Tag Archives: Christ

Luke 23: 35 – 43

Christ of God, the Chosen One!


Christ of God.


This is one of the special passages of the Holy Scriptures, riddled with mockery, scorn, ridicule, and suffering.


Regardless of everything that Jesus went through, He wanted and was persistent in only one thing all that time, and that was to free us from sin, give us eternal life and prepare apartments in the Kingdom of His Father.


Soldiers and many others mocked Jesus, so a sign appeared on the crisis above his head with the inscription ‘This is the king of the Jews’.


In the following, we witness the conversation of 2 robbers who were crucified with Jesus, one on his right and the other on his left, when we go a little deeper into thinking, we can only guess what was going through the minds of these people at that moment of agony and torment at the crisis, but again we see that regardless of everything, the left-hand thief still insulted Jesus as if the condemnation was not enough for him to turn and repent, but that’s why we see that the right-hand thief subdues the first one and says:
‘Don’t you fear God too, who are under the same condemnation? But we in justice because we deserved it with our actions, and he – he didn’t do anything wicked.’

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Will Christianity be the first religion to die of natural causes?

Will Christianity be the first religion to die of natural causes?
Christianity is the most popular religion in the West, however this old glue horse is dying in the West and ready to go out to pasture, by the latest surveys. Results of this has been showing for many decades now, with abandoned churches being bulldozed, sold off and converted into studio apartments. A 2021 study from Lifeway Research, based on data from three-dozen denominations, found that 4,500 churches closed in 2019.
Is Christianity dying? Almost 40% (38.9 per cent) of Australia’s population reported having no religion in the 2021 Census, an increase from 30% since 2016. The 60% of Australians left, breaks up into all the multiple religions, making Christianity smaller than the non-religious in Australia.
The latest British Social Attitudes Survey has shown that the share of the population belonging to no religion has continued to grow, now standing at 53%. That is more than half the population of the UK.
Nearly one in four Americans (23%) are not religious, which has been one of the most religious Western countries in the world. About three-in-ten Canadians say they are either atheist (8%), agnostic (5%) or “nothing in particular” (16%).
Eurobarometer European survey of 2019, has revealed that there are 17%,
non believer/Agnostic account throughout Europe and 10% Atheist, making 27% of Europeans non-religious.
Atheism is a growing personal enlightenment, which unlike religion does not suppress, indoctrinate or Crusades in wars for their cause. Some will say out of ignorance, that Communism is atheism, however Communism is political, atheism is not. Freedom of thought is why atheism is winning this battle without a single drop of blood. At this rate, God will be assigned with all the other un-worshipped musky old gods from forgotten mythology in no time.
This wave of atheism is also hitting the very religious Middle East. In the World Values Survey conducted from 2010 to 2014, results show that in Yemen, Jordan, and Iraq, fewer than 0.5% of those surveyed self-defined themselves as atheists; meanwhile, the highest percentage of self-defined atheists within the Middle East was in Kuwait, at 0.8%. The numbers will be greater, because in many of these countries it is illegal to be atheist on penalty of death.
This slow-wave is hitting Africa. In a 2012 Gallup poll, it was found that 7% of all Africans claiming they are “not a religious person. ” Considering the lack of resources to education in vast parts in this continent of Africa and it’s heavy religious influences, this is a healthy percent.
Of the global atheist and non-religious population, 76% reside in Asia and the Pacific. According to a Pew Research Center study released in 2012, more than 1.1 billion people—roughly one-in-six (16%) people worldwide at the time—considered themselves “religiously unaffiliated”.
Survey results are showing that the world is steadily changing towards non-belief and it looks like religion will see it’s end day. Perhaps the apocalypse should now really means, the revealing of the end of world religions through enlightenment.

Encountering Christ, Who do you serve?


Encountering Christ:

1. God and Mammon: “No one can serve two masters.” To those whom Jesus preached, being a slave, the property of another, was easily understood. For centuries the Jewish people had been enslaved by many powerful nations. For most of us today, being a slave is not a possibility—or is it? Jesus states that it is not a matter of if we serve but who we serve, either God or mammon (Aramaic word meaning wealth or property). Where we put our hearts, minds, and efforts—that’s who we serve. Slaves to mammon serve wealth, social status, and power. This service may bring worldly privileges and prestige; our cages may be velvet and our shackles made of silk, but we are trapped nonetheless, by the burdens of “keeping it up” or fears that we will lose everything. 

2. Worry: “Do not worry about your life.” Worry can come from within: “to torment oneself with disturbing thoughts.” Worry can come from without: “to harass by repeated biting, snapping, etc.,” which is how the evil one places troubling thoughts into our minds. Whether we bring worry upon ourselves, or we suffer temptations, worrying brings us no good. As Jesus said, “Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?” Instead, chronic worry reduces the length of our life. At every Mass, we are blessed so as to reduce our worry: “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” These are not just words; they contain the power of what they say. It is up to us to receive the peace that God offers us. 

3. The Importance of Man: “Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you more important than they?” The Catechism states, “We believe that God needs no preexistent thing or any help in order to create, nor is creation any sort of necessary emanation from divine substance. God creates freely ‘out of nothing’” (CCC 296). It continues, “The universe, created in and by the eternal Word, the ‘image of the invisible God,’ is destined for and addressed to man, himself created in the ‘image of God,’ and called to a personal relationship with God… for God willed creation as a gift addressed to man, an inheritance destined for and entrusted to him” (CCC 299). With this understanding, we are called to praise God for the great gift of creation, trust Him to provide for all we need and serve Him confidently and unafraid as stewards of creation. 

