103023
Exhausted physically & tortured mentally from last night.
Raining but still ran to church. Couldn't bear the thought of not receiving the Eucharist.
So sleep-deprived disoriented during Mass; triggered CANNON???? Like DIRECTLY, as she has FIRST PERSON MEMORIES of feeling that way at Marywood CONSTANTLY
🌟CENTRALITES ARE ALL TIED TO WHITE/BLACK?? AND SPECIFICALLY DETERMINE "FUNCTION ANALOGUES" IN ALL OTHER HUES????
⭐IS THIS WHY CERTAIN HUES ARE SO EMPTY??? BECAUSE CENTRAL ISN'T FULL???
⭐THIS IS ALSO WHY HUE SLIDING & FUNCTION BLURRING ARE SO GLOBALLY DEADLY!!!
We NEED jargon for this, NOT using names but TERMS instead, like "rpg classes" almost. ❗DO "Protector," "Defender," etc. TIE INTO THIS???
⭐SCALPEL IS A "JOSEPHINA ANALOGUE"??????
Laurie= Spice, Lancifoliel???
Julie= Adelaide, "ganguro," Mulberry, MISSY??
Lynne= ??? TIED TO OLD BODY APPEARANCE, but ONLY DRESSY!!
Leon= Jeremiah!
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abbodfer = A striking chastisement against entitlement-- assuming everyone is always thinking about you, &/or that you are involved in what is going on.
MDE= More emphasis on the PERSONALLY RELATIONAL aspect of the Eucharist.
1) (quote)
2) Mysticism & the Eucharist, notably the shocking ardor of female mystics TO receive the Host. This revealed a notable recoiling in me???? I am AFRAID of such "eagerness" because it's DESIRE and that is ENTIRELY SEXUALIZED TO ME. Honestly that unhealed trauma-- which a big part of me is UNWILLING TO HEAL out of fear of "becoming capable of sexuality"-- is frighteningly proving to be a HUGE OBSTACLE TO ANY EUCHARISTIC DEVOTION for me.
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The VOTD reflection =
"God is eternal & everlasting. God is the same today as He was a thousand years ago and will be a thousand years from today. This is an incredibly comforting truth that God will always be the same loving and dependable God He's always been. We never have to worry that God will act differently than what we learn about Him in Scripture. The same God who created the heavens and the earth is the same God who loves and cares for you today.
Because God is eternal, He knows the beginning and the end. Therefore, we can trust Him in the midst of our journey, that He knows what He is doing, and that all things will work out for HIS GOOD."
I emphasized those last two words because WHAT A KEYPOINT!!!
Yes, God will "make all things work together into good for those who love Him," but all things ALREADY are working out for GOD'S GOOD-- for HIS GLORY!! Therefore, all we have to do is TUNE INTO THAT REALITY by loving Him, because when we love God, WE seek only His Glory & Good, and therefore "all things" will be for OUR good now, too, in that loving unity of RELATIONSHIP.
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Also essential: God's Character is REVEALED IN SCRIPTURE, especially through Jesus Christ in the Gospels.
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Lastly... trust His Character AND His Knowledge working in tandem. God is always loving & dependable, no matter WHAT is happening on earth. He KNOWS why this is happening, and KNOWS how & why & when it will end. Of course I'm thinking about the war in Israel. I don't understand it at all. But God is still Good, still Just, still Righteous, still Merciful, still Loving. ALL I CAN DO IS TRUST IN HIS CHARACTER. It's the only comfort & hope I have... and despite all invading struggles & fears, ultimately that hope is indomitable.
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KVOTD = the unexpected beauty of Revelation 5:13, in which ALL creatures EVERYWHERE are singing together to God. "All living beings in the universe" "join the angelic choir" and "worship with one voice," giving "praise, honor, glory, & power" to the Triune God "forever and ever." THAT IS HEAVEN. That is DEFINIVELY HEAVEN. The unity, the beauty, the love, the worship-- to be called there and abide there when we die is worth every sacrifice we can make here.
What a blissful hope, to be joined to all the cosmos in blessing our God in eternal song.
The also unexpectedly beautiful prayer=
"God, You are so amazing. Your love makes me feel valued. Your strength makes me feel protected. Your grace makes me feel free. Thank You for all You've done for me. Please help my life be a living act of worship of You. I want to honor You in everything I do."
