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This Christmas, Share Christ’s Love With The Lost!

“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace”-Wonderful Counselor”

How Blessed are we :).

But there are some who reject Jesus. Some who celebrate Christmas, without even celebrating His birth. It’s hard to imagine how anyone could celebrate Christmas, but not celebrate Christ’s birth. It seems wrong.

To realize that there are people/souls are “perishing all around us, going out into the blackness of darkness and despair, eternally lost”. And not to care. Somehow that also seems wrong.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”-John 3:16

Seems like if God loved us so, we should love unbelievers just as well.

This Christmas, pray especially for those who do not believe. Reach out to those who do not yet know Jesus. And pray they will come to know Him in time.

Believe!

“Believe what you do believe. or else you will never persuade anybody else to believe it.”-Charles Spurgeon

As we approach Christmas, our thoughts and our hearts go out to those we love that do not believe. We want to share our joy and our hope with them, but are sometimes unsure how we can do that.

The first step is to “Believe what you do believe”. We can’t share what we don’t truly have ourselves. So often we ask, how do we make our faith stronger? There are some steps that can help such as praying and reading the Bible.

But really the way lies in asking God to make our faith stronger. To give us that Gift so that we can share it with others. Jesus said in John 7:38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” Jesus was referring to the Holy Spirit.

So ask the Holy Spirit, in Jesus’ Name, for Help today 🙂

The Bridge

See while praying the Rosary: The Great Depression

With the economy struggling world wide, many of us worry if we will one day return to the days of the Great Depression. Or worse yet, just as World War II pulled us out of the Great Depression, will there be a World War III?

But the answer is the same today as it was yesterday, Jesus 🙂

Jesus created a Bridge between the Father and us. He created a path for us to spend eternity in Heaven. but we do need to accept His Great Gift.

As we approach the Celebration of Christ’s birth, accept His Gift today!

We Need To Open Our Eyes!

“Father, please open our eyes” is a phrase in the lyrics of the song Make It Right. As we approach Christmas, the need to “open our eyes” has never been stronger and more necessary.

Because being Christian is more than just a phrase and it is more than just a claim. It’s who we are, every minute of every day!

“I’m praying that you open our eyes”-Make It Right.

Please pray that we all “open our eyes”. For a prison can be a building, but it can also be our behavior choices. It can be the people we choose to spend our time with. It can be how we prioritize our time. Prisons are often of our own making, but we can choose to be free in Christ 🙂

And this Christmas, I also pray that we all make following Jesus our number one priority, we can make that our gift to Jesus 🙂

For Jesus have already given us so much. Thank you Jesus!

Pray For Peace!

In Matthew 24, verse 24, Jesus warns us that:

“For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” – Matthew 24:24

So how will we know when Jesus truly returns? We know many things, but one of them is that Jesus will never contradict what is in God’s Word. Never.

The Bible is our resource; we need to read it.

And as we approach the celebration of Christ’s birth, we can celebrate the Hope that Jesus gives us. The knowledge that we are saved because He chose to be born. Truly we are Blessed. Thank you Jesus!

Prepare, Pray and Be Ready!

Thank You Joseph!

In order to understand Joseph’s Great Faith, one has to understand the times in which He lived. Men did not marry women who were already pregnant. At least not in this particular type of situation. For example, if Joseph had exposed Her pregnancy publicly, Mary could have been stoned to death! Thankfully, Joseph, a descendant of the House of King David, was a good man and unwilling to expose Mary to public disgrace.

Blessedly, an Angel appeared to Joseph telling him to be Mary’s husband. And telling Him to name the baby Jesus. Joseph did both!

Joseph had a second dream some years later, in which an angel told him to flee to Egypt. Joseph awoke in the middle of the night and fled with Mary and Jesus.

Personally, I stand in awe of His faith. He didn’t hesitate; he just obeyed! Would that we could all be more like him 🙂

But there were also other incredible gifts that Joseph gave. He took care of Jesus in the way an earthly father would. He loved him; he supported him and he protected him. And he did the same for Mary! He was an emotional and physical shoulder for Mary to lean on. He was there. Mary could depend on him, in all ways. And Mary loved him 🙂

And Joseph Loved Mary & Jesus 🙂

“Be Born In Me”

Thank You!

