Holiness #2

So, the fight has begun between you and God.  You are fighting to save the life you have created, and God is saying "this is not the life I desired for you."  You have it in your mind, though that your life is good, you worked hard to acquire everything that you have and have built.  You have this little kingdom!  These things are probably all true.  In addition to that, you may believe also that it was God's will you establish this little kingdom on earth to serve Him.  He obviously saw while you were building and did nothing to stop you.  We very often take this as God's approval.  It is His permissive will.  He gave us the gift of free will to use as we choose.  I learned that God does not violate our free will, but He can make your surroundings and environment such that you desire His Will.  God is so wise!  He does know what is best for us and our salvation, as well as the salvation of others, but it takes us so long to come to that!  We're busy fighting. God is waiting.

When we were losing our home to foreclosure, we were desperate to save it in the beginning.  It was 2008, and the economy was very bad.  I think more than anything, there is tremendous shame involved.  Shame.  I hate that word.  It was my constant companion for many years.  It is very difficult to go through because the "world" and banks are not your friend you find out quickly.  The vultures come out and begin circling, the phone is ringing and it feels like you're cornered.  Then, there are family and friends.  Everyone has advice.  Everyone is watching.  To say that you are praying, and trusting in God during this time is not what people want to hear.  They want to see action.  They want to see you save your life.  They know what they would do if they were in your position, and you're not doing it.  The stress!  As we were going through this, I felt God saying "let it go."  So, we did.  Although there was a certain peace about it, the storm was very often louder than that still small voice.  I think this was the beginning of being "set apart."  You would think that we would embrace that!  God the Father is setting us apart to make us holy and fit to do His Will.  But no, there was literally no joy in it.  It was overwhelming.  Spiritually, emotionally, physically. I suffered a painful miscarriage right after we left our home and were living with friends.  Providentially, it happened in a Catholic Church during a Retreat. I didn't know I was pregnant, I thought the pain and accompanying symptoms were due to the stress. This was in October of 2008.  On July 18 of that year, my daughter said she had a dream of "grandma in a beautiful gold frame, smiling and holding a baby."  At the time, I had no idea why she would dream that, but I see now.  God in His consolations!  

Looking back on all this, I see that "leaving the world" can be a very ugly, almost violent, thing.  Having two children and a skeptical husband along for the ride out can literally crush you.  I can honestly say though, I never would have done it on my own.  If the situations of failure, unemployment, deaths hadn't steered us out, we never would have gone.  I wouldn't want to ever go through it again, but I am grateful to God for permitting it.  It was necessary.  I just couldn't see it in the midst of it.

I told God once, or probably numerous times, in prayer that it felt like He was trying to kill us.  I told Him the Crosses were too many, and too harsh to handle all at once.  His response was "the Cross does kill.  It kills everything that hinders your relationship with Me."

I think the Lord has asked me to share this now because there are many who will be faced with this dilemma in the near future.  My advice to anyone going through this is to trust God, first and foremost.  Trust Him in spite of the crowd.  Do not worry about the opinions or judgments of "man."  Worry about pleasing God.  Worry about cooperating with Him because He does know best, even though it may not appear to make sense to you or others.  Pray.  There was no "Surrender Novena" when we were going through this, but I have one now and wish I had it then!  How beautiful and reassuring!  Pray, and do not fear.  Renounce fear as though it were a burglar banging on your door. That's exactly what fear is.  A thief.  Pray for grace! Although it is very difficult, it very well may be the opportunity God is using to "set you apart" and prepare you for His work, His Will. 

God is good and desires your good.  If anything or anyone tells you otherwise, they are a liar and in need of a boot.

 There is no longer the conflict and opposition which is supposed to characterize us.  We are influencing the world less than the world influences us.  There is no apartness.” Fulton Sheen

Holiness

I had a reminder this morning in prayer of when the Lord first started working in me, and my family.  Given my conversion came about in the midst of my mom's cancer and subsequent death in 1997, it was all very intense.  We had many signs, wonders, and love flowing from the Lord.  The Blessed Mother was very present.  This was all poured out on a family that truly was steeped in sin.  We are Catholic, but we weren't living the gospel.   Of five children, two were attending Mass regularly.  I wasn't one of them.  I had been away from the Church for about 10 years.  What we experienced then, which I knew nothing about, was God's Mercy.  I look back at that time, and am amazed that God saw fit to extend His Love and Mercy to us.  We absolutely and certainly did not deserve it.  But, that is Mercy! 

