“Go and say to this people:
‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;
Isaiah 6:9-10 (NRSV)
keep looking, but do not understand.’
Make the mind of this people dull,
and stop their ears,
and shut their eyes,
so that they may not look with their eyes
and listen with their ears
and comprehend with their minds
and turn and be healed.”
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Paul all quoted this exact passage. This is what Jesus faced, what the apostles faced, and what you and I face today. People often do not want to hear the truth. Jesus kept teaching that those who had ears to hear and by applying His teaching would receive more understanding. But those who rejected Jesus’s message would lose even what little understanding they had gained thus far.
Paul added that in each generation down through the centuries there will be people who hear God’s truth and reject it. When they do, they fulfill God’s words here in Isaiah.
Even you and I who live by faith are to be aware of the condition of our own hearts, each time we come to God’s word. The more we harden our hearts today, the less you and I will be able to understand and receive tomorrow.
How Long, O Lord?
God’s word to Isaiah must have seemed very heavy.
How long would the people refuse to turn and be healed by God? he asked. Would it be weeks? Months? Years? When would the people finally repent?
Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said,
Isaiah 6:11-12 (NRSV)
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.
The years must have seemed long and lonely to the young prophet, years of rejection, sorrow, years of isolation, clinging to a word from God that few would hearken to. For the rest of his life Isaiah would be speaking to a people hardened towards the Lord and the spoken word of God.
The losses would be ninety percent.
Even if a tenth part remain in it,
Isaiah 6:13 (NRSV)
it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.”
(The holy seed is its stump.)
God’s people, Isaiah’s own country, would be like a forest cut completely down so that only the stumps were left, and those stumps would be burned over again. It would be the collapse of a nation, ignoring all the warnings of what was coming, and why. Only a time of complete devastation would wake up the nation to the reality of God, and the necessity to repent and turn to the Lord.
Cross of the Believer
Just as the cost of Isaiah’s call would be high, so the Lord Jesus did not make His call to discipleship any easier for us today. On the contrary, Jesus stressed the cost of following Him. Following Jesus means full obedience and the giving up of all other plans that a person might prefer to make for themselves.
The main way Jesus spoke about the personal cost of following Him was to talk about the cross, saying for example,
“If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.”
Luke 9:23-24 (NRSV)
Jesus made several points about the cross for a believer which you and I also see in Isaiah’s example
Deny Themselves
Conversely, those who do not shoulder their own cross and follow behind Jesus cannot be considered as His disciple. The cross is necessary, not optional, for every believer.
Isaiah’s ‘cross’ would be the long years of seeming ineffectiveness, with judgment coming closer and closer
Their Cross
The cross is personal; no one can pick it up and carry it for you or me.
Isaiah was the only person in the room when God asked, “Who will go?”
Take Up
No one is compelled to take up the cross. A person must take up their cross willingly, because of a love for Jesus and a desire to share in His life. Jesus said “If you would come after me.”
And God asked Isaiah, “Who will go?”
Daily
The cross is meant to kill all self‑centered desires or ambition. You and I can make that decision once and for all, but the process is painful and can take a long time. Still, Jesus says you and I must die to self here on earth if we want to bear eternal fruit.
Isaiah had to give up all thoughts of success as a prophet. Elijah and Elisha before him had illustrious careers. He could not hope for that.
Follow
God knows the people in our lives who are difficult for us to love. God knows the people who will oppose us, who will be our enemies. The Lord brings us into situations where displaying God’s character is going to come at great personal cost.
The Lord knows the plans God has made for us, and the good works God has prepared for us, just as God ordained the role Isaiah would play in the lives of the people of Judah, and what it would take for Isaiah to be faithful.
By [2], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77042301
A believer’s cross is suffering that comes directly as a result of following God’s will. Often that will mean giving something else up in order to do what God has for us to do.
- Often we will be humbled in our calling, one way or the other.
- Often there will be some form of opposition, either from people, or from circumstances.
- We will have occasions of doubt,
- wanting to quit,
- pure drudgery,
- seeing other people’s callings as more attractive and less costly than what we are doing.
These things are all part of the cross.
Believers sometimes talk about their cross to bear and they will mean the kind of suffering that everybody goes through. Plenty of people get sick, or have heavy schedules, or are in a troubled relationship, or deal with money issues. We all live together on a broken planet, and we ourselves grew up as broken people. Suffering is part of earth’s experience; nobody gets away from the painful toil and anguish sin has brought into the world.
But the cross is a particular kind of suffering. The cross comes from choosing God’s will even when it will mean suffering.
- Showing love to a person who is being difficult for you.
- Being gracious and kind.
- Repaying angry words with Spirit‑filled words.
- Offering care at one’s own cost.
Every time you and I are good to someone who was not good to us, that cost is our cross.
Each time you and I shoulder our cross and obey in love, God will increase our love and deepen our character. This is what pleases the Lord and blesses God.
Come After Christ
Jesus came into His glory on the cross, and after His resurrection was exalted. The cross promises resurrection and glory. All those who are willing to lose their lives for Jesus’s sake will find their lives have been saved. One day we will come after Christ and be with Him in His exaltation.
In Isaiah’s case, his words have been preserved for us to this day. We are, in a sense, a part of the fruit that Isaiah is still reaping from his willingness to answer God’s call.
Experiencing the holiness of God prepares us to answer God’s call.
God gave hope through a promise. Spiritual life would survive in one last stump, from which a little shoot would eventually sprout. As we get deeper into Isaiah we will see how this promise kept him going, as he labored in love for the Lord and God’s people.
Reblogged this on Zero Lift-Off and commented:
I woke very early today doing what I do many times on such occasions asking God to help me see more clearly what I’m missing or perhaps what I should have done a better job with. Then Immediately I saw your work here and these excerpts jumped off the screen at me saying please repeat me; these are so very important and cannot be stressed enough as they pertain to right now in this present time every moment going forward! This Article with its most poignant and timely words of truth and fact could not have come at a better moment as I see great significance in all of these words and photo graphics!
“Until cities lie waste
without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
and the land is utterly desolate;
until the Lord sends everyone far away,
and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.”
“People hardened towards the Lord and the spoken word of God.”
“It would be the collapse of a nation, ignoring all the warnings of what was coming and why. Only a time of complete devastation would wake up the nation to the reality of God, and the necessity to repent and turn to the Lord.”
Self-interested. This is what I see going on rampantly all around us!
“To Be One Eyed, Meaning To Be Highly Intoxicated Where A Person Has To Shut One Eye To Get A Proper Visual Of His Or Her Surroundings”
One Eyed Jack
“A person who shows the good side of themselves, while hiding the other side of themselves as being incredibly repulsive, insincere, malicious, and untrustworthy.” definitions.net
“Following Jesus means full obedience and the giving up of all other plans that a person might prefer to make for themselves.”
“Then [Jesus] said to them all, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.” Luke 9:23-24
“Those who do not shoulder their own cross and follow behind Jesus cannot be considered as His disciple. The cross is necessary, not optional, for every believer.”
“The cross is personal; no one can pick it up and carry it for you or me.
Isaiah was the only person in the room when God asked, “Who will go?”
“A person must take up their cross willingly, because of a love for Jesus and a desire to share in His life. Jesus said “If you would come after me.” And God asked Isaiah, “Who will go?”
“The cross is meant to kill all self centered desires or ambition. You and I can make that decision once and for all, but the process is painful and can take a long time. Still, Jesus says you and I must die to self here on earth if we want to bear eternal fruit.”
“The Lord brings us into situations where displaying God’s character is going to come at great personal cost.”
“Suffering is part of earth’s experience; nobody gets away from the curses sin brought into the world.”
“But the cross is a particular kind of suffering. The cross comes from choosing God’s will even when it will mean suffering.
• Showing love to a person who is being difficult for you.
• Being gracious and kind.
• Repaying angry words with Spirit filled words.”
“Every time you and I are good to someone who was not good to us, that cost is our cross.”
“Each time you and I shoulder our cross and obey in love, God will increase our love and deepen our character. This is what pleases the Lord and blesses God.”
“Jesus came into His glory on the cross, and after His resurrection was exalted. The cross promises resurrection and glory. All those who are willing to lose their lives for Jesus’s sake will find their lives have been saved. One day we will come after Christ and be with Him in His exaltation.”
