by Mark Gates
Jer 7:1-11, The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD, and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter these gates to worship the LORD! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, So that I may remain with you in this place!
Put not your trust in the deceitful words. “This is the temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!” Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with his neighbor; if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place, or follow strange gods to your own harm, will I remain with you in this place, in the land I gave your fathers long ago and forever.”
Boy -o- boy, that sounds a lot like: Repent and know that I AM GOD !! You don’t need to be a scholar in order to have several different images come to mind, including John the Baptist, through all of the Apostles, and then our Holy Saints. God very patiently, throughout the ages, keeps calling us back to Him, to the safety of His bosom. What is sometimes amazing to me is that God even bothers to keep calling us. Is He trying to leave the past in the past and be merciful to a new generation? The very next line of this passage describes God’s own disappointment:
“But here you are, putting your trust in deceitful words, to your own loss! You go after strange gods that you know not, and yet come to stand before me in this house which bears My name, and say: “We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again”? Has this house which bears My name, become in your eyes a den of thieves? I too see what is being done, says the LORD!!”
“But here you are…” This scolding was and is well deserved. Now I know that I’m preaching to the choir here, so let’s calmly, together, just consider these events of our days of which we are all aware. Brothers and sisters of ours sin, at-will, daily, and still walk into a church or any house of worship as if they were ‘clean’, as if nothing ever happened. Where is the slightest bit of Respect and Awe for who God is ?? NOTHING.!!
We need to STOP listening to & supporting the ever-changing false prophets telling us how to feel and act (Like: LGBTQ, Hollywood & Pro-Choice). And also the False Fads (Like: Indoctrination & Trans-Gender). These ‘ARE FADS’!! They come and go & will finally ‘GO’ away when Jesus comes again. Then: We can let God sort them out!
Gospel: Mt 13:24-30, Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds: “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. **When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.” .
YES, Even God has enemies! God has powerful unrelenting enemies that scour the earth constantly looking for ‘weak’ souls. We are only human. God knows this! Satan knows this too. This is where our first reading from Jeremiah and this Gospel tie together. The world will not be perfect until Jesus comes again. We will not be perfect until we are perfect in Heaven with God! So why even try?? It is precisely the “Trying” that keeps us on the straight and narrow!! It is precisely the ‘trying’, that will separate us from the weeds on that last day. It is precisely the trying, that will show us to our very own place in Heaven, prepared exclusively for us by Jesus the Christ.
Ps 84: 1-13, “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God! Blessed they who dwell in your house! Continually they praise you. Blessed the men whose strength you are! They go from strength to strength.
Shalom and may all of God’s Love be yours, Mark
I am Mark Gates, your servant. I currently live with my wife in Peosta, Iowa and have retired. I have spent my whole life as a God-fearing Christian, Mass Lector and cradle Catholic. In 1996 after a Charismatic Conference, My spirituality ‘Exploded’. The Holy Spirit has blessed me with personal revelations and events in times of needed admonishment, teaching or encouragement. Having a personal belief and true affection for The Real Presence of Christ in Eucharist and also a very sweet, tender, and special relationship with our Holy Spirit, I believe that our world is in dire need of Good News. I want my spirituality to ‘start conversations’! Please allow these musings to start your own conversations
