In Good Company

~~~ Acts of the Apostles 13:13-25 ~~~ Psalm 89 ~~~ John 13:16-20 ~~~

For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

God says,  

I have found David, son of Jesse, 

a man after my own heart; he will carry out my every wish.

Jesus says,

I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen.

Throughout all times, every generation 

God has seen fit to provide for his chosen ones.

He led his people with many prophets; those he himself chose as leaders.

Today we are being reminded that what God

 has done in the past is not just the past.

There is no past tense for God.

History gives us the opportunity to look back

 for evidence of God's presence.

But this history does not end when the ink has dried...

does not end when we have read the last word.

What we read as past history is happening today right in our midst;

that is, God remains steadfast in caring for his chosen ones.

We seem to be the problem,

 because we continue to let our doubts cloud our mind.

When enough doubts cloud the mind then it begins to seep into the soul.

This is where the real devastating problems begin to rule our life.

Once our soul becomes shrouded in doubt darkness triumphs.

God wants you to believe without a doubt that he chooses you...

not just once, but every moment of every day of every year of your life.

It is not a one time choice...or something of the past...

it is current, constant, ongoing.

The psalmist says it beautifully today...

For ever I will sing the goodness of the Lord. 

God wants us first to believe that he chooses us

 and then to believe that he also provides for our needs.

There is nothing he cannot or will not do for us.

As God chooses us he also uses us to work in his kingdom...

for his greater glory.

So I ask...How can we doubt, deny, or refuse our Lord?

God never fails us...

all he asks in return is for us to love him.

How difficult can it be to love the Lord?

We are Blessed in more ways than we could ever imagine.

Oh how sweet it is to be one of his chosen ones along with you.

Together we are in good company...

the company of the Lord.

~~~ Peace ~~~

The I AM Connection

 

~~~ Exodus 3:13-20 ~~~ Psalm 105 ~~~ Matthew11:28-30 ~~~

  

God replied, “I am who am.”

 

Taking those words at face value, God is present now.

For God the present is always right now.

God has not needed time since he began Creation. 

 

But we are very much united with our concepts of time.

It is hard for us to let go of what time means for us.

We are always making a reference to time.

We have a time for everything.

 

Today God tells Moses when they ask my name tell them....

I AM.

That hardly seems like a name.

It seems more like a state of being.

 

In school we learn about verb tenses and the different forms

 of a verb to use when denoting time.

 

So when God refers to himself as I AM; we may be puzzled.

 

God is telling us that he is indeed present right now.

We are to come to him in the now.

 

God was in the past days of our lives,

 but he wants us to focus on the present time.

God will be with us in the future, but the future is not here now.

 

If God has been present to Abraham. Isaac, Jacob, and Moses;

he is present to us right now in the same way.

 

In the present, God express concern for the people

he has chosen Moses to lead.

I am concerned about you
and about the way you are being treated in Egypt...

 

 God wants to change things now, not tomorrow.

We have a God of the present, there is no need to wait for him.

 

God wants us to believe, that he is with us all of the time.

There is only the present with God.

 

Go forward today from where you are, take God's hand

it is reaching out to you.

 

I will stretch out my hand...

 

If God is stretching out his hand to us

and we are living in the past or anxious about the future

we might miss it.

 

How many times have you been looking for something

that was there in front of you all along?

It happens to all of us. We even make jokes about how 'blind' we can be.

 

 

The gospel today is reminding us to make the connection...

If God is the I AM then he is also aware of our burdens.

 

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest...

 

If God is the I AM then it should be easy to come to him with our burdens.

There is no need to look for him...he is present.

There is no need to fear that he has abandoned us...he is present...

his hand in outstretched towards you.

There is no reason to worry that God will not be with you,

because he never leaves you.

 

He is the great  I AM...

The only one who claims to be the I AM.

The very same God of all who gone before us.

The very same God who will be for all those who come after us.

 

The I AM God is the God of all ages...of all times...

for all peoples.

 

Most importantly he is the God for you, the God for me.

Ever Present...the one and only

I AM.

 

Blessings in confidently

 knowing that God is with you at every moment.

He is the all present God.

He is the God who stretches out his hand to you...

grab hold of it and you will find rest and peace.

Leavened or Unleavened?

