{"id":769,"date":"2015-09-03T12:33:08","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T17:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=769"},"modified":"2015-09-22T12:37:51","modified_gmt":"2015-09-22T17:37:51","slug":"accepting-on-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=769","title":{"rendered":"Accepting on Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thursday of 22nd<\/sup> Week of Ordinary Time<\/h3>\n

Col 1: 9-14; Lk 5: 1-11<\/h3>\n

Dc. Larry Brockman<\/h3>\n

Imagine the Apostles Peter, James, and John\u2019s reaction.\u00a0 Here were three seasoned fisherman who had labored all night in vain.\u00a0 And now, this stranger orders them to pull out from shore and lower their nets.\u00a0 It was the wrong time of day; the tides were not right; and they were weary from working all night.\u00a0 But despite their objections and cynicism, they made an incredible catch.\u00a0 In fact, it was just plain mind boggling to them, so much so that they dropped everything and followed Jesus.<\/p>\n

These three apostles saw miracles like this over and over again.\u00a0 They listened to all that Jesus taught them, yes; but they came to believe in Jesus through these mighty deeds.\u00a0 The case was so compelling- between the authority of Jesus\u2019 teaching and the impact of the miracles, that they came to believe, with certainty, that this man was the Messiah; and that motivated them to ponder in the depths of their hearts what Jesus teaching was and to reorient their lives to follow him accordingly.\u00a0 They walked away from what was comfortable and what they knew.\u00a0 There was just no way that they could not follow Jesus after all that they experienced first-hand.<\/p>\n

What a contrast to the Colossians that Paul is talking to in our first reading.\u00a0 You see, the Colossians had to accept on faith what they heard second and even third hand.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t privy to the miracles and the personal contact with Jesus.\u00a0 That is why Paul\u2019s prayer in our first reading is so incredibly beautiful, because Paul recognizes first that the Colossians had real faith.\u00a0 They had come to believe on their own, without all the advantages that the apostles had.\u00a0 And so, Paul\u2019s first thought is to give thanks for their faith.<\/p>\n

But then, Paul prays that God would bless them.\u00a0 Notice that he doesn\u2019t pray that they would love one another and keep all of Jesus\u2019 commandments.\u00a0 Rather, he prays that they \u201cwould be filled with the knowledge of God\u2019s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding\u201d.\u00a0 That was the very first item on Paul\u2019s prayer agenda. \u00a0\u00a0He is praying that they would do what the Apostles did.\u00a0 Ponder the message in the depths of their hearts and find out what God\u2019s will was for them.<\/p>\n

We are in the same boat as the Colossians. \u00a0\u00a0We have come to believe on the basis of faith alone.\u00a0 And Paul\u2019s good words of Thanksgiving apply to us as well.\u00a0 But we need to move on from there, and before we can go out and just obey God\u2019s commandments, we have a higher priority to establish first.\u00a0 We need to discern God\u2019s will for us so that we can \u201cwalk in a manner worthy of the Lord so as to be fully pleasing in every good work bearing fruit.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Paul goes on to say that if we do that \u201cWe will be strengthened with every power in accord with his glorious might.\u201d\u00a0 Wow!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of times when people suffer consequences for making wrong decisions that are counter to God\u2019s way.\u00a0 For example, we are subject to civil penalties if we steal or hurt someone.\u00a0 But there are more subtle consequences as well.\u00a0 If we choose our careers; choose our mates, and choose any number of other things without God\u2019s blessing, all kinds of things can and do go wrong.<\/p>\n

This, however, is a different teaching.\u00a0 It says that we will be strengthened when we make good decisions about how to live our lives that are in harmony with what God has in mind for us.\u00a0 We will even bear fruit accordingly.<\/p>\n

So, if you are unsure where you are going in life,\u00a0 And if you are just trying to get by in life by keeping God\u2019s commandments, why not read Paul\u2019s prayer about the Colossians especially carefully and go off and follow Paul\u2019s advice?\u00a0 You might even find that a miracle of abundance will surface in your life if you do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday of 22nd Week of Ordinary Time Col 1: 9-14; Lk 5: 1-11 Dc. Larry Brockman Imagine the Apostles Peter, James, and John\u2019s reaction.\u00a0 Here were three seasoned fisherman who had labored all night in vain.\u00a0 And now, this stranger orders them to pull out from shore and lower their nets.\u00a0 It was the wrong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[369],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":770,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions\/770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}