Respond in Love

~~~ Hosea 14:2-10 ~~~ Psalm 51 ~~~ Matthew 10:16-23 ~~~

...do not worry about how you are to speak

or what you are to say.

You will be given at that moment what you are to say.

For it will not be you who speak

but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

Today is a sad day in our country.

A day following so many consecutive days of violence 

that words do not seem sufficient.

Violence shuts down all possibility of peace.

The words God gives to us are words of caring,

 understanding, and today sympathy.

Words of sympathy for each person

 who lost their life...for their loved ones.

We must allow the words that Jesus would speak

 be the words that also come from our lips.

Jesus speaks words of love and peace.

I will love them freely...

When God responded to the sins

 of Israel he responds with great love.

The recent circumstances in our country

 can only be healed through freely loving others.

If we learn to freely love others then 

senseless violence will not be an available option.

If we learn to freely love others violence

cannot be an alternative response.

If we learn to freely love

we will also come to know others.

If we know one another then we create a climate for love.

We are called to reach out to one another.

We are called to love one another.

To love one another as God has loved us.

Are we as a society capable of loving

 one another as God has loved us?

I am concerned that we still have far to go 

before reaching that level of love.

Our country must not be simplified into them and us.

It is only love that can simplify our society.

I invite you to reach out

 to those around you with love.

It is through God's love that the healing

 of these last few days can begin.

We must be part of the solution...

The solution must be saturated with love and peace.

God Bless our country

 during this time of tension.

~~~Peace~~~

What is There about His Word?

~~~ 1 Cor 2:10b-16 ~~~ Psalm 145 ~~~Luke 4:31-37 ~~~

 

We see Jesus in the temple, but he is now in a town of Galilee, Capernaum.

Once again the other Jewish officials were astonished at his teaching

because he spoke with authority.

They did not know just how much authority he had.

 They did not know that his authority had come from God the Father.

 

His words alone could command the evil spirits to evacuate themselves.

The evil spirits themselves recognized his authority.

 

"...Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are--the Holy One of God!"

 

The demon within the man obeyed the words of Jesus.

 

"Be quiet! Come out of him!"

 

When one is possessed by a demon it is exhausting.

The demon saps all of the available energy from its host.

Evil is a parasite it lives off of the spirit energy of the person.

When evil consumes you 

you have no energy left to combat its effects.

 

Jesus uses his words to calm the demon and

when it leaves the man is thrust to the ground.

The demons did not harm the man, but he collapsed as they fled.

 

The power of the words of Jesus

is such that he only needs to speak a few at a time.

He does not need to convince the demon to leave;

he just wills it to be done by his few words.

 

The demon was concerned about being destroyed by Jesus,

the Holy One.

Jesus does not destroy the demon

he sends it away.

The demon is cast out to be alone.

He has lost his comfortable host.

In the man the demon could act out his evilness upon others.

Through the actions of this unsuspecting man

the demon could spread his desires to harm others.

 

Jesus still works this way today among us

it is just not as easily detected.

People today are still healed.

It only takes a few words from Jesus.

His words are life and spirit.

 

 

Paul says we too have been given the Spirit of God.

"...We have not received the spirit of the world
but the Spirit who is from God..."

 

Jesus spoke words filled with the Spirit.

We too can tap into the Spirit of the Lord that resides

deep within our being.

Our difficulty is that we must believe

that the power of the spirit

 is alive within us.

 

We come to believe through practice and praying words with conviction.

Practice believing the Spirit of God is alive within you.

Sincerely pray the words given to us by God.

As soon as you detect or even suspect the demons are near

send them away with the words of Jesus.

"Be Quiet!"

Do not be distracted from going good in each situation

you find yourself in today.

Lord, grant me the strength to keep the Spirit within alive.