Jesus said, "The time is coming and now is, when those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, for God seeks such to worship Him."
This is brought back to me in so many ways on so many days. And yesterday was one of those days. I had company for a few days and we were at breakfast. We were discussing faith and my precious cousin said to me, "Well, that was 30 years ago, things have changed in that time and the faith has changed a lot over the years."
My Aide said later, "Your head snapped back and your eyes got big....." And I remember that I shook my head, "No!"
I get into trouble very often for holding the position that I do on worshipping God "In Spirit and in Truth." Unfortunately, we have come so far down the slippery slope that we have landed at the bottom in a slough of relativism.
A remark that causes my hackles to rise is "Well, that isn't MY GOD; MY GOD is thus, and thus and thus." Right away I see a Mr. Potatoe Head and picture picking this feature and that and placing it on the potatoe to form the look that I choose. God is God; He is more real than you or I. Have I a right to redefine YOU? Yet that is what we do with God and with THE FAITH. So many have a smorgasbord faith - a small helping of this and a huge helping of that - until we have a plate full of beliefs that we find palatable.
If one thinks very deeply about it, the Mr. Potatoe Head method of creating a God that I can worship comfortably - shall we say, "a domesticated diety that I can live with" - is tantamount to creating a god in my own mind; it may not be forming an idol from clay or wood or plaster but it is no less creating my own object of worship. Again, He is THE GREAT I AM! GOD IS REAL; He is more real than anything we can see in this world.
It gets me into hot water when I say - and I will say it with my last breath - it behooves us to find the God WHO IS and not make ourselves a god that we ourselves have put together and suits our purposes. We are, rather, to "be transformed by the renewing of our minds" until we become the person that GOD WILLS US TO BE. It is God's way and not our own way that forms us in THE FAITH - - - -
Jesus says, "The time is coming and NOW IS when those who worship God must worship Him IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH." He said that it was expedient for Himself to leave and to send the Holy Spirit and that the Holy Spirit would "lead us into all truth" - will teach us the reality which is God and will transform us until we want no more our own will but that when we pray the prayer Our Savious taught us we are not just mouthing words but we really mean "Thy Kingdom come; Thy Will be done on earth AS IT IS IN HEAVEN."
Dear Lord, I open my heart to YOU - THE GREAT I AM; please do not stop until I know myself and I know YOU as you are - - - until I can not tell where my will has stopped and yours and mine are ONE. Bring me to that sublime place where I no longer wish MY WILL to be yours, but I truly wish YOUR MOST HOLY WILL to be mine - until I am not only made in Your image and likeness but am TRANSFORMED in Christ Jesus, Our Lord and Our Saviour. Amen+
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
In The Beginning ... GOD ...
In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth.... it all belongs to Him. "HE is the one NECESSARY BEING," to quote Fr. Angelus Shaughnessy, "and we are the contingent beings."
God spoke to Moses in those terms. Moses said, "Who shall I say it is who sent me?" God said for Moses to tell Pharoah, that it is "I AM" who sent you. "I AM."
He identified Himself as "I AM WHO AM." In other words, "I Am Who I Am" or perhaps we could say, "I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE." He is the heigth of REALITY. God is WHO HE IS and no less. It isn't up for debate. He isn't open to negotiations as to His Being. And yet the world has come to a time when people want to live in the "Tyranny of Relativism" even to the point of defining God.
Today's world is so full of RELIGIONS and so devoid of LEGITIMATE FAITH. Let's go back to the beginning and see that this ONE, TRUE, HOLY, ALMIGHTY GOD WHO IS is a COVENANT-making God. HE created; HE initiated HIS COVENANT with man and not the other way around. The ALMIGHTY reached out and created, and made Himself known, and initiated covenants with men - with Adam, with Noah, Abraham, the Children of Israel through His Mediator, Moses, through King David and lastly The New Covenant whose Mediator is Jesus Christ. His was and is the perogative, the exclusive right and power to confirm to his creation how this creation operates ideally. As God reached out to man and grew His Chosen People to become part of His Covenant, He revealed more and more to them and they became ONE COVENANT PEOPLE.
Long story, short, there were others who would not accept God's Covenant but wished to come to Him in their own way - by the beliefs and practices that they saw fit to approach Him by. Babel was just such an experiment that we can see in the Old Testament/Covenant. They were going to "make a name for themselves" rather than have God make a name for them, the scripture tells us. And God did not accept their "religion" but confounded their language so that they could not continue on with "doing it MY WAY." In the New Testament, Jesus states specifically, "Those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth."
Through the Covenants, the overarching theme of Sacred Scripture, God has told man what He wants and does not want and has set into His Covenants blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience.
Over the eons of time men have formed many religions all seeking to find the way to God by something that they themselves have invented and approved. We have come to the sad place where these are referred to as "The World's Great Religions" and political correctness insists that we look on them all as legitimate RELIGIONS.
There are many religions but only ONE COVENANT. There are many man-made ladders by which men attempt to climb up to God when they reject God's own way.
There is a huge difference between those man-made religions and the Covenant that God Himself innaugurated and revealed. God's Covenant is that which HE BUILT on Rock; religions are those which men built on sinking sand.
It does make a difference what we believe.
God spoke to Moses in those terms. Moses said, "Who shall I say it is who sent me?" God said for Moses to tell Pharoah, that it is "I AM" who sent you. "I AM."
He identified Himself as "I AM WHO AM." In other words, "I Am Who I Am" or perhaps we could say, "I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE." He is the heigth of REALITY. God is WHO HE IS and no less. It isn't up for debate. He isn't open to negotiations as to His Being. And yet the world has come to a time when people want to live in the "Tyranny of Relativism" even to the point of defining God.
Today's world is so full of RELIGIONS and so devoid of LEGITIMATE FAITH. Let's go back to the beginning and see that this ONE, TRUE, HOLY, ALMIGHTY GOD WHO IS is a COVENANT-making God. HE created; HE initiated HIS COVENANT with man and not the other way around. The ALMIGHTY reached out and created, and made Himself known, and initiated covenants with men - with Adam, with Noah, Abraham, the Children of Israel through His Mediator, Moses, through King David and lastly The New Covenant whose Mediator is Jesus Christ. His was and is the perogative, the exclusive right and power to confirm to his creation how this creation operates ideally. As God reached out to man and grew His Chosen People to become part of His Covenant, He revealed more and more to them and they became ONE COVENANT PEOPLE.
Long story, short, there were others who would not accept God's Covenant but wished to come to Him in their own way - by the beliefs and practices that they saw fit to approach Him by. Babel was just such an experiment that we can see in the Old Testament/Covenant. They were going to "make a name for themselves" rather than have God make a name for them, the scripture tells us. And God did not accept their "religion" but confounded their language so that they could not continue on with "doing it MY WAY." In the New Testament, Jesus states specifically, "Those who worship God must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth."
Through the Covenants, the overarching theme of Sacred Scripture, God has told man what He wants and does not want and has set into His Covenants blessing for obedience and cursing for disobedience.
Over the eons of time men have formed many religions all seeking to find the way to God by something that they themselves have invented and approved. We have come to the sad place where these are referred to as "The World's Great Religions" and political correctness insists that we look on them all as legitimate RELIGIONS.
There are many religions but only ONE COVENANT. There are many man-made ladders by which men attempt to climb up to God when they reject God's own way.
There is a huge difference between those man-made religions and the Covenant that God Himself innaugurated and revealed. God's Covenant is that which HE BUILT on Rock; religions are those which men built on sinking sand.
It does make a difference what we believe.
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