Know the Lord

What is the reason that we are all Christians? What are we trying to do? How are we trying to do it? As Christians we are all asked to love and serve the Lord. We are given the Ten Commandments and asked to obey them. We are given the Beatitudes. We are given one additional request to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. We are asked to praise and give thanks to God. We are encouraged to pray to God. What is the real purpose for all of this activity? What will happen to each of us if we do it with love in our hearts, kindness in our souls, honor and holiness in our minds? Our entire being as Christians is a preparation for our eternal life with God. Each moment of each day we are asked to work for our salvation. Each moment of each day we are asked to be compassionate, humble, merciful. Each moment of each day we are asked to work to please God. Our daily lives give us opportunities to serve God. We must work to establish, nurture, and protect a relationship with God. The most important relationship for a Christian is his/her relationship with God. Wanting salvation by itself is meaningless, completely worthless unless we want to know the Lord. Prayer is essential to this. We must learn how to pray. We must make time for prayer in our lives. Prayer filled with kindness, truth, goodness, love, holiness and hope can lead us to closer relationships to God. As Christians we must take time to listen for God's voice, God's gentle call. We are all living, breathing, articulating, gesticulating members of God's ministry. We must understand this with the entirety of our being and then use our lives to share the Good News with everyone with whom we interact. Our actions as Christians are often more important than our words. Each generation searches for something new, something improved. Each generation listens to the campaign promises. Christians have been given a better covenant with better promises. We simply have to believe. We simply have to remember our baptismal promises and try to live a better, more loving life of charity, humility, and obedience. Our purpose here is not to purchase the biggest house, wear the trendiest clothes. Our purpose is to love and serve God. Our purpose is to prepare ourselves for eternal life, to prepare ourselves for salvation.

of erring heart

We have become partners of Christ if only we hold the beginning of the reality firm until the end, for it is said: "Oh, that today you would hear his voice: 'Harden not your hearts as at the rebellion.'" Hebrews 3:14-15

Faithful. Glory. Honor. Faithful in all his house. Take care. Encourage yourselves daily.

These words leap into my imagination as I think of the building a relationship with God. Jesus Christ asks for our love, our mercy, and our honor. Good Christians are people filled with the faith and grace of God. These people are filled with charity and hope which they freely share. Their existence is one of serving the Lord, asking others to serve the Lord. Their existence reflects the hope of God for all human beings and for the followers of Christ. Their existence begins with simplicity of faith, with spirituality organic and growing, with solidarity for all human beings especially those who are forgotten, marginalized. Their relationship with God is the most important relationship in their lives. These Christians live quiet lives of great humility and sacrifice.

Each day is an opportunity to praise and exalt God by their deeds of compassion and mercy. Each day provides one more instance of their obedience to the teachings of God. With faith and courage each one of us can learn how to serve the Lord, each one of us can learn how to listen for the Lord’s voice. With prayer and patience we can learn the will of God when we allow ourselves to be loving, unselfish, quiet.

Modern life creates anxiety. Each day we are encouraged to be selfish, gluttonous, avaricious by the secular world. The flesh is seen as more important than the spiritual. Sometimes modern life seems dirty, dangerous. The media likes presenting images of all types of sin and vice. There is always the possibility of a passive indoctrination, animosity and loathing is encouraged, often heralded. Being good, following in the footsteps of Jesus Christ is often presented as weakness, being boring.

There is an intense need for cleansing now. Our society is unclean. Our faith can help us. Our love and obedience to God can save us. We must remember prayer. We must remember God’s greatest gift to each one of us.

We all need compassion, charity, humility, mercy, hope, civility, love.

We must be willing to help our neighbors with deeds and prayers. We must be willing to praise God with deeds and prayers.

The world is filled with demons, with evil. With God’s help we can survive and flourish. We must ask for help, we must obey his commands.