Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path. (Psalm 119)
Mark 12:13-17 Jesus noted that coinage stamped with the visage of Caesar belonged to Caesar. Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, he said. Likewise we are who made in the image of God reach our full place and purpose when we surrender to God our hearts, minds, souls and bodies – because we came from God and ultimately belong to God. Belonging to God, as we do, we human beings have a rhyme and reason to our lives that is so often forgotten or ignored. Historical works of art and literature and current media of all kinds constantly present a plethora of other images that beckon our allegiance. But whether remembered or not, it is living into the our Father’s likeness that renders our lives the most beautiful, and the most fruitful. Like our Father God we have a great capacity to love and to be loved, that makes our lives worth living despite raging forest fires, wars or other natural or human-driven calamities. Additionally we have our Father’s ability deeply ingrained into our beings to create a wide variety of amazing and complex things to help us on our journey through this life, whether it be a garden, an organization, or a work of art. And we are also endowed with our Father’s ability to care about and care for all of the created world, with accountability and responsibility and life-giving energy. Will I live my life taking on the impression of the false images of the culture and society in which I live, that do not last and lead me astray into self-centred or de-humanizing behaviours? Or will I study the image of God that is light in and of itself, and life-giving and fruitful beyond measure, to become more and more like Him? Holy Spirit of God, help me live into your image stamped into my being. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. .(Psalm 19: 9) The Only Begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his Divinity, assumed our nature, so that He, made Man, might make men God’s. St. Athanasius Listen to Here I Am, Lord By John Michael Talbot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcxOkht8w7c Soli ad gloriam Dei Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook &www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca
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Genesis 11:1-9 & Acts 28:16-31 Made in the image of God as we are, human kind can do extraordinary things! Early civilizations devised complex languages and nearly inconceivable technologies to deal with the environments they lived in – consider the cultures of the desert, the arctic, peoples of the ocean and everything in between. In this present digital age with its exploding AI capabilities pointed beyond quantum mechanics to the energy of black holes, and particle acceleration (the so-called god-particle) the sky is the limit, let alone the universe. When the city of Babel was built, God intervened for the sake of humankind:”Now then, these are all one people and they speak one language; this is just the beginning of what they will be able to do. Let us go down and mix up their language so they will not understand each other.” So the Lord scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. Today, although we human beings are doing our best to keep the trajectory of human development ‘regulated’, like the peoples of ancient time, we too need the mystery of God’s will in the form of ‘mix-ups’ and disruptions - and the Word of God, translated so faithfully into a wide variety of languages, to guide us into His ways of wisdom and peace. Will I spend my life doing ‘all that I can’, or lean into the Word and the Will of God like Paul and all the saints through the ages? Holy Spirit, cleanse my soul to do, not all that I can, but what You will. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. .(Psalm 19: 9) Trying to do the Lord’s work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you. Corrie ten Boom Listen to Here I Am, Lord By John Michael Talbot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcxOkht8w7c Soli ad gloriam Dei Gospel Mystery of the Day on FaceBook &www.gospelmysteryoftheday.ca |
AuthorBeverly Illauq lives in Kemptville, Ontario, where she greets each morning by seeking the Gospel Mystery of the Day - the Word of the Lord for direct and practical application to the specific challenges & joys of the day. Archives
March 2024
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