What I was reminded of was being told by a woman in a prayer group that "God wanted me holy."  I didn't understand.  At that time, I was going to daily Mass, praying the rosary daily, Novena's, serving the sick, teaching 4th grade Religious Ed; most of the things people do in that fervor to please God and spread that around as much as possible.  You really want to share what God gave you.  So, when she said that I didn't get it. I honestly didn't think of it, being "holy."  I simply was acting on what I was led to.  I brought it to a priest I was seeing at the time for direction.  He said that what it meant was we do not make ourselves holy.  God makes us holy.  He sets us apart, and begins His work.  It is our job to cooperate with what God is doing.  What we "do "does not make us holy....

This was a huge truth for me.  It completely changed how I viewed what God was doing and made me a little less likely to fight Him on everything.  Isn't that what we do?  When all hell cuts loose on you, you tend to rise up and fight it.  Fighting is also encouraged by fellow Catholics.  Fighting in the sense that you don't accept it, or at least you don't accept it laying down.  I agree, there is a time to stand firm and fight in the Lord.  But this isn't what I'm talking about.  We fight God and get in His way when we disagree with Him.  How do we disagree with Him and His plan to make us holy?  Well, an example may be to lose everything....but your life.  That doesn't seem right, or fair, or loving.  Why would God permit you to lose everything and not step in and save it all?  Because He knows best.  That's where the fight starts...... 

Mixtures from Vatican News

I was led to this article from Spirit Daily today.  I found it strange and unnerving.  You can read it for yourself here: https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-05/pontifical-council-interreligious-dialogue-ramadan-message.html.  

It reminded me of something I read a while back from a Protestant man named Derek Prince.  The book I read was called "Protection from Deception."  It was a good, easily understood scripturally based book.  After reading the above article, I went back to the book to see what it said exactly.

The Chapter was called "Mixtures Create Confusion and Division."

"A mixture of good and evil yields two main results: confusion and division.  Mixed messages contain grains of truth and falsehood, giving recipients two optional responses: they can focus on the good, or true, component and accept the bad along with it; or they can focus on the bad, or false, component, rejecting the good along with it.  

In either case, God's purposes are thwarted.  In the church, confusion always yields division; fault lines form according to people's focus.  The recent influx in signs and wonders indicates a mixture of spirits:  the Holy Spirit and unholy spirits.  

Warnings Against Mixtures

God warns against mixtures in the Old Testament.  Deuteronomy 22:9 instructs, "You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled.  Furthermore, (verse 10), You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together" and "You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together" (verse 11).  God prohibits breeding mixed livestock, sowing with mixed seed, and wearing garments made of mixed material. 

The principle conveyed by these prohibitions is that when you serve the Lord, you should not mix two different types of things.  Sowing with mixed seed can represent a message comprised partly of truth, partly of error.  Wearing a garment of mixed material is like living simultaneously in accord with Scripture and in accord with the pattern of this world.  Allowing mixed livestock to breed can represent a Christian ministry group aligning itself with another group that is not Christian.  

 It is useful to note that when two different species are bred, their offspring is usually sterile.  For example, mating a donkey with a horse yields a mule-an animal incapable of reproducing.  Christian groups that join with "mates" of a different belief system-a different breed-often yield similar sterile results."

 Falsehood Cloaked in Truth

 Even accompanied by seeds of truth, evil is not to enter the Church.  We must not be passive or neutral regarding what we accept.  Proverbs 8:13 instructs, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil."  Compromising with evil is wrong, even sinful.  The devil enters via evil with a goal "to steal, and to kill, and to destroy" (John 10:10).  

You may remember that Pope Francis signed the "historic pledge of fraternity" in February of 2019 with the Muslims.  In reading the press releases since then, the wording coming from the Vatican makes it appear that we are now one.  I will leave it to you to discern what this may mean in light of the current crisis we are all living, as well as the closure and cancellation of all Masses throughout the world. 

