Remember

Covenant: exchange of persons

God is ALWAYS Faithful

 

LISTEN OBEY ABANDON TRUST

Come Holy Spirit

 

Thy Will be done; I trust in you!

In the Spirit, the flesh displeases God.

 

The Call of God is to Do the Will of God for ME

Stop judging others, you don’t even know your own way.

 

Trust God who Justifies the Ungodly,

who humbly repentantly plead for mercy.

 

Jesus came to save SINNERS

I AM A SINNER

Fear of Hell does NOT prove love for God

Fear of Hell is NOT love for God

Fear of hell is no proof of love for God. Desiring to be rescued by the lifeboats before you drown, does not prove that you love the captain of the ship. 

James 2:5 says that God promised the crown of life to those who love him—not fear hell, but love God. James 2:12 says that God promised the kingdom of God to those who love him. 

The pathway to heaven is the path of love to God. Fear may show you that you are on the wrong path. It may point you to the right one. But fear is not the path or the gate that leads to life. It is what you should feel when you wander off the path. 

John Piper: Fear of hell is no proof of love for God. 

https://bible-daily.org/2011/03/16/10478john-piper-fear-of-hell-is-no-proof-of-love-for-god/

My Daily Prayer in the Quiet of my Soul

My Daily Prayer in the Quiet of my Soul

1. In returning & Rest you shall be saved

In quietness & trust you shall be strengthened

1. I go into my room and close the door-close out the whole world & commune with you in the room of my soul in Returning, rest, quiet & trust.

A Come Holy Spirit

B Take control of my life 

In & out 3 times

A. Lord Have Mercy on me

B. Jesus I trust in you 

In & out 3 times

A. Be Still & Know I Am God.

B. Thy Will Be Done My Father

In & out 3 times

On the in Breath-God fills me with Him

A. Come Holy Spirit

B. Lord have Mercy

C. Be Still & Know I AM God.

On the Out Breath-I Surrender to Him

A. Take Control of my life

B. Jesus I trust in You

C. Thy Will Be Done My Father

Holy Trinity in breaths (Spirit, Jesus, Father-In & out 3 times)

We All Have Been Given Freedom to Choose

God chooses evil people (none are good) for the church. 

Man cooperates or not with Grace. 

Both knew God and chose one way or the other. 

Cain and Able

Esau and Jacob

11 Patriarchs and Joseph

King Saul and King David

Pharos (by signs) and Moses

Judas and 11 Apostles 

(Calvin/Luther) and Catholic (unity for millennia)

All had sin and major mistakes. But only those who kept repenting and following God (even in the midst of severe persecution and pain) stayed with God. We cannot let mans actions scandalize us. Man is evil. We must keep following God in His Church. Jesus is the church. All evil men are called to repent and follow Him. Just because evil men are not repentant does not mean the church is wrong. It means that man is choosing wrong. We are given grace to choose because of his sorrowful passion. He has paid the sin of all men in the whole world. He has also given freedom to all men. Choose grace and surrender. 

I can thwart Gods plan for me

It is possible for a human person – for me, to thwart God’s purpose for my life. 

We can, by abusing our freedom through self-indulgence and arrogance, shut out God’s grace from our lives. 

When we live focused on our feelings, our petty desires, and our whims, we blind ourselves to God’s will (which always demands self-mastery and self-sacrifice) and frustrate his glorious plan and beautiful hopes for us. 

I have been Chosen, destined, and sanctified by the Trinity to Obedience to himself by the cleansing from the blood of God. Embrace this grace and be in peace. 

 

From Peter, The Apostle of Jesus Christ 

To Julie Robinson, in Phoenix Arizona 

You were Chosen, and You were destined by God the Father

You were sanctified by the Holy Spirit 

For obedience to Jesus Christ 

You were sprinkled with His blood (the blood of God)

May you have grace and peace multiplied abundantly. 

1 Peter 1:1–2 (RSV2CE):

1  Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 2 chosen and destined by God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood: 

May grace and peace be multiplied to you. 

I have been:

Chosen destined sanctified by the Trinity to Obedience to himself by the cleansing from the blood of God. Embrace this grace and be in peace. 

