First Sunday after Christmas

 

Rev Jack's sermon is available on video RIGHT HERE.

Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold

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. 

 

Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr

[December 26.]

The Collect.

 

G

RANT, O Lord, that, in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of thy truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors by the example of thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God to succour all those who suffer for thee. our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.

 

The Christmas Collect is found on Page 96:

 

The Nativity of our Lord, or the Birthday of Christ,

commonly called Christmas Day.

[December 25.]

The Collect.

 

A

LMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end.  Amen.

 

¶ This Collect is to be said daily throughout the Octave.

 

As is oft the case, today’s propers all tie together to reinforce a point and build our understanding of what God wants and expects from each of us. 

 

Consider these words from the Collect where we ask God to …in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of thy truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors…

 

As is almost always the case, we are asking God to help us; in this case to see things from God’s point of view, to be filled with His Spirit and understanding with the help of the Holy Ghost that we might not curse, but understand and help those who cause us problems and pain, who seek to destroy us. We ask that we might help them towards God rather than curse them.  This is one of the hardest collects to pray with our hearts; probably because of all of them, it most goes against our nature. It may seem impossible for us, but with the Holy Ghosts help it can be accomplished! 

 

Stephen, the first martyr of the church, was stoned by locals for doing God’s work, for harming no one, for forcing nothing on anyone.  Yet, he will brutally killed by those he sought to help.  His dying words were a blessing and not a curse.  What an example!  An example close to impossible for most of us to follow.  Yet an example for our souls to attempt to emulate.

 

When Matthew relates Jesus’ warning to us, he is telling us the same thing Stephen found out; there are people in this world who do not want to hear the Word of God and will kill, murder and maim to avoid hearing it.  They are not content to just say, No thank you, and move on.  We must expect at least meeting one or two of those lives  and those encounters may terminate our short visit here on Earth. Yet, despite that grim possibility, we must continue to do our duty, to spread the Good News and move through this life unto the next, doing our duty as we see it. We must not let fear of such a possibility take over our lives and make it so we don’t perform any action of Him.

 

We must not fall into the trap many people have and let themselves be taken advantage of by the government and the state due to the induced crisis the governments worldwide have seemingly collaborated on to gain even more power. And as Paul relates we are struggling against spiritual wickedness in high places. Yet, we must still follow Saint Stephen’s example and persevere even if the cost is our own lives. For Jesus did the same for us, persevering to save us from eternal death at the cost of His own life.

 

He never let fear control him on His Journey to the cross, His Death and Resurrection. So too must we not let fear or worries control us.  We know that our eternal place is with Him. Our physical bodies may be destroyed but our spiritual selves will never be destroyed as long as we are on God’s team. 

 

Saint Stephen showed following Christ truly is not without risk. But it is risk we must bear and the Holy Ghost will help us to bear that risk, if we will let Him into our hearts and guide us in our actions. 

 

All in all, the remembrance of Saint Stephen is a painful day, with little feel good to it, yet it is reality.  

 

What matters is what you do when push comes to shove.  Action, not Diction is what counts.

 

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 in Advent

Rev Jack's sermon is available on video RIGHT HERE!

 

Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold

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. 

 

The Fourth Sunday in Advent

The Collect.

 

O

 LORD, raise up, we pray thee, thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us; that whereas, through our sins and wickedness, we are sore let and hindered in running the race that is set before us, thy bountiful grace and mercy may speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with thee and the Holy Ghost, be honour and glory, world without end.  Amen.

 

The Collect for the First Sunday in Advent is on Page 90:

 

The First Sunday in Advent

The Collect.

 

A

LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

 

¶ This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent, until Christmas Day.

 

As is oft the case, today’s propers all tie together to reinforce a point and build our understanding of what God wants and expects from each of us.  The Collect asks for God’s help for us to accept His Help and do it His Way.  We are asking for this because of our natural infirmities. By natural infirmities, I mean our sins. Our natural infirmities do in fact handicap us from running the race of life that is set before us. We are asking for His Help in removing that handicap of our infirmities, of our needless worries and sinful behavior that only hurts us, that we might be able to run ably and swiftly the race of life.

