Review: Holier Than Thou
Hey guys! Here’s a review and promotion for the book “Holier Than Thou” from Lifeteen. It’s written by Mr. Mark Hart and Mr. Greg Iwinski and it is AWESOME.
If you’ve ever wanted to know more about Saints, check it out 
www.livewtl.com
www.lifeteen.com
Peace,
Avery
Episode 22: Why I Love Jesus AND Religion
In this show, we’re talking about a Catholic approach to the video “Why I hate relgion, but love Jesus”.
Keep on sending in questions, and check out our new Ask Catholics blog!
Peace,
Avery
Call to Authenticity
“Although I am free in regard to all,
I have made myself a slave to all
so as to win over as many as possible.
To the weak I became weak, to win over the weak.
I have become all things to all, to save at least some.
All this I do for the sake of the gospel,
so that I too may have a share in it.”
-1 Corinthians 9:19, 22-23
This comes from this week’s second reading.
Becoming a slave to all….what does that mean?
Our society and our culture presents this image to us that it’s all about “ME, ME, ME”. It’s all about, “Who am I?” “Who do I want to be?” “What do I want to do?” “How will this help me?” College, clothes, jobs, it’s all about how I feel and how this is going to affect ME.
It’s easy to get caught up in the little things in life. We get frustrated about a test at school and forget how blessed we are. We don’t feel like talking to a friend who needs someone and we don’t reach out to them. We bring others down by a negative perspective. We see someone struggling and we don’t offer to help. We forget the dignity of another person and put them down. Anything, really.
It’s where that part of the Confiteor we often forget, “for what I have done, and what I have failed to do…” comes in. We make the excuse that something was inconvenient, that we didn’t have time, or just that we realllllllly didn’t want to.
Not to make this whole post some kind of turn-or-burn guilt trip…..I just want to challenge you to go deeper. We’re called to be slaves to all….to empty ourselves and be full of Christ.
The readings this week talk about doing everything for the sake of the Gospel.
That is, to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the world and work towards the Heavenly Kingdom. That’s not “part” of why we’re here. That’s not “something to think about.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, Christ did not institute the Church as an occasion for us to get all high and mighty and dress up pretty and sing as loud as we can and then go get coffee and have a nice family afternoon. That’s dandy, but Christ came with a message.
And it is our SOLE duty, our SOLE responsibility as Christians to share that message.
So going back to the me, me, me thing. A lot of times people complain about being used. They’re “overworked, overtired, burned-out”. Read any self-help book and you’ll be delighted with the idea that we should all just learn to say no more often and then we’ll have time for what’s really important…ourselves.
That’s why self help books make millions. That’s why Christians are persecuted.
Christianity is about emptying oneself out and being full with Christ. It’s about working tirelessly for the Kingdom. It’s literally about going to the ends of the earth to spread the Good News to all nations and all people.
John 3:30 puts it nicely. “He must increase, I must decrease.” And yes, it may burn us out and make us exhausted. That’s holy suffering. And no, on our own that’s not possible. But with His grace, and as Luke 1:37 and Phillipians 4:13 both state, there’s nothing we can’t do through God, and all things are possible through Him.
Jesus came as our Lord and our Savior to empty himself in love for us. He poured out his blood, and literally gave EVERYTHING. The message of Christianity isn’t to see what kind of volunteer positions will nicely fit in your schedule and add to your college resume to be a well rounded individual. The message of Christ was to live in humble obedience and service to the Lord.
Keeping our eyes on His Kingdom, that’s the only important thing.
So today, make your faith more than something to “think about”. Live it.
Peace,
Avery
Call to action.
I was listening to the song “God of this City” today and the lyrics stood out to me:
Greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.
I normally am not a fan of statistics since I feel like they de-value a human life, but take a look at this number:
163,000 Christians die every year because of their faith.
In America, we’re kind of jaded and in this bubble where this doesn’t particularly affect us. We don’t see it happening. We get a mean comment on our Bible verse tumblr post or facebook status or someone questions our beliefs about Mary and we freak out and say it’s persecution. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people in Tennesse say, ” I suffer so much for my faith, and people just don’t understand”. Honey, it’s time for a perspective change. That’s not persecution.
Look back to the Roman Empire if you want to see persecution. That’s when some of our greatest apologists in the faith come from… Martyrs are some of our most incredible saints because they provide the testimony that they are so in love with Jesus Christ that they’re fully willing to give up their lives to show that.
Let me rephrase. “Give up their lives” sounds too poetic.
They were willing to be crucified upside down, roasted alive on a stake, stoned, cut into pieces, and have their heads chopped upfor the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It goes back to 1 Corinthians 9:23 where Paul says, “I do all this for the sake of the Gospel, that I may share in it’s blessings.”
We’re blessed to live in a place where we CAN live our faith and we DO have the freedom to express it.
We can stand up to the mandate the government is passing right now. We can pray at abortion clinics and save lives and share testimony. We can talk to the person next to us on a plane about the Lord and His mercy. Heck, we can read our Bible in Starbucks, if you want to get really basic.
But many times, even with this incredible blessing of freedom in our faith, we fall back into the shadows and just blow off the things God puts on our hearts as “good ideas”. We never move.
We procrastinate and wait for other people to do things, calling it discernment. We don’t have the courage to truly MOVE and live for the Lord.