God’s plan includes and absorbs even the abuse of human freedom; He is the LORD.

God’s plan includes and absorbs even the abuse of human freedom; He is the LORD.

The Call of God is to do the Will of God for ME

The Call of God is to do the Will of God for Me

The Call of God is to do the Will of God for Me

1. Salvation is for those you call to do your will. You are calling all men to do your will. 

2. It is a hard road and done in the spirit completely surrendered to grace. Apparently few find it. The grace is there but our hearts have to be continually surrendered. We have been given a responsibility to respond to you and your call. We must walk in humility with our God pleading for divine assistance. 

3. We are also to bless all and love our enemies because I was your enemy and you loved me even then. This shows the world who you are. Hopefully they will see you and also want what we have. You are for us not against us. 

4. Salvation is the saving from being UnChristlike.  Holiness is the goal. Be holy for you are holy. 

5. Humanity you love and want us to bless them in your name - even the unsaved and enemies. They are battered by sin and the world, we are to help alleviate as much as possible for your glory. Justice prepares for mercy. Until we see we are wrong we cannot see we need mercy. We are to work for Justice and Mercy. We don’t hate the unsaved for doing evil. The Devil has their eyes blinded. While we hold people accountable (justice), Pray for the Lord to open their eyes (mercy). 

6. We are not here to change the world into Christians. We are here to bless the world showing who God is. God changes people into Christians. We are here to guide people to the shepherd by the way we live and uphold His commandments in love.

7. We are not here to change politics, we are to reason with all about Gods laws and vote accordingly but state and church are separate. The state watches out for all religious freedom and man’s freedoms. 

8. All humanity by our broken nature do not want to love you nor do we want your will. We want our own will and we love sin. Only by grace do we do right. We are bent toward sinful tendencies. And we do not see or understand that are tendencies are destructive to our healthy nature made in Gods image. He made us and knows what is best. We are blind. 

9. Conversion is by your acting on our will to break down our resistance to you. No one can come to you without your call. Your call has gone out to the world in Jesus Christ. But we have been given freedom to resist. We can fall back or out of covenant. Covenant is a decision between two. (Relationship) You are always faithful but we choose wrong sometimes. We must continually renew our commitment moment by moment constantly listening to the Spirit. And if/when we fall, GET UP AND RUN TO YOUR MERCY!

St Francis De Sales-Final Perseverance

1) Treatise 3.5: St. Francis is speaking about the gift of final perseverance:⁴"First he willed, with a genuine will that even after the sin of Adam all should be saved, but in a way and with means suited to the condition of our nature; that is, He willed the salvation of all who would give consent to the graces and favours which He would prepare, offer, and distribute for this purpose. Now among those favours, He willed that the call be first, and that it be so tempered to our freedom that we at our good pleasure could accept or reject it. And to those whom He foresaw would accept, He willed to give the sacred movements of repentance; and to those who would follow those movements, He decreed to give holy love; and to those who would have love He planned to give the means needed to persevere; and to those who would use these divine helps, He decreed to give final perseverance and the glorious happiness of His eternal love. . . . Without doubt, God prepared heaven only for those whom He foresaw would be His . . . But it is in our power to be His: for although the gift of being God's belongs to God, yet this is a gift which God denies to no one, but offers to all, and gives to those who freely consent to receive it." 

2) Treatise 4.6: In this chapter St. Francis is concerned principally with explaining that we owe it to God that we are able to love God:⁵ "So tell me, miserable man, what you have done, in all these things, of which you could boast? You have consented, I know it well: the movement of your will freely followed the movement of heavenly grace. But all that-what else is it but to receive the divine working and not to resist? And what do you have in this that you have not received? Yes, even, poor man, you have even received the acceptance of which you boast, and the consent, which you brag about . . . Is it not the part of most insane impiety to think that you gave effective and holy activity to the divine inspiration because you did not take it away by resisting? We can hinder the efficacy of inspiration, but we cannot give efficacy to it. . . ." 

