Wednesday, March 20, “If God were your Father, you would love me.”
Sunrise Palm Desert CA January 2023 Picture by Tim Kirner
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: Jn 8:31-42
I had the urge, Holy Spirit, to read to the end of John 8, and as I guessed, they picked up stones to stone Jesus.
The message of Jesus is easy unless you let satan into your life and allow satan to tell you that what Jesus says is not true.
In week two, we asked you to pray, “Get behind me satan , come Holy Spirit.”
The first reading, from the Old Testament, not shown here, describes Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into a white-hot furnace for not worshiping a false god. After they were thrown in, Nebuchadnezzar observed four men dancing in the flames, the fourth looking like the Son of God.
The responsorial Psalm refrain was Glory and praise for ever!
What’s going on in these readings?
What the Jews at that time and many people today refuse to do is keep praising God for all God has done and is doing in our lives.
The minute you stop thanking God, God starts becoming a second-place person, and we see this every day.
Why is thanking God all the time for all God does in your life so very important?
Always remember, when we give thanks we acknowledge that God is on top and we are totally dependent upon God for EVERYTHING.
It’s that simple, and frankly, it’s that hard.
You see, we have been sold a bill of goods by satan that true freedom is doing anything we want to do even if what we are doing destroys our life.
Think we’re kidding?
Every week in the jail, we meet men who have lived life not giving Praise and Glory to God, their Father, for all HE has done and the DIFFICULTIES He has allowed in their lives, and the result is their freedom has been taken away by society, and they are now in jail.
Never forget Bishop Barron standing before a gruesome picture of Jesus Crucified, saying, “This is a picture of Freedom and of Joy.”
Have you allowed satan to convince you that you are a terrible sinner who is going to hell?
Once again, they stopped thanking God for all He is doing and for the DIFFICULTIES He has allowed in their lives.
We’re all sinners!
The good news —no, the GREAT news—is that God the Father sent Jesus to climb up upon his Cross to Save SINNERS, and all of us qualify!
Also, never forget, “When asked by the Angel, in Heaven, how the crucified man on the right of Jesus was standing before the Angel asking for admittance into Heaven, his response was, “The man on the Middle Cross said I could come.”
We are asked to live a life today imitating Jesus so we can be filled NOW with Love, Joy, and Peace and start to experience Heaven here and now.
Make God your Father and thank God your Father always, and you will fall deeply in Love with the Triune God.
Daily Prayers for the Fifth of Lent: Thank You Father say this prayer all day long as God the Father takes care of you. Weeeeeeeee, say this prayer every time you and the Holy Spirit interact in your Job, relationships, projects, etc. Thank you, Father, for the difficulty of ……..Name difficulty… I know you will take care of me and say this prayer repeatedly until you smile. (satan can’t smile) “Get behind me, satan, Come Holy Spirit.” AND Pray the “Nine.” Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control.
Join Team Jesus:
If you would like to protect your family, dumb question, pray Psalm 91 verbally.
My life changed after reading Peggy Joyce Ruth’s book, Psalm 91, God’s Shield of Protection, Military Version. Every day, I say this powerful prayer for everyone in our life, including the writers and readers of A Catholic Moment.
We pray that you will spend $8.89 on the pocket edition or $7.99 on the Kindle edition and spend a short time each day saying Psalm 91 to protect your family.
Sidebar:
This lent has been very fascinating for me.
When The Holy Spirit suggested we initiate a weekly prayer, my, yes my, thought was how could we tie these prayers into the readings.
After we finished writing that week’s blog, I realized that the part of the reading we emphasized fit perfectly with the suggested prayers.
Wow!
Wow, by the way, is another powerful prayer, WE should be saying it all the time.
Wow, what a beautiful sunrise, Wow, what a wonderful meal, Wow, look at that beautiful baby, etc.
Why this is interesting for me is during this past week, I have met people who are hurting and thought this would be a great subject for the next blog, and I, yes I, spent time developing the blog in my, yes, my mind.
I really enjoy Monday because I pray you know I, yes, I turn over the blog to The Holy Spirit and we didn’t go anywhere near what I had been thinking about the prior week.
Why are we mentioning this?
The time I, yes, I spent trying to imagine what I would write about next week is just —wasted time.
satan!
Starting now, I will throw out satan every time my mind drifts into writing next week’s blog and try to spend more time in the Love, Joy, and Peace of the Holy Spirit. We are pointing this out because this is how insidious this battle is. It is ongoing and will not end until I jump on the Hallelujah Train home.
One last thought.
Last Saturday, I was attending a Men’s Faith Group, and one of the men at our table, who was a Navy Captain, said, “One of the sailors in his crew was in an accident and died. He felt the responsibility to go and offer the family condolences for the death of their son. The man who died was a Spanish Catholic.
When he arrived at their house, there was a large celebration going on because the man who had died they believed and were celebrating was now in Heaven, living a much better life.
Wow!
I had never heard of this type of funeral (?) before.
They were celebrating!
He was in Heaven, and I believe they knew they would see Him when they climbed on the Hallelujah Train Home.
Look at how all of this blog is tied together.
Wow!
Thank you, Father!
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Picture:
Sunrise Palm Desert CA January 2023 Picture by Tim Kirner
Please keep Snapping!
If you want a copy of the prayers we discussed, email me.
fprince101@gmail.com
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By submitting a picture, you agree to let us include it in our next God Thoughts 2024 book.
