Wednesday, December 11, As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
The Holy Spirit inspired our blog.
Optional Memorial of Saint Damasus I, pope
Jesus said to his disciples:
“As the Father loves me, so I also love you.
Remain in my love.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you
and your joy might be complete.
This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
Emphasis mine, John 15:9-17
We are using the Optional readings.
As noted in our last blog, Steve and I met two weeks ago. We stated but couldn’t complete the thought that God is a Mirror of you, and we see this in today’s reading.
If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love. This is self-evident but also unique. Jesus is asking us to imitate Him as He led his life, and what Jesus did was keep the commandments and Love everyone He came in contact with.
Even Judas, who was with Jesus when he washed their feet (Jn 13: 1-11), Jesus washed Judas’ feet. Jesus gave Judas one last chance to change his decision. Judas didn’t; Judas listened to satan and betrayed Jesus. (Jn 13:30),
The second thought we had,
For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Matthew 7:2
Once again, it’s easy!
Stop judging. I was a great judge until I understood this passage, and then I stopped asap.
Why?
Why compound the sin? Stop judging, and you start falling in love with everyone you meet. The judging I, yes, I, found out, reduces my love of the person I am judging. And as we read above, This I command you: love one another.”
And
If I am judging, I am not Loving, and I reduce my Joy and Peace.
The third thought we had but couldn’t express at the time,
If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.
Matthew 6:14
Once again I, yes, I, was guilty of holding a judgment and not looking at a person as someone God wanted in my life at that time, which was and is wrong. Holding onto a judgment and not forgiving seemed to be o.k. (satan) at the time.
As we said before, I lost Joy and Peace because of my lack of Love, and our whole Blog is about Loving your neighbor, who, by the way, is the person you are with right now.
This conversation came about because Steve and I were discussing our final judgment, and we said to Steve, “God can’t condemn you to Hell; that’s not Outrageous Love.
No, God is a reflection of you.”
If anyone says, “I love God,” but hates his brother, he is a liar, for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 1 Jn 4:20
The bottom line is clear: I love everyone God brings into my, now our, life, make no judgments, and forgive every transgression. Sounds impossible (satan)
But,
As you grow in the above three, you will grow in Love, Joy, and Peace, and then you will clearly say,
“I’m Fantastic!”
Prayer:
I thank You, Father, for the death of Your Son, the Nails that were driven through His Hands, and for the Nail that was driven through His Feet (Once).
(Now you can respond YES to the question IF YOU thank Me)
Next, pray,
Thank You, Father, for the DIFFICULTY of …(name the difficulty)….. That You have ALLOWED in my life, I have Faith You will take care of me.” Say this part of the prayer until you smile. Smiling tells you the Holy Spirit is back in your life.
Sidebar:
Living the comments we made above will also contribute to better health.
A long time ago, I read an article that claimed that Joy—they used the word it should have been happiness—helped cure a person. I also read of a man who sat in front of Laurel and Hardy movies and tried to use these movies to keep him happy.
Remember, happiness is fleeting. You buy a new ……….. fill in the blank, and after a short or long time, you replace it with something else.
When I first read about watching comedies, it made sense.
Now, I realize the error of my way and can’t believe I could sit in front of any movie, etc., to effect a healing when I have a Father and Brother who want me healed. Even more importantly, I have a Father who has ALLOWED this DIFFICULTY to bring me closer to Them.
This is the first purpose of the DIFFICULTY.
And,
If you are thinking, Fred, you’re wrong,
Consider,
The DIFFICULTIES God the Father has allowed and all of the DIFFICULTIES that your Father has NOT allowed in your life.
Nov 17, 2016 The focus is really on rare diseases, but a credible case can be made that there are at least 10,000 diseases in the world, though there is likely more. And there are a bit over 500 treatments.
www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/11/17/are-there-really-10000-diseases-and-500-cures
Add in broken bones, etc, and you can quickly see how blessed you are.
I, yes I, have wanted to write this information since the start of our blog three years ago,
BUT
The Holy Spirit delayed me from doing this until now. I now know why.
That information ties beautifully into last week’s and this week’s blog.
Today, I am JUST realizing how much my Father and Brother HAVE taken care of me and, by extension, ARE, and WILL take care of me.
Why would they stop?
Wow! I, Yes, I, love writing this blog.
Picture:
Thanks for using my (and others’) pics for your blog. You always seem to weave the picture’s story into your (yes, God and you) narrative.
I wanted to send you one more picture I took last week. I had taken quite a few pictures of falling leaves. In this one, I caught a solitary leaf floating to the ground, and the wind seemed to turn it my way so that I could capture its fullness. It seems poetic.
Please keep Snapping!
Email me if you want a copy of the prayers we discussed or the three hiking pictures we showed.
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.
