First Letter to
Timothy 1:1-2.12-14.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our
savior and of Christ Jesus our hope, to Timothy, my true child in faith: grace,
mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I am grateful
to him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me
trustworthy in appointing me to the ministry.
I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant
man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my
unbelief. Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith
and love that are in Christ Jesus.
I have always been amazed of the fact that the scriptures of
the Old Testament has always been spoken of as the foreshadowing of the New
Testament which is the fulfillment of everything that was written. The apostles
were able to connect Jesus to the scriptures in the Old Testament and became
very convinced that He is indeed the Messiah and Savior of the world. The 1st
reading and the Psalm reading for today were written almost 500 years apart.
This is judging from the timeline of the reign of King David (1000BC) to whom
the Psalms were attributed. Despite the time gap we can detect the uniformity
of the messages. We live in a dynamic world and it changes so fast. They say
that nowadays, whatever we hold true for now may not be the case later. It is a
consolation to know that in the midst of this unsure world we still have
something that we can hold on to. The words of God can stand the test of time
and will remain to be true from generation to generation. There may be some negative
speculations and forecasts that are being hurled right in front of us about our
present situations most especially with the uncertainty and unpredictability of
prevailing conditions. We need to keep this in mind, only God can keep us safe
from all harm. A holy man once said this, "If we don't go to the desert we
have nothing to bring in the marketplace." If we have no prayer then
nothing works. We have to pray. We need to take time to be alone with God
because if we don't, then we make ourselves vulnerable to the enemy. The
scriptures tell us of stories based on real life experiences of holy men and
women who lived at a different time and period than today. It is a consolation
to know that the God of yesterday is still God of today and tomorrow. This
gives us the confidence to really hold on to Him for He is living and true now
and forevermore. The message of the readings tells us to turn our gaze on the
inevitable which is sure to come. If we try to look at the facts of life there
are very few things that we can permanently hold on to. All these things will
come to pass and we will all eventually leave this world no matter how long we
may have lived already, it will eventually come to an end. When that final day
comes we must be found prepared and ready for the inheritance that God gives
us. When we went to Las Vegas
I saw that one of the shows we can watch for entertainment is a magician named
Angel. I was reminded of the time when he was a guest in Oprah. He wowed the
viewers and the crowd by being able to predict 5 days before the show the
things that Oprah and 2 random guests from thousands of people from the audience are going to say. He wrote in a
piece of paper these three things: delicious, John and Kevin and kept them in a
suitcase with a surveillance camera on for 5 days so that no one can see it or
even come near it before the show. What’s very interesting was the fact that on
the day of the show when Oprah was asked what word comes to her mind she
answered, “delicious” and the other 2 who were chosen randomly from almost more
than a thousand crowd along Michigan Ave. in Chicago. It was done by throwing a
ball and whoever catches it will be the one who will be asked. The man from the
crowd who got the ball was asked the name of his first pet and he answered,
“John” while the woman who got the other ball was asked who was her first kiss
and she answered, “ Kevin”. All of their answers matched the 3 things that he
wrote 5 days in advance. It was kind of unbelievable to see something like this
and couldn’t quite come up with a good explanation how it came to be. If it was
just a trick he did make a good presentation because it appeared very
convincing. How can a man predict in advance the things that these people are
going to say? If this man who claims to have the power of prediction was able
to do it all the more can a powerful God predict our future. But we must keep
in mind that it’s choice not chance that determines our destiny. There is only
one real failure in life that is possible and that is not to be true to the
best one knows. We should always settle for best and make God our choice. For
there is nothing more assuring than the fact that we have a loving God and
Father who surely has our destiny secure. We must be secured in the knowledge that
as children of God our Father we are heirs of His Kingdom and co-owners of this
vast creation. May we find the Lord as the only treasure in our lives worth
keeping. When God calls us for a task we should always be ready, willing and
able to follow Him no matter what the cost. Always follow where the Lord leads
us. Nothing else could be worth more than God's inheritance. Sometimes we are
confronted with so many allurements that we begin to be influenced by the way
the world judges things. Let us always hold fast to God's views and ideals that
we may not lose sight of the path to life and our inheritance. Amen.
Hallelujah!
Psalms 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 11
R: You are my inheritance, O Lord.
1 Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge; 2 I say to the
LORD, my Lord are you. 5 O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup, you it is who
hold fast my lot. (R) 7 I bless the LORD who counsels me; even in the night my
heart exhorts me. 8 I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I
shall not be disturbed. (R) 11 You will show me the path to life, fullness of
joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever. (R)
If we really want to lead our brothers and sister to the
right path then there is no other way to do it than to be a living example of
Jesus Christ. We can’t just go around preaching about the gospel without
preaching through our life’s example. We should become what we preach. As the
saying goes, “The best sermons are lived not preached.” It is of prime
importance that we take every opportunity that God sends our way. Of course,
God will never leave us empty handed all we have to do is follow the advice in
the gospel. When we train hard just like any other athlete aiming to win the
gold then we become good, better and eventually the best Christian for the Lord.
Amen. Hallelujah!
Luke 6:39-42
39 Jesus told his disciples a parable, “Can a blind person
guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit? 40 No disciple is superior
to the teacher; but when fully trained, every disciple will be like his
teacher. 41 Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not
perceive the wooden beam in your own? 42 How can you say to your brother,
‘Brother, let me remove that splinter in your eye,’ when you do not even notice
the wooden beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! Remove the wooden beam from
your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter in your
brother’s eye.”
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