Hardness of heart

All to often we may harden our hearts not realising that we are actually doing so. God may be talking to us through ways that if we were spiritually awake, we would be able to hear His voice. Many times though we enter a spiritual slumber and ponder as to why we are unable to stand firm against temptation. Following on from the theme of repentance, we must beseech the Lord and ask for the prayers of the Blessed Virgin and of all the Saints so that our Lord softens our hearts and awakens us from our spiritual slumber. James 5 verse 16 we read "the prayers of a righteous man avails much", so beseech those who are alive in Christ so that together with your prayers our Lord will grant you your request. If we are staggering in our faith it may ultimately be due to our own doubts, in Luke 18 verse 8 Jesus laments and asks "will I find faith when I return?" referring to His second coming. Do we have faith brethren? Do we believe in the power of God through the blessed Sacraments, such as the Eucharist? Or the Absolution of sins? Do we, as our blessed forefathers did, believe that the Church of God is not separated by death and that those who reached the perfect level of sanctification and righteousness are able to pray on our behalf? Do we believe that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us? If not, then this may be the reason for our struggles, for the hardness of our heart will bring calamity upon us, it will bring doubt, fear, worries and anxieties. However if we believe that God can do all things and work in ways that do not conform to our own wisdom, God will be faithful to us and provide for us a path, in which to escape from all our doubts and fears. Didn't Jesus say "believe and do not doubt"? To overcome the hardness of our hearts let us affirm the truth of Jesus Christ through His blessed Apostolic Church that has held true to the faith through times of joy and desperation alike. Do not allow the wisdom of men, some who confess the Lord with lip service, to make you stumble from the true faith the faith that Jesus Christ was crucified for. St Paul stated -

2 Timothy 3

“Difficult Times Will Come”

¹ But realise this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, ^[a]haters of good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of  godliness, although they have denied its power;

Let us not be like these that St Paul warned us about, do not harden your hearts as many have turning away from Christ's Church with the belief that they know of another way,  but confess and hold firm to the true faith and by the power of God's grace we will pass from death unto life eternal.

Repentance

In Matthew 4:17 Jesus proclaims, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand". What is repentance, and why are we commanded to repent? I would dare say that many of us were once at a stage in our lives where we put little consideration into our spiritual life and our walk with God. We possibly believed that God existed and that His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, came and dwelt amongst us and was crucified and ultimately resurrected, but we chose to follow our own desires and neglect the will of God. Does this sound familiar? Well this is all too normal and our Lord Jesus tells us of a beautiful story of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11. Brothers and sisters the story of the prodigal son is profound and there lies beneath the story a rich theological and spiritual truth that portrays the nature of reality. The story's underlying motive is to teach us about the act of repentance, an act which reflects humility and the desire to let go of all worldly wants and return to a life with God. Assuming we have been baptized, repentance is the key to restoring a broken relationship with the Father, the act of true repentance, which includes tears, remorse, prostrations and the desperation for God to forgive, accept and cleanse us of our sins is an act of humility on our part and brings our Father and the Angels in Heaven great joy. The importance of repentance is further highlighted in Luke 13 1-5, Jesus states that unless we repent, we will all perish. Jesus sternly warns us that if we do not admit our guilt before God and turn to Him, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Brothers and sisters, do not think that repentance is God's way of humiliating us or subjecting us to a rule of tyranny, rather He knows that it is for our sake that He calls us to repent, it is purely for our benefit. Let us repent and rid ourselves of the desires of this world, let us kneel before Christ our God and confess our sins and seek forgiveness and new life. When we repent we are admitting to God that we need His love, guidance, strength and forgiveness and that we want to live for Him and accoring to His will. When we seek repentance and it comes from the depth of our hearts, God remembers that His Son died for us and forgives us of our sins and restores us, thus the act of repentance repairs the relationship that we had with God before we chose to abandon Him and chase after worldly pleasures. Like the prodigal son, whom when he comes to his senses decides to go back to his father and ask to work as a hired servant, we too, must humble ourselves in front of the Almighty and admit our wrongs. Furthermore, we must also be willing to forgive those who have sinned against us, which is an act of true humility. Brothers and sisters, if we haven't done so previously, let us fall on our knees and repent to our Lord, let us admit our guilt to Him and allow Him to restore our relationship with Him so that we can begin to live our lives in accordance to His will. Also keep in mind that repentance is not a one time act, we are called to continual repentance as we are constantly finding ourselves entangled in sin, falling into temptation and straying away from the narrow path. God bless.

The love of Jesus.

