Kindred,
"You may be sure that no one who is immoral, indecent, or greedy (for greed is a form of idolatry) will ever receive a share in the Kingdom of Christ and of the Lord.
Do not let anyone deceive you with foolish words;
it is because of these very things that the Lord's anger will come upon those who do not obey him.
So have nothing at all to do with such people."
- Ephesians 5:5-7
Kindred,
"Since you are the Lord's dear children, you must try to be like him.
Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave us his life for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifices that pleases God.
Since you are God's people, it is not right that any matters of sexual immorality or indecency or greed should even be mentioned among you.
Nor is it fitting for you to use language which is obscene, profane or vulgar. Rather give thanks to God.
You may be sure that no one who is immoral, indecent or greedy (for greed is a form of idolatry) will ever receive a share in the Kingdom of Christ and of the Lord. "
Ephesians 5:1-5
Kindred,
Truth, love, peace, kindness are not novel ideas.
Yet, when someone speaks the truth, people act like it has never been done before.
It is considered refreshing and novel.
The same can be said for kindness.
Acts of kindness are considered rare and hard to find.
Fellowship in love and peace happen in illusion only with the same kind and even then not without criticism of judgement or snickers of some kind.
Pure love and peace in fellowship of acceptance and understanding (without judgement) is considered rare and hard to find.
How can this be?
Are we not called to love thy neighbor as self?
Stand with the truth, for the who is Christ, but the way, truth and life (John 14:6).
When we have problems with the truth, we have problems with the Lord or rather we are the problems away from the Lord.
Lies are sinful and deceitful and no matter the lie, you cannot hide from the Lord.
To deal in lies, only removes you from the truth and from the Lord.
Truth, love, peace, kindness are not novel ideals.
And it should not feel as if they are.
Kindred,
When Judas betrayed Jesus, did he think what he was doing was wrong?
What drove Judas to the betrayal?
Was Judas selling out just for thirty pieces of silver?
Judas was thoughtless of the consequences of his betrayal.
It never occurred to him that Jesus would be crucified by those in power, though how could he not, given what Judas knew of the powers at the time, I do not know.
Imagine turning traitor to Jesus Christ…
You have witnessed firsthand Jesus' ministry, the many miracles He performed, the prophetic and empathic nature of the Teacher, the pedagogical Teachings of the Lord and Laws in easy to understand parables...
Yet, at the end of the day, you still feel you know better, your desire for a better world is better and when your demands of meeting power with power goes unheeded, you turn and turn away in a fit of anger, you betray.
How is this act of betrayal different from that time of yesterday?
When you voted to betray the Teacher and the Teachings, how have you betrayed and where have you strayed?
How can Judas be me, you ask?
Have you heeded the Ethical Standards of the Lord and followed the Teacher and the Teachings?
Are you loyal to the Lord, the Teacher or to Caesar?
Or are you the Judases, traitors to democracy, the Teacher and the Lord?
When you take the oath (of office or of any power), do you discard your covenant with the Lord and your responsibility to humanity and environment (as stewards of the earth)?
Is it Caesar first and everything else if convenient?
Are there any inconsistencies in your approach to life?
Meaning, do you believe in lies or the truth, do you lie to yourself and others to cover-up misdeeds and gain power?
Do you put the power of Caesar above everything else?
Where should your first loyalty be?
Are you divided in your loyalties?
Compromised in your behaviors?
Lost to the Lord and humanity?
Abraham Lincoln in his House Divided speech stated, "A house divided against itself, cannot stand."
The prophetic nature of his speech was proven to be true, "this government cannot (and did not) endure permanently half slave and half free….It will (and did) become all one thing or all the other".
And a person divided against oneself, cannot stand. He or she will become all one thing or all the other.
You cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).
Either you serve the Lord or you do not.
Either the Lord comes first in your loyalty or the Lord does not.
Are you divided in your loyalties?
Kindred,
How are you feeling today?
If you are not calm, not at peace with yourself or the Lord, try first to breathe.
Say a brief prayer for patience and strength to get through the day.
Now, try to generate a Patronus (from Harry Potter).
Remember, your Patronus is formed from your experiences of happiness.
Begin with your happiest childhood memory.
What animal or mystical animal is your Patronus from childhood?
Give it some thought to see if you can even form a Patronus.
If not, fear not, try until you are able.
It might take some time to remember your happiest memory from childhood, but it will happen in time if you wish it and try.
P.s.
Try using a childhood memory first because closer to your original self or actual Patronus.
Kindred,
Hopefully, you have taken your emotional IQ test and it gave you an idea of the level of self-control, self-esteem, self-awareness, empathy, motivation, self-determination and fellowship, you have.
Did you recognize the tricky question yesterday when I asked, "are you….
