GOD Who Removes Guilt

“Shepherd YOUR people with YOUR staff, shepherd the flock of YOUR inheritance that dwells alone in the scrub, in the midst of a fertile land. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the days of old, in the days when YOU went out of Egypt. 

Show us YOUR wonders. On seeing this, the nations will put to shame, in the midst of all, their might. People will lay their hands upon their mouths and they will not believe the news. 

They shall lick the dust like snakes, like creatures that crawl upon the ground. They will come, trembling out of their strongholds; they will be in fear of YOU.
Who is a GOD like YOU, who takes away guilt and pardons crime for the remnant of HIS inheritance? 

Who is like YOU whose anger does not last? For YOU delight in merciful forgiveness. 

Once again YOU will show us YOUR loving kindness and trample on our wrongs, casting all our sins into the depths of the sea. 

Show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, as YOU have sworn to our ancestors from the days of old.” – Micah 7:14-20 

(Poem of exile – Jerusalem will rise.)

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Remember The Marvels The LORD Has Done

"Then HE sent a famine and ruined the crop that sustained the land; HE sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave; his feet in shackles, his neck in irons; till what HE foretold came to pass, and YAHWEH's word proved HIM true.

The king sent for him; set him free; the ruler of the peoples released him.  He put him in charge of his household and made him ruler of all his possessions." - Psalm 105:16-21 

Joseph Sold As A Slave By His Brothers

(The psalmist summarizes in this one psalm the goodness and the greatness of GOD, as he knew it from The Old Testament.  He connects with his past to seek GOD's presence and praise HIM.  We do not live in isolation from our material environment, nor do we from our historical past, and the historical books of the Scriptures, like the Creation, provide material for praise. We are the people whom GOD has redeemed, but in redeeming us, GOD was keeping the promise which HE made 'to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his seed.'

When praying with this psalm, we can unite our history to the history of salvation and remember that, while the covenant is a mandate, it is also the Word of GOD and therefore it is an eternal and holy covenant.  If we are unfaithful, GOD is still faithful.)  

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Words Of Wisdom

“This is what YAHWEH says, 

‘Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings and depends on a mortal for his life, while his heart is drawn away from YAHWEH! 

He is like a bunch of thistles in dry land, in parched desert places, in a salt land where no one lives and who never finds happiness. 

Blessed is the man who puts his trust in YAHWEH and whose confidence is in HIM! He is like a tree planted by the water, sending out its roots towards the stream. 

He has no fear when the heat comes, his leaves are always green; the year of drought is no problem and he can always bear fruit. 

Most deceitful is the heart. What is there within man, who can understand him? I, YAHWEH, search the heart and penetrate the mind. I reward each one according to his ways and the fruit of his deeds.’” – Jeremiah 17:5-10 

 (Blessed is the man whose hope is the LORD.)

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Heed Me, O LORD!

“Then, they said, ‘Come, let us plot against Jeremiah, for even without him, there will be priests to interpret the teachings of the law; there will always be wise men to impart counsel and prophets to proclaim the word. 

Come, let us accuse him and strike him down instead of listening to what he says.’ 

Hear me, O YAHWEH!
Listen to what my accusers say.
Is evil the reward for good?
Why do they dig a grave for me?
Remember how I stood before YOU
to speak well on their behalf
so that YOUR anger might subside.” – Jeremiah 18:18-20 

 (Scripture supports these two statements, that nothing escapes GOD and that we are free.)

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Let Us Set Things Right

“Hear the warning of YAHWEH,
rulers of Sodom.
Listen to the word of GOD,
people of Gomorrah.

‘What do I care,’ says YAHWEH
‘for your endless sacrifices?
I AM fed up with your burnt offerings,
and the fat of your bulls.
The blood of fatlings, and lambs and he-goats
I abhor, when you come before me and
trample on MY courts.
Who asked you to visit ME?
I AM fed up with your oblations.
I grow sick with your incense.
Your New Moons, Sabbaths and meetings,
evil with holy assemblies,
I can no longer bear.
I hate your New Moons and appointed feasts.

