Aloha Friday Message – January 22, 2021 – An Echo in the Dark

January 22, 2021

2104AFC012221 – An Echo in the Dark

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.

    Jonah 3:10 – 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

Joel 2:12-13 – 12 Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13     rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.

     Mark 1:14-15 – 14 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news*.” [*Gospel]

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you, and may prodigious, incredible, and astonishing Peace rule in your hearts. Belovéd, there’s a lot going on in the world right now – as you well know – but let me outline a few things to which I hope we will give detailed attention.

  • The Inaugurations of Joseph P. Biden and Kamala Harris – January 20
  • The Day of Prayer for the Legal Protection of Unborn Children is on January 22
  • The Sunday of the Word of God – the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time – is January 24
  • We commemorate the conversion of the Apostle Paul on Monday, January 25
  • We celebrate the feasts of Saint Timothy and Saint Titus – Bishops in the early church, and men who received their initial training in The Way from the Apostle Paul on Tuesday, January 26. It is also the day when the Todd family commemorates the Dedication of Timothy Olin Todd as a Servant of God and Son of the Father.
  • The Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Priest and Doctor of the Church is on Thursday, January 28

I would love to write to you about each of these momentous events, but I am told my posts are already way too long. I started working on this post on Saturday, January 16, 2021. I expect that as I continue to work on it – the date is Tuesday, January 19, 2021 – and things are heating up, it may change. I’d like to stick close to the Key Verses for today, but it may be that intervening current events require attention. Let’s get into the Word right now.

In 2019, Pope Francis I designated the Third Sunday in Ordinary time as the Sunday of the Word of God; it is a way to celebrate and focus on the Gift of Scripture. In a special way, this for me is in itself a wonderful Gift. I make no bones about the fact that I love Scripture; I love The Word as my Lord and Savior – he is indeed the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but above all in my heart, and mind, and spirit he is The Word (↔ Click Link). Without him I am not worth a tinker’s dam. With him I am only a small voice whispering in this present darkness, but that whisper echoes like thunder on the mountain when he accepts it as my Gift of adoration, thanksgiving, and praise. What I find in Scripture through his guidance is what I am given to share with you. It is a paltry gift in comparison with the magnitude and excellence of his Gift to all of us, but my little mite may be a treasure for someone someday through the works of the Holy Spirit.

From time to time I refer you to previous posts, and today I invite you to find 2023AFC060520 – Let’s WIN this thing! In that post, there’s quite a lot of what I want to tell you today. I started off like this:

I am going to share with you some thoughts about what we’ve been through this year and especially about what is happening NOW. The Spirit of Evil, the Destroyer, the Ha-Satan – “Accuser” – is running the show. As a Nation, we are divided about whom or what is responsible. Is it race? Is it politics? Is it history? Is it really my fault? How could it possibly be your fault? Surely it must be OUR fault?

Most of the six events listed above are related to living as a Christian Catholic American. I am immensely pleased to claim all of those descriptors. A few of you may have experienced, as I have, that some folks like to expand that list with descriptors like deplorable, hypocrite, sycophant, and white-male-rubbish. I expect that, perhaps even welcome and understand how and why that is piled on; I know who I am, and I know because God himself told me – I am his child (↔ Click Link) because I have received him – not just once but over and over and over because he keeps giving me second chances (↔ Click Link). I get more chances than even Jonah got! You remember the story, how Jonah had to give up his life to save the mariners on the ship he boarded to try to run away from God’s command to prophesy in Nineveh. (See Jonah 2:1-3, where he says, ” … out of the belly of Sheol I cried.”) not many people know this – I don’t talk about it much – but I know a little about that kind of NDE, Near Death Experience. As best as I can recollect, I’ve made at least three “round-trips” down that tunnel; I got sent back all three times, but I would have gladly stayed. Jonah’s experience was definitely more memorable and much more effective! He pulled himself together and got serious about warning the Ninevites. He must have made quite an impression; as you probably recall, he was barely halfway through the city and they started repenting. Ironically, that made Jonah angry because he was hoping they’d be severely punished! He found it difficult to accept the fact that God really does want to give everyone a second (or 4,357 extra) chance.

Take a look at that passage from Joel up there – Joel was also a Prophet in Judah during the reign of King Joash (835-796 BC) called by God to bring a message of the necessity for repentance. Jonah came along “a generation later” during the reign of Jeroboam II (793-753 BC). Jeroboam II was a really evil dude in great need of repentance! Now, Belovéd, let me ask you if you have noticed a familiar topic in this message. In the AFC archives, you’ll find that the words “repent” or “repentance” come up in over 200 posts. That’s about 25% of the current collection. I may sound like a repeater pencil, but there’s a reason I keep echoing that idea. IT IS IMPORTANT. Over and over again God – our Creator, our Savior, our Father, our Brother, our Guide and Companion – says to us “Turn to me.” (↔ Music Link) Ahhhh, mes amies, sometimes we end up turning so many times in a single day that we could get dizzy. And yet we hear him, we hear his voice, we even see his face in the lives of others. We Have Been Told (↔ Music Link), we have been called (↔ Music Link) and that call echoes through the millennia. We are called to repent and believed the Gospel. We echo that call, even in this present darkness, so we can be Light and Salt. The Apostle Paul told the Church in Ephesus 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. (See Ephesians 6:12) The darkness is gathering, and even the 100,000,000 points of light among us are dimmed by the cosmic powers that are flooding across us as a tsunami of evil. January 22, 2021, you and I have an opportunity to combat that darkness a bit. We have an opportunity to echo the Words of the Prophets – REPENT AND RETURN TO GOD. The declaration that we have heard regarding the intensifying of the culture of death by murdering millions more babies and calling it “LEGAL” must NOT stand!

Joel’s call to repentance must not go unheeded – now or ever. We need to “return to the Lord,” with “fasting, weeping, and mourning;” We must echo that warning even in this fearsome, dark hour. Perhaps others will see the Power of God’s Mercy and the Greatness of his Grace; and having seen, they, too, will turn to him with humbled and contrite hearts. We see so many hearts of stone, hearts so hardened that it seems not even Love can penetrate them. But our echo of faith, our echo of the words of the prophets, our echo in the darkness may yet prevail.

An echo is a returning sound that is repeated because the sound waves are reflected back to the origin of the sound. Sound waves can bounce off smooth, hard objects much like the way a small Zectron ball bounces off the ground. It seems to the listener – the originator – that the direction of the sound changes. More importantly the echo sounds the same as the original sound. The echo of prophecy might bounce off those hardened hearts, and it might sound like it’s coming from several directions, BUT it will sound the same as the original! The sweetness of that sound can break those hearts of stone and replace them with hearts for love alone – for we are called.

In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul states “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” God’s unconditional love has always been on public display. How can we NOT see it? Have you ever known someone who is so filled with Christ that s/he radiates that agape love every moment of his/her life? That is visible to you because such a person sees you as Jesus would see you. Love is seen because love is an action, not a feeling. Love does, Love is, and Love is self-evident because Love changes everything and everyone it touches. Love is the Beauty of Jesus. Love is the refreshment of the soul, the water in the desert of our self-imposed solitude in the wasteland of tribulation. Love is the demolition of contention and strife.

I want to make my life a Servant Life (↔ Music Link), and Here am I, (↔ Music Link) (See Ezekiel 36:26) ready for today’s walk. So Let the Beauty of Jesus (↔ Music Link) Be Seen in Me.

Belovéd, what is the Word we echo, what is the prophecy we share? It is this: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news*.” [*Gospel] THAT is our Light in this present darkness. In that Light we can send an echo in the dark – Light echoing Light. Remember – 10 When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.

National Repentance and Truth Prayer (↔ Click 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 – January 15, 2021 – Lamb of God

January 15, 2021

2103AFC011521 – Lamb of God

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

     John 1:29, 35-36 – 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and as he watched Jesus walk by, he exclaimed, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!”

     Genesis 22:8 – 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, Belovéd. This week, the Church returns to “Ordinary Time.” We have completed Advent and the Octave of Christmas followed by the celebrations of the Epiphany (showing forth) and Baptism (immersion) of Jesus. The scene we observe today is a continuation of the account of Jesus’ baptism in Bethany across the Jordan where John was baptizing. The key verses we have today take place a considerable distance from Jerusalem – a bit over 20 miles – and the Jews who have come to question John have travelled out to that place to ask him who he was and by what or whose authority was he acting. He knew they were trying to find out if he, John, was claiming to be the Messiah. He told them flat out he was not. A short time later, he saw Jesus approaching and the Spirit moved John to say something astonishing to them but very familiar now: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” The way the verse is written in Greek characterizes “sin” as a single immense burden or affliction; a curse born by all and common to all. In this short phrase, Jesus is designated as the “sin-bearer” of the entire world. He carries away the guilt of all sin as did the scapegoat in Leviticus 16:8-10 and also makes atonement through the shedding of his own blood. (See Leviticus 17:11). He is the perfect sacrifice, the pure and spotless victim, completely innocent of sin until he “became sin for us.” (See CCC §615-623) No longer was the expiation – the reparation and complete atonement of sin – solely a birthright of Israel; the forgiveness of sin was a possibility for the entire World – for every living soul who accepts the authority and love of God. Jesus took all of that upon himself, placing his human existence before God as a substitutionary payment for the guilt of our sin – and the payment for sin is death. He accepted death for every kind of sin we can, and do, commit. What kinds of sin are included in that?

