BASKING IN THE FATHER'S LOVE

DAY ONE TALK ONE
BR. FRITZ MASCARENHAS

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Jn 3:16

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Life without Jesus is not only difficult but it is unbearable this is why we must live each day immersed in the Father's love. If we want solutions to life's problems then then we must live out these truths on a daily basis.  We cannot do it on our own only God makes it possible. There is no instant Christianity we have to make a determined effort everyday to bask in God's love if not, we will fall by the wayside. The most important truth of our faith is that we are God's beloved children and that He loves us with an everlasting love. We must never doubt this truth even though it is not easy to assimilate this truth because the love we have experienced on a human level has been conditional love. We are suffering because as sinners we are expressing conditional love to one another. We look at our weaknesses and our struggle and we doubt the love of God it is then that we feel guilty and condemned and this is the work of the enemy who is constantly accusing us  of our sins. 

The fundamental truth of our faith is that we are the children of God  and the whole purpose of the Incarnation is to bring us into a personal relationship with Jesus and through Jesus to the Father. We ought never to doubt the love of God. It is not easy to assimilate this truth because the love we have experienced by all those who ever loved us in the world has been conditional. We suffer on the horizontal level because as sinners we express conditional love to one another. It is only when we experience the unconditional of the Father that we can love our neighbor as ourselves. The enemy's main aim is to accuse and condemn us when we sin and to make us doubt God's love for us. 

The following are the last words of Jesus before He enters the Garden of Gethsemane:

John 17:25-26

25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you but I have known you, and these have known that you have sent me. 26 As I revealed your Name to them, so will I continue to reveal it, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I also may be in them.”

These words of Jesus encapsulate the whole purpose of the incarnation from His conception to His birth, His Life, His passion, His death and glorious Resurrection. These words of Jesus tell us why He came and what this Sacrifice is all about. Why did He go to the Cross? What was the divine purpose for the Father sending His Son to sacrifice His life for us? 

Jesus was faithful to the mission given to Him by His Father which is to reveal to us that God is Father. In no other religion is God addressed as Father. The Jews were infuriated with Jesus because He called God His Father. 

John 5:17
17 Jesus replied, “My Father goes on working and so do I.” 18 And the Jews tried all the harder to kill him, for Jesus not only broke the Sabbath observance, but also made himself equal with God, calling him his own Father.

This was blasphemy to the Jews because He was making Himself equal to God and they wanted to kill him. For the Jews God's Name was so sacred that only the High Priest could say the Name Yahweh on rare occasions. 

When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray He teaches them to address God as Abba.  In the Gospel of John Jesus addresses God constantly as Father and ultimately Philip said to Him, Lord show us the Father  and that is enough and Jesus responds, Philip have I been so long with you and you have still not seen the Father? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father.

John 1:18

18 No one has ever seen God,

but God-the-Only-Son made him known:

the one who is in and with the Fa­ther.

If we want to know anything about the Father we have to look at the life of Jesus He is the perfect and complete revelation of the Father.  

In the Garden of Eden as soon as Adam and Eve sins their knowledge of God became distorted as soon as they sinned. They were afraid of the presence of God and hid from Him. We are now conceived with that fear. We are now consumed with that fear this is why we hold back from God we do not throw our lives into God's hands. Authentic charismatic renewal is to have a hunger and thirst to receive more and more of God through the Holy Spirit. It is an ongoing discovery of how we can receive more and more of the life of God in us. 

Jesus tells His disciples that a time will come when they will all run away and leave Him alone but He says that He knows that He is never alone because His Father is always with Him. 

John 16:32

32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me.

We must have the same conviction that we are  not alone the Father is always with us. This is our consolation. Our life is a journey to our  Father's house. Jesus is our model in flesh and blood. He demonstrates to me how we must live as children of God. We grow more and more in the image and likeness of God. Jesus wants us to experience the same love with which the Father loves Him this His prayer to the Father. When Jesus came to earth He emptied Himself of His divine nature and took on our human nature Jesus is our model, in flesh and blood he demonstrates to me who and what a child of God should be this is the image to which I have to be conformed to. Life is a continual transformation and ongoing conversion more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus. 

Do we see the need for conversion or are we happy the way we are? Do we think we are OK? 

The work of the Spirit is to conform us to Christ and the whole purpose of the incarnation is to reveal God's love for us. God created us first and foremost know Him and to be loved by Him.

1 John 4:19

19 So let us love one another, since he loved us first.

unless we experience this love we cannot love and when we do not love we are living a dysfunctional life because we are created in the image and likeness of God so we are created to love. In order to love we must first experience love. We must cry out to God to fill us with His love this is the air a child of God breathes, this is our existence. To the extent we breathe that air we are alive to love and we become fully human and alive.

The purpose for which God has created us is to be loved by God. When I receive that love I am able to love as well and everything falls into place once we live by this truth.

God wants us to bask in His love to remain in His love. We must remain connected with God who is the Vine and the sap of the Holy Spirit can flow into us. Knowing that God loves me is not enough I must experience it. God is continually demonstrating His love for me. 

John 15:9-12

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love. 10 You will remain in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

11 I have told you all this, that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 12 This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you. 

To experience the love of God we must keep the commandments. 10 You will remain in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 

Which is the commandment Jesus says in verse 11 11 I have told you all this, that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

What is this commandment it is revealed in verse 12
12 This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.  To experience and tap into the love of God we must love our neighbor as God has loved us. We cannot love our neighbor unless we forgive him. To experience love vertically we must love horizontally. 

If we want to experience God's love we must first forgive and pray for the good of the one who has hurt us until we can truly forgive.  In John 14:15 Jesus says, "If you love me keep my commandments."

Our obedience and surrender to God, our love for God is directly proportionate to our experience of His love for us. We commit sin because His love does not satisfy us completely so we say no to God and yes to our selfish desires. If we want to come out of sin and be holy we must draw from the love of God, we must receive the love of God. As we release forgiveness in prayer the poison is drained from our heart and we can come into a right relationship with God. We must pray for those who hurt us and we will discover that the more we have a living with Jesus the more will we be able to share His love with others. 

The only way God can reveal Himself to us in a life-giving way is only when we keep His commandments. 

John 14:21
21 Whoever keeps my commandments is the one who loves me. If he loves me, he will also be loved by my Father; I too shall love him and show myself clearly to him.” 

We must learn to say no to sin and yes to God.  The only way we can keep the commandments is by opening ourselves to the love God. When we truly love Him we will want to please Him and delight Him by our obedience to His commandments. When we say Yes to God He will give us an ongoing revelation of Himself. 

The love of God like wings help us to rise above earthly cares. Our vocation is to be loved by God. 

The love of God is not mystical it is real and can be experienced in very real and concrete ways. It is down to earth and practical – Jesus was constantly reaching out to suffering humanity. He met the people where they were and He not only saw their need but met every single one of them. The Father is concerned about our needs as well and He answers every single one of them.

When we see Jesus working in our simple everyday life we know that Jesus is real. We have to know in practical ways how to listen to Jesus and follow Him. We must look to Jesus for a solution to our problems. 

In Matthew 10:29-31 Jesus says, 29 For only a few cents you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father’s consent. 30 As for you, every hair of your head has been counted. 31 So do not be afraid: you are worth much more than many sparrows.

God considers us so precious St. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:18-19 18 Remember that you were freed from the useless way of life of your ancestors, not with gold and silver 19 but with the precious blood of the Lamb without spot or blemish. that we have been ransomed not with silver and gold but with the spotless blood of the Lamb of God who brings us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. 

Every hair on our head is numbered. Believe and trust the Father's love. Nothing is more insignificant in our life than the hair on our head and Jesus is saying that what is insignificant for us is not insignificant to Him and He wants us to know that there is no area in our life that God is unaware of or not concerned about. That is why we need never be worried or afraid because the Father loves us and will provide for us. 

Our journey to God is a calling by God to return to His loving care where we belong, living in His house, loved, protected and nurtured by Him. Life in loving union with the Father is Christianity. We must be carried along by the Father's love and go where He wants us to be trusting in His loving will for our life. 

St. Paul's prayer for the Christians in Ephesus: 
Ephesians 3:14-20

14 And now I kneel in the presence of the Father 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth has received its name.

