THOUGHTS OF A CHANGED MIND

My Son,

I hope that you have been edified and enriched in your own walk with Christ through these letters. Perhaps you too will add to the commentary on spirituality and pass on the wisdom you’ve learned over your years to others. I entrust these letters, these thoughts, to your care. May the thoughts that have changed my mind, serve to transform your mind as well. May you grow in wisdom, understanding, and insight. May you put away any hypocrisy or bigotry from your life, resting in the fact that God loves you and that God himself is Love.

The Holy Spirit will certainly equip you to be a bolder witness of the Good News of Jesus Christ than your own father. We are warrior pilgrims on this Earth, my son. Remain humble always and God will continue to give you grace. When you make mistakes or fall into temptation, just ask God to forgive you and he will. He is much more gracious than many people you will encounter.

 Do not fear Satan, demons, or anything evil. Jesus Christ already conquered all of that once and for all with his Life, Death, Burial, Resurrection and Ascension. He has all authority and is head of his Church and the Universe. Do not be afraid! He has done everything and we get to follow his lead and enter into the Paschal mystery ourselves. His sacrifice becomes our sacrifice, and our sacrifice of love is in perfect union with the one true and living sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. He is Risen! He is alive today! That same Power, Breath, Wind, and Fire can fill your lungs anew. Jesus Christ will come back, and when he does, he will wipe away every tear from your eyes and make all things new. Continue to turn away from the way of death and believe in the Good News of Jesus Christ. Repent and believe that your tears are worship unto the One True God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

If you have any uncertainty about God’s calling on your life, then entrust that calling to Mary. If the Father entrusted his Son to the loving care of the Lowly One, Queen Mary, then do not be afraid to entrust your own life into her hands. Her soul magnifies the Lord, so she can take your prayers, tears, and dreams before the throne of Jesus and magnify them to the glory of God. Heaven fights for you, my son! Look up, see the blue sky, look around to see the blue ocean, and look around to see all the colors God has entrusted us with on the Earth. God has entrusted his Son and now the Earth to the glorious and Blessed Virgin Mary. Defend her honor with your life! Don’t shrink back, but always move forward! War in the heavens is real and God is real. Mary, Archangels, Guardian Angels, Martyrs, the Innocents, Mystics, and all of the saints who have gone before us are real and are already triumphant. Be the conqueror for the cause of justice, mercy, peace, joy, and love that you were always destined to be. This is not a movie, joke, video game, “force”, or anything else you want to call it. This is the Truth and true Reality. God, in his Infinite Wisdom, has entrusted this true knowledge to another lowly servant, your father, to pass on to you.

As a man, we all need to defend the honor of a Woman. Why not defend the Church in union with the ultimate Woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary? If anyone calls the Catholic Church the “Whore of Babylon”, gently and graciously remind them, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, that Babylon was already undone at Pentecost and that the same Fire from Pentecost is still alive within the “walls” of the Catholic Church. If you ever become afraid of Satan, then remind St. Michael the Archangel to fight on your behalf as it says in our Tradition and in the Book of Jude. If you are ever afraid of demons, that may come to attack you, then be an actor, and entertain those angels with your worship of God. If they are good angels, then have fun with them too! If you are afraid of human beings, for whatever reason, then remind yourself that you are the least of all your brothers, sisters, mothers, or fathers on Earth.

Remember, Jesus Christ! he did not come to be served, but to serve. Allow the Holy Spirit to flow through your veins and touch every person with purity, joy, and love. We humans are all the “least of these” in our own little way. So encounter others as if they are superior, and you may in fact be having fun with the King of Glory and Majesty, Jesus Christ, since he himself said that whatever you do for the least of these you do for him.  No matter what happens in life, you can have the deep joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, love, tenderness, intelligence, prudence, fortitude, counsel, understanding, wisdom, and eternal life that everyone is longing for. Simply change what you need to change to choose life, and believe in the Gospel. The journey of following Jesus is an easier yet harder, simpler yet complex, dreamy yet real, and infinitely more beautiful way of life you could ever imagine.

