Thursday, December 6, 2018

Faith is our house built on rock

Jesus is more than an authority we must obey. To know Jesus is to know what he's all about (his purpose, his love, and his life). Salvation is placing our faith in this to such an extent that we want to follow him, doing what he does, changing the world around us, all the way to heaven.

We can believe in Jesus and yet remain in the darkness of sin and eternal death. To have faith in Jesus, we must not only believe that he is God. We must not only believe that he is Savior. We must also believe in everything that he taught by word and by deed.

We enter the kingdom of heaven by listening to his words and acting upon them. Salvation is more than a statement of belief. It's more than going to Mass and reciting the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed. It's faith in action. We act the way Jesus acted and we do what Jesus did, because we love him so much that we want others to love him too.

We let our faith shine, for example, when we love our enemies, and when we forgive others as he forgives us and when we do more than what is asked of us, going the extra mile - not because he told us to, but because we genuinely care.

Obedience is merely the minimum. To be heralds of hope and flames of light that Christ brings to the world, we must embrace the way he delivers that hope and light. Going the extra mile is the way we go to the cross with him. And while the cross looks like the antithesis of Christmas, it is sacrifice that opens the door of hope in the hearts of others.

Faith is what motivates us to do more than the minimum. If we have faith in Christ, we love as he loves, and we cannot help but want to do more for others. There is the guarantee of heaven: If we love others in him and through him, of course we will have eternal life with him.

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"I demand from you deeds of mercy, which are to arise out of love for Me. You are to show mercy to your neighbors always and everywhere. You must not shrink from this or try to excuse or absolve yourself from it.

I am giving you three ways of exercising mercy toward your neighbor:
the first — by deed, the second — by word, the third — by prayer. In these three degrees is contained the fullness of mercy, and it is an unquestionable proof of love for Me. By this means a soul glorifies and pays reverence to My mercy.

Many souls ... are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul.

If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy".