Moses spoke to all the people, saying:
"A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you
from among your own kin;
to him you shall listen.
This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at
Horeb
on the day of the assembly, when you said,
'Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God,
nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.'
And the LORD said to me, 'This was well said.
I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their
kin,
and will put my words into his mouth;
he shall tell them all that I command him.
Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my
name,
I myself will make him answer for it.
But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name
an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak,
or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.'"
R. If
today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;
let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us joyfully sing psalms to him.
R.
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Come, let us bow down in worship;
let us kneel before the LORD who made us.
For he is our God,
and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.
R.
If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Oh, that today you would hear his voice:
"Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,
as in the day of Massah in the desert,
Where your fathers tempted me;
they tested me though they had seen my works."
R. If
today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Brothers and sisters:
I should like you to be free of anxieties.
An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord,
how he may please the Lord.
But a married man is anxious about the things of the world,
how he may please his wife, and he is divided.
An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things
of the Lord,
so that she may be holy in both body and spirit.
A married woman, on the other hand,
is anxious about the things of the world,
how she may please her husband.
I am telling you this for your own benefit,
not to impose a restraint upon you,
but for the sake of propriety
and adherence to the Lord without distraction.
Then they came to Capernaum,
and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.
The people were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority and not as the
scribes.
In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;
he cried out, "What have you to do with us, Jesus of
Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us?
I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"
Jesus rebuked him and said,
"Quiet! Come out of him!"
The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came
out of him.
All were amazed and asked one another,
"What is this?
A new teaching with authority.
He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him."
His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of
Galilee.
They waited until the
Sabbath and went with him to the synagogue. He spoke. He
taught. Everyone was impressed and amazed. They looked at
one another and said, “Where did he get it? Unbelievable,
and so self-confident.
Simon was the one who told
all of this to Mark, who was either his son or his clerk.
He does not seem to have remembered what Jesus said that
day. Most probably, Jesus talked the way anyone talks who
wants to change the human situation. He must have given an
analysis. He must have drawn conclusions. He must have
suggested some recommendations: words, words, words. Simon
had no interest in those words at all. He passed right over
them. His interest was in something else, and it was that
something else he asked Mark to note down. He was
interested in what Jesus did.
I’ve been in much deep
thought lately as I scan the internet, watch the news on
television, read the newspapers, and other media sources,
and I have come to some conclusions. One is that, and
probably most of you see this also, the world is or seems
like it is, falling apart at the seams. And I am not
talking about the physical world, though those countries
ravaged by war may show some of that. But the people in and
around the world; what they are thinking, how they feel
about things, what their hopes and dreams for the future
is. You know, if you go to You Tube often enough and read
the comments to videos about any political topic, then you
might understand that as a people of this world, we are in
big trouble. The hate towards others is so evident in those
comments, the hate of Muslims toward Israel and the United
States rings loud and clear. They wish to destroy us, we
the infidels as they call us. They want to eliminate us
from the face of this earth. You see, they do not worship
nor follow a loving God, a compassionate God, a God who
forgives. So you might say that it is clear that whoever is
their God is certainly not about love.
And then, using the same
media outlets I just spoke about, and seeing how that is
playing out in our country, in this supposedly free country,
things look and appear to be very messy, very unstable, very
confusing with much to fear; much to fear in terms of the
hate that exist in this once great United States of
America. And the replies to the political viewpoints of
folks in our country indicates to me, and I hope I am not
alone, and I wish that I were even wrong, but it indicates
that we are a divided country, filled with much hate and
evil. Seems like there are a whole lot of unclean spirits
walking the streets of our country folks, and that is very
sad I must say, so sad that I don’t think that these tears
running down my cheeks will stop anytime soon. I suppose I
feel so helpless as to how I can make a difference, a
difference that might put an end to all of this misery, this
hate, born out of a tremendous moral decay in our country
that reaches from the folks on the bottom of whatever, to
those who are on the top, those who are suppose to be
leading this country; who are supposed to be a moral
people, a people filled with the love of God and not what
seems to be such hate and distain of each other. Those who
are at the top then, certainly seem to cater to many
possessed by those evil spirits. I image that the line
would be very long if Jesus were preaching these days and
casting out such evil spirits. I wonder if they speak today
as they did back then as is accounted in today’s gospel
reading?
There was, he reported, a
man in the synagogue that day who was possessed by an evil
spirit. That evil spirit talked. It shouted: “you want to
destroy us? Do you really want to do something about us? I
know who you are, you are the Holy One of God!”
Jesus told the spirit to be
quiet and get out. The evil spirit got quiet and wriggled
itself out of that man, who with a loud cry was liberated
and free, there and then.
Be mindful of the situation
in this country today. Be mindful of what our leaders have
tried to do to fix our economy and continues to try. They
come up with beautiful statements, an excellent analysis,
and what they think are very good recommendations, but,
nothing really happened the first time. It is still about
wanting to bring down the wealthy (that is those folks who
have worked all of their lives and sacrificed much to attain
their wealth) , those rich who make up the largest base for
taxes in this country, so that small businesses and others
can be able to promote jobs and hire people who want to make
a living. No evil spirit (meaning all that has dragged this
country down, the moral decay, the laws made against God)
will prevail over God. Those evil spirits have not been chased away
just yet. After all those
words, everything remains the same or worse than ever
before.
When Mark wrote his gospel,
he was not interested in what Jesus said or taught. There
was hardly any references to anything of the kind. He was
more interested in what Jesus did. Jesus chased an evil
spirit away as a demonstration, an object lesson, showing
what he had come to do.
As Christians, as his
disciples, we should do the same. We should, through our
voices and our words, locate evil and see it for what it is,
but once that is done, let us not repeat those words again
and again. Let us be united to chase evil out, and get this
country back in the mode as our founding fathers had fought
and died for us to make, and that our sons and daughters,
mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, are dying to
preserve and protect. Let us cut the crap and get back to
what was working before. God and country cannot and must
not be divided any longer. It is God who is the source of
all that we ever was, and He must be again, if we are to
have that back. If the American dream is to ever be
achieved again, it must be with God as it’s source, or it
will not be at all. And it cannot be done by someone who
has such hate for God and Christianity, and whose ideology
goes completely against God. That is for you to decide. God
bless.
Every Word Is Heard For Sure
Prayer , So Special, We Belong To Him,
That's Why It Is So very Important
To keep Ourselves Away From Sin
Learn From The Bible, Our Daily Bread
Go To The Lord, daily If Trouble is in your head
"Talk to The Shepherd If You Cannot Sleep
It Is Much Better Than Trying to Count Sheep"
Read The 23rd Psalm The Truth Is All There
Our Dear Lord Leadeth Us With Utmost Care
His Outstretched Arms Await Us With Love
Unconditional,! Till We Join Him Up Above.
O What A Joyful Day That Will Be
VICTORY At last !
To My Family And Loved Ones
Who Have Already Passed
Only Our Good Lord Knows The Day
We Must Look Forward Till Our Final Rest
And Not Back! That Is Already Past,
Continue To PRAY
Just Remember you Have Been BLESSED
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