Two Acts of Betrayal

Spend some time with God today! Get into His Word by READING or mass readings today.

The first thing that jumped out at me in today's Gospel (John 13:21-33, 36-38) was that it began with Jesus being deeply troubled. Jesus knows everything that is about to play out. He knows it it His father's will, and He is still deeply troubled by it. We see this more fully when He is praying in the garden for God to "take this cup" from Him. We know how the story is going to play out and in the end Jesus wins, but sometimes we skip past the human elements of Jesus. We forget that although He is fully God, He is also fully man!

The next part that grabbed my attention is the line that Satan entered Judas. Satan prowls this earth looking for souls to devour. If He can enter into someone who literally walked with Jesus daily, how much more must we be on guard? How much more intentional and diligent must we be when it comes to our faith?

The last point I want to share is a a new thought for me that came from the meditation found at dailyscripture.net.

We know Judas betrays Jesus, but we also see the foreshadowing of Peter's betrayal of Jesus. I had not every really looked at the 2 side by side before today. Satan can sure mess with things! Satan was directly in the mix with Judas's act. Judas was greedy and His heart was all sorts of twisted. He betrayed Jesus deliberately and with evil intentions.

Peter, on the other hand betrayed Jesus, but not out of evil. He was fearful! He truly loved Jesus. He truly intended to follow Jesus wherever He went, He was just too weak to do it!

Jesus knows Peter's heart and is able to show Him compassion and grace. We are gonna mess up over and over again because we are human. We must continue to seek Jesus with all our heart and remain vigilant and not allow Satan to twist and distort it.

It's time to get our hearts prepared to follow Jesus to that cross. It's time to lean on Him and His strength to carry us when we just don't feel like we can go on. This path is not easy but it will lead to life everlasting!

What possesses your heart?

Wow, Holy Week is upon us. If you haven't been spending some serious time in God's Word, START today. If you have, continue by READING our mass readings for today.

What is your most special and prized possession? Perhaps is was something that cost a lot of money or has sentimental value, maybe it was a gift, or a combination of theses. Could you imagine parting with it for anything in the world? What about for Jesus?

Mary had an extremely valuable and extremely special bottle of perfume that she didn't hesitate to give to Jesus with all her heart and soul. She took the perfume and anointed Jesus with it. She then dried it with her hair. This was an act of extreme love and total humility!

The perfume filled the entire house with a sweet smell that was not to be outdone by the incredible love shown to Jesus by this act.

Judas's true colors and feelings were beginning to really show when got annoyed at the "wasted" perfume. To try to mask his "icky" heart he tried to say it was because if could be sold and the money given to the poor. He didn't care about the poor, or the act of love, or Jesus for that matter. He was greedy and only cared about himself and money.

Yes, that perfume could have been used to take care of the poor, but this act was far more important in the moment. Jesus was literally getting ready to die for each and every one of us. He as being anointed before His dealt. His blood is the Ostermann valuable thing in the world, surely it was worth giving up some perfume for.

I think about some of the possessions I have had that have possessed me. When we hold onto something too tightly, maybe that's what we need to consider giving up or giving away. Jesus needs to possess our entire heart! There can be no room for "stuff" of this world.

Give everything you have to the Lord to include your entire heart!

We are just as bad as they were

Wow, another Friday is upon us! Let's take a look at our Mass READINGS today and meditate on The Word.

Our Gospel (John 10:31-42) opens with Jews trying to stone Jesus again. It seems like someone is always trying to put him in prison or kill Him since He began His public ministry.

This time they sayHe is speaking blasphemy by claiming He is who He is. Jesus always has the best come backs and arguments because He is ALWAYS right. He uses reason and logic which just annoys people more.

In this Gospel Jesus tells us that He and God are one in the same. He is in God and God is in Him.

When we don't listen to Jesus, when we don't follow His call or obey, we are acting just like the people in this Gospel. We are basically discrediting Jesus the way they were trying to.

