Fr. Kevin's Cluttered Desk
Sunday, January 13, 2019
At the Epiphany we have the manifestation of Jesus as Son of God, Son of Man and we celebrate how God has sent his son into the world for our salvation. With the baptism of Jesus we have the manifestation of Jesus as healer and teacher, “My Son in whom I am well pleased”. God makes himself heard and the world is changed. But even with this manifestation many still did not believe or choose to change their lives. As was said, even if someone should rise from the dead, many will still not believe.
God manifests himself constantly in our lives but we choose not to see or to listen, it is one of the side affects of the gift of freewill. Uniting ourselves to God can be very difficult. In the seminary they used to tell us that a sign of being united to God was, discipline and obedience, two traits my dad had tried very hard to teach me.
Discipline: self control, to not let your emotions take charge of your ability to make a choice, to divest yourself of concern for the outcome of a choice, to remember that it is God’s kingdom we are building not our own.
Obedience: to become like minded to those who have authority and more specifically to be of one mind with God.
In these traits of discipline and obedience we also manifest God’s presence in the world. There is an old song, “They will know we are Christians by our love”, which is a call to manifest God’s presence by our love for each other.
As we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord one might want to ask them-self, does God look down on me and proclaim, “This is my child in whom I am well pleased?”
Peace Fr. Kevin
God manifests himself constantly in our lives but we choose not to see or to listen, it is one of the side affects of the gift of freewill. Uniting ourselves to God can be very difficult. In the seminary they used to tell us that a sign of being united to God was, discipline and obedience, two traits my dad had tried very hard to teach me.
Discipline: self control, to not let your emotions take charge of your ability to make a choice, to divest yourself of concern for the outcome of a choice, to remember that it is God’s kingdom we are building not our own.
Obedience: to become like minded to those who have authority and more specifically to be of one mind with God.
In these traits of discipline and obedience we also manifest God’s presence in the world. There is an old song, “They will know we are Christians by our love”, which is a call to manifest God’s presence by our love for each other.
As we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord one might want to ask them-self, does God look down on me and proclaim, “This is my child in whom I am well pleased?”
Peace Fr. Kevin
Submissions for the bulletin can be sent to: adminallsaints@shaw.ca