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He Gave His Only Son

"Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

John 21:29

• There should be less talk. A preaching point is not a meeting point.


• The dying, the cripple, the mental, the unwanted, the unloved-- they are Jesus in disguise.


• In the West there is loneliness, which I call the leprosy of the West. In many ways it is worse than our poor in Calcutta. (Commonweal, Dec 19, 1997)


• It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving.


• The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. and they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.


• I see God in every human being. When I wash the leper's wounds, I feel I am nursing the Lord himself. Is it not a beautiful experience?


• I do not pray for success. I ask for faithfulness.


• Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go.


• If you judge people, you have no time to love them.

~Mother Teresa~

John the Baptist was one of the most colorful characters in the Bible. I say colorful because his type of behavior is not seen as normal in our current culture. Perhaps he was seen as colorful in the first century too. Actually, John the Baptist was better known than Jesus until John stepped aside and let the true Messiah shine. That is really our job too. We don’t want people to see our great talent or good skills rather than Jesus within us. We have to attribute all of our gifts to their true source, our Lord.

Back to John the Baptist. John the Baptist was not afraid to tell it like it was to anyone, regardless of their status. He would tell the Pharisees and Sadducees that they were lying, deceitful, and arrogant. Today, we can see that there are popular people and popular opinions out there that are contrary to Jesus' teaching. We can confront these opinions and people or we can be polite so as not to embarrass anyone. In other words, we can be very polite and make every one feel comfortable or we can address the status quo.

There are sensitive issues in our country now like the immigration issue. I think it is easy to just ignore the immigration issue because it is so complicated. All the issues about jobs, legal status, driver’s license, government benefits, and on and on. It is so complicated that we should just throw up our hands and keep things the way they are – the status quo.

In scripture, the prophet Isaiah was talking about a very unique reconciliation: The wolf and the lamb; the leopard and the kid; the calf and the lion. He was talking about creation reconciling to itself and with God. Does this sound impossible? By human standards, yes. But that is why we pray, right? We pray for our own reconciliations, for those things that divide us today. Is that the immigration issue, the separation between the have and have-nots; health coverage for all people? I think these dividing issues are so complicated that we should just throw up our hands and keeps things the way they are now – the status quo.

We can achieve unity if we imitate Jesus Christ. We have Christ-like qualities within us just as we have Christ within us. You know, the Jesus who is the only Son of God, the name above every other name, the firstborn of all creation. Yes, Jesus is hard to imitate. I think it is so difficult that we should just throw up our hands and keep things the way they are – the status quo.

Or, how about addressing the status quo like John the Baptist. Address the status quo so that people can be prepared for the Lord. Who is teaching us the love that Jesus taught? Jesus gave us a very simple plan to follow for our salvation – love your God and love your neighbor. The plan is not – love your God when you feel comfortable or love your neighbor when it is convenient.

Ask God to help us all be like John the Baptist and buck the status quo in our life.

URLVD

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