mom and a Dad in a traditional family who keep these virtues alive in their own hearts.

You see, it’s all in the family – as God has always intended!! These days we have substituted artificial virtues like “inclusion” and “love is always love.” I’ve spoken before about including unrepentant rebels in our fellowship as Church including people who are obviously, publicly, and unrepentantly living in grave sin. We have refused to humble ourselves, to love justice and mercy, and to serve one another, preferring instead to serve our selves. “Trust your heart,” we say. FALSE!! Trust Jesus!! The outcomes are much better!

It’s All In The Family because God created and ordained family life as part of the Natural Law that all earthlings can observe and accept – free will in action again. Check out 2148AFC120321 – Are. You. READY? again. Just click on that link and find the paragraph that starts with “God created everything.” The entirety of Creation follows ONE Law – God’s Law, and that’s a whole lot more than the Ten Commandments. It’s everything from quarks to strings to dark matter and black holes to stars and galaxies with solar systems that support planets and living creatures. That is the Glory of God! (↔ Music Link) In my mind I keep returning to that quote from C. S. Lewis – “A man can no more diminish God’s glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, ‘darkness’ on the walls of his cell.” Saying that “love is always love,” and “inclusion'” extends to the flagrantly unrepentant professed Christians is in the same category: It is cuckoo. If you look at the mess our World is in right now, nearly all of it comes from failing to respect God and each other.

The “Human Family” is not the World Family. True Family is – we repeat – created and ordained by God. Any counterfeit model of God’s plan is simply a failure to live with Honor, Obedience, Respect, Trust, Discipline, and Knowledge. For that last objective in the goal of “Living As God Commands,” I refer you to the passage below which we have seen in parts throughout 2021. So, do we just give up on these people, abandon them? Of course we would never stop witnessing to them by living as God ordains, and we will always evangelize to them, but if they choose to ignore all the evidence, what do we do? We do what God does. I’d ask you to look at Romans 1:16-32. (↔ Click Link) The whole text will be in the online version of this post, but you can get there quickly by using this link. God has set an example for us. Honestly I’m too chicken to ignore that example because I can see where it leads. REPENT AND BELIEVE THE GOSPEL!

ʻŌmea, It’s All In The Family if the Family is ALL in God. Remember, “Where you sit depends on where you stand,” so Stand On The Promises! (↔ Music Link)

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

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

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

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

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

Special information for online readers:
As Promised, here is the passage from Romans:

Romans 1:16-32 – The Power of the Gospel

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”

The Guilt of Humankind

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; 21 for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools; 23 and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. 29 They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them.
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

Scary stuff indeed!!

 

 

Aloha Friday Message – December 17, 2021 – A Bouquet of Doozies (Part 2)

December 17, 2021

2150AFC121021 – A Bouquet of Doozies (Part 2) THIS ON IS SHORTER THAN #1

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

This one has a bouquet of Music Links included. It’s almost impossible these days to just play a music link without those ridiculous ads holding you for ransom. Here’s a way to avoid having to listen to them. This little photo shows you approximately where to place your cursor (or curser, if you really dislike the ads). When you open a (↔ Music Link), just position your cursor at about this position just above the Theater Mode and Full Screen icons. DON’T RIGHT CLICK ON THE START ICON! Just hold your cursor there for 5-7 seconds and the Skip Ads button should show up. Right-click it and your video should run. Now, let’s get on with finishing this two-part retrospective.

↑↑↑OUR REFERENCE GUIDE, THE B.I.B.L.E.↑↑↑

Because of the incessant demands on our time in keeping up with medical appointments, I’ve had to build 2 new posts out of a collection of old posts, hence, the name A Bouquet of Doozies. I’ve gone through Advent posts from 2011 through 2020 looking at messages from the second or third weeks in Advent. From those I’ve chosen a paragraph or two – in most instances – that were characteristic of the content. There are a couple of places where I have asked you to go off-site and do a little sleuthing on your own. At the head of each paragraph is a link to carry you to that source-post. We’ll try this for this last time, and then things should be “back to normal.”

1650AFC120916 – Rejoice already! Remember we recently looked into why the roads were made straight, the mountains leveled, and the valleys filled? That’s because Emmanuel is coming, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. (See 1 Timothy 6:12-15 and Revelation 19:16 – seriously, look them up) Isn’t that something? God is coming to us. Talk about A-MAZ-ING!! What if your Pastor started your church service Sunday morning by saying, “I want everyone here to be on your best behavior today because we are expecting a Very Special Guest. In just a few minutes, this person will be right here with us; in fact, he is already among us, but you may not have recognized him. He looks and sounds just like us, but he’s not from around here. No, he’s from someplace far, far away and more splendorous than the most beautiful places on Earth. Brothers and Sisters, lift up your hearts and hands and voices to welcome ….. (drum roll and trumpet fanfare) …(↔ Music Links!)
And here is …..

Well, who do you think is coming? The Corner Stone the Builders Rejected (↔ Music Link). Yes, so don’t worry about anything because even the deserts and the mountains and the seas and all the People of the Earth are going to be glad! We don’t want to miss out on rejoicing about that!

That is such a great word – REJOICE. When I hear it I hear it as re-joys as in joys again, and again, and again. One of the best JOY words around is Halleluiah and its alternative Alleluia. We are to be an Alleluia People! What does that word mean? It means GOD BE PRAISED. We used to sing a song about that. (↔ Music Link) We’d be divided into two groups – boys and girls, left-side and right-side, children and adults – and on the Halleluiah phrases one group would stand. When Praise ye the Lord came up the Halleluiah group sat down and the second group stood up. There was a lot of “jumping up and down.” Rejoicing is like that. It’s just being so happy that we simply can’t sit still. (↔ Music Link)

1749AFC120817 – Waiting for God He created the universe and put me in it (you too, Belovéd). He provided for my salvation. He called me to be his servant. He put me where I could learn everything I needed to know about him and what to do with that knowledge. When I finally started paying attention to all that he had already done, I had to reassess my plans. OK, not just reassess my plans, not just rethink my plans, but pretty much dump my plans and get on board with his. Compared to what he had laid out, my goals and objectives were worse than silly. They would end up taking me in the wrong direction – farther away from God instead of closer to God. I realized I had become one of those people whose prayer was, “What are you waiting for, God? Just do it already!” I was not paying attention; he had already done everything. I simply ignored most of it. (See also 1139AFC093011 – The Corner)

1750AFC121517 – Light and Darkness   In the past several weeks, we’ve seen way too much of what happens when you shut out the Light. Many people, especially several previously-powerful men, have had their dark deeds exposed. They are all rightfully disgraced for their lewd and greedy sexual immorality (fornication). We are rightfully all disgusted with what we are learning about their actions in the past. It seems no one is exempt from this darkness or the Light that is now shining on it. At this point I don’t believe anyone can accurately predict what the final outcome will be for some of the most famous people in the Nation. We know, though, that the Light has overcome the darkness, and that this is explained well in Scripture. I am going to give you a link, and trust you will follow it. OR you can use the link for this section and read the entire post. You will find comparative translations here: Ephesians 5:3-20

1849AFC113018 – 2018 Advent Series #2 – The Messianic Psalms: This is a week-long Bible-study outline. The challenge is to read what’s in the Table presented over the course of a week; but if you’re feeling intrigued, I happen to know you can do it in just one day!

