What Jesus did to save us was the ultimate sacrifice. He
took the curse upon Himself and died on the cross. Have you known of anybody
who has done the same thing or even close to it to another person? Come to
think of it, what else could Jesus have done for us that He has not done? As
the scriptures say, "By His wounds we are healed, He was pierced for our
transgressions, crushed for our iniquities and the punishment that brought us
peace was upon Him." Is there any other love and sacrifice greater than
this? There is no other like it for there is none like Jesus our God. It is
only right and fitting that we respond to this great love of God in the best
way we can by taking every opportunity to learn more about the bible. Amen.
Hallelujah!
Galatians 3:7-14
...“Cursed be everyone who does not persevere in doing all
the things written in the book of the law.” 11 And that no one is justified
before God by the law is clear, for “the one who is righteous by faith will
live.” ...Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for
us, for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree,” 14 that the
blessing of Abraham might be extended to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so
that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
An anchor is a great image for faith because it doesn’t move
about, held down fast and makes firm our position. Hope with faith does not
simply mean a subjective feeling of hope that depends on our own personal
feelings. What are the things that we hope for? Our hope should be something
objective. We should hope for what God has promised. It should be our hope that
we’ll go to heaven. This is the hope that we should have in our mind, our
motivation to keep and stir up our faith. It is an extremely important goal for
us. We do not simply have hope in seeking for the pleasures of this world. This
pleasure is tangible and something that we can get a hold of immediately. The
idea of postponing the pleasure, like not resorting to drugs, pre marital sex,
alcohol and not depend on what seems to be the sole pleasure in life like
possessions and all sorts of material things and focus on a hope in the future.
We postpone the pleasures in this life and have the hope that there is a
pleasure that surpasses these pleasures of this world. We have to develop
virtue or the strength on the inside. The word virtue means strength. Our
interior strength comes from the fact that we lose heaven if we seek those
pleasures and make them the goal in our lives. It is such a pity if it will be
where the anchor of our hope lies. Our hope in the promises of God may seem to
be veiled at the moment. We have to reach beyond the veil just like the veil in
front of the holy tabernacle or the Holy of Holies. Essentially, it was
shielding a holy God from sinful man. Whoever entered into the Holy of Holies
was entering the very presence of God. In fact, anyone except the high priest
who entered the Holy of Holies would die. Even the high priest, God’s chosen
mediator with His people, could only pass through the veil and enter this
sacred dwelling once a year, on a prescribed day called the Day of Atonement.
The picture of the veil was that of a barrier between man and God, showing man
that the holiness of God could not be trifled with. God’s eyes are too pure to
look on evil and He can tolerate no sin (Habakkuk 1:13). The veil was a barrier
to make sure that man could not carelessly and irreverently enter into God’s
awesome presence. Even as the high priest entered the Holy of Holies on the Day
of Atonement, he had to make some meticulous preparations: He had to wash
himself, put on special clothing, bring burning incense to let the smoke cover
his eyes from a direct view of God, and bring blood with him to make atonement
for sins.
“But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that
only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for
the sins the people had committed in ignorance.” (Hebrews 9:7)
So the presence of God remained shielded from man behind a
thick curtain during the history of Israel . However, Jesus’ sacrificial
death on the cross changed that. When He died, the curtain in the Jerusalem temple was torn
in half, from the top to the bottom. Only God could have carried out such an
incredible feat because the veil was too high for human hands to have reached
it, and too thick to have torn it. Jesus a forerunner, high priest through His
death and resurrection entered heaven. Thus we too are given this free access
to enter heaven. If we know that we are standing on a firm and steady ground
then we are confident that we are safe and secure. There is no doubt that the
will of God will never take us where the grace of God will not protect us and
will surely see us through for He is a truly reliable God. We have a God whom
we can surely rely on. We've got to focus more on the bright and good side of life
at all times because we have a great God who always works wonders in our lives.
We can always rely on God at all times and be assured that the wisest thing
that we can do for ourselves is to follow His precepts which are all truth and
equity. There is nothing more we ought to do but live by it. In this movie
about Moses it struck me how many times he kept on reminding the people of
God's covenant. Every time God shows His signs, wonders and miracles the people
are filled with faith but it doesn't last for each time they easily forget and
not remember. Let us always remind ourselves of these signs, wonders and
miracles that happened a long time ago even up to the present time for it
remains true forever and ever. We have been declared through Jesus as God's own
for He has made a covenant with us, the work of His hands. Let us not set this
aside or neglect and put ourselves in our rightful place as His people. God is always true and faithful to his
covenant. We can count on Him to carry out and fulfill His part. It is our part
of the covenant that we need to be concerned about. We've got to respond to God
and fulfill our part of the bargain for our own good. This we need to be aware
of and keep in mind always. Amen. Hallelujah!
