Time to Change the World

Friends of Faith:

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens. ….a time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace. Ecc 3: 1-11 (beginning)

Would you like to change the world, but feel like it is impossible? It is not a time to be silent, it is a time to speak. It is always a time to love, unfortunately there is a lot of hate. And we are in a time of war: against the devil in who is tearing down our Christian moral values, taking away our religious freedom and imposing Islamic terrorism, but God reminds us that if we speak to promote his truth it should give us peace.

But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.  Compete well for the faith. Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who gave testimony under Pontius Pilate for the noble confession, to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ that the blessed and only ruler will make manifest at the proper time, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whom no human being has seen or can see.  To him be honor and eternal power. Amen. 1 Tm: 6: 11-16

Just as I was ready to turn off the politics these were the readings I heard and then I heard a homily which I hope you’ll take the time to listen to as hopefully it will give you peace as it did me:  Daily Catholic Mass - 2016-09-20 - Fr. Miguel.

Simply put God asks us to speak as our religious liberties allow – by voting –while making our decision as to how to vote using our faithful Christian conscience in making a just decision. We must not be discouraged and irritated by personalities or the current state of the morals in our nation. Instead, we are to use due diligence and form our conscience based on the Five non- negotiable Christian values -abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, human cloning and same-sex “so called marriage". More at http://www.catholic.com/ . 

Focus on the Family also reminded me that voting isn’t just about choosing a personality or the lesser of two evils in the presidential race, but rather it is about determining policies at all levels of society: local, state and national – because probably as important as the presidential race are races for our state representatives and the nomination of the judges made at every level, especially for the Supreme and District courts. www.Commit2vote2016.com

If you don’t know where to start here is the direct link to a simple comparative chart on the party platforms. How Do The Party Platforms Compare? We Break It Down. And if you want to verify the comparison copy and paste these direct links to the full platform verbiage. The democratic platform at https://www.demconvention.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Democratic-Party-Platform-7.21.16-no-lines.pdf (in particular pg 19 & 37); and the republican platform at https://prod-static-ngop-pbl.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/DRAFT_12_FINAL[1]-ben_1468872234.pdf (in particular pg 31-32 & 36)

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under the heavens. ……What advantage has the worker from his toil? He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without man’s ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done. Ecc 3: 1-11 (conclusion)

Heavenly Father, bless our nations people and help them to wisely choose our elected officials. Guide our elected officials to uphold Christian moral values as they have been designed by God. Thank you for the gift of life at all stages from natural conception to natural death. Help us to trust in your timeless power and respect your design even when we cannot fully see it. Amen.

This is our appointed time to speak. It is our time to vote a well formed Christian conscience. May we as Christians do our part to change the world.

Blessings, 

Charlotte

Extra Time

Friends of Faith:

Everyone I know wishes for more time. More time with our spouses, more time with our families and friends, more time to get one more thing finished on our list. Even more time for God.
This is February 29^th, a Leap Year. Today IS an “extra day.” What will I do with my “extra time?”

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all of them were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was the Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the desert.
These things happened as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil things, as they did. Do not grumble as some of them did, and suffered death by the destroyer. These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, whoever thinks he is standing secure should take care not to fall. 1 Cor 10: 1-6, 10-12

As St. Paul recalls, God gave everyone the same baptism, a Baptism that gave us each grace. Grace to do God’s will.

God also gives everyone a second chance, just as he did the Israelites coming out of Egypt in the Exodus.

And God gives us all time. Extra time, because no time is really ours, time does not belong to the creature, but to the creator. All time is really Gods. And St. Paul reminds us in this passage that we are not secure if we don’t take good care of our time by being truly IN God’s time.

As baptized Christians our most “inner being” isn’t what tempts us to desire “evil” things. Yet, in fact, we know that there is much evil in this world.

Nor is it grace that allows us to choose to not use our time wisely or as God wills.

In fact, as baptized Christians our most “inner being” has and knows a desire to be fulfilled by God, to know God, to love God (and his creation), and to bring others to know him. St. Augustine wrote: “Thou hast made us for thyself O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in thee.” So whether those desires are staring us in our face, or have been pushed as far back as we can, the desire, the grace to become holy is deep inside.

And this same grace is a grace that allows me to know that I want to spend my time doing whatever God wants me to do for myself and for others. But making those decisions and managing my time is difficult – because I am human – because God gave me the free will to make my own choices and because God allows there to be both His choice and the opportunity to choose something other than His choice.

God gives us all time—because God made all time. Every millisecond is a time to make God a habit. And each second, each hour, each day – TODAY – we are important to him.