1949AFC120619 – It’s the Same Old Story These posts are the stories of my story with Jesus and his Church. It is a way for me to testify about how God has shaped my life – given me my life. Sometimes I get to share your stories – especially your prayer requests (which is one of the main reasons we have this outlet on the Internet). Music has always been a top activity in my story. From marching around the room to Big John and Sparky with Yehudi, to the 12-inch 78 rpm records my Gramma gave me, to the coral-colored transistor radio I got in the seventh grade, to the Children’s Choir and Sunday School, and Concert Choir, the Folk Song Club, my guitar and dulcimer, always, always, always there is music, music, music. That strange little guy in the back right-hand corner of my brain is always playing something. If there is music coming , I cannot help but listen to it. That is especially true if it is music related in any form or fashion to His Story – the story of Jesus. So, Belovéd, I’m going to risk sending you into the listening booth. If you’re at work, you might want to find your ear-buds; however, if you are at home or at the beach or in the mountains, go ahead and PUMP UP THE VOLUME!!

Tell Me the Old, Old Story (↔ Music Link) From the Corona and Two-by-Two days
Tell Me the Stories of Jesus (↔ Music Link) I still sing this one when I need pepping up
I Love to Tell the Story (↔ Music Link) I like the traditional arrangement better than the contemporary, overly orchestrated versions
Tell Me The Story Of Jesus (↔ Music Link) A close relative of my pep-up song
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (↔ Music Link) Gramma’s favorite was The Old Rugged Cross
Shadrach (↔ Music Link) I sang Armstrong’s version for years.
Blessed Assurance (↔ Music Link) This and Jesus Loves Me are great ways to start your day, remember?

1950AFC121319 – The Power of Patience – “Patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is ‘timing.’ It waits on the right time to act, for the right principles, and in the right way.” ― Fulton J. Sheen

In today’s world, feelings are more important than truth. The World takes delight in shaming and persecuting us; nonetheless, we can – and must – endure this through firmly-declared and patient Truth. DO we want to be liked more than we want to be truthful? How easily we have forgotten that nothing, nothing in this World is worth dying for! Only that which is beyond the muck and smut of the World is worth dying for because only those things are worth living for. James 5:7 – 7 Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

2050AFC121120 – 2020 Advent Series #3 Proverbs 9:9 – 9 Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning. You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: Isaiah 30:21 – 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Here, then, is my question – preceded by some information leading to a summary. We started out with the idea of rejoicing – this is, after all, Gaudete Sunday we are planning for. We saw that there is Wisdom in rejoicing when the cause of our rejoicing is our commitment in the Life given to us through the Grace of Salvation in Christ Jesus when we repent and believe the good news. John the Baptist testified to that Power of Grace by saying, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” When sin is removed, death is removed, and that leaves only LIFE. We can pursue that life, sail through that life, enjoy that life, and extend that life by navigating with the best tool for directing that life: Wisdom, the Wisdom to know, accept, and Love Christ Jesus. Now the question (you’ll recognize it right away!)  🙂

Why would you ever want anything less than that? If you are wise, nothing else (↔ Music Link) will suffice. If you are unwise, anything else will suffice. That was the mistake Israel made at Peor, but we need only remember the words of the Apostle Paul: Philippians 1:21 – 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. That is indeed Wisdom to support our rejoicing!

Thank you for your patience. I hope you found some useful memories in this bouquet of doozies. We should be able to go back to the usual format next week.

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

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

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

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – December 10, 2021 – A Bouquet of Doozies

December 10, 2021

2149AFC121021 – A Bouquet of Doozies (Part 1)

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Because of the incessant demands on our time in keeping up with medical appointments,I’m going to have to build a new post out of a collection of old posts, hence, the name A Bouquet of Doozies (instead of daisies). I’ve gone through Advent posts from 2011 through 2020 looking at messages from the second or third weeks in Advent. From those I’ve chosen a paragraph or two – in most instances – that were characteristic of the content. There are a couple of places where I have asked you to go off-site and  do a little sleuthing on your own. At the head of each paragraph is a link to carry you to that source-post. We’ll try this for this week and next, and then things should be “back to normal.”

1149AFC120911 – Aloha Friday Episode of Extreme Makeover   Next Sunday is the third of the four Sundays. It has been called Gaudete Sunday in times past, and usually the vestments are Rose or Pink. It is a Sunday when we are reminded to REJOICE because the Victory has been won through what started in Bethlehem. Yes, we are at war, and yes we must keep going, but YES we can also rejoice for we know already that the outcome will be something good for all mankind, and we will have been part of that.

“Rejoice* always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thessalonians 5: 16-18) *Latin → Gaudete = rejoice ye

1150AFC121611 Mission Impossible? No! Did you know you have a Holy of Holies inside you? It is that place in you where you and God speak to one another “in Spirit and in Truth.” It is the life-core of your existence, the part of you made in the image of God. For that reason it is the holiest part of your life. You have heard and read that our bodies are to be a temple for the Holy Spirit. In the most-perfect portion of that temple is your spirit, and we think of it as dwelling in your heart. It is hidden and protected by a veil called Life. When the veil is removed, the spirit is released from your Holy of Holies.

1350AFC121313 – A Perfectly Good God We know that God wants us to be like him. He wants it so much he stacks the deck in our favor making it ridiculously easy to become what he seeks and to do what he desires. All we have to do is repent, to be unselfish as he is. I heard something from Fr. Gerry recently that really caught my attention. Eve and Adam stepped into sin and out of Paradise because of selfishness. Here’s how I see it: The serpent appealed to Eve’s love of God and told her, “He’s trying to trick you. He doesn’t want you to be like him. He knows if you do this you will be like him, and you can be his equal.” Eve, selfishly, thought she could become more than what God had created her to be – perfect and eternal; she desired that unquantified “more” and took the knowledge offered. When she realized what she had done, she offered Adam that knowledge. He already knew she had broken God’s commands, but he took what she offered anyway. Hence, it is Adam’s sin for he partook though he already saw it was wrong.

Within the hour of that first sin, God had promised a Redeemer, “for his steadfast love [mercy] endureth forever.” What a Good God we have!!

Repent and Believe …

1349AFC120613 – Mercy – Part 2 

He is there with his unlimited mercy before we sin. He is there with his unlimited redemption after we sin. He is overflowing with tender, loving compassion and sympathy for each of us. He knows every living soul. He knows the “good, the bad, and the ugly” about everyone. Even though we don’t deserve mercy, he makes it readily available in such abundance that we can never use it up. Although we are completely lacking in personal merits, and always tips the scales of justice in our favor. He forgives thousands of generations of sin because it pleases him to do so. Even people who are blatantly evil will be forgiven when they repent of their evil. Whether we sin willfully or unknowingly, in malicious rebellion or carelessness, he is immediately prepared to redeem us and make us righteous. No matter how many times we repent and then fail again, he forgives everything of which we repent, but never remembers how often that happens. Only he can do this because only he is Omniscient. He knows everything about me and yet he still loves me; sometime even I don’t love me, but his love never fails. HIS LOVE NEVER FAILS. That is because God knows every living soul more intimately than we know ourselves.

1449AFC120514 – Did you do that? We often hear it said, “You have to earn my respect!” I think that’s backwards. That’s not the way God does things, so it’s not the way we should do things. Returning to THE I.D.E.A.S. FORMAT ™ Working Definitions, respect is the gift of courteous consideration of others. Respect is not earned because that would make it a commodity that can be bought and sold. Respect is a gift given unconditionally and continuously. To accept the gift is to honor the giver, and that is also respect. God expects us to be stewards of everything on earth. When we do that, we are being responsible and returning God’s respect as our gift to him. Respect that deep is called reverence. In scripture this deep feeling of awe is called “Fear of the Lord.” It is not a fear that is frightening, but a powerful understanding that knowing and obeying God is an amazing and humbling fact. For this reason our goal should be to know fear. That is the responsible thing to do.

