Tagged: daily bread

“You do not know what you are asking.” –Mark 10:38 The Lord commands us to “confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and favor and to find help in time of need” (Heb 4:16). When we do this, however, we should try to understand the implications of what we are asking (Mk 10:38). If we ask for many to be justified and saved, we are also asking that we share in Christ’s redemptive sufferings (Is 53:11; Col 1:24). If we pray for the will of the Lord to be accomplished through us, we are also asking for the...

“When they bring you before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourself.” –Luke 12:11 Today the Church celebrates the feast of a martyr, St. Ignatius of Antioch. The word martyr means “witness,” but has come to denote a person killed for their faith in Jesus. Martyrs are so devoted to Jesus and the spread of His Good News that instead of giving up their witness to Jesus, they give up their life for Jesus. They depend on faith (Rm 4:16), never despairing in the face of persecution and suffering. Whether or not we are put...

“Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as justice.” –Romans 4:3 In the year 2000, the Church celebrated the Year of the Great Jubilee. “The primary objective” of the Great Jubilee was to be “the strengthening of faith” (Towards the Third Millennium, 42). The year 2012-2013 was declared the Year of Faith. If we had let the Lord Jesus prepare us in both the Great Jubilee year and the Year of Faith, we should be seeing an ever-increasing faith in the Lord. By faith, we will be able to restore justice to our society and live in the...

“Through His blood, God made Him the Means of expiation for all who believe.” –Romans 3:25 “All men have sinned” (Rm 3:23), and “the wages of sin is death” (Rm 6:23). Therefore, we all are doomed to be “deprived of the glory of God” (Rm 3:23) and to suffer death forever. However, “all men are now undeservedly justified by the gift of God, through the redemption wrought in Christ Jesus” (Rm 3:24). Jesus, through His bloody death on the cross, has freed us from sin, death, damnation, hell, slavery, self-hatred, perversion, and Satan. Consequently, let us give our lives to...

“Do you presume on His kindness and forbearance? Do you not know that God’s kindness is an invitation to you to repent?” –Romans 2:4 If we repent of our sins and give our lives to Jesus, we will receive glory, honor, peace (Rm 2:10), and eternal life (Rm 2:7). If, however, our hearts are hard and impenitent (Rm 2:5), if we “selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness” (Rm 2:8), we will receive “wrath and fury” (Rm 2:8), “affliction and anguish” (Rm 2:9). With flaming power, the Lord “will inflict punishment on those who do not acknowledge God nor heed...