Love Prevails!: Through the Storm!

My People,

Good Morning! It’s good to be here again. Love looks to make someone else’s life better. Love brings the best in everybody.

Love is kind says Corinthians 13:4

These days we use the word supernatural and it’s always about some phenomenon (meaning a fact, occurrence or circumstance).

We make problems look bigger than they are. We give undue attention to situations and place them at a high. What am I saying? It’s this and this only.

1. We need to magnify God.

2. We serve a SUPERNATURAL GOD.

Remember: All the forces of darkness can’t stop God. Don’t ever give up on your dreams. God’s grace is bigger than any challenge or setback. God makes all things new.

REMEMBER-Remember: And God moves ‘Suddenly’.

When we go through times of suffering, we can’t see the point, we can’t find a purpose.

This is my personal experience, that sometimes things get really difficult for me and I am at the lowest point, and when I am at the point I am, I see no way. At times I hear no voice, but I know God is in control. So I do what I know best, I relax and then there are sudden moments, God bursts in...

Even in the trials and sufferings of life, God is in control. When we go through times of trouble and distress, when we look at life and the heartaches that come with the day, may we be filled with the knowing that God is here and now?

Day 14^th June, 2015. Fr. William gave us this example of the Chinese Bamboo tree in His homily.

The Chinese bamboo tree when planted, watered, and nurtured for an entire growing season doesn't grow outwardly. Then, after the second year the tree still hasn't sprouted. So it goes for four solid years. The farmer has nothing to show for all of his labour.

In the fifth year the seed finally sprouts and the bamboo tree grows up to 90 feet in just one growing season!

The tree was dormant for four years. During the years the tree was developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year. The same principle is true for people. In the time that God takes to for the answer to reach us, we are being exposed to the trying circumstances that build the inner character and to teach us to believe and see with the eyes of faith. What it does, is it makes us people that walk in belief with God. The people who will wait being calm amidst the storm.

Had the farmer dug up his little seed every year to see if it was growing, he would have stunted the tree's growth as surely as a caterpillar is doomed to a life on the ground if it is freed from its struggle inside a cocoon prematurely. The struggle in the cocoon is what gives the future butterfly the wing power to fly.

Unfortunately, we live in a fast world and we get frustrated if we have to wait.

Things change, suddenly. But never on our time and count if you will, and count if you must, will I still say, things work out best, when we work on and In God’s Time.

Our relationship becomes more vibrant and passionate than we ever thought it could be.

It is in dreams that we dream and yet beyond our imagination and beyond our wildest dreams, He makes His fondest dream for us come true. He dreams a little for me and you. And we touch the STARS and go even beyond.

1^st July, 2015 – Fr. Ashlyn’s birthday.

Mt. Carmel’s 6:00 am & 6:45 am mass. I saw Fr. Coming in and watched people wish him. It was good.

Mark 4:26-29 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, ²⁷and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Kingdom of God is worked out in the ordinary things of life. The Kingdom of God is happening as the farmer goes about his day to day life. No mention is made of him tilling the ground, or watering the plants, no mention is made of him pulling weeds. He just sleeps and rises, night and day…no matter what the season. And without any interference on his part, the seed sprouts and grows…

When we are in the most difficult times of our lives, or we see others around us suffering, it is our natural instinct to want to fix that which we can. We want to hurry up the process and make it just right. But we can’t fix things. And just because we can’t doesn’t mean that it is out of control. It just means that it is out of our control. But it is in the realm of God!

We don’t need to understand the process. Jesus simply says, “The seed sprouts and grows, but he does not know how.” But our farmer: he doesn’t seem to lose any sleep at all because he just trusts the process of growth; he doesn’t know how but he knows it will happen.

We can look at our lives, our struggles, our anxieties and wonder where God is? And even though you or I may not understand the process right now, we are never alone.

The apostle Paul, for example, speaks of himself as planting (or sowing) in 1Corinthians 3:6. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

The apostle Paul sowed the seed.

Apollos watered the seed.

It is God who causes the seed to take root and to grow. How the seed grows, we don’t know. But God knows. He is the one who gives life to the seed. He is the one who makes it grow.

2Timothy 2:6 where a person (who proclaims the word of God) is compared to a farmer. The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops. Paul exhorts Timothy to be a hard working farmer. A farmer knows that seeds do not plant themselves. He must go out into the fields to sow them and cultivate the growing plants. God’s servants must go into the world and spread the gospel.

The Kingdom of God will grow regardless, because it is destined to. There are times in my life when I fall short. Sometimes I feel that maybe I could be more loving, kinder and maybe more compassionate to the people I know and meet. Maybe I could be more approachable in my words and deeds. Maybe I could try a lot. But I am weak and fallible. I make mistakes. For the times, I fall short, forgive me, Lord. I do try hard.

God dwells in you and me and that is why when someone faces a bad day, it is so very important for praying for the grace of God so that we do not fall short, so that they may encounter God through us in that moment which makes them feel that God is here this very moment. And sometimes, I fall and there is someone for me too.

