Word of Life – Heb. 10:25 (28/4/2024 – 12/5/2024)

Post date:   2024-04-30
Autor:   BCP
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us exhort one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Reflection on Heb 10:25

Post date:   2024-04-30
Autor:   BCP
This verse is preceded by the words: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds.” The groups meeting together at the time when the Apostle was writing this letter were probably as small as ours. However, these words applied and still apply above all to small prayer groups, which have carried the burden of the Church and called on God for light, strength and salvation. We perceive that the biblical demand for koinonia, the formation of brotherly fellowship, is very relevant today. A group of Christian men meet together for prayer and pray to God for themselves and for the souls entrusted to them. At the same time, they seek to encourage one another to remain faithful to Christ and to the commandments He has given us in the midst of this world, despite the various pressures. Christ’s commands are not burdensome, though in certain circumstances they may require great sacrifice. But then the reward in heaven is all the greater if we persevere.

THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF THE GOSPEL

Post date:   2024-04-21
Autor:   BCP
How much we have been deceived by different views of Scripture. We have forgotten to live the Scripture. The Scripture gives us directions for life. So we need to begin to learn slowly and seriously the nuts and bolts: e.g. Jesus says, “If your brother has something against you, go and be reconciled to your brother.” In other words – e.g. your brother vents his anger and rebukes you unjustly and now there is a tense situation. He becomes aware of his guilt afterwards, and is overcome with sorrow. He does not know what to do, how to apologize, and tension increases. An old proverb says ‘Silence is gold’, but in this case silence is hell – the atmosphere grows more and more tense and affects the people around too. Gloomy faces on both sides, and self-pity is working at full speed. The devil and the old self bring thousands of arguments against the brother and present his behaviour as a supreme crime. What to do? Who should make the first step, or rather, who is obliged to? According to the Gospel, he who has been wronged is obliged to make the first step.

What will you say to the risen Jesus?

Post date:   2024-04-20
Autor:   BCP
When you do somebody wrong – either unknowingly or, worse still, knowingly – there is tension between you. When you then realize it, you suddenly see your fault and you see that the person you have wronged has been hurt and suffers. I remember one example from Italy: A group of thieves – young boys – broke into a jeweller’s shop and killed the jeweller during the robbery. They were caught and sentenced to many years in prison. There was a woman with little children present at the trial. She was the jeweller’s widow. At the sight of her and her children, one of the boys suddenly understood what evil he had done, what pain he had caused them. His conscience was stirred and he begged their forgiveness. And the woman said she forgave him… Forgiveness is a very precious and important thing. Forgiveness opens the door to the heart and home of the person whom we have hurt.

“… but you will see Me.”

Post date:   2024-04-20
Autor:   BCP
Jesus says to the apostles: “… but you will see Me. Because I live, you also will live.” (Jn 14:19) Will the apostles see Christ? Yes, they will see Him risen on the third day after His death, and then He will appear to them during forty days. And they will also see Him in the light of glory at the moment of their physical death, when they will see Him as He is. They will see Him! The first of the apostles to see Him in this way was one of the brothers for whom their mother had interceded that they should sit one on the right hand and the other on the left of Christ. Jesus then asked them: “Can you drink the cup I am about to drink?” James and his brother John said to Him: “We can.” Jesus said to them: “You will indeed drink My cup.” And they indeed did. The first to drink the cup of suffering was John, who was the only one of the apostles who experienced union with Christ’s death by being willing to die, and that was why he remained standing faithfully at the foot of the cross. His brother James was the first of the apostles to lay down his life for Christ as a martyr. He was beheaded with a sword. Later, all the others gave their lives for Christ. They saw Christ! We too will see Him, and for all eternity we will see His face. But the condition is to remain faithful to Christ until the end – until death.

Word of Life – Heb. 12:1 (14/4/2024 – 28/4/2024)

Post date:   2024-04-13
Autor:   BCP
“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”

Reflection on Heb 12:1

Post date:   2024-04-13
Autor:   BCP
This Scripture verse truly is preceded by an example of a whole multitude of witnesses throughout chapter 11. And this chapter ends as follows: “And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.” Then follows the verse which we are going to recite for two weeks. It begins with the words: “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…” And then it continues: “…let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The next verse is a continuation of the previous one: “…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…” And we read further: “…who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. 

The way to a new life is through the death of the old self

Post date:   2024-04-13
Autor:   BCP
Our cross is truly the greatest gift from God; it is meant to strip us completely of the old self, of the slightest clinging to anything, and to clothe us in thoughts of essential things – death, heaven, hell, and the abandoned, humiliated and crucified Jesus.

The way to a new life is through the death of the old self

Post date:   2024-04-12
Autor:   BCP
Our cross is truly the greatest gift from God; it is meant to strip us completely of the old self, of the slightest clinging to anything, and to clothe us in thoughts of essential things – death, heaven, hell, and the abandoned, humiliated and crucified Jesus.

My Lord and my God!

Post date:   2024-04-07
Autor:   BCP
Christ appeared to the apostles on the evening of His resurrection. God willed that the Apostle Thomas should not be with them. The apostles said to him: “We have seen Jesus! We doubted at first, thinking in fear that we were seeing a ghost. But Jesus said to us, ‘Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself! Touch Me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’ Then He asked if we had anything to eat, and ate it in our presence, so that we might believe that it was really Him risen from the dead. The bones of the fish that Jesus ate are a testimony to that. Jesus is really alive. All of us, the ten apostles and the two disciples who went to Emmaus, have seen Him with our own eyes.” But Thomas would not accept the testimony of the apostles and did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead.