The Lord wants to equip us with gifts to serve the body
Fr. Steve talks about the role of the prophet, from the first reading from the Book of Amos, where Amos is opposed by Amazia and told to leave. Amos had humble origins as a shepherd and sycamore dresser. The message here is that the Lord can use any one of us, no matter how unqualified. The apostles were also nobodies, as was Jesus (Jesus was rejected in his hometown because the people thought he was merely the carpenters son).
Fr. Steve goes through the Epistle from Ephesians verse by verse and explains the meaning of what St. Paul is saying. We have all received every blessing in the heavenly places. Why do we not experience it, then? Because we have created blockages in our lives and don’t believe it. We don’t feel that the Lord has chosen us. We believe he only tolerates us. But he chose us before the foundation of the world, “to be holy and blameless before him.” If we don’t enter into the inheritance of our baptism by then we have shackled the Spirit in our life. We should open our minds and our hearts to the wonderful work the Lord can do in us.
Lastly, Fr. Steve invites all of us to attend the equipping event on August 3-4, in order to discover what gifts the Lord has blessed us with and how to use them.
