Jesus Redefines Your Life

You can work through these items right now or ask someone who is a Christian or a pastor to help you think through them if you have questions. Confess. Confess that you have sinned and are a sinner. Believe. Believe that there is a God, and that God’s son, Jesus, died and came back to life to get rid of your sin. Receive. Receive God’s healing and forgiveness as you accept Jesus’ healing love in your life. Live. Try to live in line with Jesus’ teachings as expressed in God’s word, the Bible, particularly the New Testament. Seek. See the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit and the community of believers (the church) to understand the Bible and how to live the Christian life. You can pray the above as a prayer putting the above in “I” language: I confess that I have sinned. I believe there is a God. I believe that God’s son, Jesus, died and came back to life to get rid of my sin. I can live now and in the future in peace with God. I receive God’s healing and forgivene...

The Gospel of Matthew is rich with teaching statements by Jesus that give us insights into how he would like his followers to live. Jesus did not set about teaching doctrines or “theology.” Instead, he demonstrated many of his teachings, although he also made many commandments throughout his ministry ( Matt. 28:20 ). Many times “The Sermon on the Mount” is referred to as Jesus’ basic teachings in a capsule. We encourage you to read the Sermon on the Mount ( Matt. 5-7 ) to absorb the full richness of the concepts and language. Below are 20 key teachings of Jesus from the Gospel of Matthew; this is not a complete list. There are many other teachings of the Christian church, but these are some of the ones we get from looking at just Jesus’ life and ministry. Many have direct parallels to key events in his life. The Christian life is marked by baptism ( Matt. 3:13-17 ). God is available to help us not give in to temptation ( Matt. 4:1-11 ). Jesus asks us to repent —turn ...

In describing mercy, the books of the Old Testament use two expressions in particular, each having a different semantic nuance. First there is the term "hesed," which indicates a profound attitude of "goodness." When this is established between two individuals, they do not just wish each other well; they are also faithful to each other by virtue of an interior commitment, and therefore also by virtue of a faithfulness to themselves. Since "hesed" also means grace or love, this occurs precisely on the basis of this fidelity. The fact that the commitment in question has not only a moral character but almost a juridical one makes no difference. When in the Old Testament the word "hesed" is used of the Lord, this always occurs in connection with the covenant that God established with Israel. This covenant was, on God's part, a gift and a grace for Israel. Nevertheless, since, in harmony with the covenant entered into, God had made a commitme...

The Divine Mercy message is one we can call to mind simply by remembering ABC: A - Ask for His Mercy. God wants us to approach Him in prayer constantly, repenting of our sins and asking Him to pour His mercy out upon us and upon the whole world. B - Be merciful. God wants us to receive His mercy and let it flow through us to others. He wants us to extend love and forgiveness to others just as He does to us. C - Completely trust in Jesus. God wants us to know that the graces of His mercy are dependent upon our trust. The more we trust in Jesus, the more we will receive. This message and devotion to Jesus as The Divine Mercy is based on the writings of Saint Faustina Kowalska, an uneducated Polish nun who, in obedience to her spiritual director, wrote a diary of about 600 pages recording the revelations she received about God's mercy. Even before her death in 1938, the devotion to The Divine Mercy had begun to spread. The message and devotional practices proposed in the D...

– On the following sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and with violent abuse contradicted what Paul said. Both Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first, but since you reject it and condemn yourselves as unworthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For so the Lord has commanded us, I have made you a light to the Gentiles, that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.” The Gentiles were delighted when they heard this and glorified the word of the Lord. All who were destined for eternal life came to believe, and the word of the Lord continued to spread through the whole region. The Jews, however, incited the women of prominence who were worshipers and the leading men of the city, stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled them from their territory. So ...

– One night while Paul was in Corinth, the Lord said to him in a vision, “Do not be afraid. Go on speaking, and do not be silent, for I am with you. No one will attack and harm you, for I have many people in this city.” He settled there for a year and a half and taught the word of God among them. But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up together against Paul and brought him to the tribunal, saying, “This man is inducing people to worship God contrary to the law.” When Paul was about to reply, Gallio spoke to the Jews, “If it were a matter of some crime or malicious fraud, I should with reason hear the complaint of you Jews; but since it is a question of arguments over doctrine and titles and your own law, see to it yourselves. I do not wish to be a judge of such matters.” And he drove them away from the tribunal. They all seized Sosthenes, the synagogue official, and beat him in full view of the tribunal. But none of this was of concern to Gallio....

It happened that seven brothers with their mother were arrested and tortured with whips and scourges by the king, to force them to eat pork in violation of God’s law. One of the brothers, speaking for the others, said: “What do you expect to achieve by questioning us? We are ready to die rather than transgress the laws of our ancestors.” At the point of death he said: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.” After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.” Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man’s courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing. After he had died, they tortured an...

