Category: Daily Prayer

NOT ON SPEAKING TERMS

“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the animals that the Lord God had made.” –Genesis 3:1 Never get into a conversation with the devil. Refuse to speak to him. “He is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44); he’s a fallen angel, superior to us in intelligence. You’re a fool to talk with the accuser, adversary, and liar. That’s the mistake Eve made. The devil initiated the conversation, but “the woman answered the serpent” (Gn 3:2). It wasn’t long before Eve thought God was depriving her of opportunities. She put faith in Satan’s lies and...

WORK FORCE

“The Lord God then took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it.” –Genesis 2:15 Work was part of paradise. Man cultivated and cared for the garden of Eden before he sinned. We still experience glimpses of fulfillment and creativity in work. Yet, after the fall of man, work has been warped by sin, and our experience of work is often closer to Hell than Paradise. The good news is that when Jesus redeemed us, He saved every aspect of our lives, including work. We no longer must earn our bread by...

GOOD OR BAD TRADITIONS?

“That is the way you nullify God’s word in favor of the traditions you have handed on.” —Mark 7:13 The people of Jesus’ time used mere human traditions to nullify God’s Word. We do the same today. For example, God’s Word calls us all to be one as Jesus and the Father are One (Jn 17:21). Yet we’ve remained divided in our denominations for hundreds of years. It’s our tradition. In the Bible, the Lord commands us: “Your thoughts should be wholly directed to all that is true, all that deserves respect, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous,...

“SEPARATE YOURSELVES” (2 COR 6:17)

“God then separated…” –Genesis 1:4 God’s original creation involved multiple acts of separation (Gn 1:4, 6, 7, 14, 18). God’s separations were “good” (Gn 1:12, 18). God’s new creation in Christ also involves multiple acts of separation. In His new creation, the Lord separates us from: • original sin and its loss of intimacy with God through the Sacrament of Baptism (Gn 3:23; Catechism, 1263), • our sins through the ministry of Jesus (Mt 1:21), • those who would lead us away from Him, even if it might be a member of our own family (Mt 10:35), and • our...

URBAN DEVELOPER

“After sunset, as evening drew on, they brought Him all who were ill, and those possessed by demons. Before long the whole town was gathered outside the door.” –Mark 1:32-33 Job faced reality head on and declared: “Life on earth” is “a drudgery” (Jb 7:1). He described life as being “assigned months of misery” (Jb 7:3). Nights are long; days are short (Jb 7:4, 6) and, when we reach the end of them, we are without hope (Jb 7:6). The only Answer to the drudgery of human existence is Jesus. Jesus is the only Hope for humanity, but the only...