1450AFC121214 – Fully Aware I Trust Him A good master and a good servant are the basis for a good household, a good community, and a good nation. God himself is the epitome of the Good Master. Who is more faithful than God? Who can be trusted more than God? Who is more reliable, more believable, more honest? Who else is the embodiment of Truth? St. Augustine in his sermon on The Creed stated there are three things God cannot do. He cannot die, he cannot lie, and he cannot be deceived. These are not failings that arise out of weakness, but rather a testament to God’s infinite power and dignity. If a good master and good servant make a good combination, how much better is a combination of an infinitely good master and a good and faithful servant? We can only speculate about that because we, too, have at most done only what is expected of us; truth be known, we don’t make it to that level of excellence very often.

How, then, can we hope to hear or Lord call us “good and faithful?” We have that hope because HE is faithful! Paul explained that in his second letter to Timothy. 2 Timothy 2:11-13 – Here is a saying that you can rely on: If we have died with him, then we shall live with him. If we persevere, then we shall reign with him. If we disown him, then he will disown us. If we are faithless, he is faithful still, for he cannot disown his own self.

1549AFC120415 – Advent 2 What do we do? How do we get out of this mess? Hosea 12:6 – 6 But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God. We go back to him with all our heart. We repent. We give God glory and honor in worship and in day-to-day living. We trust God’s Mercy for us and for our enemies. We rely on God’s Justice for us and for our enemies. We do not tolerate evil and give it permission to enslave us, or harm us, or destroy what God has given. We oppose evil. We serve God. We give obedience to God above all others. We give all who willingly disobey God whatever justice he plans for them. We are, like Israel, in a protracted captivity because of our failure to know, to love, to serve, and to obey our Creator. If we want to look forward to being restored to the blessings of his Mercy and Justice, then we must “rend our hearts and not our garments.” We must make the internal changes that return us to his provident care.

1550AFC121315 – Aloha Friday Building Clinic This week we also celebrated the Immaculate Conception, a feast day not all that well understood (or attended) by many Catholics, and barely conceptualized by non-Catholics. What many people fail to understand is that the dogma of The Immaculate Conception isn’t about Gabriel visiting Mary to ask if she would carry Jesus the Son of God in her womb. It is about the special privilege given to Mary to be free from original sin from the moment of her conception – a conception which was normal in every way except that God allowed for Mary to experience Salvation through Jesus before his Passion, Death, and Resurrection. It is good to remember that in this year of Mercy, because that Child of Mary is the Biggest and Bestest Act of MERCY ever!

1649AFC120216 – 2nd Advent. As you know, Advent is progressing. The stores and online shopping sites are bulging with stuff, enticing us to be indulgent and buy it for family, friends, coworkers, and – of course – for ourselves. We want what we want when we want it which is now. So much is going on! Amid the Holiday Rush we also have catastrophes in nature, unspeakable acts of violence and hate, corruption in every high and low place, and somehow – in all the ruckus and racket – a voice is heard saying Μαρανα θα! Μαραν αθα! Maranâ thâ’! Maran ‘athâ’ – Come Lord! Our Lord has come! That, as we like to say, is “the reason for the season.”

Thank you for your patience. I hope you found some useful memories in this bouquet of doozies and that it wasn’t too boring. We should be able to go back to the usual format after next week’s post. It will be Part 2 of this collection.

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

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

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

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – December 3, 2021 – Are. You. READY?

December 3, 2021

2148AFC120321 – Are. You. READY?

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

     John 3:2b-4a – … the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, 4 as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah …

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. We are already at the beginning of the season of Advent. Last year (↔ Click Link) we started a series on the idea of a single-mast ship heading out to sea. I don’t think we’ll have a series this Advent, but we will most likely have a continuation of the theme used frequently throughout the year: Repent! You may recall reading that the idea of repentance comes up a bit over 100 times in the Bible. It is an important topic, and understanding how it works is one of the things we can learn during this Advent season. It is a season of reflection and repentance.

Repentance is a part of the process of restoring our relationship with God. He does his part and we do our part. It’s not quite that easy – we sin, he forgives – but it’s not all that complicated really, especially when we know what we’re talking about. It’s the “S” word – Sin. God has created the universe and was kind enough and loving enough to include in the universe you and me and a bunch of the people we both love. That was the original plan, but it got a bit scrambled by Original Sin. Let’s figure out what that is.

God made everything, including us, to work together in a certain way. When we do that work, it is the right work and the outcome of that work is also right. When we do not do that work, when we do not stay within the parameters God set out for the universe, then what we do cannot be right, so it must be wrong. If what we do is wrong, then we are wrong, and we need to fix that; the problem is, we’re not created to be able to fix it. Only God can fix it, because only God can create what is Good. If we understand that we’ve done something wrong, we can feel badly about it – or not – if we choose. That is called remorse. We’re sorry we messed up, and that should be that. Unfortunately, remorse does not clear away the mess we’ve made. There’s something beyond remorse, and it’s called contrition. Often one of the synonyms listed for contrition is remorse, but there’s more to it as we shall see.

When we present a contrite heart to God, our contrition means that we are genuinely sorry for our wrongdoing – not just remorseful, not just regretful – but deeply sorry to point of being apologetic and (you guessed it!) repentant. Not only do we feel badly for what we’ve done, but also we are resolved to change our behaviors, our thoughts, and our relation with God and each other. We are willing to humble our inmost self and firmly decide that we will not repeat this sort of error in the future. That combination of contrition and repentance is the divinely built-in means of restoring us to the proper compliance with “God’s Rules for the Universe.” God does not make junk! Recall these words from Genesis 1:31 – 31 God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Included in that “very good” assessment was the possibility of [1] Free Will, [2] Sin, [3] Contrition and Repentance, and [4] Redemption. Steps 3 and 4 only work properly if completed according to the Book of Promises – the B.I.B.L.E. What is it that makes step 3 lead to step 4 – Sincere Contrition and Effective Repentance? What might we find in the B.I.B.L.E. about Sincere Contrition?

Well, let’s start with the great Penitential Psalm, Psalm 51, and especially verses 10 & 17: Psalm 51:10, 17 – 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, [↔ Music Link] and put a new and right spirit within me. 17 The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. It is not in my power to renew my innermost self. All I can do is humble myself before God and rely on his Mercy to restore my soul to his specifications (not mine, his!). “A broken and contrite heart …” is tough to come by! Our innate sinful pride gets in the way and the words of the Father of Lies come out of our mouth saying, “Well, you know, it’s not really all that bad! I mean the standards are set so high no one could achieve them.” Ah, Belovéd, but The One did achieve – even exceed – those standards. Excuses are not the products of a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Excuses are the fanciful lies we tell ourselves when we are too proud to admit we are wrong. There’s more about that in the B.I.B.L.E.

Isaiah 57:15 – 15 For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with those who are contrite and humble in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite. What is “revive,” and what is “revival?” Revive means to restore, to refurbish, to renovate and repair, to recondition, to make like new. Revival is revitalization, reinforcement, resumption, recovery, all with the goal to make new and alive again. It is God’s prerogative to do that, not mine! He said so; for example, here’s another gem from the Prophet in Isaiah 66:2 – 2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word. These are HIS rules, not mine, not the Church’s (or churches). Now, with a least a scrap of an idea about “sincere contrition and effective repentance,” what might we see more clearly in today’s Key Verse?

      The writer is describing John the Baptizer [1] proclaiming a [2] baptism of [3] repentance for the [4] forgiveness of sins. It may seem unusual, but I’d like to start at the end of that passage and work toward the beginning:

4: Forgiveness of sins – we’re all pretty clear on that, right? We want to be absolved of our crime, pardoned for our iniquity, for our wickedness which we have deliberately chosen to commit. After all, that’s what Jesus did for us, right? His death on the cross, the institution of the Eucharist (as in Matthew 26:28 – 28 for this is my blood of the* covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. *Many ancient authorities read “new covenant”) In Apostolic Tradition we have from the Apostle Paul this in 1 Corinthians 11:25 – 25 In the same way he took the cup also, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” I want to cover “in remembrance of me” in just a bit.

