Seventh Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action

Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California

Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above. 

Consider the words from the Collect,  … author and giver of all good things; Graft in our hearts the love of thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of thy great mercy keep us in the same (that is to say keep us in goodness)…

To get anywhere, we must acknowledge in our hearts all good is of and comes from God.  Once we acknowledge this, we are in a position to ask God to put in to our hearts love of Him and all that is His.  This will help us to appreciate and act in goodness.  Without His love, our efforts will ultimately be of no avail. We cannot do anything without His help, and with it, it will be easier. There will be times where we fail, but if we turn back to Him, then we shall succeed. When I turn to Him nowadays for help with stuff, that I do far better than if I do not.  When I pray for something that I truly need, I find that He answers. I just have to listen to what He says.  When I don’t listen to what He says I find that I have a more difficult time than if I do listen and act on what He says. This holds true not just for myself, but all of us who follow under Christ’s banner.

So, pretty clearly we need to be of God.  For the world is lost, so we cannot be of the world and expect to be saved. So, we need to be holy, that is, set apart from the world, in our thoughts, deeds and actions. Thus, when Paul wrote to the people of Rome, he was writing to all of us; for truly nothing is new in the world. There is truth to the saying of Solomon’s there is nothing new under the sun[1]. For there is no new sin in the world that has not existed since the time of Adam. It may take different forms over the eons, but all sins are still the same since the dawn of man[2]. Up until the time of Christ, we were still bound in our chains to Satan. We could not pass into the kingdom of heaven, even the Law of Moses could not redeem us, because, on our own we cannot be redeemed. It was only with the coming of Christ, that we could be redeemed. 

As Paul says, we have been transformed from servants of sin to servants of the giver of life. God has paid the wages of our sin, through the death and resurrection of His Son. We are called to be worthy of this new life as His servants. We have to truly live our lives as being of God. Being of God, as the adopted sons and daughters of God is truly a marvelous thing. It gives us the ultimate family; the body of Christ, the Church. It gives us the ultimate support system, of God and of our fellow believers. Our fellow believers, who are fellow travelers on the path to paradise, can give us moral support as we traverse the narrow and steep path towards heaven.

Before we are of God, we are of this world.  Our life is here, our end is here.  Once we are of God, then we are merely sojourners here; our life is not really here and certainly does not end here. We are merely passing through this world as a portal to our new unending life with God.  The only way to be of God is through God, that is His Son, our Lord. I am the way, the truth, the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6) Jesus himself clearly says the only way to be of God is through Him. Nobody comes unto God but by Christ. What does that mean for those of other faiths? Nobody knows but Christ, what provision – if any – He has made for those who chose not to follow Him here on earth for whatever reason.  We do know He always means what He says and no one comes unto the Father (gets into heaven) except through Him.  That is clear, beyond any misconstruing.  He is the only way, so why not follow the proven way to God and salvation?

If we will follow God, we will live; not only forever in the next world, but better in this world, starting right now, not just after we our earthly time is gone.  We must put aside what we did and do what He would have us do.  Remembering what we did wrong in the past, so we do not repeat those incorrect actions in the future. Actions are the key to everything.  Talk is nice.  Action is what counts. We have to act upon our beliefs, which can be very hard sometimes but must be done. I struggle with this myself, but I find returning to God helps with this.  He cleans the slate, so I can try again anew.  This is always a very comforting thought, that God will always accept you, if you repent and do your best not to make that same error again. This will be a continuous never ending cycle for those who endeavor to do their best to follow Him, make mistakes, then get back up and try our best again. 

The key word is doing our best and not just saying we are doing our best when we aren't. We know we are doing our best, when we have done all we can in a given situation, according to our abilities. There are days that we do less than others, but so long as we have done our very best in those situations, we can feel reassured we have acted for Him. Let us put aside our excuses, which are feeble and weak and concentrate on acting for Him. 

Acting is the key element of the Christian faith, for without action, there is no evidence of faith. You need faith, that is true, through the Holy Spirit, but you also need to back up that faith with actions. Your actions on this Earth, determine who you really have faith in, God or man. The only sure support source is God, because He will never let you down, He will always be faithful and true. We can always rely on him for guidance and strength in very stressful times.

