"Man cannot live without joy; therefore, when he is deprived of true spiritual joys it is necessary that he become addicted to carnal pleasures." ~St. Thomas Aquinas
We take for granted that there is always tomorrow, that we have all the time in the world to set things right, to take care of our health, or to amend broken relationships with friends or loved ones. How often do we hold grudges, so offended, and not worry that maybe tomorrow may be our or their last day. Am I the only one who tells myself day after day that I will start my diet/exercise program tomorrow, but tomorrow never seems to come?
Well, we obviously can't live our lives in a perpetual state of fear of death; it's unhealthy. But, we can take the attitude of urgency when it comes to loved ones or our spiritual state in life. We so easily fall into a state of sin and not worry about the consequences because we take our lives for granted, mainly worrying about the everyday things we need to get by. And, yes, more likely than not our time is not threatened, but for the very few that will be called, is it worth the risk?
I heard this very sermon today and it reiterated things I have been thinking about lately. "Sin is a parasite that leads to death." Without God centered in our lives we substitute him with idols of money, things, admiration; and, unless you have totally buried your conscience, are still unhappy.
We are truly not happy until we are no longer slaves to our desires, and make no mistake...when we cannot or will not control our desires, and just act based only on what we want, we are slaves because wanton behavior becomes habit and once a habit, hard to break.
God loves us and has bent over backwards to prove it. He does have the power to make us follow and love him. But he won't because He has given us free will to accept or reject his love. And this is how we know His love is real because REAL love is not FORCED or CONTROLING.
We take for granted that there is always tomorrow, that we have all the time in the world to set things right, to take care of our health, or to amend broken relationships with friends or loved ones. How often do we hold grudges, so offended, and not worry that maybe tomorrow may be our or their last day. Am I the only one who tells myself day after day that I will start my diet/exercise program tomorrow, but tomorrow never seems to come?
Well, we obviously can't live our lives in a perpetual state of fear of death; it's unhealthy. But, we can take the attitude of urgency when it comes to loved ones or our spiritual state in life. We so easily fall into a state of sin and not worry about the consequences because we take our lives for granted, mainly worrying about the everyday things we need to get by. And, yes, more likely than not our time is not threatened, but for the very few that will be called, is it worth the risk?
I heard this very sermon today and it reiterated things I have been thinking about lately. "Sin is a parasite that leads to death." Without God centered in our lives we substitute him with idols of money, things, admiration; and, unless you have totally buried your conscience, are still unhappy.
We are truly not happy until we are no longer slaves to our desires, and make no mistake...when we cannot or will not control our desires, and just act based only on what we want, we are slaves because wanton behavior becomes habit and once a habit, hard to break.
God loves us and has bent over backwards to prove it. He does have the power to make us follow and love him. But he won't because He has given us free will to accept or reject his love. And this is how we know His love is real because REAL love is not FORCED or CONTROLING.
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