One Walk

Dear Lord God, O that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory that you would keep me from evil and from causing pain. O Lord obviously the reflection of hardness that I have created under the sun will not be easily changed and the filters through which others see and hear me will take time if they are to see and hear Your reflection in me. I must all learn not to fall so hard, for when I do it erases all that we have accomplished to that point and we must start over. It is as if these moments of hardness have an inverted effect and the emotional accounts of those I love are emptied. O Lord God that You would will help me to accept with love and kindness that which I cannot change and the give me courage and strength to change that which I can and grant me the wisdom to see and know the difference. Lord I need you help now to continue what we started, a lone just You and me, in Jesus name I pray, Amen.

What Revelation makes known to us is confirmed by our own experience. For when man looks into his own heart he finds that he is drawn towards what is wrong and sunk in many evils which cannot come from his good Creator. Often refusing to acknowledge God as his source, man has also upset the relationship which should link him to his last end, and at the same time he has broken the right order that should reign within himself as well as between himself and other men and all creatures. Gaudium et spes

Exodus 1:8-14, 22

8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, "Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war befall us, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land." 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens; and they built for Pharaoh store-cities, Pithom and Ra-am’ses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they made the people of Israel serve with rigor, 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field; in all their work they made them serve with rigor. 22 Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, "Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live."

Bible Study: [8] Who knew nothing of Joseph: this king ignored the services that Joseph had rendered to Egypt.

Psalm 124:1-8

1 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, let Israel now say — 2 if it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us, 3 then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; 4 then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us; 5 then over us would have gone the raging waters. 6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! 7 We have escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped! 8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

Bible Study: [Psalm 124]Of David – A thanksgiving which teaches that Israel’s very existence is owed to God who rescues them. In the first part Israel’s enemies are compared to the mythic sea dragon (Psalm 124:2b-3a; cf Jeremiah 51:34) and Flood (Psalm 124:3b-5; cf Isaiah 51:9-10). The psalm heightens the malice of human enemies by linking them to the primordial enemies of God’s creation. Israel is a bird freed from the trapper’s snare (Psalm 124:6-8)–freed originally from Pharaoh and now from the current danger.

Matthew 10:34 — 11:1

34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man’s foes will be those of his own household. 37 He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; 38 and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it. 40 "He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. 41 He who receives a prophet because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. 42 And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward."

1 And when Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.

Bible Study: [38] The first mention of the cross in Matthew, explicitly that of the disciple, but implicitly that of Jesus (and follow after me). Crucifixion was a form of capital punishment used by the Romans for offenders who were not Roman citizens.  [39] One who denies Jesus in order to save one’s earthly life will be condemned to everlasting destruction; loss of earthly life for Jesus’ sake will be rewarded by everlasting life in the kingdom.  [40-42] All who receive the disciples of Jesus receive him, and God who sent him, and will be rewarded accordingly.  [41] A prophet: one who speaks in the name of God; here, the Christian prophets who proclaim the gospel. Righteous man: since righteousness is demanded of all the disciples, it is difficult to take the righteous man of this verse and one of these little ones (Matthew 10:42) as indicating different groups within the followers of Jesus. Probably all three designations are used here of Christian missionaries as such.