Perhaps some have been brought up in a harsh environment at home where mistakes made are costly if not very painful. So either get it right all the time or do not get caught. While some others are loved only if they are perfectly good or at least they are brought up that way to think so. How sad when they equate God’s love for them as such and reject Jesus His Son for a lack of better understanding.
How wonderful for us to know the truth! And so we must share it with them. That Jesus was sent by our heavenly Father to embrace us sinners no matter how heinous our sins. Simply by turning back to Him, His love is poured out on us in abundance. To show us the path of light into His Kingdom where by living and keeping His Word faithfully, we will live eternally with Him.
Lord, I stand ready, awake and steadfast in prayer. Use me accordingly, that I may bring Your message of love where You Will. Amen
First reading
Acts 12:24-13:5
The word of God continued to spread and to gain followers. Barnabas and Saul completed their task and came back from Jerusalem, bringing John Mark with them.
In the church at Antioch the following were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. One day while they were offering worship to the Lord and keeping a fast, the Holy Spirit said, ‘I want Barnabas and Saul set apart for the work to which I have called them.’ So it was that after fasting and prayer they laid their hands on them and sent them off.
So these two, sent on their mission by the Holy Spirit, went down to Seleucia and from there sailed to Cyprus. They landed at Salamis and proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews; John acted as their assistant.
Gospel
John 12:44-50
Jesus declared publicly:
‘Whoever believes in me
believes not in me
but in the one who sent me,
and whoever sees me,
sees the one who sent me.
I, the light, have come into the world,
so that whoever believes in me
need not stay in the dark any more.
If anyone hears my words and does not keep them faithfully,
it is not I who shall condemn him,
since I have come not to condemn the world,
but to save the world.
He who rejects me and refuses my words has his judge already:
the word itself that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day.
For what I have spoken does not come from myself;
no, what I was to say,
what I had to speak,
was commanded by the Father who sent me,
and I know that his commands mean eternal life.
And therefore what the Father has told me
is what I speak.’
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