Confirmation but no Consolation

This poll is from a Christian University.  Although there is no separation between Protestant and Catholic, I think from the fruit we are witnessing we can trust the results would apply to the Catholic population as well.  One other point that really stands out in this poll:  44% of Christians believe Jesus sinned while on earth.   In reality, how could this not have come about with most priests and pastors going to great pains to let everyone know, especially the "sinners" that Jesus was and is just. like. us.  Because Scripture clearly states that "he took upon himself our sin, who knew no sin" this erroneous belief has to come from the promotion of a false Christ and a false Gospel.  It is the fruit of false preaching.

The other numbers about the Holy Spirit and God are simply more fruit.  It should be a call for true repentance if there ever was one. 

From Christianheadlines.com

The latest findings from The American Worldview Inventory 2020 (AWVI 2020) show that some 44 percent of American believers think that Jesus sinned.
The survey also revealed a dramatic decline in the number of Americans who hold to a biblical worldview.
According to the survey, about 51 percent of American adults have a traditional view of God as opposed to 73 percent in 1991, a 22 percent drop from 30 years ago.
Regarding belief in Jesus, 44 percent of respondents who believe in Jesus, also believe he sinned, whereas 41 percent say he did not.
Fifty-two percent believe that “the Holy Spirit is not a living entity, but merely a symbol of God’s power, presence or purity."
Additionally, the survey revealed that more people believe in Satan (56 percent) than believe in God (51 percent) as an influential spiritual being. Additionally, 49 percent are unsure if God exists at all.
Director of Research at the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University and founder of the Barna Group, Dr. George Barna wrote in a statement regarding the survey’s finding, "Tens of millions of Americans consider themselves to be Christian but do not believe that God is really in control or cares what happens to them."
He noted the shift in worldview from thirty years ago, saying that people went from “learning and
thinking about God” to becoming “more self-absorbed”, rejecting the existence of absolute moral truth.

In an interview with CBN News, Barna shares that people act more on fear and rely on the government than on God who is “not in the equation” in difficult circumstances.
The AWVI 2020 also found that 51 percent of pastors on the Barna Church Panel reported an increase in virtual church attendance over in-person church attendance.
The recent publication of the AWVI 2020 is the third release of an annual series of surveys that estimates the number of adults who have a biblical worldview.
The assessment is based on 51 worldview-related questions that are drawn from eight categories of worldview application. Those questions are divided into queries regarding both beliefs and behavior.

Pharoah, Let My People Go

In 2010, when we were exiled to Nebraska and Iowa, I noticed something disturbing at all the Catholic Churches we visited.  It was a sign on all the doors to the church offices that said that if you needed financial help, or any help whatsoever, to call the 1-800 number listed to the local government.  The signs made it clear before you even went in, there was no help available here and call the government.  This was really disturbing to me, well actually it made me really angry.  We were very poor and stressed at the time, and so maybe that was why it hit me especially hard.  We were not looking for help from the Church, but it certainly made it clear there wasn't any help anyways.  I wondered how many people were actually desperate and looking for help, any help, and were confronted by that sign.  I saw it as the Church abdicating Her responsibility to help the poor, evangelize, and clothe the naked, to the government.  What I see as Pharaoh.  Why would the Catholic Church send people into captivity and slavery?  When you enter into the government welfare system, you essentially become a slave to the masters that are employed in that system.  Your loyalty is no longer to God, who loves you and has provided for you in your time of need through the Church.  Your loyalty and submissiveness is now to a cold government system that does not care for your soul, and in fact has the power to lead your soul to hell. You do their will, not God's.

