Sermon No. 10

“He that oppresseth the poor to increase his [riches, and] he that giveth to the rich, [shall] surely [come] to want.” – Proverbs 22:16

          They who aid an oppressor may become rich materialistically, but they will lose all standing with God Almighty because they will find themselves spiritually bankrupt. They will find themselves with no currency for the kingdom of Heaven when they die.

          The more they crack that whip, the more humanity they lose. And the more uncaring, unfeeling they become, they will find themselves becoming the oppressors they served. And they will hit rock bottom with no way to get back up to where they were.

          Redemption is a hard road. And while we can try to redeem ourselves, we may find that those who are our friends, our family that we turned our backs to, may not want to help for fear of being betrayed once more.

After all, once an oppressor has hit rock bottom with no way to redemption, they can only cross the bridge into Perdition to shake hands with the Devil! The path of redemption is not for everyone.

And once they reach Perdition, the capital city of Hell, they know they are truly damned. And they can only fall to their knees and pray the prayers they were taught in Sunday school.

They may be oppressors who are truly rich as sin. Sin. That word defines their every deed. Their very life. They laugh at those who fall to their knees and pray. But they do pray for redemption. Once you are in Hell, there is no redemption. Only Salvation to be had.

Salvation. Only through the grace of God can it be had. Only the truly repentant soul or individual be gifted with it. And if you have prayed your prayers, and kneeled in prayer to God in all His glory can you be gifted with Salvation. And even though God has blessed you with Salvation, you cannot leave Hell on your own. You must have the help of an angel.

And this why that those who give to the rich “[shall] surely [come] to want.” Not because they will seek out more money to the rich. But because they will want their reward in Heaven. And they will want Salvation when they find themselves in Hell for their sins.

Sermon No. 9

“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, all evil speaking, be

put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another,

tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath

forgiven you.”

– Ephesians 4:31-32

Anger and hatred are two sides of the same coin. And the result of both is the same: misery. Their purpose in our lives is singular – to nibble away at our soul until we are a mirror reflection of the one who infected us with those unwanted gifts.

Yet, we sometimes fail to realize simple truths. Sometimes we are born into families who embrace anger like an old friend. Sometimes it is thrust upon us without being asked, like a drug addict who wants a friend to get high with. And when we accept it without asking why, we are surrendering ourselves to it, imprisoning ourselves.

Like hatred, anger is a heavy burden that can be shrugged off. But sometimes we need help, only because we may not be strong enough by ourselves. But together, we can work wonders. But only God can work miracles.

Bitterness is a bitter, jagged pill that we swallow to help the anger, the wrath of hatred fill us. We clamour about like a preening chicken with no head. The evil we speak in denouncing the blessings heaped upon us weakens us spiritually almost to the point that we denounce God Himself. Let all evil thoughts and words and deeds be put into a box made with malice and lit on fire, purging ourselves of their influence in our lives. Only then, with the help of our true friends and with God’s help can we
let go of the negative influences in our lives. Letting go. Turning the other cheek. We do not do it often enough. And I am curious as why that is. Do we not turn the other cheek because we are afraid of what we might miss? Or because we are afraid of letting go of something that has been a part of us for so long?

Yet, we all fail to realize if we let go of the anger, with time it will fade until we have forgotten about it like a bad dream born of a fever.

That is God’s gift to us all.