BEADS
OF JOY 03-02-14
“Whom Do You Serve?”
©2014 James Dacey, Jr. OFS
“Whom Do You Serve?”
©2014 James Dacey, Jr. OFS
Today’s Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34 (God and Possessions)
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the
other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot
serve God and mammon. "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your
life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you
shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look
at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and
yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life? And
why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they
grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the
field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not
much more clothe you, O men of little faith? Therefore do not be
anxious, saying, `What shall we eat?' or `What shall we drink?' or `What shall
we wear?' For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father
knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be yours as well. “Therefore do not be anxious about
tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be
sufficient for the day.”
My Friends,
Another fantastic Sunday indeed. Look at today’s
gospel Jesus speaks of Mammon, what is Mammon? “Mammon” is referring to money, success, things of worldly nature.
You can as easily worship a fancy sports car as much as you can worship your
financial self-worth that got you the sports car. The sports car becomes a
representation of your success, creating pride and a sort of feel good feeling
about it. It pretty much becomes your God and Master in so many ways. Because
you will find yourself taking care of it, maintaining it, cleaning it, showing
it off, sharing it with photos, boasting about it. You get the idea. This can
be very dangerous for our soul and our eternal well-being. You do know that if
you simply replaced the word “sports car” with anything or anyone, period (my
bank account, my drug habit, a person I am in relationship with, my sailboat,
my big impressive house, my pride of cause, etc., etc.); the thoughts are
all the same on how that thing will become your Master. Jesus and Jesus alone
must be the very first and only thought of focus when it comes to any kind of a
Master in your life. Jesus said, "..understand that the Father is in
me, and I in the Father." John 10:38. So when we are thinking of Jesus
we are automatically thinking of Almighty God. For they are one in the same.
So are you really serious about understanding and
then living and then doing what is right before God? We all are of cause and
that is fantastic, but know that we will fall and mess up and have to get back
up; we are all sinners and that will happen. That's why we have to go to
confession regularly, to keep our soul as clean and as ready for our Lord as it
possibly can be. But if you are serious, then it is critical to begin
immediately. You don't want to allow the strong-hold of satan to capture your
heart, or allegiance towards anything that will draw you away from Jesus. What
do you have an appetite for? No not necessarily food, though it could be. It is
usually wealth, or possessions that you own, or maybe it's lust? So many things
can easily capture our hearts and steal it away from our Lord. So now consider
this series of questions, "Who died for your sin?, Who's
death defeated the very darkness of death, so that you can spend life
everlasting in Heaven with Him and His Father for all eternity?, Who
gave you freedom from the bondage of this world, and its inevitable destruction? Who
forgives you of all your wrong-doing, and sinfulness? Who is this
one person that has done this for you?" There is only one word, one
name, one Lord who is the only one who has done all these things, and His name
is Jesus.
So I challenge you today, in a way that many of you
just might not do; make your life, ALL THINGS JESUS - 100%, 24/7/365.
Become addicted to HIM (not in a bad way), but become addicted with the
desire, the continual desire from within your soul to please Him and worship
Him, love Him, and always put Him before anything else in your life. Every
thought must lead to Jesus. The reason why we do something, must lead us to
Jesus. The reason why we won’t do soething, must also lead us to Jesus. Does
that make sense? If we chose not to do something sinful or wrong or mean, it
must be because of our love and our allegiance to Jesus, hence all things must
lead to Jesus. This is actually much easier than it sounds. Keep Jesus in your
life, on your mind, in your thoughts, at the end of the pen as you write at all
times, you get the idea; without ever ceasing. This will and I mean it, this
will create an inner Joy that will blow your mind. You will have so much peace
inside, real peace, a very Godly peace. You won't see yourself as anxious or
worried as much anymore, and you will find yourself trusting Jesus a whole
bunch more. It is truly a wonderful feeling this kind of inner Godly, Trusting,
Loving, Joy.
Pondering these
thoughts today: Do we have two masters? Do you? Do I?
Interesting concept, but how easily true this can be for anyone. An even
further thought to that might be; -Is it possible to have my allegiance split
between two or more things or people or whatever in my life? Unfortunately it
can be. Our life's inevitably are controlled by the way we think, do we think
of how successful in business or at work we will be; well then everything we do
will help guide us and direct us to that goal. But rather if all we think about
is Jesus, and pleasing and honoring and not offending Him; well then we live
each day knowing that that is what we are striving for. Continuing that thought
we know that loving and following Jesus will lead us to Heaven, which is truly
our ultimate goal.
Please don’t misunderstand my reflection -success is a good thing… when we respect the fact that our success is from God and in all reality it is all still God's. He has entrusted us with a huge responsibility to do the right thing with these gifts. Be a "Giver" not a "Taker" in this world. Many wealthy, successful, very blessed people unfortunately watch others (even family members) suffer and rot away, while they hoard, hold and embrace their stuff, their God. It’s very sad for them…
Please don’t misunderstand my reflection -success is a good thing… when we respect the fact that our success is from God and in all reality it is all still God's. He has entrusted us with a huge responsibility to do the right thing with these gifts. Be a "Giver" not a "Taker" in this world. Many wealthy, successful, very blessed people unfortunately watch others (even family members) suffer and rot away, while they hoard, hold and embrace their stuff, their God. It’s very sad for them…
LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!
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"Our Lady's Rosary Text Vigil Group"…
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Your brother in Christ Jesus
And His Most Blessed Mother,
Jim (The Rosary Man) Dacey Jr OFS
And His Most Blessed Mother,
Jim (The Rosary Man) Dacey Jr OFS