That's actually a powerful summary of how we must treat others as a Christian, which is a big part of HOW we worship God. Are we honoring His Name as literal bearers if it, as members of His Son's Body? Do we strive to make others feel valued by how we love them? Do we use our unique strengths to protect those who are weak & vulnerable in those areas? Do we help others feel the freedom of God's grace by forgiving them, showing mercy, and offering them hope?
THAT is how our lives become "living acts of worship." We must ACT, and in "living" ways, not static & automatic ones!
The questions asked, "how will you worship God today?" with the options of prayer, giving alms, & song. I thought, "well I already did the first two today, but I'd be abashed to do the third??" PRIDE & SELF-HATRED TAGTEAM FROM HELL.
I immediately thought "You can't fake it if you're singing"?? Like, you can give alms & even pray in an "automatic" way-- although there is no spiritual merit in that, and it is arguably a venal sin-- you cannot really "go autopilot" with singing?? As a cantor it DEMANDS attention. The real risk there is, as I said, pride at performance, or self-hatred at hearing one's own voice.
But already this isn't true. You CAN "go on autopilot" when singing, if you've sang that particular bit often enough for it to run a "muscle memory" script.
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Hopefully finishing up Matthew Henry's Commentary today, we're at verse 48.
"Who they are whose unbelief is here condemned: those who hear Christ's words and yet believe them not... those that have heard, or might have heard, and would not, lie open to this doom... the constructive malignity of their unbelief, of their not receiving Christ's word, is that such is interpreted as a rejecting of Christ. It denotes a rejection with scorn and contempt. Where the banner of the Gospel is displayed, no neutrality is admitted; every man is either a subject or an enemy."
First: if you had the CHANCE to hear Christ's Words and CHOSE NOT TO, you are morally culpable???? This is STILL a "refusal to believe", except "cutting out the middleman" of actually hearing the Word, thus trying to excuse yourself by ignorance.
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Second: I had to Google that term and it's essentially "MALICE AFORETHOUGHT"-- the term used to describe predisposition to murder. It means that a man committed a crime with the depravity of heart to WANT to do grievous harm even to the point of murder, or with enough cold indifference to not care if someone died as a result of their depraved actions. ANDTHAT IS WHAT OUR UNBELIEF DOES TO JESUS CHRIST.
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Third: THERE IS NO NEUTRALITY IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE. There is NO SUCH THING AS MORAL RELATIVISM. There is NO "GRAY AREA" when it comes to FAITH! When Christ speaks, you either believe Him or you don't. There is no sitting on the fence. Why? Because CHRIST IS GOD, GOD IS TRUTH, AND HIS GOSPEL BRINGS LIFE OR DEATH DEPENDING ON OUR RESPONSE. We talked about this yesterday in Deuteronomy.
To say you believe something is true, and then fail to act accordingly, is like saying you believe in your lung cancer diagnosis but then persisting in your chainsmoking habit. It's like saying you believe in the accuracy of the map directions but refusing to refer to them as you drive. It's disastrously hypocritical, and it proves that your heart is too proud to commit, obey, or trust in anything but itself. And THAT is what kills you.
There is no faith in heaven because there you KNOW that God is God, and that He is One. In a lesser way, when we see Christ and RECOGNIZE HIM AS GOD BY THE SPIRIT, FAITH BECOMES MANDATORY BECAUSE WE HAVE BEEN FACED WITH ABSOLUTE TRUTH AND MUST EITHER ACCEPT IT OR REJECT IT FOREVER. If pride wins you over in that decisive moment, then just like Lucifer, you will have made your choice.
Either you stand with Jesus Christ or you stand with Satan, and all of Creation already knows, through the Reality of the Cross, that in the end, no matter what happens before then, the Lamb wins. So do not be fooled... and do not be afraid.
"On the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, unbelief will certainly be a damning sin. Some think when Christ saith, "I judge no man", He means that they are condemned already. There needs no process, they are self-judged; no execution, they are self-ruined... That word of Christ, "He that believes not shall be damned", will judge all unbelievers to eternal ruin; and there are many such like words... how justly those will perish who reject Christ and His Word! Those who disobey Christ despise everlasting life, and renounce it; so that not only Christ's words will judge them, but even their own; so shall their doom be, themselves have decided it; and who can except against it? ...Every word Christ spoke, every sermon, every argument, every kind offer, will be produced as a testimony against those who slighted all He said, [and] will convict them as the evidence of their crime... Nothing is more dreadful than abused patience, and grace trampled on."
