😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. This past week I’ve continued my journey through Exodus. Starting in Chapter 25, the Lord gives Moses the incredibly detailed instructions for building a sanctuary for the Lord.  I remember years ago when I read this part it was fascinating envisioning the wood, the precious metals and gems, the cloth, colors and measurements.  I tried to build it in my mind. Another time after that, I remember thinking as I read…”Oh yeah, I remember that. That’s pretty impressive.”  But then I just kind of rolled through it, not really paying much attention.  I started to do that again this time, but God said…”Not this time, I have something more for you.”  

What’s the purpose of this tabernacle?  It was to be a place for our Lord to dwell among the Israelites, right?  He wanted to be in their presence and He wanted them to be in His.  A place that they would be able to approach Him.  The planning and detail He put into that tabernacle is impressive.  This got me to thinking how much more planning and intricate detail work He put into creating human life, you and me, in His own image so that we could and would be a tabernacle for Him to dwell in and with.  So that others could approach Him through you and you could approach Him through others.  Think about it, when you receive Holy Communion you are saying “Yes Lord, I want You to dwell in me.  I accept your true and holy presence into this tabernacle not to close You in, but to carry You and Your light to all those around me.  May Your words flow through me.  May Your presence be felt in my loving embrace.  May I acknowledge that it is You Lord that is the passion, love, and actions that moves me.”  Thank You Lord for allowing me to be Your tabernacle, Your holy dwelling place.  Bless others and be blessed. 

#PatBarrett – Build My Life

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. One sure way to put me on edge is to require me to take a class. It makes it even better when it’s an online class and the recordings won’t work. So, I try again later from a different computer. Yay, they work!  Great…now the internet won’t work. “Come on…I only had 36 minutes left to finish day 1 lessons.”  The internet is working again, but now the presentation will only work for 10 seconds before it takes five minutes to load the next 10 seconds of the presentation.  Studying is challenging enough for me on its own, but then throw in the computer issues. That’s a recipe for disaster. It’s a good thing Brian has learned to stay away from me when stuff like this happens.  Yes, I know it’s just Satan messin’ with me the best way he knows how. I can see that and I can admit Satan knows my weakness…feeling that I’m not in control of my situation.  I wonder if that’s what the Israelites were feeling as the Lord and Moses led them in their journey up to the point that they felt boxed in by the Red Sea on one side and Pharaoh and his army on the other side. Exodus 14:10 “It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert.”  Yep, they said that. That was a pretty bold statement considering they physically saw and were being led by God’s presence in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.  They had no idea that God had such an awesomely amazing event planned to happen in just a few short moments, when He held the waters of the sea back so they could pass through to safety. Yes, He can and will use anything in our lives to draw us back to Him.  I knew that the longer I allowed myself to fume over the class and computer issues, the more worked up I would get and the less I would be open to learning. My focus was turning from “What can I absorb from this class?” to “How quickly can I get this thing done?”  So, God flipped Satan’s intrusion of frustration to allow a break for me to refocus on Him and share this experience with you.  We hear that there are always two sides to a story. I’m choosing to focus on His side.  Bless others and be blessed. 

#JonnyDiaz – Define Me

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Recently I was told that I’m like a young plant in a Dixie cup that has stopped growing because its roots are bound up and don’t have anywhere to expand. That I need to get out of my Dixie cup into some rich soil, let those roots stretch, and allow for some top growth.  I’ve also been reading through Exodus when Moses, Aaron, and the Lord repeatedly went to Pharaoh requesting that he let the Lord’s people go. In the beginning Pharaoh wouldn’t even consider this request. You know the story, God has Moses and Aaron throw down his staff transforming it into a snake, change the water into blood, then sends the frogs. Eh, Pharaoh’s guys can do that too.  Pharaoh wasn’t impressed and his heart hardens toward the Lord. The Lord is persistent, so He sends the gnats, flies, kills the livestock, and covers them with boils. Pharaoh’s guys can’t do that stuff and they are really worried.  Pharaoh continues to harden his heart even more.  Hail yes!  The Lord sent that too. Pharaoh starts to give in, but quickly makes a U turn. Locusts and darkness fall across the land of Egypt. Pharaoh says he’ll let God’s people go, asks Moses to pray for him and to stop the plagues. Moses prays for Pharaoh. Again and again Pharaoh hardens his heart even more. It wasn’t until Pharaoh’s firstborn son dies that he finally gave in and let God’s people go. 

