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“The Secret of the Lord” "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him . . ." —Psalm 25:14 What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At...

Are You Obsessed by Something? "Who is the man that fears the Lord?" —Psalm 25:12 Are you obsessed by something? You will probably say, “No, by nothing,� but all of us are obsessed by something— usually by ourselves, or, if we are Christians, by our own experience of the Christian life. But the psalmist says that we are to be obsessed by God. The abiding awareness of the Christian life is to be God Himself, not just thoughts about Him. The total being of our life inside and out is to be absolutely obsessed by the presence of God....

The Staggering Question "He said to me, ’Son of man, can these bones live?’ " —Ezekiel 37:3 Can a sinner be turned into a saint? Can a twisted life be made right? There is only one appropriate answer— “O Lord God, You know� (Ezekiel 37:3). Never forge ahead with your religious common sense and say, “Oh, yes, with just a little more Bible reading, devotional time, and prayer, I see how it can be done.�It is much easier to do something than to trust in God; we see the activity and mistake panic for inspiration. That is why we...

Put God First "Jesus did not commit Himself to them . . .for He knew what was in man" —John 2:24-25 Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what...

“Yes— But . . .!” "Lord, I will follow You, but . . ." —Luke 9:61 Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true...

Untroubled Relationship "In that day you will ask in My name . . . for the Father Himself loves you . . ." —John 16:26-27 In that day you will ask in My name . . . ,� that is, in My nature. Not “You will use My name as some magic word,� but—�You will be so intimate with Me that you will be one with Me.� “That day� is not a day in the next life, but a day meant for here and now. “. . . for the Father Himself loves you . . .�— the Father’s...

Unquestion Revelation "In that day you will ask Me nothing" —John 16:23 When is “that day�? It is when the ascended Lord makes you one with the Father. “In that day� you will be one with the Father just as Jesus is, and He said, “In that day you will ask Me nothing.� Until the resurrection life of Jesus is fully exhibited in you, you have questions about many things. Then after a while you find that all your questions are gone— you don’t seem to have any left to ask. You have come to the point of total...

Seventeen men were ordained for service in the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham in London today. At the largest single ordination in the UK for many years, the men - all former Anglican clergy - were ordained as deacons at the request of Monsignor Keith Newton, the Ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, by Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and former Anglican, Bishop Alan Hopes. The celebration marks the second year of ordinations for the Ordinariate, which was established in 2011 to allow Anglicans to enter into the full communion of the Catholic Church whilst...

The Life To Know Him ". . . tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high" —Luke 24:49 The disciples had to tarry, staying in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost, not only for their own preparation but because they had to wait until the Lord was actually glorified. And as soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear� (Acts 2:33). The...

Thinking of Prayer as Jesus Taught "Pray without ceasing . . ." —1 Thessalonians 5:17 Our thinking about prayer, whether right or wrong, is based on our own mental conception of it. The correct concept is to think of prayer as the breath in our lungs and the blood from our hearts. Our blood flows and our breathing continues “without ceasing�; we are not even conscious of it, but it never stops. And we are not always conscious of Jesus keeping us in perfect oneness with God, but if we are obeying Him, He always is. Prayer is not...

The Good or The Best? "If you take the left, then I will go to the right; or, if you go to the right, then I will go to the left" —Genesis 13:9 As soon as you begin to live the life of faith in God, fascinating and physically gratifying possibilities will open up before you. These things are yours by right, but if you are living the life of faith you will exercise your right to waive your rights, and let God make your choice for you. God sometimes allows you to get into a place of testing...

The Delight of Despair " When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead" —Revelation 1:17 It may be that, like the apostle John, you know Jesus Christ intimately. Yet when He suddenly appears to you with totally unfamiliar characteristics, the only thing you can do is fall “at His feet as dead.� There are times when God cannot reveal Himself in any other way than in His majesty, and it is the awesomeness of the vision which brings you to the delight of despair. You experience this joy in hopelessness, realizing that if you are ever...

Important speech by Cardinal Koch to Aid to the Church in Need conference

Our Careful Unbelief ". . . do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on" —Matthew 6:25 Jesus summed up commonsense carefulness in the life of a disciple as unbelief. If we have received the Spirit of God, He will squeeze right through our lives, as if to ask, “Now where do I come into this relationship, this vacation you have planned, or these new books you want to read?� And He always presses the point until we learn to make Him our first...

The Explanation For Our Difficulties ". . . that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us . . ." —John 17:21 If you are going through a time of isolation, seemingly all alone, read John 17 . It will explain exactly why you are where you are— because Jesus has prayed that you “may be one� with the Father as He is. Are you helping God to answer that prayer, or do you have some other goal for your life? Since you became...

