Aloha Friday Message – October 29, 2021 – You talkin’ to me?

October 29, 2021

`2144AFC102921 – You talking’ to me?

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 12:34 – 34 When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.

May Peace always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd! For whom is the Bible written? To whom does it belong? By whom was it created? In whom should it dwell? By whom can it be ignored? By whom must it be obeyed? Why must we know the answers to these questions? This is another difficult post. I cannot claim the audacity to call it prophecy, but I do say that the focus today will be on what God told us about consorting with impenitent persons who do not feel shame or regret about their actions or attitudes. This focus means that – if we are to listen to what God has told us through what Jesus relayed to us from God, his Father – we are going to hear much from Jesus and his Apostles, especially the Apostle Paul. I begin with the Q&A implied in the opening.

Q: For whom is the Bible written? A: For all created in the image and likeness of God.

Q: To whom does it belong? A: To all earthlings who are accepted as God’s chosen souls.

Q: By whom was it created? A: By the Holy Spirit who inspired God’s chosen earthlings to record his Word.

Q: In whom should it dwell? A: In all who love and reverence their Creator.

Q: By whom can it be ignored? A: Only by those who devote to any person or thing higher love and reverence than they give to God.

Q: By whom must it be obeyed? A: By all who are created in the image and likeness of God.

Q: Why must we know the answers to these questions? A: The objective of this post is to present the information that we will need to answer that question. Let’s begin with what happened just up the page from today’s Key Verse.
A Pharisee came forward and asked Jesus (paraphrasing here), “What is the most important of the commandments?” Jesus’ response is found in Mark 12:29-31 – 29 Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30 you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Jesus begins by quoting the quintessential Jewish prayer, the Shema: Sh’ma Yis’ra’eil Adonai Eloheinu Adonai echad, and the First Commandment which is to Love the Lord (↔ Music Link) with our complete being. Belovéd, that is what God most desires and expects from every person. That command, that desire, that expectation is at the core of all Scripture. It is the convergence of all Laws, Covenants, Promises, and Divine Interventions recorded in the Bible. Love God. Love each other. That perfectly simple formula forms the framework for God’s Absolutely Perfect Plan (Yes, the APP, and we’re not done talking about that, either).

Now, where are we to make all of this Love happen? First in our hearts, the place where we honor everyone (and everything and everywhere) God has created and Gifted into our lives. Next, with our souls, the spiritual part of us that is most like our Father; it is the breath of life in us. God further inspired Moses to designate loving God with all our mind; our thoughts, aspirations, contemplations, prayers, worship – all centered and balanced on God. Lastly, with all our strength. That one is a little harder for us to understand these days. It means to love and serve God in a way that exceeds all else, and is vehement, intensive, diligent, and continuous. Nothing else in our lives should be given more energy and effort than loving and serving God in the ways and means which he has stipulated. The most important of these stipulations is that we are to Love God – who is Community – as community, more specifically as an ecclesial community defined as Church with apostolic succession and the accompanying Sacrament of Orders.

We’ve presented this idea before: The Church is the community called by God to his Christ for the purpose of becoming The Kingdom of God. The teachings Jesus gave to the Apostles and Disciples were given to and for THE CHURCH. When Jesus talks about offending, or serving, or aiding “a brother or a sister,” he is talking about believers – The Church, the citizens of The Kingdom. He is not talking about the World. We are to evangelize in the World, but we are not the live there, and the World is not to live in The Church! Now the next several paragraphs will be mostly Scripture – some quoting Jesus, quite a lot of it from the Apostle Paul.

Matthew 5:22 – 22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’* you will be liable to the hell of fire.
* ῥακά (rhaka) {rhak-ah’} Aramaic Transliterated Word from רִיק – “airhead”; useless; senseless numbskull.

This was likely a colloquial phrase the listeners would have known well. In the World, this would be an act of disdain and mockery. In The Church, this would be contrary to the two commandments stated above. Disdain, mockery, put downs – all these are products of pride and denials of the inherent worth of the person thus demeaned. THIS BEHAVIOR DOES NOT BELONG IN THE CHURCH, therefore, to remain in the community of Church we have three choices: [1] Repent and reconcile, [2] Leave the Church or be expelled, [3] Do not bring such a reviler into the community without first confirming repentance and reconciliation. Why do I say that? I will ask you a question first: What was Jesus’ first message to the World as recorded in Mark 1:15? Maybe you didn’t click on the link so I’ll tell you: “Repent and believe the Gospel.” Without faith, without community, without repentance and reconciliation, there is no Community of Church. I’ve addressed this before (↔ Click Link). But wait, there’s MORE.

The World is the hedonistic, godless, faithless mass outside the Church. The World has inverted the order of morality: Sins such as abortion, sodomy, euthanasia, and many other offenses against God and nature are now called “good”; and it’s a “sin”, according to The World, to oppose them. There’s an APP for that.

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 – 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons — 10 not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? 13 God will judge those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.”

“But, Chick, it’s not my place to judge or correct another sinner trying to become a saint!” Of course it is! We have the right to attempt fraternal correction first! That is called Love and is included in the Spiritual Acts of Mercy: To instruct the ignorant, to counsel the doubtful, to admonish the sinner. Check out this link (Seriously, use the link so you can see this statement in context.) 1 Corinthians 6:3 – 3 Do you not know that we are to judge angels—to say nothing of ordinary matters? God is talking to us and we must listen, obey, and respond as he has commanded. “But if we did it as you describe it, the Church would be empty. We are all sinners. Will you exclude all of us?” If you think I might be exaggerating, check out Matthew 18:15-20. His Word says only the unholy and impenitent will be shut out. Remember that God shut the door on the Ark.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 – 9 Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And this is what some of you used to be. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Romans 1:26-32 – 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.
*Them – the impenitent sinners who claim to be Christians.

Belovéd, we are all called out to prophesy against this rampant evil! (See Isaiah 5:20-21 again please. You can also find it here.) We all know what God has said, says now, and says forever: Zechariah 1:3b – 3 Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. (Lord of Hosts ≡ JEHOVAH SABAOTH – the uncontestable ruler of all Creation). Therefore I tell you this, the Word Our Triune God have bubbled up inside of me: The Church must not continue to condone the actions of people who regularly and uncaringly commit those things which God has named as sin – the ones who not only do them but even applaud others who practice them. If we do not, we are also complicit in those sins because we have allowed our brothers and/or sisters to stumble. Why has God not returned to us? We have not returned to him (↔ Music Link), even in the Church. In the name of tolerance and inclusion we draw into our community impenitent sinners who bear the moniker of Christian but do live the transformed life of intentional Disciples. We have a representation of Pachamama installed in the Vatican, and many Catholics have misconstrued this as an act of idolatry (↔ Click Link – I strongly recommend that you read that article.) IT IS CERTAINLY UNUSUAL, but – as with every action by any person or group these days – there immediately arose detractors who had no standing in the discussion because their arguments were rooted in fallacies. That’s what makes dealing with this tsunami of evil – which has fully engulfed us now – so difficult to navigate. Why is that? It is because we who are Church are trying to navigate, understand, condone, and incorporate something that is not Church. How are we supposed to deal with that?

This is where all who follow Christ – not just Catholics, but all authentically-committed Christians (and that means to the exclusions of those who practice any or all of the acts listed above – to which I will add in all-caps SIMONY), must exercise the Spiritual Gift of Discernment. We have Scripture, Apostolic Tradition, and the Teaching Authority of the Church to rely on as tools for this discernment, and the latter two depend entirely on Scripture. Scripture is supported, clarified, revealed, and fortified by Tradition and Teaching Authority. When any of those three are misused, confusion arises, and that is the clear work of The Adversary. Again, I have said this before, but I am deeply concerned by this statement from Pope Francis I: The Eucharist “is not the reward of saints, but the bread of sinners.” His comment, it seems, is directed to persons who are attempting to make the Sacrament of Communion into a political foil – on both side of the issue. I would write the statement thusly: The Eucharist “is not the reward of saints, but the bread of REPENTANT sinners.” PLEASE visit (or revisit) The Eucharist and Propriety for more details. For now, scroll back up and look at the Key Verse again. Jesus saw that the Pharisee answered wisely – that is prudently, with discretion and knowledge of Scripture. “Go and do likewise.” Purge the evil from your midst.” God must certainly is talking to us – has been since the first lump of clay became a living soul. Some of us are listening, some of us are arguing about what and who is Church. One cannot expect to be sacramentally adopted into the Kingdom of God and still continue the acts condoned in the World, but condemned in Scripture, Apostolic Tradition, and valid Teaching Authority. HE hasn’t stopped talking to me about continuing to keep talking to you. Open up and be immersed in your B.I.B.L.E. so you continue to hear. It’s a feature of the APP. We are not far from the Kingdom of God when our answers are prudent.

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 – October 22, 2021 – Multiple Choice of Gems

October 22, 2021

2143AFC102221 – Multiple Choice of Gems

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.

Originally posted under Aloha Friday Messages at https://aloha-friday.org – The Moon Beam Network as 1843AFC102618 – Trust the Dust

I fretted all week about how to get this post done, and ultimately (but in no way unusually), I was led to go with Multiple Choice. Here’s what that means:

If you’d like to learn about the power of a very simple prayer made with deep faith read 1243AFC102612 – Jericho Road.

If you’d enjoy reading about the Messianic attributes we all share as Christians, read 1543AFC102315 – A Priest Forever.

If you’d like to learn the story of the miraculous use of mud for restoring a blind man’s sight, read 1843AFC102618 – Trust the Dust. That is what I’ve chosen for today as an edited version of a previous post. Hopefully things will settle down in November (unlikely, but still hoped for), and I can get back to creating new posts.