3: Repentance – well, by now we must surely know that this means metanoia – a conversion in one’s life that arises from penitence (sincere and effective sorrow), and doing “a 180” so that whatever transgression(s) arose, we choose to delete that poor choice and replace it with a better choice.

2: Baptism – As with many words in our faith-walk, this is one we think “we know all about it.” It’s a Rite. It’s what Jesus told us to do in all nations. It can be done by sprinkling, anointing, immersing, dunking, and even someone who is not ordained can do it in an extreme emergency. All cool, but what does “baptism” MEAN? The root word is from Greek “baptizein.” It means to immerse, to saturate with or in a fluid, or to be completely changed inside and out. As a Rite in Christianity, it is an initiation into the Christian life and removes “the stain of original sin.” The origins of bathing or being immersed for ritual purity go back to the Mikveh in Judaism – ritual baths for attaining ritual purity. We can go way back to Genesis 1:1-10 when the earth was immersed in water and the Holy Spirit moved over the face of the water to make the earth. The concept is also applied to Jesus’ suffering, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Hebrews passing through the Red Sea, and a few others. John’s Baptism was one of repentance. Similar to a ritual cleansing, only conducted in the river rather than a bath specifically designed for completion of ritual cleansing. This is what John proclaimed as people responded to his call. Let’s finish then with “proclaiming.”

1: Proclaim – the public announcement of something essential, factual, and official by someone authorized to make the announcement. John was certainly authorized to announce the baptism of repentance. From the day of his conception, he was set aside by the Holy Spirit to be “a voice crying in the wilderness ‘make straight the way of the Lord.'” John was the Prophet tasked to announce the coming of the Messiah and the beginning of the Kingdom of God. John the Baptizer is one of those persons about whom people say, “He was born ready.” Now I must ask you, Belovéd, are you ready?

It is a time to reflect and to repent, a time to be immersed in a new life, a life that leaves behind the burden you don’t need (↔ Click Link) to carry with you. It will mean we will need to examine our consciences and see if there is contrition in our hearts. Can we remember a time when we realized we had deeply hurt a loved-one and had to face the consequences of the pain we caused? That hollow, sinking, flushed feeling is what it is like to be heartbroken over our mistakes. Sometimes we would rather avoid contrition as Israel had done when God spoke through his Prophet Jeremiah 44:10 – 10 They have shown no contrition or fear to this day, nor have they walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your ancestors. God asks us to remember his Love, his compassion, his forgiveness. We can do this every day at the Altar by Communion “in remembrance of me.” This is not just a symbolic rehearsal of a memory. The Greek word which describes this is anamnesis – the portion of the Eucharistic Prayer in which the Passion, Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus are evoked. It is through the use of the canon of the rituals set in place by Christ himself that we are reminded of his Perfect Sacrifice which was the atonement for our sins. Anamnesis means “calling to mind.” Are we ready to do that in a way that is worthy of the calling which unites us with Christ and the Apostles? In this season of Advent, let’s focus on being completely immersed – baptized – in developing sincere contrition and effective repentance. In that way, we will “make straight the way of the Lord” and open the gates to welcome The King of Glory. (↔ Music Link)

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

Please follow this link for a new Catholic 365 article I wrote.

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

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

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

 

Aloha Friday Message – November 26, 2021 – Advent #1 – If ya snooze ya lose.

November 26, 2021

2147AFC112621 – Advent #1 – If ya snooze ya lose.

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

     Luke 21:36 – 36 Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. It’s Advent! “The Holiday Season” and Christmastide is just a few “black Fridays” away. We will spend the next four Sundays thinking about Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as the Son of God is born fully human and fully divine. We’ll sing Christmas carols, eat rich foods, and drink special concoctions. We’ll shop, and buy, and wrap, and give gifts. We’ll share the Joy and tell our Grinchey friends, “It’s OK to wish me Merry Christmas.” We might even dig out that pin we got somehow, somewhere that says “Jesus is the Reason for the Season;” or was it “Keep Christ in Christmas.”? Well, no matter whether we find it or not, we’re going to have a GREAT Christmas this year because we are being liberated!!

Yeah, we still have the masks and hand-sanitizer, but we can get more people into bars, restaurants, maybe even the Movies! It’s gonna be great for the Worldly folks! As for us who keep Christ in Christmas here in Kapaʻa, we can allow more people into the building for Mass AND we’ll get the hymnals back in the pews (not that all that may people actually sing the hymns). And then the Church hits us with this Reading (↔ Click Link) from the Gospel of Luke. Biblicists refer to this section of the Gospel of Luke as “eschatological discourse,” instructions about the end times given to Jesus’ Disciples as he predicts the total destruction of the Temple. There would be no Holly-Jolly Christmas Spirit in Jerusalem after the Romans got through with it! But wait! There’s more!

OK ʻŌmea, I know you’re not particularly fond of the homework assignments I give you in these posts, but I really do hope you’ll pick up on this one. I want you to go get your Bible – or find an online Bible you like – and read Mark 13, the Destruction of the Temple. Yup, you should read all 37 verses, and read the footnotes, too. You’ll see some parts that are pretty close to Sunday’s reading from Luke and a little bit more detail. One interesting parallel is in Luke 21:25-26 – 25 “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. 26 People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. This is a reference to Isaiah 13:10 and also, perhaps, Joel 2:30-31, and it is repeated and attributed to the prophet Joel in Acts 2:17-21. For the disciples gathered around Jesus at that moment, this was incomprehensible. They had been commenting on how large the stones were that were used to build the Temple.

Some were indeed HUGE! In the retaining wall for part of the Temple Mound the stones quarried were 15 feet thick, 25 feet tall, and 50 feet long! That is ONE stone! Jesus is telling them “Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” (See Mark 13:2) The restored Temple, ordered and supervised by Herod The Great, was a magnificent structure. Parts of the outer temple walls were covered with gold plating. It was said to be blindingly bright when the sun hit it. Near the top were blocks of white marble so pure that people said it looked like snow on the Temple. Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down. And so it was in about 70 AD when the Roman army completely destroyed (some say it was “on accident”) the Temple. Jesus’ predictions about what would occur after his death – which was imminent at that time – came to being literally as he had described them. That includes the persecutions, the opportunities to “testify,” by martyrdom, and even including “the Good News must first be proclaimed to all nations.” (See Mark 13:10; there is still much debate over what this actually means and whether or not it has already been fulfilled).

Everyone will experience these difficulties, these tribulations, these terrible disruptions of the entire framework of society. Jesus is telling his Disciples (and that better include you and me, ʻŌmea) that no one will escape seeing and being subjected to all this. Jesus continues by saying, “For in those days there will be suffering, such as has not been from the beginning of the creation that God created until now, no, and never will be. 20 And if the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would be saved; but for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he has cut short those days.” It’s going to be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah PLUS the Great Flood, PLUS the centuries upon centuries of the persecution of Christians everywhere. That sort of lets the air out of all that hoopla that started about 2 weeks before Halloween. What are we supposed to do? And isn’t this already happening around the World right now? I mean, this is pretty terrible already, so worse-than-this must be … unimaginable.