Here Dismas who died on his cross next to Jesus but while truly loving and accepting Him as the Savior came to mind and the saints along with the martyrs; one in particular which I wrote about and even mentioned yesterday to others who I so admire as a young beautiful woman who thought of herself as physically marred or unappealing giving up any idea or suggestion of marriage and a normal conventional life, and thus she saw readily the ultimate truth which was and is most important which is to love Jesus Christ and follow him. This woman who thought herself so unappealing but is instead to me the opposite and if I had been there in her time would see her as she truly is, so beautiful inside and the outside because the true beauty is on the inside emanating from the soul; making that person radiantly beautiful in my heart. The woman in question is, of course, St. Kateri Tekakwitha. “Briefly, she was a Native American who lived in modern-day New York in the 1600s. Her mother, a Catholic Algonquin, had been kidnapped by, and subsequently adopted into, the local Mohawk tribe. There she married the chief, and the two combined to bring Kateri into the world.” catholicexchange.com
https://i.etsystatic.com/21041297/r/il/77abe8/1992731218/il_1588xN.1992731218_h1ta.jpg
etsy.com
“St. Kateri Tekakwitha is the patron saint of the environment, the loss of parents, people in exile, people ridiculed for their piety, and World Youth Day. Religious Medal of St. Kateri Tekakwitha St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Art. Images of St. Kateri Tekakwitha depict her as a young Native American woman, dressed in traditional costume of her tribe.” catholicsaintmedals.com
The Following location and persons mentioned have great personal significance to me they being those that North American Martyrs Day is named for and it was the day which I was attacked by powers or principalities altering my life both physically and career wise on all levels and the demarcation point when my life took its biggest turn; one of battle and learning much more about what it means “to serve God and being humbled!” I learned how grandmother telling me as a boy was so wise and loving knowing that her true love was Jesus and therefore our Father in heaven above all of this life even family, stating to me that “this life is nothing!”
She would explain; “to take care, because it is the heavenly kingdom we must seek.”
“This is an old Mohawk blessing. Pronounced She:kon (Say go) Skennon ko:wa (Skennin go wah), it means Hello, Great Peace be with you!”
https://i.pinimg.com/736x/f2/4b/13/f24b13b5fb3c0f6fbff77ff14ef7dc90.jpg
The River where Kateri was Baptized and spent much of her life and the exact location where Jogues, Jean de Brébeuf, “St. Isaac Jogues,” along with six other missionaries were martyred is what is now called the St. Lawrence River in New York into which their bludgeoned bodies were tossed. For me an interesting connection is how Kateri was canonized in 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI and 2012 was the beginning of my personal journey or struggle with the aftermath of the attack/injury of October 19, 2011on North American Martyr Day, and how a great American doctor a truly blessed instrument of God was there to help me during my fall through many years of having to fight the ensuing illness and the system for my own survival; I’m absolutely positive to serve God’s purpose and plan. And how she with her husband after my recovery moved to Canada within a short distance of this region where much of Saint Kateri’s life unfolded so long ago. The doctor was only there within my area like an angel at the right time, an instrument of God’s, when I most needed her to be; which meant the world to my recover and successful perseverance!
Cont.
https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/xlarge/55976.jpg
“Kateri was an Algonquin-Mohawk maiden born around 1656 in Ossernenon (Auriesville, New York) – the site on which three of the eight North American Martyrs (Isaac Jogues, Rene Goupil and John LaLande) lost their lives. She was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and Tagaskouita, a Catholic Algonquin woman, who had been captured and adopted into the tribe. Kateri’s mother had been baptized and educated by near what is now Montreal, Canada. Kateri has one sibling, a younger brother.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/b4/b8/5ab4b87e4311977fedfc79e393fb03e2.jpg
When she was around 4 years old, her family succumbed to the smallpox epidemic. Kateri suffered smallpox, which left her face scarred and her eyesight impaired. Both of her parents and her baby brother died from the scourge. Alone in the world, Kateri was adopted by her father’s sister and her husband, another Mohawk chief. Soon after, the smallpox survivors of Ossernenon left the decimated village and built a new one a mile or two west along the southern bank of the Mohawk River. They called it Caughnwaga, or At the Wild Water in Mohawk.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dc/55/9b/dc559bbab2167977a3d6968bffcc51b5.jpg
Conflict over the fur trade led to an attack by the French, who drove the Mohawk from their homes and burned down all three villages in the region. Left with nothing, the Mohawks were forced into a peace treaty with the French, a condition of which as to accept Jesuit missionaries into their villages. In time, many of the Mohawks were converted and came to love the Catholic faith. They rebuilt Caughnwaga on the north bank of the river.
