Hope swells on this Christmas morn for the baby born in a manger. C.S. Lewis said the manger was bigger than our whole world.
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:7-8
"All proposals of peace, except those according to the gospel, are absurd. You could not answer the demands of Divine justice, nor satisfy the wrong done to the honour of God by sin, nor would you serve at all in place of holiness of the heart and reformation of the life. Men will part with any thing rather than their sins; but they part with nothing so as to be accepted of God, unless they do part with their sins."
We cannot search for the good through penance.
We so want, at times, to pay for our sins.
"Deep conviction of guilt and sin
will make you seriously pursue Peace and Pardon.
And hope swells.I am so stirred by one verse in Micah ... and by doing "the will of God" after reading through Micah. Someone once said: God's will be done and our wills be undone. And hope swells.
Let the will of the Lord be done. Bad Prophets cry "Peace" when they have something to eat. Micah 3:5. But do those same bad prophets cry "Peace" when they are treated poorly and good withheld. No, those bad prophets "Declare War" against him who puts nothing in their mouths.
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? The people are groping for the good through penance. Their proposals are absurd---men will part with their firstborn before they part with their sin? "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you. To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." MICAH 6:7-8. Real conviction of sin makes you pursue peace and pardon.
PHOTO: Ponder these words in the closing of the day. Is hope swelling in your heart?
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