This coming Sunday, the Gospel message will be from Mark 10 – the story of “Blind Bartimaeus.” This is one of my favorite passages. You may recall that Bartimaeus did something that was highly symbolic when Jesus called to him. You’ll find it in

     Mark 10:50 – 50 So throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. There are three actions here: [1] He threw off his cloak, [2] he sprang up and [3] he came to Jesus. (↔ Click Link for 1243↑) and why his actions were so carefully recorded. You’ll recall that the Messianic prophecies always contained a statement that the Messiah would make the blind see. (See, for example, Job 29:15, Isaiah 42:7, Isaiah 29:18, and Psalm 146:8.) For a list of Jesus’ encounters with blind men, follow this link. The one in the 9th chapter of the Gospel of John is particularly interesting (See the full account in John 9):

    John 9:6 – 6 When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made mud with the saliva and spread the mud on the man’s eyes …

Belovéd, you may have noticed that there is not a Key Verse in this message. That is because I want to pick out several little gems from Sunday’s readings – and other locations – and analyze them. Therefore, instead of a Key Verse we will have Bible Gems. Here is the first one:

    Genesis 2:7 – … 7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being. The Hebrew word used for breath in this verse is neshamah and it signifies Wind, a vital breath, or divine inspiration, “breath of life.” A few pages farther into the book we have this:

    Genesis 3:14 – 14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. When we hear “bite the dust,” or think about eating dust, we think of a creature that is repugnant, dishonorable, despicable, mean-spirited, loathsome, and forlorn. Adam and Eve received the permission with a possibility of repentance and redemption, but the Serpent did not, for in his fallen nature he has disdained all Mercy.

    Genesis 3:19 – 19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return. ” “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” – this phrase originates in this curse in Genesis. We come from dust and we return to dust. In Job 30:19, Job says 19 He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. Dust and ashes are amorphic and have no continuity; if the wind blows or water covers them they are scattered and impossible to reassemble. Mire is like boggy, sticky-icky mud sometimes including dung. Dust is always dust, ash is always ash. While we are alive, the “dust” that makes us can be separated and sorted into the compounds that keep us human, but once the Breath of Life is gone from us, we revert to just a pile of elemental chemicals and a puddle of water.

    Isaiah 65:25 – 25 The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord. Here again we see that the serpent is relegated to remaining the lowest of the low. On God’s Holy Mountain, not even the most wicked can bring harm to God’s creatures as they dwell in Peace together. This promise is similar to the Old Testament reading for this Sunday which comes from Jeremiah 31:7-9. In this passage, the LORD promises to bring his people back from the land of the north, and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labor, together; a great company, they shall return here. Despite our many failings, our sins, and our rebellion, God is always ready to save us if only we repent and serve him. The consequences for failing to do that have been presented here before: YOLO-F. You only live once – and it’s forever. Here’s an example of that:

     Daniel 12:2 – 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. BUT ALL SHALL AWAKE! We will live on this Earth for a short while, and then we will live as spirit until the Day of Resurrection. From the moment of our death in this life, our bodies revert to the clay of the earth – dust – but our spirits live on as we await the joyful hope of the coming of our Lord, Christ Jesus, and with that the Resurrection of the Dead. We will no longer be mortal dust. We will be like him for “we shall see him as he is.” (See 1 John 3:2) Now, we come to a gem that bowled me over. You know how you read a passage in the Bible and think you know what it says and then WHAMMO! – something else jumps off the page and into your heart and mind? Check this out:

     Hebrews 2:17-18 – 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. I always kind of focused on 17b: that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest, and that he himself suffered when he was tempted. To me, that spelled “fully human in every way.” BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE! If Jesus was fully human in every way, his human body was DUST. His human body died like dust; but, something happened, didn’t it? God will not “allow his holy one to experience corruption.” (See Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:25-27) What does THAT mean?!?!? The dust that Jesus was became the Glorified Resurrected Body that Jesus is because that’s what God promised Eve for her seed. It was the first promise of eternal life. Adam and Eve were prevented from eating of the Tree of Life when God cast them out of Eden. How well do we understand this banishment?

God saw that his earthlings now knew they had the knowledge of good and evil, and that they had brought that stain of imperfection into the Garden and into their lives. God did not want them to eat of the tree of Life because if they did, they would live in perpetual disgrace. God provided them with Grace and the promise of Salvation, but having seen their weakness, he acted to prevent them from eating of that Fruit of Everlasting Life. He had a plan – such a beautiful yet terrifying plan! (The APP) – to restore all that had been destroyed by sin. He sent us a “Second Adam,” who is the “last Adam;” HE became a life-giving spirit. (Please take a moment to read 1 Corinthians 15:45-49. It will be edifying.) Verse 49 says 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. We know Jesus also bore the image of the man of dust so that we might also bear the image of the man of Heaven. This is the Gospel Paul taught. We see it in this passage from Second Timothy:

    2 Timothy 2:8-10 – 8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David—that is my gospel, 9 for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

Oh, Dearly Belovéd, that is why we can “Trust the Dust!” What God made perfect in Adam, Adam made imperfect in sin. What Adam made imperfect in sin, God redeemed by restoring perfection in, through, and by Christ. Through him, with him, and in him, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, all Glory and Honor is HIS now and forever. In the Preface for Eucharistic Prayer III in Ordinary Time the Priest says in part, “…[God] fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself, so that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our Salvation …”

     Trust the dust, Belovéd! God made it, and he doesn’t make junk. He used the dust to make you and me, and also to make Mary and Jesus. What Jesus did with the dust is something only God can do, and he did it in LOVE – so that no matter what else we do – his steadfast love stays with us to accept the Gift of Eternal Life with him. Why would any of us ever settle for anything less? I cannot answer that, Belovéd, but I can see and bear witness to the millions, even billions, who consciously, willingly, and foolishly reject that Gift. Pray for them! Their YOLO-F will be exactly what God has promised – as it will be for those who wisely accept the Gift of Salvation. Trust the Dust because that is God’s instrument for our return to him.

And how do we trust the dust? We do that by knowing the Lord, because – as we chant in our Responsorial Psalm this Sunday – The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy. Those that sow in tears shall reap rejoicing. We rejoice because our Savior is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. (See Hebrews 5:6 from this week’s Epistle). In this life, we return to dust; that is necessary so that, if we chose to serve the Lord, we shall return rejoicing, no longer dust. 1 John 3:2 2 Belovéd, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. He will not be dust and neither shall we!

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 – October 15, 2021 – Mind your betters!

October 15, 2021

2142AFC101521 – Mind your betters!

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 10:43-45 – 43 But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”

Belovéd, why did I choose this strange title? I did not choose it. I asked, “What do we call this?”, and there it was, so … here’s what I found out:

This regional, outdated idiom is an adage that means “Courteously submit to those who hold better status.” There are a couple of instances in literature that contain the phrase or something similar: The Beau Defeated by Mary Pix (ca. 1700) – BETTY: Peace, and mind your betters. Another close example is in The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare (ca. 1589) – KATHARINA – Your betters have endur’d me say my mind, now it’s my turn to say my mind ab’ut my betters.

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. At the outset, I wish to salute our Pastor at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church, Fr. Nicolas Apetorgbor – Fr. Nick. In his very moving homily last Sunday, October 10th, he spoke in depth about the effects of the Sword of the Spirit – last week’s Aloha Friday Message for us. He pointed out that not only could the Word, the Sword of the Spirit, guide us in discerning good from evil, but also it helps us discern between Good and Better. Now, that lit up my brain like the Fourth of July! With some forty years in Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement Management, and also principles of management training, I have repeatedly reminded people that whatever we have or do, we can always have or do better. Eventually we hope to reach the level of “BEST,” but even BEST can sometimes be made Better. Let’s see where that epiphany takes us.

In today’s Key Verse, Jesus is reaffirming his willingness to lay down his life for the redemption of “many.” The word used here for “many” is πολύς (polys) {pol-oos’}, and in this context it means “multitudes,” in other words, innumerable. Christ died for all sinners. His sacrifice was sufficient for every created soul living in sin. The fullness of his sacrifice comes to completeness in those who persevere in faith through all persecutions in all forms (remember Mark 10:28-30). The function of his Mercy is to redeem all, but his Mercy affects all who believe in him. El Shaddai-Olam created all Life and his APP includes Salvation for all. Another example of this use for “many” or “Multitude” is found in Genesis 17:5 – 5 No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations.

Jesus willingly sacrificed his life as the perfect “sacrificial victim.” The implications of that term are wide-ranging. When we think of someone as a “victim,” we envision one who is innocent and is suffering persecution – even death – not for anything s/he has done, but rather for the nefarious purposes of the perpetrator who has no regard for innocence, Life, or intrinsic worth. If we apply the Sword of the Spirit to that sort of situation, we can clearly see we are discerning Good from Evil. Jesus, the Christ of God, submitted to being a victim to appease the pride, greed, and treachery of those who felt threatened by his radical message of Love. He carried that message with him to the Cross, to the Grave, to Sheol, to Resurrection, to Glory. We are given that same message, the message of Love, to share as good stewards of The Word. When we exercise that stewardship by “preaching to all nations (like even in our neighborhoods!), and if we do that we “receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.” Now, what could be better than that?

Indeed, what could be better than that? He said his reward for anyone “who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the Good News” would come to us “now in this age.” Are we still waiting for that to happen? Have we a hundredfold increase in our lives? How would we measure that anyway? I’ve taught for years that “What gets measured is what gets improved.” We can’t improve something we don’t know about, we can’t measure what we can’t see. How do we see what can be measured and improved? Is there any reference to which we can turn? (You’re getting warmer! Go ahead and take a guess!) YES, there is! The B.I.B.L.E. is our reference book, our measuring tool, our compass, our map-box, our direct copper-wire to God. (You already know what’s coming next.)

Where is YOUR Bible?

Pick a place, a problem, an idea, a need, a fear, a hope, an ADVENTURE!, and it’s waiting right there in the B.I.B.L.E. (Remember that’s Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth) for you to find it and use it. Do we need some help with that? Let’s see, is there someplace we can go, or someone we can see, as often as we like – maybe someone who is just a few recycled electrons away, or someone who studied how to use this reference source and tells us about it at least weekly? Well, where, and who, and how, and – come to think of it – WHY? Of course we want to think of and thank our Pastors (so mahalo nui loa Fr. Nick). We have an Aloha Friday Message – primarily as a venue for Intercessory Prayer but also getting into The Word – and in those messages are dozens of links to Scripture passages. (which we hope you use). The purpose of those links is to take our readers into and through The Word of God (Yes! It is indeed God who speaks to us there and we ought to be listening!). What might we find if we are looking for something Better than Good? Hmmm. That means we’d have to see something and measure it. Just for the sake of convenience let’s go back to our Key Verse and see what can be seen. I’ll transfer part of it here for us to review: [Jesus said] whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. Wow, we can only imagine how that sounded the first time Jesus said it. Do we wish to become great? Is that better than being “not great?” If we are basically indistinguishable from everyone else, that’s not so great; that’s humiliating. Still, being humbled is great – God himself said so in Micah 6:8 (remember?), so to be great we must be humbled as servants of … whom? Well, of course, God, but Jesus said the one who is desirous of being “exalted” must be the servant of all – everyone we encounter in our earthly sojourn. Furthermore, if we wish to be “first among our peers,” we must be the slave of all. Go-o-o-o-o-lly! In this age of PC-MeToo-BooHoo, saying “slave” or even “servant” – “Them’s fighten words, podnah!” In the context of Jesus’ speech at that time and place, it would mean being devoted to another to the disregard of one’s own interests. Instead of “ME first!,” it must (always!) be “After you.” Where is the instant gratification in that? Surely that cannot be appealing to vast numbers of people (πολύς) in this day and age – BUT Jesus says that circumstance is the prerequisite to successful citizenship in The Kingdom. Which, then, is better? Is it citizenship in The World with wealth, fame, comfort, and the high regard of everyone we encounter? I don’t think so. It is quiet, humble, and consistent service to God, to family, to Church, to community, to Nation – in short to everyone we encounter in our lives.