That first part is so frightening. If we choose not to believe in Christ, there is no need of a trial, no need to find evidence, no need even to give sentence, or send to the guillotine-- our unbelief does ALL OF THAT ITSELF. The prevailing truth is that unbelief is such a flagrant sin against reality, such an unjustifiable offense, that the very choice itself IS damning, IS death itself. "They are self-ruined," and the horror is that nothing in creation COULD ruin them more. Unbelief cuts them off from God, and willingly so-- it is the definition of hell. God does not send them there; they escort themselves, even with smug satisfaction, not realizing that they have chosen the everlasting torment of impenetrable darkness. They have decided to die, because they were offered eternal life and they themselves judged that they were fund without it-- it wasn't what they desired, it didn't appeal to their interests, it didn't touch their hearts at all. They decided that eternal life wasn't worth the cost, and so justly their only remaining option was eternal death. Do unbelieving souls even consider this? Or do they laugh at the very idea of it? But such mockery itself is further judgment against them: it shows that they deny eternity itself. They have nothing to hope for by their own choosing.
I'm rambling. Sorry. Anxiety is very bad today, hence the ridiculously pretentious language.
I want to focus on this= "
First, unbelief is damnation. Damnation only occurs when there is unbelief in Christ.
Furthermore, the emphasis is CONSTANTLY on CHOICE and JUST DESERTS in this regard.
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Second, to not believe in Christ will ruin you, because separation from Christ is separation from everything good and true and holy.
Third, to not believe in Christ is a self-judgment because it reveals where the passions and loyalties of your heart truly lie. Christ's character is evident as purely righteous, noble, and pure-- His Words are all trustworthy and edifying, every one of them meant for our salvation. Even to many pagans, Christ is evident as a truly morally excellent figure, full of spiritual truth, in a league of His own apart from all men. They do not believe in Him as God but they can still recognize the Divine in Him, and they do not reject His teachings outright. But some do. Some hearts do reject Christ wholesale, blind to His beauty,
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Fourth, "those who disobey Christ despise everlasting life, and renounce it."
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Fifth, EVERY SINGLE ACTION & WORD OF CHRIST CAN & WILL TESTIFY AGAINST US IF WE "SLIGHT IT," BECAUSE EVERYTHING HE EVER DID OR SAID IN HIS GOSPEL WAS HOLY & DEIGNED BY GOD.
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Sixth, "nothing is more dreadful than abused patience, and grace trampled on." It is far too lethally easy to become complacent in life and presumptuous concerning God's mercy. The Psalmist lamented this very thing: "why do the wicked prosper?" Why does God let them thrive & succeed, apparently painless & worry-free, for so long? It is because He doesn't want the sinner to perish, and He will give every single possible chance & opportunity & grace to recognize God's Goodness and their own failure to live up to it and He HAS to do this gently in many cases because their souls aren't mature or awake enough to handle an outright conviction. It takes time to prepare them morally for the decisive moment, when they CAN recognize their sins and CAN honestly receive & accept that first impetus of grace TO repent... but there is never a guarantee. Even then, they have free will to choose. And, lest we forget, the devil is CONSTANTLY WARRING AGAINST GOD to steal & seduce souls to sin. So God's long-suffering patience & grace are standing in clear opposition to Satan's weaponizing of the world & the flesh, and that war can go on for decades with neither side ever backing down... that is, IF there is ACTUAL BATTLE HAPPENING. If God is giving patient opportunity for repentance, withholding punishment and even allowing that sinner to experience good fortune, but that sinner keeps ignoring or denying or even rejecting God outright, then God will withdraw His mighty Power, and leave that sinner unmoored in the seas of hell. Then watch how quickly their life disintegrates. This is why you see rich & affluent & "happy" people suddenly commit suicide. They despair, because they have refused to accept the real hope that was offered them.
Additionally, all that "trampled grace" is ALSO "EVIDENCE AGAINST" them. God went above & beyond to help, to show mercy, but it was spurned. God cannot be blamed.
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I cannot type this evening, I'm sorry.
