L:IBERATION (24 April 2010). What is it really?

LIBERATION: Is it...
- Escapism from all the stress in my life?
- Freedom from responsibilities that I can't bear?
- Freedom to do what I want?
- No one to tell me what to do?
- MY choice, my way of life?

BUT!... If we had all that, then we would not need Jesus as "saviour" to set us free. Coz we would already be free, why the need for a God? Why the need for someone to save us from our "sins"? The very fact that we are sinful and weak and in need of a God in our lives, is why we need Liberation.

What is liberation? It is being "SET FREE" to experience TRUE freedom. It is a process of being set free. In fact, our entire life is like a path of liberation from the "World" towards "Eternal Life" with God isn't it?

Catechism of the Catholic Church: ~ Freedom is not the liberty to do anything whatsoever. It is the freedom to do good, and in this alone happiness is to be found. ~

John 8:36 says "So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

We need Liberation from:
- The lies of the devil
- Bad habits that destruct us (e.g. various addictions)
- SIN and everything it enslaves us with
- Temptations
- Ways of the world (that usually are not ways of God)
- Our disbelief and doubt
- Hurts and unforgiveness,etc
- Spiritual Blindness


How can we walk in the narrow spiritual path of righteousness if we are blind? And if our friend is just as spiritually blind we both fall into the ditch. There are people like you and me who are following every form of blind lies out there in the world today! So.. if we think are ok, maybe we didn't know that we were in fact lame and deaf or blind!

So let us be freed so that we can rejoice in the Risen Christ, experience His Victory and Joy and the promise of eternal life with Him for all eternity. This means we will be able to live as free people "inside". Our HEARTS will be free to BELIEVE, TRUST, LOVE, and DO GOOD and WORSHIP GOD!

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Some song dedications for you to listen!

Finally Free by Nichole Nordeman


Perfect Day by Josh Bates
- Talks about eternal life, joy, focusing on the prize, meeting God...


Finally, watch a....Video: The Light of Darkness
This video shows us that maybe what we thought was our "truth" is not the real "truth" after all. Jesus said, "The Truth will Set us free" (John 8:32) Maybe if we could not believe that before, we should still ask that perhaps, it could also be otherwise, that Jesus is right after all?



Have a good week ahead!

God's Own Fool...

What is the "unbelievable" that you are believing?

The unbelievable of "our faith"? that makes you seem like a "fool" in the eyes of your friends, or family even?

For me, it is the unbelievable of "being in Ministry" where everything calls me to spend my time elsewhere. I could have spent my Saturdays out with friends, but I choose to spend it with friends in church.. And somehow, the world does not understand our need to gather in a community to praise God, ponder on His Word, and strive towards conversion and holiness. So that simply makes me "a fool for christ!".

Are you also being a "fool" for christ? It's not so bad really isn't it? Because we know that by our christian standards, the first is the last and the last becomes First. God honors those who will worship Him and seek Him. So let us become "FOOLS" for Christ!

Here this song "God's Own Fool" by Michael Card:


LYRICS:
GOD'S OWN FOOL
Scribbling in the Sand: The Best of Michael Card (2002)


Seems I've imagined Him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's Holy wisdom is foolish to men
He must have seemed out of His mind

For even His family said He was mad
And the priests said a demon's to blame
But God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane

Chorus
When we in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
When we in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
And so we follow God's own fool
For only the foolish can tell-
Believe the unbelievable
And come be a fool as well

So come lose your life for a carpenter's son
For a madman who died for a dream
And you'll have the faith His first followers had
And you'll feel the weight of the beam
So surrender the hunger to say you must know
Have the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see

Chorus

So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable,
And come be a fool as well

World Pays Tribute on Death of Atheist Turned Believer

Catholic Communications, Sydney Archdiocese,
20 Apr 2010

Leading academics, philosophers and members of the Christian faith across the world continue to pay tribute to Antony Flew, the famed British atheist and thinker who discovered God at the end of his life.

The renowned rationalist philosopher died earlier this month at age 87 and continues to be remembered in obituaries and tributes world-wide.

Those paying tribute to him include Catholic Theology professors from the Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, well known American rabbis such as Rabbi Brad Hirshfield from New York and leading philosphers from academia such as Dr Gary Habermas.

Describing Flew as one of the great intellectuals of his time, Rabbi Hirschfield lauded the Englishman's "intellectual generosity."

The son of a Methodist minister, Antony Flew spent most of his life denying the existence of God until just six years before his death when he dramatically changed his mind after studying research into genetics and DNA.

"The almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, show that intelligence must have been involved," he announced in 2004 and went on to make a video of his conversion called : "Has Science Discovered God."

Ironically, although modern day atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens claim in the rational world of science there is no proof of God exists, it is from the world of science that Antony Flew in his final years discovered "empirical evidence" that God exists, which overturned beliefs he had held for more than 60 years.

Like Einstein before him, Flew found that God was the only possible answer when it came to increasingly complex discoveries from sub atomic particles to the human genome to the very origins of the Cosmos.

"How can a universe of mindless matter produce beings with intrinsic ends, self replication capabilities and ‘coded chemistry'?" he asked, giving this as the main reason for his discovery of God in his final decade.

Flew's conclusion that there was in fact a God in his 81st year came as a shock to his fellow atheists, particularly Dawkins and Hitchens two of the world's most outspoken proponents of atheism.

But Flew refused to back down even when some of his former followers decided his volte-face on God was the result of old age dementia and confusion rather than scholarly research and intellectual rigour.

Flew's late life change of mind about God's existence was remarkable because of the huge volume of his writings which until then had embraced the atheist cause. Throughout most of his academic life he was adamant that one should presuppose atheism until there was empirical evidence to the contrary. Then in his final decade through as DNA and the human genome began to be understood along with the complexities of life, Flew found evidence which proved to him God exists and is the Creator of life. And from being a rationalist philosopher and non-believer for most of his life, one of the world's leading thinkers suddenly became a staunch believer.

"The most impressive arguments for God's existence are those that are supported by recent scientific discoveries," he said.

In his final years, Flew supported the idea of a God along the lines of the philosophy espoused by Greek philosopher, Aristotle who believed God had characteristics of both power and intelligence.

In 2007, Antony Flew published the manifesto of his conversion stating unequivocally in the title: "There is a God."

However until his death while convinced God did exist, he remained sceptical about an afterlife.

With an academic career spanning 60 years with stints at universities across Britain and the US, Antony Flew will be remembered not only as one of the outstanding philosophers of his time, but as the man who preached atheism but died a believer.

Meet 'The Stupid Servant'

This is indeed a very heart-rending testimony from a married priest! "What? a married priest in the Catholic Church?"...you must be asking yourself.

Well read his testimony and be inspired by his (and his wife's) moments at experiencing the love of God. It is also a story of conversion from scepticism about the Catholic faith, the role of our Blessed Mother, and how in the end, faith and patience prevailed resulting in the most joyous experience by the real-life characters in the testimony.

Click here and be spiritually inspired and motivated:
http://thedivinemercy.org/news/story.php?NID=3796