Now this does not mean that we take up a new career as a speed-bump and just lie down and let people run over us all day. No, it means we spend our days looking for those “Little things done with great Love,” and then doing them – quietly, justly, mercifully (↔ Click Link). That is a better way to use our Gifts. Do we have any of those? Yes, all of us have Gifts from God, and if we accept them, he expects us to use them. And there are instructions for that right there in our B.I.B.L.E.

1 Peter 4:10 – 10 Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God, serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received, and in James 1:17 we read – 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. God can’t help it, I suppose I would say, if he is way too generous. Just because he happens to be extravagantly loving (↔ Music Link) with you, he simply will not stop flooding our lives with gifts! So why is it that we are often so reluctant to acknowledge these gifts (and thereby honor the giver), and fickle in wanting to share them by serving others using those very Gifts from God? Think of all those questions that might arise if we are trying to do something better than being a speed-bump. Is any of that really important to know? Is any of it in the B.I.B.L.E.? Let’s go look!

Romans 12:6-8 can give us some insight into this avalanche of questions: 6 We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7 ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8 the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.  So, we have these gifts so that they can (should) be given – shared – with others, and the sharing is best when it is absolute, when everything (↔ Please Click Link) we have is given. Belovéd, that is ha-a-ard work! But it is also GOOD work – in fact it is BETTER work. Take a look at what the Apostle Paul says in Acts 20:35 – 35 In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” On reflection, that definitely sounds like something Good and certainly it is a status that is Better-Than-Good. Well, based on all of that, what could we say is one really important attitude to have in order to be notable in the Kingdom of God?

Ahhh, indeed it is that ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE (↔ Music Link) about which we speak so often.

When we learn to be thankfully humble and humbly thankful then we are ready to take up the duties given to us in Christ Jesus: For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. If we are looking for a better way to live, then what could be a better source for gratitude than to serve the One who came to Serve? That gratitude will lead us to more and more opportunities to serve, so we will be the servant (↔ Music Link) of all and soon we will find that in every moment of every day we are praying constantly to find the next thing, moment, person, opportunity, or Bible verse, that is BETTER. We will be paying attention to, giving deference to, being open to, and being mindful of “our Betters.”

Mind your Betters, Belovéd. They are another extraordinary Gift (↔ Music Link)  from God.

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 – October 8, 2021 – Sharpen your sword!

October 8, 2021

2141AFC100821 – Sharpen your Sword!

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.

     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.

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. Right at the outset I want to acknowledge my youngest brother, JOHN EDWARD TODD who went to the Lord recently. Today would have been his 61st birthday. We’re happy to celebrate that with him (YOLO-F, remember?) and look forward to celebrating many other wonderful events of his life.

Now, let’s get to the business at hand. The readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time include a wonderful passage from the book of Wisdom (↔ Click Link), Psalm 90 which has us singing for joy as we witness to the works of God, the above passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, and the story of The Rich Young Ruler. We’ve previously weighed in on these topics. To be bluntly honest with you, I seriously considered just giving you the links to the two older posts that cover this set of readings and leave it at that. Alas and alack, there was more that the Holy Spirit required, so we’re going to follow his directions. Nonetheless, I think it’s OK to share those links with you. You can find these posts at 1541AFC100915 – The Wisdom of Love and 1841AFC101218 – Prophet and Loss. I’d also appreciate it if you would look at this little piece about My Mother.

     Looking at our Key Verse and the image next to it, you may have guessed there is another bushel of Scripture headed our way. Since that’s the case, let’s ROLL! I’m sort of hoping you’re already ahead of me in knowing what I mean by “sharpen your sword.” Do you remember “The Full Armor of God”? (↔ Click Link) It is described in Ephesians 6:10-18. The particular piece of equipment I refer to is in Ephesians 6:17 – 17 Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Follow that link to see the whole passage.) We’re going to have to do some word etymology here so please get through this next bit with the kindness that comes from patience.

Roman legionaries in the Apostle Paul’s day carried a short two-edged sword called a gladius. That’s the Latin word for it. The Greek word is machaira. This means a short, sharply pointed sword which was “two edged” – dístomos in Greek – having “two mouths.” The nickname for that blade was “drinker of blood.” It was a very effective weapon because not only could it slash and cut like a single-edge blade, but also it could stab and slice thereby inflicting greater harm. It was indeed a superlative weapon – AND SO IS THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, THE WORD OF GOD!

Note what the Apostle Paul says at the beginning of this passage – 2 Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit. We are given this superlative weapon for battling against the Accuser. Why is it important that it divides soul from spirit? Let’s think of our soul as our intellect, our recognizable being in life. Our spirit is that part of us given by God to make us like him – we are spiritual beings, like him. What does the Accuser attack? He wants our soul, our understanding of our presence in Life. He accuses us of being sinners (and we are), and testifies against us saying we are unworthy of God’s Love and Salvation (but we are NOT!). He draws our attention away from God, and exaggerates our focus on us, blinding us to Truth. He hammers away at our hearts and minds so that we find ourselves in deep waters of remorse and regret, but he turns us away from Repentance! He serves up the garbage of our past as the treats for our pity-party. Jesus – the Word – stands against the Accuser. Satan tries to make us believe we are so corrupt that God has abandoned us in disgust.

Jesus convicts us with the Law, but does not accuse us. He speaks his Word of Love in our soul and spirit so that we realize we have sinned and long to return to fellowship with Jesus and our Brothers and Sisters in Christ – the Church. Our focus is diverted from the introspective derision Satan the Accuser uses and is turned toward the Cross where we know we find forgiveness, not abandonment. We are drawn closer to the Lord, closer to the Light, and we experience sincere contrition (not paralyzing guilt) and effective repentance. Thus, being closer to the Lord, we rest in the confidence of God’s Love and deal a painful, debilitating blow to Satan with our Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

Now, why “Sharpen your Sword” for today’s topic? Surely you’ve guessed by now. What good soldier would leave his sword gathering dust in the bookshelf, or rusting away in some musty closet? We have this Spiritual armament given by God to fight against the Accuser. Are you getting pummeled by Satan? Suit up and get out there and fight! If we’re sitting around moaning, “Poor me, Jesus’ own little Christian sibling, I am so bullied and beaten by the Devil,” just dump out that mindset. Come ON! This is WAR! WAR! Ephesians 6:12 – 12 For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. What happens to you, to me, to us, to the World if we do not fight?

What? Don’t we know the word of God? Look what God himself says: Jeremiah 23:29 – “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?” And if we refuse to fight, refuse to believe God is with us? Jeremiah 17:10 – I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Please think back to our discussions about prophesying – speaking the Word of God. That is how we use this Sword of the Spirit: We speak it and – better still – we live it. Moses opined that he wished all of God’s children would be Prophets. What would that be like? Check this out: 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 – 24 But if all prophesy, an unbeliever or outsider who enters is reproved by all and called to account by all. 25 After the secrets of the unbeliever’s heart are disclosed, that person will bow down before God and worship him, declaring, “God is really among you.” (↔ Music Link) Try to imagine how that would feel to the Accuser! OUCH is an understatement!

Well, by now you may be wishing I had just left you with those two links and have done with it. I can’t do that because 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. Scroll up a paragraph or two and reread Jeremiah’s prophesy. Here’s how Jesus followed up on that: John 12:48-49 – 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. We can’t just phone it in. We have to be out there on the field of battle, (↔ Music Link), fully armed, and we sure better sharpen our Sword because that’s how we resist the Devil – with a good sharp poke in the keister I’d say. This is WAR! JEHOVAH SABAOTH – the Lord God of Hosts – is our commanding General. We must be prepared to follow his orders as given to us through his Son and the Son’s Brigade Commanders, our Church leaders: James 4:7 – 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. That happens because The Word is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. That’s what the Accuser wants to destroy so that he can have us forever body, soul, and spirit. Let’s sharpen our Swords! Study, practice, learn, memorize, drill, train in the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God! Onward to Victory!

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 – October 1, 2021 – Bless God for Consecration

October 1, 2021

2140AFC100121 – Bless God for Consecration

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 John 4:12 – 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Mark 10:6-9 – 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

The liturgy this weekend in many churches will focus on marriage and the pledges given to God and to each other by men and women who share the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. That is a topic I would love to write about because it is such a perfect exemplar of the wisdom of God’s Creation and God’s Plan.  The readings on October 3, 2021 come from Genesis 2:18-24, Psalm 128, Hebrews 2:9-11, and Mark 10:2-16. All of these passages make references to the blessings inherent in a happy and consecrated relationship between a man and a woman. It is just one of the countless ways God blesses us in ways that show us – by example – how his universe and his law work together to make our lives replete with blessings. I will share with you an example of how a man and a woman living a life consecrated to God can begin. This is a lyric I wrote for my sister Merilee’s wedding many years ago.

MY LOVE, MY JOY

My love. My joy
I will want you all my life
Close to me
And yet, still free.
We shall be
One My Love

Together we will reach for stars
And always find them near.
With Jesus as our constant friend
We’ll have nothing to fear.

When times get rough,
Or things go bad,
We’ll stand together
Hand in hand

My Love. My Joy.
This will be our first of days.
My Love. My Joy.
With this ring I do thee wed.