They burden ME.
When you stretch out your hands
I will close MY eyes;
the more you pray,
the more I refuse to listen,
for your hands are bloody.
Wash and make yourselves clean.
Remove from MY sight
the evil of your deeds.
Put an end to your wickedness
and learn to do good.
Seek justice and keep in line the abusers;
give the fatherless their rights
and defend the widow.’
‘Come,’ says YAHWEH,
‘let us reason together.
Though your sins be like scarlet,
they will be white as snow;
though they be as crimson red,
they will be white as wool.
If you will obey ME,
you will eat the goods of the earth;
but if you resist and rebel,
the sword will eat you instead.’
Truly YAHWEH has spoken.”
- Isaiah 1:10-20

(What do I care for your endless sacrifices? It is characteristic of the prophets to condemn external worship that does not express a true surrender to GOD. The sacrifices and the festivals in question here were required by the law of GOD; yet GOD says that HE detests them, because when done without proper dispositions, they are a lie [see Psalm 40:7 and 50:16, also, Matthew 5:23].

Give the fatherless their rights. The Mosaic commandments condemned theft [Exodus 20:14]. The prophets denounce a social system which crushes the lowly.

Some people are fond of great ceremonies, others of their own devotions and prayers and still others, of doing generous and philanthropic works. When doing this, we may be covering up the injustice we do every day.)

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Be Merciful

“Be merciful, just as your FATHER is merciful.

Don’t be a judge of others and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and it will be given to you, and you will receive in your sack good measure, pressed down, full and running over.  For the measure you give will be the measure you receive back.” – Luke 6:36-38 

(Perfection for us consists in imitating the FATHER.  HE is GOD by being compassionate; HIS compassion is HIS ability to be touched by the poverty and the anguish of HIS creatures, and to lavish upon them what HE can give.  The attitude of the person who judges his brothers and sisters is the very opposite of mercy.

JESUS speaks of the way in which GOD already leads us in the present life.  A rationalist culture has often convinced us that GOD lets the laws of nature and humankind go their own way while HE remains a passive spectator, but the kingdom of GOD is the presence of GOD HIMSELF who even today has liberty to reverse all situations, even if for that purpose HE has HIS own time.)  

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Abram Went As The LORD Directed Him

“YAHWEH said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your family and your father’s house, for the land I will show you.  I will make you a great nation.  I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse, and in you all people of the earth will be blessed.’

 So Abram went as YAHWEH had told him, and Lot went with him. 

Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran." – Genesis 12:1-4 

The Calling Of Abraham

(GOD was calling Abram: ‘Leave; there is something awaiting you!’  And Abraham left.  In our own day, economic necessity forces so many immigrants to leave their country without knowing where to go or how their lives will be affected.

Leave… for the land I will show you.  Abraham only knew that GOD wanted to give him what he had longed for during his entire life and he welcomed this promise.  In spite of his age, he was still able to hope for the impossible and this heartfelt readiness, or this ability for rebirth, was more pleasing to GOD than any good works.

Leave your country, your family and your father’s house.  Here we have one of GOD’s first words in Sacred Scripture.  This call to Abraham is still part of legend, like the chapters of Genesis that precede, yet it is also the beginning of a true history which will go on for centuries and which is far from being over: the history of Israel and of the Christian people.  We rightly call Abraham the father of believers since the call that he received and his leaving for unknown lands is precisely what happens to us when we begin to believe.

Leave your country, your family and your father’s house.  To many of us GOD is more likely to say: “Let go of your own wisdom.”  Because if GOD is speaking to us, it is not to tell us what we already know.  GOD is testing us, HE knocks on our hearts to see what the echo will be: will we be able to let go of our own wisdom and enter into HIS plan?  We thought we knew our own worth and where we are to go but – what if GOD already had plans for us; what if GOD already knew us better than we know ourselves?