~~~ 1 Cor 5: 1-8 ~~~ Psalm 5 ~~~ Luke 6: 6-11 ~~~

 

"...Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough?
Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough,
inasmuch as you are unleavened."

 

If we understand the difference between leavened

and unleavened bread we can then better grasp what Paul means here.

 

The ancient people accidentally discovered the full effects of yeast

after leaving some left over bread dough out too long.

Instead of throwing out the remaining dough

they mixed it into the new dough.

The result was a better tasting bread with more volume.

 

In early times it was not known that yeast,

a naturally occurring air borne fungus,

was the cause of these changes in the bread dough.

Of course then the people did know that.

Soon they began to purposely set aside a portion of dough,

keeping it for the next day's batch of dough.

If they kept the 'starter dough' too long it became sour.

This is how sour dough bread was first made.

 

The effects of yeast are not easily detected.

It takes time for them to heat up grow and raise the dough.

Making leavened bread required more work, took more time.

 

Saving a ball of the dough from day to day made the whole process

of making bread faster and more reliable.

However, since the people were often on the move

they could not always make use of this precess.

Unleavened bread was a much faster process.

There was no need to wait for it to rise.

They could just mix it up and bake it right away.

 

So today Paul is making a reference

to leavened and unleavened bread.

He is using bread baking as an example because it was

familiar to his audience.

He is reminding them that only a small amount of yeast

leavens the whole batch of bread.

Implying that small does not mean powerless.

At the same time he is saying all the old ways

of doing things need to be cleared out.

As is true; you must purge in order to have room for the new.

 

Paul is telling the people of Corinth

that they are indeed the leaven for a new batch of bread.

They, having cleared out the old, would be able to embrace the new.

Jesus came to create a new batch of bread.

He did not carry the things of old, the beliefs of yesterday.

 

He was the one who brought new life.

He was the one who walked away from the old ways.

 

If we hold in our hearts the things of the past

we too can become like sour dough bread.

 

The sacrament of Reconciliation is a time for us

to get rid of the old batch of dough.

It is an opportunity to begin a new batch...a fresh batch of dough.

 

We do not want to become like a batch of sourdough bread.

Sourdough bread keeps the yeast fungus growing for too long.

While you might enjoy the taste of this bread

you do not want your heart to become

 sour with fungus from the past.

 

 

Saint Ignatius left us some thoughts about this very concept of leaven.

Lay aside, therefore, the evil, the old, the sour leaven,

and be ye changed into the new leaven, which is Jesus Christ.

-St. Ignatius, Magnesians 10

 

If we are to become unleavened bread;

no starter is needed, nothing from the past is carried forward.

Jesus came to us as unleavened bread.

He brought nothing from the past.

He is the new.

He is the bread of life.

The words of Jesus spread about life yeast.

 

Jesus is trying to get the synogoue officials

to realize that  their old beliefs are turning 'sour' persons.

Then Jesus said to them,
"I ask you, is it lawful to do good on the sabbath
rather than to do evil,
to save life rather than to destroy it?"

 

Every day we must make the effort to purge ourselves

of those things that chain us to our past sinfulness.

The synagogue officials were intent on their old way of thinking.

 

We can be like leaven and quietly spread the word of God.

How we treat others we meet along the way is a good start.

Believe that in your small way; you are helping to spread

the goodness of the Lord.

Remember that it only takes a small handful of dough

to leaven the whole batch.

Every time you eat a piece of bread remember the whole batch

contains a tiny bit of yeast.

 

Every time you receive Eucharist remember that Jesus

becomes the leaven with which you can increase.

 

So the question you may ask yourself is this...

'Do I want to be a part of the sourdough bread

or part of the new batch of dough?'