I think of it as three different kinds of sin. First there is sin against God. Next there is sin against our neighbors. Lastly there is sin against ourselves. We should have, by now, a pretty solid idea of what the sins against God include. He himself outlined them for us n the first three Commandments: 1. I am the Lord your God: You shall not have strange Gods before me. 2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 3. Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day. In these lessons over the years, we have looked at how easily we turn to idols in our day-to-day lives – famous people, sporting events, improper respect for our loved ones that places more importance on their needs than on God’s commands, and even simpler things which we choose to pleasure ourselves rather than actions taken to please God. We’ve also discussed our spontaneous prayers which are tossed off like no one’s listening – but God is always listening. “God! Did you see that idiot?” “O. My. God!” “Good@@@t, I told you, don’t do that!” “Oh, God, that was incredible!” These exclamatory prayers are not taken seriously by us; they should be. They are the little seedlings of the bigger, more sinister prayers we make when we use God’s name or his power or his majesty as a curse. We reap what we sow, and when we sow these seeds of disrespect it doesn’t take long to devalue our relationship and obligations to God to the point where he is given no significance in our lives.  But it is the last group of sins that I believe is the most appalling. When we sin against ourselves, we sin against everything that God gives us – everything that is Good. Here’s what the Apostle Paul said about this; you’ll find it in Sunday’s readings.

1 Corinthians 6:17-20 – 17 But anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Shun fornication! Every sin that a person commits is outside the body; but the fornicator sins against the body itself. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.

Yes, Belovéd, we are bought and paid for, completely redeemed through “payment in full.” (← Check it out!) Every sin, every burden of our hearts rolled away, (↔ Music Link). Even the really stupid things we do to ourselves are paid for and we can say with confidence, “My Sins are gone” (↔ Music Link) and that’s more than enough reason to remember this pearl from the past, “Cheer up Ye Saints of God!” (↔ Music Link) There is basically only one thing we need to do to get all of this started.

We need to Listen Up! (← Check it out!) From Micaiah in 1 Kings 22:19 to Amos 7:16, we hear over and over “Now hear the Word of the Lord.” We have the B.I.B.L.E. that is chocky-jammed-full of Basic Instructions, and on every page of that wonderful tome we can hear God telling us “Love me and love your neighbors “as you love yourself.” Now I confess, I’ve always hears that “as” to mean “in the same way as.” But on re-re-re-reading what the Apostle Paul said to the Church in Corinth just up the page, it suddenly popped into my mind and heart that the “as” in “as you love yourself” can also mean “WHILE” you love yourself. Now, Belovéd, if we are going to love the self we have to live with, then wouldn’t it be a ton-and-a-half easier if that self was less of a sinner, or better still, a forgiven sinner? I don’t subscribe to the notion that once I say I’m a sinner that Jesus will automatically wipe away every sin in past, present, and future. Nope, I still need to acknowledge my sin, repent, and believe the Gospel. In most Christian lives that moment of repentance is activated (and re-re-re-re-re-activated) every time I listen to God. Do you remember what Samuel learned about listening to God? Check this out:

1 Samuel 3:7-10 – 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. 8 The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  Jesus passed by John the Baptist while Andrew and “another Disciple” (probably the Apostle John) were with him and heard him say, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” It sounds to me like they were listening to their B.I.B.L.E. and remembered that “it was counted to Abraham as righteousness” when 8 Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them walked on together. God has provided the Lamb for the offering, an offering that is completely consumed by Death and then completely restored by Life through God’s “perfect integrity, endless mercy, and eternal salvation through Christ our Lord.” They had found the Messiah by listening, by repenting, by believing the Gospel, by sharing the Gospel, and by hearing the Word of the Lord – “This is my Son, my Belovéd. With him I am well pleased.” Shall we not also choose to be the daughters and sons of El Elyon, the Most High God? Are not Heaven and Earth filled with the Glory of God the Lord of Hosts (JEHOVAH SABAOTH). We Have Been Told (↔ Music Link) that when we live out those first commandments, we have the fortitude to live up to the rest – even the ones that condemn us for the sins we commit against our own lives – lives that are our personal individual Gift from God. Tell him thank you by living in his Love. As the Father has loved his Son, so he also loves the Brothers and Sisters of the Son. And so, let us love one another in all righteousness and Grace. Then we, too, shall say, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World;” and also “Happy are those who are called to the Supper of the Lamb.” Amen.

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 – January 8, 2021 – Trinity Time!

January 8, 2021

2102AFC010821 – Trinity Time!

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 5:5-9 – 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth. 7 There are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. 9 If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to* his Son. *Greek peri → All about, concerning, in every consideration

1 John 4:1-5 – Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world. 4 Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and Peace to each of you from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus the Christ, in the Power of the Holy Spirit. This Sunday we will commemorate the Baptism of the Lord. This is one of those events that is sometimes mistaken for the Presentation of the Lord – the fortieth day after Jesus’ birth when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple and were greeted by Symeon and Anna (See Luke 2:22-38) Jesus was not baptized as an infant, as is a common practice these days; he was baptized as an adult, perhaps around age 30. Last week we celebrated the Epiphany of the Lord, and most scholars believe Jesus was about 2-3 years old then. We get that confused, too, because many Nativity Sets have the “Three Wisemen” and their camels standing by the crèche with the shepherds, the ox and lamb, and the little donkey Mary rode. Didn’t happen. (See also 2002AFC011020 – Do it thusly) What is particularly important about this moment in Jesus’ life is the revelation of the Holy Trinity.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ baptism is presented this way: John 1:32-34 – 32 And John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like* a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”  (*Greek hós as, like as, even as) I feel strongly that it was not a symbol of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus and that the symbol looked like a dove. I believe it was not a dove per se but rather the Holy Spirit moving toward Jesus in the same way a dove moves when landing. Furthermore, John – and probably Jesus and possibly others – saw it. On top of that, they heard God the Father speak! So there we have it – Father speaking from Heaven, Holy Spirit landing and remaining on the Christ of God, and Jesus rejoicing in the Spirit. Sometimes when I mention that, I’ll hear “certain people” who say the Holy Spirit isn’t in the Bible – at least not in the Old Testament. For them I say, “Try these on for size.”

Psalm 51:11 – 11 Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (↔ Music Link)  See also Isaiah 63:10-11) And of course we all know about Genesis 1:1-2 when and where the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. You might want to also want to see Genesis 6:3, Genesis 41:38, Job 33:4, Isaiah 42:1, and Isaiah 48:16. Even when God was creating Adam, it was God’s Spirit of Life that was breathed into Adam’s nostrils. And before Adam could say “Apple Pie,” he betrayed God and the Spirit that enlivened his newly-created existence. That brought sin and death, and with those came the necessity for Salvation. Here’s a good description of why Salvation is required:

Romans 1:28-32 – (See link for full context; seriously, use it) 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.

Does that sound familiar? Now, think of this. The Apostle Paul wrote that right around 2,000 years ago. How much has humanity improved in that time? We have been doubling the scope and depth of knowledge and technology so rapidly that no  one can actually keep up with it any longer. We are on information overload. We are also doubling the scope and depth of depravity and we are paying the price for it. Many people, regardless of their position on the evil-to-righteous scale, are certain that “the World as we know it is coming to an end.” Back in 2012 I wrote a post called 1242AFC101912 – A different fear. Here is a short excerpt from that:

Lately I’ve heard a lot of fear expressed about, of all things, politics. Is that a good scare or a bad scare? That’s a hard one to call. I think it depends on why it scares you. If you feel the changes coming, regardless of how the political landscape changes, pose an actual physical threat like imminent death, (which I find hard to imagine), that’s a bad fear. It’s more likely you fear some loss of status which might end “life as you know it,” but will not in fact make you dead. You most likely will suffer, if that is your disposition, and you might even suffer long and hard. Well, that is the thorny part of the covenant we have with God; we get all of his blessings along with some persecutions. See Mark 10:29-30.

Our world is a word of exaggerations, overstatement, hyperbole, embellishment, and all of those are synonyms for lies. And based on what we see in the World around us, you’d think we really enjoy lies! Look at all the exaggerated and deceptive things you can find on the Internet – from pornography to snake-oil medicine – and the same goes for new forms of entertainment, literature, art, dietary choices, in fact every aspect of life as an earthling has been distorted so badly that we seem to have lost our grip on the truth. Somehow we know this, but are still surprised that is it so pervasive and we’re part of it! How can this happen?