16 May he strengthen in you the inner self through his Spirit, according to the riches of his glory;

17 may Christ dwell in your hearts through faith;

may you be rooted and found­ed in love.

18 All of this so that you may understand with all the holy ones the width, the length, the height and the depth—in a word, 19 that you may know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge, that you may be filled and reach the fullness of God.

20 Glory to God who shows his power in us and can do much more than we could ask or imagine; 21 glory to him in the Church and in Christ Jesus through all generations for ever and ever. Amen.

Verse 14-15: In the name that God has given us our vocation and our purpose for our entire life falls into place. 

Verse 16-17 We are weak and in humility, we must make our weaknesses known to the Holy Spirit and ask Him to strengthen us from within. We must be rooted in the love of God and we must experience it on every level and on every dimension. God wants to fill us with His riches and partake in His glory so we can be filled with the fullness of God. 

Do we experience this fullness in our lives?  What are our priorities?

Verse 18-20 We must pray and ask God to help us to open ourselves to receive this love so we can be fulfilled and happy. We must make use of all the channels of grace available to us in the Church in the Sacraments, the Scriptures, prayer meeting, acts of mercy etc., which will fill us with the life and love of God. When we are fulfilled and transformed, we must reach out in love to others.

Finally, let us remember what St. Paul tells us in Romans 8:16 God has not given us a spirit of slavery but a spirit of sonship enabling us to call God Abba Father. The experience of the reality of God's love in the Holy Trinity is the key to all our problems only a live lived in Christ can make our own lives worthwhile. If we desire to spend eternity with God let us not remain strangers to Him.

THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE - TOTAL SURRENDER TO GOD

DAY TWO TALK ONE

BR. FRITZ MASCARENHAS

One of the most difficult truths to live out each day is total surrender to the will of God and yet it is the most effective way to combat anxiety and stress. Anxiety is not only a sin but it indicates a distinct lack of faith in God. 

Three simple prayers recited daily from our heart will guarantee our spiritual growth. Baptism immerses us in the life of the Trinity. When we allow God to be God in our life we will discover that all He desires for us is perfect happiness and this is possible only in the total surrender of our lives to His will. 

The first prayer we must pray daily over and over again is the prayer that Jesus taught us. "Father, Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done." As a child of God, we must desire to perfect God's will in our life. As His children, God has an amazing plan for our life and therefore we must pray that plan may be realized. My highest good and my salvation depend on embracing the will of the Father in every area of my life.

The second prayer is to say to Jesus daily, "My Lord and my God." In John 10:27 Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them; they follow me." Four voices come to us daily – the three that will lead us astray are the world the flesh the devil but the voice that will lead us to life is the voice of Jesus. We must pray every day to be able to recognize the voice of Jesus and follow Him. "My Lord and my God teach me to hear Your voice so I may follow You all the days of my life."

The Holy Spirit makes it possible to surrender to God's will. The angel Gabriel told Mary that she would conceive through the Holy Spirit and her response was, "May it be done unto me according to Your Word." Surrender to God's will involves a firm belief that with God all things are possible. Rom 8:14 says,"All those who walk in the Spirit of God are sons and daughters of God." God is not pushy, He respects our free will, only when we consciously yield our will to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit will God take over our lives. 

The Father's will is always for good, our will is concentrated on self-preservation. When we say this prayer, we must not think of what the plan may be, rather we just pray for the Father's kingdom and will to be realized in our life. Our highest good is to will God's Kingdom to come. We have two choices in life one is to live in the Father's house and the second is to be abandoned in the far off country, there is no in between. 

Jesus is our Model. Through the grace of baptism and until we die the work of God is to conform us to the image of His Son, to be Christ-like, to be like Jesus with the help of the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of Truth, He is the greatest Teacher, He will instruct us, lead us and guide us in to the Way, the Truth and the Life which is Jesus Christ. 

There are two aspects that were crucial in the life of Jesus one was His perfect, absolute surrender to the Father's will. In John 4:6 we read about Jesus being seated at the well, He is tired, hungry and thirsty. A Samaritan woman comes to draw water from the well at noon and Jesus dialogues with her. He reveals to her that He is the Messiah, she is excited and runs to the village to announce the good news to the village, in the meantime the disciples return with the food and they insist that He eats since they know he is hungry. He says to them, John 4:31 " I have had food of which you know nothing about." And in verse 34 He says, "My food is to do the will of the One who sent me and to carry out his work." As Christians, we ought to be the most satisfied people on earth and yet our souls know neither peace nor rest because we have not surrendered to the will of the Father. 

