It’s Friday
And did you know that God WANTS to save you?
That may not be something you have thought about, but as I have reflected before on a given Friday that He (God) actually LIKES us…
I mean it is not that He has too, or that He just happens to…
Or … something … or …
No… HE WANTS TO SAVE US!
In fact, He does.
Why say something like this?
I don’t know about you, but I have, and I have talked with enough people that really, when push comes to shove (pun if you want one) they think that God rather punish us…
That He would rather send us all to hell and be done with our brand of nonsense! And that no, He really does not like us very much either!
I mean, truth be told, we are not much to like.
Sure, you can’t see inside my heart and head, and I don’t see inside yours—THANK GOD FOR THAT—
And we don’t even see inside our own clearly…
AND THANK GOD FOR THAT TOO!
(Because I am told the angles laugh at us way too often… I have to relay a joke to make this lighter, because it can be… as no matter how evil we were… it is not as if God was ever surprised… or said… well for Jim and Carrol, but for Mike or Stanley!)
“…outside of a dog a book is man’s best friend. inside of a dog it’s too dark to read…” –Groucho Marx
Sorry, it is what came to mind think on all this…
But I am saying that it is good that we don’t see much or clearly most of the time our insides… and what goes on there… (a great part of a C.S. Lewis book on this—The Pilgrim’s Regress.)
Else it would be our end. We couldn’t ever stand each other or ourselves!
So, with the fact that God is all-knowing… and HE SEES ALL…
How could He stand us, never mind like us or WANT TO SAVE US?
But it is true. He has and IS working very hard to save as many of us that can be. It will take a miracle. It has.
His death and resurrection.
It will.
Our death and resurrection! This begun at our Baptism.
But we have to understand that God is not sitting about… waiting for us to get things right. We won’t… ever! Whatever good grows in us is a result of His work.
Our part? We use and do with what we have been given. Bloom where you are planted, with whom you are planted next to.
As messy and as imperfect as it will be, it is and will be something… even though we cannot see it now.
And it is a good thing we can’t right now, because we would get our dirty fingers all over it and wreck it!
But God is not looking for ways to get rid of us. He does not say to the angels, “Hey look, that is the last straw, pull back and let the devil have him!”
Rather, it is, “Hey, look, the devil and his flesh are really doing him in, go and help boys—quick now—teach that devil a lesson he won’t soon forget!”
We need to walk with Him each day… not because we are good, or doing well that day, but actually because we are not!
We won’t be able to tell most of the time when we are doing well anyway. When we are tempted to think we are—watch out.
That is when we are more likely to fall. It is when we are a desperate mess on our knees, pleading for help from Him, are we at our best.
We need to walk with Him because He knows far more about just how evil, bad, sinful, unloving, selfish, hording, etc., we are.
Walking with Him EVEN THOUGH… is when He brings out the new you, He has created.
Now all of this is no excuse to be jerks… no, we control ourselves for our neighbors’ sakes. For our own sake too, so we don’t end up in jail! But God already knows just how we are. We cannot surprise Him.
So, stop trying to act. Besides, none of His benefits will we ever deserve or could ever earn! Ever! Stop trying to make Him like you! As if!
But all this rot is from the devil. He is good at telling us this stuff: God does not like me. God would rather not save me if He got the chance. Again… AS IF!!!!
As if there were not the cross and the fact that God the Son died there … for YOU and for ME! Specifically! Because of you and me. SO THAT WE WOULD BE SAVED FROM OURSEVLES!!!
So yes, it is Friday, but you and I have been invited to the family dinner. Not as a house guest, but as family. Not just by token, but by blood.
Yes, in two days time, we come and become infused with our new DNA! We are no longer just sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. No, now we have become the children of God! Higher and far better. Jesus is now flesh of our flesh and blood of our blood…
And better still…we become flesh of His Flesh and Blood of His Blood.
Because even though it is only Friday, Sunday is a’comin…
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Seventeenth Sunday after the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity – September the 27th in the year of our Lord, 2026
Readings:
Old Testament – Isaiah 2:1-19
Epistle – Ephesians 4:1-6
Gospel – Luke 14:1-11
KEEPING WATCH
Based on the Gospel reading – Luke 14:1-11
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Prayers: For a lasting peace that would be established and would remain between the people of Israel and Gaza as well as for the People of Russia and the Ukraine. Between the US and Iran. For our congregation that it would please our Lord that we would increase in numbers and there remain in this place a congregation that calls upon Him rightly, practicing the faith according to the Scriptures. For those who are being persecuted and murdered because they call upon the name of Jesus—especially in Africa. For the end of violence in our cites and that our schools and congregations would be protected from those who wish them harm. For our families that parents would courageously discipline their children and raise them in the fear of the Lord, teaching them about salvation in Jesus alone.
