Text: Revelation 3:7-13 (see below)
The lessons for today deal with the end times. We humans seem to have a fascination about such things. Harold Camping of Family Radio, for example, predicted that the world would end on May 12 of last year based on a mathematical scheme he had created to interpret prophecies hidden in the Bible. The media seized on the story and it became national news. When that date passed, Camping stated that he had miscalculated the correct time and moved his proposed rendezvous with the Almighty to October 21, 2011. When that day also elapsed without incident, Camping apologized and retired from ministry.
The Mayan Calendar has been interpreted by some to say that the end of the world will occur on December 21, 2012. Was it a ploy offered by a Hollywood studio that was promoting the release of their picture “2012” or based on actual fact? And how could a civilization that flourished between 300-900 CE have chosen such an exact date so far off in the future? I was impressed by a Mayan scholar interviewed on NPR about the subject who simply stated that when the Mayan calendar came to end, it “started over again.”
There is way too much time spent on trying to determine the end of all time. By doing so, we waste one of the most precious gifts that we have been given: today. This day is the only thing that truly matters. I cannot go back and change anything that happened yesterday or the day before. I have no control over tomorrow or what lies in store for me. This day is the only moment that I have to do something great for God and to offer charity to my neighbor.
What can you and I do today that will improve the overall life of our community, our family, our world? Let’s concentrate on those opportunities and leave the end of time to the Creator of all things.
Love One Another - Brian
There are nine days left before Saint Thomas' Day.
Our Greatest Gift from God
Thomas Keating
On the spiritual journey, there is usually someone in our family, business or community whom we cannot endure, someone who has a genius for bringing out the worst in us. No matter what we do, we cannot seem to improve the relationship. They have not done anything to cause it. God simply uses them to reflect back to us what our problem is. Thus the person who gives us the most trouble may be our greatest gift from God.
Source: Invitation to Love
Revelation 3:7-13
‘And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens: 'I know your works. Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. I will make those of the synagogue of Satan who say that they are Jews and are not, but are lying—I will make them come and bow down before your feet, and they will learn that I have loved you. Because you have kept my word of patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth. I am coming soon; hold fast to what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. If you conquer, I will make you a pillar in the temple of my God; you will never go out of it. I will write on you the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem that comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.
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