In that post I credit the Father of Lies. We are about to enter an era of such pervasive and insidious evil in which, quite literally, every living soul on Earth will suffer. The World will look like a Hieronymous Bosch triptych of The Garden of Earthly Delights – only for real, not a painting. Many “End Times Prophesies” seem to be manifesting, and yet it was just so in the days of the early Church and the “New World Order” folks welcome those changes; however, They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We have something – rather someone – better:  Little children, you are from God, and have conquered them; for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. The Prince of the Air and his faithful followers (many of whom are in politics) have busted a move on us, and it’s going to be like a three-essay-pop-quiz for a class we’ve been skipping. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. We have THE Holy Spirit, the One and Only Spirit of the Living God, the Lord of Hosts. Do you know what that Name of God means? Many of us are familiar with this prayer: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of Hosts, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.” Lord of Hosts is listed in the Bible close to 275 times. This is JEHOVAH (YHWH) SABAOTH – the Ultimate Commander of the Heavenly Army of Angels who fight for God’s People. He is the omnipotent sovereign first mentioned in 1 Samuel 1:3. It is part of the Truth Prayer ~~ Almighty Everliving God, Lord of Hosts, We humbly ask you to grant us the Grace to seek Truth, to recognize it when we find it, the courage to embrace it wherever it is found, and the wisdom to exclude all else that is not Truth. In Jesus’ Precious Name. AMEN.

What is happening in this World is indeed scary stuff. What do we have now? We have false messiahs, nation against nation, wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, persecutions, betrayals, false prophets, other Gospels, sacrilege against Holy places, sudden mass loss of life, signs in the heavens, the powers of the Earth shaken, and the trumpet shall sound. Be not afraid, Little Children. There are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. 9 If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to* his Son. This time in history is Trinity Time! We can get our hearts cleaned in a jiffy if only we repent and turn to the Lord.

As for what’s been happening the past few days: Pretty darn crazy. The children of the Father of Lies are forming up their battle lines. It’s hard to tell who is fighting whom in that mess because none of them appear to be children of God.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —

at your service, Belovéd!

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

JUST FOR FUN

Now, today is the eighth day of the year 2021, and it is a day the Lord has made, so we should rejoice in it! For the sake of rejoicing, I will share with you an Old Time Fiddle Tune called 8th of January and folks, people used to dance to this tune. I think you’re gonna like it and probably even recognize it because it sounds a little like the dance tune The Battle of New Orleans. That was FUN!

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 – January 1, 2021 – Head for the Light

January 1, 2021

2101AFC010121 – Head for the Light

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

    Isaiah 60:3-5 – 3 Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

4 Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. 5 Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. This is the first post of 2021. We’re going to consider the Epiphany of the Lord. However, first I will begin today’s post by referring you to the post for Epiphany in 2020 called 2001AFC010320 (↔ Click Link)  – A King-Size Dose of Reality. There’s a full description of what Epiphany means, why we celebrate it, who the magi were, and what significance is attached to their gifts. This post will be helpful in understanding the Responsorial Psalm for Sunday, January 3, 2021, especially Psalm 72:10-11 – 10 May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles render him tribute, may the kings of Sheba and Seba bring gifts. 11 May all kings fall down before him, all nations give him service. The short interpretation is that this passage signified “the whole world and every nation in it.” In fact, let me suggest that you read Psalm 72 top to bottom; David did an amazing job of describing today’s world. There’s more about today’s world in Isaiah chapter 60 – the source of our Key Verse.

Isaiah 60 prophesies the gathering together of the dispersed Peoples of Israel in terms of its future glory. Lost in disobedience, sin, division, and war for an era, Israel hears that now Light will dawn and the majesty of the era of David and Solomon will return. This passage is part of the “Third Isaiah,” chapters 56-66, probably written by Disciples of Isaiah during the period after the Babylonian exile (598-538 BC). The entire book of Isaiah is a compilation of prophetic poetry, mostly composed by the Prophet himself, and the section here mentioned, 56-66, is notable for the contrasting hopes of the families who have returned from exile and the condemnation and destruction of the corrupt leaders of Israel.

The warnings God had given to King Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7 include the oft-quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14 where God states that the nation who repents and calls upon him will be saved. As Paul Harvey used to say, “Wait ’til you hear the rest of the story.” In that same chapter there is a very blunt, stark, and (frankly) scary Word from the Lord. Take a look:

2 Chronicles 7:19-22 – 19 “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you*, and go and serve other gods and worship them, 20 then I will pluck you up from the land that I have given you; and this house, which I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 21 And regarding this house, now exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished, and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this house?’ 22 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the Lord the God of their ancestors who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and they adopted other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore he has brought all this calamity upon them.’” * In Hebrew this pronoun is plural – the Nation. It is a central theme throughout the entire Bible – if you fail to love God and neighbor, you must repent. If you do not repent, the consequences will be very unpleasant. If you do repent, the consequences will be wonderfully splendiferous. Now, doesn’t that seem like a no-brainer? Well, that’s pretty much how most of us handle it – with no brains. That’s easier to spot than you might think. You’ve heard this one many times: “by their fruits you will know them.” We have all heard about the deeply faithful Catholic who carries a rosary in his pocket but still won’t follow the teachings of the Church. We call people like that “good for the country.” That’s like calling elephant scat “milk.” We rename someone/something bad as something/someone good.

That is precisely where we run into trouble these days because there’s a lot of fake fruit on the table. The fake fruit comes to us through the tireless work of the Prince of Lies, the devil, and he uses a few seeds of Truth and a ton of manure to raise a crop of bad advice. He wants us to change the names of things because it suits his purposes and not God’s. Anything that does not suit God’s purpose is, well, wrong; but Satan tries to convince us it is right to make these changes because “it is right to do this; you will be like God when you do.” Does that sound familiar, something you might have read recently in Genesis? And so we take something we know is wrong, call it by something we know is right, and PRESTO! What was wrong is now right. Marriage is no longer sacred, family is no longer a community of love, amorphous “spirituality” is true religion, and God is me because I am God. Beloved, there are seeds of truth in what the world is telling us about these things, but to believe them, one must overlook the ton of manure that comes along with them. So some of you are going to take umbrage at what follows. Consider these passages for example.

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.

Some folks believe that once we have obtained God’s favor by accepting his gifts, his favor and his gifts cannot – indeed will not – be taken from us. As gramma said, “‘Tain’t so, I know.” We once wrote about Shebna. You might recall this:

     Isaiah 22:22 – 22 I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David; he shall open, and no one shall shut; he shall shut, and no one shall open. In this passage from Isaiah (see Isaiah 22:15-25 for context), the prophet declares that the Head Steward of King Hezekiah, a man named Shebna, will be replaced because his is a self-seeking corrupt official whose corruption betrays the purpose of his office. Isaiah tells Shebna that he will be “hurled away violently” and whirled round and round, and then thrown like a ball into a wide, empty space. His fancy chariots will be wrecked, and – stripped of the official powers of his office – he will die disgraced. God tells the prophet Isaiah to establish Eliakim, the person he has chosen to replace Shebna, and to place on Eliakim’s shoulder the badge of office: The Key of David. Eliakim’s authority – which comes from God – will be placed firmly in the kingdom so that Eliakim’s actions all carry the authority of Hezekiah. If Eliakim speaks, it is as if the King himself is speaking. Whatever he opens, no one can shut; whatever he prohibits, no one can permit; whatever he permits, no one can disallow. As declared by God, he has full authority in the Kingdom. From that moment forward, Shebna did not. He rejected God, and thereby rejected the Gifts of Stewardship God had provided. He discarded Spiritual Light and embraced Spiritual Darkness.

Spiritual darkness is a term used by people to describe what happens when there is no Light present. Spiritually, though, there is 1 Light and that Light is our Triune God who is a living God of Power and Might. Spiritually, there is also a being who is darkness because in him there is no Light. Returning to the Letters of the Apostle John, we come to 1 John 1:5 – 5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. Satan is darkness and in him is no Light at all. And yet, we have many people – thousands upon thousands – swearing that light is darkness and evil is good (See Isaiah 5:18-23, especially v. 20 which reads in part 20 Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light). There is 1 light and there is 1 darkness in the Spiritual War we act against, but that darkness is not merely the absence of Light, it is also the presence of evil and every bit as real as the Light we follow and eventually become. They are headed away from the Light. WE are headed for the Light, which is to say we are moving toward Heaven for and because of the Love of God.