""Whatsoever I speak, it is as the Father said unto Me": Christ was intimately acquainted with the counsels of God, and was faithful in discovering so much of them to the children of men as it was agreed should be discovered, and kept back nothing that was profitable... He spoke the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. This is a great encouragement to faith; the sayings of Christ, rightly understood, are what we may venture our souls upon. It is also a great example of obedience. Christ said as he was bidden, and so must we; Christ communicated what the Father had said to Him, and so must we. In the midst of all the respect paid to him, this is the honour he values himself upon: that what the Father had said to Him, that He spoke, and in the manner as He was directed, so He spoke. This was His glory: that, as a Son, He was faithful to Him that appointed Him; and, by an unfeigned belief of every word of Christ, and an entire subjection of soul to it, we must give Him the glory due to His Name."
First: Christ hides nothing from us that we need to know for salvation. This is further ammo against gnostic tendencies. We have no need to "seek out further hidden knowledge"-- Christ IS all knowledge and wisdom, and what He says in the Scriptures contains all its treasures, available to all who seek with all their hearts. The Holy Spirit is specifically given to us FOR this purpose of sharing in the knowledge of God, which is a divine pun-- it is only in KNOWING GOD, through knowing CHRIST JESUS, that we gain any and all true knowledge. What we think "Christ didn't tell us" is an illusion and a falsehood. That is the lie of the Serpent in Eden. Christ literally told us EVERYTHING WE NEED FOR SALVATION & ETERNAL LIFE. The question is: do we TRUST His trustworthiness?
Second: we can therefore literally "bet our every atom" on the verity of Christ.
Third: we must say what we have been TOLD to say-- which is synonymous with this: we MUST communicate what God has said to us. Christ charges us to preach the Gospel to every creature-- the very Gospel that was HIS COMMISSION FROM THE FATHER. That same divine charge is given to us IN Christ and BY Christ.
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BUT BE WARNED: Christ NEVER "edited anything." He NEVER added His "own opinion," or altered words for different audiences or political correctness. He said EXACTLY what the Father told Him to, in the EXACT WAY He was told to. Do we?
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Fourth: obedience is Christ's honor. That obedience is perfected in the CROSS.
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Fifth: HOW TO GIVE CHRIST DUE GLORY. This is so important. If God's Glory IS the Cross, and the Cross is Christ's perfect obedience and love to His Father, and every Word He spoke of His Gospel was ultimately leading up to and contained in the "preaching" of the Cross Itself... then the only way we poor mortals CAN glorify God is by offering those things in return to Him?? "To God alone belongs glory," after all; everything Good we have at ALL comes from Him as a gift. Still, glory is His due.
So, if it was Christ's glory to be obedient to His Father, then we glorify the Father by ALSO being obedient to Him BY obeying Christ. We trust His Gospel message, we do what He says, we communicate His Truth to others, we follow Him to the Cross. We believe every Word without hesitation and we conform our souls to it-- to Him-- even unto death. If Christ speaks the Word of God-- if Christ IS God-- then to glorify Him is to make Him the center of our existence. To glorify Him is to testify to His Divinity by unflinchingly & without exception declaring Him to be True in Word and Works, by imitating Him in both. We make His Life & Death the exact pattern and model of our own. God must be glorified with everything we have & are. But the first step is openly & freely & absolutely owning Jesus Christ AS God... and you cannot do that if you do not obey Him. That is, simply, the Glory He deserves most, for it is one He cannot receive otherwise: the willing submission of a humble heart to His Law of Love.
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Today we're taking a very much needed detour through 1 Peter 5:7 in light of current world events, and our daily panic attacks & control obsession, which are CHOKING us today.
"Anxiety implies not only some distrust of God’s providence, but also some kind of belief that we may be able to manage better for ourselves; therefore here, as in the Sermon on the Mount, we are exhorted, especially in time of danger, simply to do what we know we ought to do, and to be unheeding about the rest.
“Lord, it belongs not to my care / Whether I die or live.”
The confidence cannot be misplaced, for God is not forgetful of us."
I CANNOT manage better for myself. I've proven that disastrously, time and time again.
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What is it we KNOW we ought to do? Don't let obsessive anxiety create false doubts. The answer is in Micah.
"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God."
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I remember how, many days in the hospital, I would repeat the first half of Job 13:15 over and over like a mantra. "Though He slay me, I will hope in Him." "God may kill me, but still I will trust Him."
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