Be bold, my son. Be a real man. Be an artist. Don’t be afraid of being vulnerable, its just what God’s masterpieces, human beings, have to do to explore their own creativity. Be the man God wants you to be. Be a warrior pilgrim and fight the spirit of the age by the Supreme and Infinite Power of the Holy Spirit. Realize that you’ve already been enlightened in your Baptism, strengthened in your Confirmation, and nourished by the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ in the Most Holy and Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist. These are the Sacraments of Initiation that will sustain you as a warrior pilgrim on Earth. A Kingdom divided cannot stand, but the Kingdom that Christ himself initiated must be reunified to stand against what is coming next.

The Catholic Church has wounded and burned many people in the past. Be gracious, my son, and remember that the literal, historical, transcendent, and ever-glorious Body of Jesus Christ retains wounds as well. Let God’s Power be perfected in your weakness and you will have the boldness necessary to fight, with spiritual weapons, for the cause of the Kingdom of Light. If you need more healing, which you probably will, then confess your sins to other people, especially priests who are under an oath to protect you and guide you towards healing in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. If you need even more mercy and healing, which you probably will, then call for the elders/priests of the Church and have them anoint you with oil, pray for you, and forgive you on behalf of Jesus Christ and his Church in the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick. If you choose to get married, then enjoy the Sacrament of Matrimony as a reflection of Christ and his Church. If you choose to become a Catholic priest, then realize you are about to enter the priesthood of Jesus Christ in the order of Melchizedek, who offered Bread and Wine to the Father and to his unworthy, yet made worthy, disciples at the Last Supper. That meal was also a precursor of the ultimate Marriage Supper of the Lamb as the Apostle John so beautifully articulates in the book of Revelation. The weight and glory of such stewardship given to a Catholic priest, by Jesus Christ, who is True God and True Man, is stunning. The responsibility of the Pope, all Bishops, and all Priests to tend the flock, feed the little lambs, and nourish the sheep with the heavenly Bread and Wine, Jesus Christ, should cause you to tremble.

 If you choose to be single, then allow your true vocation of holiness and sainthood to flourish each day, knowing that your pilgrim journey as a warrior for Christ will one day come full circle when you see God face to face. Choose life, not death. Choose righteousness, not sin. Repent, believe, and sin no more. That is a life worth living, my son. That is what every person longs for, even if they don’t know they do.

Eternal life begins with God and finds it’s fulfillment in seeing God face to face. Union with God is real and can start today, for you and for anyone. It is the life that is worthy of lasting unto the ages of ages. It is the life that God renews and makes new everyday. It is the true Life, the true Liberty, and the true Pursuit of Happiness. It is what you were made for!

Eternal life is given by grace through faith to produce good works in full cooperation with the grace initiated by the Holy Spirit. This is impossible for mankind to do on their own, but made possible for us by the Power of the Holy Spirit. The fullest life and most satisfying life is glorifying God and enjoying him forever and ever. Eternal life is knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ, his Beloved Son, through the working of the Holy Spirit. Give up the fake, pagan, gnostic “knowledge” and take hold of this Life, eternal Life, and the True Knowledge, which is Christ crucified. Be in awe of who God is, was, and will be forever. Be still and know the greatest mystery of them all… God.

Receive the mercy, grace, and love of God so that the desires of your heart can be unleashed. Dream bigger than Heaven and be firm in the True Reality all around us. Fight for the people who are like you. We are the least of these! We are the weird, weak, strong, strange, rich, poor, ugly, beautiful, sinners, saints, crippled, ill, artists, dreamers, lovers, and the greatest signs and wonders the world will ever see. We are the believers. We are the ones who hold on to hope when all else seems lost. We are the forerunners of the Second Coming of Christ. We are the Lovers of God and all humanity.

Be in awe and wonder with who God is, who he is making you to be, and have fun with the easy and light burden that Jesus allows everyone to enjoy. Remember Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of Man. He loved you first. It’s not your fault that you’ve been so loved by God. Worship and love him in return because he is Worthy of all that you have. Have fun with dreaming bigger than ever! Have fun participating in the miracles that Jesus performed in his own Life, as recorded in the Gospels. Have fun seeing the miracles, as recorded in the “Acts of the Apostles”, awakened by the Holy Spirit. Get ready to roar with the mystics and saints of our Catholic Tradition.

I unleash you, my son, to be a man of God. You are an adopted son of the Father of Lights, a son of Mary, your Mother, and you are a brother of Jesus Christ, your God and Savior. Don’t fear or let fear hinder your destiny. Don’t give in to the love of money, which is the spirit of control, and the root of all evils. Do not be frightened about the spirit of the age. God is in control, sees all, and knows all. Always humble yourself under God’s mighty right hand, and feel the Holy Spirit groan deep within your flesh and bones in union with your spirit. Listen to the whispers of God’s voice within you and all around you. Enjoy his Presence in every step of your journey. God loves you!

All of these letters and all of this treasure I give to you. You are my son and I love you dearly. I give all of this by the breath of the Holy Spirit within me. As Pope Francis said to my Bishop, and as my Bishop said to me, so now I say to you:

Be yourself

&

Trust the Holy Spirit

May the grace of God the Father, the love of Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forevermore.  

With Unending Love,

Your earthly father

My Son,

This is my last letter to you for now. To wrap it up, I wanted to leave you with this final word of encouragement concerning what our aim in life should be. I dare to say that the end goal and fullness of what it means to be a human being is to be in union with God. To be caught up in the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is our destination. The Church and her Sacraments are all given to us for this purpose, that we would be one with God. “The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity” (CCC, 260). This is such a glorious mystery, that it is almost too much to think about. How can we be in union with God? How do we work toward that goal? For starters, become best friends with Jesus Christ. Through friendship with Christ, we become like Christ and have direct access to the Father through Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. This friendship allows you to start participating in the Divine Trinity.

A friendship with Christ is unlike any other friendship. You will be friends and brothers with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is no ordinary friendship. To know him is to have eternal life, as Jesus himself says; “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3). He beckons us to abide in his love for us. Listen to the prayer of Jesus that he prayed as he was on the brink of his Passion:

“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory which you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which you have given me in your love for me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you; and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will make it known, that the love which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:20-26).

Jesus wants us to be one with each other, one with him, one with the whole Blessed Trinity. Union with God is Jesus’ chief desire for us. Even the glory given to him by the Father is what he wants to give to us.

Union with God means intimately knowing God. We don’t just want to know part of God, but we want to know God in his fullness. We don’t just want to know Christ in his glorified status; we also want to know Christ as the Suffering Servant. We want to know Christ’s cross and Resurrection: “Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness of God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible, I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:8-11). My goal in life is to know Jesus Christ and the power of his Resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings. I want to live with Christ, suffer with Christ, and be raised with Christ. In every way and in all circumstances, I want to be identified with Jesus Christ and conformed into his image, that I may come into perfect union with the Triune God.

Uniting ourselves to God is an everlasting journey. Hopefully, by the end of our earthly pilgrimage, we can say that we are closer to God than ever before. And as we close our eyes to pass from this world to the next, may we be filled with joy knowing that our future experiences of the glory of God will be far more amazing than anything we could ever imagine. “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Love,

Dad

My Son,

Suffering for the sake of the Good News of Jesus Christ is a glorious privilege. “For it has been granted to you that, for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:29). Suffering for Christ is a privilege granted to us because, in suffering with Christ, we gain intimacy with Christ and the promise of being glorified with Christ. “It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:16-18). If our present trials are not even worth comparing to the glory going to be revealed to us, then we can boldly say that any amount of suffering and pain will all have been worth it in the end.

