Episode 65: A life in fear and trembling

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit forever. Amen.

Glory be to the everlasting mercies which sent you to us, O

Christ, the light of the world and the life of all.

Give us wisdom by your law and enlighten our impulses by your

knowledge. Sanctify our souls by your

truth, and grant that we may be obedient to your words and may

fulfill your commandments at every hour.

Oh you who enlightens the rational with the knowledge of

your greatness, do enlight, O my Lord, our thoughts that we may

meditate upon your holy and divine scriptures at all times,

O Lord of all, Father and Son and Holy Spirit forever.

Amen. As committed, true, and genuine

believers of the Lord, we take heart and are joyous of the

truth that God hears all things, sees all things, not only what

has been done and said, what is evident, but also all that is in

the heart and in the depth of the soul. 4 According to Hebrews

Hebrews 4:12

chapter 4, verse 12, He God praises name, is quick to

discern the thoughts and intents of the heart.

So we take heart and we boast about the Omni characteristics

of God, the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresence.

But there is another reaction, another response, another

emotion that we are instructed to possess in order to live in

the Lord God, Jesus Christ. We're going to talk about what

it means to live the how we how the Scriptures and Christ

himself instructs we can live in Him, our Lord and God, Jesus

Christ. And that emotion, that reaction,

that response is fear and trembling.

We sing during the presentation of the gifts of bread and wine

to the altar in the Divine Liturgy of Holy Urbana.

We sing the body of Christ and His Precious Blood, that which

is going to be crucified by the way, not the resurrected one at

that time. It is the crucified body.

The body of Christ and His Precious Blood are up on the

Holy altar. Let us all drown into Him in

fear and in love. Poredam she Howard Mayor Al

Madva Kocha de Kaltao Rehamza de Kalta wo Rehamta, In fear and in

love. Let us drawn into him in Luke,

chapter one, verse 50, in the song the Magnificat of the ever

Virgin, the mother of Jesus Christ, our Lord God, she

proclaims, and his mercy is to generation after generation

toward those who fear him. Saint Paul the blessed apostle

writes and warns the Hebrews 10/31.

It is with terrible, awful, feeful I'm sorry.

It is very terrible, that is awful feeful to fall into the

hands of the living God. Hence he instructs the

Philippians in chapter 2, verse 12 after his discourse on being

like Christ, who humbled himself by becoming obedient to the

point of death, death on a cross.

And he goes on to say, my beloved, just as you have always

obeyed, not as in my presence, only, not only when I'm with

you, but now much more in my absence.

Listen to this, Work out your own life translated to salvation

in the English version. But the true word is your life,

and we're going to talk about that as well.

Work out your own life with fear and trembling, and that is your

life in Jesus Christ. So knowing, believing and

confessing that God hears all things, sees all things, not

only what is being done and said, but also all that is in

the heart and in the depth of the soul, we need to be somewhat

concerned. Now some may say fear does not

actually pertain to an emotion that is in tremble.

Well we're going to have a talk about that.

Fear can be two aspects, yes. One aspect is the reverence.

We Revere demon Alaha in reverence.

Not that God will punish me. But then through the scriptures

we learned that, yeah, we need to also fear God and His wrath

because it is truly harmful when the Lord releases His wrath.

So we need to be concerned, beloved, which means prior to

making the decision or taking that step or going forward

acting upon our own knowledge and understanding our own

philosophy and look upon life and all that pertains to it,

that is life. We need to know that it will

most certainly affect our life with in through Christ, which

will even more so affect our salvation on the day of His

return, whether positively or negatively.

Now if we take Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 with extreme

Philippians 2:12

seriousness, we should be disposing, getting rid of,

riding ourselves of evil. We should be striving to not to

do or say or imagine anything that is evil that is in our life

with Christ, in Christ, through Christ, because God and God

alone knows the hearts of all the sons of men according to One

Kings Chapter 8, verse 39. Read it now you may be saying.

Hang on, hang on, hang on. I'm going to join King David in

saying the Lord is the Lord. God is my light and my

salvation. Of whom shall I be afraid?

The Lord God is the strength of my life.

By whom am I shaking? True.

Psalm 27 One so true. But that is true when you are

living a life in with through, and I'm going to define this

with one word. It's true When you are living a

life in, with and through Christ that is appeasing to him and not

to the world, then you can rightly so claim Psalm 27 one

and join King David in proclaiming that.

However, we must keep in mind that there are instructions as

to how we can remain in living or life in Christ.

Some will say off the bat, faith, Amen first and foremost.

But there's a there is an equation.

We're going to have a look at that as well.