Having God’s “Unreasonable” Faith "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" —Matthew 6:33 When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “. . . seek first the kingdom of God . . . .� Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.� The great concern of our lives is not...

Taking Possession of Our Own Soul "By your patience possess your souls" —Luke 21:19 When a person is born again, there is a period of time when he does not have the same vitality in his thinking or reasoning that he previously had. We must learn to express this new life within us, which comes by forming the mind of Christ (see Philippians 2:5). Luke 21:19 means that we take possession of our souls through patience. But many of us prefer to stay at the entrance to the Christian life, instead of going on to create and build our...

Out of the Wreck I Rise "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" —Romans 8:35 God does not keep His child immune from trouble; He promises, “I will be with him in trouble . . .� (Psalm 91:15). It doesn’t matter how real or intense the adversities may be; nothing can ever separate him from his relationship to God. “In all these things we are more than conquerors . . .� (Romans 8:37). Paul was not referring here to imaginary things, but to things that are dangerously real. And he said we are “super-victors� in the midst...

Living Simply— Yet Focused "Look at the birds of the air . . . . Consider the lilies of the field . . ." —Matthew 6:26, 28 Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin�— they simply are! Think of the sea, the air, the sun, the stars, and the moon— all of these simply are as well— yet what a ministry and service they render on our behalf! So often we impair God’s designed influence, which He desires to exhibit through us, because of our own conscious efforts to be consistent and...

His Ascension and Our Access "It came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven" —Luke 24:51 We have no experiences in our lives that correspond to the events in our Lord’s life after the transfiguration. From that moment forward His life was altogether substitutionary. Up to the time of the transfiguration, He had exhibited the normal, perfect life of a man. But from the transfiguration forward— Gethsemane, the Cross, the resurrection— everything is unfamiliar to us. His Cross is the door by which every member of the human race...

The Habit of Recognizing God’s Provision ". . . you may be partakers of the divine nature . . ." —2 Peter 1:4 We are made “partakers of the divine nature,� receiving and sharing God’s own nature through His promises. Then we have to work that divine nature into our human nature by developing godly habits. The first habit to develop is the habit of recognizing God’s provision for us. We say, however, “Oh, I can’t afford it.� One of the worst lies is wrapped up in that statement. We talk as if our heavenly Father has cut us...

Symphonic-Catechetical Initiative Part of Way's Efforts to Foster Dialogue With JewsNEW YORK, MAY 14, 2012 (Zenit.org).- On May 8, the Orchestra and Choir of the Neocatechumenal Way performed in New York’s prestigious Avery Fisher Hall "A Symphonic Homage Prayer to the Victims of the Shoa, the Jewish Holocaust."The symphony interlaces the Word of God with music, through the reading of the prophet Ezekiel, the Gospel of Luke and the background of the Symphony, “The Suffering of the Innocent."There were some 3,000 people in the audience, the majority Jews, among whom were more than 30 rabbis, and some 12 bishops and...

The Habit of Rising to the Occasion ". . . that you may know what is the hope of His calling . . ." —Ephesians 1:18 Remember that you have been saved so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in your body (see 2 Corinthians 4:10). Direct the total energy of your powers so that you may achieve everything your election as a child of God provides; rise every time to whatever occasion may come your way.You did not do anything to achieve your salvation, but you must do something to exhibit it. You must “work out...

The Habit of Enjoying Adversity ". . . that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" —2 Corinthians 4:10 We have to develop godly habits to express what God’s grace has done in us. It is not just a question of being saved from hell, but of being saved so that “the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.� And it is adversity that makes us exhibit His life in our mortal flesh. Is my life exhibiting the essence of the sweetness of the Son of God, or just the basic irritation...

The priest at the Basilica of the National Shrine made no mention of Obama's recent declaration. How about all of you? Did your priests, ministers, rabbis, imams, and Wiccan elders say anything?

The Habit of Keeping a Clear Conscience ". . . strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men" —Acts 24:16 God’s commands to us are actually given to the life of His Son in us. Consequently, to our human nature in which God’s Son has been formed (see Galatians 4:19), His commands are difficult. But they become divinely easy once we obey.Conscience is that ability within me that attaches itself to the highest standard I know, and then continually reminds me of what that standard demands that I do. It is the eye of the soul...

The Habit of Having No Habits "If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful . . ." —2 Peter 1:8 When we first begin to form a habit, we are fully aware of it. There are times when we are aware of becoming virtuous and godly, but this awareness should only be a stage we quickly pass through as we grow spiritually. If we stop at this stage, we will develop a sense of spiritual pride. The right thing to do with godly habits is to immerse them in the life of the...

