Guidance

God Guides Us!

Discipleship Questions for

Sunday February 1, 2008

Scripture Readings:

First Reading: Deut 18:15-20

Psalm Reading: Psalm 95

Second Reading: 1Cor 7:32-35

Gospel: Mark 1:21-28

First Reading     Dt 18:15-20

A reading from the Book of Deuteronomy

I will raise up a prophet and I will put my words into his mouth.

Moses spoke to all the people, saying:

“A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you

from among your own kin;

to him you shall listen.

This is exactly what you requested of the LORD, your God, at Horeb

on the day of the assembly, when you said,

‘Let us not again hear the voice of the LORD, our God,

nor see this great fire any more, lest we die.’

And the LORD said to me, ‘This was well said.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kin,

and will put my words into his mouth;

he shall tell them all that I command him.’

Whoever will not listen to my words which he speaks in my name,

I myself will make him answer for it.

But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name

an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak,

or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.”

Responsorial Psalm     Ps 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9

(R.) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us sing joyfully to the LORD;

let us acclaim the rock of our salvation.

Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;

let us joyfully sing psalms to him.

(R.) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Come, let us bow down in worship;

let us kneel before the LORD who made us.

For he is our God,

and we are the people he shepherds, the flock he guides.

(R.) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Oh, that today you would hear his voice:

“Harden not your hearts as at Meribah,

as in the day of Massah in the desert,

Where your fathers tempted me;

they tested me though they had seen my works.”

(R.) If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

Second Reading     1 Cor 7:32-35

A reading from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians

A virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord that she may be holy.

Brothers and sisters:

I should like you to be free of anxieties.

An unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord,

how he may please the Lord.

But a married man is anxious about the things of the world,

how he may please his wife, and he is divided.

An unmarried woman or a virgin is anxious about the things of the Lord,

so that she may be holy in both body and spirit.

A married woman, on the other hand,

is anxious about the things of the world,

how she may please her husband.

I am telling you this for your own benefit,

not to impose a restraint upon you,

but for the sake of propriety

and adherence to the Lord without distraction.

Gospel     Mk 1:21-28

A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

He taught them as one having authority.

Then they came to Capernaum,

and on the sabbath Jesus entered the synagogue and taught.

The people were astonished at his teaching,

for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

In their synagogue was a man with an unclean spirit;

he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are - the Holy One of God!”

Jesus rebuked him and said,

“Quiet! Come out of him!”

The unclean spirit convulsed him and with a loud cry came out of him.

All were amazed and asked one another,

“What is this?

A new teaching with authority.

He commands even the unclean spirits and they obey him.”

His fame spread everywhere throughout the whole region of Galilee.

Discipleship Questions:

1. Do you believe – really believe that God wants to and can guide you in all your ways?  Reflect upon this question and discuss it in your small group.  Really ponder whether you really do believe that God can and will guide you.

2. You see your honest answer to this determines how you live you life  - looking for God and His guidance or acting as the captain of your own fate.  St. Augustine once said, “God you made us restless until we rest in you.”  Resting in God – trusting in God – trusting that God will providentially sustain and guide us.  How well do you rest in God?

3. Can you think of a recent example when you felt certain that God had or was about to guide you?  What did it feel like?  How did you respond?  How better could you have responded?

4. Please read the following and discuss: So in our reading from Deuteronomy we heard the prophet Moses telling his people that God was going to raise up a leader from their own midst and put His own words in his mouth.  In other words God was going to guide them through prophets who must speak His words and His words only and thereby God will guide His people.  God never left His people without guidance.

Woe unto that prophet who didn’t speak God’s words.  His punishment was death.   I suspected that there are a lot of “wannabe” prophets who are glad that this penalty is not carried out on them.  The modern day abuse of the prophetic “word” is not only testimony of the lack of fear of these wannabe prophets purporting to speak God’s words for Him but also the lack of real spiritual authority in the Church which is willing and able to rebuff these prophets.

In our Responsorial Psalm God is promising to guide us but we must promise not to harden our hearts so as to not be able to hear and respond to His guidance.  Ah!  Our hard hearts which deafen our ears to God’s many nudgings throughout our days. 

If you can’t hear from God it may be that you need to soften your hearts to Him.

Now how do you do that?  How can you and I soften our hearts so that we can hear God’s guidance for us? 

The fact is that we most certainly can harden our hearts so how then can we either not harden them or in the event that they are hardened – how can we soften our hearts?

A few of the Beatitudes speak directly to that question:

Matt. 5:8         Blessed are the pure in heart,

                        for they will see God.

Matt. 5:9         Blessed are the peacemakers,

                        for they will be called sons of God.

Reading God’s word softens our hearts – makes them supple – tender to God’s whisperings.  God promises us that if we draw near to Him He will most assuredly draw near to us – James 4.

Quiet waiting prayer softens our hearts.  Times of solitude – just sitting in His press

I’ve often found that when I withdraw into God’s Presence He invariable meets me there and my challenge is to learn His language – the subtlety of His promptings.  It has been said that God is a gentleman.  Yes, in most cases He is but there are times when God hits me over the head with a four by four.

I believe that our God is always and ever calling us to find Him behind and under His many disguises.  The fundamental disposition of looking for our beloved Lord in all things keeps our hearts ever watchful for Him and thus subtle and tender.

In our Second Reading Paul offers advice to his followers to remain unencumbered so that they can hear the Lord’s guidance.  So many worldly concerns get in the way of hearing from our Lord.  Have you ever wondered how many times you have missed God’s guidance in a particular situation simply because there was too much static in your mind – too many other pressing and competing thoughts and compulsions?

To be able to hear from God was have to set Him and His guidance at the highest priority in our lives so that when He speaks to us we are ready to hear from Him.  We must keep our hearts always tuned into Him!  And not let anything or anybody else get between us and Him.

And finally our Gospel reading we see Jesus, God incarnate, teaching the people.  Jesus came to teach us the way of return to His Father – our Father – through Him.  God the Father, sent God the Son to guide us back to Him.  Can  you see it – God is always seeking to guide you and me back to Him!

This is not rocket science – it’s being willing to pay attention to the Savior of our Souls!

Now I want to return to the reading from Deuteronomy for a moment:  Remember now the prophet Moses is speaking:

Deut. 18:15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. Ah – did you hear that a prophet is not self-proclaimed but rather is “raisedup by God.  He or she is a gift to us from God.  Let’s read on:  16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”

Deut. 18:17            The LORD said to me: “What they say is good.  18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; Ah!  Did you hear that the profit is not an outsider, but is called forth from among the people.  Let’s read on:  I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.  Ah! Another lesson – the prophet must speak God’s words not his or her own! Now this is the tricky part – how to know what is or what is not of God – that ability to know the difference is known as the spiritual gift of discernment.  A pastor had better have this gift or the Church will be in trouble.  And the pastor had better exercise that gift with great wisdom and humility never assuming that his discernment is without error and for that reason we have formed a “Prophesy discernment group” that I will call into session if a prophesy comes to me that I am not sure about and even if I am sure I may choose to assemble them to validate or invalidate my discernment.  There is great wisdom is the council of many. 

Now let’s read on: 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.  Now listen to the last verse verse 20 But a prophet who presumes to speak in my name anything I have not commanded him to say, or a prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, must be put to death.”

I suspect that many wannabe prophets are very very happy that this last verse is no longer literally applied – ha!

5. Please stop now and ask God to give you a deeper trust in Him and His guidance.  Amen and Amen!