Our Blog is inspired by The Holy Spirit.
Hear, then, what the Lord says:
Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear your voice!
Hear, O mountains, the Lord’s case,
pay attention, O foundations of the earth!
For the Lord has a case against his people;
he enters into trial with Israel.
My people, what have I done to you?
how have I wearied you? Answer me!
I brought you up from the land of Egypt,
from the place of slavery I ransomed you;
And I sent before you Moses,
Aaron, and Miriam.
My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak planned,
and how Balaam, the son of Beor, answered him.
Recall the passage from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the just deeds of the Lord. Micah 6: 1-5
Start of today’s readings
With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow before God most high?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with myriad streams of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my crime,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul
You have been told, O mortal, what is good,
and what the Lord requires of you:
Only to do justice and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:6-8
These verses are taken from the Optional Memorial of Saint Henry
Once again, we have expanded the readings to try and give a greater depth to what is being said.
We bolded a few sections because they are compelling.
God asks the Jews at that time, and I believe this question applies to us today.
My people, what have I done to you?
how have I wearied you? Answer me!
Then God lays out just a few instances where God has performed deeds to bring the Jews from slavery in Egypt, and later how God protected them from slaughter by King Balak.
Today the question has even more meaning, for we believe our Father sent his Son to take away our sins through His Life, Death, and Resurrection.
Why do we find NOT doing the will of God the Father more attractive than doing His will?
Not doing the will of God the Father is a question I have pondered for a long time. I am sure by now you know it’s because we listen to satan. We prefer living in the “world,” instead of listening to the whisper of the Holy Spirit and living in the “Spirit World.”
The second question is just as vital.
With what shall I come before the Lord,
Everyone will stand before Jesus and make an account of their life. I believe the question “ With what will I bring before the lord” is just as meaningful today.
Consider when I die:
My wealth, Gone!
My property, Gone!
The power I wielded over my family and or business associates, Gone!
The fancy car, yacht, second or third home, Gone!
All that I relied on and spent time and money nurturing, GONE!
Some Jews at the time of Micah sacrificed their children for their crimes.
Shall I give my firstborn for my crime,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul
We put this line in for those who may not have read the Bible. Before the Babylonians conquered them, some Jewish people sacrificed their children to the god baal, in some instances, in the temple.
I couldn’t believe this could happen, but sadly it did.
Imagine for a moment offering your child as a sacrifice for the sin of YOUR soul.
And before you get too puffed up and say this couldn’t happen today,
Consider;
The family, which requires a personal financial and time investment, has sometimes been sacrificed at the altar of personal gain.
We just celebrated the fourth of July and were given a day off, and we also celebrated that we had a day off, and this is as it should be,
but
God gave us the seventh day as a day of rest, yet many have thrown that day of rest back into God’s face by doing their regular work on the seventh day. Some have to work on Sunday, and I understand that, so make the seventh day a different day, and make that day a day of rest.
Last example of worshiping other gods,
Video games and movies that promote violence and sex are found in many houses, and some spend more time in front of them as opposed to the time they spend with God.
The question remains:
With what shall I come before the Lord,
Now we as Christians have the answer;
I will bring my Love, Joy, and Peace to the Lord that I grew during our life for God and through my Love of my neighbor.
We, as Christians, understand this answer is self-evident, but what is the solution for those who don’t believe in or know Jesus?
Only to do justice and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with your God.
I also believe that this answer today is as true for non-Christians as it was in the time of Micah.
Why do we say this?
I had the experience years ago of talking with a priest who said he didn’t believe in miracles.
You could have knocked me over with a feather.
I had been a recipient of a healing miracle at a Healing Mass at our Church.
I didn’t debate the Priest, but I now realize that in all his homilies, he never mentioned miracles.
Soooo,
During his stay, he never talked about the healing power of God.
How sad!
As we have stated in prior posts, God wants us healed, and we have testified to His healings in me. Once you know this and believe this, life changes, as we have reported since we started writing our blogs.
If a person doesn’t know about Jesus or experience the Love, Joy, and Peace in the people who are Christians they come in contact with, how can they be held accountable for this lack of knowledge?
I believe they can’t,
But, they can
do justice and to love goodness,
and to walk humbly with our God.
