Tagged: memory verse

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.” –Luke 21:34-35, RNAB Jesus connects two very different things in today’s Gospel passage: drowsiness and anxieties (Lk 21:34, RNAB). Generally, anxiety would seem to be associated with sleeplessness rather than drowsiness. Cares and worries tend to keep us awake rather than lull us to sleep. Yet Jesus, in His wisdom, links anxiety with spiritual slumber. He classifies anxiety as a drug that blinds us to the need for spiritual preparation. When Jesus...

“I also saw the spirits of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and the word of God, those who had never worshiped the beast or its image nor accepted its mark on their foreheads or their hands.” ––Revelation 20:4 We are a Church founded upon martyrs. Archaeology shows the spread of the early Church can be traced by following the relics of saints, and martyrs were the most honored of the saints. Altars were often constructed over their bones. St. Stephen demonstrated the power of martyrdom with his Christ-like witness (see Acts 7:59-60). Stephen’s faithfulness influenced...

“Happy are they who have been invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” –Revelation 19:9 Today is a day of Thanksgiving in the U.S.A. Many people are invited to sumptuous feasts with family and friends, and they happily look forward to the Thanksgiving meal. You can imagine the joy of the hosts when their invited guests appear at the door. God also has prepared a feast today that by comparison makes a Thanksgiving turkey look like a “disgusting bird” (Rv 18:2). In fact, He has also prepared this feast tomorrow, this weekend, and for all eternity. This feast is...

“They will manhandle and persecute you.” –Luke 21:12 Jesus tells us we will be delivered up even by our parents, brothers, relatives, and friends (Lk 21:16). This will result in some of us being put to death. Jesus has made it very clear that, before there can be peace, there will be division in families. “A household of five will be divided three against two and two against three; father will be split against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Lk 12:52-53). Our families will be under extreme...

“What will be the sign that it is going to happen?” –Luke 21:7 Though no one knows the day when the world will end and Christ will come again, the Lord has given us many of the last events on earth. The following is a partial list in a probable order: 1) “This good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world…only after that will the end come” (Mt 24:14). 2) “All Israel will be saved” (Rm 11:26). 3) Then, “they will manhandle and persecute” Christians (Lk 21:12). “All will hate” us for our faith in Jesus (Lk...