Night Traffic in Bay Area California
Picture by Laurie Couto
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him,
“If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples,
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham
and have never been enslaved to anyone.
How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
A slave does not remain in a household forever,
but a son always remains.
So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.
I know that you are descendants of Abraham.
But you are trying to kill me,
because my word has no room among you.
I tell you what I have seen in the Father’s presence;
then do what you have heard from the Father.”
They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.”
Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children,
you would be doing the works of Abraham.
But now you are trying to kill me,
a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God;
Abraham did not do this.
You are doing the works of your father!”
So they said to him, “We were not born of fornication.
We have one Father, God.”
Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me,
for I came from God and am here;
I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”
Emphasis Mine John 8: 31-42
Question?
Do the words my word has no room among you, make you stop and think that this may be true in your life?
Have you read the Bible from the beginning to the last chapter?
Or,
Have you listened to satan and believed it is a book about events that happened two to four thousand years ago and is outdated to today’s events?
Or
Has satan convinced you that there are boooooooring chapters that no one could possibly get through?
Or,
I just don’t have the time, I am too busy reading ………………., and I don’t have time to read The Bible now, later, maybe.
All of the above excuses were true, with me, until the Holy Spirit asked me, one day, the question, “When you die, and stand in front of Jesus and He asks, Did you read Our book, what will your response be?
I thought carefully about this question and realized I had failed many tests in school because I hadn’t prepared properly, by studying every day, and this being the most important test I decided I would not flunk this question.
Side note, notice all of the I’s in the above paragraph, it makes me want to vomit. In truth, it was The Holy Spirit who opened my eyes to my shortcomings as a student.
The fact was I was lazy!
The Holy Spirit has encouraged me to read many Bibles, New American Bible, approved by the Bishops and used at Mass, The King James Bible, The Saint Joseph Bible, The Way, and we are now reading the New Revised Standard Version, NRSV Catholic Edition.
The NRSV Catholic Edition is the easiest-to-understand Bible I have read so far. The NRSV Catholic Edition is authorized by The Catholic Bishops and was edited by Catholic, Protestant Theologians, and Jewish Rabbis.
Why is the Catholic edition so important?
Martin Luther believed if the original book wasn’t written in Hebrew it should not be included in the bible. The Catholic Bible has seven more books written in Greek than the Protestant Bibles’.
The books not in the Protestant Bibles are: Tobit, Judith, 1 and 2 Maccabees, Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach, (Ecclesiasticus), and Baruch. We read these books every year, and this is great reading.
Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are the chapters that are hard to read.
Why?
God is establishing the rules for proper life with God, and the setup of the Jewish community, who does what, and where they will live etc. I must confess, I do scan this section on where they live etc, BUT I do read the laws and try to picture life before God put His Laws into effect.
We reported last week that Jason Soble said the two greatest gifts to mankind were the Torah and The Holy Spirit.
The Old Testament clearly tells us what happens to the Jewish people when they refuse to follow the rules of the Torah, and the price they must pay.
In the book of Acts, we get a glimpse of life in The Holy Spirit of Truth,
And
It is NOTHING like life that was experienced before the coming of The Holy Spirit.
Read the Bible, and be able to say YOUR WORD I WILL MAKE ROOM FOR.
Prayer:
If you want to grow in Love, Joy, and Peace this is a result of growth in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Kindness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
We are reading HEAVEN STORMED by Randy Kay.
Randy dies, goes to Heaven, and I haven’t gotten to the point where he returns back.
Two thoughts before we write any more. The last time I mentioned a book about Life after death, Pip from England wrote to tell me the book was a fraud. I checked and Pip was right, and we printed an apology in the next blog, and I can’t thank Pip enough.
I have done a Google check and can find no negative comments about this book.
Four quick thoughts:
One: God is not a throwaway God.
Randy saw babies who died or were aborted, which would be good news to anyone who lost a child at or before birth, and we did.
Randy saw the dog he had as a child, and for many pet lovers, this will be great news. Randy also saw all the animals in our world now, he didn’t mention dinosaurs, this just occurred to me,
Two: hell is for real.
I have met people who said they were going to hell, and they would just have to suck it up. I have bad news for them. There is no way you can suck it up. It’s worse than anything you can imagine.
Three: The Holy Spirit is very active in Heaven.
One of Our complaints today here on Earth is we pay far too little attention to The Holy Spirit.
As an example of this when we pray The Apostles Creed we pray “I believe in The Holy Spirit.”
That’s it!
Believe What?
We don’t say
Randy by his relationship with The Holy Spirit relates how The Holy Spirit talks spiritually to Randy, not in a whisper, but talks.
Please never forget, when you were Baptized, The Holy Spirit was infused into your soul. You are a Living, Talking, Singing, Proclaiming, Temple of God.
Wow!!!
These four quick thoughts I am sure we will talk more about as I continue to read Randy’s book.
We were positing the blog to A Catholic Moment and I realized we wrote our blog using Tuesdays 4/8/25 readings by mistake. I considered changing but had the thought that The Holy Spirit wanted to discuss what we discussed.
Picture:
APicture of the traffic in the Bay Area, NorCal. It’s time- lapsed with a long shutter speed. The red are taillights, the white are headlights. It’s the chaotic speed of life here if you allow it. Picture by Laurie Couto
Please keep Snapping!
Email me if you want a copy of the prayers we discussed.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
