Friar’s Corner: Jesus is our living water
Exodus 17:3-7; Psalm 95:1-2, 6-9; Romans 5:1-2, 5-8; John 4:5-42
I want to be as positive as possible looking at the overall picture. Do we need much of God’s love power these days? I believe most of us would say yes. The water theme this Sunday is a wonderful image of one of God’s many ways of blessing us.
There are awesome images of who Jesus is and how he offers us continued God-power and blessings if we follow him and want to live by God’s plans for us. The ‘I AM” statements in St. John’s gospel shed much light of his love wanting to be poured out for us. Jesus is the Light of the world given in eight passages. Jesus is the “Living Water,” in today’s gospel and also found in Ezekiel 47, the wonderful stream, Isaiah 55, if you are thirsty, Psalm 1 and Revelation 22:1-2, the river of life flowing from the throne of God, our Father and the Son.
John 6 shows Jesus as the bread come down from heaven to offer us “daily bread.” Jesus is our gate to heaven; he is our Good Shepherd; he is our Resurrection and New Life. He is the vine and we can be his branches.
Spiritual battle
And Jesus is the only sure Way, Truth and New Life, leading us to eternal life with him in heaven. All of this is offered to us if we want it. Is that what much of the world wants today?
The devils and their earthly followers are trying over time to remove God and his wonderful graces from our life and world by removing the Ten Commandments and Godly images from public buildings and places. Faithful Christians are allowing them to kill thousands of American citizens in our modern Hitler death camps by abortion in the Planned Parenthood clinics mainly funded by our taxpayer dollars. Our Senate still refuses to pass a Pro-Life bill and funds these killing camps. How long do you think God is going to continue to allow this to go on? Satan’s followers have been offering him child sacrifices all the way back since Old Testament times, some 3,000 years.
Coronavirus plague
How did God deal with continued disobedience in Biblical times? Ten of the twelve tribes of Israel were all destroyed. Jerusalem has been destroyed many times since 70 A.D. after Jesus was put to death there for the forgiveness of our sins. Have there been plagues in human history with wars and rumors of wars?
Yes. What do you think is the root cause of this Coronavirus apparently coming out of a Communist very anti-Christian country? There are many attacks of the “dark side” against God and his work of saving the human race. Many can see beneath what is happening with this virus and major weather changes. God’s chastisement of humanity for trying to remove God from our lives.
What to do?
What can we do and what is God asking his earthly children to do? Repent, fast, pray much, and turn back to God in obedience. As Moses struck the rock in the desert with his staff to provide water for his people fleeing Egypt, God can and will save us if we turn back to him begging him for an outpouring of his merciful love for us. A few of us as ambassadors and evangelists are like modern-day Jonahs preaching repentance to our country and the world as modern-day Ninevites. This is a strong warning for us and for the world.
I hope, my dear friends, that we will heed this warning and turn back to God in prayer, fasting, and perhaps even in sackcloth and ashes for his mercy. There is no time to be wasted. We need to tell our country and the world, NOW.
Tuesday is St. Patrick’s “feast.” He converted with many others converted most of Ireland and no one died. Watch for a post on him tomorrow.
Have a safe and protected week. Your little friar,
(© 2020 Father Bob Hilz, TOR)