3) Treatise 4.5: In this chapter St. Francis vigorously insists that the sole cause of the lack of love is in us:⁶ "Just as it would be the part of impious boldness to attribute to the powers of our will the works of holy love that the Holy Spirit does in us and with us, so also it would be the part of impious boldness to wish to attribute the lack of love in an ungrateful man to the lack of heavenly help and grace. For the Holy Spirit cries out everywhere, on the contrary, that our destruction comes from us . . . that divine Goodness wills that no one perish, but wills that all come to the knowledge of the truth: He wills that all men be saved. . . ." 

276. Synthesis of the teaching of St. Francis: St. Francis insists that God wills the salvation of all "with a genuine will"(3.5). He does this "even after the sin of Adam." Therefore, there is no reprobation on account of original sin. Nor is there desertion before consideration of demerits, for "it would be the part of impious boldness to wish to attribute the lack of love in an ungrateful man to the lack of heavenly help and grace," (4.5) because even though "the gift of being God's belongs to God, yet it is a gift which God denies to no one, but offers to all, and gives to those who freely consent to receive it" (3.5). But so that we may not misunderstand these words about the consent, St. Francis adds that the very consent or acceptance of grace is the effect of grace: "you have even received the acceptance . . . and the consent" (4.6). Hence: "Is it not the part of most insane impiety to think that you gave effective and holy activity to the divine inspiration because you did not take it away by resisting? We can hinder the efficacy of the inspiration, but we cannot give efficacy to it." 

It is obvious that St. Francis is describing the process of the granting of grace in precisely the same way as St. Thomas did in CG. 3.159; so he can hardly be called a Molinist. With St. Thomas, he rejects reprobation before consideration of demerits, as we have seen. What does he hold about the place in which the decree of predestination is made? Considering only the description he gives, we could come to the same conclusion as we reached about CG. 3.159-61, namely, that in his teaching, predestination could be put either after absence of resistance but before consideration of merits or after consideration of merits. However, St. Francis differs from St. Thomas in that elsewhere he shows an inclination towards placing predestination after consideration of merits, while, on the contrary, St. Thomas is probably inclined to put it before prevision of merits

https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/most/getchap.cfm?WorkNum=214&ChapNum=22

Jesus is my refuge

The Divine Proposal:
“I shall be their God, 
and they shall be my people”
cannot be fulfilled without the human yes. 

It requires the return gift of ourselves 
to the God who loves us first. 

This mutual indwelling is fulfilled in Jesus, 
who is God’s self-gift to us 
and our self-gift to God.

Covenant is Family; exchange of persons; Enter by baptism; Eucharist; confession restores

Eucharist is a covenant.  Jesus says today, “This is my Blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mk 14:24).  The Eucharist is not just a gift: A gift is something we receive, but a covenant is when people become family.

 

Covenants involve, not an exchange of property, but an exchange of persons. 

 

Every covenant involves responsibilities: We promise to give ourselves to the other person.  So, when Jesus gives us the Eucharist, He’s pledging His life to us!  That means, when we receive the Eucharist, we have to pledge our whole lives to Him.

 

Enter the covenant.  How?  Through baptism.

 

When God says to Israel, "You will be my people and I will be your God," that’s a covenant. What’s happening is that Israel is swearing an oath to God - to live according to God’s law as His people, His children. In turn, God is swearing to be Israel’s God, its divine parent. There are blessings for keeping the covenant and curses for breaking it.

 

If we put ourselves outside the covenant by our own free choice, we can’t receive the sign of the covenant, the Eucharist.  If we gravely sin, then we can’t receive Communion until we’ve apologized in Confession and made amends.  And God is waiting for us to come because He wants to forgive us.

 

In the ancient world, covenants made families.

 

The whole Bible can be outlined as a series of family-making covenants.

"As God said: ‘I will live with them and move among them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.’....‘I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,’ says the Lord Almighty." (see 2 Corinthians 6:16-18).

 

 

What is a heretic

What is a heretic

A heretic is a person that goes to the extremes instead of keeping the tension of the paradoxical Both/And not Either/or. 

Ex: 

Both 

gift of faith 

And

free will. 

Ex: 

Both 

grace 

And 

works (done in response to love and Holy Spirit.)