God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – is our Light: 1 Timothy 6:16 – 16 It is he alone who has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see; to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Let us therefore be followers of the Light described by Isaiah 2:5 – 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord! If we are in that Light, we are of the Light, and we will share the Light as we carry the Light. Light grows by giving it to others, just as grain multiples by being sown and nurturued. Jesus spoke of his life as a grain of wheat in John 12:24: 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. The “fruit” of Light that is shared is much more light just as the fruit of the grain is much more wheat. Choose Light and choose Life. Then, when we are transformed at the end of the Age, we will know what John meant in Revelation 21:23-27– 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Those who choose darkness will have it for the rest of Eternity. Those who choose Light will have and be Light in Heaven with God and his Angels and Saints.  The judgment of this world has come; the ruler of this world will be driven out into everlasting darkness. It is now the time for Light to drive out Evil; the Light has come. John 3:19 – 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. (Use the link to see the full context) God has blessed us with the Light of Love, as well as his friendship, and all of Creation. When we reject God over and over, when we refuse to honor the Giver by accepting the Gift, eventually all we have left is … nothing but the dark emptiness of eternity without God.

This weekend as we celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, we commemorate the coming of his Light into the World, a Light for all nations, a Light for all Creation. God’s people are drawing together, Israel is like a hill on which a beacon glows, corruption is being challenged, evil is being confronted and fought off, Light is dispelling Darkness, and Light is growing as it is shared. In the “showing forth” we commemorate, we have the fulfilling of a promise and the continuation of a blessing: The Light of the World is Jesus. Belovéd, let us head for the light! – yep, that one at the End of the Tunnel – because that is where Eternal Light dwells.

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.

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

 

 

Aloha Friday Message – December 25, 2020 – 2020 Advent Series #5

December 25, 2020

2052AFC112520 – 2020 Advent Series #5

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.

Typical Galilean Fishing Boat in Jesus’ Time

Hebrews 11:1 – 1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

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. Today we continue with the 2020 Advent series. Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement: We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.

My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Boat that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. This is the 5th and last in the Series. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. Today, we finish up with the last in the series, The Boat – our Hope in Christ Jesus. Perhaps you are busy today with attending a Christmas service at Church, and sharing the day’s celebration with family and/or friends, and won’t have time to read this. Nonetheless, let me wish all of you a very happy Christmas. We’ll be back next week with a wish for a better and happier and healthier New Year, but for today, we will look at our Hope. I’m going to bring in a Guest Author here to start us off. This is an excerpt from a poem by Nicholas J. Stojakovich:

Logos
Present in time
Imbedded in mindsLed the quest for pure actuality
That paved the way
To a transcendent reality
As reason met revelation
In an incarnation
© NJS/Raging Grace PublishingNicholas J Stojakovich

What is Hope and why do we have it? Where do we get it, and from whom? In Hebrew it is  tiqvah (tik-vaw’). The root is literally the word for cord, as in a measuring line. In Greek it is elpis (el-pece’), the expectation of what is certain. In either language it implies patience – hupomoné (hoop-om-on-ay’) – literally “remaining under” as in to endure steadfastly whatever challenges God allows in our lives. Hope is patient-waiting for something we are confident will be ours eventually. It comes from our innate desire for what is Good, and that desire comes from God himself, as do all things that are Good (See James 1:17). Hoping is a way we patiently and vigilantly wait for something better, something encouraging, something we trust is well worth waiting to obtain. It is not complacent, vegetating waiting; it is active preparation for a future Blessing and so we act in Hope because of Hope. Our hope was first promised in Genesis 3:9-23 when God promised that earthlings would eventually overcome the evil caused in Eden, all through “the seed of the woman.” (See = zera (zeh’-rah) Descendants, offspring, child/children) This is a very important fact to remember, because it is the Source of our Hope as well as the process through which it will be fulfilled. God told Eve and Adam that their sin conferred on them the curse of mortality; their inheritance would be Death. In God’s infinite Wisdom, that mortality was also the means through which humanity would be restored to unity with God. Here is how that Miracle is expressed in the Preface to Eucharistic Prayer III:

For we know it belongs to your boundless glory that you came to the aid of mortal beings with your divinity and even fashioned for us a remedy out of mortality itself so that the cause of our downfall might become the means of our salvation, through Christ our Lord.

Today is Christmas, the day we celebrate the birth of that Promise of Ages. It is a wonderful thing, to be sure; but I ask you to look back and see how that came to be. It came to us THROUGH THE INCARNATION. You may recall we celebrated that a few months ago, on March 25th – just as the World was shutting down because of the pandemic. What happened then was the fulfilling Miracle of Immortality taking on mortality – we see that In Nick’s poem. The Logos (the Word, the Christ of God), always eternal, became present in time resulting in ” … a transcendent reality / As reason met revelation / In an incarnation.” If I could present that to you in an image, it would look like this:

 

Right there in the middle where the X-shape sits is the moment of the incarnation. Everything changes there and goes on to become Infinity. A mortal family makes room for an immortal change brought about through the mortality and death of One Man through the seed of that woman, Eve by the fiat – the YES of Mary. (Sunday is the Feast of the Holy Family!)

Our Hope was and is and will be that Incarnation. Everything before that moment anticipated it, but did not fulfill it. Everything after that moment fulfilled it and eternally confirmed it.

From 1442AFC101714 – Hope Revisited – Job 14:7-9 – For a tree there is hope תִּקְוָה (tiqvah) {tik-vaw’}, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again and that its tender shoots will not cease. Even though its root grow old in the earth, and its stump die in the dust, yet at the first whiff of water it may flourish again and put forth branches like a young plant. Think of the sprig that sprouted from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11:1). That sprig is the Hope of All Israel – Jesus! Isaiah 40:31 – They that hope in the LORD will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; they will run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint. Jeremiah 29:11 – For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare, not for woe! Plans to give you a future full of hope.

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

In today’s world, feelings are more important than truth. The World takes delight in shaming and persecuting us; nonetheless, we can – and must – endure in firmly declared and patient Truth. DO we want to be liked more than we want to be truthful? How easily we have forgotten that nothing, nothing in this World is worth dying for! Only that which is beyond the muck and smut of the World is worth dying for because only those things are worth living for.

James 5:7 – 7 Be patient,* therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

*Μακροθυμήσατε (Makrothymēsate) from μακροθυμέω (makrothumeó) {mak-roth-oo-meh’-o} to persevere, to be patient – I am longsuffering, I have patience, I am forbearing, I have perseverance. James uses this word in a way that is unusual when coupled with the image of a farmer waiting for crops to come in. He directs the Church to wait as God waits – with divine longsuffering. In the six verses before this, James is describing how the rich have abused the poor, thinking they could set aside the wages owed to their workers thereby enriching themselves even more through fraud. James urges his flock to be patient in these trials because “the coming of the Lord is near.”

Psalm 39:7 – 7 “And now, O Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you.

1 Timothy 1:1-2 –  Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2 To Timothy, my loyal child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5: 3-5 – 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

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.

For me, that is hope. When I look around the world and see loved-ones suffering; innocents being murdered, persecuted, tormented, and terrorized; natural disasters overwhelming the great and the small alike; the oceans, the lands, and the very sky above us polluted and dying; then I turn my eyes toward Jesus, and I see HOPE. It is such a great and wonderful Hope that I don’t mind waiting because what I’m waiting for will be Great and Wonderful!

This is the meaning behind Jesus’ words, “… these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” When I think of that idea, I am often reminded of a story about the effectiveness of cramming before exams. If one fails to study and then hopes to gain enough understanding the night before the exam by staying up all night, it’s a bit like the farmer who sows his crops the month before harvest begins. He probably won’t garner much of a harvest. We who hope wait actively and are well prepared to receive that for which we anticipate in Hope. I love the way the Apostle Paul put it in Romans 15:13 – 13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So, Belovéd, let me ask you – WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

I can’t think of anyone or anything better to wait for than God! My HOPE is to spend my eternity with, in, and for him as intimately as possible. The most intimate parts of our lives center on Love: God, family, friends, country, the Eucharist. We are vigilant because we want what we have and it is – or should be – enough. If we grow impatient and let our vigilance lapse, we may miss out and be caught unprepared – like the people in Noah’s time, we might miss the boat. Our “boat” in this series is the Hope we have in Christ Jesus which was made possible for us by his Incarnation – a plan God himself fashioned for us out of the curse our First Parents brought on us through sin. We are restored to God’s presence through the seed of The Woman because … since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; 22 for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 15:21-22). Do NOT miss the Boat, Belovéd!

Remember our Hope is the source of the Circle of Life (not the one in Lion King):

1632AFC080516 – Ready or Not

Circle of Life (← Check it out!)

Where there is life, there is hope.
Where there is hope, there is love.
Where there is love, there is integrity.
Where there is integrity, there is truth.
Where there is truth, there is justice.
Where there is justice, there is mercy.
Where there is mercy, there is freedom.
Where there is freedom, there is life.

Our Hope is Life.

Special thanks to John and Nick for their help with this series.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —

at your service, Belovéd!

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

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

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – December 18, 2020 – 2020 Advent Series #4

December 18, 2020

2051AFC121820 – 2020 Advent Series #4 – The Word of Course

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

     Luke 1:38 – 38 Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her. 

     Genesis 15:1 – 1 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 

     Psalm 33:6 – 6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth.

May Peace always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd! Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement: We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.