🙇🏻‍♂️🙇🏻‍♀️ Conversing with Christ: Lord, You entrusted Adam and Eve to serve You in the Garden of Eden by tending it and having dominion over it. They forfeited this privilege. But through You, our care of the Father’s creation is restored. Help me, Jesus, to be a good steward of Your creation, over which You gave me dominion. May I confidently serve You. 

👨‍👨‍👧‍👦 Resolution: Lord, today by Your grace I will pay attention to how I treat Your physical creation and do my part to be a good steward. Shalom! Our Lady Mediatrix of all Graces and Queen of the Home and Our Family, Pray for us! God is on the Throne! Do have a Blessed Saturday!


“Praise him with tambourine and dance;


Hello my friend, I hope you are doing well this day.

I wanted to share some of my favourite passages of the Bible, these passages inspire me and help me to remember how to worship the Lord.

Words which stand out for me in the follow passages are “dance, praise, everlasting steadfast love, sleep, desolate places to pray”.

These words help me to remember my devotion to God and how to draw closer to him.

Psalm 150:4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;

praise him with strings and pipe! | English Standard Version 2016 (ESV) | Download The Bible App Now

“Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe!”

Psalm 150:4 ESV

Psalm 103:17 But the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him,

and his righteousness to children’s children | English Standard Version 2016 (ESV) | Download The Bible App Now

“But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children,”

Psalm 103:17 ESV

“A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man.”

Proverbs 24:33-34 ESV

“But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”

Luke 5:16 ESV

When I see these words within my devotional practice, I’m drawn to an ancient spiritual practice known as Bhakti.


What is Bhakti?


https://pluralism.org/bhakti-the-way-of-devotion


Bhakti..

Bhakti: The Way of Devotion



Bhakti – devotion to the divine – is based on another interpretation of Vedanta: that the soul and the Divine are not One, but inexpressibly, mysteriously, both One and distinct, allowing for a relationship of love. This loving devotion, bhakti, is expressed through songs, hymns, offerings, dances, and plays.

Where an image of the divine is present and loving worship upon that image is sought, singing, dancing and praising the divine, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is forever in our hearts and whose presence grows stronger throughout proper practice and offerings to him.



Notice how the Lord works through you after your devotional practice, bringing about solutions to your unconscious mind while you sleep.

If this works for you, don’t forget to share it with others, either by attending a spiritual ceremony, or group and testifying how the love of Christ was present within you while you performed your strict devotion to him.

Peace and blessings to you Amen.


Christ is Medicine, our salvation.


While attending Mass and listening to the Gospel, you may notice links between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Where Christ reveals what had been ‘hidden’ since the creation of the world. How he also fulfilled what was written in scripture, and scripture itself is proof that Christ was to come, exactly as he did, to fulfil its promises.



Where ancient Scribes brought from the treasury New and Old, demonstrating this ability to link the new and Old Testament in such a way that the reader is in no doubt that Christ fulfilled scripture. The ‘Treasury’ is the whole Bible

There are dozens and dozens of Biblical example of this, while few given here where Moses being commanded by God to raise a Bronze serpent on a staff to be ‘looked upon’ by the people for their ‘salvation’. Christ fulfils this role in the New Testament as the one ‘raised up’, to be looked upon for the salvation of all mankind.



In Zechariah we hear of the ‘fountain’ to cleanse sin, and the ‘mourning for the One pierced’.

It goes deeper in the 2nd half in Zechariah to talk about ‘The Shepherd’, ‘The Covenant’, and ‘The price of a Man’. When Christ breathed his last on The Cross, the Veil of the temple was torn in two.

This was to fulfil the scripture of the breaking of The Covenant between God and Israel. Salvation came from the Jews, but God was no longer present among the people in the Ark of the Covenant, in the ‘Holy of Holies’. The two staffs in Zechariah were Broken, thus breaking the covenants.

The New Covenant was with Christ (The worthy One from Revelation 5), and was for All Peoples.

In Zechariah we also find the 30 pieces of silver, the price of a Man. It was no accident that Pontus Pilate said ‘behold, I give you the Man (Ecce Homo). In Zechariah we see the 30 pieces ‘cast into the treasury’ in the house of The Lord. When Judas tried to atone for his sins, he tried to get the high priest to take back the 30 pieces of silver. He cast the 30 pieces into the temple, the house of The Lord, for it to be put back in the treasury. The Chief priests could not put blood money back in the treasury, and purchased the potters field. Again, Christ fulfilled all that was written about in scripture.



While the key themes here are this, Christ came to reveal what was hidden since the beginning of time. He alone fulfils what is written in scripture. His atonement was pure and perfect, and He alone could satisfy the Justice required by God for the sin of all mankind. This perfect and Holy sacrificed restored mankind to God. God no longer dwelt among the people in the Holy of Holies. Christ became worthy (Revelation 5) to receive All Power, Glory, and Honour. He alone could open the scroll. Through him we now come to the Father, redeemed by Christ. His dwelling place is within us (You are no longer your own. You were purchased/ransomed for a heavy price). That is why confessions are so important (The cleansing of the bodily temple), and receiving Christ in The Holy Eucharist. Christ tells us that we cannot have life within us unless we eat and drink of His flesh.


There is life in his name.


The Purpose of John’s Gospel.

John 20:30 – 31:

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:

31.

But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.



Patience…


Psalm 27:10 – 14.

10. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.

11. Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

12. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

13. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

14. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.


Perfect peace.

Isaiah 26:1

In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.

2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.

3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:

Faith through love.

Freedom in Christ – Galatians 5:1.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.

7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.

9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

10 I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

11 And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? then is the offence of the cross ceased.

12 I would they were even cut off which trouble you.