This is one of my favorite Scriptures to preach from in St. Luke's account of the Act's of the Apostles – 7:51 – 8:1.
The Truth hurts us a lot. When we see lies and falsehoods given to us each day in the Secular Media, we see it on Television and Advertisements of what we need to do to look good, feel better about ourselves; a pill for this and a pill for that. Suggestions of how we can further destroy not only ourselves, but the world God created for us to dwell in.
When we hear the Truth preached from the true Hero's, it hurts and we want to grind out teeth at them, talk about them, tear them down with our own words and actions, because their Truth does not make us 'feel good'. When in essence when we follow Christ, in a worldly sense, it rarely feels good. There is an old saying, "No Pain, No Gain", but there is Healing in our pain. It just might not come in the form that we wish for that Healing to come.
This is why we MUST have that 'Relationship' with Christ each and every day; we must pick up our Cross and follow Him. He suffered and died for all of us and when through pain so that we would not have to suffer and die in our own sinfulness especially in this Relativistic world we currently live in.
Yes there will be many who 'grind their teeth' at us, such as they did to the Deacon, St. Stephen, but "Filled with the Holy Spirit…" he looked up into Heaven and saw the Glory of God; I feel he saw the sweet and beautiful face of Jesus waiting for him beyond this world.
When we also are filled with the Holy Spirit, we do not feel the pains of this world, and we share in the Kingdom to come to us. St. Stephen saw the TRUE Bread of Life, the Bread come down from Heaven, Jesus Christ Himself. We too share in that Beatific Vision when we receive the Eucharist…the True Bread of Life, the New Manna from Heaven, sent for our Healing and relief of our suffering.
Keep on KEEPIN' on, because there is a Crown for us after this suffering in exile on Earth. The sweet beautiful face of Jesus is calling us; we must pick up our Cross EVERY DAY and show the Stiff Necked People of this world, the LOVE of Jesus Christ!
May the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you, now and forevermore…amen, Amen and AMEN!
Evangelist Richard Lane
No comments:
Post a Comment