My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Boat that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and follows our course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. Today we will continue with the Course – Scripture. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. This is the fourth in the Series. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. Last week we talked about the rudder – Wisdom. Wisdom comes from knowing God, so if we wish to know wisdom, then the wise thing to do is to know God. It is God who will design and install that rudder of Wisdom in your life! And Belovéd, how do we know God? Let me provide a little hint: What word – a Key Concept Word – occurs in each of the three Key Verse for today? We hear it all the time, especially in Church, in our daily devotions, and nearly 700 times in the Bible. Did you find that recurring word? It’s also in the title. It is Word. Where do we find “God’s Word?” OK, that’s too easy. We find it in the Bible, the Word of God – Holy Scripture. We use Holy Scripture to plot our course in life. It functions as a map.

We’ve learned how a mast, a sail, and a rudder work, so how does a map work? A map is an illustration of an environment. It shows landmarks, paths, roads, geographic features, and gives us information to orient us in that environment. We can see what we will encounter between where we are and where we want to go. The map will not take us there, but it will show us where “there” is. That can help us plan our journey. If Scripture is like a map, then how does Scripture work? Pretty much the same way.

Scripture shows us landmarks such as Sacred Places. Scripture lays out paths and roads we can follow so that we can navigate the terrain between this life and the Life to come. In Scripture we can get a clearer understanding of the processes of making a journey – where we can nourish our souls or gain protection. We can find respite in times of fatigue or danger. We can find courage, encouragement, enlightenment, and even Peace by learning Scripture – by hearing, seeing, and learning the Word of God. Scripture will not take us to Heaven, but it can certainly help us get a better idea of what is necessary to go there. It gives us a good deal of information about the “lay of the land,” but we still have to make the journey and follow the directions we acquire by our map-reading. Scripture is a great tool for navigating life’s peaks and valleys, rivers and streams, puddles and lakes and oceans. Making sense of the features of this map – Scripture – is aided by another tool that we learn about in Scripture but is accessed primarily as an optional extra to Scripture. This other tool functions like a compass.

    OK, ya got me! “How does a compass work?” Well, the really cool thing about a compass is that it is “always on,” it is always working, and it always works the same way. It’s fairly easy to learn how to relate the actions of the compass to the information in the map. The map doesn’t help much if you don’t know which way “over there” is. That’s how a compass helps. We can spot a couple of landmarks, see how they relate to each other on the map, and then see how the compass helps us differentiate that there from this here. Using the map and the compass together makes journeying more efficient and less dangerous. As many of us know, using a map along with a compass is a good way to travel, but even with the two tools together we can still get lost. What is there in our faith that acts like a compass, it’s always on, it always works the same way, and it helps make easier the whole process of reading the map and the terrain it represents? Hmmm. What does that sound like? Could it be the Holy Spirit?

Well, certainly we learn about the Holy Spirit in Scripture, and clearly using the Holy Spirit and Scripture together is a great way to travel (or as the little bird used to say, “The ONLY way to fly!). Now then, we have the mast, the sail, the rudder, and the course – the chart and compass help us set and follow the course – so what can we find out in Scripture about how all that fits together? How about a guide, a navigator, an experienced leader who can help us find the way. OK, ya got me again. Who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”? (See John 14:6) How did we learn about the Man who said that? We learned it in Scripture! And how did we come to better understand what Jesus meant when he told us that? Through the Power of the Holy Spirit! And how do we learn about Scripture, Jesus, the Father, the Holy Spirit, the Way and Truth and Life, Heaven and Hell, Love, Mercy, Peace, JOY, and every good thing that comes down from Heaven above?

God gives all of those to us as his Gift through our parents, our pastors, our Sunday School teachers, and dusty old men who spend hours at the keyboard writing up essays like this one. We know that because Scripture says –

Romans 10:10, 14-17 – 10 For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. […]14 But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? 15 And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” 16 But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

1 Peter 1:23-25 – 23 You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever*.” That word is the good news that was announced to you. (*See Isaiah 40:6)

When we lay out our course in life based on That word [which] is the good news that was announced to you, we have the Holy Spirit as our compass, Jesus as our navigator, and all of God’s Living Word – Scripture – to guide us from this here to that there. Belovéd, “that there” is absolutely where I want to end up and we can all get to Heaven in a little row boat. Through baptism God has made us Priest, Prophet, and King. 1719AFC051217 – Stones and Thrones As Prophets, we are graced with the opportunity to speak The Word of the Lord in our hearts and minds as well as in the hearts and minds of others – our families, communities, churches, and workplaces – through example and testimony. In Numbers 11:29, Moses scolds the Israelites, “Would that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!” Later the prophet Joel speaks in God’s way and says, “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh.” (See Joel 2:28-29) We are the recipients of that Spirit of the Living God. In the Spirit of Prophecy, we teach our children and each other as witnesses to “The Way, the Truth, and the Life.” As Priest, we consult Scripture, the Bible, to learn what to share with our brothers and sisters in faith.

2010AFC030620 – Do you hear what I hear?   Christian Fundamentalist, Christian Evangelical, Orthodox Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Protestant, Universalist, Mormon, or even just “Religion-Curious,” whatever your particular persuasion, you have been called to hear, and by hearing you are called to faith, and by faith you are called to accept the Gift of Love in Christ Jesus. Did you know you can be the voice through which The Word is heard? It is often said, “Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read.” Beloved, consider making your life an audio-book as well as a pop-up action book. Whatever your calling in Christ, honor the Giver by accepting – and sharing – the Gift of The Living Word. “Now hear ye the Word of the Lord.” He is calling! If you listen, you will hear; if you hear, Faith is just a “yes” away. That’s how Mary’s “YES” changed the whole World. What YES can we give to this world? Our prayers would be a wonderful gift. 1639AFC092316 – Listen up!    In our prayers, we CAN:

  • Pray for those who reach and preach as well as for those who draw near to hear.
  • Pray for those who turn a deaf ear.
  • Pray for all the suffering souls whose ears are filled with the sounds of famine, war, terror, prejudice, pestilence, mockery, and abuse.
  • Pray for all those souls who afflict such things as these on others.
  • Pray for the people dying everywhere that they will find Peace and Mercy at the end of their days
  • Pray for those who suffer with chronic and acute illnesses that they will know the sustaining love of God, family, friends, and caregivers in every moment of their lives.
  • Pray for Peace as though the future depends on it. Truly it does.
  • Pray for the children who are denied the opportunity to hear about Jesus for whatever reason, but especially for those children whose parents have closed their ears to The Word.
  • Pray for adults who think they haven’t got time for God, are too sophisticated to be taken in by religion, or whose lives have been so devoid of genuine love that they don’t know what Love is. SHOW THEM WHAT HAPPINESS LOOKS LIKE! (↔ Music Link)

And the best part of Scripture as a map for many of us is we don’t have to fold it up to put it away. We just fold it into our hearts and minds. God himself told us the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe. (See Deuteronomy 30:11-14 and Romans 10:6-12 for this in context – seriously, read’em) Belovéd, what really, really matters here is  “1 In the beginning was the Word†, and the Word† was with God, and the Word† was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5) † λόγος – logos­ The Word (Jesus) expressing the thoughts of the Father through the Spirit. If we map out our lives in the Word with the counsel of the Holy Spirit and the steering of Jesus, our journey “over yonder past Jordan’s banks” will surely be successful, because we, too, can say, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —

at your service, Belovéd!

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

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

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

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

 

Aloha Friday Message – December 11, 2020 – 2020 Advent Series #3

December 10, 2020

2050AFC121120 – 2020 Advent Series #3

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.

     Philippians 4:4 – 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

     1 Thessalonians 5:16 – Rejoice always

     Isaiah 61:10a – 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God

     John 1:6-7 – 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.

     John 1:29b – Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

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. Today we continue with the 2020 Advent series. Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement: We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.

My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Boat that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. This is the second in the Series. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. Last week we talked about the mast – our Faith. Our Faith is anchored in the hull of our boat, and the rigging of the mast. Faith is anchored in our foundation, our hull, our soul. It’s held up with the rigging – support cables – of our knowledge of God and his Word. Faith is what supports our love of God and neighbor. To this mast and rigging we attach the Sail – Love.

Last week we looked at the way a sail works and how in our lives the Love we have is supported by our Faith and emulates the tenderness of God’s love. Today we consider another very important part of a boat, the rudder – Wisdom. Our Key Verses for today remind us to rejoice, and there is beautiful Wisdom in that. You’ll recall perhaps that we often mention “first occurrence” as an important tool in Scripture study. The first occurrence of “rejoice” comes in Exodus 18:9 – 9 Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the Lord had done to Israel, in delivering them from the Egyptians. The first mention of rejoicing comes at the beginning of the establishment of the Hebrews as a nation, Israel – the chosen people of God – begin their centuries-long journey as the Light to The Nations. In this we see God’s great Wisdom: His chosen people were redeemed from slavery and sent into liberty in God. All they had to do to make that possible was to love the Lord and each other. As we well know, that proved to be beyond their capacity. They disdained Wisdom and chose rebellion. In doing so, they lost the ability to steer their Nation, the People of God, toward Truth and Justice. They were like a boat without a rudder or a sail. We have a very good example of the importance of a rudder in the Letter of James. He is addressing the Jewish population of Jerusalem exhorting them to proper conduct within their community. Here’s what he says about the rudder: James 3:3-5 – 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4 Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!

