Tuesday, November 14, 2023

NOVEMBER 14, 2023

 

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

― C.S. LewisThe Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses

EZEKIEL 7-9

19“ ‘They will throw their silver into the streets,
and their gold will be treated as a thing unclean.
Their silver and gold
will not be able to deliver them
in the day of the Lord’s wrath.
It will not satisfy their hunger
or fill their stomachs,
for it has caused them to stumble into sin. (7:19) 

HEBREWS 10:24-39

 24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another...

JOURNAL 



How ignorant it is to put hope in possessions...yet how often do I find myself tempted to identify with objects, things, experiences and with a secret hope that they will somehow make all the pieces fit together...that somehow if I have them I will no longer feel sadness or anxiety or fear or loneliness. Reality is that modern day advertising promises this...in subtle ways advertising hits on our deepest emotions to convince us subconsciously that gaining the product, service etc...will scratch the ultimate itch. It will give us what we deeply want. 

We all know better, yet since the very beginning we humans have been drawn to gain what we don't have. We are conditioned to believe that the answers are in what we cannot possess, even though Jesus died to pave the way for us to have the relationship of all relationships, the love of all loves, the power of all power. The living, breathing God calls and knocks, yet we refuse to really believe it. 

What would happen if every moment I truly embraced and truly believed that the God of the universe loved me enough to die for me and now the same spirit lives within me?  I can dare say that daily disappointments would have no power over my joy, that earthly failures would fall off me like dust, that slights and insults would not compel me to anger but would rather propel me to love. This is the power of the Kingdom, this is the treasure in the field, this is the hope of our salvation. It is here now...in this moment, not in yesterday or tomorrow but here...now.

44“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
45“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it

MATTHEW 13:44-46

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