In Matthew 6:24 Jesus tells us that we cannot serve two Masters either we either hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. We cannot fool ourselves into believing that we can serve both God and money same time - who will we bow down to? Until and unless we experience the love of God and entrust our life in His hands and surrender to His will, only then will we be truly happy. The harvest is ready but there are very few who are willing to labor in it. We have received a divine mandate to go out to the nations and preach the Good News. We should have a great burden for souls because we know that no man can come to the Father except through Jesus. If we are honest with ourselves, we will see how much more concerned about our children's material wellbeing and show no concern at all or very little for the salvation of their souls. We are doing them a greatest disservice if we are not pointing them to the will of the Father, they will build their houses on sand and they will come crashing down. The happiness and well-being of those we love lies in Jesus alone. 

In John 6:38 Jesus says, "I have come from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of the One who sent me."

In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus becomes sin. The disobedience of the world is crushing Him and He is struggling and agonizing and in his humanity. He does not want to go the Cross and is struggling to say yes to the Father. Knowing that the salvation of the human race depends on His response to the Father's will, He prays to His Father if the chalice of suffering could be taken away but He immediately qualifies that prayer by saying, "Yet, not my will but Thine be done." The angel of the Lord then comes to Him and strengthens Him and from that moment on we see Jesus embracing the will of the Father completely. 

The most powerful prayer, the most all-embracing prayer, the most divinizing prayer a creature can ever pray to God is, "Let thy Kingdom come, let thy will be done." The battle over our wills was won in the Garden when Jesus surrenders His will to the Father. Once He accepts the will of the Father He offers His life with great dignity, He is in full control as He offers Himself on the Cross as a Sacrifice to His Father. The sole purpose of the Cross was so we could experience the love of the Father. Jesus by His Incarnation, life, passion, death and resurrection has saved us from our selfish, self-seeking, self-centered, self-indulgent, self-pleasing will in order to enable us to seek the will of our Father. 

Charismatic Christians in the must remember these verses from Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to me: Lord! Lord! will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my heavenly Father. Many will say to me on that day, “Lord, Lord, did we not speak in your name? Did we not cast out devils and perform many miracles in your name?” Then I will tell them openly: I have never known you; away from me, you evil people!"

Here are some tough questions we should ask ourselves.

What is our prayer time like? What are we looking to God for? Do we enjoy the time spent with Jesus in prayer? Do we grow more and more in love with God? Do we seek Him and are we growing in friendship with Him? Do we prefer to run around in Ministry rather than spend time alone with God seeking to know His will for our life? Are we looking for union with Jesus? Are we willing to forgive? Are we in a right relationship or are we in a strained relationship? Do we justify our sins before God? We must live in absolute surrender to the Father's will and live in total dependence on God. 

In John 5:30-31 Jesus said, "I can do nothing on my own authority; as I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me." Is the Spirit of God working out God's will in our life? Have we abandoned our life to Divine Providence? Do we look to as the source of our daily bread and our sole provider? Our dependence must be on God alone and not on our external circumstances. Our daily bread comes from the Father and we must trust Him to provide for all our needs. We will collapse completely if we rely on anything other than God and we will be crushed and disappointed when it fails us.

The early Church understood the importance of surrendering to the will of the Father. In Romans 12:1-11 St. Paul says gives us a doctrinal understanding of faith. He tells us that we exist only because of the mercy of God. God has given us the freedom to say yes to Him or to reject Him. Jesus died and offered His life as an atoning sacrifice for us, we must recognize and acknowledge the cost God paid to bring us back to Himself. In the light of this sacrifice, St. Paul tells us that we must present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. What is this living sacrifice all about? It is getting to know the Father's will and being conformed to it. The world, our will, our values, our actions and our reactions must all be transformed, conformed and aligned to the will of God. 

In Ephesians 5:14 St. Paul urges us to, “Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead that the light of Christ may shine on you.”