There are types of boats that do not have attached rudders, coracles and river rafts for example, but even in these a paddle is used to direct the path of the boat. That is the purpose of a rudder – to provide direction – and it is also the purpose of Wisdom. Wisdom informs our conscience, helps us make appropriate decisions, and can keep us away from danger or even death. Judicious use of Wisdom requires knowing what it is designed to do in our lives as we move through what we could call the Crystal Sea of Life in God’s Love (← Check it out!). It is very important to remember that the rudder does not function unless the boat is in motion or the water is flowing past the boat from stem to stern. I was surprised to learn that sometimes the wisest thing to do is to cut loose the rudder and let the wind drive the sail toward land. There is an example of that in the Apostle Paul’s journeys here: Acts 27:40 – 40 So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea. At the same time they loosened the ropes that tied the steering-oars; then hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the beach. They landed on a reef just off Malta after a harrowing 14 days at sea in a horrific storm. Paul had warned them to seek safe harbor sooner; they rejected his wisdom, lost all their cargo, all the rigging of the ship, and nearly lost their lives. The consequences of ignoring wisdom are formidable. You might remember some of these:

Proverbs 9:9 – 9 Give instruction to the wise, and they will become wiser still; teach the righteous and they will gain in learning.

Proverbs 28:26 – 26 Those who trust in their own wits are fools; but those who walk in wisdom come through safely.

1 Corinthians 1:25 – 25 For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Job 5:13 – 13 He takes the wise in their own craftiness; and the schemes of the wily are brought to a quick end.

Proverbs 1:7 – 7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

In Job 28:20-27, Job tells us the origins of Wisdom saying, “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place.” At one point in their journey from Egypt to Canaan, a sizable number – more than 20,000 – perished because they did not exercise the Wisdom of obedience. They turned to immorality and idolatry and lost their lives because of it: Deuteronomy 4:3-6 – 3 You have seen for yourselves what the Lord did with regard to the Baal of Peor—how the Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, 4 while those of you who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today.

5 See, just as the Lord my God has charged me, I now teach you statutes and ordinances for you to observe in the land that you are about to enter and occupy. 6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” When they failed to follow these wise instructions, the made themselves vulnerable to oppression to their enemies.

In the history of the oppression of the Jewish People, we have the accounts of the Maccabees; they are real historical figures, and their military resistance to tyranny is well-documented. Here is an excerpt from that history:

4 Maccabees 7:1-3 – 1 For like a most skillful pilot, the reason [Wisdom] of our father Eleazar steered the ship of religion over the sea of the emotions, 2 and though buffeted by the stormings of the tyrant and overwhelmed by the mighty waves of tortures, 3 in no way did he turn the rudder of religion until he sailed into the haven of immortal victory. NRS/A New Revised Standard Version Bible/with apocrypha, copyright 1989, 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. The heroic language of the Books of the Maccabees can sound inflated, but the historical facts are solid. Their importance to succeeding generations of Jews and Christians is one reason they are included in the canon of the “Catholic Bible.”

In that Bible – and all other genuinely Christian Bibles – we have the letter from James (already cited above). James addresses the question many people have: “Where and how do we obtain Wisdom?” In that letter we find the following answer:

James 1:5-7 – 5 If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God, who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and it will be given you. 6 But ask in faith, never doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; 7, 8 for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Now, doesn’t that make good sense? Wisdom comes from knowing God, so if we wish to know wisdom, then the wise thing to do is to know God. It is God who will design and install that rudder of Wisdom in your life! You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating: Isaiah 30:21 – 21 And when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.” For the purposes of this series, we might also think of that last phrase as “sail in it.” Have you ever seen a rudder work? Let me show you one, and then I’ll have a final important question for you. I hope this GIF file will display here:

Credit KDS444 © License: Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)

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

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

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

Jesus, Savior, Pilot me!

(↕Music Link↕)

Aloha Friday Message – December 4, 2020 – 2020 Advent Series #2

December 4, 2020

2049AFC120420 – 2020 Advent Series #2

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 40:11 – 11 He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

     2 Peter 3:9 – 9 The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

     Mark 1:8 – 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. (Use the link to see this in context)

May Peace always be with you and may God bless you, Belovéd!

Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement: We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.

My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Boat that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. Today we will continue with the Sail – Love. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. This is the second in the Series. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. Last week we talked about the mast – our Faith. Our Faith is anchored in the hull of our boat, and the rigging of the mast. Faith is anchored in our foundation, our hull, our soul. It’s held up with the rigging – support cables – of our knowledge of God and his Word. Faith is what supports our love of God and neighbor. To this mast and rigging we attach the Sail – Love. We should know how a sail works, so here – in a very limited way – is a little insight into that.

A sail “pushes backward” against the wind – it catches it across its surface and the force of the wind is transferred to the boat through the mast. When the wind is coming from directly behind the boat – coming from astern – the boat moves forward. This is “navigating downwind.” The sail is positioned perpendicular to the wind to capture the most energy. This means you move in the direction the wind is blowing. Moving in a direction other than the direction the wind is blowing requires a good deal of experience and a deep understanding of the interactions between the wind, the sail, the boat’s keel, and the water. Sailing across or against the wind is called tacking. In these procedures, it is the lift of the wind (← Check it out!) blowing over the curved surface of the sail that “pulls” the boat forward much in the same way as an airplane’s wing causes lift to get the airplane off the ground by applying the Bernoulli principle. That’s greatly oversimplified, but hopefully enough to get us started, so here we go.

Let’s start with something that is “perfectly obvious:” For the sail to work, it must be attached to the mast and rigging, it has to be open, unfurled, and the wind needs to be blowing. Maybe it’s a bit of a stretch, but Love works a bit like that as well. Take our first Key Verse for example. What tenderness there is in the shepherd who carries the lamb in his arms and leads the ewes with care! Little lambs have a lot of energy, but they also tire easily. When they are moving with the flock as they graze, the little guys sometimes get tuckered out and just can’t go any farther, so they can’t keep up with their mama. The good shepherd will pick up that little one and carry it for a while so it can rest without being left behind. As for the ewes, especially those still carrying their progeny, they must be led with care – slowly, with an eye toward safe paths, gentle slopes, adequate water, and gradually move the flock so as not to endanger their lives. When Love is spread like a sail, it gathers the wind “in its arms” and moves the boat along. A good sailor, like a good shepherd, will watch the surroundings and the weather to guide the boat with care. There is more about shepherds at 1718AFC050517 – Seeds and Sheep.

Another perfectly obvious fact is that sails are designed to work with wind. It is a renewable resource and – although it is hard to see where it is – we can see what it does. The wind moves past or over things that do not catch it. We cannot catch the wind in our hands and perhaps not even in our heart – we recall the song (↔ Music Link) by Donovan Leitch and Bob Dylan. When we catch the wind in a sail, it moves us because it moves the boat. In our spiritual boat described here, the destination we choose is toward God. I think sometimes we forget that maybe just a little. We keep asking God to come be with us, to rescue us, to change us, but isn’t it true that we need to move forward toward God? That’s difficult to do when we are anchored to sin. We need to release that anchor so we can move again. Please read that second Key Verse again. God is always, always patiently waiting for us to haul anchor and move toward him – to repent so that we do not perish. When we do that, the Wind can fill our sail. Ah-ha, I see you have confirmed you knew all along what the Wind in your sail will be: The Holy Spirit. Remember now from previous lessons that in verses like Genesis 1:2, the wind that swept over the void was the Spirit of God. In John 1:32 it is the Holy Spirit in the appearance of a dove. These are, respectively Ruach and Pneuma. We open our sail of Love and the Spirit fills it with his Power and Grace. That’s what connects us to our last Key Verse, Mark 1:8 – it is the Holy Spirit that fills our love and moves us toward God. The Spirit will always move us in the direction of God, but sometimes we either forget that or decide not “to keep the wind astern.” When we do that, we need to know some of the finer points of sailing on that Crystal Sea, and the best way to learn is to go to someone who can teach us. Our Catechisms, our Pastors, and our fellow Pilgrims help us learn how to navigate in those situations. Even simple boats require trained sailors.

