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Will You Be My Child This Lent?

3/5/2014

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God longs for us to rise with His Son this Easter

God has a wonderful gift for us this Lent.

Sadly many of us will refuse to open it, and eye it instead with suspicion. But God affords us the opportunity to learn about His gift before accepting it. 

And then we have two choices:

a)      accept God and be happy - forever
         or
b)      reject God and live in misery - forever.

Doesn’t it make sense to check that gift out?

What Is This Gift? 

Even if you don’t make to the end of this post, go to http://fathersloveletter.com/ and watch the video. Its message is uncomplicated and beautiful. 

And it describes the Gift.

You will meet a God who desires to lavish His love on you. A God Who is your Father, and wants you to know that you were not created in error or by accident. You were created by Him on purpose and for a purpose. You are His child - if you accept Him as your Father.

Abba, Daddy

If you have, or are around children, you’ll understand how wonderful it is when they reciprocate your love.

But how do you feel when they turn their backs on you, because you’re ‘old-fashioned’ and ‘don’t know anything’? 

It’s tough, isn’t it, to watch rebellious children head for disaster because 'they know best’? As youngsters we may have been down that road ourselves, and know from experience that it leads to destruction.

If only our children would heed us, and stay on the right path, how much better their lives would be!

God feels the same way when we insist He is ‘old-fashioned,’ ‘doesn’t understand us’ and is therefore 'irrelevant' to the 21st Century.

But when we turn from our godless ways, come back to Him and follow His commandments, God rejoices that we have chosen His gift. Confession is a wonderful way to start accepting His gift this Lent.

(Aren't we thrilled when our children abandon their reckless ways and apologize to us?)

Just as loving offspring heed their parents because they don’t want to hurt them, we as children of God obey Him because we don’t want to upset Him. We want to be His ‘special treasure:’

“Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; for all the earth belongs to me.” (Exodus 19:5). (My italics.)

Whatever We Ask...

Note the 'if you will obey me' above. God needs our co-operation in order to shower us with His blessings.

When children are disobedient, destructive, anti-social and selfish, do we encourage this behavior by granting them their every wish?

Of course not!

In the same way, God will not reward bad-living by granting sinful wishes.


To obtain His help, we first need to repent of hurting Him, work on changing our bad habits and destroy unhealthy attachments. This will lead to our wanting the right things.

Then:  “…. whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22). (My italics.)


Through His commandments and Holy Scripture, together with the Sacraments and teachings of the Church, God Our Father offers us a step-by-step guide for right living, so we can be with Him in heaven.

He even sent His Only Son to set us the example of right living!

God waits for us with love and longing. Will we use His guide this Lent and let Him lead us, His children, to our redemption through His Son this Easter?

Further reading: 

If you still need convincing to become a child of God now, here is a powerful and sobering testimony!

http://www.markmallett.com/blog/the-seven-seals-of-revolution/#more-4958  
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Easter Is Almost Here!

4/19/2011

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Almost: but first will come Good Friday.  Before we receive redemption, Jesus will suffer.

Why Did Jesus Have to Die?

I’ve always had a hard time understanding why Jesus had to die in order for us to be saved.

Father Jean C.J. d’Elbée addresses this question in ‘I Believe In Love.'
He writes that, according to St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica, Christ’s  ‘death was, in itself, not at all necessary, but He shows the benefits which the Passion procures for us beyond our reconciliation with God.’

What Benefits?

One: Christ shows us how much He loves us, which urges us to love God back - thus perfecting our salvation.

Two: In submitting Himself to the Passion, Christ illustrated the virtues we need for our salvation, among them humility, constancy, justice and obedience.

Three: Christ’s Passion freed man from sin, which encourages us to avoid the occasion of sin.

Four: Christ endured great suffering, and can therefore assist those of us who are suffering. When we undergo pain, we know of Someone Else who did, too, even though He didn’t have to.

Father d’Elbée writes that, according to St. Thomas, ‘the death of Christ was not caused by sin, but by His love, on the occasion of our sin.’

Complete Love

Christ loves us so much, is so merciful and so desirous of our salvation, that He was prepared to do whatever it took to redeem and save us. ‘Jesus delivered Himself up out of love; God is love: the death of Jesus is the great revelation of that fact.’

Christ exhibited complete, 'crazy' love for us, because He deeply desires that we be united with Him in Heaven. I think such love is hard for us to comprehend because it's way beyond our limited, human understanding of the concept.

However, we are still capable of great love, and God desires that we offer it all to Him. He so wants to show us His mercy, but can only do this if we humbly respond to His love with our whole hearts.

(How) Are We Going to Respond?

Christ, a completely innocent man, suffered horribly and died an agonizing death for you and me.
 
It’s now up to us to show Christ how much we appreciate His sacrifice.

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    Hilary Walker

    A fanatic horse rider and writer of Christian Inspirational Fiction, who's beginning to understand that making it to Heaven is a tad more important than winning at horse shows.

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