He is the one who we should always look to for guidance when times get tough. In fact, we should expect, if we follow Him, things will get difficult, especially when it gets nearer to His coming. For we will be persecuted for His Name’s sake.  By those who are doing what they think is right, when they are really doing what is wrong. They will think they are doing God a favor by their acts, when really they are working for the other guy. We must hold fast and persevere in following God and Scripture. We will get our righteous reward in the end for doing so. Acting for Him may not always be easy, but rest assured it is always the right thing to do in the end.

In the end, it may not be the quickest way, but the path of following Him is the best way. Rather than take the so called ‘shortcuts’ Satan offers, that lead down the broad and wide path, let us take the harder, narrower path that He offers, that will lead us to Paradise. Many will choose the former path, for varying reasons, but in the end, it will not profit them. Our path may not profit us much on earth, in monetary wealth, but it will profit us in a priceless less gift; eternal life in heaven.

Saint Mark tells us of action. Jesus had been in the wilderness teaching a multitude, some four thousand in number.  In those pre-restaurant on every corner days, the people had been without food and were hungry.  Jesus was concerned and inventoried their supplies, seven loaves and a few small fishes.  He gave thanks to God, and commanded the food to be set out before the people.  When they had eaten their fill, the scraps gathered up from the seven loaves filled seven baskets. 

Many speculated over the years as to just how He did it.  The answer is simple; He did it.  He did not talk about feeding the multitude and then sit down to His own meal.  He acted and they were fed.  The clear message of the story is action, and the whys and hows behind all of it does not matter as much as the simple message that He did it. It is all too easy to get wrapped around in fine details, when it is the bigger picture that matters. The clear moral of this story is that He acted, not just talked, but He actually acted and fed the people. That is a model we should follow, not just talk but act as well.  It serves as a template for our ministries here on Earth, to follow this plan of action and not just diction. Our love for God will be demonstrated through our actions, if we act for Him. Does this story recall the words from the Last Supper used in Holy Communion at the Consecration? “he took Bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat, this is my Body, which is given for you; Do this in remembrance of me.”  Those few words produced The Word, which has satisfied so many over millenniums.  It does not take a lot of words to satisfy us, but they have to be the right ones, which come from Our Lord.

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

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[1] 9 The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

[2] In some respects, this is a key to the Bible. Regardless of our own self-centered thoughts, we are the same people since Adam and will be until the end of time. Thus he who writes the Romans just as well writes to us. We would like to think we are better, but we are not. We are the same. But, on the other hand, that is convenient for what worked for them will work for us.

Sixth Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action

Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California

Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly  contained in the forewords above.

Consider these words from the Collect, … who hast prepared for those who love thee such good things as pass man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy promises, which exceed all that we can desire …

We acknowledge God will give those who love Him more good than they can imagine, let alone ask for.  But, first you have to love Him.  So, what should we ask for?  The Holy Ghost to enter in to our hearts so we might truly love Him.  If we do, more good will come to us than we can even imagine or hope for. The Holy Ghost is a key element of love, without Him we cannot even love Him. If we cannot love others, how can we love Him who we have not seen? He gives us far more love than we can possibly deserve.

That is the great and wonderful news about following our Lord. He has love for the entire world, if they would turn from their sinful ways and follow Him. This is the message we are bringing to the world. God loved us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His Son on the cross to die for us, so we and all who believe on Him might have everlasting life.  This is truly the Good News, for we were once condemned to hellfire, but now through our Lord’s sacrifice are going to be allowed to enter into heaven, though we are imperfect creatures.

We are imperfect creatures, created with free will by a Perfect Being.  To get into Heaven’s Gate, we need be accounted as perfect before the Judge.  That requires a bit of an accounting irregularity, to account imperfection as perfection.  And that is exactly what Jesus’ death on the cross did for us. It allows us imperfect creatures accounted as perfect before the great Judge, Our Father in heaven.

