New Warrior Ministries!: VII Pentecost. 7th Sunday after Pentecost. Western Rite. Salvation through Love.

VII Pentecost!

7th Sunday after Pentecost!

Western Rite

Salvation through Love!

Greetings in Christ Jesus,

(First Sunday of the cycle of six Sundays)

During this week:

The Beginning of Night: read the Book of Acts throughout this week.

Matins: Week VII throughout this week, for the verses before the Second Canticle of

Moses, the Song of the Three Youths, and the Matins Resurrection Gospel.

The Divine Liturgy:

Old Testament: Is. 49:8-13 (“Thus says the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard

you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you... That you might say to them that are

bound: Come forth: and to them that are in darkness: Show yourselves... They shall

not hunger, nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them, for He that

is merciful to them, shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters He shall give

them drink...”)

Epistle: II Corinthians 1:12-20 (Our glory is in the grace of God... not according to the

flesh, as “it is” and “it is not,” but by the promises of God, “it is.” The Apostolic

Church emphasized this point of view when discussing God: rather than "You shall not"

of the Ten Commandments, "Blessed" of the Beatitudes.)

Gradual and Alleluia: Psalm 84 (Heb. 85) Lord, you have blessed Your land: You have

turned away the captivity of Jacob. (Verses 11-14 as Alleluia.) “...Mercy and truth have

met each other: justice and peace have kissed...”

Gospel: Matthew 22:23-33 (The Sadducees question Christ about the Resurrection citing

Deut. 25:5. “For in the Resurrection they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall

be as the angels of God in heaven.” “...He is not the God of the dead, but of the

living.”)

Friends,

What a grievous heartache the Body of Christ can be. In our prophecy today God has stated that He will send the Shepherd to shepherd the people, when this Shepherd came those who proclaimed the Law to the people did not recognize this Shepherd. Our Lord was grieved over Jerusalem. Today the so called body of Christ does not recognize the Shepherd or the Christ. There are so many versions of Jesus on the market now and so many doctrines and ideas that the mind, if one is not careful, will become bogged down and become lost in frustration. Yet, this is not new to our age but has been from the beginning. Our epistle today is called 2 Corinthians as if the apostle Paul wrote only two letters but in fact he wrote others. After St. Paul established the church in Corinth they wrote him a letter; we see this in 1 Corinthians 7:1 now concerning the things whereof you wrote to me:

In 1 Corinthians 5:9 we see that St. Paul stated that he had written them a previous letter (now lost); I wrote to you in an epistle, not to keep company with fornicators. He wrote these things in the letter that we call 1 Corinthians, sometime after this he sent Timothy to the church in Corinth and Timothy returned with news that a group of Jewish - Christian missionaries were undermining Paul’s teaching and apostolic authority.

Paul visited the church a second time which did not turn out so well and one member caused him much grief which caused him to write another letter called the “letter of tears” 2 Corinthians 2:4 For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears: not that you should be made sorrowful: but that you might know the charity I have more abundantly towards you.

2 Corinthians 7:8 for although I made you sorrowful by my epistle, I do not repent; and if I did repent, seeing that the same epistle (although but for a time) did make you sorrowful.

In today’s readings Paul is discussing his relationship with the Corinthians and the fact that his preaching was not carnal or from the flesh but from God. Friends; the church today is not much different, how much proselytizing goes on in the church today? How many travel to other communities or other countries and stand outside the place of worship of a Christian church of another denomination handing out leaflets against that group in an attempt to bring those members into their own under the guise as the only ones having the truth?

All of Christianity’s groups claim to be the only one with the truth and everyone else is hell bound or misleading the flock. This is pride and arrogance. What is the bottom line in belief? Believe in the Lord Jesus the Christ who is the word of God in the flesh, the Son of God and the Son of Man. Being the word of God He is God, He came from God and returned to God. He came, taught, was crucified, died, and was buried, on the third day he rose from the grave, ascended and sits as the right hand of the Father.

The scriptures tell us to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (Spirit), this gives us the Holy Trinity, and we are told in scripture that Jesus was born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit. As the Son of God and the Son of Man; Jesus and Jesus alone is the only way to the Father, there is no other way. He is the door, He is the gate, and He is the shepherd. It is through Him that all things were created; 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

1 Peter 3: 18 Because Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit, 19 In which also coming he preached to those spirits that were in prison: 20 Which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water. 21 Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saves you also: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 22 Who is on the right hand of God, swallowing down death, that we might be made heirs of life everlasting: being gone into heaven, the angels and powers and virtues being made subject to him.

The eternal life of man, of the undying soul, is verified by our Lord in today’s gospel. Live as if it is true, we are all in error, no one has all of the truth as they claim; “9 for we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.”

Believe these things and gain life, if you love the Christ then you will hate the anti-Christ which includes all lying on our part, all pride on our part, all ego on our part. How do we see lies, ego, and pride in others and cannot see within ourselves where we fall short? We must remove the log first of all from our own eye, we cannot do anything true without the love of Jesus the Christ in us. If others are following these things that are written here, how can we who also are following these things here despise those others who do as well?

49 And John, answering, said: Master, we saw a certain man casting out devils in Your name, and we forbade him, because he follows not with us. 50 And Jesus said to him: Forbid him not; for he that is not against you, is for you.

34 A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.

In today’s Psalm, just as in the words of Jesus, we see that our God is a forgiving God granting to us salvation if we fear Him, or in other words love Him and obey His commandments. In the words of our Lord; 15 If you love me, keep my commandments.

We must live our faith in spite of those who make the statement that they do not need God in their life to do good. We who believe still need our Savior because we sin everyday whether in thought, word or deed. There is no amount of good that we can do that will erase our sin once we have committed it. There is only our faith in Christ Jesus, our recognition of our sin, our confession, and repentance. This is our faith.

God can do all things; there is no situation that we get ourselves into that God cannot help us out of. Don’t think though that if there is some earthly penalty that we must pay that we will escape this because we suddenly come to God for help. We simply must have the faith and believe. Keep in mind however; God's plan is far above ours. We suffer and we have plenty coming based on what God Himself has in store for us whether it is for purging, for testing, or for reward or necessity for our life. God is in control.

We do not know when this will end and the new beginning will be, in spite of the many modern prophets who make a living selling Jesus and the destruction of the world; we have no clue when it will be. In the meantime, it rains on us all, haters and lovers of Jesus. The sun shines on us all, haters and lovers of Jesus. We remain together in this world until that day. So take a lesson from the readings. Continue to praise and worship Jesus the Christ and the Father through Him. Never cease to pray and live according to the gospel. Allow the Holy Ghost to guide you. Love God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and with all of your strength; love your neighbor as yourself. You never know whose life you will change because of this love of God in you.

The light has entered the world and the times; they are a-changing.

If one does not have love for the soul of mankind and the desire that all come to the truth than one does not have Christ in them fully.

Little children, love one another; because this is our Lord’s command and if you fulfill this, nothing else is needed. Through love and because of love we will follow all of the commandments that we have been given. They are written on our hearts by the hand of Almighty God. We simply need to see them within us and follow.

Remember; if we confess our sins and repent, he is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all iniquity.

May the peace of our Lord Jesus the Christ be with you throughout this day and the rest of your life. May the Holy Spirit fill us all to overflowing so that everyone in whose path we cross may receive a blessing from our Lord Jesus the Christ.

In Christ.