Let me begin by asserting that for me...JESUS IS LORD...!!!
I
t is the job description of every Christian to follow Jesus...Yes He is God, but the whole reason He became human was to give us an example of HOW TO LIVE...!!!
When we say ‘God Is Love’...Jesus’ incarnation and life PROVED IT...!!!
My Catholic Faith informs me that God loves everyone, and each person is specially loved by Him as uniquely formed and gifted...GOD DOESN’T MAKE JUNK...!!!
Because He loves everyone, He calls everyone...that is what is AMAZING about GRACE...!!! It is also amazing that He gives each person a FREE WILL...to say YES or NO to anything WE choose...!!!
Why some answer and some don’t only God knows...He is PERFECT...I’m being PERFECTED...!!!
Now, that dastardly creation of God’s we call Satan...formerly known as Lucifer, which means ‘light bearer’...rejected God’s call and ‘fell from grace’...
And as the master of deceit and the ‘father of lies’...he entwines those two ‘crafts’ so as to deceive ‘EVEN THE ELECT’...
Have you ever seen a good counterfeit bill...??? I have not, but I have personally observed an illegally ‘cloned’ business check...IT LOOKED BETTER THAN MY ORIGINAL...signature and all...!!!
Someone told me or I had recently read that there are more trees on the Earth right now than there ever were at any time before...I believe that, because even if humans didn’t learn the art of TREE MANAGEMENT and FORESTRY PRESERVATION...the darn things seem to have a way of replenishing themselves...
I don’t think trees understand such terms as ‘blight’, ‘disease’, ‘pesticide’, 'forest fires', ‘carbon footprint’, ‘conservation’, etc., but somehow each tree I have ever observed seemed to hold some mystical difference from its neighboring tree which distinguished it and rendered it unique...ONE OF A KIND...I say this even after observing trees in a forest of exclusively white pines, or in a hedgerow of pin oaks, or, for that matter, even a solid border of arborvitae...!!!
The terms ‘hug a tree’, ‘save a tree’, ‘plant a tree', all imply some transcendent meaning expressing our care for ‘NATURE’...attaching and establishing some relationship with our botanical cousins...and Saint Francis Of Assisi, my patron saint, could probably humbly take some credit for this type of thinking...
Yet I think FRANCIS himself would be the first to acknowledge that all these reflections and thoughts on the uniqueness of God’s creation belong solely to the credit of a LOVING AND OMNIPOTENT GOD...
We’ll never be able to FULLY UNDERSTAND these concepts, but our GOD gives each of us CLUES...!!!
Ours is not to UNDERSTAND THE MYSTERIES, but believe and participate in them...!!!
Jesus reminded us hundreds of times in Scripture to ‘BE NOT AFRAID’, and He also cautioned us on several occasions to be on guard against the trappings of Satan and his fallen ‘angels‘...
In a feeble attempt to put this into context, may I leave with a quote from the Book Of Jude...
But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the people who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
Be merciful to those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.
To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen
We have just celebrated EASTER...THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD...ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA! ALLELUIA!
Next Sunday we will celebrate DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY, and our reading from Jude should give us plenty to reflect upon...!!!
God creates from NOTHING...we ‘borrow’ from His creation to create...!!! In the end, all will be reckoned according to HIS DIVINE MERCY...else each of us would perish...!!!
OUR HOPE IS IN THE LORD WHO MADE HEAVEN AND EARTH...!!!
Have a great weekend...!!!
Comments(13)