I'm going to concentrate on what Jesus is talking about and what

Jesus instructs about the Holy Eucharist because that really

pertains a life abiding, remaining, waiting in Christ.

And that is the life Saint Paul is talking about.

The lives of Christians is not just merely the life in the

world. No, he's talking about the life

that we have received in abundance through Jesus Christ.

Praise and glory between his name.

John chapter 6. And this is where we need to be

John 6 · chapter mention

fearful, We need to be trembling, we need to Revere

both aspects. John chapter 6, verse 53 to 58

John 6:53–58

Jesus tells us truly, truly, you know the word is I mean, I mean

in Aramaic that means yes. You know when Mum would say yes.

I'm telling you it's like Jesus saying yes, yes.

Not for negotiation, not for compromising.

Yes, yes. I say to you, unless you eat the

flesh of the man, Son of man, and drink his blood, you have no

life in yourself. What life?

There are people who don't believe in God.

There are people who do not observe the the, the, the Holy

Eucharist. There are people who mock the

Holy Eucharist, symbolize the Holy Eucharist.

Do they not live in the world? Of course they do.

So what life is Jesus talking about?

That life that we receive from Him?

Let me read it again. Yes, yes.

I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and

drink his blood, you have no life in yourself.

The one or whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal

life and I will raise him up on the last day.

Now for those who translate or interpret eating as believing,

well, Jesus puts a throws the spanner in the works.

He continues to say, for my flesh he's truly food and my

blood is truly drink. The one who eats my flesh listen

to this. The one who eats my flesh and

drinks my blood remains in me. There is that life.

So if you do not drink the flesh of Christ and drink eat the

flesh of Christ and drink his blood, you're not remaining.

Therefore you do not have life and I in him just as the living

Father there it is life The living Father sent me, and I

live because of the Father, the one who eats me.

He also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down

from heaven. Now there is objective, there is

the objectiveness, there's a, there's an object, there's there

is manna. This is the bread that came down

from heaven, Not as the fathers ate and died.

The one who eats this bread will live forever.

Which bread was that beloved? Which bread?

Think about it. Go back to the Mystical Supper.

Not the Last Supper. The Mystical Supper.

Jesus took bread and he claimed, this is my body.

So all this time I've been telling you to eat my flesh.

Eat my body. And some of you left me because

you thought. You thought that this is very

hard. This statement is very hard to

abide. Abide by.

And I turned around. I said, Simon, would you like to

also leave? No.

So this is that flesh I was talking to you about.

It's this bread, see we're talking about in fear and

trembling Workout your life in Jesus Christ.

There is the procedure. You want to call it lack of a

better term. There is one one foundation

through which we must build our life through Jesus Christ is

through the holy mysteries in fear and in trembling not

mocking and not joking and not having no relationship with.

Now when I continue side note when I continue to mention

living in with through Jesus Christ, I can admittedly

condense that one word in that those words in one word a few

one a few words single words abide remain continue.

Jesus saying you know let's let's work out this equation.

Let me give you an equation. Faith justifies you.

What does justify mean? Justification doesn't mean

salvation. No justify.

Salvation, Justification, salvation.

They're two different words. You know when you when you're in

Word and you write your document and you want to justify it, you

want to make it right. Yes.

So faith makes us right, you know, again, let's put it this

way simply. Later faith gives us the right

to then receive the new life, the regeneration in baptism,

because we have, we are being put to death with Christ and we

are being born a new in Christ, we receive that new life in

Christ. So faith has made us right,

given us the right to receive this sacrament, this mystery of

new life. But how do we continue that

life? How do we continue to remain in

that life and work out that life in Jesus Christ that we have

received is through the Holy Eucharist?

Now this this episode is not about the Holy Eucharist, so

don't get me wrong. This is about working out your

life in Christ and what life, if you may say, your sacramental

life, your church life, your worship life.

Jesus emphasizes this and gives us the reason why John chapter

John 15:4–5

15 verses 4 to 5 abide in me. Now we know that if we drink,

eat his flesh and drink His blood, we abide in Him and he

abides in us. There's that spiritual, intimate

relationship, spiritual, holy, pleasing, intimate relationship

between the bride, the Church and her bridegroom.

Abide in me one way, as we've we've already ascertained

through the whole Eucharist and I In you that means there's the

life that you have, because Jesus says, if you do not abide

in Me through the Eucharist, you have no life.

Jesus is not within you abiding me and I in you.

As the branch cannot yield fruit of itself unless it remains or

abides or waits in the vine, so also neither can you, unless

you're abide in me. I am the vine, and you are the

branches. Whoso abides in Me, and I in

Him. This produces much fruits,

because without me you cannot do anything.

