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Lord's Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.

To Have One Will with Christ

Grant me, most merciful Jesus, your grace, that it may be with me and labor with me and dwell within me, this day and all the days of my short life.

Give me grace always to desire and seek what is most acceptable to you; whatever is most pleasing in your sight, let me do that. Let my will always follow yours; let your will be mine. Reform me into a spiritual perfection impossible for the world, which might be gained only by your grace; and help me to live in accord with it.

Let there be between you and me only one will, so that I may love what you love and hate what you hate; make me unfit to want anything that is unworthy in your sight, or to disdain whatever you might approve. Save me, Christ, I pray, out of love; for unworthy I might be, yet I love you dearly.

Mason Barge 6/24/2015 (based on Thomas Kempis, @1450 A.D.

Prayer for Help with the Burdens of Life

Grant me, I pray, your divine helping grace; endow me with patience and strength to endure my tribulations with complete submission to your will. You know my misery and suffering and to you, my only hope and refuge, I flee for relief and comfort; trusting your infinite love and compassion, that in due time, when you know it is for the best, you will deliver me from my troubles, and turn my distress into comfort, and I will rejoice in your mercy, and exalt and praise your Holy Name, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

Meditation

[Purify my heart; cleanse me from within.]

Dedication

Lord, in utter humility I thank you and glorify you, that you might hear the prayer of one so small as myself, amidst the billions of souls among billions of stars in one of billions of galaxies in your universe. Let me go forth in your peace, keeping your Spirit always in my mind; and bless me, I pray, that I might always follow your will and live in the radiance of your blessing.

God be with you 'til we meet again.

Poverty

"The fellow that has no money is poor. The fellow that has nothing but money is poorer still."

~ Billy Sunday

1 John 2:18-20 (ESV)

Warning Concerning Antichrists

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.

Notes on the Scripture

rom the first, there have been challenges for evangelists: People denied Christ when He was alive, and after He died, arose, and ascended, people continued to deny Him, as they do today. This is and was the basic battle of Christian missions, bringing the gospel to people who did not know it or had not accepted it, that they might find Christ and eternal life in Him. Then came the problem of backsliding, that is, people who had been saved suffering from a lapse of faith.

But now, John finds, a new problem had arisen. He began to hear people who had been saved but then went wrong, not by simply lapsing into the world of the flesh, but by perverting and misrepresenting the truth, making up stories that they presented as the word of God, but which would lead listeners back into the darkness.

In John’s first epistle, we encounter the term “antichrist” for the first and only time. Our understanding of the term has been distorted by Hollywood, which has co-opted The Antichrist as a caricature for horror movies. The Biblical use is less colorful. John invented the term to describe Christians who stray from the truth, or people who simply invent some warped version of Christianity, and try to convince others to join them. They find Christ but then lose Him, by grafting onto His gospel ideas from their own, often insane, minds.

Many such false teachers were beginning to appear towards the end of the first century. Of course, they have been with us ever since, and we still have them today.

John calls the appearance of these false teachers the herald of “the last hour.” He does not mean that the end of the world is coming next week. God’s revelation to, and salvation of, mankind has come in stages or epochs, and the appearance of antichrists is the final epoch. There was the epoch of Adam and Eve; the epoch of Noah; then Abraham, when the first covenant was established; then Moses when the law was established; then the establishment and history of Israel; then Christ; and then, after Christ had ascended, the era of spreading the gospel.

Now, we are in the last era, the final hour. God has made salvation available to all nations, so that all might be saved. He has given us a final battle, the battle against those who would pervert Christ’s word. However long it may take, we are in the final stage of man’s relationship with God.

The antichrist is with us, in the form of aggressive atheism and perverted ideas about God.

The Archangel Michael by Guido Reni, c. 1636.

Daily Inspiration

“ Keep A Firm Grip On Hope ”

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