Look at what this parable does not say: no mention of the rain watering the seed, no mention of the sun. No mention of conditions for growth at all. Verse 28 simply says, “Without visible cause, the earth produces a crop”. The seed is destined to grow. The truth is, we are all frail and we all fail but our frailty and our failings will not be a barrier to the coming of the Kingdom of God.

We must not get the idea that this farmer, after he has sown the seed, does nothing until harvest. Of course for the farmer there is much work to do, ploughing, fertilizing, and weeding take a lot of his time.

The point is that the farmer cannot do anything for the seed to grow. He can make the circumstances as good as possible for the seed to grow, but he cannot cause it to grow. The power to germinate, to break forth and grow is of the seed itself. Unless God causes the seed to grow, then all the effort of the farmer would be wasted.

Paul like the farmer plants the seed (Christ). Those who come to Christ must learn how to follow Christ day by day as they face the trials and temptations of life. Paul wants every Christian to reach maturity in faith and character. And for this, he is willing to work intensely. Paul strives with the grace of God.

Colossians 1:28. Him we proclaim, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man mature in Christ.

Verse 29: “But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest is ready.”

Not when the farmer gives the go ahead, not when the farmer understands the process - but when the crop permits… Then, and only then, the farmer takes his sickle and harvests the crop.

The seed has been sown and has grown for a purpose: the harvest. And in the same way, the Kingdom of God, the sovereign rule of God, has been sown in our life and has grown in our life and, when the crop permits, it will be harvested. The Kingdom of God is the sovereignty of God in our lives.

God’s grace is a source of power that changes our heart and causes us to grow spiritually. The growth doesn’t happen by force. Therefore the condition is it requires the cooperation of the person. He must have ‘an honest and good heart’ Luke 8:15. When the seed falls on such ground, then growth is unstoppable.

The goal - It was precisely for this purpose that Paul laboured so much, ‘to present every man mature in Christ’ Colossians 1:28.

When a believer allows the Spirit of the Lord to take full possession of his heart, he progresses and grows inevitably. Paul in 2Corinthians 3:18, But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

CONCLUSION: God is telling us that after you sow the seed of the Word of God, you are as the farmer that plants the seed for his crop. God brings germination to the seed in the field, and in the normal course of time, with rain and sunshine, the seed develops into the plant and brings for the fruit.

This is as the man that sows the seed of the Word of God, for after the seed has been planted in the mind of the hearer, it is the Holy Spirit that brings that thought that you planted to an understanding.

Once you plant the seed into the earth, or the mind of another person, that is it. You can't beat it out of that person, and you cannot force the crop to come up prior to its time. When the time is right, and God has brought the plant to maturity (understanding), then the harvest will come. The process of coming to salvation is just as the developing of the crop from the planting of the seed to the time of the picking of the full ear of corn.

This is nature. You do what is your part of the growth cycle, and that is the planting and preparing the soil, and then comes the harvest in its due time. Some will sow, some will water and some will reap but all share in the harvest of the crop.

Praise is an attitude of the heart. Every day, our words, our actions are all ways to give God praise. Praise is a powerful weapon. Praise precedes victory!

Faith is what gets God’s attention.

If you are always looking at your problems — feeling sorry for yourself — you will become consumed by them.

It’s risky to imagine God doing the incredible or the impossible. If we never dream, we don’t have to worry about being disappointed. As powerful as our imaginations can be, God is able to do so much more than we can ever imagine.

Take a step of faith and imagine all the supernatural things God could do in each of our lives. Be as bold as you can be cause there is no dream too big. Walk with God and watch the impossible become possible! Go deep with the Spirit of God and watch your dream come ALIVE.....

When we pray God-sized prayers, we will see the greatness of His power. All we have to do is have the confidence to ASK, BELIEVE and REVCEIVE — and then allow God to do what only God can do!

Whisper your prayer that seems impossible, something you know there is no way you could ever achieve on your own. God meets us at the level of our faith. When you dare to ask God to do the Impossible, you’ll be amazed at what He will do. Amen.

Caught up in the storm – Mark 4:35-41

They were men of little faith because they responded to the circumstances around them rather than to God’s word. From the accounts in Mark and Luke it appears Jesus may have continued to talk to them about this even after He stopped the wind and calmed the sea. The reality is that those who trust God can be calm even in the face of death because they know it will mean being with God. Yet, how often are we just like these men when we react in fear to the circumstance around us rather than trusting God’s word?

Jesus was a complete contrast to these men. They wake Him up in the midst of the storm and with the waves crashing all around and the boat tossing them to and fro, He calmly speaks to them. Jesus’ trust in the Father is complete and it was demonstrated in His sleeping during the storm and His calmness after being awakened. Jesus' disciples got caught in a storm on the Sea of Galilee. And though they were experienced fishermen, they found it a tad bit difficult to remain calm.

Jesus commanded the waves, ‘Peace! Be still...’

These are the words that must echo from deep within our hearts through all the storms of life, ‘Peace! Be still...’

What it also means is do not be afraid, I am with You always even to the end of time. Amen.