It was not Abraham’s initiative to leave. GOD called him and by doing that, GOD liberated him.  On account of sin, every person is born and lives as if he or she were in a foreign land.  Our own reality is hidden from us as long as we are not rooted in GOD and in communion with HIM.  Our religions and ideologies, products of our culture, do not permit us to go beyond the limits of a world we make to suit ourselves.  To become aware of our vocation we need GOD’s call and we need to be willing to get out of this vicious circle.

Faith will never occur without separation which is why GOD foresaw it in each one’s life: leaving our parents’ house, beginning to work, getting married… Faith prepares us to face even more painful separations that will place us entirely at the service of GOD.  As believers, we can never think that we have arrived.  Until the end of our lives, we are pilgrims, drawn by an ideal never quite reached and always attentive to GOD’s signs to see where GOD is waiting for us.

Abraham rightly responded to the call of GOD who made beautiful promises to him: therein lies all of faith and Chapter15 of Genesis will again express the same thing.  In the Scriptures, we find founders and religious reformers like Moses.  We find the wise and wisdom books.  Yet, they are all women and men able to respond when GOD calls them.  The promises that GOD made to Abraham are equally valid for all believers: thanks to them GOD’s salvation becomes a reality for the world.  This is what Scripture says: in you all peoples of the earth will be blessed.)

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Walk In HIS Ways

“On this day, Yahweh, your GOD, commands you to fulfil these norms and these commandments. Obey them now and put them into practice with all your heart and with all your soul.

Today YAHWEH has declared to you that HE will be your GOD, and so you shall follow HIS ways, observing HIS norms, HIS commandments and HIS laws, and listening to HIS voice.

Today YAHWEH has declared that you will be HIS very own people even as HE had promised you, and you must obey all HIS commandments.  HE, for HIS part, will give you honor, renown and glory, and set you high above all the nations HE has made, and you will become a nation consecrated to YAHWEH, your GOD, as HE has declared.” – Deuteronomy 26:16-19

(Blessed are they who follow the law of the LORD.  Be perfect, as your heavenly FATHER is perfect.)

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He Shall Live Because Of The Virtue He Has Practiced

“If the sinner turns from his sin, observes MY decrees and practices what is right and just, he will live; he will not die.  None of the sins he committed will be charged against him; he will live, as a consequence of his righteous deeds.  Do I want the death of the sinner? – word of YAHWEH.  Do I not, rather, want him to turn from his ways and live? 

But if the righteous man turns away from what is good, and commits sins as the wicked do, will he live?  His righteous deeds will no longer be credited to him; but he will die, because of his infidelity and his sins. 

But you say: YAHWEH’s way is not just!  Why, Israel!  Is MY position wrong?  Is it not rather that yours is wrong?  If the righteous man turns from his righteous deeds, and sins, then he dies, because of his sins.  And if the wicked man does what is good and right, after turning from the sins he committed, he will save his life.  He will live and not die, because he has opened his eyes; and turned from the sins he had committed.” – Ezekiel 18:21-28 

(Everyone will have time to decide freely.  If people are evil and then decide to do good, GOD will wait for their conversion and will take their last orientation into account.

 

In later times, wise people will note that oftentimes evil people do not receive their punishment, nor good people their reward in this life [Job 21]; it will become obvious to them that GOD’s justice will be achieved in the next life.)
 

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Ask And It Will Be Given To You

“Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened.  For everyone who asks, receives; whoever seeks, finds; and to HIM who knocks, the door will be opened.  Would any of you give a stone to your son, when he asks for bread?  Or give him a snake, when he asks for a fish?  However bad you may be, you know how to give good things to your children.  How much more, then, will your FATHER in heaven give good things to those who ask HIM!

So, do to others whatever you would that others do to you: there, you have the law and the prophets.” – Matthew 7:7-12

(JESUS invites us to ask with faith and perseverance, until GOD assures us that our prayer has been heard or else helps us understand that what we asked for was not good for us, nor was it the will of GOD.)

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