The love that was expressed by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is tremendous. His love transcends any human comprehension that pertains to love, the love we feel for our family and friends is but a smigeon, a mere fraction of the love that Christ has for His creation. While I was still in this world sinning, Christ died for me, whilst I was displaying hate and anger toward my fellow human beings, Christ patiently waited for me so that He could forgive me. Where would we be without His patience and love? I dare not think about the darkness that would have engulfed me should I have not stepped into His brilliant light and it shone brightly upon me exposing my dreadful deeds, which ultimately brought me to repentance. How wonderful a God we have! We constantly rebel against Him and to our shame! If someone offered us a life of money, fame, love and security, wouldn't we treat that person with the utmost respect? God offers us so much more than anything we could possibly attain in this life, eternal joy, peace, love, happiness and blessings that are beyond our ability to comprehend! And yet all to often we simply exchange this wonderful gift that is literally priceless for worthless junk, materialistic possessions that will ultimately rust, break, tear or be thrown into the trash. God loves His creation to the point of death, even death upon a Cross, which was a shameful, barbaric and torturous death. But He humbled Himself and dwelt amongst His creation to serve and ultimately save us, His love is indescribable, let us rejoice in Him and store our treasures in Heaven, "where neither rust nor moth destroys". God Bless.

God's reliability

In this world where people often let us down it is comforting to know that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is always there for us. Christ's words ring true where He states in the last verse of Matthew "and lo, I Am with you always, even till the end of age". Jesus made a promise to all those who trust in Him, He will not leave us nor forsake us. We can count on Him in everything we do, all we need is to have that faith that Christ spoke of, which is as small as a mustard seed. When we ask for something in accordance with His perfect will and do not doubt in our hearts, He will be faithful to answer us. However, what of all the requests we have made to our Lord in faith that seem to go unanswered? Have you ever stopped and thought that maybe the answer was no? When we were children we would ask for things non stop and many times we were knocked back much to our displeasure. God will say no to requests that He knows will be non profitable in our spiritual journey. Christ states that if we ask for bread or fish, God will not give us a stone or serpent! What if our petition for bread wasn't really bread at all? What if in our finite ability to comprehend things we wanted or asked for something that may have resulted in us regretting what we received or did? If we love Christ, He will not blindly say yes to all our requests especially if they are to our detriment. God never let's us down, always remember that He is loving and wants the best for you,, even if you don't know what that may be.

God and Freedom

How often do we question why God wants us to worship Him?

The erroneously held belief that God demands worship is a  stumbling block to many people including those who have a firm faith in God. So let us tackle this issue from a spiritual perspective and we will soon conclude that our God is a God of love and mercy, not an egotistical monster (khaslee) that some would have us believe.

God has provided His special creation with a free will, meaning we have the choice to either serve Him or serve ourselves and although this interpretation may seem overly simplistic I firmly affirm that these are the only two paths available in life. With this magnificent gift of free will God has actually demonstrated His love and mercy for His creation, how? Well let’s look at it from society’s perspective, we live in what is known as a free, democratic society where we are able to flourish and as long as we obey the law we are generally free to live our lives the way we want (although this freedom can and usually is  abused). This is not so in many countries where a dictatorship is in place, such society’s often enslave their people and rob them of thought. These dictator’s force their people to hang pictures of them upon walls in their homes and to publicly affirm their support for the dictator and may be severely punished should they not conform. Which society would you rather live in?

God, on the other hand,  does not want us to come to Him out of force, He does not force us to love Him or accept Him nor does He require any need of us to do so (His love for us is for our benefit, not the other way around). Unlike the dictator who forces his people to submit to him, God does not force us to believe, worship or trust in Him, God wants us to come to Him out of love. God wants us to exercise our free will when deciding whether or not to worship Him and as I pointed out earlier, freedom can be abused. Although we have a choice in worshipping, God would prefer that we do turn to Him not because it benefits Him, but rather for our own benefit. Who, being a loving parent, would not warn their child on the disastrous effects of drugs? Although ultimately it is the child’s choice the parent realises that it is for their child’s own benefit, and it would be wise for that child to listen to their parents as drugs can have detrimental effects on the user.

God will respect your choice and although He has given us instructions to follow, should we choose not to comply then there are consequences, those consequences are spending an eternity without God and this is torment, this is literally hell. God will grant you your request and again we can see that God will not force you to reside with Him, rather He grants you your desire and completely deserts you. God realises that this is a terrible situation for YOU and will constantly try to draw you to Him, no one will be able to face God and say “you never revealed yourself to me”.

Like a good parent, God continually warns us to serve and worship Him because He has prepared so much joy, love, peace and happiness for us in His kingdom and He desires for us to share in it. He wants our worship because He wants us to partake in His divine nature (see 2^nd Peter 1 :4) and for us to receive a crown of glory, not because it makes Him feel all powerful! He does not want our worship because He is egotistical (khaslee) if He were egotistical He would simply force us to obey Him and what choice would we have? We would be living under a dictatorship!

God demonstrated His love for us by doing something unimaginable, becoming like one of us and being destroyed by us to ultimately save us and guide us back to Him! Where is the egotism in this act? This is an act of pure humility, love and mercy shown to His creation! St Paul states that for a wicked man, rarely will someone die but for a good man someone may be willing to die, but Christ died for us whilst we were still sinners! There is no room for selfishness in this act, it is selfless, beautiful, merciful and full of love.

Praise His name for ever and ever!

To my friends at SPPP

Hi guys,

I have started this blog so that instead of sending email messages to you all when I write something that may hopefully edify you, I will post it on my blog and forward you an update.

God Bless!