At age 19, she converted to Catholicism, was baptized and renamed Kateri (Mohawk for Catherine) in honor of St. Catherine of Sienna. Tekakwitha is the name given to her by her tribe and it means, “she who bumps into things.” Kateri took a vow of virginity and kept it faithfully. The persecution continued and after six months and under the advice of the Jesuits, Kateri went to live in the Christian Mohawk village of Kahnawake, located south of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River. She stayed there the remaining two years of her life, all the while practicing harsh penance and self-mortification for love of Jesus. This caused her health to fail, and she died at the age of 23 or 24.
Witness’s say that minutes after her death, Kateri’s scars disappeared and she became radiant and beautiful. There are reports of her appearing to three different individuals in the weeks following her death. In one instance, Kateri appeared kneeling and holding a wooden cross that shone like the sun. In another, a knock on the wall awakened a sleeping woman. She heard Kateri’s voice asking if she was awake and then Kateri said, “I’ve come to say goodbye; I’m on my way to heaven.”
Accounts of the Jesuits show Kateri to have been a modest girl who avoided social gatherings. She covered her head with a blanket to hide the smallpox scars. She became skilled at traditional women’s arts such as making clothing and belts from animal skins, weaving mats and baskets from reeds and grasses, cooking dishes made from game, crops and gathered produce. She participated in the seasonal planting of the women and the weeding of the gardens as they grew. Although frequently prodded by relatives, she refused even to consider marriage. Her gravestone reads, “The fairest flower that ever bloomed among red men.”
The place where Kateri lived most of her life – Caughnawaga – was marked in 1938. The village itself was discovered in 1950 by Father Thomas Grassman, a Conventual Franciscan and founder of the shrine. Between then and 1957, the Conventual Franciscans and numerous volunteers excavated the site. Today it’s the only completely excavated Iroquois village in the United States.
Visitors can view the outlines of the village’s 12 longhouses and stockade. Nearby is “Kateri’s Spring” from where the water for her baptism was drawn. Many have claimed cures through the waters of that spring, which still flows. The museum and chapel are housed in a 200-year old barn renovated by Father Grassman in 1938. The upper floor holds a replica of the chapel of St. Peter in which Kateri was baptized. The lower floor contains an impressive museum with a display of Native American artifacts and particularly ones of the Iroquois nation. The property became a shrine in 1980 after Kateri was called Blessed by Pope John Paul II and allowed to be officially venerated. She was canonized in 2012.” ncregister.com
This link will bring you to a site where a very good accounting can be found that will I’m sure allow you a glimpse into the actual life and times of Saint Kateri.
https://www.catholicregister.org/features/item/15266-st-kateri-tekakwitha-a-life-of-faith
To me these many connections are all ordained and absolutely parts to the big plan as our Father in heaven divinely intervenes and allows many events or circumstances to unfold in order that His will can be done or carried out by His faithful! I can see how Saint Kateri suffered with a continuous physical affliction from the aftermath of having contracted and surviving the smallpox epidemic of her time; and how I after this attack/injury had struggled with a very difficult aftermath and now even a physical manifestation I deal with all shows me clearly that perseverance is the key to our time on earth and to never quit or allow the harsh realities of this sad, sinful fallen world to get in the way of our mission, which is to Love and Serve our Father in Heaven! If we do that to the best of our abilities then there is nothing to fear or be sad about at all.
People argue and fight each other claiming superiority or some special privileges over one another since the dawn of the human race, but, in actuality we are all part of the Greatest Story Ever Told and the Master Potter’s Plan. We should be humbled and ask, “What can I do for you Lord today; how can I better serve You and not the folly or foolishness of this conflicted confused world of sin which is fallen from on high?”
