Category: Bible Reading & Meditation

“This will prove that you are sons of your heavenly Father.” –Matthew 5:45 In this time of Lent, the Church emphasizes more than ever the command: “In a word, you must be made perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). Like our Father, we must show love practically even to our persecutors and enemies (Mt 5:44-45). Lent is traditionally a time of God the Father confirming His love for us as His sons and daughters. Before Jesus was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit (Mt 4:1), He heard His Father say: “This is My beloved Son....

“Lose no time.” –Matthew 5:25 “All’s well that ends well.” “If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all My statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live, he shall not die” (Ez 18:21). The “good thief” lived a miserable life, but ended well and was in paradise with Jesus on the day they both died (Lk 23:43). Because our ending is all-important, some people wait until the end to convert to Jesus. This is a serious mistake. “Delay not your conversion to the Lord, put it not off...

“Ask, and you will receive. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened to you. For the one who asks, receives.” –Matthew 7:7-8 Some ingenuous Bible preachers and teachers have tried to expound on the differences between asking, seeking, and knocking. However, all three commands probably mean the same thing. Jesus is simply and repeatedly commanding us to ask, ask, and ask. Are we getting the message? If so, then why does Jesus keep repeating Himself? Most of us ask God for a thing or two. Yet it may be that He wants us to ask Him...

“Every man shall turn from his evil way.” –Jonah 3:8 The people of Nineveh, wicked as they were, made the connection between their sins and the destruction to come. These people frequently brutalized and butchered large numbers of people. They were pagans, spiritually dead, the least likely to repent. Yet the prophetic word pierced their hearts, and they repented. Jesus commended them for this (Lk 11:32). We fancy ourselves more sophisticated than the ancient Ninevites. We specialize in knowing connections, such as the connection between cholesterol and heart disease, drinking alcohol and liver disease, sanitation and the prevention of infection,...

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but shall do My will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” –Isaiah 55:11 God’s Word does not return void but achieves the end for which it is sent. Because God’s Word is always “living and effective” (Heb 4:12), it is “more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (Ps 119:72). Therefore, we should read and share God’s Word daily (Acts 17:11), for ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ (Catechism, 133, St. Jerome). This Lent, may God’s Word find...