Category: Daily Reflections

EMBRACE HIS HEART

“Who among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wasteland and follow the lost one until he finds it?” –Luke 15:4 Jesus thinks of salvation in terms of individual people. His heart literally bleeds for lost, hurting people in need of a Savior. This reveals the love within the Sacred Heart of Jesus. He cannot hold Himself back from saving us. He greatly desires to save us (see 1 Tm 2:4). He must pursue us (see Lk 15:4), just like a parent who pursues his or her little...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AND DEATHDAY

“She gave birth to a son.” –Luke 1:57 The birthday of St. John the Baptizer is halfway between Christmases. Are you ready for Christmas? Today Jesus may come back and the world may end. Are you ready for Jesus’ final coming? (see Mt 24:44) If Jesus decided to make this your dying day, would that be fine with you? Many people, even Christians, are not ready for Christ’s comings at Christmas, at the end of the world, or at their deaths. They need John the Baptizer, for his mission is to prepare the way of the Lord (Mk 1:3). He...

FRUIT INSPECTION

“Any sound tree bears good fruit, while a decayed tree bears bad fruit.” –Matthew 7:17 This week we conclude three weeks of reading and praying the Sermon on the Mount. The world, even much of the Christian world, explicitly denies Jesus’ commands in the Sermon on the Mount. For example, our society believes in a pleasure-seeking lifestyle, not in voluntary poverty (Mt 5:3). We aren’t nearly as concerned as Jesus about looking lustfully at someone (Mt 5:28). How could we stockpile nuclear weapons if we were concerned with loving our enemies? (Mt 5:44) Most people don’t believe in the Sermon...

FROM DREAD TO SPREAD

“Hezekiah took the letter…then he went up to the temple of the Lord, and spreading it out before Him, He prayed in the Lord’s presence.” –2 Kings 19:14 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, trusted in earthly power and particularly in his strong army of 185,000 soldiers (2 Kgs 19:9ff, 35). Hezekiah, king of Judah, trusted in the power and protection of God (2 Kgs 19:14-19). Hezekiah spread out his problems before the Lord and surrendered all to the mercy of God (2 Kgs 19:14ff). Many kings of Judah did not trust God as did Hezekiah. King Hezekiah entered “through the narrow...

THE CULT OF SECULAR HUMANISM

“…because they venerated other gods.” –2 Kings 17:7 When we read in the Bible about false gods, we picture weird-looking statues in a strange temple filled with crazed, demon-possessed fanatics. False gods don’t necessarily have anything to do with statues, temples, or foreign cultures. For example, secular humanism is a religion that bows down before the god of self. There is no emphasis on statues or temples. The people involved in this religion do not appear primitive, but sophisticated. Secular humanism adores a variety of gods: the gods of sex, pleasure, money, lifestyle, military or political power, scientific technology, capitalism,...