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tZ4yOBc5BKA/maxresdefault.jpg
I must add here that yesterday just before sunset I was outside with my dog and immediately saw that a Jack Rabbit was lying in the road. I ran to it and saw that it was crushed and sadly it was a very special one that I’ve known for at least a few years that had one eye missing and now I saw its only eye pushed out of its socket from the crushing injury it received by a vehicle that I’m sure the driver was as in most cases driving far too fast for the conditions and even if the rabbit was seen the driver didn’t care or wouldn’t be able to stop quickly enough to avoid killing it. I was extremely upset and crushed inside thinking how I had watched out for this rabbit over the years being sure to leave it various seeds in the predawn hours during the difficult months when the pickings are slim and I would sometimes go out to do that and while I began to leave the seeds I would suddenly see the rabbit by my side calmly watching and happy that I was there! I was very upset and couldn’t sleep well all the early night hours and I did pray as well ponder all of this even thinking about One Eyed Jacks in a deck of cards and how there was a good heart wrenching old movie I had just watched recently which I have in my collection of older Classics named “One Eyed Jacks.”
https://crisislifemedia.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/files/images/articles/201706-Popgap/One-Eyed-Jacks-1961/One-Eyed-Jacks-1961-01-38-25.jpg
Another significant point here to mention is after that terrible upset last evening I was stirred up of course and wanted to watch some film to allow myself some time and space to decompress in a sense but nothing that crossed my mind as great films to watch seemed worth it and I was rejecting all of them as not worth bothering to watch but then looking at my DVD collection I realized I had to watch an old News-Reel type documentary, “War in the Pacific,” a compilation of black and white actual war recordings with narration. I watched and as I did I thought so poignantly thinking like never before what a crazy messed up human race with all of this history over the millennia of wars and killing each other and it will never end as long as people are on this earth living in this fallen state and its all falling away more obviously now more than ever before!
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/jDYAAMXQl99Q5txn/s-l600.jpg
But then as I saw time had passed and my mind was more relaxed and seeking a clear perspective the documentary was reaching the End and it got into the fact of how Nuclear Bombs had been developed during WWII and for the first time the human race could destroy the planet in years to come and then it became so clear that this is what is coming kike a freight train running out of control down a mountain with all of its inertia and no brakes powerful enough to stop the inevitable destruction that will ensue and result from all of this madness and sinful “Ways of The World” greed, lust for power and a world riddled with corruption; while human beings are becoming more sinister and inhuman by the day; both figuratively and literally! We are on the actual precipice and a hair trigger away from total annihilation yet people like in Noah’s time of the Great Flood are acting like they have all the time in the world and are so wrapped up in triviality or even stupidity and many don’t give a rats ass what happens, being so pagan or totally lost; which will damn so many to hell when their judgment before God Almighty comes.
Multitudes lie in a false sense of security by a massive global delusion of modernism and secular High Tech nonsense of Trust the Science or in other words; men! They think things will continue on this way indefinitely and don’t see the forest for the trees of how all world history has been building up to a crescendo and we are now in that cusp of the Great Crescendo! There really isn’t much time left yet people even play their games or live like heathens making sure they do their drinking and doing their drugs which are not always the chemical kind; there are many escapes from Reality available a Pandora’s Box of them nowadays in these Final Days; because just like the Jack Rabbit many are going to be taken by surprise and crushed like little scared rabbits by the Father of all lies, as he is possessing many persons now in high and low positions or stations in this earthly realm, and has all of his demons running loose upon the earth causing utter havoc which will get worse!
There are still so many that hear a man like me speak so clearly with conviction about these things and still with all there is to see that corroborates all I say; they look at me and say, whatever or you don’t know anything, while of course there are those that actually do see it and say so what, who cares! So many people are in denial and are too intoxicated by the Ways of The World to face reality head-on if at all. That old documentary I watched I realized “just now” when looking at the DVD case was put together back in 2011, when all of my massive trials and turmoil began in earnest. And the stand alone powerful point in that whole couple of hours was that now since back in the 1940’s at the close of WWII when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were obliterated by nuclear bombs, that the next World War would and will be the End of this world as we now know it; so this says clearly to me that Jesus is on the way now; as in make sure you are “washing your robes” daily! Amen.