“The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:11-12). Reigning with Christ is a worthwhile goal and is your destiny, provided you endure with him now. We are warriors in this battle against evil, and we will experience suffering. So I exhort you to “take your share of suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 2:3) remembering that “after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, establish, and strengthen you. To him be the dominion for ever and ever. Amen” (1 Peter 5:10-11). Suffer with Christ to be glorified with Christ; die with Christ to live with Christ; endure with Christ to reign with Christ.

When I was in college I was part of an amazing community of Christian friends and felt very close to God. I was praying more intensely, experiencing gifts from the Spirit I didn’t know could still be for today, and I wasn’t struggling with sins from my past for the first time in a long time. Despite all of this, I was severely attacked by demons. My world got shattered right before my very eyes and a semester before my graduation. I won’t go into too much detail here, because it is still hard for me to talk about to this day. After the demons left my body, thanks to prayer from others and the Holy Spirit within me, my mind was also shattered for a time. At the time it seemed like a very slow healing process involving psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, trusted friends and family members, and even strangers. Whether demons or mental illness, the world will always try to label you, my son. Does it even matter? God is over all through all, and in all. The Father has already given Jesus Christ authority over all angels and illnesses and has also elevated Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows, as Queen of Heaven and Earth, and Queen of Angels and Saints. Her lowliness on Earth and exaltation in Heaven can be a source of great comfort to you when you feel at your lowest.

Looking back at that intense spiritual and physical suffering, I came out better off on the other end. I believe, hope, and pray, that something like that will never happen to you, unless it would mean that you could also experience greater freedom to know God more in this life and the next. I believe God will also turn your tears, dejection, and humiliation into a beautiful mosaic that restores others to the full life in Christ.

What will God use my suffering for? I’m not quite sure, but I’m at peace knowing and trusting that God will always bring you back to the Kingdom of Light. Simply continue to humble yourself under his Mighty Hand and Tender Care.

Love,

Dad

My Son,

“For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If it is to be life in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I shall remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, so that, in me, you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again” (Philippians 1:21-26).

I made the mistake of quoting that verse to your grandmother when I was in third grade. She quickly and wisely told me that I should not have a “death-wish”, but to be thankful to God for my life now. She was right in saying I needed to value my present life, but I still carry with me a deep longing to die and be with Christ. And I don’t just want to die a normal death, but I want to die an epic martyr’s death. This desire has been in me since I was a child and I can’t shake it. There is just something so glorious about putting everything on the line for Christ and dying for the One who died for me. I’m not unique in this, for many of the Christian men in my life have shared this same desire. We are not “terrorists” or suicide bombers or anything of the sort. In fact, we have come to realize that martyrdom is actually a very valuable gift from God, therefore we do not take martyrdom into our own hands, but we receive it graciously, lovingly, and valiantly. We so desperately want to imitate Christ and to be conformed into his image that we long to die for our faith.

“Martyrdom is the supreme witness given to the truth of the faith: it means bearing witness even unto death. The martyr bears witness to Christ who died and rose, to whom he is united by charity. He bears witness to the truth of the faith and of Christian doctrine. He endures death through an act of fortitude” (CCC, 2473). Many of the feast days in the Church’s calendar celebrate Christian martyrs who have gone before us. The blood of the martyrs truly is the seed of the Church from which it grows (Tertullian, 197 AD). Martyrdom has been prized since Christianity’s inception with Christ on the cross. Apostolic Tradition testifies that nearly all of the Apostles were martyred, and many of the subsequent disciples were given that privilege as well. St. Ignatius of Antioch, in the early 2^nd century A.D., said to his fellow believers on his way to martyrdom, “Let me become food of the beasts, through whom it will be given me to reach God,” and “Neither the pleasures of the world nor the kingdoms of this age will be of any use to me. It is better for me to die [in order to unite myself] to Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the Earth. I seek him who died for us; I desire him who rose for us. My birth is approaching…” (CCC, 2473-2474).