I know God is asking me to grow in unfamiliar areas and put myself out there in uncertain waters. I feel like I’ve been playing the same game with the Lord that Pharaoh did. Look Lord, see…I can do that too. He keeps inviting me to join Him. I’ll give Him an inch, then harden my heart and rely on myself again. Like Pharaoh, this uncertainty and fear causes me to experience internal struggle. I want to let go and follow God’s guidance, but I keep turning my back and not following through with what I’ve said I would do.  It’s time to bust out of that Dixie cup into the deeper richer soil that the Lord has so perfectly groomed for me.  Moses acknowledged that he was slow of speech and tongue, so the Lord send Aaron to help him. I know that I too am going to need some help with this mission He has laid before me and I trust that He already has help in the works. It’s just a matter of me agreeing to take those first steps in faith.  Where is God calling you?  Will you too harden your heart or will you allow Him in?  Bless others and be blessed. 

#Unspoken – Roots

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. This past week and a half has been dotted all over with moments of saying “Thank you Lord.”  I was told at one point that I pray a lot for others, but not really for myself. I guess I never really looked at my prayer life that way. I was reminded that constantly pouring out of ourselves will leave us Spiritually drained. I find it much easier to pray for other and I find it a challenge to ask others to pray for me. It’s very humbling, but at the same time exhilarating to hear what God is speaking into me through others.  And it’s not like those are planned moments, well not by us anyway.  That’s why it’s so important to not just listen, but to act upon His words for you. Let’s be honest. How many of you are like me in the fact that you may listen, but you don’t always act the first time you are told to do something. Part of it for me is that I kind of get frozen in place until I work out all the details. But what God has been showing me this week is that He’s going to give it to me in bite size nuggets. When I chew that up and let it soak in, it gives me the wisdom, courage, and thankfulness to accept the next nugget.  I want to encourage you to not let those nuggets pass you by. Each one, although it may not seem important at the time, truly is when you start connecting those dots. Savor and give thanks for each nugget. Bless others and be blessed.

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. I’m not a road rage kind of person, so it really surprises me last Thursday morning when I wanted to chase someone down. Pulling out of our neighborhood I looked left and there was a car three quarters the way up the hill, so I turned. By the time I was two car lengths down the road, that person was on my bumper. “Where do you have to be in such a hurry at 6:30 in the morning?”  Turning at the next light, I made sure to stay in the right lane so that person could zoom around me.  Not knowing what had come over me, I just wanted to chase that person to show them my displeasure with their lack of concern for others. Then I started talking to myself.”  Don’t do that. There’s no purpose. You’ll just make yourself more upset.”  We turned to get onto the highway, and again this person was being really rude. “The cars on the highway have the right of way. Learn how to merge!”  After merging onto the highway I was like…”That’s it!  I need to see who this person is.”  “Why am I doing this?  Why am I acting this way?”  Just as I pulled up on the left of this car and saw the drive, God said “I wanted you to see the face of the person I want you to pray for.”  Oh was that a humbling moment. So, I began to pray. Quite often God wakes me in the middle of the night to pray. Sometimes He will give me a name, sometimes a situation the person is in but no name, and then other times He doesn’t tell me a name or the situation, He just wants prayers lifted up. So it was interesting that He took me out of my normal mindset and driving style to specifically show me this lady that needed prays.  I have no idea why He wanted me to see and pray for her, but God does and that’s all that matters. I can’t even imagine how many people He has had blindly pray for me, not knowing my name, face, or even my situation. Thank you Lord for the gift of those who pray for me and thank you for the gift of praying with You for others. You know, when you pray, you never pray alone. He is always there.  Bless others and be blessed. 

#ForKing&Country – God Only Knows

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. Last week we celebrated the Easter Triduum and it all started with Holy Thursday Mass. In this one evening Jesus very clearly SHOWS us by washing the feet of His disciples, that to be a leader and teacher, we must first serve others. He then celebrates His last supper, which is a meal that is still being celebrated every day.  During the homily Thursday, Father made a point that I really wasn’t expecting…Jesus washed the feet of all the disciples, even Judas, knowing that He would be betrayed by him within a matter of hours. 

I thought…Seriously?  You want me to go out of my way not to just be nice, but get down on my hands and knees to serve someone that will betray my trust and hurt me?  Seriously!  I don’t think many of us are willing to that.  