Just to refresh our memories, let’s look at how God gifted Adam with a corresponding earthling: Genesis 2:21-25 – 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man*, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman** and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.” 24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
* אּישׁ (ish) {eesh} – man, husband
** נָשִׁים (ishshah) {ish-shaw’} – woman, wife

In the passage above, we have a description of how God brought about this marvelous duality of beings. Eve was created from the flesh and bone of Adam. You might call it mythology, but I call it Common Sense. Here’s why:

God had created animals out of the clay even as Adam was created, and Adam gave them names (↔ Music Link). When God saw that none of those were suitable for a companion and helpmeet for the man, he took part of the man and made of that a partner for him. Adam liked the change! He took one look at Eve and said, “at last!” I have a suitable companion. That joy in seeing Eve was a blessing for God. It made God happy to see Adam happy, and I dare say Eve was happy to see Adam as well. She was, quite literally, “made for him.” Talk about love at first sight! But, as we well know, later those two came to a rough patch in the road. Maybe it had something to do with the quality of materials used to create them?

Man comes from dirt, and – as I have often said here – that pretty well defines his character – dirt. Woman comes from dirt that had been improved by making it a living being; woman was created from the flesh of the man. Woman, it could be said, was created from better ingredients, not just dirt, but improved dirt. I might be borrowing from Papa John Pizza a little – “Better Ingredients. Better People.” Men – who come from dirt, remember – have a hard time accepting that “first” is not directly-equal to “better.” I am reminded of “The Diaries of Adam and Eve” as translated by Mark Twain:

Adam: “Dear Diary. This new creature with the long hair is a good deal in the way. It is always hanging around and following me about. I don’t like this: I am not used to company. I wish it would stay with the other animals. (To himself) Cloudy today, wind in the east, think we shall have rain. We? Where did I get that word? I remember now, the other creature uses it.”

When a married couple learns that the pronoun “WE” is the appropriate pronoun for a couple, that is when God is also praised, because that is when God’s intentions for Man and Woman come together. They are “one flesh” and – in many ways it seems – also one soul if everything is working well. I cordially invite you to look back with me to February 14, 2011 for a special message about how that works for Crucita and me! We have celebrated that Wedding Day for over 52 years – 2737 weeks – and there is still Love (↔ Music Link)

Please take a look at the key next to today’s Key Verses. You see the three rings? That’s what a consecrated marriage is all about – the three of us opening doors to ever-greater blessings. Wait, why is it three? Well, there’s you and there’s me and Jesus makes three. In our courting days, Crucita and I came to complete and irrevocable agreement on living a Christ-centered marriage. It’s always “we three.” Once Crucita was explaining that to a child and he replied, “It must be crowded in bed that way.” Well, no, it’s not crowded because we all share equally. Note that in the key, the circles are of equal size. There’s a better way to understand that. Do you remember Venn Diagrams? Take a look at this one:

The heart of a consecrated marriage – the place where love lives eternally – is right there in the middle of that. Each contributor has room to express self, and also shares equally with self and other. When all-self and all-other share equally, all is well because all is Blessed. Sometimes some folks have a hard time believing that a married life, a consecrated married life, is a blesséd life. That’s the imperfection of humanity expressing itself and sort of smudging up the edges and intersections of those circles. God knows what it is supposed to look like though, and he sends us directions for corrections. That’s one way God blesses us. It’s also one way we bless God.

We see these words “bless the Lord” in scripture so many times, especially in the Psalms (see Psalms 16, 68, 104, and 134 for samples). When I think of a blessing, I usually think of a gift, a really nice gift, which God has given me. “Bless us, O Lord, and these thy gifts ….” He blesses me constantly with food, shelter, love, friendships, knowledge, skills, abilities, feelings, beautiful surroundings, temporal comforts, and (best of all) Salvation. Anything I have, I have only because it came from him so anything I return to him was already his in the first place. How is that a blessing? How can someone who is clearly insignificant give a gift that makes the Infinite greater? Or maybe I just don’t understand what “bless” means.

Here I go again, looking at the real words used in the real Bible so I can understand the real meaning. The word used in verses 1 and 2 is the Hebrew word “barak” which means “bless.” It looks like this: ברך barak {baw-rak’}. Among the synonyms are bless, salute, blessing, praise, kneel down, congratulate, give thanks, and to be adored. Now, that makes more sense! If I add all of that together, I come up with “worship” or “honor” or “reverence.” I am not trying to confer my favor on God; I am offering him my recognition of his omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, and Omnibenevolence. I am acknowledging he is God and I am not. I am extolling, praising, exalting, applauding, revering, lauding, and glorifying God. And there’s another one of those words! Glorify God. God is the penultimate Glory. So that makes me wonder …

Q: What can my puny existence add to his Glory?
A:  Nothing.
Q: What does God need from me?
A:  Nothing.
Q: Then what can I give to God?
A:  Everything.

Huh?

 Q: If he’s got everything and he created everything and he is everything and he’s in everything, and everything I have comes from him … how can I give him everything?!?  
A:  By extolling, praising, exalting, applauding, revering, lauding, glorifying, and thanking God. That is how we bless God.

There is also the idea throughout the Bible that blessed and happy are the same thing. “Blessed are the poor in spirit …, blessed are those who mourn…, blessed are the meek…, blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness….” We know those blessings mean “happy are those who….” So I believe we can also bless God in the sense that we make him happy. He does everything he can to make us happy, so we surely can think of some things we can do to make him happy. In fact, we have a whole Book called the Bible which is full of ways to make him happy. One of the best ways he recommends is to make him happy by loving each other because he loves us and because we love him. Love. My Love. That is something I can give to God that is mine to give even though I received it first from him (please follow this link to 1 John 4:19 to see what I mean). And it’s just what he wants, too. Note I did not say it’s just what he needs; he doesn’t need anything from me; but, he will accept my love. He will accept your love. Most remarkable of all, he accepts and participates in the consecrated love in Holy Matrimony.

And do you know what else? He will accept our love! When you and I take the love he has given us, break it up, multiply it, and share it with each other … we can give that multiplied love to him too. When we bless the Lord, it is because we have understood that we are blessed by him. When we understand that blessing, we understand better how to recognize the blessings he keeps heaping into our lives. We feel grateful, so grateful that we bless him for his goodness.

Adam and Eve were Consecrated by God to God For God. Validly married couples share that blesséd state; it is what God intended from the get-go.

God created man for God, not as God, but for God. God created Woman for man and only for man – not for woman, not for beast, not for abuse or neglect – for man; and in and with man, Woman is created for God.  They are consecrated by God to God for God and for each other. Sin has corrupted that Consecration, but sin has not eliminated that Consecration. Earthlings have tried mightily for all of recorded time to get around the idea (and ideal) of that Consecration, and they’ve made quite a mess of Life because of those efforts, BUT we have not eliminated the holiness of being created to serve God together as one flesh – as one entity if you will. In our sinful stubbornness, we’ve tried thousands of ways to wiggle out of that – everything from divorce, to prostitution, to domestic violence, to  gender confusion, to character assassination. All of those things are wrong because they contravene the Holy Consecration of Man and Woman to God. We have made prodigious efforts to essentially slap God in the face for daring to create us as complementary, harmonizing, paired beings. We have demanded that God “stay out of our business” so we can redefine his Gift of Consecration according to our own poor judgment. What foolishness that is! (See Isaiah 45:9 and Romans 9:21) Throughout our history we have contrived to make society primarily patriarchal – with a few exceptions of matriarchal structuring. Whichever we choose, we have nearly always forgotten that LEADERSHIP IS NOT OWNERSHIP. (Please reread Ephesians 5:22-33 as a reminder of how God intends Matrimony to be lived.)

Men and women who attempt to replace individual perceptions of self with anything other than what God created us to be forcefully disrupt the essence of human nature. Husbands and fathers who neglect their children and abuse their spouses, wives and mothers who neglect their children and abuse their spouses, men and women who manipulate and abuse each other to satisfy carnal cravings – all of these are contrary to the Creator’s intentions for the descendants of אּישׁ and נָשִׁים. Pause and reflect for a moment on this quote from Matthew Henry (1662-1714):

     “Eve was not taken out of Adam’s head to top him, neither out of his feet to be trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him.”

God did not, has not, will not Consecrate or condone any other Matrimony. Earthlings have attempted to change the definition of Matrimony and marriage as a marriage solemnized as a civil contract without religious ceremony between any two human beings regardless of gender. Some have also decided that it’s pointless to even consider marriage when cohabitation – regardless of gender or number – brings psychosocial satisfaction to participants. Let me state as plainly as possible; this is wrong and must be condemned as must all other aberrations of relationships between men and womenbe condemned. It is equally wrong to say, “it’s none of my/your business.” If that’s not acceptable, we’ll have plenty of time between now and the Resurrection to complain about it to God – you see, he makes the rules; we don’t!

Bless the Lord (↔ Music Link), O our souls, and all that is within us bless his Holy Name. That is the Prayer of Gratitude from the heart of a consecrated marriage. How blessed are we who have been gifted in such a Divine way!! My Love. My Joy. We shall be ONE My Love!

Belovéd if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

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 – September 24, 2021 – THUS SAYS THE LORD

September 24, 2021

2139AFC092421 – THUS SAYS THE Lord

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.

     Numbers 11:29 – 29 But Moses said to him, “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!”

James 5:5-6 – 5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you.

Mark 9:39-40 – 39 But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us.

THUS SAITH THE Lord. That phrase occurs well over 400 times in the Bible, all of them in the Old Testament. It is the announcement made by a Prophet appointed by God to speak the Word of God to his people. Speaking what God says must be spoken is a powerful state of life. It is also a precarious state of life because if one misspeaks or, even worse, fabricates a prophecy, the outcome is completely unpleasant. God will not be misquoted. Our Triune God says in Ezekiel 12:25 – 25 But I the Lord will speak the word that I speak, and it will be fulfilled. It will no longer be delayed; but in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and fulfill it, says the Lord God. One of his prophets summed it up like this in 1 Kings 22:14 – 14 But Micaiah said, “As the Lord lives, whatever the Lord says to me, that I will speak.”   [He was prophesying against King Ahab and predicting his death. Micaiah (↔ Click Link)  means “who is like Yah.”] The Lord does not speak without intent. When the Lord speaks, he speaks through humans – usually men but sometimes women as well – and his messages are always given proper attribution. Let me explain what I mean by that.

The title of this piece is “Thus saith the Lord.” When that announcement is made, whatever follows is communicated to the Prophet directly and intended to be proclaimed to the People – most usually (and always in the Old Testament) Israel. When I’m reading something in a book or magazine or (worse even) online, and I see this introduction – “I believe the Lord is telling us to …” – as far as I’m concerned, that’s an opinion, not a prophecy. Nowadays it’s pretty rare for someone to stand up and say “Thus saith the Lord.” The people hearing would think “That guy is nuts.” It’s not really any surprise that in ancient Israel, prophets were viewed that same way. Jesus mentions that the ancestors of the Jews killed the prophets. The Bible tells us that Zachariah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah ben Jehoiada were murdered. Jezebel and King Ahab murdered hundreds of prophets. Elijah ordered the death of 850 Prophets of Baal (See 1 Kings 18:16-45). Prophets never have been popular because they make it clear they work for and with God. Sinners do not, and therefore don’t like to be reminded that God always has an Absolutely Perfect Plan (the APP) that always includes repentance, forgiveness, and blessings for love and obedience and also always includes accusation, judgment, and punishment for indifference and disobedience. It’s a pretty simple system. And it works very well as long as the People pay attention to the Prophets – the real, true prophets. We are reminded to be aware of the false prophets. We should take a moment to see how they work.

Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:24 – 24 For false messiahs and false prophets will appear and produce great signs and omens, to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. They do have power, but it is not power from God. Here’s how they get and use that power. First, they are deceivers. Jesus calls them wolves dressed up like sheep. They seem good, kind, gracious even, and certainly religious; but, “religious” is not the same as “righteous.” Their piety is petty and shallow, and they are quick to retaliate when criticized although the retaliation is from their own heart, not the Holy Spirit. Moreover, their “prophecies” are limited in scope because their understanding of the history, content, and purpose of Scripture is narrow and selective. These are the “proof-verse” spiritualists who usually pull things out of context and make them sound believable only within the context of their interpretations. In addition – and this is the most dangerous part. – they set themselves up as the final arbiters or authorities on what they proclaim. They may claim to have exclusive information from God or perhaps his permission to shepherd God’s people. Well, the People of God who are in Christ will not be persuaded because they know his voice and follow him. (See John 10:27) False prophets are looking for idolization, income, and ideology. They pretend to understand the Scriptures, but they fail every time. Whenever God raises up righteous Prophets, Satan raises up as many or more religious Prophets. If what they say is inconsistent with Scripture, Tradition, or Teaching – RUN! Let’s look at some real Prophets.

     In our first Key Verse, Moses is wishing that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them! That way all the Lord’s people would be intimately connected with God and would be “a light for all the nations.” Obedience would be much improved, as would their love and respect (“fear of the Lord”) for God. Indeed, a nation, a society, even a Church or a family, so devoted to God would be a worthy ideal. But, we are sinners, and we simply are not able to consistently serve God properly. What is often surprising, though, is when someone seems to sort of “fall into” that role like Jonah. Sometimes that includes strangers not even named. In the passage from Matthew, the Disciples are all in a fit about someone who is “not us” doing what “only us” has been doing, and they are apparently doing it in Jesus’ name. (See Mark 9:38-41) Jesus wisely tells them to cool their jets by saying no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. 40 Whoever is not against us is for us. Belovéd, the Prophets are for us and for God; the false Prophets are not. I mentioned some of them like to rake in the cash (do not read that as a sweeping characterization of the so-called Tele-evangelists!) and have huge beautiful buildings, churches with thousands of members, jets, cars, and a formidable entourage. Let’s look at what James said about that. I reiterate:

5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous one, who does not resist you. Prophecy is not a job one takes to improve one’s status in life! Imagine being told to lay on your side for a whole year, or having to run for your life because the Queen is sending her henchmen to kill you. The Prophets who did best in the eyes of God were the ones who repeatedly said “THUS SAITH THE Lord GOD,” and then stood their ground regardless of the opposition. They believe that what the Lord says is true and they know that God can do anything he says. One of my favorite examples of that is the story The Healing of a Boy with a Spirit. You’ll find that in Mark 9:14-25. Jesus asks the boy’s father about his son’s behavior. After the description, the father says (See Mark 22b-25) but if you are able to do anything, have pity on us and help us.” 23 Jesus said to him, “If you are able!—All things can be done for the one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25 When Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You spirit that keeps this boy from speaking and hearing, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!” I have used that father’s prayer many, many times. Sometimes I pray in a similar way, I love; help my lack of Love! There is a reason God sends us Prophets; he wants us to know the power of belief. “Faith can move mountains” is a familiar adage based on a Bible verse (can you find it in your Bible?) Saying that does not make one a Prophet, nonetheless it is a Word from God – it tells us how to trust him in all things. That’s the purpose of prophecy – to let us know what God is thinking, and then how to think as he thinks. Sometimes he gives us a warning and tells us the dire consequences of failure to act on that warning; but, guess what? Every warning comes with a blessing, every curse comes with a blessing, every punishment comes with a blessing FOR WHOEVER REPENTS, OBEYS, AND BELIEVES THE WORD. Prophets remind us that God always, always, always Loves us and all he requires from us is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might (See Deuteronomy 6:5) and but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. So easy to remember … until we forget. Belovéd, let’s take a moment to make a moment.

If we want to be inspired, to be instructed, to be edified, to discover a revelation from, for, or about God, we are looking for a Prophet because that’s what Prophets do. Some prophecies come with conditions (do this and/or I’ll do that) and often the conditions are rather explicit. The outcomes are also often explicit – reward or punishment based on obedience. He expects us to be finished with sin.
Today, I ask all of us, “Are we done with sin? Do we commit to loving God and neighbor as he commanded? Are we done with the life we have chosen to live, including the times we suppressed our consciences? Are we ready to hear God ask us, “ARE YOU DONE WITH THAT?” Well, are we? Like you, I’m doing the best I can – I hope – but, honestly, it’s not enough. In whatever way God decides to deal with those who are deemed unworthy of Heaven, I absolutely aspire to be in that other group and I absolutely do not want to be guilty of failing to warn, to coax, or to plead with and for any soul that could end up being separated from God in any fashion whatsoever. I just want to encourage you to Take Time To Be Holy (↔ Music Link) and to remember You Can’t Be A Beacon if your light don’t shine (↔ Music Link) so that God may be all in all as his Prophets foretold. Belovéd, come to the Light and share in the Feast. Come to the Table of Plenty (↔ Music Link). God will provide for all that you need. Do not let that old liar and thief break in and steal your Joy! Come to the Table and live The Abundant Life. Here is an excellent reason to do so: Joel 2:28 – 28 Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Moses’ prayer that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them, will come into being when all of us open our hearts and minds to the Power of the Holy Spirit as testify as Prophets for the Lord.

For further study, please read 1804AFC012618 – A Prophet In Deed for a little Prophet humor.

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.

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

Aloha Friday Message – September 17, 2021 – Love and Prayer, War and Peace

September 17, 2021

2138AFC091721 – Love and Prayer, War and Peace

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.  AS FOR THOSE ANNOYING ADS ON THE MUSIC LINKS, JUST WAIT A FEW SECONDS BEFORE LEFT-CLICKING AND THE AD WILL CLOSE ON ITS OWN.

A pile of keys outside an antique shop in Eton.

Psalm 40:1 – I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry

Wisdom 2:18 – 18 For if the righteous one is the son of God, God will help him and deliver him from the hand of his foes.

Psalm 54:4 – 4 But surely, God is my helper; the Lord is the upholder of my life.

James 4:1-3 – 1 Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2 You lust, and don’t have. You murder and covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask. 3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. World English Bible (WEB) by Public Domain. The name “World English Bible” is trademarked.

Aloha pumehana, a me ke akua ho’omaika‘i ‘oe, ʻŌmea! Warmest Aloha, and may God bless you, Belovéd! Today I want to bring together two characteristics about our relationship with God and with each other. The first is LOVE. The Second is PRAYER. God loves us unconditionally. Jesus commands us to love each other as he loves us – unconditionally. We tell God – the Divine Trinity – about our LOVE in prayers of adoration, thanksgiving, and praise. In our prayers we also ask God to be mindful of the persons we LOVE. I want to look at both of these biblically and also share some practical ways these actions – loving and praying – work together.

First, I want to share with you some verses about God’s LOVE. It is so amazing that, if I did not believe in it, it would be incredible. It is credible, however, because we can see it and feel it in our lives, in our hearts and minds, and especially in the love we share among each other. Here are some – only a few – of that wonderful things we know about God’s love – and we know them because they are things HE told us!

It is an Everlasting Love
Jeremiah 31:3b – I have loved you with an everlasting love; (↔ Music Link) therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.

It is a Manifested Love
1 John 4:9-13 – 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world (↔ Music Link) so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. (↔ Music Link)

It is a Redeeming Love
Isaiah 63:9b – It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Jude v. 21  21 keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.

It is a Preserving Love
Romans 8:38-39 – 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is a Persevering Love
Isaiah 55:3b – 3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David

Now, this next one isn’t exactly in the Bible, but maybe you are familiar with it.

It is Way-Cool Love
Isaiah 54:10 – 10 For the mountains may depart* and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. * Here is a great (↔ Music Link)

It is an Enduring Love
Isaiah 49:15 – 15 Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.

It is a Perfecting Love
1 John 2:5-6 – 5 but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him: 6 whoever says, “I abide in him,” ought to walk just as he walked.

And we can. We can live just as he lived, walk as he walked, love as he LOVED if we live in his LOVE.

We share LOVE, we grow LOVE, and we grow in LOVE through prayer. In today’s Key Verse from Psalm 40, the Psalmist declares he waited patiently for the LORD. Sometimes we find that difficult as in the prayer, “LORD grant me patience right now!” Sometimes we just can’t seem to make what we want to say come out in a way that makes sense; we think God needs an interpreter to understand us. Let’s take a quick look at a couple of biblical statements about prayer (two out of thousands).

Romans 8:38-39 – 38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ʻŌmea, use this link to see this quote in full context.)

It is an Always-Merciful Love
Hebrews 4:16 – 16 Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Yes, it is true. Nothing can separate us from the Love of God, and that means – since God is Love – he places no obstacle between us and Him. And yet, we stumble through prayer sometimes as if it were a terrible ordeal, or breeze through prayer as if it were a recitation of some sort with no depth of meaning. Paul tells us to approach the throne of grace with boldness. Sometimes we feel that we need to learn how to pray so that when we pray we don’t just babble and we don’t recite platitudes and we don’t go away thinking, “Well, if that didn’t work, I don’t know what else will!” Really? Let’s take a look at the anatomy of a prayer. For instance, how do you start?