My patron saint, St. Polycarp, who was a contemporary of St. Ignatius of Antioch and disciple of the Apostle John, has one of the earliest martyrdom stories recorded, which I encourage you to read. On the brink of death, St. Polycarp praises God saying, “I bless you for having judged me worthy from this day and this hour to be counted among your martyrs…. You have kept your promise, God of faithfulness and truth. For this reason and for everything, I praise you, I bless you, I glorify you through the eternal and heavenly High Priest, Jesus Christ, your Beloved Son. Through him, who is with you and the Holy Spirit, may glory be given you, now and in the ages to come. Amen” (CCC 2474).

Over and over in Church history, brave men and women of God have joyfully given their lives in martyrdom for the faith. We can’t help but be inspired by them. We can’t help but long to be counted worthy of martyrdom ourselves. I get so tired of only seeing in a mirror dimly, when I know one day I’ll be able to see him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). I long for martyrdom. I long to be with Jesus!

Love,

Dad

My Son,

Long to be with God face to face. “For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face” (1 Corinthians 13:12). Our pilgrimage finds its destination in this most glorious Beatific Vision of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To know him fully, even as you are now fully known by him, let that be the cry of your heart.

Now, we see glimpses of Jesus Christ in each other, in the Church, in the Sacraments, and in the Creation. We can sense his presence in profound ways. He is with us, for he has given us his very own Spirit. Jesus also continues to strengthen us on our pilgrimage on Earth through his Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharistic Feast at every Mass.

The Holy Spirit, himself, creates a deep longing in our souls for the Bridegroom King, Jesus, to come back for his Bride, the Church. “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come’” (Revelation 22:17). So whether you go to Mass each day with your eyes of faith, or go to meet him after you pass away, or whether he returns to this Earth at his Second Coming, the end result is being with him in his Fullness.

Do you long to be with Christ? Do you pant for God as a deer pants for running streams? Are you so desperate to see him that your eyes well up with tears from the fact that you are not yet with him face to face?

A pastor once told me that his big interview question to people wanting to come on staff at the church was simply, “When was the last time you wept out of love for Jesus?”

My son, when was the last time you wept out of a deep love for Jesus?

Live in the tension of already being satisfied in Christ, while also longing to be with him on a deeper level. It is in this longing that you find joy in the brevity of life. You’ll be with your King soon. In the meantime, let your heart overflow with jealous love for the Lord, while also making sure to treasure and enjoy the life God has already graciously given you today. May he hasten the Day of his return!

Love,

Dad

My Son,

At the final Judgment, Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats based on six things. It behooves us to make it our aim to practice these things consistently throughout our lives so that we will be shown mercy on the Day of Judgment. Read and meditate upon these words of our Lord closely:

“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.’ Then he will say to those at his left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.’ And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matthew 25:31-46)

Six of the seven corporal works of mercy are presented in this passage (the seventh is burying the dead), and it is these charitable acts that determine whether or not someone will enter into eternal punishment or eternal life.

The first step is to recognize Jesus Christ in the people considered to be the outcasts, poor, and least among our brothers. If we really believe Jesus’ own self is manifested in the poor, then we will do anything to be around them and to help them. The measure of mercy we show to them will be the measure of mercy we receive at the end of time. We must recognize Jesus in our brothers and sisters, for in so doing we will be driven to love them as we love Christ.

Secondly, I want you to notice that both the sheep (righteous) and the goats (unrighteous) call Jesus Lord. Remember what Jesus told us in his Sermon on the Mount, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). We must be doers of God’s will and word and not just hearers (James 1:22). What is God’s will? That we keep his commandments. What are his commandments? “And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he commanded us” (1 John 3:23). We must love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and we must love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-40). Our love for God is measured by the love we show our neighbors, particularly the weak and poor among us.

Love is not merely communicated in words, but in actions. This is why Jesus can and does base his Final Judgment on six acts of mercy. By taking care of the least of these, we manifest our love for him. Jesus manifested his love to us not in mere words, but in the ultimate act of mercy by dying on the cross for our sins. “But God shows his love for us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8) and “in this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).