Everyone fills their time with something. Everyone is busy, or gives the impression that they are busy doing something. So this is about what I am doing with MY time, how I am justifying MY time.

Am I really too busy today, or am I just putting it off until tomorrow; am I hiding behind other “jobs and duties,” too busy to see or to want to know, how God is calling me; or am I too busy doing what I think of as God’s work and missing what God is actually wanting me to do? Or am I so busy doing good things, but like those wandering in the desert so long ago, grumbling about the things that go wrong, the people that don’t appear to be doing “anything” to help or wishing that had more time to do what I selfishly want to do for myself?

God’s desire for my time is quite simple. It is for me to spend that time to know him (study, seek the truth); to love him (spend time with him); and to serve him (by being a servant to others, no matter how difficult that job may be.)

Yet, how will I spend my “extra time?”

In many ways my answer to God’s call, what I do at times other than the hour I spend at Sunday mass, reflects what are my truest priorities—whether it is what my heart desires or not. Those “free” minutes, the unscheduled hours that I spend  grumbling or gossiping, being tuned into TV, Facebook, or email, or really anytime that I am doing what I want rather than doing what God is asking of me tells God who I am, what I value and how important He truly is to me.

There is no time like the present time! There is no time like this extra day in a normal year. There is no time better than now to read and study God’s scripture,  Church teachings, and early church fathers like St. Augustine, to become a servant (yes this may mean doing something difficult, or not in my comfort zone), or to sit quietly and answer the yearning in my heart to be in God’s presence.

Heavenly Father, You call me to know you, to love you, and to serve you TODAY. Help me to seek Your grace, to serve Your people, and to know the truth. Thank you for this extra day to remind me that every day I have to be with you is “extra.” Amen.

Make today “extra” special for God – and for someone else in your life as well,
Blessings,
Charlotte

First Credit

Friends of Faith:

Last week I wrote about being blessed, and with Thanksgiving just around the corner, it seemed somewhat natural to write about being thankful…

And then this article about the Illinois tornadoes caught my attention: the headline stated that the reason so few people were killed was that they were in church…..  but then it went on  to give credit to the “connectivity” of cell phones that provided instant messages during the service; to “forecasters” for predicting the path of the storm; and to the “technology” that is used in observing weather.

So the fact that most of the town’s people were attending church, in God’s presence and protected by God became merely a “setting,” a publicity stunt for the newspaper, rather than the heart of the story.

In fact, the media did not even mention God’s name. And when the final credits were given, despite the stories attention grabbing first line, “saved because of church,” NO credit was given to God!

No credit was given to THE GOD who has given us life, originally…THE God who saved our lives, mercifully… or even THE God who we would call on to protect us, eternally.

“One day he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, “Let us cross to the other side of the lake.” So they set sail, and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A squall blew over the lake, and they were taking in water and were in danger. They came and woke him saying, “Master, master, we are perishing!” He awakened, rebuked the wind and the waves, and they subsided and there was a calm. Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?” But they were filled with awe and amazed and said to one another, “Who then is this, who commands even the winds and the sea, and they obey him?” Lk 8: 22-25

How big is my faith?

And does my faith remind me to give the first credit, where credit is due—to the Creator, to the Protector, to the Commander of life; by the amount of time, the amount of money, and the amount of effort I spend honoring and obeying him, or is God just an afterthought, a nicety, a convenience when I am in need?

Like the media do I have more faith and reliance on man’s technology and connectivity and give the credit to “man” instead of to the person to whom it is really due—to God?

Do I honor God by spending as much of my time in His house as I do honoring celebrities at houses built by man (entertainment venues)?

Do I use as many of my gifts to take care of God’s people (donations to charitable organizations which help widows, orphans, the homeless or the hungry) as I do rewarding  myself (shopping, vacations, entertainment, eating out)?

Do I set my alarm and mark off time on my calendar to celebrate God as I would to wake up for work or to plan for a vacation or to enjoy a night out with friends?

And is my freedom to worship God less important than, just as important, or more important than, the equality and the freedom to work, live, and play with whomever I want?

Heavenly Father, You are the Creator, the Lord, the Master and Majesty of all. You are the one who gave us the power to subdue Your earth (Gen 1: 28). Help us never to abuse the power you have given us. Help me to always remember to give First Credit where it is due by saying Thank You to You. Thank you for all I am, all that I have and all that you have blessed me to do for you. Amen.

Don’t make God an afterthought – give God the honor of the First Credit (thankfulness), the respect of obedience and profit of your first fruit.
Blessings,
Charlotte