  • Dear God … Ummmm, Hi God, it’s me. You know, “The Sinner in Apartment D-316?”
  • Jesus, I come to you today to ask for your help with my nut-case neighbor.
  • Almighty God, we come to you today to thank you for sparing us during this latest winter storm.”

So what kinds of “things” go into a prayer, and how can we learn to build a prayer that flows, that is both Biblical and relevant, and one which isn’t so convoluted we don’t even remember what we said? I’m going to suggest a simple outline and give some examples. Here’s the outline:

  1. Greeting
  2. Praise
  3. Thanks
  4. Petition
  5. Confession/Profession
  6. Closing

#1 – Greeting: Name the person to whom you address your prayer: God, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Blessed Trinity, Lord, Master, any opening like that is fine. I have said before my favorites are My El Shaddai-Olam and Abba.

#2 – Praise: Hallowed be thy name, you alone are Holy; you are our awesome God, Omnipotent and Omniscient Creator, Lover of my soul, source of all that is Good, Great, and Just Judge of all mankind, and so on. What is there in my heart and mind that just totally wows me when I think of Him? How can you combine that with the Greeting? They can work together. Here is one that was inspired by a popular contemporary Christian music group – the Hemphills – in the 80’s:
Father, we worship you as One in the Love of the Spirit and the Son.
Jesus, we honor you as Lord by all of Heaven and Earth adored.
Spirit, we love you as our Friend and giver of Love and Gifts without end.
#3 – Thanks: We thank you for all your gifts, thank you for hearing my prayer, thank you for all your blessings, thank you for subduing my enemies, thank you for this day / this life / this world / this family / this spouse / this (everything). To borrow a line from a Gospel chorus … “Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul / Thank you Lord for making me whole. / Thank you Lord for giving to me / Thy great Salvation so rich and free.” Yes. You can quote another’s prayer as part of your prayer especially if it’s a song! (↔ Click Link)

#4 – Petition: This is the part we’re pretty good at, giving God a To-Do list. In fact, truth be told, this is almost always where most of us start. Even if we don’t usually pray the “gimme” prayer, we pretty much expect God to pop up like the genie in the bottle and grant our wishes. A bicycle, a house, a victory over an enemy, something to suit our passions, you know what to ask, and the Bible tells you how to ask – with faith, believing that you will receive it, and in Jesus’ name. But we’re not quite to that closing part yet. Sometimes the best petition is to ask God for guidance, for the grace to see and do his will, or for direction (↔ Click Link) about what he would have us do next. Another is to prepare (↔ Click Link, seriously) your heart for his Presence (↔ Yup, Click this Link, too). (PLEASE USE THESE LINKS.)

#5 – Confession/Profession: “Wait a minute, I’m not Catholic.” “What is there to confess, and to whom?” “What do you mean, ‘confess’? And what could I profess that God doesn’t already know?” You know that part in the Lord’s Prayer “Forgive us our debts (trespasses) as we forgive our debtors (those who trespass against us)? That is a confession of our sinfulness. “Lead us not into temptation (Do not put us to the final test): That is a confession of our weaknesses. But deliver us from evil (from the evil one): That is a confession of our awareness that we are sinners redeemed by Grace through the loving protection of God. When we say, “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy name,” we are professing our awe of God’s benevolent power in our lives. What does that sound like outside of the Lord’s Prayer? When you pray the Apostles or Nicene Creed, your profession of faith, you publicly profess what you believe. You can declare that privately in your personal prayer as well. Here’s a little example:

Master, I do not know how to pray so that my prayers are pleasing to you, but send me your Spirit to pray with me. You are my hope and my Joy. In you alone do I find comfort and peace. You alone are worthy of Praise, O God my strength and my redeemer! In you, O LORD, I am made whole. I know my sinfulness. Grant me faith to overcome sin and to live in your presence at all times. Look into my heart, Holy Spirit, and remove all that is offensive to you. Cast me not out from your presence O God, but in your mercy save me from my sins. I confess my love for you, my Lord and my God. I place my trust in you. Jesus, I trust in you. Jesus, I love you above all things and persons, and I desire to receive you into my heart and soul. Sprit of the Living God, I surrender my entire life to the Holy Trinity without reserve. O God, you are my God and I will always praise you. I offer this prayer in the name of Jesus, the Christ who lives and reigns with God the Father Almighty, in the Unity of the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life. Amen.

#6 – Closing: Jesus told us to pray in His name, and that’s pretty easy: In Jesus name. Amen. In your most precious name, we pray. As the Lord taught us, we pray in His name, Amen. In faith believing, we place our trust in you, Jesus. As you have commanded through your Son, Jesus Christ (↔ This is how and why it works! Click it!), we pray in His name, AMEN. In the Power of the Blood of Jesus we humbly pray. Amen.

Once we learn to converse with God instead of simply giving him a To-Do list, then our prayer life becomes a source of constant joy. Therefore, Beloved, pray for one another that God will give all of us “the will to do small things with great love.” (Use all the links in this paragraph, please.) Remember, God – all three Persons – knows everything (↔ Click it.), is everywhere (← Do not miss this one!), and is all-powerful. Knowing these things, we also know God is always with us, around us, and in us, and we have no need to shout or doubt. We can be confident He reads and hears our heart’s longings. It only takes a moment for God to answer our prayer. One day it will happen. Wait patiently on the LORD. Pray in gratitude without ceasing. God Will Take Care Of You. (↔ Music Link) He will lean in to reach you and hold you in his LOVE. God is the upholder of our lives, the source of our Peace. And even the son of God endured all for the sake of Love – yes, Belovéd, it was more than nails that held him to the cross; it was above all LOVE. When you are held in the Peace of Love, there is no longer war or illicit passion – we are free from all that is unworthy of God and at ease in Peace. Let Christ Be Our Light.  (↔ 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.

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

Aloha Friday Message – September 10, 2021 – Unbearable?

September 10, 2021

2137AFC091021 – Unbearable?

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 8:29 – 29 He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.”

Mark 8:32-33 – 32 He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in truth and love. Folks, the readings for this Sunday are heavy stuff! Isaiah’s poetry gives us a mental image of what we recall about Jesus’ so-called trial during his Passion. Here’s a brief sample:

Isaiah 50:6 – 6 I gave my back to those who struck me, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I did not hide my face from insult and spitting. In the next verse he says, “I have set my face like flint and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

Isaiah continues to describe the fate of the Suffering Servant in the very familiar passage of Isaiah 53 (Sometime this week I hope you will come back, click on this link for Isaiah 53, and reread it.) When we have compassion, sorrow, even empathy with Jesus’ suffering, we sometimes gain new insights into our own suffering. “Aw, shucks! It ain’t so bad! Long as I’m on this side of the grass everything’s good.” We might strike that pose of bravado in front of others, but inwardly we often hear our own voice say, “I’ve had enough of this! I don’t even know how to pray any longer! I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. It just wears me out, it’s so-o-o unbearable.” And yet, what does Jesus say to his Disciples about a cross? He says, as recorded here in Mark 8:34-35 – 34 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35 For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the Gospel, will save it. (Please see 1725AFC062317 – What do you say? for important information on the Greek for “deny.”)

Oh my word, that’s a whopping-big requirement – those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the Gospel, will save it. Everyone listening knew what a cross was, and they knew it was part of the Roman’s way of disgracing a person condemned to die to carry the implement of their death to the place of their death. I sometimes imagine people sat there shaking their heads and wondering how much crazier this new Prophet could get. Even today, with 2,000 years of work and study on this passage, the content and import of it is immense. Does he literally mean “Grab a cross and carry it beside me to Calvary.”? Honestly, when I think about that, about the suffering he endured for ME, my heart turns and my stomach churns. I could never do that. It would be unbearable; still, I am to bear my cross, and give up my life for the Gospel. Alright, then, where is this cross that I must take up? The answer really surprised me. It validated that old adage, “Be careful what you ask for.” Where is my cross? I am my cross.

I have to put up with me. I have to pay the temporal cost for my sins – those consequences that accompany every action I make – are mine to deal with. Jesus took care of the Eternal consequences, but I still am accountable for the temporal, in-my-own-little-world consequences. If you don’t believe me, try telling a law enforcement officer or a Judge, “No worries guv! Jesus has got my sins all paid for. It’s been covered.” Nice thoughts, but – if you are deserving – you’re still going to jail. We bear the consequences for all the smart and stupid  things we do. That’s how it works. Now I want to throw something in here that’s sort of a light-hearted interruption. I want to use it for two reasons. [1] It’s kind of a funny story, and [2] it uses the word “unbearable.” Here we go:

The Pregnant Wife

A man from Bolivia was meeting with some officials from The Bureau of Consular Affairs about getting visas for him and his wife. He was having some difficulty because his command of English was limited. The official asked if he would be bringing any children along as well. The man replied, “Ah, no, Señor, my wife is unbearable.” The puzzled look on the official’s face indicated he hadn’t understood. “Ah, Señor, what I mean to say is that she is, ahhh, inconceivable.” The puzzled look on the other man’s face changed to surprise. The Bolivian man decided to try one more time. “You see, Señor,” … he then whispered, “she is impregnable.” The official’s face lit up with understanding, and he wrote on the application, “NO CHILDREN.”

When we say unbearable we mean that something is not tolerable, it is unable to be endured, it is something our capabilities cannot manage. It would be overwhelming, massively painful or destructive; it might even kill us. Are we really¸ really ready to die as a martyr while testifying about Jesus? Let me go back to “I am my cross” and try to answer that question about martyrdom.

If “I am my cross” is true, then when I “deny my self and take up my cross” to follow Jesus, that is very much like my day-to-day life consequences. If there is some simple thing I’d like to do that really isn’t good for me or that doesn’t really show love for God or neighbor, what happens if I go ahead and do it anyway? Well, of course, I have sinned! Now, if I deny that impulse, then I – in a manner of speaking – put it to death, and I do not sin. There are other ways we become, and deal with, being our cross. One which most of us associate with Jesus’ suffering is PAIN. We all know pain – physical pain, emotional pain, even spiritual pain – and honestly none of us like it. Let’s just think about physical pain for a moment. We know people with cancer or other chronic illnesses have plenty of pain. We know that innocents from fetuses to old-timers are tortured to death. Some of us have injuries that plague us for years.