Psalm 111:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6
R: The Lord will remember his covenant for ever.
1 I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart in the
company and assembly of the just. 2 Great are the works of the LORD, exquisite
in all their delights....He has made known to his people the power of his
works, giving them the inheritance of the nations.
There is no neutral or middle thing for the Lord. It is
either we are with Him all the way without any exceptions or we are against
Him. We could not choose to divide our loyalty because it will only destroy us
in the process. It's like we are in a battle and our full strength and
cooperation is needed to keep our defenses up or we end up losing it and
captured by the enemy. We've got to make a clear stand by now in all areas and
aspects of our life whether big or small and from the least to the most
important or significant. We have to be aware of the fact that what we are
dealing with here is a "no fuss and beat around the bush thing". We
have to know on which side we are in and really go for it. Exorcism of demons
is part of Jesus’ ministry. In today's gospel people were amazed at how Jesus
was able to cast out evil spirits. These various evil gods and demons are a
real presence at the time of Jesus and appear to rule even in the ancient
world. The crowd is looking for a sign and they have seen enough to bring them
to amazement but with it go together, the blindness and the hardness of the
heart. This is a perennial problem when people see what God is trying to do but
because of the hardness of heart it just won’t sink in. We have to examine our
conscience and should ask ourselves what are the signs of the presence of God
in our life. How are we paying attention or listening to the signs that God
gives us. This is the call of today’s readings. Christ answered His critics in
the gospel that every kingdom divided against itself will be laid to waste. Is
satan divided against itself? Do we think that satan will tolerate a civil
disobedience in his kingdom? The answer of course is that satan is not divided
against itself, he won’t tolerate that. He will terrorize and make people
absolutely frightened to make them follow his bidding. This is satan's way. As
God works in His mercy, satan operates through terror. Who are we imitating? There is no doubt that God can defeat Satan
and has already shown this since time immemorial to all generations. Jesus' ability to cast out demons is similar
to God casting out the power of Egypt .
Christ is using the power of God to liberate his people. He is the new Moses.
He is doing a great liberation from delivering us from satan and sin. Like the
multiplication of the loaves and the manna from heaven. Christ is leading and
invading the power of evil and bringing the kingdom
of God into the presence of this
darkness, to Israel
and the whole world to gain freedom of the demonic. In His short parable in the
gospel he likened a strong man and his army to satan and his devils. He
controlled people’s lives and continue to debilitate and deform human nature.
We are made in the image and likeness of God but he distorts this image because
that’s his goal. There are other ways he does this, through violence and any of
the capital sins. He uses the lust industry and distorts human love. This
demonic distortion is what Christ wants to conquer. The violence, oppression,
anger, lust and the capital sins are all part of the distortion but Jesus has
overcome and the forces of evil are defeated. He can take souls away from the
clutches of evil but He sets a challenge for us. He said that whoever is not
with me is against me. We see so many forces of the anti Christ in the world
today through violence, avarice and sex which are very rampant. They are the
demonic devices and ways which the evil one works. We should make a decision to
always be for Christ and not compromise with the enemy. Satan is considered as
one of the major obstacles of the Kingdom but we need to know that not
everything is due to Satan's evil schemes. We are reminded that there is also
the human intervention like personal ambition, attitude, ignorance and
arrogance of people who are supposed to be models of faith but turned out to be
the obstacles themselves. Testing the spirit if it is of God’s or not is very
important. We should always remember the WWJD (What would Jesus do?)principle.
We are God's temple and we have to make sure that we are well protected or else
someone is going to take over us. We take note in 1 Peter 5:8 it is written, Be
sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring
lion looking for (someone) to devour. If we are not careful with the way we
live our life before we know it we have already been conquered and defeated. We
have a very cunning and deceitful adversary who is always on the lookout for an
opportunity to attack us in the most discreet and unsuspecting way. If our
enemy is this determined then we too have to get our acts together. We must not
lose heart for we have a company of angels and saints that are surrounding us.
We should remain confident that no other battalion or army can defeat the
entire legion of angels and saints of God in heaven. They are on our side to
guard and defend us. We should feel great knowing that we have a Great and
Loving God who would move heaven and earth for our sake. We just got to be very
clear on which side we are. Are we for or against God, there is no in between.
Our action will speak for itself. Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 11:15-26
Some of them said, “By the power of Beelzebul, the prince of
demons, he drives out demons.” 16 Others, to test him, asked him for a sign
from heaven. 17 But he knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom
divided against itself will be laid waste and house will fall against house. 18
And if Satan is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you
say that it is by Beelzebul that I drive out demons. 19 If I, then, drive out
demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your own people drive them out? Therefore they
will be your judges. 20 But if it is by the finger of God that I drive out
demons, then the kingdom
of God
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