Time to call up a memory verse – 1 John 4:4c – for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (Use that link for a contextual reading) I have often found deep comfort and consolation in that message. A bit up the page, the author is reminding us to “test the spirits” because there will be many who claim to be of God but are not. “Well, golly Chick, thanks for ruining the Christmas Joy for us.” Just a little longer, Belovéd, and we might restore it for all of us. Here’s a pair of quotes from the guy who uploaded a bunch of Aphorisms – “Always expect the BEST for and from yourself and others” and “Always seek, expect to receive, and accept the greater gift — the opportunity to give.” Now that’s the Christmas Spirit! Test that Spirit! Does it say, “Jesus Christ is Lord!“? Does it point to “Keep Christ in Christmas.”? Another Memory Verse: Philippians 4:13 – 13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me. I can even Love as Christ requires.

1 Corinthians 13:1 – 1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 1 Corinthians 16:14 – 14 Let all that you do be done in love. St Augustine had a pretty high opinion of Love. He reportedly wrote, “Love. Then do as you will.” Ah, easy enough if you’re a Saint among Saints, but for a puny little sinner like me, that Love Augustine is thinking about is the AGAPE (ἀγάπη) of Christ. It is the real, heavy-duty, super-turbocharged diesel version of LOVE. Mine is more like a two-cycle weed-whacker motor kind of love. It takes everything I have to keep that going, too. I sputter to a jolting stop quite often when “Love your neighbor” turns into, “What is that idiot up to now?!?” That is not in the Spirit of Charity and Love. Do you remember the hymn, Ubi Caritas? Here’s a bit of an excerpt:

As you see, in this Latin hymn, charity and love are two different things. Charity is usually thought of as acts of kindness to supply something someone else needs – often money. Charity is humanitarian kindness, and it often arises out of humanitarian love. AGAPE is divine – PERFECT – kindness and it always arises out of PERFECT Divine Love. Charity is one of the works of faith we call the Corporal Works of Mercy. You may recall we studied those during Lent in 2010. Charity is the pragmatic expression of the commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It’s worth listing them once more as a reminder:

  1. Feed the hungry,
  2. Give drink to the thirsty,
  3. Welcome the stranger,
  4. Clothe the naked,
  5. Care for the ill,
  6. Visit the imprisoned,
  7. Bury the dead.

Now we see a pattern emerge in these lyrics. We have LOVE and we have Charity. When we build our lives around these two things, we work on those two Greatest Commandments:

Matthew 22: 36-40 – “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The hymn says that, “Where charity and Love are, God is there.” There is another hymn (↔ Music Link) you might be thinking of as you listen to this: “Where Charity and Love Prevail.” (↔ Music Link) Here are the first and last verses as I learned them many years ago.

Where charity and love prevail,
there God is ever found;
Brought here together by Christ’s love,
by love are we thus bound.

No race or creed can love exclude,
if honored be God’s name;
Our family embraces all
whose Father is the same.

And so, Beloved, we can know with certainty that we do His will when Charity and LOVE work together to the glory of God. Still, we must be alert for the enemy’s sneak attacks – which seem to be becoming more and more open and vicious!

     Must we then, be like Alastor “Mad-Eye” Moody and practice “Constant Vigilance?” We don’t need to feel mistrustful of everything and everyone as if there were no defense for this time of tribulation. Jesus tells us to be watchful, to be alert, to be mindful of the signs and seasons. When we see the kinds of things happening that are listed in  Matthew 24:1-25:46 (↔ Click Link), Mark 13:1-37 (↔ Click Link), and Luke 21:5-36 (↔ Click Link), we need to be ready for the Day of The Lord – the return of Jesus and the Day of Reward. Jesus’ advice is pretty blunt when it comes to addressing how we could overlook such clear signs of The End: Luke 21:34-35a – “Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.” Meanwhile, what do we do about Christmas?

We enjoy it, Belovéd; we enjoy the giving and the feasting, the singing and fellowship, the kids and the grandparents, keiki and kūpuna, the cooking and even the cleaning. Just keep your eye on the world and your coat and hat by the door. Jesus is coming, and he’ll be calling for those who are his. We can take a clear clue from the color of the vestments: Violet – a time for reflection and repentance. And here’s the best way I know of to make it the most memorable Christmas: Extra prayers, generous giving of your time, and special sacrifices are the best way to prepare your soul for the Advent of Christ. These gifts from our best-self need no wrapping or ribbons to disguise the contents of the package. They are addressed to God, and to neighbor, and to all of those loved by God and neighbor. Now, there’s a Merry Mary Christmas! Don’t doze off in a cloud of distractions and miss the whole thing!

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

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

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

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

 

Execution by Torture (Also published at Catholic365)

November 21, 2021

Execution by Torture

What a terrible point in history we have reached when the validation of the future success of a parent – woman and/or man – depends entirely on the premeditated murder of their own progeny. In ancient Canaan there existed the idolatrous cult of Moloch (Also spelled Molech). Newborn children were sacrificed to this “deity” by placing them into the hands of a large bronze statue of a creature with the body like a man’s and a head like a bull’s, and crowned to signify supremacy. The hollow bronze statue was heated blazing hot from the inside and there was a Topheth – a chapel set aside specifically for child sacrifices – where infant children were sacrificed by either boiling them alive in a large cauldron over the fire inside the statue, or burning them in the outstretched hands of Moloch while still alive. This was supposed to increase fertility (improve success) in either the land or in one’s personal life. The sacrifices were allegedly accompanied by Priests who made horrendously loud sounds with various instruments as well as raucous shouting to drown out the sound of the infants’ last horrifying moments of life.

The excesses of the Cult of Moloch have returned with knives, machines, and chemicals replacing super-heated metal idols and the Topheth is disguised as “healthcare” and carried out in a haven misnamed a “Clinic.” There will literally be Hell to pay in Gehenna if we do not repent and stop this insanity. This practice is the execution by torture – without representation or defense – of an innocent human victim who has not done anything illegal or threatening. Her/his only “fault” is being alive in a gestational or developmental state – as is natural for all living things.

Once two gametes join, the LIVING PROGENY will develop into the form dictated through those gametes’ genes. You can’t pollinate a flower with sperm from a bird; you can’t crossbreed a mouse with a whale even though the gametes are nearly the same size. When a human egg is fertilized with a human sperm, it is ALREADY HUMAN. Torturing it while it is still alive in order to cause its death is pure evil. Suppose someone was to go to the nesting grounds of a flock of whooping cranes and systematically destroy every egg and hatchling found. The uproar would be tremendous and the penalties numerous and expensive. Killing a human embryo or newborn, however, is not considered destruction.

The 5th, 8th, and 14th amendments of the Constitution of the United States could be construed as allowing for the death penalty and that such a penalty is not considered cruel and unusual punishment – BUT ONLY AFTER DUE PROCESS OF LAW. The manner of execution which might be allowed is not specified, but the phrase “cruel and unusual punishment” has some defining limitations such as acts that “fail to meet standards of social propriety i.e., it is overly painful, torturous, degrading, or humiliating (e.g., beheading, public dissecting – e.g., flaying, disemboweling – or burning alive); or if it is completely lacking comparability to the atrocity of the crime committed.” A human embryo or fetus tortured to death during a forced abortion does not receive any form of due process or mercy; there is no relief from the pain and no acknowledgement of the agony. This is accomplished by claiming that the human fetus developing into a viable human infant is only a “lump of tissue.”

Listen to this recording of Babies crying: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL2B-AAnsHo and now listen to the orderliness of God’s plan for us: https://youtu.be/hQEvTjFJkhc .

Finally, read for yourself the discovery of Life in Psalm 139: https://www.bible.com/bible/111/PSA.139.NIV

We should know better. We do know better. We must do better! Consider these statements in the Bible:

Matthew 18:14 So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Proverbs 24:10-12 10 If you faint in the day of adversity,
your strength being small;
11 if you hold back from rescuing those taken away to death,
those who go staggering to the slaughter;
12 if you say, “Look, we did not know this” —
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?
And will he not repay all according to their deeds?

