Gatlinburg Picture by Sandra Mullin
Our Blog is Inspired by The Holy Spirit
Wednesday of the Twelfth Week in Extraordinary Time
The word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision:
“Fear not, Abram!
I am your shield;
I will make your reward very great.”
But Abram said,
“O Lord GOD, what good will your gifts be,
if I keep on being childless
and have as my heir the steward of my house, Eliezer?”
Abram continued,
“See, you have given me no offspring,
and so one of my servants will be my heir.”
Then the word of the LORD came to him:
“No, that one shall not be your heir;
your own issue shall be your heir.”
He took him outside and said:
“Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can.
Just so,” he added, “shall your descendants be.”
Abram put his faith in the LORD,
who credited it to him as an act of righteousness.
He then said to him,
“I am the LORD who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans
to give you this land as a possession.”
“O Lord GOD,” he asked,
“how am I to know that I shall possess it?”
He answered him,
“Bring me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old she-goat,
a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.”
Abram brought him all these, split them in two,
and placed each half opposite the other;
but the birds he did not cut up.
Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses,
but Abram stayed with them.
As the sun was about to set, a trance fell upon Abram,
and a deep, terrifying darkness enveloped him.
When the sun had set and it was dark,
there appeared a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch,
which passed between those pieces.
It was on that occasion that the LORD made a covenant with Abram,
saying: “To your descendants I give this land,
from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River the Euphrates.” Emphasis mine Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Abram put his faith in the Lord. What a simple statement to type, and say, but what a difficult way to live.
Why?
If you take a look at our culture today we are bombarded daily with all that is evil in our world today. I remember when the half-hour news was a new phenomenon, and they had a hard time filling up all of the time, because they didn’t have the infrastructure to get all the news they needed to fill a half hour.
I plane wreck in India wasn’t reported for example.
Life was simpler, I am not saying life was better, we had our many problems BUT we didn’t hear about them all the time all day long.
I have turned off the mainstream press, and I have found Peace because of this one change. I do read the headlines, on the web page Real Clear Politics just to keep abreast of what is happening.
Because almost all of the news is negative it is easy to ask the question, “Where is God, or a different question, “If there is a loving God why is this all happening?”
I believe this is all happening because unlike Abram we have thrown out God and anytime a person or society throws out God there are consequences.
I was sent a free copy of a book written by the ex CFO of the Medellin Drug Cartel. He wrote how he was recruited gradually into the Drug Cartel as an accountant and ended up becoming the CFO. of the Cartel.
In prison, the second time, he found Jesus and his life did a one-eighty. He wrote the book and asked it be given to men in prison and jails to help them find Jesus.
The Cartel still has a bounty on his head.
In the book, he told the reader he had it all, wine, women, song, and power. He was on top of the world,
But
He had this empty feeling, and knew that this wasn’t the life he was called to live.
It was only after he turned his life over to Jesus that a new life started to emerge, and this proved far better than what he had lived before.
Strange isn’t it? We’re told everything he had, we should be working towards, and he walked away from it.
And like Abram put his faith in the Lord
How about you?
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:
Sunday we did a Communion Service at the Veterans Home in Scarborough. Sadly there wasn’t any Easter Service, and I had been asked to head up the ministry, and failed to realize the first Sunday was June 1, we had no one for the second Sunday because I was going to fill that vacancy.
The upshot was we had a very low turnout. After the service, we went around and found those who normally attend and gave them communion.
I stopped in one room and the person who is always at our services said she was sorry she missed today’s service. We started to talk, and she told me she has an anger problem. She is still mad with people in her past.
The Holy Spirit opened my eyes as to why she wasn’t at today’s service, that being we were to have this discussion.
We told her about telling satan to, “Get behind me,” every time satan tries to bring anger back into her life. We talked about this for fifteen to twenty minutes, and she said before we left, that, no one had ever told her how to get satan out of her life.
Which is, every time, and there are many times every day, satan tries to get into your life through sex, anger, drugs, alcohol, etc. tell satan to, “Get behind me,” and next ask The Holy Spirit to fill you Love, Joy, and Peace.
What became crystal clear to me was, we haven’t been told prayers we can say that will help us in our fight with satan.
When we left she seemed at Peace, and I was filled with Joy.
If you are filled with anger, bewilderment at what is going on, try this powerful prayer and watch over time how your life will change.
Life becomes a lot easier once you fully appreciate we are in a fight,
But,
We have the Holy Spirit that was infused in our Souls at Baptism, and with The Spirit of Truth, satan will always yield, maybe for only a short time, then say the prayer again, and repeat as often as satan attacks, because with this prayer, satan will always yield.
Picture:
Gatlinburg, taken during a hike. Fall is my favorite season. I love the beautiful colors of the leaves. Picture by Sandra Mullin
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
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