Those of us who are sleeping, are lethargic, who take God's will for granted we must awake from our slumber. He says in verse 15, "Pay attention to how you behave. Do not live as the unwise do, but as responsible persons." We must check our lifestyle and see how much time is wasted. We cannot grow in our faith if we spend time on secular pursuits. Our happiness is directly proportionate to our relationship to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We cannot walk with Jesus if we are conformed to the world. We live in a frightening world and our children are growing up in this environment. We have to be vigilant if we want to give our children a powerful witness by the lives we lead as parents. 

What hardships are we willing to embrace in order to do the will of God and save souls? When we struggle to surrender to God's will let us remember that in the Father's house there is music, fellowship, the fatted calf, a banquet, but away from Him all we receive is the food of swine, abandonment, rejection, desertion, suffering hunger and thirst. We have a distorted image of God that is why we fear Him. When we are familiar with Scripture we can have a clear picture of who God is. 

Our life comes from God. He is our Good Shepherd; our joy comes from remaining close to the Shepherd and following His will for our lives. When we surrender wholeheartedly to the will of God, we will discover that even when we struggle to say yes to Him but are prepared to gladly embrace His will for our lives, He will change our reluctant heart and enable us to say an excited yes to His will. He can do the impossible and change and transform our hearts when we take are burdens and difficulties to Him in prayer and genuinely seek to obey His will. 

We can either give way to fear and be unhappy or we can give our fears to Jesus and receive His peace. We can only be happy if we are where God wants us to be.

The more we pray for God's kingdom to come and His will to be done, our own selfish will becomes conformed and aligned to the will of God then when God asks anything of us we will readily say yes to Him. Initially when we begin to say this prayer a fear must rise as we realize that we will have to give up something, this is good since this fear is like a mountain that holds us back, it cripples us. Keeping the fear in mind and as we persist in prayer we will find that slowly but surely God will remove this mountain of fear layer by layer until it is completely demolished. He will change our heart from one of no to one of yes and as we persist in prayer. As the Prophet Zechariah 4:6-7 ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty. “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground." This is when in that prayer the Father will become Daddy to us and He embrace us as His children. Jesus will be our Savior and Good Shepherd and He will lead us. We can claim all the blessings of Psalm 23. The Holy Spirit will guide us and lead us, we will have divine appointments, and great things will happen in our lives for the glory of God.

THERAPIES TO COME OUT OF SIN

DAY TWO TALK THREE OF TWO

BR. FRITZ MASCARENHAS

The bad news is that we are all infected by sin the Good News is that Jesus came to set us free from slavery to sin.

Once we recognize sin and we desire to come out of it, we are blessed. 

THERAPIES TO COME OUT OF SIN

THE EUCHARIST

The first most powerful means to come out of sin, which God has given us, is the Eucharist.  It is the highest form of pray.  It is in the celebration of the Holy Mass that the grace of our baptism comes alive.

Preparation begins even before we come to church for Holy Mass by being conscious of the specific areas in which we need healing. Sin manifests itself in different areas in our life, we are all guilty of slander, a loose tongue, gossip, lust anger, impatience and so we come to Jesus in the Eucharist to help us overcome these sins.

At the start of the Holy Mass Mother Church reminds us that we are sinners so we pray the I Confess, next comes Lord have Mercy, at the Consecration we are reminded that the sacrifice is offered for the forgiveness of sin .  We then have the Lord's prayer after which the priest prays Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that, by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.   This is the time when we bring all our troubles to Jesus trusting Him to save us and help us.  In the Eucharist, we become one with the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

Three times Mother Church points us to the Lamb of God as we pray,

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: grant us peace.

When we approach the banquet table, we must look at Jesus, He has come precisely to take away our sins and so let us ask His help to come out of sin.

Next, we pray, the prayer of the Centurion, "Lord I am not worthy that you should come under my roof say but the word and I my soul shall be healed." Next, the priest prays inaudibly – Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, by the will of the Father and the work of the Holy Spirit your death brought life to the world. By your holy body and blood free me from all my sins and from every evil. Keep me faithful to your teaching and never let me be parted from you.