God bless you.
Shalom
Lawrence Morra III
Saint Kateri is new to me, thank you, Brother Lawrence, for writing about her. I am going to study her life more. Grace and peace, Joanne
Hi again Sister Joanne and wow I’m so happy to have brought this important information to your fine attention!
I just left that very long descriptive comment for you here so I hope you have the time being a holiday to review it soon!
Take care.
Shalom
Saint Kateri is new to me, thank you, Brother Lawrence, for writing about her. She did indeed pick up her cross and live for Jesus, though am very saad that she died so young, and suffered under her own mortification.
I also grieve with you over the death of your jack rabbit friend. I’ve suffered a number of those quiet shocks as well, over the years, made worse by the the thoughtless callousness of others (those who speed on residential streets, for example). It is a fine trait in you to grieve over God’s creatures. You enter into the Lord’s Spirit in those moments, experiencing a part of God’s great grief as described in Genesis 6.
Were it not for the prophets, I would resist believing human beings are capable of destroying our whole planet. Alas, the Bible seems to indicate we most certainly can. As the writer of Revelation cried out, and the end of his book, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Grace and peace, Joanne
Hi Sister Joanne!
Those were very stressed times that Kateri came from, hard living, and imagine the culture shock and other considerations that should be taken into account in evaluating her motives and character! I’m certainly no expert on her history, nor as equipped as you with your decisive research experience and abilities; so I’m so ecstatic that you can and will take a look into her whole story! My sense if based on the basics that I’ve delved into and the numbers of astute authorities both church and civic over the centuries convinces me that she was a genuine beautiful soul who was correctly elevated to a saintly stature. And all that I do know about her has made me love her firstly as a selfless strong loving soul and good woman who suffered on many levels, but discarded all of that as nothing, just like she apparently chastised herself, because of her only wanting to love Jesus with all of her heart; and in those days there wasn’t all of the many vain pursuits and distractions women and men have to jump into for comfort these days; just feeding such ego or purely vanity, as I’ve just stated how I see it rampantly in social media and it looks sinful to me or so wrong at least! I’ll be totally honest I would take a million people like Kateri over every one of the loathsome self-centered attention gluttons I see all around me in this world! What a pleasure it would be to live among persons like her, of such pure and virtuous heart; so devoted to our Savior! I would be in awe and so considerate constantly to women like that, but to be blunt again the modern American woman more often than not gives me so little to admire and Trust! Right, tell me about; me who never married, but, had some deeply involved relationships though none of them worth a marriage bond, unless I would love to partake as most people I know including family and other kin; of the Divorce American Style. I don’t say Kateri was a perfect being, but, she had to be an extraordinary human being with a genuine good loving heart and that is so rare nowadays for women or men too! I know this world is not going to be any utopia, but, I do dream what it would be like if the majority of women could be as pure of heart as she was and then the men could be gallant and chivalrous, laying their lives on the line always to protect, defend and care for such good women, always caring about their happiness as best as humanly possible; living as an example of what Jesus and our Father in heaven would be proud of; and say a job well done.
As far as the rabbit and your similar suffering over our heaven sent earthly companions I agree with you totally and I truly can empathize with you as I know how attached I get to them, pets like family members and the wild little friends are just that, my little friends, and I’m crushed when something like this happens! And many times for the exact reason you mention of careless cold people that speed around and leave little to no margin for error, and I have seen them actually notice an animal in harm’s way like that and just keep going at a clip till they murder it, because if a conscious decision is made to do that and they could have slowed or avoided the collision, to me it is like murder and I know some guys actually aim for the small animal, be it a rabbit, turtle, young fledging bird, squirrels and so on! I’ve rescued many different animals over the years and got them to safety with experts and some I took in my home to rehab and release. Sure we live in a fallen imperfect dying world, but, God love’s for us to show we respect all these opportunities He has provided to give love and comfort to His many creature Great and Small! I’m sure He smiles and His absolute perfect radiance and love is exemplified, expressed in His creation in ways we can’t fathom now when we intercede in these ways; I can feel this potentiality!