Fearful? or Fearless?…."
Well, it depends upon your situation and circumstance does it not?
And when we experience emotions we experience it in a range, at different depths and for different lengths of time.
And notice I did not phrase the question as fearful or brave.
Bravery is not the absence of fear, but not letting fear stop you.
Being fearless is not a great state to be in, especially, since our fears forewarn our dangers and only a fool does not recognize fear when in situations you should be afraid.
And notice I did not give you range to rate your fears or anger or sadness….from 1 to 10, and state what your fears are, which would help you to more accurately describe your feelings.
My point is that your feelings cannot be boiled down to just black or white, because the dichotomy of a person's range of emotions makes it much more complicated than that.
Now that you are in touch with your feelings you are ready to determine the color of your soul.
What is the color of your soul?
Kindred,
Do not touch people without consent.
Do not touch what belongs to the Lord.
There has been talk of loneliness in the confinement of Covid-19, but inappropriate touching is worse than not having any touch.
How many of you have experienced the walk of shame?
My point exactly.
Being with the Holy Spirit cannot be experienced through touch.
You can be in a crowd of people and still be lonely.
You have to be in touch with your inner self and connect spiritually with the Holy Spirit with a purity of heart that can receive the Holy.
Anger, hatred, emptiness of despair and misery, and sins, especially if the flesh, will block your ability to receive the Holy in love and peace.
Being distracted by a lot of people or going through a lot of people, will not alleviate the loneliness (of not being in touch with your inner self) and why you may have feelings of despair or get to root causes of your inabilities to connect to the Holy Spirit in any meaningful way.
Well, are you able to connect to the Holy Spirit?
What is stopping you from connecting spiritually to the Holy?
Kindred,
Do you know what is at stake all the time, most of the time, sometimes or at any time?
What if, let's say eight years ago, what was at stake were the cures or treatments for diseases, like COVID-19 and it was lost, where would the world be today and into the future?
What if, let's say around that time, what was at stake were blessings and salvation (of certain peoples associated with churches), and Judases and harassers caused curses and damnation to come to pass for them and for others?
Why, what and who would cause curses and damnation to occur?
What if, what was at stake, were democracy and your minds?
Whether you will have self-determination or become groomed and brainwashed into hate and terrorism?
How could this happen?
What if, at stake, are your souls?
Would you know what was at stake at the time when it mattered most?
Or ignore all for selfish desires, self grandiosity and delights in sins of flesh and abuses of power?
When you cannot tell the difference between excellence and gibberish, between competence and sheer incompetence, between holy and unholy, would you say that there is a huge problem or no problem?
Well?
Do you know what is at stake all the time, most of the time, sometimes or at any time?
Kindred,
Hopefully, you have taken the time to see your true colors or the color of your soul.
Now, let's examine your emotions which impact and deepen the color of your soul.
Are you….
Fearful? or Fearless?
Hateful? or Loving?
Angry? or Calm?
Cruel? or Kind?
Jealous? or Charitable?
Selfish? or Grateful?
Insecure? or Confident?
Sad? or Joyful?
The range of your emotions not only colors your soul, but also impact your life's choices and perception of experiences.
For example, whether you view the glass as half empty or half full.
Whether you can identify and express your emotions, determine how well your relationships work, based upon confidence, trust, love or insecurities and fear.
Test your emotional intelligence or your ability to identify emotional problems within yourself and in others.
Research some sites or click here (meant as a guideline not a definitive test or endorsement of site).
Emotional IQ is important because it determines level of self-control, self-esteem, self-awareness, empathy, motivation, self-determination and fellowship.
Kindred,
When you look at the problem at hand, what do you see?
Sight is an important aspect of being able to deal with a problem.
After all, you have to be able to see a problem first to deal with it.
And there is no way to predict a problem if you do not have the empathy or sensitivity to anticipate or relate to the negative consequences and see the problem arising.
So, what is the problem, the sight problem?
What do you see in yourself?
What are your true colors?
How does your sight color your perceptions of yourself and the world?
Are your true colors now, the colors you were born with?
In other words, does your true self now match the self the Lord intended for you to be?
The materialistic world offers many temptations and distractions into its shallow pond of scum and delusions of grandeur and control in power of Caesar.
And winning the rat race might appear to some all that matters, when what matters is how you are Judged by the Lord.
If you become corrupted and influenced by the superficial, what you will see will be superficial.
What you will predict will be superficial.
And what you win will also be superficial.
Which is why it is important to keep your heart pure and your mind clean, otherwise what you will see now and into the future will be the gutter and not the Lord.
What are your true colors?
And do they match the Lord's original Blueprint for you?
Kindred,
How is Lent going for you?
Have you given thought as to what to work on?