What is the work of the Holy Spirit?  It is to do the will of the Father.  This is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is all about.  What did baptism at the river Jordan do for Jesus? Acts 10:38 gives us the answer,"You know how God anointed Jesus the Naza­rean with Holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all who were under the devil’s power, because God was with him;" The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness and eventually to the Cross. We too must yield to the Spirit so He can take complete control of our lives.

There must be a time of silence after we receive Jesus in Holy Communion. These are sacred moments when we commune with Jesus and give Him praise and thanks for the Gift of Himself. It is also a time when we ask for and receive grace and strength to overcome sinful habits and receive healing.

LOVED OUT OF SIN

John 15:9-12

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love. 10 You will remain in my love if you keep my commandments, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

11 I have told you all this, that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. 12 This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you.

When I bring my sins to Jesus, I must believe in faith that He has taken them away and thank Him.  I must desire to come out of my sin.  Sin kills.  Jesus released the power of forgiveness from the Cross making it possible for me to forgive as well.

  

Mark 11:20-26

In verses 20-22 we see that Jesus and the disciples are walking along the road and the disciples see the fig tree Jesus had cursed was withered to its roots and Peter says, "Master, Look! The fig tree you cursed has withered." Jesus replies, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, if you say to this mountain: ‘Get up and throw yourself into the sea,’ and have no doubt in your heart but be­­lieve that what you say will hap­­­­pen, it will be done for you. But there is a condition to this assurance which is crucial as we see in verses 24-26 24 There­­­fore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it shall be done for you. 25 And when you stand to pray, forgive whatever you may hold against anyone, 26 so that your heavenly Father may also forgive your sins.”

Therefore, the first thing to remember when we come before Jesus in prayer is to make sure we are in a right relationship with everyone.  Answer to prayer is conditional to our forgiving anyone who has anything against us. We are created to love and when we hold unforgiveness and resentment in our heart, we suffer and we block the channels of grace to our heart. We must make a conscious decision to forgive.

John 15:9

9 As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; remain in my love.

Jesus loves us He died to take away sin. He longs to free us from the slavery of sin. I do not struggle with sin but bring my sins to him believing in faith that I have been forgiven I must thank Him.  Jesus has gone through the greatest injustice and suffering intensely on the Cross He said Father forgive them they don't know what they do, in this way He released the power that enables me to forgive as well. 

 LOOKING UNTO JESUS

NUMBERS 21:4-9

4 From Mount Hor they set out by the Red Sea road to go around the land of Edom. The people were  discouraged  by  the  journey  5 and began to com­plain against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is neither bread nor water here and we are disgusted with this tasteless manna.”

6 Yahweh then sent fiery serpents against them. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. 7 Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, speaking against Yahweh and against you. Plead with Yahweh to take the serpents away.”

Moses pleaded for the people 8 and Yahweh said to him, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard; whoever has been bitten and then looks at it shall live.”

9 So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a standard. Whenever a man was bitten, he looked towards the bronze serpent and he lived.

When the Israelites grumbled in the desert God sent fiery serpents to bite them and many Israelites died.  They then begged Moses to pray to God on their behalf. God told him to make a bronze serpent and raise it up.  All those who looked at it the poison would drain from them and they would live.  This is a prefiguration of the Cross.

JOHN 3:14

14 As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

The Son of Man will be lifted up death gave way to life on the Cross.

JOHN 1:29

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

HEBREWS 12:1-2

1 What a cloud of innume­r­able witnesses surround us! So let us be rid of every en­cum­brance, and especially of sin, to persevere in running the race marked out before us. 2 Let us look to Jesus the found­er of our faith, who will bring it to completion. For the sake of the joy reserved for him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and then sat at the right of the throne of God.

All of us have sins that cling closely to us.  Let us lay aside these sins and run to Jesus.  Sin is an obstacle that keeps us from living a life of grace this is why we must desire to rid ourselves of it.

Let us look at the sin that troubles us, name it and command it to leave.  We must resolve not to sin again.  We are running a race and Jesus is at the finish line we must keep our gaze fixed on Him.  We can come out of sin by fixing our gaze on the Cross the poison of sin will drain from us, and strengthened by Him we must thank Him for healing us and giving us life.  

CONFESS JESUS IS LORD

ROM 10:9-10

9 You are saved if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and in your heart you believe that God raised him from the dead. 10 By believing from the heart, you obtain true righteousness; by confessing the faith with your lips you are saved.

When we confess with our lips and believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord, we are saved.  Jesus has triumphed over the world the flesh and the devil.  When I say Jesus is Lord I must believe that He is saving us from our sins.

ROM 5:10

10 Once enemies, we have been reconciled with God through the death of his Son; with much more reason now we may be saved through his life.

Jesus died for us while we were still enemies of God but now through grace the victory He won continues to remain in us.  His triumph, his glorious victory is always available to us provided we desire it.   How much more now that we are reconciled to the Father through Jesus and the Cross we are saved by His life.  We must continually tap into the life of Christ.

MATTHEW 1:21

21 and now she will bear a son. You shall call him ‘Jesus’ for he will save his people from their sins.”

Let us be confident that each time we call on the Name of Jesus He will save us from our sins. 

THE ESSENCE OF SIN AND THE NEED FOR ONGOING CONVERSION

DAY TWO TALK TWO

BR. FRITZ MASCARENHAS

There is no such thing as instant spirituality we battle daily against the world the flesh and the devil each day is a new battle and the greatest of these enemies is the flesh. We are our own worst enemy.  I must offer my life to Jesus.  This is authentic Catholic spirituality.  I must actively seek the will of God each day.  Every baptized Catholic has to grow in holiness this is our vocation.  Sin is at the root of all our problems and nothing and no one can take away sin by Jesus alone.  The joy of being a Christian is to allow Jesus to work continually in our life. He won the victory for us on the Cross and He wants us to live in that victory.  The Ministry of Jesus is to bring the lost sheep back to the fold.  It takes discipline for faith to be released into our life.  Speak the truth in love.  We need conversion all the time.  It is ongoing.  No instant spirituality each day is a new day battling with the world the flesh and the devil and the greatest of these enemies is the flesh.

Sin is at the root of all our problems.  Jesus is the only one who can take away the sins in our life.  Jesus came to teach us how to live and there is no true life apart life in Christ. In surrendering to the will of the Father we ask Him to be Daddy to us. 

Luke 19:41 Jesus is looking at Jerusalem the temple where Jews from the  known world come to pray and He says, 

41 When Jesus had come in sight of the city, he wept over it 42 and said, “If only today you knew the ways of peace! But now your eyes are held from seeing. 43 Yet days will come upon you when your enemies will surround you with barricades and shut you in and press on you from every side. 44 And they will dash you to the ground and your children with you, and leave not a stone within you, for you did not recognize the time and the visitation of your God.”

Peace comes from a way of life from imitating Jesus. Because you have rejected him the days will come when the enemy …

Why has Jesus given his life for us - is it to have an ordinary life with an ordinary spirituality? If we reject the life that Jesus wants to give us then we will face an enemy who hates us. He is a spiritual being and he wants to destroy us because we are Christians. If we reject Jesus then we have no defenses against the devil.  We will find life unbearable because the devil will hem us on every side as the devil is a thief, a murderer, he ensnares, he kills devours, destroys, he is a liar, he hates and is wily, he is a deceiver and he kills the soul.  Jesus came to save us from all the wiles of the enemy Without Jesus all our spiritual defenses will crumble and the devil will come in and out at will because we did not recognize the time of the visitation of our Lord.

Jesus is the sin specialist this is why we have to come to Jesus daily in order to come out of sin.  If I am not coming to Jesus to come out of sin then I have not understood Jesus' mission. If I am not prepared to come to Jesus in order to seek His help to take away my sin which is my problem which separates me from God for whom I have been created – to enjoy perfect union with Him.  Sin separates me from my God.  I must be conscious of my sinful areas and areas of vulnerability.  Sin will give up on us only five minutes after we die until then sin will trouble us.  Because I am a loved sinner I must be conscious of the sin in my life and I must go to Him daily

GOD'S WORD IS CONSISTENT THROUGHOUT SCRIPTURE

Isaiah 53:4-6 - MESSIAH

4 Yet ours were the sorrows he bore,

ours were the sufferings he endured,

although we considered him as one

punished by God, stricken and brought low.