I also will admit I blew my top when I had to pick up the dead, mangled rabbit and bury it and I talked to it as I buried it on my own property near some trees that I had seen it often lately foraging around for some tender shoots to eat and it made me so happy every time I saw that! So I asked God to forgive me for being an ass and losing my cool and cursing being so upset with this crazy world, but I admit I’m nobody and can only be what He will have me be if I can try harder, as I tear up now realizing I think this was how Kateri probably felt and her trials or circumstances were so much more difficult than we spoiled rotten got it so damned easy modern folks! My Dear Lord, what hardship and pain with all the lack of many things we take for granted now, that she and most if not all of those people back then had to overcome and endure, just to get through another day! I know what this world’s bad people or off the rails spiritually speaking sorts did to me, and how I’ve had my ups and downs making some mistakes or sinning like any human will do at times, so I’ve at least learned to understand how it becomes easy to be angry at the world and this imperfect fallen human condition. But the last thing I or anyone should ever do is blame God and that is a sacrilege, but yet so easy for some people to do, as they are right now so they grow cold in heart and mind to our Creator and our beloved Jesus; which I absolutely know is so weak and wicked to do because beyond seeing the glass half full, I see this living breathing life no matter what condition we might be in as a glorious so beautiful opportunity to have so much more; if we can just try hard and do our best to serve God, give up self and make our lives a sacrifice to Him, an acceptable offer to give all glory and praise to Him! Because by doing so then we can rest assured when He sees that genuine beautiful gesture He will bring us into a full existence that we can’t even imagine right now, but it will happen for sure, because God can do anything and is absolute love glorified beyond human comprehension! I know that as I can feel so powerful a love for that simple little friend rabbit and would have done anything to save it from that horrid sad ending here in this plane of existence; won’t and can’t our Creator go way beyond what my expression of caring and loving gestures are capable of, of course; He will cherish us in His kingdom and I cry thinking of that right now how adorable God is, to those that love Him!
1 Corinthians 2:9 Amplified Bible “but just as it is written [in Scripture], “THINGS WHICH THE EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND THE EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND WHICH HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM [who hold Him in affectionate reverence, who obey Him, and who gratefully recognize the benefits that He has bestowed].”
I think Kateri was elevated in her consciousness and understanding so much for a young woman and was wise way beyond her years; I love her and cry thinking about that precious heart and soul and how she suffered for God’s great good and purposes! I guess God had to have planned her to project His will and purposes for her the way she did from when she was formed in the womb of her mother to basically bring insight and teaching to a broken world; by her beautiful example of selflessness and inner God given virtuous strength! In other words we are all part of God’s divine plan and He knows what is best for each of us and has purposes that He would love for us to fulfill for His divine purposes, but, not to many people follow God’s will so intricately, say as Kateri did! I know I have done some things God is so pleased with and I also did waste some time or perhaps opportunities, but more than that I went against His will a bit and was stupid to do that, because like my dad always said “you made yourself learn something the hard way!” But then he also said, “did you learn from it and understand that hard fought insight or knowledge provided by that mistake you made, and that now you have to make the best of it and never do it again!” We all do have our work cut out for us don’t we!
I look forward to seeing great insights come forth down the road about Saint Kateri when you’ve had time to search out the Truth, God’s Truth! I will also say after that bad experience I had on that date I mentioned back in 2011 onward, how I later one evening in the super market battling my way through the aftermath, suddenly became engaged in a conversation with a very interesting woman who I knew I saw and sensed something special about her, I could see in her presence and even some traits but more an inner awareness, and that it was no accident meeting each other, but, was a divine confirmation as she turned out to be 100% native America and her actual name is Kateri on her birth certificate and worked in the legal profession which was something at the time I had just decided to take on by myself and fire my attorney; and her husband is the head of a school system being so involved in education of children! I tell you I know for sure the saying God does work in mysterious ways is absolutely true and it happens all the time, but, sometimes very important profound events or messages are being handed right to us from God!
Thank you for telling all you did, and Genesis 6; will be Scripture that I must master or keep in memory in all my travels or efforts with God’s natural beauty and creatures.
Oh my God; Yes Sister Joanne, Come Lord Jesus!
Thank you Sister for all of this Grace and Peace you bring to me!
God bless you and yours!
Brother in Christ Jesus,
Lawrence
Shalom