So when we come to remain in that life with Jesus Christ, you

may be saying, well, what about those people who sin?

And what about those who come to church and and partake in the

Holy Eucharist in order to, in tremble and fear to work out

their life? Yes, we are sinners.

Of course we will fall short, we will sin.

It is our human nature when Christ paid the debt, when

Christ gained us redemption on the cross and he paid the debt

and he was victorious over death, sin and Satan.

Keep in mind beloved, he didn't take away our free will.

Man is free, has his own intellect and choice.

That's why we see what's happening in the world today.

So we still have that free will. And sometimes, unfortunately, we

use the free will to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

But we come back. We ask God to forgive us like

the prodigal Son. And one more time the garment of

grace is wrapped around us. The sunship authority of the

ring is given to us the gospel which is the the, the the the

path. You know the gospel which is a

symbolizing the shoes of new shoes, new new life in Jesus

Christ through the gospel. And we partake in the fattened

cow calf that has been slaughtered and in that mystical

celebration and that is how we remain in Christ.

And this beloved was practiced in the churches in the 1st

century of Christendom as it was practiced in the church at

Corinth 1 Corinthian 10/16. What Saint Paul writes the cup

of Thanksgiving, that is, the wine or the blood which we

bless, is it not the participation, communion, unity

of the blood of Christ? And the bread that we break is

it not the participation or communion or unity of the body

of Christ which we need to eat in order to remain in Jesus

Christ, in order to have life in Jesus Christ.

That's why you know we always preach and say when you approach

the mysteries don't open. Come with your with your 3

button top shirt buttons undone and and your your short sleeves

rolled up and you know you know you you you approach the

mysteries like hey bro, what's happening?

No, we need to be trembling and in fear because the angels at

that moment are trembling and the angels are envious of you

approaching the mysteries because that is how you have

life in Jesus Christ. The church lived in Christ.

The Church lives in Christ through the holy mysteries, and

to date does the same until the day of salvation, when her

heavenly bridegroom arrives to take her in his bridal chamber.

So yes, tremble and fear of respect and reverence, but at

the same time tremble and fear of concern.

Hebrews 1039. It is very terrible or fearful

to fall into the hands of the living God.

Look at Sodom and Gomorrah. Read about it.

Pharaoh read about him, and Anaya and Sephora his wife, read

about them. And in Hebrews chapter 12,

Hebrews 12:25–29

verses 25 to 29 regarding the unshaken Kingdom, see to it that

you do not refuse him who is speaking.

For if those for if those did not escaped when they refused

him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape whom

turn away from him who warns from heaven, and his voice shook

the earth, then. But now he has promised, saying,

yet once more, I will not shake only the earth, but also the

heaven. This expression, Paul goes on to

say, yet once more denotes the removing of those things which

can be shaken, and of created things, so that those things

which cannot be shaking the Kingdom, may remain.

Therefore, since we receive the Kingdom which cannot be shaken,

let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an

acceptable service and reverence.

And all for our God is a consuming fire.

So, beloved, when we when we urge and when we at times maybe

even forcefully, encourage you to attend church, to come and

partake in the Holy Eucharist so that you have life and you

remain in that life, you celebrate Jesus.

You share in God's life through the Holy Eucharist.

That is because your life in Christ, your life in God the

Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, you need to work out in

fear and trembling because those who don't hate of the flesh of

the Son of Man and drink his blood, very simply Christ puts

it has no life in himself. They don't come and say, well

what about those people and just concentrate about what Christ is

instructing and warning. So, truly beloved?

Yeah, fear your life in Christ, those who weren't at church

yesterday because of silly and unjustifiable excuses, Well, I'd

like to see you in church this coming Sunday to be kneeling

before the Lord and asking him for forgiveness and that he may

have compassion and mercy. And once you receive the

absolution from the church, you do approach the mysteries in

fear and trembling, because that is how.

And that is when you are working your life out in Jesus Christ

and through Jesus Christ. So let's not take all these

blessings for granted, Beloved. Oh, I'm tired, you know, just

that one Sunday will sleep. You know, there's going to be a

sleep that's awaiting each and every one of us, and it's going

to be long according to the earthly time, obviously.

So let's approach this mystery. That's approach As the days are

available for us, let us be wise and use the time and days and

months and years wisely. Beloved, so beloved, one way to

work out our life in Jesus Christ in fear and trembling is

to be a church so that we you can receive that gracious gift

of the holy mysteries which will have you grow, sustain you, keep

you in that amazing life in Jesus Christ.

Praise and glory be to His Holy Name, now and at all times and

forever. Amen.

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Until next time, God bless you all.