See, being Christ’s disciple doesn’t mean waiting until another volunteer meeting comes up so we can sign up to bring spaghetti to church. (Obviously being involved in pastoral things is super awesome…just keep reading though) Being a disciple of Christ though means building up His Church without having it handed to you as a task.
It means being so fully enveloped in God that you’re inspired tomove for His kingdom….just don’t let it stop there.
Don’t stop with the warm and tingly feeling of God’s love. Allow Him to take control and use you to accomplish what it is that He leads you to! As servants and slaves of Christ, we work for Him with joy.
We have such a blessing to be in a place where we can live our faith.
So let’s.
Stop being lukewarm, and let’s allow Jesus of Nazareth to lead our lives anew.
The martyrs were willing to die for Christ. So let’s go to step one…Are we at least willing to serve Him?
Peace,
Avery
Let’s Dare to be Saints.
The last few days I have been reading over the confessions of St. Augustine and the book Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. They have made me reflect a bit on spiritual warfare.
I think many times the spiritual battles we face are hard to recognize. They disguise themselves as modernly accepted traits: indifference, busyness, exhaustion. Often even extolled, these force us into the belief that we must “find the balance” between our spiritual life and the reality of the day to day world.
This, really, is a lie that many believe in the Church.
Pope Benedict XVI (Papa B16) has something to say about this: “Dare to be glowing saints, in whose eyes and hearts the love of Christ beams and who thus brings light to the world”
Think of your favorite saints. St. Francis, St. Augustine, St. Joan of Arc, St. Padre Pio, whoever comes to mind.
Do you think their eyes and hearts could radiate the love of Christ and bring light to the world if they were just like 50% committed? Like what if they just felt like being holy and pure and sanctified by the Lord half the time?
No. They wouldn’t be the people they are today.
With Christ truly as our core, there simply lies no need to balance. There’s nothing to balance. It’s all or nothing. Total joy and surrender and obedience, or…not. There’s really not a gray area once we really come to realize our calling. His Grace guides us and He so graciously invites us to be set free. We need not worry or dwell on balancing our “crazy lives”. We can simply give them up to His will.
If we worry or dwell on the balancing act it leads to spiritual exhaustion: that which relies simply on the self to work for the Lord. That’s not working for the Lord. That’s idolizing the self and calling it service to the Lord, a lack of humility. Humility is the recognition of truth, and the surrender to the Lord, the source of Truth. It is by Him, with Him, and through Him that all things come to be. And if we can simply recognize that, our so called “crazy busy lives” have incredible direction and purpose.
Many times, at least for me, a challenge in faith is complacency. I stop with just the “okay, my faith is pretty good.” ‘It is easy to fall to the common spiritual battles of indifference, busyness, and exhaustion. But let me sort of explain here.
Indifference- To me, this is just not caring. We hear about something, we learn about something, and we close our hearts to embracing it with the love that Christ shares with us. Indifference is a result of our selfishness. We know that there are people who don’t know Christ, we know that there are starving children in Africa, we know that someone dear to us is suffering….and we just leave it at that. We think about it.
Many times people speculate, analyze, and research, and then they just stop. There’s plenty of statistics about world religion and poverty and hunger and suffering. But the stats are staggering. We like to speculate and analyze and research but we cannot stop there. We must not become indifferent and say, “oh, someone else will take care of it.” or “oh, that’s such a big problem. What can I do?”
Did our glowing saints, did our brothers and sisters in Christ do this? No.
Busyness- This is when we fill our lives up with too much. We join every club and organization and AP course and sport and youth group and facebook page we can. And then we complain that our lives are so stressful and we suddenly lose the crucial time for prayer.
To overcome this spiritual obstacle, one must step back and examine the prayer life they have. Even though sometimes we say, “everything’s good! what should I give up if everything is good?” we must step back and ask what is pleasing to the Lord. It is good to have a full life with activity and service and community. It is when this distracts us from drawing closer to the Lord that it is a problem.
Feel like you don’t have time to pray? Stop watching TV for just a week. Suddenly, instead of wasting away 30 minutes of your life with mindless programs, you can spend a solid amount of time in the presence of your Lord. And I promise you, not only will your live be purpose driven, but the peace and relaxation that comes from being with Christ far exceeds the relaxation of time on the couch.
Exhaustion- This kind of goes with what I was saying above in busyness. Saying “yes” to everything doesn’t make you Holy. It leads you into planning everything and relying on yourself and your smartphone agenda than the Lord. Your focus should be on becoming and showing Christ’s love to others. And if anything—even the “good” stuff— gets in the way of that, it may require discernment.
This isn’t saying “don’t do anything” and just sit around. It’s simply saying to be available. If a friend needs to talk, if something comes up, don’t blame your lack of Love on being tired or hungry or just having a bad day. The eternal Love of the Lord doesn’t come from food or sleep or circumstances—it comes from Christ. And it is our call to holiness to accept and share that love even when it isn’t most convenient.
Anyways, just some thoughts for today. I started writing about this in my journal this morning after chapel, and it really struck me as something I need to evaluate in my life.
Jesus loves you. He loves you so, so much.
Don’t be afraid to question.
Never be afraid to learn more about Christ. Live WTL Ministries is a safe, non judging environment where you can do just that. Send in your questions today, let’s all grow together!