If one of us was caught on Oʻahu torturing an endangered monk seal (↔ Click Link) to death, or cutting up a live cat, or using a baseball bat to silence a peacock, we’d be thrown in jail, be seen on national TV, and be vilified worldwide. But torture a fetus to death, cut up a living child – no problem in today’s World! But in God’s world that earns an eternal death sentence. There is nothing in the US Constitution that qualifies as permission to commit premeditated murder through execution by torture without exercising the clause “no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Carrying a human fetus in the womb from in vivo or in vitro conception to live birth is a status that must be protected, and that means disallowing the premeditated murder by tortuous execution of any human being from conception to natural death.

Some will ask, “What about a pregnancy resulting from rape, or incest, or addiction, or being mentally incapacitated?” Whatever the circumstances that resulted in voluntary or involuntary conception, the result of the conception is the inception of a new human life that is at once uniquely distinct from the contributors of the eukaryotic genetic DNA in sperm and ovum, yet also develops from patterns of shared alleles that come from the parents but may be expressed differently in the progeny. Once fertilization takes place, every moment of life from that point forward is a human life. That is a troublesome truth for about half of all the humans on this planet, and that fact is utterly appalling. IF the reality of being human is such a great inconvenience for the people who promote and perform abortions, then their lack of gratitude for still being alive because they were not murdered as infants is also appalling.

Please pray this prayer with me daily:

“Almighty, Everliving God, we ask that through the prayers and legal actions of those of us who are opposed to abortion, the parents who are considering murdering their children today will decide instead to share with them the gift of Life. For the parents who have already murdered their children, we ask for the Graces of contrition and repentance so they will be led to reconciliation. For the people who promote and perform abortions, God have mercy on their souls and grant them knowledge, understanding, and wisdom so they can perceive and comprehend that what they are doing is evil and tragically, horribly wrong – and therefore they will cease. Father Creator, we ask that if they will not cease promoting and performing abortions, then you will nullify and neutralize their influence. Help us to remember the sanctity of life established in love between mother and child. (↔ Click Link)

We ask this in Jesus’ name. AMEN.”

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

For more information see:

Leviticus 18:21, Deuteronomy 18:10, 2 Kings 16:3 (Ahaz), 2 Kings 17:13-17, 2 Kings 21:1-6 (Manasseh), Jeremiah 32:30-35 (Israel and Judah), Ezekiel 16:21, Ezekiel 20:26, Ezekiel 20:31, Ezekiel 23:37 (Aholah and Aholibah)

 

Aloha Friday Post – November 19, 2021 – Have you heard about this?

November 19, 2021

2147AFC111921 – Have you heard about this?

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

      John 18:37c – Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.

E pili mau na pomaika‘i ia ‘oe a me ke akua ho’omaika’i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! (May blessing always be with you and may God bless you, Beloved!) Who is the King of Glory? This time of year, as we approach the beginning of Advent next week, we take a day to remember the Lord as King of the Universe – and we often hear David’s Psalm of praise of Jehovah – the One we have called El Shaddai-Olam, Almighty and Ever Living God. He is the Creator of the Universe. All that ever is, or was, or ever will be belongs to him, comes from him, and returns to him – and that includes you and me. Since all of everything and everyone is of God’s creation and God’s Dominion, no one else has the right to add to or take from what he has placed in his own choice of order. Animal, vegetable, mineral, spiritual – all are his. The Earth – and by it, the Universe – is habitable because he has placed it in the universe he created for it. He alone is supremely sovereign as he alone is perfectly Holy, perfectly Integral, Perfectly One. The Earth and all Creation is full of God, but the Earth and all Creation is not God; they are his handiwork and testimony to his nature – Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent, and Omnibenevolent. God alone is God and no other gods can do as he has done. That is why he chose one Nation, one People to be his distinctive choice – his valued treasure – among humanity.

Deuteronomy 14:2 – 2 For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; it is you the Lord has chosen out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession. God has chosen his people who are to be “peculiarly” – particularly and especially – his own. His people are those who love, worship, and obey him. He has revealed himself to be the source of ineffable wisdom beyond our ability to describe. His wisdom is Love, and with Wisdom he created all that is; without Love nothing would have been created. He Loves his creation, especially his chosen children whom he created to love him and be loved by him and for him. He made that love known to us through his Only Begotten Son. In the Gospel of John, the Apostle testifies to this in John 1:14 – 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. “Like Father, like Son,” Jesus is the Truth of Love and the Love of Truth. In him there is only Grace and Love without judgment or condemnation for Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (John 3:17) From the beginning of human sinfulness, God promised Salvation through a Redeemer – the seed of a woman, the Spirit of Life in a child made incarnate through his servant, Mary. Thus he is Divine, the True and Only Son of God generated – conceived of – and begotten through the union of human and Divine nature. He is Love. He is Truth. He is Salvation. He IS …

(Music Link ↔) LIGHT ≡ GOD ≡ TRUTH ≡ WAY ≡ LIFE ≡ ETERNAL ≡ LOVE

In this verse from Sunday’s readings, Jesus tells Pilate that Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. The structure of that shows Jesus’ Kingdom is comprised of all persons who know Truth because – made in the image of God – they can recognize the deliberately evident and self-supporting testimony that God is Truth. Everyone who hears Truth hears Jesus. Everyone who hears Jesus hears Truth. Everyone who refuses to hear Jesus, refuses to accept him as the Only Begotten Son who is Divine and the Christ of God, does not hear Truth; the Truth is not in them, and they cannot know the Truth. Thus, whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ of God is a liar, and as a liar an ally of the Devil. Satan is the originator of lies. Recall what Jesus said in John 8:44 – 44 You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Let’s take just a minute to look at how that word TRUTH is used in our scriptures. In this passage from John, this word, “truth,” in Greek is alétheia {al-ay’-thi-a} and it has the connotation of “the true notions of God” which are open to human reason without his supernatural intervention in such a way that it leads to that honesty of mind which is free from affectation, pretense, dissimulation, falsehood, or deceit. It is Truth that is true without having to be verified by, with, or for anything or anyone because it is genuinely, completely, absolutely, eternally, uncompromisingly TRUE. That is how it is used throughout the New Testament.

In the Old Testament, a commonly used word for Truth is ‘e-meth {eh’-meth} and it carries the connotation of honest testimony and impartial judgment, inexorably true – Truth that is always True – by his divine instruction which is reliable, stable, and continuous as in Isaiah 10:20 – 20 On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no more lean on the one who struck them, but will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

God IS what God IS – Truth, righteousness, justice, freedom, salvation, love, light, glory, power, caring, parental, knowable, divine, community, Trinity, wisdom, knowledge, joy, unity, kindness, forgiving, merciful, patient, tender, gentle but capable of defending or correcting his children, infinite in all things, yet generously grants free will to all earthlings. He is never distant, unapproachable, singularly alone, unknowable, aloof, vindictive, uncaring, or hateful. He seeks to heal, not harm. He acts with mercy, not intolerance. He is generous, not selfish. He promotes life, not death. He is Goodness, not evil. He is YHWH, not Allah.

Everyone who belongs to the Truth hears his voice, sees his works, tastes his mercy, feels his love, recognizes the fragrance of knowing him (← Check it out! See 2 Corinthians 2:14) becomes a child of God – a son or daughter of The Most High – and will share Eternity with El Shaddai-Olam.