What is our response to such a great act of love? “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us… We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God should love his brother also” (1 John 4:11-12, 19-21).

We are to love as Christ loves, and to be rich in faith and rich in good works. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:16-18). The apostle James also exhorts, “What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:14-17).

Love is the key to inheriting eternal life, for God is Love. Our love for him is tested by our love for those made in his image. This is why I exhort you to consistently practice the six works of mercy all the days of your life. Always do these six things out of love and for the sake of love.

1. Feed the hungry
2. Give drink to the thirsty
3. Welcome in strangers
4. Clothe the naked
5. Visit the sick
6. Visit those in prison

Love,

Dad

My Son,

Oh, how I long to hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much; enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:21). To hear these words, we must be faithful with what the Lord has entrusted to us. This is a profound responsibility.

On the great and terrible Judgment Day of the Lord, he will give to each one of us according to our works (Romans 2:6); he will separate the sheep from the goats based on how we treated those who were “least” in our midst (Matthew 25:31-46); he will gather the weeds and throw them into the fiery furnace and gather the wheat into his barn (Matthew 13:30); and he will either say he knows you and let you into the marriage feast, or he will say he doesn’t know you and you will be cast into the outer darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matthew 7:23, 13:49-50, 25:12,30). His judgments will be perfect and just.

Remember, we are just a breath away from standing before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Let this fact not cause fear to seize you, since perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18) and you are perfectly loved by the Father, knowing that mercy always triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). Do not let Judgment Day cause fear, but let it inspire you to do good works, take care of the least of these, be a son of the Kingdom of Light, and abide in his love. He has already told you what the rubric for his righteous judgment will be, so do it!

Meditate on Judgment Day every day. Let it become part of your normal thought process. Let an obsession to know him rise up from within you. Be zealous for good works. Above all, love God with all of your heart, soul, strength and mind; and love your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). If you abide in his love, then God abides in you and you will know that you have eternal life (1 John 4:16, 5:13).

Meditation on this future event will cause every present moment to become precious and packed with meaning. May this meditation give you a sense of urgency in your obedience to Christ’s commandments. May it also cause love, joy, and peace to permeate your whole being.

Love,

Dad

My Son,

When I was growing up, I would often be rebuked for trying to “figure out God” and was told that I can’t figure him out. While I agree that I cannot figure God out fully, I believe he wants me to grow in my knowledge and love for him all the time. Therefore, I want to give you permission that it is okay to try to figure things out. It’s okay to grow in your knowledge of God. It’s okay to ponder the deep questions in life. It’s okay to pursue God.

Now, you must never assume to have figured God out, so be careful that you don’t fall into arrogance. We must remain humble creatures and leave room for the mysteries of God. On this side of heaven, we will never know him as well as we will when we are with him in heaven. “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood” (1 Corinthians 13:12). We can rejoice in what we do know of God, but we must also recognize that there is always more.

Another rebuke I’ve received from others is people saying that “you’ll never be perfect…we live in a fallen world… you’re human.” While there is some truth to those statements, there is also a hopeless bent that I believe is not from God. Someone can achieve perfection through God’s grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, but even then, it is quite rare for someone to achieve this perfection on this side of heaven. Does this mean we do not strive for perfection? By no means! “Not that I have already obtained this [resurrection] or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14). You are called to be holy as God is holy and to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. I once heard it said that the word “perfect” can mean “mature” in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, so don’t be too hard on yourself. Nonetheless we are to be more and more like Christ Jesus each day. This calling of holiness, maturation, and perfection moves us upward.

You have my permission to strive for perfection, to strive to enter God’s rest, to strive to become more and more like Christ. Jesus is the Carpenter from Nazareth and the King of the Universe. Will you figure God out? Will you achieve perfection? Rather than assuming that the answer is “no,” humble yourself under God’s power and let him reveal himself to you. Just go for it! Pursue God and perfect union with God! All things are possible through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Love,

Dad