Tagged: daily bread

“If you can trust a man…” –Luke 16:10 You are a child of God. You are very important to God. He wants to give you awesome responsibilities and make your life very special. Before the Lord will give you a world-changing life, however, He needs to trust you. No one should be given great responsibilities if they are not trustworthy. Can the Lord trust you? On American money is written “In God We Trust.” Does the Lord have written on His money “In Sally I trust” or “In George I trust”? Can God trust you? “If you can trust a...

“The worldly take more initiative than the other-worldly when it comes to dealing with their own kind.” –Luke 16:8 “Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guard the city, in vain does the guard keep vigil” (Ps 127:1). “It is the Lord’s blessing that brings wealth, and no effort can substitute for it” (Prv 10:22). No matter how hard we try, we cannot make the works of God happen. “It is God Who, in His good will toward you, begets in you any measure of desire or achievement” (Phil 2:13). Some...

“Both in life and in death we are the Lord’s.” –Romans 14:8 “While we live we are responsible to the Lord” (Rm 14:8). Jesus is “Lord of both the dead and the living” (Rm 14:9). To be saved, we must recognize “the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pt 2:20), “believe in the Lord Jesus” (Acts 16:31), and confess with our “lips that Jesus is Lord” (Rm 10:9). However, we can deceive ourselves about being under the lordship of Jesus. Jesus said: “None of those who cry out, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of God but only the one...

“If any man comes to Me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be My disciple.” –Luke 14:26, JB It takes everything we’ve got to live the Christian life. If we don’t make our relationship with Jesus our “all in all” (see Lk 14:26), if we don’t take up His cross daily (Lk 14:27; 9:23), if we don’t renounce all our possessions (Lk 14:33), we will not have what it takes to build the tower (Lk 14:28), fight the war (Lk 14:31), or run the race of the Christian life...

“Force them to come in.” –Luke 14:23 Today’s Scripture passage in which Jesus commands His disciples to “force” people to enter His kingdom can be difficult to comprehend. Perhaps an example from my life might shed light on Jesus’ meaning. I was an intensely shy college student and found it beyond my ability to join in with other students in Catholic activities. I vividly recall after one Mass hearing several students talking excitedly about that night’s prayer gathering at the Newman Center. Their excitement stirred a longing in me to attend. I walked to the Center and was suddenly too...