How Will You Live Your Life?

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Hi everyone, it is great to be back!

So this Sunday’s Gospel is the epitome of Christian life.

Are you going to live your life according to how God commands you to live it or are you going to be tempted by Satan and all the worldly pleasures and do what you want to do because it’s all about you and whatever makes you happy?

There are a couple of readings in the Sunday Mass that grabbed me. The first one was about Adam and Eve who were hiding from God in the garden after they ate the fruit that was forbidden to them.

God said, “Why in the world did you guys do that?”
First, Adam blames Eve and says, “SHE told me to do it,”
And then God said to Eve, “Why?”
And then she said, “Oh, it was that serpent—HE convinced me to do it!”
So, God said to the serpent, “You will forever be crawling on your belly eating dirt and there will be enmity (meaning hostility) between you and the woman in the future.”

And that woman is Mary. So the first Adam and Eve sinned. They introduced original sin. Thanks guys, appreciate that! And then come Jesus and Mary—sinless. They are the new Adam and Eve and that is why Satan hates Mary so much because she is in such favor with God and he’s actually quite scared of her, which is why in the in the Catholic faith we pray the rosary so much and rely on her so much for her intercession. We do not worship her, but we go to her to ask for her ask for Jesus’ help. Let’s think about it … back at the wedding at Cana, it wasn’t Jesus’ to turn the water into wine. He wasn’t supposed to do any miracles, but His mother asked Him to, so he obliged—kinda the same thing. It is just as if you and I were going to ask each other for prayers. We go to Mary and say, “Please can you ask Jesus to help us in x, y, or z situation that we’re in?”

Alright, the Gospel, which is another kind of Satan twist and right back to the fundamental question, how are you going to live your life?

Gospel Mark 3:20-35

Jesus came home with his disciples.
Again the crowd gathered,
making it impossible for them even to eat.
When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him,
for they said, “He is out of his mind.”
The scribes who had come from Jerusalem said,
“He is possessed by Beelzebul,”
and “By the prince of demons he drives out demons.”

Summoning them, he began to speak to them in parables,
“How can Satan drive out Satan?
If a kingdom is divided against itself,
that kingdom cannot stand.
And if a house is divided against itself,
that house will not be able to stand.
And if Satan has risen up against himself
and is divided, he cannot stand;
that is the end of him.
But no one can enter a strong man’s house to plunder his property
unless he first ties up the strong man.
Then he can plunder the house.
Amen, I say to you,
all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be
forgiven them.
But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit
will never have forgiveness,
but is guilty of an everlasting sin.”
For they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

His mother and his brothers arrived.
Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him,
“Your mother and your brothers and your sisters
are outside asking for you.”
But he said to them in reply,
“Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said,
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God
is my brother and sister and mother.”

I’d like to go up a little bit here … “Amen, I say to you” when Jesus says that he’s serious he’s like, “Hey, pay attention here!”

“Amen, I say to you all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them.” So yeah, we do a lot of stupid things. We make a lot of stupid moves, but they will be forgiven. God will forgive us. He understands we’re human in nature and thanks to Adam and Eve for committing the first sins, original sin, he knows we are damaged goods. “But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never have forgiveness but is guilty of an everlasting sin.” They had said about Jesus that He has an unclean spirit.

The Holy Spirit is God. If you remember the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, one God, three distinct persons. If you blaspheme against God—the Holy Spirit, you don’t believe in God or Jesus or the Holy Spirit and you think he’s evil or the devil.

How can you be forgiven of that? You must believe in order to be saved … many other things to be saved of course, but the main point here is the Holy Spirit that came down after Jesus ascended to sit at the Father’s right hand is God within us but we can deny Him.

I did a Facebook video earlier this week asking people just to ask God to open their heart to God so that God could do the rest, and that is the Holy Spirit. He is down here among the entire world, helping us, defending us against Satan who wants to devour every single one of us. Satan doesn’t love us. He doesn’t care about us. He just wants our soul. He wants to prove that he can pull all these souls into to hell with him. He’s so mad at God and he is so mad at Mary because she is in such grace with God. And again she is the new Eve. Jesus is the new Adam, the sinless, Adam and Eve.

So, my point here to all of you is to really think about this because I’ll be honest, when I started thinking about death and about eternity and hell, I kinda got scared. I went to confession right away!

I thought, okay, you know what …if because I am living this lifestyle I am living—which is all about me with mortal sins on my soul and forgetting God, not having any kind of relationship with Him, doing whatever I like to do and whatever makes me happy is going to possibly put me in hell, I ought to re-think how I am living.

Uh, that means flames licking my body for the rest of eternity, which is a REAL LONG TIME! I was pretty freaked out. I was scared. And I thank God for giving me that fear because I believe that that is why I continue to go to God and ask Him to guide me and to help me with all of my struggles.

I am not a perfect human being—none of us are. I go to confession a lot. I’m a judgmental person. I have those same feelings that everybody does, but since I’ve been working on a relationship with Him, trusting Him, He’s given me different eyes to look at the world, a different view through the lens of faith, and I’m changing. It’s easier now to live this way. It’s easier to look at everyone and love everyone because He’s given me the grace of compassion and joy and peace and most importantly, trust. And trust is faith and faith is what I live for right now.

So, all I want to do is bring everybody to heaven with me. PLEASE ask God to come into your life. Don’t deny the Holy Spirit! He’s within you, ready to help make you more holy and get you to heaven. There’s a stairway to heaven and a highway to hell. That traffic going on that highway to hell is going to be pretty busy and the stairway is a little bit slower and a little bit more effort. But think about the amazing destiny that we are all called to, sitting with God, worshiping Him and this amazing love and beauty that nobody can even imagine here on earth.

That is what I want you to really think about this week. If you have one mustard seed of faith, you should really rely on God. Trust in God, get to confession, go back to Mass, ask God to help you.

It doesn’t happen overnight. It took me years, but He will grow in you and the peace and the joy and the love and compassion that you have will be insurmountable.

I hope that you really take this to heart and just ask Him in—open up the door. He’s knocking, he’s waiting. He loves you more than you could ever imagine. No matter how long you were away, I was away for decades, a big, BIG sinner.

I’m still a sinner and always will be. I still need His grace, always!

So think about that this week. Ask Him, I pray that you ask Him to come into your heart and let Him do the rest!

And remember heaven or hell, those are pretty different lives when we’re done on this earth. Think about it and make that choice today, alright?

Live in the love of God. Have a blessed and inspired week.