And never forget, some of Jesus’ last words from His Cross were, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” Luke 23:34
“The nine” We pray you will grow in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit by growing in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
A HOAX: Tony, last week, in part of his comment, said that A Boy that came back from Heaven is a Hoax. I am sorry for this error. I Thank you, Tony, for pointing this hoax out to me.
In last week’s Sidebar, we talked about gardens and my second trip to Honduras to rebuild a church.
We thought it might be interesting to expand on what took place.
A Quick Summary:
The Holy Spirit made it clear that I was to work on rebuilding the church, not the house others in our group were also building.
The Holy Spirit was infuriated that trash was littered around the church and encouraged me to ignore the roof project and clean up Their House. I set to work at once and was joined by other women and children who worshiped at the church.
Some of our trash cleanup crew. Picture by Fred Prince
I just love the picture of this little girl raking up the trash. Look how dressed up she is. The children in Honduras and everywhere are beautiful, and I am sure we will talk more about our experiences with these precious children in future blogs.
The Holy Spirit also told me I was to build a garden in front of the church.
I said yes, talked to George, our leader, about what the Holy Spirit wanted me to do, and got his permission to do that project. George told me of the man who owned the resort we were staying at and said I could ask him for flowers for the garden.
I went to the owner and couldn’t believe the variety of flowers he had in his greenhouses.
I also realized I had a problem and instantly prayed.
“Help.”
That night, we took a bus to dinner. I sat beside the only woman in our group and started a casual conversation, which led to my telling her about the garden project. She told me she had a degree in horticulture and floral design.
I couldn’t believe my good fortune. At that time in my life, I didn’t say, “Thank you, Father.”
Sad!
I asked the head of their project if she could join us to head up the church’s garden building.
He said, “Yes.”
As we said last week, she did a fantastic job.
Why are we retelling this story?
The question I raised with myself last week is, why did God set me up to fail?
God knew full well I had NO experience for what the Holy Spirit was asking me to do.
Pick up the trash. Yes! Building a garden ABSOLUTELY NOT!
So why did God pick me and not the women? That was the question I asked myself?
The answer I found was and is easy,
Because I knew nothing about gardening, I had to depend entirely on God to get the project completed, and just like Moses, Peter, Paul, and I pray you, I found JOY in doing His will and relying totally on God.
Wait a minute; you’re comparing yourself with Moses, Peter, and Paul?
Why yes, I am.
The Holy Spirit told me to do something, and I did it, so did they, and so will you if you listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit. When you do the will of the Father by listening to the whisper of the Holy Spirit, you imitate Moses, Peter, and Paul.
Wow!
But it didn’t end in Honduras; I said yes to writing a weekly blog thirty-one weeks ago.
Once again, I had NO experience. And I have to rely entirely on God to get these blogs written.
In the third week of writing the blog, I, yes, I, decided to read the readings, leave and get my car washed, and consider what we would write about as we were driving to and from the car wash. satan entered my thought process on the way home and reminded me that I, not we, had at least forty-nine additional blogs to write just this year.
I panicked! I next thought I couldn’t possibly do this; I had made a huge mistake. Why did God do this to me?
After a few minutes of beating myself up, the Holy Spirit cut in and said, “Let’s just write this one blog.” I agreed and went home. We wrote that next blog.
I then promised myself, “On Monday, I will go downstairs; before I do anything else, WE will write our next blog.”
And we have done precisely this, and I am filled with Joy!
I also believe if a specific blog gets you thinking, God is talking to you through our blog; God knows your needs; I don’t!
God gives me the words I just type!
Many may think, “If God gives you the words, and you type, explain the hoax?” I can’t, and the timing is even more challenging for me; this happened the week before we wrote this blog.
My only conclusion is satan, and I will try diligently never to make this mistake again.
I first learned about letting God take over through the men I met and the programs we held at the Cumberland County Jail. WE turned the men onto God by turning the program over to God, and almost every week, I met someone who wanted to start a relationship with God because of our program.
Not everyone but a few, just as I am aware that not everyone gains something from our blogs.
Letting God take over is easy yet powerful!
The Picture;
The picture is of the finished garden at the church we helped to rebuild in Honduras.
I would love to see this garden now. I took this picture the day after the garden was completed. The plants have not had a chance to fill in and fill out.
