“They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. . . . . . . . . . . . You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; . . . . . . . . . . . . But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”
Excerpt, Gospel Reading, Wednesday 27th Nov. 2024 – LUKE 21:12-19.
So, the above☝️assertion from today’s teaching is a caution by Christ to his disciples about what would happen to them.
Now, is there anyone who would say that Christ’s statement above is not already happening?
Is it not already occurring in parts of the world where obscenity and outright sinfulness are tolerated just because ‘the society’ wouldn’t want to ‘hurt’ some people’s ‘sensibility’?
On 19th July 2015 in Vermont, USA, what happened to then 56 years old Pastor Paul Horner?
The was tried and sentenced to jail. – A pastor at the Christian Proctor Church in Vermont, has been sentenced to one year imprisonment for refusing to wed a gay couple.
The Honourable Myron Danus in his verdict said, “Religious freedom goes both ways, Mr. Horner,” Danus told a packed courtroom.
He was jailed for his refusal to perpetrate obscenity.
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus. He, whose coming into this world to take the form of man, his death, resurrection and ascension into heaven has liberated mankind from eternal sin and damnation. Hence, making us co-heirs of heaven.
Therefore, when we celebrate Christmas, we say to folks, very joyously and emphatically, ‘Merry Christmas!”
However, since there are purportedly some people who go to the shop buy a Christmas tree, buy other gift items as well and exchange with kith and kin, but subsequently do not have any further observation of the celebration, for the sanity of their sensibilities, we should no longer say, Merry Christmas!
Also, someone who wears a clothing item with a bold inscriptions, “I Love Jesus Christ” will be prohibited free movement in public spaces.
If all the aforementioned are most prevalent in the United States, what about you and I who are either intimidated or too ashamed to make the sign of the cross when we board public transport or when we have to say the “Grace Before Meal” while in public?
We too must have yielded to the ways of the world and allowed ourselves to be boxed into that tight corner that we now find ourselves.
My dear friend, the devil is a liar. Therefore, our actions both in private and publicly must and should consign the him to that doom of the abyss.
May God grant us the grace to permit His will to be realised in our life.
Have a fantastic day folks.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– Akase F. Agabo
27th Nov. 2024