Both 

Church ( not person-but whole)

And

Holy Spirit

Both 

Scripture

And

Sacraments 

Both

Justice

And

Mercy

Both 

Sinner

And

Saint

Both

Wrath

And

Mercy

Any baptized Christian, cannot lose your salvation because of any sin unless you refuse to believe. St Francis De Sales: The Catholic Controversy chapter XIII

I cancelled all that debt of yours when you appealed to me. Were you not bound, then, to have pity on your neighbor just as I had pity on you? 

Jesus links true happiness with struggle and hardship, suffering and opposition. (The beatitudes) 

Those who set their sights merely on what this world has to offer and pursue it with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength will attain it, but that is all they will attain – and it won’t be enough to satisfy them. 

The way of perfect justice is the way of God’s will; 

in order to obey it, a physical, external compliance is not enough; 

what is required above all is the interior adherence, which is death to sin and to self-will.

Only grace, the fruit of the merits of our Savior, justifies us interiorly and makes us capable of living in justice and holiness. 

But the justification which God has freely conferred upon us will not transform our whole life and conduct, it will not become perfect justice, unless we cooperate with his grace.

F A I T H

Facing All In Trusting Him

I have put all my trust in you. I need you to teach me how to love, how to endure, how to understand. Thank you for coming to save me; make my heart like yours. 

Fight the fight of faith

For Jesus also said: “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk 9:62). He who turns back condemns himself by his own will to not reaching the goal. Such a person is a weakling, a coward, a deserter; while a Christian must be strong, fearless, and persevering.

At the root of every desertion there is always a lack of faith in grace and in God’s help. It is impossible that God should abandon anyone who wishes to be faithful to him at all costs and who therefore fights without respite to conquer the temptations of selfishness and the allurements of the world. God’s fidelity infinitely surpasses that of man: “God is faithful”

Help Me

Revelation 2:4–5 (NKJV): Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent. 

I have left following Jesus to follow what the church says. 

I stopped listening to him and started analyzing what the church says to see what man has to say about things. 

The problem with this is Jesus has been wanting to talk to me specifically and wants me to listen to his specific instructions. 

The church gives generalities for individuals. 

Jesus wants to guide me into the plan he has for me. 

I am not to choose my own way. 

I am to listen to his plan for my life. He has a specific one. 

Only Jesus knows what it is not any man. 

What I did before:

Love him and want to be with him. 

Morning, lunch, night. 

Read his letters to me and learn to listen to what he told me. 

Write him letters sharing myself with him. My thoughts and hopes and dreams. 

Listen to music that helps me know and praise him. 

Help me Jesus. Help me know you and share myself again. I got lost following man’s ways and need to come back to you. Please God HELP ME!

God Loves Me

Meditation for the Day

A consciousness of God's presence as one who loves you makes all life different. The consciousness of God's love promotes the opening of your whole being to God. It brings wonderful relief from the cares and worries of our daily lives. Relief brings peace and peace brings contentment. Try to walk in God's love. You will have that peace which passes all understanding and a contentment that no one can take from you. Feel sure of God's unfailing love and care for you and for all His children. There is freedom and serenity in those who walk in God's love, held safe in His loving care.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may walk in God's love. I pray that, as I go, I may feel the spring of God's power in my steps and the joy of His love in my heart.

Summary of Elect

We are free to do what we desire. 

We do not determine our desires - God does. 

Behold, I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. 

The Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. 4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him, and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and cling to him

We cannot be obedient to God unless elected. 

Election encompasses free Will, He will not save us without us. 

Prayer is a means to bring to pass that which God has determined shall be; we are praying to obtain that outcome which God has ordained to be received by our prayers.

God is in charge of the plan. Our lives have already been planned and laid out, and we must just walk in it and rely on God. 

The purpose of life is deification and eternal life. As such, Divine Providence leads each person to his or her destiny. 

The doctrine of predestination teaches that everyone who is saved was chosen by God before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4; 2 Thess. 2:13)

Considering that not all men reach their supernatural end in heaven, but that many are eternally lost through their own fault, there must exist a twofold predestination: (a) one to heaven for all those who die in the state of grace; (b) one to the pains of hell for all those who depart in sin or under God's displeasure. 

 “God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end”