Posted on 03/14/2013 7:51:02 PM PDT by Bigtigermike
In his first public Mass, Pope Francis urged the Catholic Church on Thursday to stick to its Gospel roots and shun modern temptations, warning that it would become just another charitable group if it forgot its true mission.
Addressing cardinals in the frescoed Sistine Chapel the day after his election there, Jorge Bergoglio said the Church should be more focused on the Gospels of Jesus Christ.
"We can walk all we want, we can build many things, but if we don't proclaim Jesus Christ, something is wrong. We would become a compassionate NGO and not a Church which is the bride of Christ," he said, speaking in Italian without notes.
"When we don't proclaim Jesus Christ, we proclaim the worldliness of the devil, the worldliness of the demon."
"We must always walk in the presence of the Lord, in the light of the Lord, always trying to live in an irreprehensible way," he said in a heartfelt homily of a parish priest, loaded with biblical references and simple imagery.
"When we walk without the cross, when we build without the cross and when we proclaim Christ without the cross, we are not disciples of the Lord. We are worldly. We may be bishops, priests, cardinals, popes, all of this, but we are not disciples of the Lord," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at mobile.reuters.com ...
As for your last comment, God has a way of balancing the scales of justice because He says "vengence is mine, I will repay." Yes, God has a way of working things out.
....those maniacal Jesuits eh...
blood libel and all...
The intellect of irrational Muslims.
I would take his words to mean that he believes/wants Christians, and others, to look at the life and teachings of Jesus Christ for living in this world so that Christ can be the way to God’s eternity. I take you have thoughts of other meaning(s). If so you should share these.
If Pope Francis means “
1Co 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;
1Co 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.
1Co 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1Co 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1Co 15:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:
1Co 15:6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. “
Pope Francis is talking about penance for sins.
Rock-band, good-time, we-love-everyone churches, don’t talk like that but then they are not truly Christian. Jesus died on the cross for our sins.
Galatians 6:14: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Today we are disciples and ambassadors for Christ and sons / daughters of God:
II Corinthians 5:20: Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us
Romans 8:14: For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
Romans 8:19: For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Galatians 4:6: And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Philippians 2:15: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
Exactly what was accomplished by the cross? according to Catholic doctrine?
So, if Jesus Christ is crucified for our sins . . . and it was only He upon that old rugged cross . . . then Mary has nothing to do with our salvation, other than being the human vessel by which God became flesh?
“And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory” (I Timothy 3:16)
Christ Jesus died for ALL sins PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE: and all sins which were laid upon Him in the 1st Century from our perspective are FUTURE sins. Therefore, no sin that men / women commit today for a believer, is not unforgiven; everything is paid in full.
Colossians 2:13: And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Christ has forgiven you all trespasses (and sins): paid in full at the cross. That is what was accomplished at the cross.
Amen to your response!
In other words, when Jesus said, “It is finished” . . . He meant that all the work that needed to do to procur an eternal salvation for each believer was accomplished finally and for all time.
Yet, Catholicism seeks to add human effort and good works to the equation, and limits our access to God and his forgiveness to the dictates of a mere priest who stands in the way of the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
I believe that the Word of God tells us that we have a mediator, and it is not a man trained in the rudiments of his religious hierarchy.
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (I Timothy 2:1-6).
Would to God a man might see and understand this truth and proclaim, “Once I was blind, but now I see!” (John 9:25).
I am not paid up, full accounted. You are a good person, right? AmbassadorForChrist? Perhaps, you can tell of your missions? Just go ahead, and spit it out
I am not paid up, full accounted. You are a good person, right? AmbassadorForChrist? Perhaps, you can tell of your missions? Just go ahead, and spit it out
I am not paid up, full accounted. You are a good person, right? AmbassadorForChrist? Perhaps, you can tell of your missions? Just go ahead, and spit it out
The answer is really quite simple, if one is willing to accept the biblical response . . .
“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:20-21).
Notice that ambassador is in the plural case, meaning that all that are washed by the blood of Christ - if they are willing - are representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ.
To further add clarity to the context of the verses I posted . . .
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (II Corinthians 5:17-19).
Not only is salvation a free gift from God to be received; but the Christian ministry also, is a gift from God to be used for God.
Biblical response? God is written in my heart. Now, I will insult you. Cast no heed, of the words of the deeds of men. Record your soul, by the breath of God.
I apologize, but I have no clue as to what you just said.
Okay. It was just blather. Thank you.
That’s ok. Perhaps it was this that you were referring to this early morning . . .
“Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men: Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (II Corinthians 3:1-6)
God bless you!
May God bless us, all
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