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“‘Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on’” (Matthew 6:25). To worry about the future is to sin against God. Someone has said, “You can’t change the past, but you can ruin a perfectly good present by worrying about the future.” Worry does ruin the present, but even more important for the believer is to recognize that worry is sin. Let’s look at why that is so. Worry means you are striking out at God. Someone might say, “Worry...

"[Love] bears all things" (1 Cor. 13:7). Love confronts sin but protects the sinner. In 1 Corinthians 13:7 Paul mentions four qualities of love that are closely related: bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things. That might sound like love is indiscriminate and accepting of anything that comes along, but "all things" in that verse is qualified by the context. Love rejects jealousy, bragging, arrogance, and so on (vv. 4-6), but it bears, believes, hopes, and endures all things that are within the parameters of God's Word. "Love bears all things" speaks of love's...

Satan worshipers launched a counter-protest against pro-lifers outside the Detriot and Ferndale, Michigan Planned Parenthood locations Saturday. Clad in black robes, members of the Satanic Temple of Detriot drenched bound women with milk, simulating water-boarding to "illustrate the theocratic agenda imposed upon female bodies." The milk symbolized breast milk, one of the protest organizers explained on Facebook. The group attached a symbol of their temple to the American flag and held up a sign that read, "America is not a theocracy. End forced motherhood."

August 24, 2015   Feast of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle Reading 1 Rv 21:9b-14 The angel spoke to me, saying,“Come here.I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”He took me in spirit to a great, high mountainand showed me the holy city Jerusalemcoming down out of heaven from God.It gleamed with the splendor of God.Its radiance was like that of a precious stone,like jasper, clear as crystal.It had a massive, high wall,with twelve gates where twelve angels were stationedand on which names were inscribed,the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.There were three gates...

“‘Do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on’” (Matthew 6:25). God’s Word commands us not to worry. A story I once read reminded me that worry is like fog. According to the article, dense fog covering seven city blocks a hundred feet deep is composed of less than one glass of water—divided into sixty billion droplets. In the right form, a few gallons of water can cripple a large city. Similarly, the object of a person’s worry is usually...

"[Love] rejoices with the truth" (1 Cor. 13:6). Love never compromises God’s Word. Paul has just given us a list of things that love does not do: become jealous, brag, act arrogantly or unbecomingly, seek its own, become provoked, keep track of wrongs suffered, or rejoice in unrighteousness. Now he comes to the first of five things love does: "[Love] rejoices with the truth" (v. 6). The contrast in verse 6 is between love's inability to rejoice in unrighteousness and its joy when truth prevails. "Truth" refers to God's Word, which is the standard of righteousness. Paul could have said,...

Tags: jesus, liturgy, new testament, prayer, shema When Jesus Said The Shema So you’ve heard of the Shema, right? The most important prayer in Judaism? Traditionally recited twice a day, upon waking and going to sleep? Today, when we say “the Shema,” we’re talking about the verse Deuteronomy 6:4 as well as three other paragraphs (two from Deuteronomy and one from Numbers), but the prayer has been through a number of iterations. Several hundred years ago, the Shema contained the entire text of the Ten Commandments. At one point, early rabbis proposed that the Shema should contain the entirety of...

August 23, 2015   Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jos 24:1-2a, 15-17, 18b Joshua gathered together all the tribes of Israel at Shechem,summoning their elders, their leaders,their judges, and their officers. When they stood in ranks before God,Joshua addressed all the people:“If it does not please you to serve the LORD,decide today whom you will serve,the gods your fathers served beyond the Riveror the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are now dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” But the people answered,“Far be it from us to forsake the...

“‘Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth’” (Matthew 6:19). You cannot pursue both God and riches. Ours is a society consumed with material things. Status, success, and importance are all too often measured by a person’s financial worth. Those with wealth flaunt it; those without wealth fake it. People often rack up huge debts in their desperate and futile pursuit of happiness through accumulating material things. Sadly, that same materialistic mind-set permeates the church. Instead of offering an alternative, that of being distinct from the world, the church joins the world in its pursuit of riches. Most tragically...

"[Love] does not rejoice in unrighteousness" (1 Cor. 13:6). Love never justifies sin. To most Christians, the idea of rejoicing over unrighteousness is repulsive because it suggests enjoying deliberate, wanton sin. We've seen sin's tragic effects on mankind and know how it offends God, so how could we ever rejoice in such a thing? But rejoicing in unrighteousness includes any attempt to justify sin in your own life or the lives of others, so it can be a very subtle thing. There are many ways to rejoice in unrighteousness. One is to exchange right for wrong. That's what the prophet...

