Near Canton, PA. Picture by John Ciribassi
Our blog is inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.
John 5: 18-29
We have included the entire portion of today’s gospel because it is so very important on many fronts.
We do not have the space to cover them all, so we would like to concentrate on:
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For a very long time in my, yes, my life I had a hard time understanding how Jesus never sinned.
It wasn’t until I started to think about this passage and other passages in the Gospel of St. John that I understood and now fully believe that Jesus never sinned.
As a child in our family, as long as I did as my dad, yes dad, remember we have only one Father, asked me to do, I was in good standing with dad and mom.
When I decided that what they asked I wouldn’t do, study hard, for example, that was when I fell short and would have sinned against my parents.
Jesus and I had many things in common; the greatest was free will. I chose not to study hard, and in that instance, I decided to do my will, not my parents.
Jesus always chose to do His Father’s will.
Dad was very loving and allowed me to fall instead of punishing me. As I have stated several times in our blog, the consequences of my decision are that I need to improve my English skills. I was mystified when The Holy Spirit suggested we submit a sample of our writing to A Catholic Moment to write a weekly blog.
My first thought was, “Find someone with these skills; why me?” The Holy Spirit insisted we send in a sample of our writing, and lo and behold, we were selected, which I now thank God for every day.
God also took care of me by opening my eyes to a program called Grammarly, which checks spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. The timing here fascinates me because after I agreed to write the blog, I needed help and knew it.
Some might say I was lucky to find Grammarly, but I insist I was Blessed, and the Holy Spirit was again working in our life.
“God taking care of me.”
Jesus, unlike Fred, only did what He saw His Father doing, and we find out in John 12:49 that Jesus also said, I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.
So, If the words and actions of Jesus came from His Father, then Jesus never sinned, and because Jesus gave all Glory to His Father, Jesus IS the Son Of God.
If you want to join Team Jesus, pray. Thank you, Father, for the difficulties (Name the difficulty……………) you have ALLOWED in my life; I know you will take care of me. Pray this until you smile, and that smile tells you, you are back with the Holy Spirit living in the “Spirit World.”
Sidebar:
As we explained in a prior blog, we will change the prayer in the section joining Team Jesus at the end of each quarter.
This quarter we’re suggesting a prayer that I learned from Merlin Carothers, a Methodist Minister.
My problem in my younger years was trying to learn HOW I could change my life into Our Life and grow to imitate Jesus.
Let’s go back and learn how Merlin learned this powerful prayer.
We will ask some questions, and I hope you will answer each question, not just read on.
God, “Do YOU thank me for the death of my son?’
Side note: We don’t mean to hint at the answer. Do you specifically thank God the Father for the death of His Son?
Merlin said, “Yes,” I said, “No.” What’s your response?
God, “Do you thank Me for the nails driven through His Hands.”
Merlin said, “No,” I said. “No.” What’s your response?
God, “Do you thank Me for the nail driven through His Feet?”
Merlin said,” No,” I said. “No.” What’s your response?
When we wrote about this prayer in an earlier blog, some readers commented, “Where is Fred going with this?”
God then said to Merlin, and we say to you, “If you thank me for the Death of My Son, the Nails driven into His Hands, and the Nail driven into His Feet, then I want you to Thank Me for the DIFFICULTIES I have ALLOWED in your life.”
The above prayer made total sense to me and changed everything in my, now our, life. I changed from complaining, satan, to praising God, and in Praising God, I grew in Joy and Peace.
I still have the thought this is a stupid prayer, BUT I can’t deny all the hearings and blessings that have taken place in my, now our life, and I can’t and will not go back to life as it was before I learned this prayer.
As I discovered in the Jail, you must say this prayer until you smile. Smiling is very important because it lets back in the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes I have had to say this prayer many times before I smile, but when I smile, I change, and Joy comes back into my life.
Never forget living in the “Spirit World” is a fight, which is why sometimes you have to repeat this prayer many times before you smile.
Enjoy the battle!
By the way, Merlin’s book Prison to Praise has sold over Nineteen Million copies, and that is because many others like me have found a different life because of saying this powerful prayer. Addictions stopped, Marriages healed, and physical and mental healing, to mention a few.
We pray you will take this prayer to heart and find a loving God who only wants the best for you.
Picture:
This morning’s picture was taken from an overlook called Lamb’s Overlook near Canton, Pa. There is a valley where Rt 14 passes through, and it is filled with morning mist.
Picture by John Ciribassi
As noted before, John writes the Saturday blog for A Catholic Moment.
Please keep Snapping!
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, no people, please, because we have to get permission from that person to use their photograph; in the comments section at the bottom of our blog, tell me you want to submit a picture, and I will send you my email address in our reply on Thursday. By sending your picture, you consent to allow us to reprint that picture in our next book, God Thoughts 2023, with your name and any comments in the Blog.
