Bishop Jerry is on travel today from Atlanta where he was conducting church services. He asks you consider this sermon from Rev Jack Arnold of Church of the Faithful Centurion, Descanso, California:
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| Heaven is at the end of an uphill trail. The easy downhill trail does not lead to the summit The entire AOC Sunday Report is available RIGHT HERE! |
Sermon – Reverend Jack Arnold - Time and
Action
Church of the Faithful Centurion - Descanso, California
Today’s sermon brought
the Collect, Epistle and Gospel together and is partly contained in the forewords above.
Consider the words from the Collect, … who hast prepared for those who love
thee such good things as pass man’s understanding; Pour into our hearts such
love toward thee, that we, loving thee above all things, may obtain thy
promises, which exceed all that we can desire …
We acknowledge God will give those who love Him more
good than they can imagine, let alone ask for. But, first you have to love Him. So what should we ask for? The Holy Ghost to enter in to our hearts that we might truly
love Him. If we do, more good will
come to use than we can even imagine or hope for. The Holy Ghost is a key
element of love, without Him we cannot even love Him. If we cannot love others,
how can we love Him who we have not seen? He gives us far more love than we possibly
deserve.
That is the great and wonderful news about following
our Lord. He has love for the entire world, if they would turn from their
sinful ways and follow Him. This is the message that we are bringing to the
world. That God loved us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His Son on
the cross to die for us, that we and all who believe on Him might have
everlasting life. This is truly
the Good News, for we were once condenmned to hellfire, but now through our
Lord’s sacrifice are going to be allowed to enter into heaven, though we are
imperfect creatures.
We are imperfect creatures, created with free will by
a Perfect Being. To get into
heaven’s gate, we need be accounted as perfect before the Judge. That requires a bit of an accounting
irregularity, to get imperfection accounted as perfection.
So what does the Collect counsel, ask for the Holy
Ghost to enter into our hearts that we might get more than we can desire! Jesus! Jesus is that accounting irregularity. He can give us his
guidance and grace via the Holy Ghost, to make us better men and women of the
Lord. By His Sacrifice, made one time, for all mankind, for all time, we are
accounted as perfect by His Faith and action. Thus, through His Faith and His Action, we attain life
everlasting. This is truly the greatest miracle that Christ performed for us,
those of us who believe will get eternal life. And it doesn’t start when you
die either! Starting today, you don’t have to wait until you die to benefit
from your immortality. In fact,
God would prefer you to start acting like you will live forever right now. Thus, decisions you make, actions you
take will be with the long term view of eternity! Versus our rather usual shortsighted short term view, we
must think in the terms of the big picture, not the tiny speck in the picture.
Think of the clear vision of the big picture
As imperfect creatures, immortal or not, we make
mistakes. One to avoid is being
“mad” at ones fellow creatures, particularly family and friends. We pick the most illogical reasons to
be mad, the word chosen rather than angry. Looked at logically, as God does, we need to solve the
issue, kiss and make up, and do it before the sun sets on our anger. Never part in anger. One of you may not come back. We put aside our often foolish and
angry thoughts and not act upon them, but rather have Christly thoughts and act
upon those. Remember that before you are “angry” at a friend, relative,
acquaintance, or stranger. We must not let the anger and other irrational emotions
such as fear get the best of us, but rather think calmly and figure out the
best way to handle whatever situation we are in without losing control of our
emotions. It can be a rather hard thing at times, but it must be done
nevertheless. But through the Holy Ghost it can be done. So, the solution is to
pray to God and ask for His Help in bridling our tongue and have it be a
reasonable tool rather than a tool of anger and deceit!
When Jesus gave His Life for us, He did it knowing we
would fail to follow in perfection, but fully aware some would follow to the
best of their ability. We must get back up after we make our mistakes and
continue on trying the best we can to follow Him. That is all He asks, do your
best. Even Saint Paul had trouble
following our Lord, but he kept trying and doing his real best not to make that
same mistake again. Doing your
best is not the same as saying you are doing your best.
There are none so deaf as those
who will not hear.
Heaven is at the end of an
uphill trail. The easy downhill
trail does not lead to the summit.
The time is now, not tomorrow. The time has come, indeed. How will you ACT?
It is by our actions we are known.
Be of God - Live of God - Act of God