 

This is a thought that is constantly resonating throughout the Collects and not only them but all of Scriptures. That is because it is a constant truth that without the help of the Lord, we are doomed to fail to follow Him. This truth is constant through history. Whenever a group of people have strayed from doing what God asks, they have never prospered in the end. From the very beginning of time to the very end of time this will always stay true. That is why we must continually rely on Scripture and the Holy Ghost for inspiration and guidance and comfort in our lives.

 

It is oft supposed Christians are dour souls, with no sense of happiness or humor.  Perhaps this thought comes from those who have heard from others what the Bible says, but have never actually taken the time to read it and understand it. For if they understood it then they would not be thinking that we are dour at all!  Reading the Bible as a whole proves this often popular train of thought to be patently false. That may or may not have been the way the Puritans thought, but then again, the Puritans were not holding to the consistent truth of the Bible. After all God commands us to make a “joyful” noise unto the Lord! Not, a dour, grumbling and solemn noise, but an exceedingly JOYFUL noise unto the Lord! There is nothing in the Bible that says you cannot have fun whilst worshipping our Lord; in fact that is the preferred way to worship Him! If we enjoy worshipping the Lord, then we are most apt to do more of our best to follow Him, if we are enjoying ourselves whilst doing so!

 

After all, the one said to be the most dour of all, Paul, tells us to be happy. In his Epistle he mentioned rejoicing in the Lord always. Not just happy, but to REJOICE.  REJOICE in the Lord ALWAYS and AGAIN I say REJOICE!  How much more fun can you have?  At the same time though Paul cautions us to be moderate in everything we do, no excesses, an even keel.  Work hard, but maintain a time and space for our family, honor our country, and above all honor God.  Maintain an even balance between work and play so to speak and moderation in both areas.  However, that is nowhere near being dour; just being happy, but a cautious people. After all, if we eat too much, we end up paying the price for the gluttony. So, too, do we pay both spiritually and physically for exceeding moderation in all things. Paul is not trying to stop us from having fun, he is trying to help us use common sense in all things, so that we can be able to use our full faculties as God intended. He goes on to tell us if we think we need something, simply ask God for it!  

 

In the Gospel John recounts John the Baptist’s role in preparing the way for Jesus.  The Pharisees were troubled with the simplicity of his message.  They were looking for something more complex, less straightforward, something more like themselves. We have heard this often about the Pharisees; what they are looking for is something that people tend to look for instead of following God’s actual message. For it is easier to get around this sort of message than God’s very simple and straight forward one. In the end however, it is always easier to take God’s way then to try and find away around God’s way (which there is not).

 

The Pharisees were not willing to accept the change in the status quo; the New Testament would break their role in finding ways around the commandments Jesus gave. They were much like modern day lawyers and liberals, always searching for a loophole in the law so they can do what they want to do without following the law. They  failed to realize that there is no loophole behind loving God and loving your neighbor as thyself. They could not comprehend of this. They feared what they couldn’t understand and that is why they wanted Jesus to be put to death. They didn’t understand God’s plan for Jesus and His Ministry.  

 

 

If the world would do what God asked, our lives would be so much better, we would all be living together in happiness. Peace on earth will not be possible until the world accepts Him into their hearts. All of the problems on earth stem from the world not accepting Him into their hearts and souls. This is the perfect season for those who haven’t yet, to accept Him, to acknowledge Him at His first true appearance amongst us, at His Birth. Up until the end of our time here on earth, there is always time to accept Him, but do not wait until it is too late to do so!

