Prophetic Words & Scripture Readings at Live Stream August 9, 2023

The following are words given by participants at the streamed meeting.  1 Corinthians 14:29 says that "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others weigh carefully what is said."  1 Thess 5:19-21 tells us not to despise prophecies, but to test everything and retain what is good. 

At beginning of meeting, Scripture Reading Psalm 139:1-4, 13-14 - "O Lord, you have searched me and know me.  You know me when I sit down and when I rise up.  You discern my thoughts from far away.  You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.  Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.  For it is you who formed me, who formed my inward parts.  You knit me together in my mother's womb.  I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works!"

Scripture Reading 1 Thess 5:16-18 - "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Scripture Reading Psalm 75, first and last verse - "I yearn to know you, O beloved, to abide in the peace of love.  I choose to turn from the ways of the world where ego separates and divides.  Let us rejoice and be glad.  Let us sing praises to the Beloved.  As the unjust and oppressives dwell in the wilderness, those who live with mercy and truth will soar like the eagle."

Scripture Reading Ephesians 1:3-6 - "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.  In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved."

Scripture Reading Psalm 67:1-7 - "God be gracious to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us, that your name be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations.  Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth.  Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!  The earth has yielded its produce, God, O God, blesses us.  God bless us that all the ends of the earth may fear him!"

Prophecy - I want to repeat the last part of that Psalm, "Those who live in mercy and truth will fly like the eagle."  "My children, how little faith many, many people have in knowing that I am there victorious in their struggles.  Many do not believe that they can be freed from their sinfulness.  Many of them do not believe that they can be free from the bondages.  But you, my children, have come to me because you do believe.  And tonight, I want you, my children, to know how much my mercy and truth has freed you in the past, is freeing you today and will continue to free you in the future.  Whenever you come to me with your hurts and your pain, with your sin, with your trouble, my mercy is there.  Whenever you come to me in prayer, in Scripture, in the celebration of the Mass, my truth is there.  And if you hold on to my truth and recognize my mercy in your life, you, my children, will continue to fly like the eagle."

Scripture Reading Psalm 126 - "When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream.  Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then it was said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them."  The Lord has done great things for us, and we rejoiced.  Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the watercourses in the Negeb.  May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.  Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves."

Teaching

Fr. Bob Miller spoke on "The Thorns In Our Side During Life"  It's the little annoying things that pile up and wears us out.  Abraham Lincoln:  Edward Stanton, his Secretary of War, constantly disagreed with Lincoln and everybody else.  Thorn in Lincoln's side.  Someone asked Lincoln, "Why don't you just remove him?"  Lincoln then told a story of a horse with a thistle in the side of the horse.  Farmer said not to remove it because then the horse would not move an inch.  Lincoln said that sometimes the difficult people that he worked with provided him with a challenge that kept him digging into himself for strength.  2 Cor 12:7-12 - "Thorn in the Flesh - Therefore, in order to keep me from being proud or conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away."  (We pray and we wonder where is this compassionate, healing God?  There is no direct answer that resolves that question.  God does give us some insight in 2 Cor 12:9-10:  "My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness."  Paul then says, "I will boast more gladly of my weakness so that Christ's power may dwell with me.   And that is why when I am weak, then I am strong."  Thorns are making us into something we can't see - Divine transformation process deep within us.  God does not send weaknesses or evil, but he uses this to get our attention.  Abraham Lincoln said, "Sometimes I'm driven to my knees by the realization I have nowhere else to go."  John 6:68 - Peter said, "Lord, where can we go?  You have the words of eternal life."  The last part of our body to be saved is our emotions and our reaction.  Our reactions have to become like Jesus.  Galatians 2:20 - "It is no longer I who lives but Christ who lives within me."  Lesson of the cross - death becomes life, symbol of transformation, hope out of despair.  Story of the coal miner's son:  He was the oldest of 7.  They were poor and the parents were gone working.  Because he was the oldest, he had to do a lot of chores around the house.  One of his chores was cooking and he hated it.  He had to give up things.  He was young and athletic.  It was a thorn in his side to stay home and cook for his brothers and sisters.  But he made the most of it.  In high school, the parents encouraged him to get a job.  Because he cooked, he went and worked in a restaurant and began to be a short order cook.  He gradually became good at it, began to make some pretty good recipes and decided at some point to open a restaurant.  That one restaurant became two, became five, ten.  It is now a chain that extends across the world.  Col. Harland Sanders - Kentucky Fried Chicken.  The thorn in the side became a blessing.

Sharing Time

Philippians 1:6 - "He who began a good work in you will carry it out on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

Romans 8:28 - We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God."