Christmas, in a sense, began with Mary’s Yes. We often forget just how young Mary was. Just a girl. How overwhelmed She must have been! I can’t even imagine how filled with love Her Heart was for God! Or how filled with courage and faith :).

That Mary said Yes to God, and helped to give us the Greatest Gift we have ever received: Jesus.

Thank you Mary, we will always be so very grateful 🙂

Mary’s Message Of Hope

During the 16th and 17th centuries, our Blessed Mother Mary appeared in Ecuador to a little known Spanish nun. She gave both a warning and hope for the future. Mary predicted a “spiritual catastrophe” that would occur in the Catholic church, beginning sometime after the mid 1900’s and spread.

One thing that Mary shared was that many would be unable to receive the Sacraments (Holy Communion, Confession, Baptism…). And did this not occur during Covid? While Walmart was deemed “essential”, church was not!

Mary also warned that the Sacrament of Marriage would be attacked. And has it not been? Less and less young people are even getting married. Gay marriage seems to be the law of the land, despite the fact that it is clearly displeasing to God! And in spite of the fact that during the Sacrament of Marriage, we pledge before God to love another person until death due us part, divorce has grown by leaps and bounds.

Does God forgive us if we ask in Jesus’ Name and repent? Of course! God forgives all of those who truly repent though His Son Jesus Christ. But the increase of men and woman breaking the vows that they made before God is concerning. Is Marriage under attack? Yes!

There will, for a variety of reasons, be a decrease in Priestly and Religious vocations. And that is important, for who will teach us? And who will help to hold us accountable? Who will lead the effort to continue the faith?

Many of the sick will not receive the Sacrament of Extreme Unction. In other Christian Churches, this is simply called a Prayer for the Sick. And it’s also important. For those prayers sometimes bring healing and always bring comfort.

Mary also told us that priests who truly serve the Lord would be attacked. Have they not been? Both priests and ministers who truly serve the Lord ARE being attacked. And their message, found in God’s Word, ARE under attack as well!

Mary also said that many of the Faithful would be Blinded. Truly unable to see what is happening around them and to them, and truly unable to see what God requires of them! Will they be lost?

Mary also said even more people will fall into sin! Too many will pick and choose among God’s Word, seeking to justify their sinful choices, but there will be no justification before God!

“Widespread moral corruption, Profanation of the Sacraments of Matrimony, Depraved Priests, Unbridled Lust, Loss of Innocence and Lack of Priestly and Religious Vocations” are just a few of the evils that Mary warned us would happen.

This will be a time of punishment. But Mary said, ” I will always be there ready to listen to their cries and soothe their pain. Tell them that they should always run to their Mother with confidence and love…”

And Mary also said, “But when evil finally seems to triumph over all, when all seems lost, Complete Restoration of the Church will begin and the Church will finally reawaken.” Because God loves us 🙂

We need to pray daily, both for the courage we will need and that our Faith will grow-despite the difficult challenges we will face. And God WILL answer, because He loves us 🙂

The Assumption of Mary

As the Apostles prayed and watched, Mary died and later was taken into Heaven, body and soul. Some believe this and some do not. I do.

But make no mistake, this is not just a Catholic belief. Martin Luther also believed in the Assumption of Mary, as did the great Protestant reformer H. Bullinger.

Why wouldn’t Mary be Assumed in to Heaven. Assumed simply means that God took Mary’s body up into Heaven with Her soul. Why wouldn’t He?

Imagine how much God must have loved Mary. How much Jesus must have loved His mother! She followed their Will always. She walked with them Daily. No matter what the Cost, no matter how much Pain or Suffering, Mary was always Faithful and always Willing. A True Temple of the Holy Spirit, Mary loved us all and She has never stopped 🙂

Of course, God would want to do something special for Mary!

Shades of Sodom and Gomorrah

By Chris Moen

“Abraham’s nephew Lot lived in the ancient city of Sodom up until the time of its destruction (Genesis 14:12; 19:1). Sodom and Gomorrah were among five cities of the lush Jordan valley (Genesis 14:2). The region “was of extraordinary beauty and fertility. … Its appearance was then so attractive as to bear comparison with the garden of the Lord and the land of Egypt” (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Genesis 13:10-12).

