A Summary of a teaching by
Father Tom Forrest
The Key to Victory is...
a THREE LETTER WORD!
April 20, 2001
Don't get caught up in the footnotes (an intellectual
discussion) that causes brothers and sisters of different denominations
to quarrel with each other. Look at the headlines... the things that are
important.
Let's look at what scripture has to say...
 God
is Love
He
made us in His image
He
gave us free choice so we could be more like Him -- that is, loving
There
is this other guy -- we call him the Prince of Lies, and he has succeeded
in messing things up...
So
Love had to go to work, and He sent us His Word, His Son.
He
became like us... Why? Because it was the best way to teach us how to
be love (like God is love).
His
Son came in the enfleshing of God, so He (God) is
not invisible to us... We could see Him... and so we could get back on
track
Now
there was this 16-year-old girl, and all she had to do is to say one three-letter
word... the word was "YES"... Yes, do whatever is Your will...
Our
infinite Father decided to limit Himself by being in human form... because
He is a loving God... You see, this is a love story!
Now
the other guy is scared of us as believers... but his job was not all
that hard to do. After all he is a dumbbell! All he had to do was to get
Adam and Eve to say that three-letter word "YES" ... in succeeding,
he caused the most awful thing in human history to happen... he put us
on the wrong road, selfishness was introduced, alternate gods were worshipped...
So,
in order to set things right, God had to hear that same word again from
that 16-year-old girl, Mary... and she also said "YES!"
In
doing so, she gave us the greatest blessing of all time. She made herself
an instrument for God to use so Jesus could come, the innocent Jesus who
was without sin, God's son in the form of human flesh.
In
doing so, she had to see her child hanging on a cross, suffering and bleeding
-- the pain must have been incredible.
Do you think any human could have made up this story?
The
offense by Adam and Eve was infinite because it was against the infinite
God
Only
the infinite God (in the form of Jesus, His son) could
set it right... Buddha, Mohammed, and others are far from being God and
man... That is why they cannot save anybody.
So how did he do it?
Jesus,
God's son, said the same word that Mary had said... the word "YES!"
He
didn't hesitate and say, well, maybe we should think this over... His
conversation with Father God did not go something like
this...
Now wait, Father, let me get this straight. I am to be born
in a stable. Am I going to be a horse?
And to be born in Nazareth, the son of a carpenter? People will say, "Can
any good come out of Nazareth?" and "Who is this, the carpenter's
son? What kind of title is that? A carpenter's son, come on!"
And you say I will have 33 years and the first 30 will be in preparation.
The folks in universities graduate at 22 or 23 years old... let me start
then. Then I can get these things accomplished for you.
No, Jesus didn't do any of these things... He just said "YES"
even to dying in the worst kind of death and doing it from a tree, because
it was from a tree and its fruit that Adam and Eve disobeyed God.
He said "YES" with no exceptions, no conditions, and no
reservations!
Because
He was obedient He has been highly exalted by the Father that at the name
of Jesus, every (not just some) knee will bow and
every (not just a few) tongue will confess, that
Jesus Christ is Lord.
When
we say "YES" unconditionally to God then His kingdom continues
within us. Mary said Yes, Jesus said Yes, are we going to say it?
God
wants our "flesh" [that is control over it] because
it is going to be transformed into the "body" of His church.
We are to say "YES" unconditionally to God that we may truly
become the "Body of Christ."
God
does not want to be invisible in His world... he wants us to be his Body.
In order for this to happen we need to say "YES!" without adding
a "But" to it!
Abraham
said he was ready to sacrifice Isaac who he had waited for, for 100 years;
Samuel
said "Speak Lord for your servant is listening"
Don't mess around with the unimportant footnotes... Look at the headlines
and say "YES" unconditionally to Jesus...
Scripture References:
Col 1:18, 1:24; Eph 4; I Peter 4:10-11; and Gal 2:20
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