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If he listens to you, you have won back your brother - Extracted from Matthew 18: 15-20
Jesus said to his disciples:
If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves.
If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.
If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge.
But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.
‘I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loose in heaven.’
‘I tell you solemnly once again, if two of you on earth agree to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three meet in my name, I shall be there with them.’
3 September 2011 Jesus casted out devil - Extracted from Luke 4: 31-37
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath.
And his teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil, and it shouted at the top of its voice, ‘Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’
But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’
And the devil, throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all.
Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, ‘What teaching! He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.’
And reports of him went all through the surrounding countryside.
We have never failed to remember you in our prayers -Extracted from Colossians Chapter 1:
1 From Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and from our brother Timothy
2 to God's holy people in Colossae, our faithful brothers in Christ. Grace and peace to you from God our Father.
3 We have never failed to remember you in our prayers and to give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
4 ever since we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you show towards all God's holy people
5 because of the hope which is stored up for you in heaven. News of this hope reached you not long ago through the word of truth, the gospel
6 that came to you in the same way as it is bearing fruit and growing throughout the world. It has had the same effect among you, ever since you heard about the grace of God and recognised it for what it truly is.
7 This you learnt from Epaphras, our very dear fellow-worker and a trustworthy deputy for us as Christ's servant,
8 and it was he who also told us all about your love in the Spirit.
9 That is why, ever since the day he told us, we have never failed to remember you in our prayers and ask that through perfect wisdom and spiritual understanding you should reach the fullest knowledge of his will
10 and so be able to lead a life worthy of the Lord, a life acceptable to him in all its aspects, bearing fruit in every kind of good work and growing in knowledge of God,
11 fortified, in accordance with his glorious strength, with all power always to persevere and endure,
12 giving thanks with joy to the Father who has made you able to share the lot of God's holy people and with them to inherit the light.
13 Because that is what he has done. It is he who has rescued us from the ruling force of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son that he loves,
14 and in him we enjoy our freedom, the forgiveness of sin. 3 September 2011
10 September 2011
All things were created through him and for him - Extracted from Colossians 1: 15-20
Christ Jesus is the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible,
Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers - all things were created through him and for him.
Before anything was created, he existed and he holds all things in unity.
Now the Church is his body, he is the head.
As he is the Beginning, he was first to be born from the dead, so that he should be first in everyway; because God wanted all perfection to be found in him and all things to be reconciled through him and for him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by his death on the cross.
If you do not speak to the wicked man, I will hold you responsible for his death - Extracted from Ezekiel 33: 7-11
The word of the Lord was addressed to me (hereinafter referred to the Prophet “Ezekiel”) as follows,
‘Son of man, I have appointed you as sentry to the House of Israel.
When you hear a word from my mouth, warn them in my name.
If I say to a wicked man: Wicked wretch, you are to die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked man to renounce his ways, then he shall die for his sin, but I will hold you responsible for his death.
If, however, you do warn a wicked man to renounce his ways and repent, and he does not repent, then he shall die for his sins, but you yourself will have saved your life.’
‘Son of man, say to the House of Israel, “You are continually saying: Our sins and crimes weigh heavily on us; we are wasting away because of them. How are we to go on living?”
Say to them, “As I live - it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks - I take pleasure, not in the death of a wicked man, but in the turning back of a wicked man who changes his ways to win life.
Come back, come back from your evil ways.
Why are you so anxious to die, House of Israel?”
Love is the answer to every one of the commandments - Extracted from Romans 13: 8-10
Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love.
If you love your fellow men, you have carried out your obligations.
All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command:
You must love your neighbour as yourself.
Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments. |
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Fatherly Advice – Extracted from Ecclesiasticus / Sirach Chapter 14:
True Happiness
1 Blessed is anyone who has not sinned in speech and who needs feel no remorse for sins.
2 Blessed is anyone whose conscience brings no reproach and who has never given up hope.
Envy and Greed
3 Wealth is not the right thing for the niggardly, and what use are possessions to the covetous?
4 Whoever hoards by stinting himself is hoarding for others, and others will live sumptuously on his riches.
5 If someone is mean to himself, whom does he benefit? he does not even enjoy what is his own.
6 No one is meaner than the person who is mean to himself, this is how his wickedness repays him.
7 If he does any good, he does it unintentionally, and in the end he himself reveals his wickedness.
8 Wicked the person who has an envious eye, averting his face, and careless of others' lives.
9 The eye of the grasping is not content with what he has, greed shrivels up the soul.
10 The miser is grudging of bread, there is famine at his table.
11 My child, treat yourself as well as you can afford, and bring worthy offerings to the Lord.
12 Remember that death will not delay, and that you have never seen Sheol's contract.
13 Be kind to your friend before you die, treat him as generously as you can afford.
14 Do not refuse yourself the good things of today, do not let your share of what is lawfully desired pass you by.
15 Will you not have to leave your fortune to another, and the fruit of your labour to be divided by lot?
16 Give and receive, enjoy yourself - there are no pleasures to be found in Sheol.
17 Like clothes, everybody will wear out, the age - old law is, 'Everyone must die.'
18 Like foliage growing on a bushy tree, some leaves falling, others growing, so are the generations of flesh and blood: one dies, another is born.
19 Every achievement rots away and perishes, and with it goes its author.
The happiness of a sage
20 Blessed is anyone who meditates on wisdom, and reasons with intelligence,
21 who studies her ways in his heart, and ponders her secrets.
22 He pursues her like a hunter, and lies in wait by her path;
23 he peeps in at her windows, and listens at her doors;
24 he lodges close to her house, and fixes his peg in her walls;
25 he pitches his tent at her side, and lodges in an excellent lodging;
26 he sets his children in her shade, and camps beneath her branches;
27 he is sheltered by her from the heat, and in her glory he makes his home. 10 September 2011
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