Live in harmony with
one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not
be conceited. 17 Do not
repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes
of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace
with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's
wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says
the Lord. 20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him
something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his
head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Fear
I Will Fear No Evil. "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4)
I Will Help You. "For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you" (Isaiah 41:13).
You Will See The Deliverance. Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again" (Exodus 14:13).
Be Strong and Courageous. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you" (Dueteronomy 31:6).
A Spirit of Power and Love. "For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).
Of Whom Shall I be Afraid? "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall i Fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)"
I Bring You Good News. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people" (Luke 2:10).
We Say With Confidence. So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can Man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:6)
Peace I Leave With You. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27).
People don't really get me, and at times I fully don't get myself. But, in order to understand me, you have to understand how important my faith is, my Church is, my religion is. Catholicism is everything to me. I have done it huge amounts of injustice through my thoughts, words, and actions, by living my life of sin whilst proclaiming to be a devout Catholic. I saw something from a friend that hurt me so badly about religion. The quote was along the lines of, "religion is like a penis, it's great that you have one but don't expose it for all to see." Man I do my best to not get evangelical, preachy, or overbearing about my religious beliefs, but let me try to better explain this. I believe that this life is kind of like a try out for a sports team. We are all given this amazing opportunity to try out for the team that we are supposed to be on for eternity. During our time on earth, or our try out, we can listen to the instructions placed before us, work our hardest to make the team...or we can screw around, do what we want, and not listen to the coach when they give us instructions. The consequences are pretty simple, we either make the team and go to heaven for all of eternity, or we don't make the cut and spend an eternity in hell. People talk about their religious beliefs and talk about how they have seen God's work, they have felt His blessings, they have had a coming to Christ. I too have experienced all of these things, but I have also seen the devil. I have seen the work of Satan, I have been face to face with pure evil, I have seen Satan losing his grip on people and losing his power, and I have experienced the pure devastation of the devil's chains. I am convinced in my God because I have witnessed his good works, and I have seen Satan and his evil face to face. You may get mad or agitated at the fact that I try to evangelize you, but you have to understand, there is no greater love that I know, than trying to get you closer to Christ and closer to Catholicism. I love you so much that I want to see you in heaven for all eternity. I love you so much that I am taking my time to try my hardest to get you to make that eternal team, I love you so much that I want you in eternity with me. I look at this beautiful country of the United States of America. She has provided so many with so much, including the freedom to practice my religious beliefs. It pains me to see these social issues of abortion, and providing contraceptives to Catholic organizations with so many people supporting the pro-abortion positions. Mother Teresa once said, "it is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." It hurts me to see the leader of this free nation cut back on religious freedoms, to support policies that directly lead to the deaths of the most innocent, the most vulnerable, and those who have absolutely no voice: the unborn. I've read that on judgment day God will ask you two questions: 1)What did you do with the gifts I gave you? 2)What did you do to bring others closer to me? I know I screwed those questions up, but I think I got the gist of them. On the day of my departure from this earth, I hope I left it a better place than when I arrived. I fear that task is becoming increasingly more and more difficult. I do my best to not get preachy, or try to evangelize some of my "friends" or those around me. I try my best to not shove my religion down the throats of those around me. But, the longer I do that, the greater the disservice I am providing to my friends and the others around me. So join me in this eternal tryout. Seek out your faith, seek out the Catholic Church in all of her love and beauty. Catholicism is a beautiful thing, to its core it provides all the necessary ingredients for life. It provides love to the hurt, it provides hope to the hopeless, it provides faith to the broken. I cannot, for any reason, see why people do not stand with the Catholic Church. We lead selfish lives, "I do not want to sacrifice these superficial pleasures I have on this earth. I do not want to live a pure life, I do not want to live a life free of external substances, I want to seek out those things that make me temporarily satisfied." However, when we make these aforementioned sacrifices we take one step closer to Christ. These sacrifices, just like the pleasures that they bring, are temporary. When we sacrifice the sin in our lives it leads to eternal ecstasy, eternal bliss, eternal love, eternal hope, eternal joy, and eternal satisfaction. So join me, on the road to heaven. Start today, God does not care about the sin or mistakes we've made in the past. He is a forgiving God who is waiting to embrace you with open arms. God yearns for us to walk with him, so start today. Live with Christ, live in Christ, because the reward is life, and the alternative is death.
I Will Help You. "For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you" (Isaiah 41:13).
You Will See The Deliverance. Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again" (Exodus 14:13).
Be Strong and Courageous. "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you" (Dueteronomy 31:6).
A Spirit of Power and Love. "For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline" (2 Timothy 1:7).
Of Whom Shall I be Afraid? "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall i Fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life--of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)"
I Bring You Good News. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people" (Luke 2:10).
We Say With Confidence. So we say with confidence, "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can Man do to me?" (Hebrews 13:6)
Peace I Leave With You. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (John 14:27).
People don't really get me, and at times I fully don't get myself. But, in order to understand me, you have to understand how important my faith is, my Church is, my religion is. Catholicism is everything to me. I have done it huge amounts of injustice through my thoughts, words, and actions, by living my life of sin whilst proclaiming to be a devout Catholic. I saw something from a friend that hurt me so badly about religion. The quote was along the lines of, "religion is like a penis, it's great that you have one but don't expose it for all to see." Man I do my best to not get evangelical, preachy, or overbearing about my religious beliefs, but let me try to better explain this. I believe that this life is kind of like a try out for a sports team. We are all given this amazing opportunity to try out for the team that we are supposed to be on for eternity. During our time on earth, or our try out, we can listen to the instructions placed before us, work our hardest to make the team...or we can screw around, do what we want, and not listen to the coach when they give us instructions. The consequences are pretty simple, we either make the team and go to heaven for all of eternity, or we don't make the cut and spend an eternity in hell. People talk about their religious beliefs and talk about how they have seen God's work, they have felt His blessings, they have had a coming to Christ. I too have experienced all of these things, but I have also seen the devil. I have seen the work of Satan, I have been face to face with pure evil, I have seen Satan losing his grip on people and losing his power, and I have experienced the pure devastation of the devil's chains. I am convinced in my God because I have witnessed his good works, and I have seen Satan and his evil face to face. You may get mad or agitated at the fact that I try to evangelize you, but you have to understand, there is no greater love that I know, than trying to get you closer to Christ and closer to Catholicism. I love you so much that I want to see you in heaven for all eternity. I love you so much that I am taking my time to try my hardest to get you to make that eternal team, I love you so much that I want you in eternity with me. I look at this beautiful country of the United States of America. She has provided so many with so much, including the freedom to practice my religious beliefs. It pains me to see these social issues of abortion, and providing contraceptives to Catholic organizations with so many people supporting the pro-abortion positions. Mother Teresa once said, "it is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish." It hurts me to see the leader of this free nation cut back on religious freedoms, to support policies that directly lead to the deaths of the most innocent, the most vulnerable, and those who have absolutely no voice: the unborn. I've read that on judgment day God will ask you two questions: 1)What did you do with the gifts I gave you? 2)What did you do to bring others closer to me? I know I screwed those questions up, but I think I got the gist of them. On the day of my departure from this earth, I hope I left it a better place than when I arrived. I fear that task is becoming increasingly more and more difficult. I do my best to not get preachy, or try to evangelize some of my "friends" or those around me. I try my best to not shove my religion down the throats of those around me. But, the longer I do that, the greater the disservice I am providing to my friends and the others around me. So join me in this eternal tryout. Seek out your faith, seek out the Catholic Church in all of her love and beauty. Catholicism is a beautiful thing, to its core it provides all the necessary ingredients for life. It provides love to the hurt, it provides hope to the hopeless, it provides faith to the broken. I cannot, for any reason, see why people do not stand with the Catholic Church. We lead selfish lives, "I do not want to sacrifice these superficial pleasures I have on this earth. I do not want to live a pure life, I do not want to live a life free of external substances, I want to seek out those things that make me temporarily satisfied." However, when we make these aforementioned sacrifices we take one step closer to Christ. These sacrifices, just like the pleasures that they bring, are temporary. When we sacrifice the sin in our lives it leads to eternal ecstasy, eternal bliss, eternal love, eternal hope, eternal joy, and eternal satisfaction. So join me, on the road to heaven. Start today, God does not care about the sin or mistakes we've made in the past. He is a forgiving God who is waiting to embrace you with open arms. God yearns for us to walk with him, so start today. Live with Christ, live in Christ, because the reward is life, and the alternative is death.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)