 

Jesus also tells us to put our trust in the Lord, then not to worry.  He knows how counterproductive, indeed, how destructive, worry can be in our lives.  We know it not only cannot, but will not do good, we know it will only hurt our cause; yet we do it.  Is this not a proof positive of how much we need His Help?  How hard is it to Trust in God and Dread Naught?  Very!  Extremely difficult as a matter of fact. I myself struggle with this constantly. I know that it does no good but it comes so naturally to me that it is super hard to overcome. The solution to this is to turn to God and let Him carry my/our worries on His Back. Worry is a really powerful negative emotion.  We need to fight this emotion as nothing good comes from excessive worrying.  The best cure to worry is to pray for God for guidance and to act upon that guidance.  Even though it is very hard to trust somebody you can’t see physically, you must trust your spiritual sense and follow Him anyway!  Knowing you will see Him physically one day is one of our great rewards. This greatly eases at least my worries and should ease yours as well. 

 

When Saint John is recording the actions of John the Baptist, he tells us when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou?  They got an answer they neither expected nor really understood, he said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias … I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; he it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. They had no clue what he was talking about.  All they could see was what they expected, a king of this world.  Yet, John the Baptist knew the kingdom was not of this world, for the King was not of this World, but the Eternal King of Eternity.  John the Baptist later says He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30)  This is true of us, also.  We must let Jesus permeate us and become the dominant force in us.  But, it does not happen in the twinkling of the eye. Jack Lewis tells us, We are doing well enough if the slow process of being more in Christ and less in ourselves has made a decent beginning in a long life (it will be completed only in the next world). Jack Lewis suggests you try his plan; I pray ‘Lord, show me just so much (neither more nor less) about myself as I need for doing thy will now.’

 

The world is extremely complex; it is full of problems, temptations and difficulties.  It is full of obstacles for us, yet all Christianity offers is a few simple solutions.  We often hear there are no simple answers to complex questions.  Actually, that is not true.  There are simple answers to complex problems, they are the only ones which can and will work.  The problem is they are not the answers people want.  Most people do not want to know what they are supposed to do, lest they have to do it.  They want to be told what they want to do is at least okay, even though it is clearly not okay. But we need to know what we are doing is actually “Okay”, not what Joe on the corner claims is Okay. To do that, we have to read the Scriptures and listen to what God says is Okay, because He really does know the best in this matter for us. 

 

Once again, when you think about being a Christian, think a bit about these quotes from GK Chesterton:

 

·      Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.

·      The word good has many meanings. For example, if a man were to shoot his grandmother at a range of five hundred yards, I should call him a good shot, but not necessarily a good man. 

·      The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people. 

·      Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions. 

·      A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.

 

 G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)

 

We are called to a new and different life, we ask the Lord to both lead us and follow us, to keep us always.  Our goal is to do the Lord’s will, not to avoid 613 laws.  To do what is right and be humble.

 

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

Third Sunday in Advent

Rev Jack's sermon is available on video RIGHT HERE!

 

Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold

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. 

 

The Third Sunday in Advent

                       The Collect.

 

 

O

 LORD Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, that at thy second coming to judge the world we may be found an acceptable people in thy sight, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

 

The First Sunday in Advent

The Collect.

 

A

LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

 

¶ This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent, until Christmas Day.

 

In the Collect for the Third Sunday in Advent, we are referred to as the ministers and stewards (caretakers) of the mysteries of God: the Scriptures and His Word. We ask for help in getting the hearts of the disobedient, which is us, by the wisdom of the just, which is God and the Holy Spirit, to turn and look to the Kingdom of God for answers and not this world. We are in a way like John the Baptist who prepared the way for Christ’s coming by preaching and preparing the path for Christ to begin his ministry. By preaching the Word, we are likewise preparing the World for His Return, by getting their hearts ready by being guided by the Holy Spirit and spreading the Good News across the globe. 

 

The collect gets to the heart of the matter directly. It says that in order for us to follow God and to point the way to Him, we need our disobedient hearts to shift focus to that of being just, in order to be ready to follow Him.  We are to be like John in preparing the world for Jesus’s second coming. We need to be shining the light towards Him and letting people know about Him, so that there will not be a stone unturned on this Earth that has not heard the Good News. This is a momentous task but with Christ and the Holy Ghost it can be possible. We need to focus our own disobedient hearts and let the Holy Spirit shift it to the wisdom of the just before we can even think about leading people towards God.