I’ll share something with you: I have a stasis ulcer on my right ankle that’s been surgically debrided every week since January and wakes me up at night. Both rotator cuffs have significant, inoperable tears. There is osteoarthritis in practically every movable joint in my body. Pretty much every move, every step, every breath, every blink is a moment of pain. I tell you sincerely, I have no use for it; so every day I give it to God so he can do with it as he pleases. Do you remember how the Apostle Paul described that? Take a look:  Colossians 1:24 – 24 I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. Doing that doesn’t diminish what my senses are telling me, but it does make my sensations sensible. Maybe someone on my IPL could get the benefit, or even someone I know nothing about. It’s just one of those things that makes my days better. Now, let’s talk about the head-snapper in today’s Key Verses.

     Jesus asks the Disciples, “Who do you say that I AM?” The Apostle Peter comes back with the correct response – You are the Christ. You are the Messiah. Again Jesus tells all of them not to tell anyone else – yet. His revelation as Messiah is set for the time of his Passion, and it’s just days away, but it is not that day. Jesus tells them openly, frankly, and factually that  he is going to die a terrible death. Next thing you know, The Apostle Peter is so pleased with himself for getting the right answer that he feels he can take Jesus aside and say, “Look Master, you can’t talk like that! Nothing that bad is going to …” Jesus breaks in with “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” Now usually in my mind’s little movie theater, Jesus says that angrily, but actually I think he probably said it with sadness.

As in the wilderness when tempted by Satan, The Apostle Peter was taking the role of opposing what is God’s will essentially saying that course of action he deemed unnecessary. Jesus the Christ knew that it was his divinely-appointed purpose to suffer and die. The Apostle Peter was saying “There gotta be a better way.” Although he said it out of love and respect for his friend and Master, it was still wrong! It must have really stung his sensibilities, because The Apostle Peter wasn’t thinking of Jesus the same way God was thinking of Jesus. Here’s why it is so important to understand the difference. We do not want to pen God up in a pretty little box!

Belovéd, he is the God of the impossible! What did Gabriel tell Mary? “for with God all things are possible.” What did Abraham decide about sacrificing Isaac. “God can restore his life if he chooses to.” We have a tendency to measure what God can do by using our yardstick. Boy! Is that dumb! I can only do what is humanly possible, and there’s not much of that that I can do any more, so my busted yardstick is certainly no match for God’s awesome power.

We would all love to see miracles, wouldn’t we? When I look out my window, I see several – and they are all from God! Who can make a flower? (↔ Music Link) As nearly I can tell, it’s a Wonderful World (↔ Music Link) out there. Have you ever thought about how great a miracle it is to plant one kernel of corn and get 500 back? We have such low expectations of our God. There’s nothing at all wrong with asking him to tackle the big stuff. After all, look at all the little stuff he manages. Ask him for the big stuff! If he doesn’t change your illness or pain, at least you get credit for asking in faith.

Here’s the deal: I Expect A miracle! (↔ Music Link) Like Iz, says “You gotta just make you kuleana pono.” (Kuleana = caring responsibility. Pono = done with careful correctness in harmony with all things and persons.) We have to make whatever we do be worthwhile and doable; we need to “do t’ings for God’s way not for my way.” The Apostle Peter learned that eventually and that enabled him to be the Rock upon which the Church was built. You know, I don’t mind at all being a little stone in the floor of that edifice. That’s because I have solid faith in what The Apostle Peter himself told us in 1 Peter 2:4-5 – 4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. My little life is no bargain, believe me; but, if I put it where it belongs – in God’s hands – if I invest it, clothe it with Love, and give every living moment to him for you and to you for him, then nothing in my life will ever be unbearable. I’m going to close with something from 2020 (↔ Click Link) because the point made by what follows can be life-changing:

We want to acknowledge and thank Turn Back to God and Jesus Christ Cartoons for this wonderful object lesson on The Cross We Carry. Used with permission from the author at http://www.turnbacktogod.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Jesus-Christ-Cartoon-02.jpg

Please use this link to see the image full-size at that location.

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 – September 3, 2021 – Opened to Hear, Closed to Fear

September 3, 2021

2136AFC090321 – Opened to Hear, Closed to Fear

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 35:4 – 4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

Mark 7:34-35 – (↔ Please use this link to see the whole story in context.) 34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha*,” that is, “Be opened.” 35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

* Ἐφφαθά = Ephphatha and is part of the Baptismal Rite when the Priest says, “Ephphetha: that is, be opened, that you may profess the faith you hear, to the praise and glory of God. While saying this, he touches the ears and lips of the candidate. I found this illustration of the Bible story, and to me it makes this passage clearer. Take a look:

    This man was freed from what kept him “locked up” inside himself. He is referred to as “a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.” Many of us have known hearing-impaired persons who have trained themselves to speak. The speech is understandable but not without distortions. We know, then, that he could communicate his inner thoughts and desires, but could not hear the responses to whatever he had spoken. He released his fear, fired up his faith, asked for and received Jesus’ help, and his life was completely changed. If we try to understand why Jesus used this unusual form of healing, we might not get any better answer than, “It was necessary.” The deaf man was in the presence of the Creator (↔ Click Link), so whatever the Creator did was how the Creator worked. Oh, how we love to say it! “God works in mysterious ways.” Sometimes we say that tongue-in-cheek (↔ Click Link) because we wonder how something good could come out of a real mess. Often the best explanation is “God did it.” That kind of childlike faith is a supreme goal for every Christian, and when we resort to such simplicity, we find ourselves standing much closer to The Light of Truth. Belovéd, if we’re standing in The Light, we need not fear the darkness!

That is what Isaiah is prophesying in the other Key Verse for today.

During Isaiah’s ministry, Israel and Judah were in terrible straits. They were oppressed, repressed, depressed, distressed, and hard-pressed to even stay alive. Neighboring nations waged wars against them, there were revolts and swift counter-attacks. Some of the names involved are familiar to us both historically and biblically: Sargon, Sennacherib, Assyrians and Arameans, Ashdod and Hezekiah, and Babylon and its Arabian allies. Good News was hard to find, because bad news was everywhere you looked. It seemed to Israel and Judah – “The Divided Kingdoms” – that God had abandoned his Chosen People. They certainly got a whopping-big chastisement for their disloyalty, wicked rejection of God’s sovereignty, and their lack of faith and trust in God’s deliverance. True to form, though, God had something better in mind for them – Salvation! In the short-term scheme of things, God was going to overturn the oppressors who devastated the Kingdoms. In the long-term scheme, we know that his Promise of a Redeemer for all earthlings was behind everything he did. Now, can you guess what Israel and Judah had to do to get out of that mess? I’ll give you a hint: It starts with R, ends with T, and means “turn around.”

Now that we understand that, it’s time to look at the driving force behind one of the greatest Prophets that ever lived. I’m going to ask you to go “off-message” for a moment so you can read about the remarkable circumstances behind Isaiah’s call to serve God. It’s one of the most remarkable passages in Scripture. Whenever I read it I think, “God is indeed very and completely AWESOME!” The images invoked by this passage are absolutely magnificent. Please take a few moments right now to at least glance through Isaiah Chapter 6. We will peek in on some of that passage now.

     When I read about what Isaiah saw – the Lord God on a Glorious Throne with Seraphim surrounding and praising him (In the Christian theological doctrine of angels, the Seraphim are the highest-ranking celestial beings in the hierarchy of angels), I sense the absolute awe he must have felt. From that magnificent throne room, God called out as in Isaiah 6:8 – 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (↔ Music Link!) WHAT A RECRUITING CALL!! How thrilling to have such Majesty and Power say “You’re my guy for this job – only if you take it.” It is as magnificent a call as the fiat of Mary or the mantle of Prophecy passed to Elisha (See 2 Kings 2:8-14). The passage also reminds me of the vision of God and his Throne recorded in Daniel 7:9-14 when the Judgment before the Ancient One is described. In all of these visions of God, there is a strong and beautiful message to those who are suffering. We see it in our Key Verse from Isaiah: “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” That message is for us as well, Belovéd.

We are surrounded by so much violence and evil! It seems that every day we are assaulted by more news of natural disasters and horrific catastrophes so disruptive that entire communities – and many of their inhabitants – are destroyed. There are indeed wars and rumors of wars. There are appalling incidents of terrorism and cruelty, horrifying stories of excessiveness in politics, religion, and human interactions, and the constant fear of yet another incredibly deadly disease sweeping across the planet.

Then we hear it as in Psalm 46:10 – 10 “Be still, and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.” This idea of “being still” is an important Act of Faith. Take a look at Psalm 37:7 – 7 Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; do not fret over those who prosper in their way, over those who carry out evil devices. In the prophetic poetry of Isaiah’s messages later on in his career, God’s message in Isaiah 30:15 – 15 For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning [repentance] and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. Alright, by now you get the idea. We need to quiet down and listen for God’s call. What would he want to say to us? How about this?

DO NOT BE AFRAID. He says that nearly 70 times in Scripture. Have no fear, fear not, be not afraid (over 80 times!) And how about this: Mark 4:9 – 9 And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” You know what? I’ll be somewhere listening! (↔ Music Link) Where is that somewhere I’ll be listening? Right here, Belovéd; I’ll be right here. It’s really hard for me to be quiet (someone just said “No kidding!”), but Love makes it possible – whenever I remember Love. All this disease – “If I get the covid I’ll die” – and war – “Authorities in Afghanistan today said …” – and violence – “A large group marching in a peaceful protest over the new laws was attacked by a mob of dissidents who …”  –  – What’s it all coming to? What do we do? We quietly trust that God will say to us  “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”

I believe that. Do all of us believe that? If not, why not – what’s stopping us? Let us therefore make our ears, our hearts and our minds Opened to Hear, Closed to Fear. (Brendan, this is for you) – Remember FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real (the Devil’s lying again!), and FAITH is Fully Aware I Trust Him. I find good reason to trust whenever I read Jude 1:24-25 – 24 Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, 25 to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

I want to share this Music Link with you again. Please think of it when you’re watching the news on the MSMOs, or reading the paper (or some news blog) or listening to a podcast. As long as there is Love in the World we know God will be telling us “Be Not Afraid.” (↔ Music Link) Beloved, let us quietly listen for God’s call “Whom shall we send?”, and stop being afraid. We stop all the worry, because Why worry when you can pray? (↔ Music Link). Here is the secret to finding that Wisdom:

😀

In fifth grade, our Music Teacher Mrs. Williams would put on a record for us to listen to, and she seemed to say, “Sit down. Be quiet. Listen Carefully. Be in the music.” Isaiah might say something similar: Sit down. Be quiet. Listen Carefully. Be in the Lord.