So, what does the Collect counsel, ask for the Holy Ghost to enter into our hearts that we might get more than we can desire!  Jesus!  Jesus is that accounting irregularity. He can give us his guidance and grace via the Holy Ghost, to make us better men and women of the Lord. By His Sacrifice, made one time, for all mankind, for all time, we are accounted as perfect by His Faith and Action.  Thus, through His Faith and His Action, we attain life everlasting. That eternal life doesn’t start when you die either! Starting today, you don’t have to wait until you die to benefit from your immortality. 

In fact, God would prefer you to start acting like you will live forever right now.  Thus, decisions you make, actions you take will be with the long term view of eternity!  Versus our rather usual shortsighted short term view, we must think in the terms of the big picture, not the tiny speck in the picture. Think of the clear vision of the big picture and not just the small, close in picture.  We must keep focused on the big picture, touching down at Heaven’s Gate. To get to that touchdown point, we have to align our actions in the pattern of life with God’s Word, make our actions consistent with our stated belief in God’s Word. Like flying, this will require a lot of adjustment. Think of how your actions will impact you, your family and others down the road, before acting and make the necessary adjustments.  The Holy Ghost can provide the inspiration and guidance we need to think through our actions. We just need to listen to Him at the moment when we need to act and remind ourselves that our future will be better if we listen to the Holy Ghost rather than ourselves.  We have to think of ourselves as a part of God’s much bigger and larger picture, and act to the best of our abilities and with the guidance of the Holy Ghost as a positive aspect of that larger picture.

In today’s Epistle, St. Paul says as Jesus Christ died and rose again, so too should we die to our sins and rise again in a better state. He uses this metaphor to describe both our life here on earth, renewed through the death of the old man to the new, and to describe our life in Heaven from here on Earth. When we die here on Earth, we will be resurrected in heaven with our Lord, free from our mortal and corruptible body, to our new and immortal state.

And as he says, as death has no dominion over Jesus Christ, so too shall it have no more dominion over us. For by His death and resurrection, He has paid the wages for our sin, which as St. Paul says in Romans is death. His death has paid for our sins, so we might be accounted as perfect to get into heaven. We cannot be worthy on our own to get into heaven, but for the Grace of God, sending his Son Jesus to die for our sins, we will be able to get into heaven. This is the greatest miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ. He accounts us imperfect creatures as perfect, so we can get into heaven.

The resurrection truly is the greatest miracle Jesus performed. Because before He came and died for our sins, we could not get into heaven on our own and in fact still cannot. It is by God’s Grace, that He sent His only begotten son, that we should not perish, but have everlasting life. This is truly an amazing miracle, and I find myself still amazed every time I think of it. How we poor sinful creatures who could not make it to heaven on our own, have had our wages of sin paid by our Lord’s death upon the Cross.

As imperfect creatures, immortal or not, we make mistakes.  One to avoid is being “mad” at one’s fellow creatures, particularly family and friends.  We pick the most illogical reasons to be mad, the word chosen rather than angry.  Looked at logically, as God does, we need to solve the issue, “kiss and make up”, and do it before the sun sets on our anger.  Never part in anger.  One of you may not come back.  We must put aside our often foolish and angry thoughts and not act upon them, but rather have Christly thoughts and act upon those. Remember that before you are “angry” at a friend, relative, acquaintance, or stranger. We must not let anger and other irrational emotions such as fear get the best of us; but rather think calmly and figure out the best way to handle whatever situation we are in without losing control of our emotions. How do we do this? The clear solution is to pray to God and ask for His Help in bridling our tongue and have it be a reasonable tool rather than a tool of anger and deceit! And to also remember this every time we are in a moment of heated emotion.

When Jesus gave His Life for us, He did it knowing we would fail to follow in perfection, but fully aware some would follow to the best of their ability. We must get back up after we make our mistakes and continue on trying the best we can to follow Him. That is all He asks, do your best.  Even Saint Paul had trouble following our Lord, but he kept trying and doing his real best not to make the same mistake again.  Doing your best is not the same as saying you are doing your best.