 

In the Epistle, Paul tells us not fear what others think of us, but rather be concerned about what God thinks of what we are doing and what direction in which He wants us to go.  People can come and go in our lives but God is a constant. Let us be more concerned with what God thinks, which is constant and never changes than what man thinks which seemingly changes by the week. Rather than spend the mental energy on being concerned with what others think, let us use that same mental energy to do our best for God, our family and our country. We can get a lot more done for God this way; it will be better for our hearts, souls and minds if we think this way. Worry does not solve any problems; but it can create problems if we let it. So, let us not worry about man’s opinions, but of God instead. We will profit spiritually this way.

 

This is a very hard concept for many people to act on, including myself. There are so many things in this world that can cause tremendous concern and worry. However, we should note none of these things are greater than God. God will bear our worries and concerns, but only if we allow Him into our hearts, souls and minds to do so. And besides we don’t have to consider what man thinks of us, only what God thinks of us.

 

Rather than fear man, we must fear God, and do what He wants us to do. We must concern ourselves with God’s opinion rather than Man’s opinion.  Then perhaps maybe, some in this world will see what we are doing for Him and come to know Him and join Him. We will never know how much and impact we have on others around us. That is why we must be mindful of how we act around others.  This is why we must be good stewards and messengers of His Word and be careful of how we act around others. How we act around others can either turn people to or away from God. Let us make sure we act in a manner that turns people towards God.

 

We will never get anywhere if we follow the ways of this world. As in John 1:11-13 He came unto His own and His Own received him not.  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power to become the Sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

 

If we are born of God, then it is Him to whom we must return and not man. As the verse from John points out, even Jesus came to us and we refused him; how can we expect any better treatment from man, than that given God Himself, who came down for us?  We should not be surprised when our fellow men treat us like dirt. We know ourselves how depraved we can be without the guiding light of the Holy Spirit in us. 

 

But the next part of the verse tells us what we will get if we join with him. He gave us the power to become the Sons of God, as we are His adopted children. He is giving us our eternal inheritance, if we will but follow Him. We are going to get an absolutely wonderful reward, if we do our very best to follow Him.  There is a distinct difference between saying you are doing your best and actually doing your best. 

 

The treatment we receive in this world will pale in comparison to the treatment God will give us in the next world if we but do our very best to follow Him. He has given us the power to become the Sons of God; we are God’s adopted children. This is a power greater than any in this world not of God’s Hands. This is a power that cannot be taken from us, as we are tightly in God’s Hand. The enemy cannot pluck us out of God’s grasp, once we have willingly joined ourselves to God through the help of the Holy Ghost. We need the unifying spirit of the Holy Ghost to help us understand the concepts of Scripture; not only to understand them, but to follow them. With the help of the Holy Ghost, we can understand what we are to do; more than that, we will be able to apply the concepts we learn from Scripture to our everyday lives.

 

In the Gospel, Christ asks the crowd of what they expected to see?  Some great big flashy sign He was going to overthrow the Romans and unite the Jews to conquer the world?  That was what they expected, but not what He came for! He says more than a prophet and that is true. Jesus is more than a prophet, He is the Son of God who came to die for our sins that we might not perish but have everlasting life.  He did not come to rule the world, for it would be only a temporal state.  He came for far more than that; to prepare our hearts for eternity and begin to change us from unjust to just creatures, worthy of God’s creation and His Hands. As John the Baptist came to prepare the way for Christ’s preaching, Christ came to prepare our way to join our Father in Heaven. Without this preparation, we would not have the wonderful gift of eternal life.

 

His sacrifice was the physical and spiritual action which paved the road for our ascent to heaven. He came to mold and to shape us from being roughly made to something very valuable. He came to transform us from death to being truly alive. 