That’s a wrap for these two key verses, but I have one more thing to add – a wonderful story that goes with the Epistle for this coming Sunday. It’s from James 2:1-5 and it begins like this: My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? Let me share an example by telling you about

The Old Cowboy

One Sunday morning, an old cowboy entered a church just before services were to begin. Although the old man and his clothes were spotlessly clean, he wore jeans, a denim shirt, and boots that were very worn and ragged.

In his hand he carried a worn out old hat and an equally well-worn, dog-eared Bible.

The church he entered was in a very upscale and exclusive part of the city. It was the largest and most beautiful church the old cowboy had ever seen.  The people of the congregation were all dressed with expensive clothes and fine jewelry.

As the cowboy took a seat, the others moved away from him. No one greeted, spoke to, or welcomed him. They were all appalled by his appearance and did not attempt to hide it.

As the old cowboy was leaving the church, the preacher approached him and asked the cowboy to do him a favor. “Before you come back in here again, have a talk with God and ask him what he thinks would be appropriate attire for worship in this church.”   The old cowboy assured the preacher that he would.

The next Sunday, he showed back up for the services wearing the same ragged jeans, shirt, boots, and hat. Once again he was completely shunned and ignored.

The preacher again approached the cowboy and said, “I thought I asked you to speak to God before you came back to our church.”

“I did,” replied the old cowboy.

“If you spoke to God, what did he tell you the proper attire should be for worshiping in here?” asked the preacher.

“Well, sir, God told me that He didn’t have a clue what I should wear. He said He’d never been inside this church.”

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 – August 27, 2021 – The Beast Under the Bed

August 27, 2021

2135AFC082721 – The Beast Under the Bed

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 7:17-23 – 17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18 He said to them, “Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, 19 since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 20 And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. 21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

     James 1:17-20 – 17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures. 19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.

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, Belovéd. Surely you must be thinking, after reading that title, “The Old Man has finally fallen off the cliff and landed in the loony bin.” My dear friends, that is indeed a possibility, so let me show you what I mean. Let’s begin with why I picked these Key Verses. We’ll start with the parable mentioned. Jesus had just taken the Pharisees to task for cheating parents out of the support they should have been giving by saying that the resources for that care have been set aside as a sanctified gift for God and therefore the parent should not expect any access to those resources. Of course, those greedy children using this excuse gave perhaps a small offering to the Temple, but the rest went for their own pleasures. Jesus scolded them for making a big show out of “keeping The Law” and by criticizing Jesus’ disciples for not performing the ritual hand-washing before eating. Such behavior, they said, defiled the person and what the person ate. Jesus was showing the Pharisees that they had made The Law a threatening and even frightening barrier set up to hold them away from the goodness of worship in the Temple. This barrier was like the Greek mythological creature Cerberus (← Check it out!), a “religion” monster that blocked the Jews going in for worship or coming out with blessings. The Law had become a monster under the control of the three political powers then – The Pharisees, the Sadducees (opposing political parties), and the Priests (the executives who owned the right to pass judgment). To put it in frank terms, that really ticked Jesus off! He blasted the masters of that monster many times, and Belovéd, that really ticked them off, too! It got them angry enough to start plotting to kill this rebellious, blaspheming, trouble-making upstart from some hick village in Galilee.

Jesus was most angry about this monster forcing God’s children away from God’s gifts of Love, and Peace, and Joy – all the things promised to those who kept The Law – but denied to those children of God by greedy, sinful, vain men who valued prestige and power over justice and mercy. I think all of us can recall times when we absolutely knew something terrifying was right over there in the closet, or under the bed, or behind the curtains. Our moms and dads would comfort us, show us it was just a shadow or an imaginary shape. No monsters would get past the loving protection of our parents! … except maybe for that one that lived under the bed and was invisible, and might even be friendly enough to touch if we just patiently waited for it to talk to us. Then, just as we drifted off to sleep, we heard it roar into life and knew it really was a monstrous beast under the bed. After that jolt of fright, many of us ended up spending the night in our parents’ bed. That reality indeed was God’s gifts of Love, and Peace, and Joy. It was full and free access to all that is Good – every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, (↔ Music Link) and that is True because it is not imaginary, not false evidence, not under the control of anyone but God.

     My Belovéd friends, we really do have a monster under our bed, but this one is not like the imaginary monsters that scared us as children. This monster is one that we try to make into a pet; but it’s a wild animal that will destroy us and all we have if we allow it to stay with us, to control us, to get in-between us and all that is Good. Those things are available to the Children of God through his Church, and we are told repeatedly that in that Church we are not to compromise with evil. Now, here comes a whole slew of Bible passages. Just read through them gallantly and then we can wrap this up. I want to start with how the monster was used to threaten Jesus and his Disciples during the Passion:

Matthew 26:59-65 – 59 Now the chief priests and the whole council were looking for false testimony against Jesus so that they might put him to death, 60 but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward 61 and said, “This fellow said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.’” 62 The high priest stood up and said, “Have you no answer? What is it that they testify against you?” 63 But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I put you under oath before the living God, tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” 64 Jesus said to him, “You have said so. But I tell you,

From now on you will see the Son of Man
seated at the right hand of Power
and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

65 Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? You have now heard his blasphemy.

The monster is a liar and a murderer, and we want nothing to do with him. THERE IS NO REASON TO COMPROMISE OUR FAITH OUT OF FEAR BECAUSE THE MONSTER CLAIMS IT WANTS TO BE IN THE PEW WITH US! Here’s an example from the Apostle Paul:

1 Corinthians 5:9-13 – 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons — 10 not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother or sister who is sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber. Do not even eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging those outside? Is it not those who are inside that you are to judge? 13 God will judge those outside. “Drive out the wicked person from among you.” This last Scripture quotation is from several passages in Deuteronomy where God orders that those who are evil must be purged from the midst (↔ Click Link) of the people. He will not tolerate evil where there should be only holiness! Brothers and Sisters, that applies to us. Are we so intimidated by this monster of accommodation, acceptance, and compromise that we feed and defend the beast under the bed?

In his letter to the Hebrews, the Apostle Paul again points out the difference between regret and repentance. Repenting changes us. Regret merely disguises our sinful intentions. Hebrews 12:16-17, 25 – 16 See to it that no one becomes like Esau, an immoral and godless person, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 You know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, even though he sought the blessing with tears.

25 See that you do not refuse the one who is speaking; for if they did not escape when they refused the one who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject the one who warns from heaven! Who ya gonna call? It had better be Jesus, and not the caretakers for the beast. That monster is no “ghost” to be busted. This monster intimidating us is from the demonic force that controls the masters of the monster. Jesus makes it clear that we must not let those forces inhabit his Church. We who call upon the name of the Lord are to be his and only his to the degree that nothing which must stay outside the Church is allowed to inhabit the inside of the Church. Hebrews 3:12-19 – 12 Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” 16 Now who were they who heard and yet were rebellious? Was it not all those who left Egypt under the leadership of Moses? 17 But with whom was he angry forty years? Was it not those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

“Unbelief” is the growling of the beast. It is a false warning to stay away lest we be devoured. It is the monster that must be cast out from the Church, not the humble believers seeking Love, and Peace, and Joy – “Every kind of gift given that is good, and every one received that is perfect in its kind comes from above.” This magnificent sentence is thought to be the fragment of some Christian hymn. Two words are translated by our one word “gift”; the first is more accurately the act of giving (dosis), the second the gift itself (dōrēma), and the effect of both together is an affirmation of the statement of God’s benevolence. If we besmirch that gift, reject that gift, hand it over to the monster and its masters, we stand to lose everything. We invite the starving fox into the henhouse, the ravening wolf into the sheepfold, the menacing kraken into the safe harbor. We are called to live In Christ Alone. Why would we do such foolish things?

We do them because, in our pride and fear of being accused of prejudices, biases, and partisanisms we compromise on biblical values. We probably will get clobbered with Galatians 3:28 – 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. I understand that. I also understand that this passage requires closer reading than we usually give it.

First, to whom is the Apostle Paul writing? This letter is to the Christians of the Church in Ephesus. He is writing to the Church which is one in Christ Jesus. Those who are claiming the confidence of living Christian lives but who are also sexually immoral or greedy, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or robber those whom Jesus identified as those who have evil intentions such as fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. When we have persons in the Church who

  • advocate murder (euthanasia, abortion, capital punishment),
  • commit adultery (openly or secretly perform adulterous acts),
  • commit fornication (openly commit sexual acts with themselves or other persons of the same or different gender),
  • theft (tax evasion, hacking, stealing from the poor or from one’s employer),
  • pride (braggadocio about one’s prowess, denying their abuse of others),
  • idolatry (to honor and revere a creature, image, or object in place of God, such as celebrities, plants, animals, or geographical locations like mountains, or power, pleasure, ethnicity, ancestry, political or religious prestige, and of course money)

… if those things are invited, allowed, tolerated, encouraged, even ordered IN, BY, AND THROUGH THE CHURCH, WE HAVE GONE HORRIBLY ASTRAY!

It is we who must speak out to the Church – our brothers and sisters in Christ – about the same things the Apostle Paul warned about: Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers – every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice, envy, vaunted pride, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, gossips, slanderers, God-haters who are insolent, haughty, those who are gluttonous, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, and ruthless. 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. (See Romans 1 and 1 Corinthians 5) To that list we must shamefully add murders of millions of innocents – babies, elders, political enemies, ethnic pogroms, and intentional destruction and failure of stewardship for our only home, Earth. We do well to remember these warnings:

Isaiah 5:20-21 – 20 Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!

Wisdom 2:23-24 – 23 for God created us for incorruption, and made us in the image of his own eternity,24 but through the devil’s envy death entered the world, and those who belong to his company experience it.

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.

2 Corinthians 11:3 – 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Cast out the beast under the bed! Do not be deceived by the wiles of the Devil or the fawning of the demons. We must suit up in the Full Armor (← Check it out!) of God and get in there and fight on our knees. The beast is real, dear ones. Don’t let The World convince you otherwise. Do not confront it with your anger. You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone [in the Church] be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Banish the beast. REPENT AND PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL BY LIVING IT.

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

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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

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

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