Christianity is about being genuine, not just going through the motions! We are called to be joyful! JOY means, J=Jesus first, O=others next, Y=you last!

 

Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? 

~Matthew 9:15

God just wants us to love and be authentic! We do not need to follow church rituals or rituals in the Old Testament that the Jews used to follow. We are called just to love and accept the will of God in our lives, let Him lead, guide, and instruct us and do His will! That is what God really wants of us. He gave us Jesus, our model, our example of who to follow, we are called to follow Him, to reflect and imitate Him as we go about our Earthly journey here.  We are called to be joyful in the Lord, to be loving to all! Putting Jesus first! 

The Mornings With God App this week said, "Christianity is about being genuine, not just going through the motions. The Jews had moved away from true spiritual worship, and as a result, they added more and more empty rituals. They might have been celebrating, but when it was time to fast, they’d put on sackcloth, show outward signs of sorrow, and act sad as if they were mourning. This led to a lack of sincerity, and often, it wasn’t a true reflection of their hearts. Jesus rejected this kind of empty ritual. Fasting represents mourning and sorrow, so to fast when you’re actually joyful is just pretending. If there’s a real reason to mourn, then it’s appropriate, but not otherwise. Jesus teaches us that our faith must be honest, never fake or hypocritical. He condemns fake displays of religious feeling."

Today we even have a lot of priest, ministers, cloth and clergy or the church who say they are priest or ministers, people who are supposed to represent Jesus, but they don't at all. Jesus called them out calling them hypocrites, but we still see it today. We see a lot of supposed people of God who are heads of churches or are priests, but do not act too God-like. They lack Jesus and love. We have seen it first hand in our lives with a priest we know, he cannot bother to look at us or talk to us at the church or around town. Another who said he was a priest in a church and is a minister marrying people, but so full of hate, negativity, and lacks joy. They forget, we are called to be love, to be joyful, to show love to all, not to be indifferent. Archbishop Fulton Sheen spoke a lot about this indifference and how is it not different than hate. We are called to be authentic, to be positive, loving, and joyful in the Lord, to follow Jesus, and love all, reflecting and imitating Jesus, all of us, even clergy and priests.  Like it says above, "Jesus teaches us that our faith must be honest, never fake or hypocritical. He condemns fake displays of religious feeling!" We are called to be joyful!  JOY means, J=Jesus first, O=others next, Y=you last! Stay joyful in Jesus!