There are none so deaf as those who will not hear.

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Fifth Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and Action

Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California

Today's sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above. 

Consider these words from the Collect:

… the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by thy governance, that thy Church may joyfully serve thee in all godly quietness …

In the Collect, we ask the events of this world might follow God’s governance or will.  Why?  Because in those places where it does, we find happiness and joy.  And good things will happen when we do follow God’s will. The collect is expressing that not just we Christians should attempt follow God’s governance but that also of the whole wide world. Think about it, if the world would do what God ask, think of how much better it would be. It is that simple, it means more, reflect on that.  After all, amazing is it not?  Since the Garden, it has always been one of the two same choices:

1.     We follow God’s Will for us, we do what is good for us, individually and as a people or a country.  It is hard work, but easier than we imagined; we prosper when all goes well.  It was all our doing, we are happy because we were so smart.

2.     We ignore God’s instructions, doing what we want to do, not what we are supposed to do.  It turns out to be way harder than we thought possible, in the end everything turns to weasel spit.  It was not our fault, it was God’s fault, He is punishing us.

As long as we are human, imperfect creatures with free will, it will never change for humanity.  But, we individually can change, and with enough individuals changing, humanity will change. The key is an individual changing. A snowball of these individuals changing can eventually in time cause an avalanche of individuals changing.  Of course, as we all know this is not an easy task to accomplish. To accomplish it, we must give up our base desires and wants and look to what God wants for us to do in this world.  We must focus on an aspect we need to change and work on changing that, day by day, year by year. It is a constant process we will undergo throughout the rest of our days on Earth.

We can learn from the past and live for the future in Him who gave His Life we might be free eternally. This is a very similar theme to last Sunday’s sermon, with very good reason. It applies to almost every single lesson in the Bible, which is to do God’s will, above what you want to do. Every time we do what we want to do instead of what God wants us to do, we fail. But when we do what God wants us to do, we succeed! Even though we want to do what we do, rather than what God wants us to do, it is better for us in the end to do what God wants us to do.  Doing what God Asks = Happiness, Not doing what God Asks = Unhappiness, to put it into mathematical terms!

So, how do we make our little part of this world follow God’s will? Peter tells to be of one mind, have compassion and pity for each other, to be courteous, to give good to all our brethren, to return good for evil, to seek peace, to do good, not just talk good.   He is saying that we need to BE good and it needs to show in our actions. We need to put away our evil thoughts and words and replace them with words of kindness and healing.

Peter tells us to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. When Peter speaks of being of one mind, he is speaking of the one mind we will have when we follow the instructions of the Holy Ghost. He is saying we need to have one mindedness with Christ, to act as Christ would act. This is a hard concept to put into action in our lives. We are always having to work on overcoming our natural sinful tendencies and letting the Holy Ghost into our hearts to transform us into Children of God. That means putting away our old selfish minds and putting on the new one mind of Christ. The Holy Ghost will help us to have this one mind. 

We have to start first with ourselves and allow the Holy Ghost into our hearts to transform us. After we are transformed by the Holy Ghost, only then can we truly be able to help others. Then we can truly act with the one mind Peter speaks about. It will not happen right away, but it is a steady and continuous process, in fact taking most of our lifetime here on earth. But while we are being transformed, we can do our best to help others. But we must realize that it is only through God we can help others, and not to us only. To put ourselves in others’ places, understand when they fall short and make good things happen. The key word is “walk”, to act upon the teachings of Christ, and not just utter them and not do them. All of us, including myself, struggle with this; but as long as we are DOING our best, and not just saying it, then that is all He asks of us.  We cannot do more than our best. We must be doing our best and not just faking doing our best. There is a significant difference between the two. If you are sincere, people will know it. If you are not sincere, people will also know it too. As they say, actions speak louder than words. And to paraphrase Scripture, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. To understand where a persons’ heart is, look at their actions and not just their words. Words do not mean much unless they are backed up by actions. We need to perform good actions, with the help of the Holy Ghost, to show that we truly believe.