 

Life is a continual process of learning in every aspect of our lives, not least of these aspects is our spiritual growth and development.  The Japanese have a word for this, introduced into their industry by the American engineer W. Edwards Deming, Kaizen (改善), that is to say continuous improvement.  Never perfect, but always endeavoring to improve.  Day by day.  Our goal is to make the next day better than the last. This is how we must continually develop as Christians.

 

To care for the mysteries of God properly, we must continue to learn in our spiritual lives; if we do this, we will keep growing more and more every day.  Reading Scripture is one way to further our spiritual development, as well as helping others without thought for ourselves. We have to undergo our spiritual rebirth before we can help to transform others and to serve others.  To accomplish this, we need to have the mental state only the Holy Ghost can give us. We must keep trying our best to improve and learn from the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit and to trust in God and dread naught.

 

As Jesus came to change us for the better, Paul and the Collect remind us to do the same for others.   We have to keep trying to do our best to help our friends and family to be better, all the while doing our best to be the best Christians and humans we can be. All the while shining the light of Christ into the darkness of this world as His ambassadors. We know not what seeds we plant when we perform such actions and in a future time they may bear fruit. We must not try and rush the work of the Holy Spirit, who works on God’s time and not that of our own time. All good things will happen in due course. If we do our part by planting the seed, the Holy Ghost will nurture and develop this seed to bear fruit. We must put our hearts and minds together and think about what God wants us to do in the end, rather than what we want to do. Put God first and all will be well, is what can be taken from today’s collects and lessons, ultimately.  We must be willing do to this; then we can be properly caring for the mysteries of God.

 

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

Second Sunday in Advent

  

Rev Jack's sermon is available on video RIGHT HERE.

 

Sermon - Rev Jack Arnold

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. 

 

                                 The Second Sunday in Advent

The Collect.

 

B

LESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

The First Sunday in Advent

The Collect.

 

A

LMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.

 

¶ This Collect is to be repeated every day, after the other Collects in Advent, until Christmas Day.

 

The Collect and the Epistle and the Gospel all tell us we are to learn from Scripture and to place our hope and trust in God, not man. They tell us God provided Scripture so that we might learn from the history of old believers in the Old and New Testament. As the saying goes, if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. It is the same with Scripture; for much of Scripture is history.

 

Scriptures have been given to us as a tool for learning so we might become wiser through the Holy Spirit, whose guidance as we read and study Scripture will allow us to come to a fuller understanding of the meaning it should have in our daily lives. The key concept is learning, learning by growing closer to the concepts found in Scripture and finding out how to learn from the mistakes we have made.  Scriptures are here for our personal and spiritual development. The guidance of the Holy Spirit is necessary for us to read the Scriptures and implement the concepts found in them in our day to day lilves. 

 

We need His Influence in our hearts in order to understand what we are preaching; to live what we are preaching, in order for our faith to have any meaning.  Then we also have to live what we preach, other wise we become hypocrites. People will very quickly notice if our actions are not congruent with our professed belief. There are far too many people today who live in a hyopcritcal manner. We must not become like one of them. 

 

Following that point,  if we do not have understanding or act upon our preaching, how can we ask others to follow God, when we ourselves are not?  We can’t lead people towards and following God if we do not do that ourselves. It simply isn’t possible to lead people towards God if we aren’t following Him ourselves. We must strive to avoid hypocrisy, to live a geniune life following His commandments He has set for us and to be a beacon to guide others to Him. We are not an icon or image of Him, but merely pathfinders, and once we find the path, we guide others to Him. We do not posess any special powers as ministers of the Lord, except as we have the Holy Ghost within us, directing us. And that special power is not of our own to claim, but He who sent Him. We are merely being allowed to have Him within us and we should not boast of any deeds done with His Inspiration, but must simply point back to the source who sent Him. We cannot claim any credit on our own for the power He has bestowed upon us to perform great good works for Him.  He works not only in ministers, but in each and every member of the church.  For, each of us is an emissary of Christ to the world. 