Everyone who denies True Truth, will be enmeshed in deceit (See Jeremiah 17:9) perpetrated by the Greatest Deceiver (See John 8:44 again; See also Deceiver)  who is the anti-Christ, and all who hear the Voice of Truth and ignore or deny it, who are closed to the Truth, they will share Eternity with Satan. Satan is a real creature who has real power. (See CCC 391 – 395). He is the father of lies and has deceived the entire World (See Revelation 12:9). Remember this as you read the following:

Proverbs 12:17 – 17 Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence,

    but a false witness speaks deceitfully.

And again:

John 1:14 – 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of Truth and Mercy, and God is the King of Glory. David said it so well:

Psalm 24:7-8 – 7 Lift up your heads, O gates!
    and be lifted up, O ancient doors!
    that the King of glory may come in.
8 Who is the King of glory?
    The Lord, strong and mighty,
    the Lord, mighty in battle.

David knew a little about battle! Recall his confrontation with Goliath:

1 Samuel 17:45-47 – 45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts*, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head; and I will give the dead bodies of the Philistine army this very day to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, 47 and that all this assembly may know that the Lord does not save by sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and he will give you into our hand.” * JEHOVAH SABAOTH

The Lord is King over all the Earth (Psalm 47:7). Sing his praise with songs of joy! Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, whenever you can, listen for the sound of his voice for it is the sound of Truth. Do not harden your heart and refuse to belong to the truth or else you will not hear the King. If you hear him, you hear the Truth, and you belong to The King of the Universe – so Listen Up!  (↔ Click Link)  He is calling your name!  Click on this link for a song about that! (← Music link) If you repent and believe the Gospel, you will know the Truth as soon as you hear it.

“If He’s got all this in His hands, (↔ Music Link) He’s also got you.”

This is TRUE because he Loves you, and he Loves you because

YOU BELONG TO THE TRUTH AND YOU HEAR HIM

Psalm 95:8 – If today you hear his voice, Harden not your heart. (← Music Link)

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

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

 

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

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – November 12, 2021 – It’s not over yet!

November 12, 2021

2146AFC111221 – It’s not over yet!

Read it online here, please. And please – when you visit there – use one of the social media links at the bottom of the page to share this post. Thank you! And remember, we now have a READER VIEW available, so share this link or this email often.

     Mark 13:31-32 – “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

As we approach Advent, the Church always brings us to the idea of “the end times” just before we get to the beginning of “the Salvation times.” We hear from Daniel who tells us in Daniel 12:2-3 – 2 Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. That last phrase in verse 2 – and some to shame and everlasting contempt – is one we’d like to avoid thinking about. This is one of the earliest prophesies of the “resurrection of the body and life everlasting.” It’s also, coincidentally, the first hint at our modern-day “YOLO-F”: You Only Live Once – FOREVER.” Those of us who carry the name Christian believe there is more to life than this corporeal existence. The possibilities of eternal life are mysteries we certainly cannot understand but still we anticipate them with caution. Will we make it to Heaven? How can we know? And who decides anyway? Jesus had something to say about that:

John 12:44-50 – 44 Then Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 I do not judge anyone who hears my words* and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.” * words = rhēmatōn a thing spoken, such as a word or saying of any kind, as a command, a report, or a promise.

It will be the Word spoken by the Lord which judges us – how we knew it, lived it, shared it, Loved it, Loved Jesus. Have you memorized John 3:17 yet, Belovéd? If you have, you’ll understand verse 47 above better. For some other viewpoints on this set of readings you can see 1546AFC111315 – What’s next?, and 1846AFC111618 – Let’s end this! So, if it is the Word by and through which the Lord  judges us at the end, isn’t it reasonable to think that it could be useful to use that as a measuring rod for NOW? If it’s good enough for Moses and Jesus, it should be good enough for us. Here are a couple of examples from their viewpoint:

Matthew 4:3-4 – 3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Now, if we are using our Bibles, then we will see that the cross-reference for that is Deuteronomy 8:3 – {Moses said} 3 He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Whatever the Lord speaks, whatever he decrees, that is what we must be, must do, must live. Why is that so important? Let’s go back a couple of lessons to 2141AFC100821 – Sharpen your Sword! There we will find a very good reason for knowing the Word intimately. It’s in Hebrews 4:12-13 – 12 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Huh, how about that? It says right there (again!) that it is the Word that judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart, that knows the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. Or how about this from Genesis 6:5 – 5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. Do you remember what happened after that? Noah and his family built, stocked, and sailed in the Ark. Eight people survived that; no one else did; the Ark was closed (↔ Click Link) to all but the righteous. (That’s in 2128AFC070921 – The Heart of the Matter) If we, the citizens of the Kingdom of God, are supposed to know, live, and Love the Word, what about our leaders? God has given us prophesies about that, too. Think about Psalm 118:9 – 9 It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. In the Book of Wisdom we have this powerful exhortation to do what is good and exemplary:

Wisdom 6:9-11 – 9 To you then, O monarchs, my words are directed,
so that you may learn wisdom and not transgress.
10 For they will be made holy who observe holy things in holiness,
and those who have been taught them will find a defense.
11 Therefore set your desire on my words;
long for them, and you will be instructed. (See the NABRE version HERE.) The author of the Book of Wisdom prophesies that by using the B.I.B.L.E., our leaders will learn wisdom and not transgress. If they (and we) do not transgress (“breaking part of the Law is the breaking of the Law”), the outcome on the Day of Reward is likely to be YOLO-F with God. Would God really deny anyone eternity with him based on that judgment? If we know there is a Heaven, we know there is a Hell. That eternal separation from God is a certainty for the unwise who do not integrate the Word into every aspect of their lives. Those whose destination is Heaven are Those who are wise [and] shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Check this out:

     2 Peter 2:4-10 – 4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 and if he did not spare the ancient world, even though he saved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood on a world of the ungodly; 6 and if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example of what is coming to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the lawless 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by their lawless deeds that he saw and heard), 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment 10 —especially those who indulge their flesh in depraved lust, and who despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to slander the glorious ones ….”

OK, then, I’ll assume you’ve had enough and tell you why all of us are very glad “It’s not over yet!” There is still time. As it is written, “Something is going to happen somewhere sometime somehow that has the reek of Evil.” (I agree. It’s every day now.) We, who are nourished in and by the Word, know it is truer still that “Something is going to happen somewhere sometime somehow that has the savor of Good.” What would it be like if we all had that closer walk (↔ Music Link) to which we aspire? Some of us who have experienced that Savor will be the leaders who serve with “morality, compassion, integrity, wisdom, and justice so that we can all live together in Peace.” They will be those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. Some of us would really prefer that we could say, “It’s finally over.” But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. That goes for all our personal YOLO-F paths as well as or collective YOLO-F outcomes. The Day of Reward might be Tuesday of next week; or, it might not be. “God knows, but he’s not tellin'” is a biblically-true expression. What God has told us is more than enough to make a difference. (↔ Music Link) Old adage: It’s always good in the end. If it isn’t good yet, it isn’t the end yet. Well, Belovéd, life these days is a bit confusing, hurtful, and besmirched by godless people who commit unspeakable acts of violence against innocent persons, places, and things. But we have the Word, those Beautiful Words of Life! And – since we know that Word will be “the fork in the road” between Heaven and Hell – we’d do well to “come further up, come further in” – into the everlasting arms (↔ Music Link) of he who came to save the world, not condemn it. We have the Word so we know what is Good. This is where I send you to read Micah 6:8 again (Go ahead. I’ll wait). How sweet is is to Trust in Jesus!! His Word is Life.

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

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

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

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

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

 

Aloha Friday Message – November 5, 2021 – Treasure, Pleasure, or Leisure?

November 5, 2021

2145AFC110521 – Treasure, Pleasure, or Leisure?