The kinds of boat you’ve seen in the images in these two posts are single-mast, single-sail boats. They are large enough to carry passengers, conduct trade, withstand the rigors of tumultuous seas, and – if necessary – even go to war on a limited basis. A rudimentary boat without a mast and sail – a rowboat or skiff or a dinghy for example – depends on people-power and oars. “Everyone must row with the oars they’ve got.” (← Check it out at 613AFC033106! ) We know the life of seafarers can be harrowing, and so we also celebrate them – and all of us who navigate the waves and doldrums of the Sea of Life – with the Christian Navy Hymn, ETERNAL FATHER STRONG TO SAVE (↔ Music Link)

Now, please consider these passages regarding love, and think of them as sails that can be filled by the Holy Spirit:

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.”

John 13:34 – 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

John 15:9-12 – 9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Romans 5:3-5 – 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 13:10 – 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

And finally –

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a – 4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends.

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —

at your service, Belovéd!

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

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

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

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

Aloha Friday Message – November 27,2020 – 2020 Advent Series #1

November 27, 2020

2048AFC112710 – 2020 Advent Series #1 

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

    1 Corinthians 2:9 – 9 God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Isaiah 64:8-9 – 8 Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.

Aloha nui loa, ʻŌmea! Welcome to the beginning of the 2020 Advent Series. I back around the second week in November I was stewing over whether or not I should to another series for this Advent. I wasn’t sure, because I couldn’t think of a subject; I prayed about it and asked the Holy Spirit to give me a clue about what to do. As always, he came through with amazing clarity! Here’s what I mean.

Back in October, I created a post called 2040AFC100220 – Think about these things and in that post was this statement:

We discern what is good, and follow everything that points to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. We never, never, never, never give up Hope! We place Faith as our mast, and Love as our sail, and with Wisdom as our rudder we follow the course laid out in Scripture.

My dear friend and mentor, John Kretser, commented on that. He liked the image and contributed the thought that the Ship that holds that mast, sail, rudder, and course is our Hope in Christ Jesus. KA-CHING! There it was laid out for me just as I had hoped. Today we will start with that mast – Faith. As I worked on deciding how to build this series, a second set of instructions came in: BUILD IT FROM PREVIOUSLY-USED MATERIALS AND INSERT NEW MATERIAL FROM EACH SUNDAY’S READINGS. So, for you and for God, here is that first installment. I’ll give you links where you can go look at the origin of what you’ll see in these posts. I’m pretty sure that it won’t be 100% recycled material, though. Let’s get started; I’m hoping these will be quick and easy for you to read, and maybe a bit shorter than some of the heavy-duty things that have come out in the last 90 days. This opening will start each installment of the series, so already your reading burned has been decreased by about 480 words!

You probably noticed that instead of a key image, we have a boat/ship image. “Among sailing vessels, the distinction between ships and boats is that a ship is a square-rigged craft with at least three masts, and a boat isn’t. With regard to motorized craft, a ship is a large vessel intended for oceangoing or at least deep-water transport, and a boat is anything else.” You’ll be seeing boats in these posts. (follow the link to learn more). This boat has one mast. Obviously, the mast holds the sail. What holds the mast? Rigging, called standing rigging, it help stabilize the mast by running between the mast and the deck, like guy-wires on a tree or a radio antenna. The mast usually passes through the deck and may be secured against the hull of the boat at or below the waterline. The sail is attached with spars – nearly horizontal cross-members that help support the edges of the sail. Now, what is it that Faith and a mast have in common?

Faith is anchored in our foundation, our hull, our soul. It’s held up with the rigging – support cables – of our knowledge of God and his Word. Faith is what supports our love of God and neighbor. Remember our Old Friend Abraham? He had Faith that God would not tell him anything that was untrue, and that was “credited to him as righteousness.” (See Genesis 15:6) How does Faith work? Here are some examples from previous posts:

From 840AFC100308 – Faith and Wheelbarrows Think about the parts of a wheelbarrow. Handles – These are like Trust and Knowledge which are needed for Faith. Using only trust gives us a fatalistic mysticism. Using only Knowledge we end up with an academic relativism. But the positive qualities of those disparate views produces Faith. A wheelbarrow is not just handles, you need that tray, the place where you carry the load. This works like practical knowledge – it helps us roll along with the load of our day-to-day duties. To roll, though, ya gotta have a wheel (it’s a WHEEL barrow) The wheel is actually a combination of two machines. The axle is the fulcrum for the levers that make the handles. The wheel is a compound lever that rotates around the fulcrum so that the amount of force required to move a load is reduced. So let’s say that the axle is consciousness and the wheel is morality. Our morality rotates around our consciousness which includes our awareness of cause and effect. So what else is on the wheelbarrow? Well, as you might recall, there are the legs, and they have an important role, too. You don’t have to have the legs to make a wheelbarrow or to use a wheelbarrow, but life sure is easier with them than it is without them. The legs, I deem, are our family and friends. They support us, help us manage and balance our load, keep us from falling over, and keep our handles off the ground so we don’t have to do as much heavy lifting to get up and get going. And that’s the thing about Faith being like a wheelbarrow.

From 1034AFC082010 . In faith, I trust God to be God – All Right, All Powerful, All Good, All Knowing, All Present, Always and All Ways. I believe He alone is God, that everything He creates has an eternal purpose, and that His creation includes me. His Word is inviolate; it cannot be profaned or made impure. What God says is what God does because His actions are His words, and His words are perfect action.

Devotion is the personal (as opposed to congregational or corporate) enthusiastic commitment to be loyal and dedicated to a person or to religious practice(s). When we say, “I am devoted to you” we are expressing our personal intent to be steadfast and loyal, unswerving in our allegiance and any obligations or responsibilities that arise from our devotion.

So, when I combine faith, trust, and devotion, I have hope in a well-purposed future that is sustained by a commitment to focus my life’s work on the source of that hope. I have a balance. Some of you might remember an AFC Message about a wheelbarrow (AFC100308 or AFC100908 – let me know if you would like me to send you a copy) where I said that the handles of the wheelbarrow were like Faith and Trust. You need both of them to use the wheelbarrow. Drawing on that analogy, I propose that devotion is the sense of balance necessary to use the wheelbarrow without dumping everything out of it. That balance isn’t built into the wheelbarrow; it’s built into the person using it. Devotion is what makes it possible to move something that is heavy and cumbersome using a tool that is simple and practical. Devotion makes getting through life more calmly. Calm is good.

From 1604AFC012216 – Where do we look to see what sort of gift we have? Well, if actions speak louder than words, what actions show us that we are gifted? What are the things we like to do and the things we can do well? Those are our gifts. Let’s take a really easy but very important Gift that everyone reading this must surely have: Faith. Do you have faith, even “just a little, maybe?” Do not keep it to yourself. Share it! How? Be The Body of Christ? How? Age Quod Agis – do what you do – in The Body of Christ. Now, can you do that and go fishing or blowing or watch sports every Sunday instead of going to Church? Of course not. At a very minimum, to be part of The Body of Christ, you have to show up (85% of every gig is just being there for the gig). And then you need to share your gift. Paul says if you’re a foot, don’t try to be (or prefer to be) a hand; if you’re an ear, don’t try to be (or prefer to be) an eye; if you are an ear, don’t try to be (or prefer to be) a nose. Be who and what you are and, in all things, do it for the Glory of God in Christ Jesus. (See 1 Corinthians 10:31 and Colossians 3:17) That takes real Faith! Belovéd, don’t keep your Faith hidden under a bushel. No! Let your little light shine. Share your Faith, and all your other gifts.

Look back at the Key Verse at the top: God is faithful. Faith is confidence that all the good things in which we hope are true. God is the source of all that is good, so he is the source of all of our Hope. Now consider this from 1425AFC062014 – Faith and Mystery Day after day we eat and drink to nourish our bodies. What we eat becomes part of us. The food each individual eats is united with that person’s body. With the Eucharist it is the other way around. We become what we eat. Now, I know someone out there just had that old saying “You are what you eat” pop into your head; junk in – junk out, good in – good out. In Communion, we consume the Body and Blood of Christ and we are united to Body and Blood as we become – truly indeed – The Body of Christ, his Church. Everything that is less-than-divine is joined with Every Thing that is Divine: John 14:19-21 – Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.

That is communion. We do not become God, or part of God; we live in Jesus and Jesus lives in us and in our Father. We share this with, in, and for The Body of Christ. We share it with, in, and for the Love of God in Christ Jesus by the ministry of the Holy Spirit because “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?”

Please, please, please: Remember why Jesus’ commands at The Last Supper are important. Remember that – every time you receive it – as he told you to do. Be engaged, not blasé. Be aware, not oblivious. Become the Body of Christ through faith in this Mystery. Beloved, love one another, but love God most. Pray for everyone always in, as, and for The Body of Christ.

Next week we look at what’s attached to the mast.

“Faith of Our Fathers” – YouTube   (<<Music Link)

Have Thine Own Way, Lord with Lyrics – YouTube (<<Music Link)

Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —

at your service, Belovéd!

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

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

 

Aloha Friday Message – November 20, 2020 – Are you done with that?

November 20, 2020

2047AFC112020 – Are you done with that?

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.

    Ezekiel 34:11 – Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will look after and tend my sheep.