August 22, 2015   Memorial of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary Reading 1 Ru 2:1-3, 8-11; 4:13-17 Naomi had a prominent kinsman named Boaz,of the clan of her husband Elimelech.Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi,“Let me go and glean ears of grain in the fieldof anyone who will allow me that favor.”Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter,” and she went.The field she entered to glean after the harvestershappened to be the section belonging to Boazof the clan of Elimelech. Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter!Do not go to glean in anyone else’s field;you are not...

Having taken a six-week break from social media, the internet and writing, it was with a sense of trepidation that I emerged from my cocoon. What has been going on in the world? In seeking to catch up I read over newsfeeds, papers and websites, and found there is one issue that stands out – mainly because apart from in US Christian circles, the silence has been deafening. I am talking, of course, about the Planned Parenthood videos. I am sure that most readers on Christian Today will be aware of the basics of the story – how the Center...

Like a bottle of "fruit juice cocktail" that's mostly corn syrup and water with a bit of actual fruit juice mixed in, some "Christian" religions are based only loosely on Christ and His Word. As we see all around us various man-made codes, catechisms, creeds, councils, conventions, etc., it's worth our time to consider whether our religion is based on the God's revelation in the Bible, or on man's ideas. The Jewish religion of Jesus' day was ostensibly based on the Scriptures, yet piled so high with preachers' and authors' ideas, that the Word of God was not only obscured...

Last night, I was one of many who received the following email from Msgr. Charles Pope, well-known blogger and writer in the Archdiocese of Washington: Just a brief note to inform you that I have been blocked from Facebook. They claim that Msgr. Charles Pope is not my real name and are requiring me to submit government ID proving that Msgr. Charles Pope is my true identity. As of now, I have no intention of doing this since I consider it an unreasonable demand by them. They further indicate that even if I supply the IDs from at least two...

What really happened on the cross? Was the death of Jesus a human tragedy whereby a good man was brutally and unfairly slain? Was His death an example of faith, obedience, and self-sacrifice? Was it a ransom paid to the Devil? A victory over the Devil? A manifestation of moral influence? Was the cross an atonement? Did it involve expiation and propitiation for sin? Was it a supernatural act done to satisfy the wrath and justice of God? Each of these individually and several in combination have been set forth as the real meaning of Christ’s death. How we understand...

“Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for [the Lord] Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). God promises to provide for all your needs. In World War II the death of many adults left many orphans. At the close of the war, the Allies provided some camps to feed the orphans and to try and find a place to relocate them. The children began to develop and grow, receiving the finest food and care. But in one of the camps, the...

"[Love] does not take into account a wrong suffered" (1 Cor. 13:5). If you love someone, you won’t keep a record of their offenses. It is reported that when the Moravian missionaries first went to the Eskimos, they couldn't find a word in their language for forgiveness. They had to combine a series of shorter words into one compound word: Issumagijoujungnainermik. Although the word appears formidable, its meaning is beautiful, being translated: "Not-being-able-to-think-about-it-anymore." You've probably noticed that unforgiving people usually have good memories. Some can hold a grudge for a lifetime. But love never keeps a record of wrongs committed...

August 21, 2015   Memorial of Saint Pius X, Pope Reading 1 Ru 1:1, 3-6, 14b-16, 22 Once in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land;so a man from Bethlehem of Judahdeparted with his wife and two sonsto reside on the plateau of Moab.Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died,and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women,one named Orpah, the other Ruth.When they had lived there about ten years,both Mahlon and Chilion died also,and the woman was left with neither her two sons nor her husband.She then made ready to go...

In the second half of our discussion on “the Soul and Friendship’s Role”, my educator friend and co-producer Tom Pazdan and I will discuss meaningful friendships that become toxic. If you are an emotionally sensitive person, and you feel (or have felt) hurt, anger, disappointment, or what have you due either to a broken friendship, or one that is now full of animosity, this show will try to make some sense out of your feelings. Also on the program, we will discuss how Jesus Christ provides a template for friendships, as the perfect model for them, on this edition of...

“Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, ‘In the mount of the Lord it will be provided’” (Genesis 22:13-14). When God provides for a believer, He’s being true to His name. The Old Testament gives God many names, but one of the most lovely is Jehovah-Jireh, translated in...