"Love One Another" ". . . add to your . . . brotherly kindness love" —2 Peter 1:5, 7 Love is an indefinite thing to most of us; we don’t know what we mean when we talk about love. Love is the loftiest preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that this sovereign preference be for Himself (see Luke 14:26). Initially, when “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit� (Romans 5:5), it is easy to put Jesus first. But then we must practice the things mentioned in 2...

Take the Initiative ". . . add to your faith virtue . . ." —2 Peter 1:5 Add means that we have to do something. We are in danger of forgetting that we cannot do what God does, and that God will not do what we can do. We cannot save nor sanctify ourselves— God does that. But God will not give us good habits or character, and He will not force us to walk correctly before Him. We have to do all that ourselves. We must “work out� our “own salvation� which God has worked in us (Philippians...

Leaders of the nation's two largest religious denominations are expressing distress and sadness at President Barack Obama's newly announced support for gay marriage. New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, says Obama's remarks "undermine the institution of marriage, the very cornerstone of our society." He adds, "The people of this country, especially our children, deserve better." The Rev. Bryant Wright, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, predicted that voters will hold Obama accountable for what Wright calls "a calculated, politically expedient decision that completely ignores the biblical foundation of marriage." But in the ABC...

Reaching Beyond Our Grasp "Where there is no revelation [or prophetic vision], the people cast off restraint . . ." —Proverbs 29:18 There is a difference between holding on to a principle and having a vision. A principle does not come from moral inspiration, but a vision does. People who are totally consumed with idealistic principles rarely do anything. A person’s own idea of God and His attributes may actually be used to justify and rationalize his deliberate neglect of his duty. Jonah tried to excuse his disobedience by saying to God, “. . . I know that You...

The Faith to Persevere "Because you have kept My command to persevere . . ." —Revelation 3:10 Perseverance means more than endurance— more than simply holding on until the end. A saint’s life is in the hands of God like a bow and arrow in the hands of an archer. God is aiming at something the saint cannot see, but our Lord continues to stretch and strain, and every once in a while the saint says, “I can’t take any more.� Yet God pays no attention; He goes on stretching until His purpose is in sight, and then He...

Building For Eternity "Which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it . . ." —Luke 14:28 Our Lord was not referring here to a cost which we have to count, but to a cost which He has already counted. The cost was those thirty years in Nazareth, those three years of popularity, scandal, and hatred, the unfathomable agony He experienced in Gethsemane, and the assault upon Him at Calvary— the central point upon which all of time and eternity turn. Jesus Christ has...

Liberty and the Standards of Jesus "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free . . ." —Galatians 5:1 A spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand—�Believe this and that�; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the Bible reveals (see John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions. And if we ourselves are...

Judgment and the Love of God "The time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God . . ." —1 Peter 4:17 The Christian servant must never forget that salvation is God’s idea, not man’s; therefore, it has an unfathomable depth. Salvation is the great thought of God, not an experience. Experience is simply the door through which salvation comes into the conscious level of our life so that we are aware of what has taken place on a much deeper level. Never preach the experience— preach the great thought of God behind the experience. When...

Vicarious Intercession ". . having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus . . ." —Hebrews 10:19 Beware of thinking that intercession means bringing our own personal sympathies and concerns into the presence of God, and then demanding that He do whatever we ask. Our ability to approach God is due entirely to the vicarious, or substitutionary, identification of our Lord with sin. We have “boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus.�Spiritual stubbornness is the most effective hindrance to intercession, because it is based on a sympathetic “understanding� of things we see in...

Vital Intercession ". . . praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . ." —Ephesians 6:18 As we continue on in our intercession for others, we may find that our obedience to God in interceding is going to cost those for whom we intercede more than we ever thought. The danger in this is that we begin to intercede in sympathy with those whom God was gradually lifting up to a totally different level in direct answer to our prayers. Whenever we step back from our close identification with God’s interest and concern for others...

The Patience To Wait for the Vision "Though it tarries, wait for it . . ." —Habakkuk 2:3 Patience is not the same as indifference; patience conveys the idea of someone who is tremendously strong and able to withstand all assaults. Having the vision of God is the source of patience because it gives us God’s true and proper inspiration. Moses endured, not because of his devotion to his principles of what was right, nor because of his sense of duty to God, but because he had a vision of God. “. . . he endured as seeing Him...

Faith— Not Emotion "We walk by faith, not by sight" —2 Corinthians 5:7 For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up...

