Our Relationship With God

In the last post we read father Blasick’s homily for the beginning of Lent that speaks of our relationship with God on a personal level. Many of us today (not all), although we believe we're faithful to the teachings of our Christian faith choose what teachings we are willing to follow. We often see the church as an institution that is nothing more than an organization created by man. Some believe that it is not necessary to follow all of the guidance of the church in matters of faith and morality. There are even others who separate from the church and follow their own way of believing what God will be satisfied with assuming what is pleasing to them will be acceptable to God. They fail to realize that the church was in fact founded by Jesus Christ. He Himself empowered it with the authority to teach what He taught and for His church to guide His faithful. Yes, the Catholic Church presents to His faithful followers the teachings of Jesus Christ and not just some general rules a group of man made up on a whim.

As Jesus stated in Revelations,…

“because you are neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth.” what does Jesus mean by saying this? He speaks to the hypocrisy of those who claim to be Christians yet follow their own imaginary God or in some cases make themselves god. I am confident based on Scripture that Jesus would prefer those who take part in or promote the free expression of sexual relationships outside of the commitment of marriage, same sex relationships, abortion whether one or many, the redefining of marriage to include same-sex couples and the removal of all references to God and the Ten Commandments from public viewing that this country and its laws were founded upon, just to name a few - that these people not refer to themselves as followers of Christ or Christians leading others to believe that their expressions reflect His Word. All of this may sound very crude and heartless, but on looking at the teachings of Scripture, (I refer to Romans chapter one in its entirety as just one example), and knowing the sacrifices and suffering that Jesus Christ endured for our salvation, how arrogant and ignorant must one be to suggest on their own what God will or will not accept from us as individuals. Will God really accept our gesture to receive ashes on ash Wednesday as an expression of our faith while we choose not to attend mass or live by His Teachings?

I have heard it said that God is love and all he cares about is we love one another. I have heard this said even as a defense to justify same sex relationships as if some how they reflect the love God intends. I have heard it said that God wants us to be happy and that this desire for our happiness is not limited by the Ten Commandments, by Scripture, or by any church organization or authority that says otherwise. And I have heard it said by these same people that they have a relationship with Jesus Christ. What is most sad of all is that many believe in what they say over and above what scripture tells us. The reason is clear; they do not know scripture. And then there are those who attempt to say that Scripture has been wrong before yet they can not say what in scripture has been wrong of any of Jesus' teachings. And how hypocritical is it to go out and shop for a church until a person finds one that presents God and Scripture in a way that conforms to that person’s preferences of the God of their imagination.

Let us be realistic. Over the last 50 years we have seen our society go from a people that overwhelmingly attempted to practice their faith in God and his moral guidance to a culture that has adopted a "talk to the hand mentality" rejecting hearing anything that is said against what they want to believe or what they want to do. Most commonly such people refer to themselves as "progressives" but what they do not realize is that progression although it may be good under the right direction can result in devastation in other ways when the direction is flawed. Progression simply means the advancement in a direction but does not guarantee the final result will be a positive one. The fact is the far left progressive agenda does not have room for God or morality in the society it desires to live in. It seeks to silence all references to and all those who speak against itself by the self invented rule of political correctness which is hypocrisy by its own practice and those who adopt this mindset of Godlessness don’t even know when they should be ashamed of what they promote in front of others, so much is their respect for life and ethics.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?' Then I will declare to them solemnly, 'I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.” (Matthew CH7: vs21-23)

Ours has been labeled as the culture of death and it most certainly is. Look around us. From the time we adopted abortion through today even our children go out and commit mass killings against other children and I would be willing to say that it would be difficult to find many that had been raised in a relationship with God through faith, morality and respect for life. Our personal relationships are centered around our own pleasures more times than not with only a superficial regard for the person that we are supposed to be in a relationship. Relationships are commonly disposable. We fail to teach our children about God, faith, morality and self respect. Some of us claim they believe it is better to allow our children to grow up and later choose for themselves what faith they wish to believe in or if they wish to believe in God at all. But how can the children know how to choose or what to choose if they're not taught anything about God, faith, or true self respect and morality.

Many speak of the Book of Revelations or the apocalypse. the time has come that each of us stand alone and look in the mirror and see our selves as God sees us and then decide what is true and what we believe and how we live. Then we should look around us and see what is taking place not only in our own society but in the world around us and realize that the battle in Revelations between good and evil, the persecution of the church Jesus established and the martyrdom of Christians and the innocent is well underway. We can never know when Jesus Christ is to come again to judge but it is guaranteed that we will not know until we are face to face with him to answer for our lives. Scripture has never been wrong in its intended message and guidance. Not in any era of human history has Scripture fallen short in its guidance or direction for its people, and history has proven this fact many, many times. What kind of relationship do we really have with God and if it's not based on Scripture how much is of our own imagination and not the true God who created us?