So, just how do we make good things happen?  Fairly simple, do what God asks! Follow the Summary of the Law and all shall be well in one’s life. Every moral law hangs off of the Summary of the Law “Love your God with all your heart soul and your mind, and Love thy Neighbor as thyself.” These two commandments are all where the Ten Commandments originate and thus from which all the moral laws of the universe originate. They are the ultimate benchmark for us, which we should try and do our best to meet. They are truly what we should be judging our own actions against. This is an extremely common theme again! Doing what God asks is the answer to all of our problems if you think about it! Don’t figure out ways to seem to do what He asks, while doing what you want.  Don’t be a Pharisee! Consider when Jesus told Simon Peter to go out and set his nets.  Simon was tired, he was hungry, he had fished all night with no result.  After making excuses, he decided to do what he was told! There is a lesson there, instead of making excuses why things are the way they are, why not be quiet and do God’s will instead? It will have a lot better results that is for sure, like Simon Peter and his nets!  The net gathered an incredible catch Simon Peter and his friends could not board.  

That is what happened to Simon Peter; that is what will happen to you, if you will but listen. Listening and then acting are the key principles of this Gospel, we must listen to what He says, and then ACT upon it.

Do not misunderstand, every day Jesus speaks to you, telling you what to do.  It is your choice, you can listen like Simon Peter or you can ignore Jesus.  He has the pony for the lottery.  He wants to give it to you, all you have to do is accept.  While He is a bit more subtle than a Drill Instructor, the question is the same, “Can you hear me?” The problem with us is that we just do not want to hear. That is why we need the Holy Ghost to open up our ears, that we might hear and obey.

There are none so deaf as those who will not hear. 

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God

Fourth Sunday after Trinity

If you enjoy this, the entire AOC Sunday Report is RIGHT HERE!

Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California

Today’s sermon brought the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above. 

Consider these words from the Collect:

… protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal…

We desperately need God’s Help, yet paradoxically, God can only help us if we put our trust in Him, we can never be strong, nor set aside to Him, if we do not let Him be our leader.  No one can be their own leader, no one.  Each of us, no matter our position, must have an immutable directional reference or we become hopelessly lost.  For navigation, we have a magnetic compass or better yet the Pole Star, Polaris, which will tell us True North so we can keep headed in the right direction.  People have died of starvation in a closely wooded area less than a mile across because they became lost while following their own sense of direction.  By definition, they were always less than 3,000 feet from safety, yet they died after many days.  So it is with our spirits. 

Like Peter, if we are separated from Christ, then we too shall become lost. But, if we have the Holy Ghost, we are not separated from God and Christ and will thus become stronger. So, if we have the Holy Ghost in our heart, he will both strengthen us and help us to holy, that is set aside. He can also help us be merciful to other people. We just need to listen to what the Holy Ghost says and act upon it.  

We need a leader to follow. We cannot be our own leaders. If we try to become our own leaders, it will not work. But if we will follow His lead, we will pass through this world in good order and go on to the next in eternal happiness. This is a very common theme within Scripture, do what God asks, be happy. Don’t do what God asks, don’t be happy. It seems simple enough in theory, but a lot harder in practice. It is a lot easier said or thought about than done.   We want to do what we want to have fun, God wants us to do what we need to do to be happy.  Fun and Happy do not mean the same thing, whioe sometimes, actually oft times, they are used interchangeably, their meaning is orders of magnitude different.

God is the only one who we should be concerned about, if we follow Him, then those who really matter will like us for who we are and how we conduct ourselves while following God and those who don’t are of no concern. Do what is right, avoid what is wrong and you will be happy is a basic principle of the Christian faith.

Paul builds on this, telling us that walking God’s path, though it may seem hard at the time, is nothing compared to the reward we receive in heaven for following God’s will. There may be quite a struggle on this Earth before we go to our heavenly home. Paul assures us that heaven will be worth the wait. It ties in also with the collect saying that we need to focus not on things temporal, but things eternal. Meaning we need to look at ourselves and our actions with the long long term view with the goal of getting to heaven for eternity. As I have often said eternal life doesn’t just start when you die and leave this Earth for Heaven, it starts right now. The Collect is asking for God to help us make our way through this temporal universe to His Realm, the ultimate eternal universe of Heaven. We need His help to guide us through all of lifes trials and temptations.  We have to keep our end goal of our destination in mind whenever we are undergoing a frustration day, week or hour. We do have the ultimate guide to help us in Scripture and the Holy Spirit, so let us focus on them whenever we are coming across difficulties. And also focusing on what our reward for staying the course will be will help us as well. 