Spontaneous Love "Love suffers long and is kind . . ." —1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is not premeditated—it is spontaneous; that is, it bursts forth in extraordinary ways. There is nothing of precise certainty in Paul’s description of love. We cannot predetermine our thoughts and actions by saying, “Now I will never think any evil thoughts, and I will believe everything that Jesus would have me to believe.� No, the characteristic of love is spontaneity. We don’t deliberately set the statements of Jesus before us as our standard, but when His Spirit is having His way with us, we...

Gracious Uncertainty ". . . it has not yet been revealed what we shall be . . ." —1 John 3:2 Our natural inclination is to be so precise—trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next—that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing. We think that we must reach some predetermined goal, but that is not the nature of the spiritual life. The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty. Consequently, we do not put down roots. Our common sense says, “Well, what if I were in that circumstance?� We cannot...

What You Will Get "I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go" —Jeremiah 45:5 This is the firm and immovable secret of the Lord to those who trust Him— “I will give your life to you . . . .� What more does a man want than his life? It is the essential thing. “. . . your life . . . as a prize . . .� means that wherever you may go, even if it is into hell, you will come out with your life and nothing can harm...

What Do You Want? "Do you seek great things for yourself?" —Jeremiah 45:5 Are you seeking great things for yourself, instead of seeking to be a great person? God wants you to be in a much closer relationship with Himself than simply receiving His gifts— He wants you to get to know Him. Even some large thing we want is only incidental; it comes and it goes. But God never gives us anything incidental. There is nothing easier than getting into the right relationship with God, unless it is not God you seek, but only what He can give...

The Supreme Climb "Take now your son . . . and offer him . . . as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you" —Genesis 22:2 A person’s character determines how he interprets God’s will (see Psalm 18:25-26). Abraham interpreted God’s command to mean that he had to kill his son, and he could only leave this traditional belief behind through the pain of a tremendous ordeal. God could purify his faith in no other way. If we obey what God says according to our sincere belief, God will break us from...

Been thinking about prayer, as I have both been blessed with prayers from the FR community and have sent some up to the individuals within the community. A thread posted today affirmed my desire to talk about this, and see what other people think. (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2876199/posts) To me, there are four specific types of prayer. Praying as we are instructed: The Lord's prayer. That is fixed and we are told that is how to pray. Request your daily bread, both physical and spiritual and resign yourself to God's will. The Serenity prayer, which I am a huge fan of, has basically...

Dozens of mail deliverers who were supposed to deliver copies of the Christian "New Testament" Bible to homes in Ramat Gan refused to do so, arguing that the deliveries constituted "missionary material." The mail deliverers said that distributing missionary material is forbidden by Jewish law (Halakha) and may also be against state law. They therefore asked that a legal inquiry be held before taking a decision on whether to hand out the Bibles. The postal workers contacted MK Zevulun Orlev (Jewish Home) and asked him to assist them vis-à-vis the Postal Authority, which they say demands that they "do their...

"Ready in Season" "Be ready in season and out of season" —2 Timothy 4:2 Many of us suffer from the unbalanced tendency to “be ready� only “out of season.� The season does not refer to time; it refers to us. This verse says, “Preach the Word! Be ready in season and out of season.� In other words, we should “be ready� whether we feel like it or not. If we do only what we feel inclined to do, some of us would never do anything. There are some people who are totally unemployable in the spiritual realm. They are...

As I stood in front of the new Mormon Temple in Liberty, Mo., it struck me as ironic that close to 175 years ago, Mormons were forced out of this same state. Whereas the Missouri public once urged their governor to force Joseph Smith and his followers out of the area surrounding Kansas City, Mormons began to return to the region in the 1900s, eventually gathering in such large numbers that the Church organization decided the region needed a temple. Which is why I came to visit. Latter Day Saints restrict temple access to members of their denomination who...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced the publication of “Heaven and Earth Are Full of Your Glory: A United Methodist and Roman Catholic Statement on the Eucharist and Ecology.”The statement’s authors acknowledge that “the sources of Catholic teaching about the Eucharist [are] not matched by similar sources for the United Methodist partners, and vice versa,” according to the document’s introduction. “As we present this agreed statement, we realize only too well its limitations … [and] fully realize that this statement does not reflect the breadth of what either church holds to be the total content of its...

The Warning Against Desiring Spiritual Success "Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you . . ." —Luke 10:20 Worldliness is not the trap that most endangers us as Christian workers; nor is it sin. The trap we fall into is extravagantly desiring spiritual success; that is, success measured by, and patterned after, the form set by this religious age in which we now live. Never seek after anything other than the approval of God, and always be willing to go “outside the camp, bearing His reproach� (Hebrews 13:13). In Luke 10:20 , Jesus told...