Hiking trail to Alum Cave, Picture by Jerry Torres
Our Blog is Inspired by The Holy Spirit
Wednesday of the Thirteenth Week in Extraordinary Time
The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
When the poor one called out, the LORD heard,
and from all his distress he saved him.
The angel of the LORD encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.
R. . The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Fear the LORD, you his holy ones,
for nought is lacking to those who fear him.
The great grow poor and hungry;
but those who seek the LORD want for no good thing.
R. . The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Come, children, hear me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
Which of you desires life,
and takes delight in prosperous days?
R. The Lord hears the cry of the poor.
Emphasis mine Psalm 34:7-8, 10-11, 12-13
Up until today, I had always felt the cry of the poor were people who were economically depressed.
Wrong!
Economics has nothing to do with this.
When Mike and I went to Honduras to build houses for people who were economically depressed, we found in the adults we met, and especially the children, Joy.
Joy is a strange word to use for people in a one room house, no bathroom, running water, or kitchen. They weren’t even sure where the next meal would come from.
I remember working with a man whose house we were building and the care he took to sift the gravel in preparation for making cement blew me away. He was quiet, but filled with Joy. This was to be their first home, and he was going to do everything in his power to make it the best home he could build. For me, it was also a Joy to be with him and work with him fulfilling his dream. Neither of us were wealthy by the “worlds” definition, but both of us were filled with Joy while working on this project.
God took care of him, by getting him and his family into a program that would help him build his own house, and took care of me because at that time in my life I was chasing “worldly” goals, and not God’s goals. I somehow felt I could embrace the “worldly” goals, and keep God on the sideline, and do God’s will when I agreed with what God was asking me to do.
An easy example of this, Mike asked me the year before to join him, and I said,”No!” I never missed another offer to go to Honduras.
A story I heard while I was there. A Christian group was kidnapped and held for ransom, the locals they had been helping reported to the Police where they were being held, and the Christians were rescued. One of the kidnappers was heard telling his partner, “I told you this would not end up well kidnapping Christians. It was also reported that while they were being held captive, they sang Hymns and prayed. Where have we heard about this before?
In all three cases The Lord heard the cry of the poor, but I also now believe it is imperative upon us to know and carry forth with the knowledge that God does hear the cry of the poor, (our cry), and is taking care of us.
Prayer:
If you want to grow in Love, Joy, and Peace this is a result of growth in Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control.
Sidebar:
I just realized this a few months ago.
God HAS taken care of me, and God IS taking care of me. For too long in my, yes, my life, I also prayed God will take care of me which is wrong!
We wrote in our books and in prior blogs that there are three gods we love to worship.
The God of the past. I was. I, yes, I believe it is healthy from time to time to remember when God was active in your life, we just did, and from this remembering I realized I was poor, but have worked very hard, by the grace of God, to listen to the whisper of the Holy Spirit and do the will of my Father, in imitation of my Brother Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit.
Next is the GOD of NOW. I AM. The God of now is where we want to spend the greater portion of our life. We do this to grow in Love, Joy, and Peace.
The third god is the future, I will.
As we said it wasn’t until a few months ago that I realized fully there isn’t any god of the future, the God we worship is a God of NOW.
I AM and we are writing this blog, and I had no idea this is what we would be talking about.
My prayer has changed from thanking God for what They have and are doing, and will do, to Thanking God for what they have done and what they are doing.
Peter wrote: But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. 2 Peter 3: 8
I believe in Heaven a thousand years is like a day. I can claim this because as I grow in The Fruit of The Holy Spirit, the faster time goes by, (Heaven)
I also believe there are those who feel a day is like a thousand years and they are experiencing a form of hell.
Because of this I choose to be “FANTASTIC,” and live with I AM.
How about you?
One last thought, Tim Gray said today that the lost coin, and we will infer the lost sheep that Jesus and the woman found were always sheep and a coin. You may feel lost BUT you were known before time, and created in the love of God your Father, by Jesus, And if you ask, Jesus will come and find you. I suggest asking because why would I wait? I for one want as much of Heaven NOW as I can get.
Picture:
This narrow staircase winds through some bluffs on the hiking trail to Alum Cave.
“He made the shadow go back the ten steps it had descended on the staircase…” 2 Kings 20:11 Picture by Jerry Torres
Please keep Snapping!
And if you want the ten calling cards shown above, email me and I will send you my address, send me a STAMPED self-addressed envelope and I will send you ten cards.
Email me if you want a copy of the prayers we discussed.
fprince101@gmail.com
Remember, if you want to submit a picture, please do not include people. We have to get permission from that person to use their photograph.
