What I Learned in Church 2-10-13

Father Joe is always on time. Spiritually, that is! That man will have you forgetting you’re Catholic…five hour long church trying to play the saxophone and preaching two extra sermons… At least there’s only one collection.

Seriously, we’re still in and out in an hour and a half.  At least he makes people want to go. That’s huge in this day and age. People are ready to give up at the slightest bit of controversy or difficulty. Lord knows the Catholic Church has had some difficulties. (Understatement) We have greed running rampant in other churches, Sex, All kinds of Sex and Even More Sex. How do we respond? The same thing we always do. We run. "I don't want to go to church"

Don't let a few bad apples run all the good people out of church!

Don’t let a few bad apples run us out of anywhere. We abandon everything. We come, we consume, we ask, we take, we get full and when we get asked to do some real spiritual work, we pack up all we’ve taken over the years and run away, leaving only the trash behind. We do it in our schools, we do it in our neighborhoods, and we go all the way with church. We might change churches for a short while but eventually we just leave.

I read this book one time (or three/four). It may or may not be 100% true but it does illustrate the possibility of man. The one thing I believe is that we must never give up and (SPOILER ALERT) we (the good people) win! So why you running? Think you’re not good enough?

God will perfect whatever is defective

(Isaiah 6) “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

I’m not going to front; right after that God told Isaiah not to tell anyone they were saved so they would suffer a little more and repent before he let them off the hook. That happens. You can’t avoid it. Sometimes we try to avoid the temporary discomfort so we stay in the mess we’re in instead of moving forward through to the end. Go one through it! Again, a lot of ups and downs in that book but it ends well.

Isaiah 43:1,2 “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

You know there’s a lot of fire and brimstone in the bible. Don’t be afraid. If you choose the right side, you won’t get burned. Just make sure you choose right. No fence straddling.

(1 Corinthians 15)And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.

It’s simple. We believe in Jesus, not some magic superhero who flies in and stops us from being assholes. We believe in a man being able to transcend the flesh and distractions of the world to attain true peace. We believe that we can practice and practice and attain a similar peace. (And that may be where we falter…) Too much unattainable magic and not enough practical advice.

So here it is:

•         Repeat after me “My miracle is on the way.”
•          Get ready. That means look at your faith.
•          Stop dwelling in the past.
•          If you don’t know how to pray, learn.
•          After you pray, meditate. (Meditation first step is clearing your mind)

Jesus removed his self from the world often to focus. And when he did, he was listening. He wasn’t doing a whole bunch of jaw-jacking and not waiting for an answer. Shut up sometimes! To be clear, shut up for at least five minutes every day (to start).

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             Keep casting your nets! Some of my friends are wonderful salesmen/women not because they know anything about what they are selling. They are great at it not even because they don’t take no for an answer. It’s because they keep going, believing that someone will say yes. Just like Colonel Sanders, it might take 1010 attempts and the majority of your life to get your miracle. Why are you giving up on yourself?

      A lot of yall give up at 23 after two ‘No’s. And still try to claim you believe in something.

Luke 6 - Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” … When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken,…

How many of yall would listen to someone who wasn’t an expert in “your field”.  I can hear the majority of you now running back to your egos at the mention of similar advice. “I been doing … for … years! What you trying to tell me?” “If you know so much, why don’t you do it?” The least we can do with any advice is to meditate on it. Find a way to make the best of everything given us.

So, one more thing before I go. Fight!

Believe in what you say you believe in. I’m getting tired of all the woe is me, look at how strong the devil is, illuminati, conspiracy this, conspiracy that talk. Too many of us say we believe in eternity and still deathly afraid of every little fool hollering boo at our God. SMH.

Isaiah 41:10 I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. “All who rage against you will surely be ashamed and disgraced; those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them.

Don't worry I will ALWAYS be with you (not only when the bullies aren't around). AND ALL (A-L-L, every single one) enemies will be ashamed and disgraced; they will be as nothing and perish. Shoot, you won’t even be able to find them if you look for them! And Lord knows yall like to look for enemies!

Gina noticed that the message is always the same and said that’s OK because that’s what the Bible is. Something happens, you maintain your faith, God shows up. That’s it. And it only works that way. Not – something happens, you run like hell or something happens, you have faith for two days, then you give up and do it your way on the third day… That’s the way you do it. It’s called faith because it works especially when it doesn’t look like it will. That’s it.

1300 words later, the simple truth is, if you say you believe in something, prove it. If it’s worthwhile it WILL work! Watch!