 

He gives each of us in His Church special talents, so members of the Church may use these talents in conjunction with one another to bring people to Christ. As in a professional workplace, each member of the Church has a special talent, used in conjunction with other people with each of their own talents, which can be used together to bring people to Christ. We each have our function, just like each part of our body has a function and each individual part is needed for its specific function to work as a whole. If we all had all heads, it would not work out well for us. But like our body parts, we are each called to a separate talent to make up the whole church.

 

For when we all work together the Church becomes team, each and everyone in it, the clergy and the lay people all having the common goals of spreading the Gospel to those who are in need of it and tending to those who need help. We become an unstoppable force, doing good in His Name.  This is all made possible if we read and act upon the precepts of Scripture with the help of the Holy Ghost.

 

We must act upon the words of Scripture and the sermons we hear, so our faith will be manifest to all those watching us.  We will make mistakes and sin, as we are imperfect beings; if we admit our wrongdoings to God, and come back to Him, all shall be forgiven and we shall have a fresh slate on which to start anew. 

 

In the Epistle, Paul tells us Scripture was written so we might have hope, even in times of darkness.  Times like these with unbelievers in high places doing their best to defile and ridicule our faith can try our souls.  We must treat others as Christ taught us, with respect and humility, no matter our personal feelings/opinion on them and how they conduct their lives. If we are kind to them, we may plant a seed in their lives for the better, causing perhaps a change for the better in them. We do not know what impact our actions may have in the future; we can only hope they may influence an individual for the better. It may not be until way later we find out what measurable impact we may have had on these peoples lives. It takes a while for seeds to germinate and grow into  large and wondrous trees, it is the same with the seeds we plant spiritually. We have no idea what our actions will inspire others to do. That is also why we need to be extremely careful in how our actions influence others. We want to be a positive influence, rather than a negative one. 

 

This is where applying the love thy neighbor as thyself concept plays a big part. For if we follow Christ’s Summary of the Law, our actions are more likely to cause a positive impact on others around us.  If we follow ourselves instead of the Holy Ghost, we are more likely to cause a negative impact to others around us.

 

Turning to the Gospel, Saint Luke describes the signs of the Second Coming and how we are to prepare for it.  We are not to be caught unaware of the signs; if we read the signs, then we shall be prepared to meet our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.  At the same time remember Christ’s words in Matthew 24:36 - But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.  This means every day we have to be active in our faith, and not brain and faith dead like so many around us today. We have to be spritually aware of our spiritual surroundings, much as a good and safe driver/motorcyclist must be aware of the cars around him and possible hazards in the road at all times.

 

We have to use the tools given to us by God; Scripture, our faith and our friends in the faith to combat the evils of this world.  They are given to us for learning the faith and for defending the faith from the multiple assaults of the wicked one. We must do our best to make this world the best place we can.  If we study, digest and use Scripture in faith, we will have hope in these times of darkness; we will go forth and spread the Good News, which will give us satisfaction and hope for people; therefore renewing our spirit and vigor and the knowledge that in the end we will triumph, will fill our hungry spirits. It will renew our sense of purpose and redirect our focus outward instead of inward.

 

Our hungry spirits can only be satisified by God’s Goodness and His Word and His Love, of which He has infinite capacity; nobody is stealing anybody else’s share, as God has more than plenty to go around for all of us!  In fact, the more of God’s Love you take, the more there is for others!  So we must concentrate then on sharing the Gospel and God’s love, so others might finally find true happiness, as we find ours, in serving the Lord for the rest of our days. We also have to concentrate on living a genuine Christian life and not a shallow Christian life; showing the way to Christ for others to see and follow.

 

The common theme through the Collect, Epistle and Gospel is that if we have hope and trust in God, we must dread naught, and carry on, empowered through them in our daily lives here on Earth until we are called to our heavenly home.   These are actions we must take; not mere thoughts or words, actual actions!

 

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