Are you currently the person the Lord originally meant for you to be?
If you are at a roadblock, try unblocking the imagined perfection with empathy.
The absolute rightness in some sort of perfect person or world does not exist in a temporal life.
Even if you are right, rightness does not match the process or journey of life which involves a series of choices and experiences, not any one belief in an absoluteness of ridgid perfection.
Processes and journeys are dynamic, not static or stoic, otherwise, there is no growth or any learning.
Learn to develop greater empathy (with the Lord and humanity) by asking questions that will be of concern to the Lord and humanity.
Ask does your action or belief match the Teachings of Christ?
Will it be acceptable to the Lord?
How would you and your actions be Judged by the Lord?
Are you the person you need to be, in order to be the best person you can be?
Try asking the hard questions about yourself and life and answer honestly to see what you have to work with and what you have to work on.
Kindred,
"Just what makes that little old ant
Think he'll move that rubber tree plant
Anyone knows an ant, can't
Move a rubber tree plant*"....
"Next time you're found,
With your chin on the ground
There a lot to be learned,
So look around"....
"Just remember that ant
Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant
Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant
Oops, there goes another rubber tree plant"....
So if you think you can't
Change for the better,
Move mountains of despair and discontent,
And save the world, save yourself….
Think like an ant
And move that rubber tree plant.
Note: When there is tragedy abound, give what you can to charity or give of your time and volunteer; and take the time to pray for those in need.
*From the song, High Hopes, popularized by Frank Sinatra, with music written by James Van Heusen and lyrics by Sammy Cahn.
Kindred,
Where to begin?
Penance is not punishment and should not be viewed as a negative or practiced as one.
Penance is an opportunity to rid yourselves of negatives or baggages of sin(s) that cause harm to your soul and impede salvation.
Therefore, begin with a healing heart with a mindset to heal your soul.
Before someone can confess and repent sin, that person has to brave the truth and realize or recognize the wrongs committed.
Not possible to do if groomed or brainwashed into bad behaviors and sins of abuse.
Before praying on the problem, you have to realize there is a problem.
Just as before an alcoholic can take that first step, must state that he or she has a problem with alcohol and are abusing the substance out of control.
How then to realize there is a problem with sin(s), bad behaviors or bad practices?
You have to see and feel the harm it creates in the people you have harmed and the harm within yourself through empathy.
Ask would you like the same things to happen to you?
Then list the harm and damages.
Ask will the things you do be acceptable to the Lord on Judgement Day?
Then ask, are the things you do or have done acceptable to the Holy Spirit today?
If you think you are perfect with nothing to repent or atone for, then work on making yourself better by giving to charity. There are plenty of people in need during this time.
For those that might need to do some serious penance, began with braving the truth, finding the sins or problems, knowing the level of harm and unacceptability to the victim, Lord and self and needed atonement.
Then atone. Confess, repent and atone, and atone again.
Repeat the penance process as needed.
Know that the end goal is to be healed of mind, body and soul, to be on a journey of salvation in love and peace with the Lord.
Kindred,
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust" (preceded by) "we commit this body to the ground" (followed by) "in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life"*.
How do we hope to have Resurrection to eternal life?
A vital process of the Resurrection to eternal life is penance, the repentance of sins, the turning away from sin, the rejection of sin and exorcising of sin(s) from the mind, body and spirit.
The physical act of sin(s) by a corrupt mind and spirit activates the body to commit bodily harms and in turn causes further spiritual degradations.
Sin, much like an addiction to alcohol, requires the sinner or addict to want to change and give up the sinful practice(s), much like giving up alcoholic behaviors.
In order to give up an addiction, clean oneself up, the addict has to go through the 12 step program.
In order to give up delighting in sinful practices, clean oneself up, the sinner has to go through confession of sin(s), the repentance of sin(s) and atonement for the sin(s), much like a 12 step program.
"Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."**
Remember that you are Judged by the Lord on what is returned to the Lord, on what you can bring with you when you die.
Will you be able to bring your money, any material wealth or power of Caesar?
Will you be able to bring your skin or color of skin or gender with you?
What will you be able to present to the Lord for Judgement?
Penance is wasted upon the unrepentant; therefore, decide now if you want salvation and reconciliation with the Lord.
Without repentance there is no possibility of reconciliation and therefore, no possibility of salvation.
Remember what Jesus said to the unholy, unrepentant believers on Judgement Day, "I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!"
-Matthew 7:21-23, Luke 13:25-27
Decide, the choice is yours.
Salvation can only be lost to you if you forsake the Lord (in sin(s), in hatred, in fear, in disrespect, disgrace and dishonor) and then fail to take the steps to clean yourself up and atone.