– At the time of the evening sacrifice, I, Ezra, rose in my wretchedness, and with cloak and mantle torn I fell on my knees, stretching out my hands to the LORD, my God. I said: “My God, I am too ashamed and confounded to raise my face to you, O my God, for our wicked deeds are heaped up above our heads and our guilt reaches up to heaven. From the time of our fathers even to this day great has been our guilt, and for our wicked deeds we have been delivered up, we and our kings and our priests, to the will of the kings of foreign lands, to the sword, to captivity, to pillage, and to disgrace, as is the case today. “And now, but a short time ago, mercy came to us from the LORD, our God, who left us a remnant and gave us a stake in his holy place; thus our God has brightened our eyes and given us relief in our servitude. For slaves we are, but in our servitude our God has not abandoned us; rather, he has turned the good will of the kings of Persia toward us. Thus he h...

“Come, let us return to the LORD, it is he who has rent, but he will heal us; he has struck us, but he will bind our wounds. He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in his presence. Let us know, let us strive to know the LORD; as certain as the dawn is his coming, and his judgment shines forth like the light of day! He will come to us like the rain, like spring rain that waters the earth.” What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your piety is like a morning cloud, like the dew that early passes away. For this reason I smote them through the prophets, I slew them by the words of my mouth; For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Responsorial Psalm ps 51:3-4, 18-19, 20-21ab R. (see Hosea 6:6) It is mercy I desire, and not sacrifice. Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense. Thoroughly wash m...

Believe me, this man went home from the temple justified but the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled while he who humbles himself shall be exalted.” –Luke The Pharisee in today’s Gospel reading was not humble but self-centered. When he prayed, he “prayed to himself” (Lk 18:11, our transl) and talked more about himself than about God. Also, the Pharisee focused his prayer on himself by favorably comparing himself with a tax-collector praying in the back of the Temple (Lk 18:11). The Pharisee was destroying himself by his addiction to self because he was one of those “relying on themselves that they are righteous and despising others” (Lk 18:9, our transl). When we rely on ourselves, we will be unforgiving towards others, for “to err is human, to forgive is divine.” Only those relying on God’s power can forgive. Those relying on their own power cannot forgive. When we don’t forgive, we ourselves are not forgiven, for the Lord told us to pray to...

“Be compassionate, as your Father is compassionate.” –Luke 6:36 . The Church emphasizes that we, God’s children, must be like God our Father. We must be compassionate and merciful as is God our Father (Lk 6:36). We must be “good to the ungrateful and the wicked” as is God our Father (Lk 6:35). God the Father graces us to become like Himself by calling us not to judge and condemn other people (Lk 6:37). “The Father Himself judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son” (Jn 5:22). After we are unemployed as judges, we are free to be employed in forgiving and giving (Lk 6:37-38). God the Father constantly forgives. His Son Jesus taught us to ask Him to forgive us (see Mt 6:12) seventy times seven (Mt 18:22). We too forgive constantly in imitation of our Father and by His power. When we have unclenched our unforgiving hands and hearts, we can forgive into giving (see Mt 6:11-12). Like the father of the prodigal son, we can give robes, shoes, and rings (Lk 15...

“Let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets.” –Jeremiah 18:18 Those who persecuted Jeremiah were very “religious.” They were concerned about teachings from the priests, counsel from the wise, and messages from the prophets. James and John were also very “religious.” Motivated by their mother, they were not seeking big salaries or many possessions. They just wanted to work for the Church by being Jesus’ right-hand and left-hand men (Mt 20:21). T. S. Eliot wrote in Murder in the Cathedral: “The greatest treason is to do the right thing for the wrong reason.” Christians probably do more right things than any other group in the world. However, we are constantly tempted to do the right things with mixed motives. We love God, but not with our whole hearts (see Mt 22:37). We love the Church, the poor, and the sick, but our selfishness still influences us...

“He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies Me; and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.” –Psalm 50:23 First: Isaiah 43:16-21; Resp: Psalm 126:1-6; Second: Philippians 3:8-14; Gospel: John 8:1-11. The Lord commands us to praise Him (Ps 50:14); it is a due sacrifice we offer to God (Ps 96:8), just as the other sacrifices we owe Him. It takes humility to praise God, humility to recognize our sinfulness before Him (Is 1:16ff). We cannot praise Him without acknowledging our own humble position before Him. He is all-powerful and all-merciful. If we are proud, we will not be able to praise Him. In our pride, we will either elevate ourselves, making ourselves the judge, or we debase Him, bringing Him down to the level of a puny being with no relevance. In the latter case, we judge Him unworthy of being praised; in the former case, we don’t bother praising Him, for we judge the Lord to be no more capable of arranging things than we are. If...