We came back home to Michigan and saw it again.  This time at the Cathedral where we attended daily Mass.  It is in a poor area of the city, so there are many homeless and destitute.  There are also many programs to serve the poor in that area, thankfully.  I volunteered for a priest that worked at that Cathedral while we were trying to discern God's will and get back on our feet.  We were fairly desperate.  He began paying me for my work because he ran a non profit for a Dominican Republic program he started.  I was grateful because it was our only income at the time.  We were living in a hotel and eating peanut butter and jelly literally every day for two months.  My husband is an engineer and was looking diligently for work, but it was in 2011 and things were moving slow yet. The money Father paid me covered the hotel and the peanut butter and jelly each day.  The stress was unbelievable.  People, including me, do not realize what this sort of trial can do to one's mental, emotional, and spiritual state.  If you have issues with trust in God, they will certainly manifest during this time.  It can become a storm in itself.  Anyways, Father was actually quite fearful, and was projecting that fear to me.  I thought it strange given he was a priest that he appeared to have no faith.  One day, he was so distraught that he made me call the government number for emergency housing.  I didn't want to, and knew they would be no help, but I did it for his sake.  He was shocked to find out there wasn't a house just sitting somewhere for free that we could just move into.  He thought that was awful, it was "emergency housing" wasn't it?  The irony of this story is the rectory he was living in.  It was a very large rectory on a little lake.  He was in retirement, so that is where the Bishop placed him.  Downstairs, there was a very large apartment.  It had a kitchen, a living room, and a large bedroom with four beds in it.  Empty.  I would have to go downstairs sometimes and I would look at that, and be dumbfounded.  He said that the other priest liked to keep it empty in case family or friends wanted to visit.  In fact, his own niece and her husband had just visited and had a wonderful time.  Hopefully, you see what I am getting at here.  Sometimes I think of that time, and I still can't wrap my head around it.  There seems to be no wisdom in the faithful anymore.  Their first thought to any dilemma is sending people away to the government.  Why?  What has happened to charity, and taking care of one's own in the Church?  It literally has turned into every man for himself.  In order to be a part of the Catholic Church, you must be self sufficient and able to support them, and also go on welfare if you are in need.  My spirit tells me God is not pleased with this.  Not at all.
At this same Church, I did ask the man that ran the offices about what their procedure was for helping needy families.  There is a very high percentage of Hispanics in this church, so I was curious.  He said they hired a girl to vet people, and she was very good at it.  She was "sharp" and wasn't easily deceived.  They had a tight system. The main priest there, the rector, gave numerous homilies about the poor.  In one, he said the gospel does not say we have to give money to the poor.  Another, he said a needy person came in looking for help.  He was glad to report that due to our generosity, they were able to provide him with a one week bus pass.  This is a parish that takes in $12,000.00 per week.  The priests are from an order, so they are not on the diocese payroll.  Another time, he said we did the poor a disservice if we didn't offer to take them shopping instead of just handing them money to spend on booze and smokes.  Then, the next week told us we were not to make contact with any of the homeless because that was the advice of the city police department.  He felt it prudent to follow their advice. I challenged him after Mass regarding the Scriptures do tell us to give alms to the poor, and that even Pope Francis would have envelopes of money handed out to the poor.  He said with a red, angry face that he had never heard of that.  

Honestly.  I don't understand what has happened to the Church.  It has literally become a fearful business enterprise.  It is so disappointing. It would explain though the response of the Church during this current crisis.  They have so lost the spirit of Charity that I believe they don't know how to respond anymore.  They have become so used to receiving, that they have forgotten how to give.  This same church also began to funnel any donations like clothes, food, etc. to the Congregational Church down the street for them to distribute.  There was great pride in that, it was consuming too much time and this would free up that time for other things.  What other things?  This is just a small sampling of what the Lord led us through, what we witnessed, experienced, in the Church.  He said in prayer it was a "microcosm" of what was happening in the larger Catholic Church.   Which leads me to the following discernment of hearing "Pharaoh,let my people go!" the last month during prayer.

Although this current crisis is a terrible trial, the Lord desires to use it to purify His people, His Church.  He desires to lead them into the wilderness, or the desert, so that He can speak to their hearts and reconcile with them once more.  He desires to be "Father" and "God" to His people once again.  He desires repentance, trust, love and reverence of Him alone.  This will not happen, however, because the Church has sent His people into slavery.....to the government to provide for all their needs.  They turn to the secular government, rather than the Church, for consolation.  Can you imagine if Moses told the Israelite's to go back to Egypt if they wanted food or water?  Moses interceded for them, and God answered.  This apparently established a foundation for the way God desires to provide for His people.  It was meant to establish the relationship God desired to have with His people.  He was Provider. Nothing has changed with God, we have changed. God now desires that we learn Him once again.  Pharaoh, the government, will have to let His people go, but God's people also have to let go of Pharaoh.