What I Learned In Church: January 8

How The Catholic Church has changed!

My next Catholic visit was St. Agatha Parish. It was close to being at Our Lady of Lourdes. Only the choir was a little different and, in the South, traditions last a little longer. We used to Baptize/Renew vows on Saturday. (Who changed that?) and we used to pray/meditate in silence before service... 

SMH

 St Agatha was POPPIN before service. I didn’t know what to expect this time. But I liked the crowd. I liked the vibe. I Loved being early! So with no further ado, let’s get to the Word:

The readings were: Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3:2-3a,5-6, and Matthew 2:1-12.
Jesus' coming was foretold, Jesus came to save Gentiles and THEN the two responses to Jesus' coming/birth.

What is the Epiphany? An album by Chrisette Michelle? The manifestation of Christ? The beginnning of Christ's journey? All of the above!

Let’s just focus on the last two though. Turn to someone and say "The glory of the Lord shines in MY life, and in MY household!” Then go out and remember to make it true every day!

Rise up! The glory of the Lord is upon you. Beware of the power of words. Don't dwell and talk about the problems. Talk about the healing! “I am HEALED in Jesus' name!” The power of life and death is in the tongue and you will eat of its fruit. Proverbs 18 :21

So, declare victory.

There were two major responses to Jesus’ coming. The wise, celebrated the coming salvation. A few people were threatened. Herod killed his wives and sons for "eyeing his throne". He worked very hard to kill Jesus as well. But it was not God’s will.

Many of us say and go through the motions like we are with the wise men. But often our true actions and motivations are more like Herod. In our lives, choosing God often requires change. We get scared and even threatened by the prospect of change. Relax, chill out, God cannot be out done!

My secret weapon is that God wins. So many people have forgotten that, so sometimes the world looks a little scary. Often we are so afraid to choose God that we get stuck and, instead of making any decision at all, we end up holding baggage. Drop the baggage today. When you even think someone has something against you, go and make peace.

The point is Jesus represents newness in all our lives. We like new shoes but we don’t like new lives. Sometimes we have been doing things a certain way for so long that when a choosing God/WWJD moment comes, we reject the newness of Jesus. Proverbs 3:1-5 concludes, “Lean not onto you own understanding…”

It’s not just about reading and understanding. It’s about your perspective. In order to be truly Christ-like, there will be moments when we must give up our life, that is our perspective, and use a new one. It’s not about dissecting the Bible in order to justify living our way. It’s about dissecting the Bible in order to learn to live Jesus’ way.

Since there were no distractions this week, I’ll add my own sidenote:

(Sidenote) When you take a walk in someone else's shoes, the fact that they are not your shoes should be the first thing you recognize AND ACCEPT. We like to do it the selfish way... Cut out the toes... Shave the heels... Put an insole... 
Walk in them. You don't have to stay there but just understand what it feels like. If you want to help the owner of the shoes, help. And remember that you can only help those who want and are willing to change. Also, be aware that you may be the one who has to change and walking in someone else’s shoes may help you more than them…