We want the good stuff from God without doing the work. We want forgiveness with out forgiving and we want grace and mercy without giving grace and mercy.

We completely disregard and ignore what we are taught even though we know they are right and true.

We have a choice to open our eyes and our hearts to see and know Jesus. To see and know the Son of God, the Messiah, the one who came to take on all our sins so we may live!

It's time to start paying attention and listening to Jesus.

Your Life Depends on It

Hanging tough this lent? Keep strong and feed yourself with God's Word. Hit up our mass READINGS today!

Our Gospel is from John 8:51-59. There is a bunch in here about Jesus being "I AM" and that He existed before Abraham, but I only want to look at one small, yet hugely important statement.

Jesus flat out says "whoever keeps my word will never see death."

Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe Him? This isn't a trick question, more of a gut check. If we believe in Jesus and believe He is who He says He is, then we believe His Word, right? If we believe His Word, why don't we follow it?

We need to start taking Jesus seriously, we need to start taking our relationship with him seriously and we need to take His Word seriously, like our life depends on it, because it does!

If we don't keep His Word we will be separated from God and we will not live in eternity.

Check yourself and pay attention to the warnings that Christ gives us all throughout scripture, our life depends on it.

Truth and Freedom

Be sure to take a look at the mass READINGS for today!

How many times have we heard "the truth will set you free"? Did you even realize that came from scripture? Our Gospel (John 8:31-42) begins with Jesus telling the Jews "If you remain in my word you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Real freedom can only come through Christ. True Joy and Peace can only be found in Him! This isn't a big secret and it is something that is offered to us freely! We just have to believe, trust and obey The Word!

Jesus is met with resistance, yet He continues preaching to the hostile people that want him in prison or dead. He continues to carry out His Father's will. He continuously lives out the message He preaches, to listen and obey The Father!

Jesus is The Way, The TRUTH, and the Life. We can only be free through Him!

I AM

It's another new day and a wonderful day to be alive! Take a few moments to thank God for the new day and READ and meditate on His Word.

Jesus is the Great I AM. In our Gospel (John 8:21-30) He is very clear who He is and to Whom He belongs.

We can't have it both ways, we are either for Him or against Him. If we oppose Jesus and His message, we are against God, since Jesus is from God.

Jesus is God's Word, living and breathing among the people. He was not of this World and never claimed to be. He told the Pharisees over and over again who He was. He told them the only way to God was through Him, and if they didn't believe Him now, they will realize it when He is lifted up.

He came to wash away our sins and take on our burdens and our struggles. He is The Way, The Truth and The Life. If we miss that, we will remain in darkness.

Throwing stones

Happy Monday! Start the week off right and READ our daily readings for today.

Today's Gospel (John 8:1-11) may be one of the most important sections of scripture for us to pay attention to in this day in age.

A woman caught in adultery is brought to Jesus by the scribes and Pharisees. The law of Moses commands that this woman should be stoned. The scribes and Pharisees wanted to test and put Jesus in a position where they could bring him up on charges for doing something wrong or breaking the law.

I love the way Jesus manages to get out of these crazy jams without sinning or breaking laws.

Judging happens as much in the church as it does outside the church. Sadly, some of the women I know who are quickest to condemn or judge others were in my bible study! These weren't bad women, they were human women! How many of us will look down on a woman we know that cheated on her husband, maybe we don't cheat on our spouse, but we don't honor them and show them respect.

How many of us look down on a mom who's kids are misbehaving and using bad words, yet we are doing so while we are drinking away and cursing ourselves?

I do believe there are levels of sin and some are more damaging to our soul, however, Jesus was super clear here when he says "let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."

We are all sinners! None of us has the right to judge or condemn anyone else for what they do. God is the only judge! He is fair and just, we are not!

This Gospel has us really looking inward and examining our own heart before we start "throwing" stones at another.