In the end, our reward will outweigh all of our struggles, if we will but keep our eye on the true prize.  Our struggles here on Earth in the eternal view will not be as big as what our eternal reward will be, if we but stay the course that God has set for us. God gave us free will, which if we exercise it properly, that is the will to overcome temptation.  What at first seems like a constrained way of living, once actually lived is really perfect freedom. It only seems constrained, because we cannot conceive how following His Word will allow us true freedom.  If we overcome temptation to do what we want and do what God wants, we will receive the gift of eternal salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  For until Christ, there was no delivery from the pain of worldly existence; through Christ there is redemption of our souls and our resulting bodily resurrection. This is the great gift that Christ has given us, the redemption of our souls and our entry into Heaven, by his sacrifice made once for all time, He secured our entrance into heaven. This is a gift that we should always be thankful for. 

Luke presents a simple message, yet one that is often misunderstood, with majestic language which brings the message to a point of incredible sharpness.  We are to be a guide to others to Christ, yet we cannot help others until our own problems are on the way to “solvation”, that is being solved through the salvation offered by Christ.  We need to follow Him, before we ask others to follow us.  After all, if we are not going in the right direction, what positive value is there in others following us?  We can’t very well lead people to Christ if we ourselves are not on the road to Christ.

We do not want to be leading others towards The Pit, rather, we want to be sure we are on the right path before we guide others along the path. We should be pathfinders, finding the correct path to travel on the journey of life! We must be honest in our appraisal of ourselves so we can do what we are supposed to. We also must not judge unrighteously, but judge with righteous judgment through the Holy Ghost and on the solid foundations of Holy Scripture. This means not judging others for sins yourself are committing, but are ignoring for the sake of “judging” your neighbors”, or to put it simply without the Holy Ghost, all of our judgments are unrighteous. This is what Christ was talking about, and after it, condemn not, lest ye be condemned.  

When he said use righteous judgement, he was talking about judging people’s behavior by the standards of Scripture, not condemnation. He was talking about using the Scriptures as the standard for judging individual’s behavior. He does not mean us to condemn others. This is connected with the parable of the mote. Often times when we are tempted to condemn somebody, we often ignore our own failures and focus on theirs. Let us get our act together first, before we help others. So, how can we, imperfect as we are, be honest with ourselves?  The answer is easy, hard to implement, but easy!  The Holy Ghost!  Let Him into your heart and do what you are told.  Simple, yet hard to do.  We want to do what we want to do. But yet, it is what must be done, no matter how hard it seems at the time. It will get easier as we do it, but it will never be truly easy. But it is way easier than the alternative, which is not following God’s Word.

Speaking of doing, what we do to others is a good measure of how we follow God’s Will and Direction.  We are expected to treat others as we would be treated. Remember the Golden Rule, do unto others as you would have done unto you. Our real earthly fortune, as well as are eternal lives, are a reflection of our commitment to God.

We are so ready to condemn the performance of others when our own is even worse.  It is common within all of us, especially me particularly. As Paul tells us, “all fall short.”  The operative word here is ALL.  If we look to condemn and repair our own spiritual lives before condemning others, we will be better suited to help them.  Our beam before their mote.

For only when we have taken care of our own spiritual health by looking to God for help to evaluate and improve how we follow His Word, we will be able to effectively spread the Word of His love for us.

And that is our job, to improve ourselves to effectively spread His Word by example; our action, not our diction, is the measure.

Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail.  The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit.

The time is now, not tomorrow.  The time has come, indeed.  How will you ACT?

It is by our actions we are known.

Be of God - Live of God - Act of God