Tagged: daily bread

“The Lord addressed Job out of the storm.” –Job 38:1 You’re in a veritable hurricane of difficulty, and all you can see of Jesus is that He’s asleep. You want to scream, “Jesus, don’t You care?” (see Mk 4:38) However, Jesus “cares for you” (1 Pt 5:7). “Indeed He neither slumbers nor sleeps, [your] guardian” (Ps 121:4). Since Jesus never slumbers on the job of guarding you, His sleeping in the boat of the Church and of your life must carry another meaning. Possibly, Jesus’ act of sleeping in the boat is yet another case of Him giving us an...

“Stop worrying, then, over questions like, ‘What are we to eat, or what are we to drink, or what are we to wear?’ The unbelievers are always running after these things.” –Matthew 6:31-32 In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warns us that we cannot serve two masters (Mt 6:24). He means we cannot give ourselves to God and money (Mt 6:24). In saying “giving ourselves to money,” Jesus means “worrying about our livelihood.” We are not to worry about what we are to eat, drink, or wear (Mt 6:25). If we do, Jesus accuses us of having weak faith...

“If your light is darkness, how deep will the darkness be!” –Matthew 6:23 Have you ever been in a room illuminated only by a black light? Such a room is very dimly lit. Everything that’s white shows up, such as teeth and white socks. Dark objects are barely visible. It’s difficult to see how things interrelate. Picture the same room with the black light replaced by a hundred-watt bulb. Now that the room is brightly lit, it’s easy to see and understand the proper relationship of all objects in the room. Jesus describes a similar situation in today’s Gospel. In...

“When someone comes preaching another Jesus than the One we preached, or when you receive a different spirit than the One you have received, or a gospel other than the gospel you accepted, you seem to endure it quite well.” –2 Corinthians 11:4 To live the Christian life, we must know Jesus deeply and intimately. However, it is not easy to know Jesus. For example, Paul accused the Corinthian church of believing in “another Jesus” (2 Cor 11:4) – a false Jesus. Jesus warned: “Many will come attempting to impersonate Me. ‘I am the Messiah!’ they will claim, and they...

“He dawns through the darkness, a light for the upright.” –Psalm 112:4 In many aspects of our lives, we have various zones. For example, we all have comfort zones in work, relationships, prayer, study, service, etc. In our comfort zones, we are relaxing and probably enjoying ourselves. If we, because of love or some other reason, cross the boundary of our comfort zone, we enter into a discomfort zone. In this zone, we are struggling and suffering. In this zone, we find both the danger of burnout and the opportunity for significant growth in holiness as our faculties are challenged...