Glory of God Prayer Group, St. Cecilia Parish, Wa Diocese, Ghana - Let Your Light Shine

Saint of the Day

Humility

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. C. S. Lewis

You must go through the experiences

The words printed here are concepts. You must go through the experiences. Saint Augustine

Our walking is our preaching

It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching. Francis of Assisi

God is happiness and peace

God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. C. S. Lewis

The future

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is. C. S. Lewis

Worth of the bible

A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education. Theodore Roosevelt

Charity and wisdom

Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance. Francis of Assisi

He that is jealous is not in love

He that is jealous is not in love. Saint Augustine

The end of life

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him. Socrates

Suffering of God's son

God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering. Saint Augustine

Have peace fully in your heart

While you are proclaiming peace with your lips, be careful to have it even more fully in your heart. Francis of Assisi

A drop in the ocean

We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop. Mother Teresa

Truth

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair. C. S. Lewis

I willingly cure him for the love of God

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God. Mother Teresa

Fear vs reverence

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence. Socrates

What does love look like?

What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men. That is what love looks like. Saint Augustine

Passion

Passion is the evil in adultery. If a man has no opportunity of living with another man's wife, but if it is obvious for some reason that he would like to do so, and would do so if he could, he is no less guilty than if he was caught in the act. Saint Augustine

The cause makes the martyr

It is not the punishment but the cause that makes the martyr. Saint Augustine

Miracles are not contrary to nature

Miracles are not contrary to nature, but only contrary to what we know about nature. Saint Augustine

Prayer does not change God

Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays. Soren Kierkegaard

Teaching for Sunday 30th October, 2011
Teacher: Felix Dordaa Mahama
Text: John 15:17-19.

We are in the world but we are not of the world

What is our social life? The Lord tells us that even though we are in the world we do not belong to the world. Through our brother Paul in Romans 12:2, He tells us again that we should not conform to the standards of the world. We live in the world everyday; eating, drinking, sleeping, working and interacting with other people. Living in the world is our social life.

How can we gain spiritual freedom?

In order for us to gain spiritual freedom, we have to guard this social life with all we have got. We do not enjoy our lives in Christ because we still allow ourselves to be put under spiritual bondage, enslaved by so many things, in the name of fitting into society. God did not born us again to fit into society but for society to fit into us! But what do we see today; instead of dictating for society we allow society to dictate for us, thus selling our spiritual freedom.

When we read 1 Corinthians 6:15-17, we get this advice from St. Paul, “Shall I take a part of Christ’s body and make it part of a prostitute? Impossible! Or perhaps you don’t know that a person who joins his body to a prostitute becomes physically one with her? But he who joins himself to the Lord becomes spiritually one with Him.” The only way we can gain true spiritual freedom and enjoy our life in Christ is to “become spiritually one with Him”. This is the very thing the devil, through our social life, tries very hard to prevent, and we let him. He tries to push us into and keep us in spiritual bondage. He uses many tools, and when we indulge in them, we become spiritually one with him and lose our spiritual freedom.

We lose our spiritual freedom in different ways. I’m going to outline only a few.

Tools used by the devil to put us into spiritual bondage

Speech

One of the tools of the devil through which we lose our spiritual freedom is speech. God loves His Holy name so much that he will do anything to protect it, even to the extent that He would even ignore the sins of His people Israel – Ezekiel 36:16-27. He wants us to honour, adore, and proclaim His name every time and everywhere. In fact, that is one of the primary reasons we are here on earth and will be in the world to come. Refer to John 3:2. But Satan will do anything to ensure that we profane the name of the Lord, either by saying certain words ourselves or condoning with or encouraging others who do, like buying and listening to profane music.

What happens when you keep on listening to music like this? The devil controls your mind, your mind is polluted, your will is crashed and you lose your ability to resist the devil’s temptations. In short, he puts you in spiritual bondage, you lose your spiritual freedom and become a slave to him!

Popularity

Another of the devil's tools through which we lose our spiritual freedom is popularity. In a bit to live our social life, we adore, support and condone popular figures of society, no matter what they do, believe or practice, even if they contradict our faith.

  • Play Asamoah Gyan’s song
  • Observe what is done and said there and how people like it because Asamoah Gyan is in it

 Music and dressing

Still another of the devil's tools through which we lose our spiritual freedom is music and dressing.

  • Play Shakira’s track
  • Observe what is done and said there and how we patronize clothing with their names on them
  • Wearing of bangles on ankles
  • Wearing of multiple earrings

Signs

Yet another of the devil's tools through which we lose our spiritual freedom is signs.

  • Play illuminati signs
  • Observe how popular people are involved and sometimes we imitate them
  • What should we do to such clothing and other materials? Destroy them!

What kinds of things should we associate with? We should associate with things that are Christian such as music, the Holy Bible, crucifix, rosary, etc. If we do, we will have spiritual freedom, and the devil will never be able to put us into spiritual bondage, thus safeguarding our social life.

 

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