5 Destroyed because of our sins,

he was crushed for our wickedness.

Through his punishment we are made whole;

by his wounds we are healed.

6 Like sheep we had all gone astray,

each following his own way;

but Yahweh laid upon him all our guilt.

Sin is a cancer on the soul. It takes us away from God as each one indulges in their own selfish desires. We all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.  He who says he is without sin is a liar. Our iniquity was laid upon Him who is the spotless Lamb of God who love righteousness. The poison of sin is so deadly that it took nothing less than the life of God to destroy it. He became sin for our sake.  This is why we must make every attempt to come out of sin and also feel a great burden until the entire family is converted and comes to the Lord. 

Matthew 1:21

21 and now she will bear a son. You shall call him ‘Jesus’ for he will save his people from their sins.”

Jesus came to save us from our sins.  We must have this assurance that this is why Jesus came. This is His Ministry – to save me from my separation from the Father.

Luke 2:10-11

10 the angel said to the shepherds, “Don’t be afraid; I am here to give you good news, great joy for all the peo­ple. 11Today a Savior has been born to you in David’s town; he is the Messiah and the Lord.

Fear does not come from God it comes from the evil one and Jesus is constantly telling us not to be afraid.  Fear cripples.  Fear comes from the devil.  It stifles, it depresses, it kills.  The Good News of great joy to all people is that Jesus was born to save me from my sinful, selfish nature, which is my problem and makes me live a dysfunctional life.

John 1:29

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus public ministry begins when John the Baptist  pointing to Jesus and announcing  there is  the Lamb of God who takes away the SIN of the world.  We must destroy sin from the root by the total surrender of our will to the will of God. We destroy the root of sin by praying thy kingdom come they will be done. Jesus, my Lord and my God.  Holy Spirit may it be done to be according thy word.

Romans 6:6

6 We know that our old self was crucified with Christ, so as to destroy what of us was sin, so that we may no longer serve sin

We all have a tendency towards sin must be destroyed that I might no longer be enslaved to sin.  Jesus came to set us free.  There are certain areas in our life that are controlling us. Every time we fall into sin we are hurt. We cannot justify our sins rather we must claim the victory that Jesus won for us and come out of sin.  We must come diligently to Him and ask Him to help us to come out of sin and little by little He will free us and conform us to Himself.

2 Corinthians 5:21

21He had no sin, but God made him bear our sin, so that in him we might share the holiness of God.

Jesus who knew no sin took upon Himself our sinful nature in order to make us righteous.

Titus 2:14

14 He gave himself for us, to redeem us from every evil and to purify a people he wanted to be his own and dedicated to what is good.

Jesus came to redeem us from every iniquity and purify us.  Sin is our problem so He came to save us from every aspect of sin and He helps us to be zealous for good works.  We must make time for our neighbor.  We must be concerned about their spiritual welfare – we cannot live selfish, self-centered lives if we do, our spiritual life will be choked.

Hebrews 9:26

²⁶ ….. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Jesus came to put away sin by the sacrifice of His life. If we are serious about overcoming sin we must come to Jesus daily and ask Him to help us to come out of those sinful areas in our life that trouble us and those around us.  God is holy and cannot tolerate sin we cannot journey with Him if we remain in sin. Once we are conscious of our sins we must desire to rid ourselves of it this is possible only by a complete surrender to the will of God.

1 Peter 2:24

24 He went to the cross bearing our sins on his own body on the cross so that we might die to sin and live an upright life. For by his wounds you have been healed.

He bore our sins so we can die to sin and live in holiness.  This dying to sin is a daily process.  Jesus said, If any man wants to be my disciple he must deny himself pick up his cross daily and follow Him. I must die to my sinful self centered nature.  When I walk with the Lord I must become sensitive to sin.  It is a daily renewal of our lives.  I must be sensitive to sin.

1 John 3: 5

5 You know that he came to take away our sins, and that there is no sin in him.

Jesus came to take away sin and if I want to fellowship with Him I must get rid of sin.  We are our biggest problem. We have not only inherited a sinful nature from our first parents we have been conceived in sin. Thanks be to God that Jesus saves us when we place all our hope in Him.