Jesus’ powerful action is kind of like when a person is weak, short of breath, and is trying to share their final words of wisdom with you. Lean in a little closer, so that you can hear His every word clearly.  “I don’t care what someone has done, is doing, or will do to you. I am within them. When you serve them, you are serving Me.” Bless others and be blessed. 

#Resurrecting – Elevation Worship

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Holy Week. I don’t take it lightly when I say it’s my favorite week of the year.  I think Christ experienced every possible human emotion in the span of that week. Think about it. Palm Sunday starts with such a great high and it rolls from there…friendship, love, betrayal, denial, rejection, physical and emotional pain, the kindness of a stranger, the commitment and unconditional love of His mother, the repentance of a sinner, the faithfulness of the Father, the promise of salvation and eternal life. That’s a heck of a lot and extremely overwhelming for one week. And He CHOSE to accept it ALL, WILLINGLY because of the sinner I am and the simple yet incredibly powerful fact that there is no other place that He wants me to be, than in His loving embrace.  Sharing our faith in and friendship with the Lord is not a requirement.  But it is a gift, a choice, a willingness to return a very small offering back to our Friend for the awesome and unfathomable choice and offering He made for us.  Allow the emotions of Christ’s Holy Week to penetrate your very spirit, that you may be one with Christ. Bless others and be blessed. 

#ThirdDay – Offering

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you. My oldest sister had a great idea last fall, to have a family vacation with our parents, us four siblings, and our spouses to celebrate Mom and Pop’s 75th birthdays. So this past week the 10 of us traveled from Colorado, Florida, and Ohio to Asheville, NC.  It’s been many years since we all spent time together.  We did some tourist items like exploring the Biltmore estate, shopping, a walking food tour of downtown Asheville, and visited other local restaurants…We like to eat. On Sunday night, as we were once again eating, my sister asked…What was your favorite part of the weekend?  For me it was going to the Basilica of Saint Lawrence and celebrating Mass together as a family. It brought me back to a feeling of home, that I haven’t felt for far too long. At on point we sang a song that I had never heard before and I thought, “That’s a great prayer.”  So, I took a picture of it so I could remember.  As a surprise to our parents, my sister contacted the church back in December and asked if their priest would be willing to pray a blessing over our family, so after Mass we went to a smaller side chapel in the Basilica and received a family blessing. What a great moment that was. This week I would like to share the blessing of this song that we sang at Mass. Bless others and be blessed.

“O Dearest Lord, Your Sacred Head”

O dearest Lord your sacred head with thorns was pierced for me; O pour your blessing on my head, That yours my thoughts may be.

O dearest Lord your sacred hands with nails were pierced for me; O pour your blessing on my hands, That yours my works may be.

O dearest Lord your sacred feet with nails were pierced for me; O pour your blessing on my feet, That yours my path may be.

O dearest Lord your Sacred Heart with spear was pierced for me; O pour your blessing on my heart, That yours my life may be.

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  This morning I wanted to share with you something I read while sitting in a waiting room yesterday morning. 

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new end.”

Bless others and be blessed.  

#CastingCrowns – Nobody

😎🐫🎤 Christ’s peace be with you.  Reading through Genesis 9 I was given a slightly different perspective of the term “lifeblood”.  At this point the ark had come to a resting place, Noah and his family were exiting the ark, and God was offering Noah a covenant with Him. Which brings us to verses 3-6: “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting for every animal. And for each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.”

The first thing that caught my attention was that God was just now giving us permission to eat anything that lives and moves. Originally, we were all vegetarians. Hmmm, maybe that’s why they lived so long.  God goes on to say that He will demand an account of our lifeblood and the lifeblood of those around us. I don’t think He’s talking just actual blood here. There is more than one way to kill someone without puncturing the skin or leaving a physical mark. Harsh words verbally attacking someone; giving someone the stink eye; ignoring or abandoning them; these are all ways in which we can kill someone’s spirit and drain their lifeblood out of them, to the point that only a shell of a person remains.  And God will demand an accounting. I know this is something we don’t want to reflect on in our own lives, but we need to. Yesterday, how many times did you act without thinking and fall into this type of sin?  How many times last week? Last month?  It starts to add up quickly. We need to be conscience of our thoughts to prevent them from becoming life taking words and actions and turn them into life giving embraces.  Bless others and be blessed. 

#TobyMac – Speak Life