In spite of the beauty and abundance of good things in those cities, Sodom and Gomorrah were also renowned for their wickedness. Rather than living by God’s instructions, “the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the LORD” (Genesis 13:13).

So God investigated “the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah,” and He decided to destroy them in Lot’s day because their sin was “very grave” (Genesis 18:20). It was in God’s perfect judgment that He destroyed these cities, letting them serve as sobering examples for all mankind to learn from.

Jesus Christ said that societies at the end of the age would parallel those in the days of Noah and Lot (Luke 17:26-30). Regarding the time of Lot, Jesus said, “They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all” (verses 28-29). The discerning individual will look further into God’s Word to comprehend what Jesus meant.

Paul called the period just before Christ’s return “perilous times.” He said they would be filled with pleasure-seeking, materialism, immorality, violence, idleness and rejection of the things of God (2 Timothy 3:1-5).

Sodom’s evils described

From the creation, Paul explained, mankind quickly began drifting away from God’s ways (Romans 1:20-25). As mankind went astray, men and women began to exchange the wholesome, God-ordained use of sex for vile and shameful passions (verses 26-27). Paul also listed a number of other sinful behaviors that humans began practicing as they turned from God (verses 28-31).

Likewise addressing sexual immorality, the apostle Jude said that Sodom and Gomorrah, “having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Jude 1:7).

What Jude called “strange flesh” (“unnatural lust,” Revised Standard Version) is often called “alternative lifestyles” in our modern age. The term sounds so innocent in our culture, but this denotes sexual behavior that is unnatural and offensive to God (Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, Jude 1:7).

When we read Genesis 19:1-8, it becomes easy to see that this is what both Paul and Jude had in mind. Sodom’s society was steeped in widespread sexual immorality, including homosexual acts and vicious rapes (verses 4-5). The residents of Sodom had become so evil that God could not find even 10 righteous people among them (Genesis 18:32).

More sins of Sodom

In the book of Ezekiel, God listed some of the other sins of Sodom in the context of showing how Judah had become much like Sodom. God told Judah, “Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they [the Sodomites] were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit” (Ezekiel 16:49-50).

God also compared the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem with the people of Sodom. “They commit adultery and walk in lies; they also strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah” (Jeremiah 23:14).

When the leadership of a society doesn’t set a good moral example and evil is allowed to flourish, the population will generally decline toward the same bad behavior (Ecclesiastes 8:11). To learn more about the similar societal conditions before the Flood in Noah’s day, read “As in the Days of Noah.”

Signs of the times

In his book Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism and American Decline (1996), former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Robert H. Bork explained the roots of American cultural decline and degeneracy. He cited increased violence in and sexualization of mass media, the legalization of abortion and the decline of religion, among other factors. These societal ills are contrary to God’s laws that bring peace, success and strength to any nation.

This is clearly a sign of our time. Our Western societies today are following this same trend of flaunting sin openly and publicly.Before God destroyed Judah for following the same pattern as Sodom and Gomorrah, He warned His people that they were becoming boastful and unashamed of their blatant sins. God said, “They declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves” (Isaiah 3:9).

This is clearly a sign of our time. Our Western societies today are following this same trend of flaunting sin openly and publicly.

God spoke about Judah’s moral decline, asking, “‘Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time I punish them, they shall be cast down,’ says the LORD” (Jeremiah 6:15).

We should pay attention to this warning today!

Could disaster strike again?

God preserved the biblical record of Sodom and Gomorrah for every generation to read and take warning. Today the world is heading recklessly toward the edge of a cliff, like a runaway car down a winding mountain road. As humans reject God’s laws of sexual morality and cast off all restraint, without large-scale repentance, eventually disaster will come.

God does not enjoy punishing people (Ezekiel 33:11). God truly desires everyone to repent and turn toward Him, seeking His mercy (Isaiah 55:6-7). But God also does not change His abhorrence of wickedness. Eventually, God will punish everyone who hears and then rejects His laws.

God offers people and nations a way to avoid punishment, saying, “The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it, if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it” (Jeremiah 18:7-8, emphasis added).”

For more by Chris Moen: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/authors/chris-moen/