Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“When the days come that the Groom is removed from their midst, they will surely fast in those days.” –Luke 5:35 Jesus said that after His Ascension into heaven, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the birth of His Church, then His disciples would fast. After His disciples were baptized into Him and became new creations, they could fast in a radically new dimension. Then the early Church tried to discover what Jesus’ new kind of fasting was. When the Lord blinded Saul, He put him on a three-day fast from food and drink prior to his...

“Remaining seated, He continued to teach the crowds from the boat. When He had finished speaking He said to Simon, ‘Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch.’ ” –Luke 5:3-4 On January 6, 2001, on the feast of the Epiphany, at the official end of the Great Jubilee, Pope St. John Paul II proclaimed and prophesied that the Lord’s call for the Church at the beginning of the third millennium was: “Put out into the deep” (Lk 5:4, our transl). Nearly twenty years later, we need to ask ourselves how we have responded to the...

“I could not talk to you as spiritual men but only as men of flesh, as infants in Christ.” –1 Corinthians 3:1 Many times God’s people are sick, “in the grip of a severe fever,” and unable to serve God and His people (Lk 4:38-39). We become sick and non-functional when the body of Christ is dislocated and divided. Our debilitating divisions are partially due to our immaturity. Our immaturity and spiritual retardation are partly due to our lack of spiritual nourishment (see 1 Cor 3:2ff). Our lack of spiritual nourishment is partly due to spiritual anorexia. We have lost...

“The Spirit we have received is not the world’s spirit but God’s Spirit.” –1 Corinthians 2:12 The Spirit: • “scrutinizes all matters” (1 Cor 2:10), • alone “knows what lies at the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:11), • helps “us to recognize the gifts He has given us” (1 Cor 2:12), • teaches us the words with which to speak of spiritual things (1 Cor 2:13), and • makes it possible for us to “have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16). We are trapped in ignorance, confusion, and a superficial relationship with the Lord unless we are docile...

“No prophet gains acceptance in his native place.” –Luke 4:24 When Jesus comes to town, He comes not to do what we want but what He wants. He comes not to take orders from us but to give orders to us. He will do things beyond our understanding (see Is 55:8-9). He will expect us to trust Him as Lord. When Jesus came to His hometown as Lord, He was not accepted. As He began His public ministry, the people of Nazareth threatened to murder Him by throwing Him over a cliff (Lk 4:28-30). This was a preview of the...