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     Matthew 5:3 – 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Luke 6:20 – 20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit.

This Sunday’s readings bring us the accounts of two destitute widows who have little or no reason to hope for anything and yet they place all their hope in the loving Providence of God. In the Old Testament reading from 1 Kings, we hear about the widow of Zarephath. She was not a Jew; she was a gentile in the district of Sidon. It was about 125 miles from Jerusalem. Elijah was from Tishbe – no one knows for sure exactly where Tishbe was, but that hasn’t stopped folks from trying to figure it out – but it appears the best guess was about 85 miles from Zarephath. We might wonder what Elijah was doing so far away from home and why was he traveling that far. The answer is a little up the page from today’s Key Verse. Here’s what got Elijah on the move.

     Elijah 1 Kings 17:1, 8-9 – 1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.”  8 Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 9 “Go now to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and live there; for I have commanded a widow there to feed you.” When Elijah finally found the woman, her plight was terrible. As a woman and a widow, she had no legal standing. There was no one to support her, and she and her young son were getting ready to prepare their last meager meal and then die of starvation, but Elijah sends her to bring him a drink of water and then, sort of oh by the way, “but first bring me a little bit of bread.” The woman did as he said, and that is remarkable because she gave up what she and her son needed so as to care for The Man of God. Despite her absolute poverty, she gave it all for another. As a result, her flour and oil lasted for the entire time Elijah stayed there – about three-and-one-half years!

     In the Gospel, we hear the story often called “The Widow’s Mite.” Here’s a refresher: Mark 12:41-44 –42 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. 43 Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. 44 For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”  The similarities between these two widows is plain to see. Although they were destitute, of no value in society, and no one to protect them or provide for them, they still put their trust in God. They were poor – so poor that they had nothing left but their trust in God. In that regard, they were indeed richer than all the other arrogant show-offs dropping big sacks of money into the temple treasury box. They had their own treasure box, much like the one by our Key Verses, and they also had the key to that treasure – Trust and Love in and for God. Although we do not know their names, they are immortalized as emblems of humility. They were poor as well as poor in spirit. We need to dig into those Key Verses for a better understanding. Did Jesus address this beatitude to “the poor,” (as seen in Matthew 5:3) or to the “poor in spirit?” (As seen in Luke 6:20) Is there any difference between the two? The phrase “poor in spirit” gets a lot of attention from Bible scholars. How do we make that understandable in the 21st century? That’s a type of phrasing that isn’t common in today’s parlance. I’ve prepared a little table to compare these two Key Verses.

Matthew 5:3 Luke 6:20
Matthew 5:3 – 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) Luke 6:20 – 20 Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)
New Living Translation “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. New Living Translation Then Jesus turned to his disciples and said, “God blesses you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours.
Amplified Bible “Blessed [spiritually prosperous, happy, to be admired] are the poor in spirit [those devoid of spiritual arrogance, those who regard themselves as insignificant], for theirs is the kingdom of heaven [both now and forever]. Amplified Bible And looking toward His disciples, He began speaking: “Blessed [spiritually prosperous, happy, to be admired] are you who are poor [in spirit, those devoid of spiritual arrogance, those who regard themselves as insignificant], for the kingdom of God is yours [both now and forever].
GOD’S WORD® Translation “Blessed are those who recognize they are spiritually helpless. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them.” GOD’S WORD® Translation Jesus looked at his disciples and said, “Blessed are those who are poor. The kingdom of God is theirs.”
These are excerpts from The Bible Hub. (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com. We are grateful for receiving permission to make use of their excellent resources. Each of the versions represented here has its own copyright and you are invited to use the links presented to explore them in a deeper way.

The widow in Zarephath was prepared in advance by God to care for Elijah in much the same way God prepared Abram to become Abraham and the Father of Nations. Her humility was the effective reality of her trust in God. But she was not a Jew, and may not have known God as Elijah did. (Of course Abram was not a Jew either.) Abram and the widow of Zarephath were led by God to do God’s will. The widow who gave her two copper coins to the Temple Treasury did know God and doubtless did all she could to live according to God’s Law. Still, she had little, if any, hope of improving her situation by giving away the last of her economic holdings. Do you remember when we discussed Lection Divina back in 2105AFC012921 (↔ Click Link) – Do you hear what I hear? (↔ Music Link) I encourage you to use this approach when you do your daily devotions and read from your Bible or another source of Bible readings like the USCCB Daily Readings (↔ Click Link). As I looked at these widow stories in Sunday’s readings, I realized they represented both of the expressions in Mark and Luke regarding “the poor,” and “the poor in spirit.”

God blesses the poor with abundant love for one another. That’s pretty much all they have to go on – love for family, friends and neighbors and Love for and from God. The capacity to do that comes from recognizing that they are ” devoid of spiritual arrogance, those who regard themselves as insignificant” compared to others. Does that idea ring a bell? You’ll find it in these Bible Hub links Philippians 2:3, and Romans 12:10 as 2 out of several examples. Does one have to be economically impoverished to be “poor in spirit?” No, not always, but indications are that it helps. Wealth seems to get in the way of getting through the gate of the Kingdom of God (the camel and the needle’s eye for example). What it takes, I believe, is the admission that we are spiritually helpless regardless of our economic status. If you read John 3:5 carefully, you’ll realize Salvation is not a DIY project. It involves neither pleasure nor leisure. There is JOY for sure, but it is the JOY of witnessing, martyring. There may be some achievements an individual can make to better her/his “station in life,” but if we are riding that long lonesome train (↔ Music Link) toward pulling into that Heavenly station (↔ Music Link), then we realize that the surpassing value of being “poor in spirit” is the only way to travel. And we don’t need money to buy the ticket because Love already paid the price. That is what we commemorate in our daily Mass, every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This is because he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself. (See Hebrews 9:25-26) That is something important to remember.

It’s also important to remember the outcomes for “the poor” and “the poor in spirit.” First, regardless of the version or passage we read, we know that there is a Blessing from God involved. What is that blessing? It is “The Kingdom of Heaven” which is “The Kingdom of God.” Are those the same place, or different places? Consider this passage from Matthew 19:23-24 – 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” Jesus uses the terms interchangeably, and in both instances the Greek word used is basileia. The Kingdom of God in Heaven belongs to those who endure lacking some material things but do not lack in spiritual things. That is the Key to the treasure box, so keep it close to the treasure. I’ll add a longish passage here to make it clear that choosing Christ means being like him and living a sacrificial life. I’m going to pull this from the CEV and leave the footnotes in so that you can get the full value of the reading. You’ll see there is neither pleasure nor leisure in the sacrificial life. Put on your Lectio Divina thinking caps!

Mark 9:42-50 – 42 It will be terrible for people who cause even one of my little followers to sin. Those people would be better off thrown into the ocean with a heavy stone tied around their necks. 43-44 So if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! You would be better off to go into life crippled than to have two hands and be thrown into the fires of hell that never go out.[a] 45-46 If your foot causes you to sin, chop it off. You would be better off to go into life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.[b] 47 If your eye causes you to sin, get rid of it. You would be better off to go into God’s kingdom with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. 48 The worms there never die, and the fire never stops burning.

49 Everyone must be salted with fire.[c]

50 Salt is good. But if it no longer tastes like salt, how can it be made salty again? Have salt among you and live at peace with each other.[d] (Please use the links)

And how do we manage living at Peace with each other? “Repent and believe the Gospel.” We’ve used that in at least 1/3 of the posts this year because it is so important. We are never poor because we hold a Treasure worth more than gold In Earthen Vessels. (↔ Music Link). The pleasure and the leisure we enjoy is part of that Treasure

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

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

Biblical languages inserts and some Scripture passages in this post are from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com

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

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