*Burial rite from Book of Common Prayer
**From The Roman Missal
Kindred,
They say that knowledge is power, then what is ignorance?
Imagine not having the knowledge of how to create the vaccines for COVID-19, what would the fate of the world be then?
How dangerous would life be without treatments or cures for diseases, especially when one deadly contagion could do so much harm, what would it be like if there were none for all diseases?
What about having no knowledge of economics, technology, science, art, industry, music…. or of anything, including the Lord, Jesus and the Holy Spirit?
What happens?
It is laughable, when the ignorant lie and lie to themselves in grandiose puffed up hot air of nonsense, to think that lies somehow lead to knowledge or intelligence and real power.
It is also laughable to focus solely upon the usage of fear and hate as if it will lead to total power.
Fear and hate is only half of the equation, well almost half; the greater half, love and peace of the equation rises to the top; whereas, the other sinks to the bottom.
Love and peace follows the rhythm of heaven, whereas fear and hate follows the rhythm of hell.
Love and hope is by nature truthful, honest and honorable; it deals in calm and wisdom and welcomes varied dialogues in pursuit of knowledge,and is confident in love at peace.
Fear and hate is by nature volatile, destructive and self-destructive; it deals in violence and ignorance and is deaf, dumb and blind to all, but the insatiable feedings of its sinful beasts.
To avoid pitfalls in destruction and catastrophes, you need knowledge and the wisdom to guide you through, not blind ignorance or lies to exacerbate the problems and tragedies.
Sad that abusers of power abuse, puffed up in ignorance, never getting anywhere real or finding (any cures for) anything, but harm;
Harm in the destabilization of their souls into recesses of fear, hate and sins create falsehoods of grandiose delusions of perverse realities, which usually ends in vicious cycles of violence and destruction of self and soul;
Harm to where their lies become their sad life.
The total lack of knowledge to know anything of real love and peace, to know the Lord, to know the sad state of their affairs in the facade of power thru abuses of power, is ignorant and sad.
To lose standing with the Lord and humanity is to lose true power.
And to not have an inkling of what the Lord's Judgement will be, is truly sad.
Kindred,
“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”― Edmund Burke (in a letter addressed to Thomas Mercer).
The problem is while in the mist of wrongs, some people fail to recognize the wrongs and culpability in them and the wrongs continue on, on webs of lies and corruption continues in bad practices which infest society and future generations.
Burke added that when lie is spread, "lie dispersed, without concert, order, or discipline, communication is uncertain, counsel difficult, and resistance impracticable."
The failure to recognize wrongdoings, to stand against the wrongs, makes resistance impractical.
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
What does this mean?
In the battle between good and evil, Satan wins with sins unchecked.
Where is this battle between good and evil?
Within society?
It really takes place within ourselves, where the ethics and morals are compromised and corrupted.
It really does not take much for people to become groomed and brainwashed into believing lies and living in lies, because we were born into the midst of the battles between good and evil or sins, and the failed and won battles in them.
How many times have you heard compromised ministers preach, we are all sinners and so we must accept sin within ourselves or excuse sins within (as if the sins were born in us from the beginning)?
We are not all sinners. Original sin was removed by Jesus Christ. We are created by the Lord for the Lord's good purpose. Any sin(s) we accumulate in life is on us.
Any transgressions upon divine law, especially the commandments to love the Lord (which includes respecting what belongs to the Lord) and to love thy neighbor as self (in fellowship), are sins.
Love is not lust and is not sexual abuse which are sins.
Purity of heart is required to see the Lord and therefore, Heaven's Gate.
The purpose of the two great commandments is to keep true and have the love and purity of heart to the Lord, humanity and ourselves.
Otherwise, sin(s) enters through hate, selfishness, fear, and lies; then Satan wins.
When we do nothing against sins, crimes against humanity and the lies, we fail to love and fight the good fight against evil, sins and harm.
We fail the Lord, humanity, ourselves and future generations.
Kindred,
It is not love or respect to touch someone without consent.
Would you like someone to touch you without your consent?
To touch without consent is sacrilegious and criminal (18 U.S.C. section 2241, 2261-2266).
You do not touch or take that which belongs to the Lord; it disrespects the Lord and is therefore, sacrilegious.
Failures to defend from harm by those that are tasked with defense is a sin and a crime (color of law statute violation, 18 U.S.C. section 242).
There is no love in selfish desires, only narcissism.
There is no true power in abuse of power, only abuse(s) and sin(s).
Sinful and criminal mindset leads to a life of crime and sin and an afterlife of damnation.
Sodom and Gomorrah conditions lead to Sodom and Gomorrah Judgements by the Lord.
Therefore, respect what belongs to the Lord in the person.
Know that it is not acceptable to touch someone without consent, because it is sinful and criminal to do so.