LEGAL Disclaimer: This reflection was NOT written by A.I… You may end up wishing it was. 🙂 🙂
God Speaks! Can ‘this’ be a favorite? In Our first reading from Genesis 12:1-4, God speaks to Abram and tells him to pick up and move to a place with minimal to zero knowledge of where he’s going. The LORD said to Abram: “Go forth from the land of your kinsfolk and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” **Now God is not sending Abram without a few incentives. Like: Your offspring will populate the world and the whole world will honor you. Abram’s seed will obey and adore God!! This next verse is the little bit of knowledge Abram gets, ‘how’ will this be done… “I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. All the communities of the earth shall find blessing in you.” I get a significant feeling of ‘Vengeance is mine saith the Lord’ when I read this!!
Then again, ‘blind faith’ also screams out with this scripture. Writing this reflection and recording my Bro. BLU videocast for YouTube is my personal expression of living my faith ‘outside the box’! But I’m certainly not being asked to move to a foreign land. And, Yes, I DO believe that this (ACM & YouTube) is where God wants me to be. I also believe that this is how I’m supposed to submit to strengthening the Church of Christ. I doubt that what is written here will be remembered 4000 years from now, unlike Abram-Abraham still is.
Our Second reading is a second letter from Paul to 2Timothy 1:8-10. The whole feel of this letter can be understood with the first line: “Bear your share of hardship for the gospel with the strength that comes from God. He saved us and called us to a holy life, not according to our works, but according to his own design and the grace bestowed on us in Christ Jesus before time began.” Bearing our hardships sounds a lot like, pick up your cross every day. In this lenten season I am immersed in practicing a difference between ‘Giving something up’ -vs- ‘Offering something up.’ I currently struggle with a couple of different physical challenges that are breathtakingly painful. Do I ask for healing? NO! I offer my resilience & pain to be used as commerce to pay the debt of someone in Purgatory. So, while giving up candy bars, and then wanting one, should remind me of ‘why’ I did that, remembering Jesus’ sacrifice… Freely deciding to offer-up your prayers, yourself or the endurance of your cross for the benefit of others is a very selfless action. God WILL reward you in ways that you don’t expect. He may reward you just as he did King Solomon, because you ‘didn’t’ ask for it.
Matthew 17:1-9 , Is my most favorite event of Jesus’ life, “The Transfiguration.” Well, second to the Resurrection. Oh, how wonderful it must have been to watch and experience. Peter’s request to erect tents was offered out of soul-emptying respect and reverence. James and John had to be awestruck as well. “While he (Peter) was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell prostrate and were very much afraid.”
Just as they are trying to get accustomed to Jesus’ teachings turning the world upside down, now this?! Moses and Elijah, loved and revered men of the Torah, appearing with Jesus during this unimaginably wonderful event.!! It’s no wonder then that Christianity exploded all over the earth. When the human element of that evangelization, sees with their own eyes, magnificent occasions like this! Next, armed with the Holy Spirit… Christianity was unstoppable!! I ponder the blessings of the Transfiguration every single day, Wow! May God our Father continue to bless your Lenten season. Remember JOY-JOY-JOY-! You can find me on Fridays, on YouTube videos as Bro BLU. Thanx, Mark “G”.
