God is Good

"It is a good thing to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to your Name, O Most High; to tell of your loving-kindness early in the morning and of your faithfulness in the night season." (Psalm 92:1-2)
It is such a relief to take off our masks and just fall on our knees in praise.  It is good to renew our own relationship with God at all times.  When we run to God, God refreshes us.  God will take all of our pains like thorns and toss them out, cleaning our wounds and binding us up in the process.  It is a great thing to think positively in the morning and at night.  God is always good to us, so why don't we take a moment to think of all the good that comes from God?

Family

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" (Luke 13:34)
This shows how Jesus knew that though Jerusalem was a major city for the Jews, it still faced quite a few problems.  It is almost like an elaboration on another statement that a prophet is rejected in his own home.
But Jesus is speaking to us.  Imagine, God is in this world, uniting people and gathering them together in a great unity, but we are going after God and making God's job difficult.  We start to reject those that God sends us.  We turn our backs when people point out what we need to work on.  This is a place where we know that we should be listening to others more and helping others out.  We need to be uniting everybody instead of pushing them away.  We must face everybody with love rather than hate; friendship rather than enmity.

Less Is More

"And again he said, 'To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.'" (Luke 13:20-21)
This reminds me of the times I would spend trying to master my technique to make naan.  At first, I thought that I needed to put as much yeast as possible so that I could make a fluffy bread.  However, when I did that, the bread would just form into weird shapes and not be very fun to eat.  After a while, I learned that the best amount was just a little pinch.  Then, I would let the dough rise with the yeast before putting it to cook.  Now, I like to think along these lines with this parable, for it shows us how Gos works in our lives.  In fact, I remember Paul's saying that God will never put us through anything we cannot handle.  Thus, the yeast parable.  God puts the Spirit in us and gives us our ministries and missions. However, so long as we do not take on too much more than we could handle, after taking the time to learn how Gos speaks to us and how we are to serve our community, then we can become a very appetizing and successful bread.  We will become the best products of God.

Finger Pointing

"But the Lord answered him and said, 'You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?'" (Luke 13:15-16)
There are times when we all get caught up on different issues and customs in our beliefs.  The pharisees decided to make very strict interpretations of the Ten Commandments, but those interpretations would get in the way of truly loving God.  Even today, while we don't really have as strict of rules regarding the Sabbath (if any at all), we like to get caught on other issues.  We can't help but point our fingers, even when things aren't the way we want them to be.  Sometimes we accuse others of not being good Christians because they don't say a certain prayer or because they don't pray to a certain saint.  Sometimes we don't like people because they go to a centuries old church rather than one in a smaller building.  We can take this a step further and look at how we treat each other outside of church: if somebody does not subscribe to every single opinion of some of our great advocates, s/he is not part of our LGBT family; if somebody does not identify with a certain subculture in our LGBT family, that person is not doing her/his part.  However, when we get caught up with these issues, we are only hurting ourselves.  Sure, we can point all we want, but our shoulders will tire before anything will happen.  God is the ultimate judge, and God has given us what we need to know: how to love.  When we take the time to point our fingers back to ourselves and notice how we are no longer living in the love of God, then we can change ourselves to be closer with God.

Plants

"He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'" (Luke 13:8-9)
Jesus has come down into our lives to put in new fertilizer and other vitamins so that we can grow and bear fruits.  The only way we can bear fruits is by taking all that Jesus teaches us in and applying it in our lives.  In this parable, in particular, Jesus mentions that we are given a chance to become better.  In fact, God is always working within us to make us better.  When we allow God to dictate what happens in our lives, we will grow to bear great fruit.
Another note is that Jesus preaches against judging.  Therefore, He considers this to be of such a great importance, for He speaks of it before teaching us that we need to live in Him.  Thus, by making peace with our neighbors and becoming a unified family of God, we shall live and breathe the gospel.

The Fire

"I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!" (Luke 12:49)
These are the words of Jesus himself.  I just read an article where the author desired for the reader to know that Jesus was indeed a radical.  Jesus calls us to action against all that is wrong in our society.  However, the real kick is made once He introduces the very poignant "judge not, lest you be judged."  So what is this fire?
This fire is the Holy Spirit, which lives in each one of us.  The Holy Spirit guides us in all facets of our lives.  If we allow the Holy Spirit to work though us, we will be able to accomplish all that is going on in our lives.  Indeed, Jesus reminds us that we have a hard life ahead.  We will face persecution from our best friends and even from our families.  So long as we have the Spirit, the fire, within us, we will have nothing that will take us away from the will of God.
So, let us remember to live as Jesus did, forever being guided by the Holy Spirit and forever in contact with our Father through prayer and meditation.

Sainthood Continued

"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God." (Matthew 5:9)
Today we celebrate All Saints Day or All Souls Day, depending on your church's choice.  The idea is that we remember those who have lived and gone before us in the ways of God.  This verse is a great way to think about that because when we make peace with those around us, we spread the love of God all around us.  With our gospel being about love, we should make sure to always surround ourselves with this love.  By loving others, we unite our family as one body of Christ.  By loving others, we can be sure that the Kingdom of God is coming to earth.

Sainthood

"These are they who have put off mortal clothing and have put on the immortal, and have confessed the name of God.  Now they are being crowned and receive palms."
(2 Esdras 2:45)
This passage describes to us what it means to be a saint.  Many times, we forget that there is much more to the person than what is depicted in the portraits.  Despite the fact that we have so many portrayals of these saints, we forget that these portraits contain a life story behind them.  Paul goes into excruciating detail by explaining the different execution methods.
And yet, where do we lie?  Why do we pray to celebrate together with all of the saints?  If we can celebrate the same way the saints do, what makes us saints?
First and foremost, Jesus reminds us that the saints are very much living indeed by saying that God is the God of the living.  But there's more to that statement.  Aside from the resurrection of our souls in the end time, we must prepare our ways to become saints. We need to act for God in order to become saints.  Now, that does not mean that we need to live spotless lives.  If we ever doubt that, just look at Paul's life and conversion in Acts.  In fact, the only reason why certain lives are remembered is because some have some drastic stories, usually involving some form of execution.  However, that does not meant that each one of us does not live a "saint's life," filled with temptation, tribulation, and trepidation.
No, what we need to do is follow God by preaching the gospel far and wide in all the different ways we know.  Dance the gospel, sing the gospel, listen to the gospel, proclaim the gospel, live the gospel.  By keeping the gospel of love in our hearts, we will be among the saints, praising God in every moment of every day.