Begotten of God

The first reading for today’s liturgy begins with the statement: “If you consider that God is righteous [good, just, truth and love], you also know that everyone who acts in righteousness [goodness, holiness, justice, and truth] is begotten by God."  If I am begotten of God, I originate from God. If my choices flow out of justice, goodness, righteousness, holiness, truth and/or love, they originate from the Holy Spirit working within and through me.  If my works are of God, I, too, am of God. Christ came into the world in obedience to the Father to take sin away, to destroy sin, so that we are no longer its slaves but free to act through the Spirit.  Sin in the world and sin in human nature has been nailed to the cross. Anyone who believes and looks upon the cross of Christ for mercy each day and each moment, especially when tempted by Satan, will know Christ as Christ knows him/her and is set free to reject Satan by the One who knew no sin.  Christ triumphed over sin through His death and resurrection  in obedience to the Father’s will  and so, too, will you and I in Christ Jesus, who, as St. John tells us in today’s Gospel,  baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. That is my hope. What is yours?

Full conviction that what God promises God is capable of doing

Today’s Scriptures:  What a message!  We are told in Romans 4: 20-25 that Abraham was fully convinced that what God promised he was able to do!”  That immediately jolted me with a question: Are you fully convinced that what God promises you He is able to do?  I obviously could not say an unequivocal  “yes,” as many times my actions belie that belief. Paul goes on to tell us that Abraham was empowered  by his faith.  That left me with another question: Dorothy Ann, when you are swamped with your weaknesses and sunk, so it seems, into your limitations, is it possible that you are not acting out of faith because, if you were, would you not be empowered? When I am acting out of faith, am I not, then, also seeking  God’s way of doing things and wanting God to make His will known to me and His power operational in me?  Abraham’s faith was credited to him as righteousness.   As for Abraham so for us:  we will be credited for our belief “in the one who raised Jesus from the death, who was handed over for our transgressions and was raised for our justification” (Rom. 4: 25). The good thief is an example of the credits given to those who believe. That experience of death/resurrection occurs  also when, in faith, we are empowered to rise out of our weaknesses and limitations into the power of God bringing to life our abilities in which we have lost faith.