1 Corinthians 15:28 – 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.

Matthew 25:46 – 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment*, but the righteous into eternal life. *κόλασιν (kolasin) {kol’-as-in} kólasis – from kolaphos, “a buffeting, a blow” – properly, punishment that “fits” (matches) the one punished

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. Today is Friday, November 20, 2020. It is the 325th day of the year. There are 41 days left. This is a day the Lord has made, so let’s rejoice, be glad, and try not to mess it up. At 00:06, the time this post went live, I turned 74 years old. It hasn’t changed me a bit, although I wonder if perhaps this will be the year, or even the day or hour, when I will complete my last assignment and get some time off. Or is that some time on? Ah! Knowing me, it’s probably a time out! I am eager to be done with all of this, nonetheless, I will keep pounding away until I don’t have to.

How about you? Are you done with this yet? I hear a lot of people saying that these days. “I’m done with this! No more masks, no more sickness, no more politics, no more nothing.” I get it. This is tiring stuff! There’s only one problem I see with being done; well, not a problem really, just an observation. I end up asking the question, “What’s next?” (← Check it out!) This post is along the line of that post from back in 2015. It’s possible some pieces of that might end up in this piece, but I really want to focus on that Key Verse passage from Sunday’s Gospel. The 2015 post talked about how to get to Heaven; the conclusion was it is only through the Grace of God that we have any chance of getting there.

This post is going to deal a bit with how to get to Hell. I can’t believe I’m saying that, but when the promptings for this message started, I ended up with four pages of notes on that topic. Don’t worry, Belovéd, I’m not going to take much more of your time than usual, but I am going to try to make all of us think a little bit harder about that question, “What’s next?”. As long as we are in this corporeal world, there is always a “next thing.” Do you remember YOLO-F? You Only Live Once – and it’s FOREVER. Our last “next thing” is the eternal part of our lives – that Life Everlasting in the Gospel of John. We’ve covered the idea of life forever in the presence of God, and death forever in the absence of God, several times over the years. What is that alternative like, that life in Hell?

I was surprised to learn that there are folks in the past who have spent a great deal of time thinking about that. Of course, since they are earthlings, there is no consensus. One view holds that at the Day of Reward (which most folks call Judgment Day) the “bad people” will be refused entry into Heaven, be shipped off to some mysterious place, and be annihilated. This is called Annihilationism. One’s existence is cancelled; that created soul as well as the entire life it led are permanently terminated. If these souls actually do spend any time in a literal Hell, at some point God causes them to cease to exist – eternal elimination. Being denied Heaven in any form is also referred to as “the second death.” (See for example Revelation 20:14 and Revelation 21:8)

Another view is referred to as Universalism. In this view everybody has immortality – YOLO-F – and the kicker is that eventually everyone is forgiven. In Universalism and Annihilationism, all evil will eventually be wiped out, and only Holiness will remain; Hell will be empty. These theological constructs are contrary to what the Church and Christian tradition hold to be true; that is, that God does indeed have a place called Hell – not just “Sheol” or “Hades” or “Gehenna” but really truly actually eternal tortuous hellfire and brimstone. This is the point of view called Traditionalism.

In the opposing views, it is argued that it is inherently unjust for a just God to eternally punish a soul for temporal – that is for time-alive – sins. They argue that God would not submit any soul to punishment because that cancels out his victory over evil and death won for us on the Cross. How would God create a soul knowing that ultimately that soul would be assigned to eternal torment? Or, in another view, is this whole idea of suffering in Hell – or even cleansing in Purgatory – just a perverted exaggeration of God’s Divine Sovereignty? Isn’t Eternity with God supposed to be one hugely harmonious God-centered celebration of Life and Joy? Why would God leave a dab of humanity in a disharmonious, ugly, painful eternal torment? What was most surprising to me as I read through these differing viewpoints is that they all claim to be biblical! The disparity between the three viewpoints is such that it would be impossible for all three to be true, and it seems equally unlikely that two of them could be true, but if we accept only one view, what should that be? I decided that the view I could best accept and understand is the Traditionalist view of Eternal Punishment. Here’s why:

Let’s take a look at the Universalist view. Take a moment to think of  a person or a group that’s been in the news recently, a person or group that really raised your ire. Now, picture them sitting with you at the Heavenly Banquet. Now imagine that next to them you see Stalin, Hitler, and Mao in a lively conversation. Further up the table are the Apostles Peter, Paul, and John. In the other direction you spot a neighbor who was caught in adultery and decided to get out of the trouble he was in by murdering his family and committing suicide. After all the good things you did in your life to gain a place at the Table, you realize it is only by the Grace of God that you are here, so the same thing must apply to them. God indeed has the power and authority to do that, so how or why did your struggle with sin and repentance make any difference?

We can say much the same about the Nihilists’ outcomes. After being judged as unfit for Heaven, they are eliminated from Heaven and eternity in the blink of an eye. That means that all the people imagined above simply disappeared without any further reckoning for their conduct on Earth. That banishment is indeed eternal since all those deemed worthy will live forever in the presence of God. But wait, haven’t we forgotten about YOLO-F? Didn’t God create us in his image and that means we too are created to be holy and eternal? Hmmm. Blinking the evil out of the Universe might not be an option. So how about those traditionalists? What would they say?

I need to interject something here that is strictly my own point of view, one of those IMHO[1] statements. It is related to this question: When we are all called to the New Jerusalem, to live with God and his angels as resurrected citizens of Heaven, will we still have Free Will? Most Christian theology stances point to Free Will as essential to Salvation. We must choose to love and serve God. There’s no point in him forcing us to love him, because then it wouldn’t really be love. Love requires the decision to commit the act of loving, and that impulse to make that decision is an innate part of us by God’s command. When we suppress that impulse, we sin. In the post-resurrection Heaven, IMHO, there must still be the choice to love God or not to love God, to obey God or not to obey God. If we have free will, then we can use that to elect to be unholy. Nothing unholy is permitted in Heaven, so what would God do with any soul – or angel – who chose to unholy? IF there was already a Hell, and IF it were extant outside of heaven, then the disobedient would immediately proceed to Hell. That’s why there should be a hell. Now, I agree, God could just blink them back into Heaven by forgiving them again, or he could blink them out of existence by banishing them, or he could do as he has always said he would do: Condemn them to everlasting torment.

Now, early on in this post I showed you a link that said (← Check it out!). The following inserts come from that post (1546AFC111315) in 2015. Follow the link if you want to check out that context:

Jesus himself said there is a continuation of life after death. We now know it as Heaven or Paradise. Admission to eternal, everlasting, glorious life with God is attainable through a belief in Jesus that is sufficient to constitute true faith.

In addition, Jesus referred to God the Father as “God of the living and not of the dead. He is the God of the living, not of the dead is found in …

Matthew 22:32 Mark 12:27 Luke 20:38

As such God will award the righteous with eternity with him and will award the unrighteous with eternity without him. It is Christ who will be the judge. It is God who will grant the awards.

2 Thessalonians 1:5-10 – 5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, and is intended to make you worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. 6 For it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, 7 and to give relief to the afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels 8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 These will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, 10 when he comes to be glorified by his saints and to be marveled at on that day among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

Jesus told his disciples – especially those he chose to be Apostles – that there were good outcomes and bad outcomes based on how people lived.

Matthew 13:49-51 – 49 “So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 51 Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.”

Now, here some object that there is no literal “furnace of fire.” We don’t know for certain how that experience of being separated from El Shaddai Olam (Almighty Ever-Living God) will manifest, but it is clear throughout scripture that it will be extremely unpleasant and unrelenting.

Jesus will send angels who are assigned to gather into two groups all the souls that ever lived (remember, we all live forever).

Matthew 13:41-42 – 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Not all of the angels will be with “the good guys.”

2 Peter 2:4 – 4 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment; (Want to know more? Try all of 2 Peter 2)

If we decide, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that there is no God, no Christ, no Salvation, and no sin then we condemn ourselves.

Revelation 21:8 – 8 But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

In addition, if we succeed at convincing – or even attempt to entice others to sin as we sin – then that will also bring separation from God. Jesus declares this in two of the Gospels:

Mark 9:42 – 42 If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.

Matthew 18:6 – 6 “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were fastened around your neck and you were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

Yet God has planned all of this from the first Word of creation, and part of the plan is that we should choose to love him. As the Prophet Isaiah said,

Isaiah 64:4 – 4 For since the world began no one has seen or heard of such a God as ours, who works for those who wait for him! Living Bible (TLB) The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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. However 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’m done with that, and I’m (finally) done with this post. I want you to know that if you got to this point, I deeply appreciate your patience! 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.

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

[1] NB – this is my POV and in no way reflects the teaching of the Catholic Church, or of any other person or organization. It may or may not seem reasonable to anyone else, but is based on my 65+ years of experience studying the Word. Of course, I’m not the only person to ever think of this, so you can run a search to find out about Free Will After the Resurrection.

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