"... he who does the Will of My Father."

Jesus explains to His disciples that it is not enough to call Him Lord and yet refuse to obey Him.  In Matthew's Gospel Jesus explains this. 

"Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the Will of My Father who is in Heaven."  Matt 7:21-27

Jesus is speaking about yeilding daily to His Will and to God's design for life and creation.  Jesus knows the struggle and the fickled nature of the human heart.  He asked Peter three time "do you love Me" (Jn 21:15ff) because He knew how uncertain Peter could be.  It does one little good to say with their lips that they have "faith in Christ" and yet are unwilling to yeild their life to Him.

But in every area of our life we must find a real love for Jesus Christ.  In terms of money, time, talent... and yes, even in terms of our bodies.  St. Paul explains this in 1 Cor 6:18-20.

Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. 1Cor 6:18-20

Yes, we actually glorify God in our bodies.  What's more, our very body is the meeting ground where the culture of life and the culture of death interface.  Let us always choose life!  Deut 30:19,20.

Episcopal Church proponents suffer legal setback in Fort Worth

Please read the Bishop's comments on the Friday, June 25, 2010 Texas Second Court of Appeals ruling granting our Diocese's Petition for Writ of Mandamus instructing instructed the 141st District Court to modify its ruling of Sept. 16, 2009, to the effect that there cannot be a second Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth and a second Corporation of the diocese.

Here is the PDF link.

Texas Court of Appeals Decision

To the clergy, convention delegates, Executive Council, and vestry members,


We give thanks for the decision just issued by the Texas Court of Appeals in Fort Worth. The decision is posted on the diocesan Web site at http://www.fwepiscopal.org/downloads/CourtOfAppeals062510.pdf

A statement concerning the court's decision will be issued by Bishop Iker on Monday, June 28.

Suzanne Gill
Director of Communications
The Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth

Completion and Truth

I have often said that God will waste nothing.  Everything in His created and spiritual order must be completed, it must "come true."  Jesus makes this point when He promised,

Do not think that I have come to destroy the Law or the  Prophets.  I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For amen I say to you, til Heaven and Earth pass away, not one jot, or one tittle shall be lost from the Law till all things have been accomplished.  Matthew 5:17,18

Jesus explains here that all things shall "come true."  By using the notion of "all things accomplished" Jesus is speaking about reaching fruition and final purpose.  This is the meaning behind "till all things have been accomplished" that is until all things have reached their final and natural end in God.  The Greek verb translated as "accomplished" means to come into being, to come into fullness.  This can be illustrated in looking at man's life which is to have its perfect consummation and peace in God.  This is the theme of each of the Beatitudes.

Our earthly pilgrimage is time of grace and mercy which God offers to us to work out our earthly life in keeping with His divine plan.  This divine plan for man has been written deep in the human heart by the Holy Spirit; and Scripture acknowledges this by saying that man is created by God and for God; and our heavenly Father never ceases to draw every person to Himself.  The presence of the Cross is ever active achieving God's will of redemption for all persons.  Only in God will we find truth and lasting happiness.

In His parables Jesus compares our earthly life to fallow fields and relationships that must mend and mature and seeds that must be planted in order to grow into capable and sturdy shrubs giving shade to all.  Seeds must die to blossom, lessons must be heard first to be learned, and fields will be seeded and harvested.  God spoke at the beginning of Creation and He shall speak at the close of the age.  God is both Alpha and Omega, the first Word and the last Word, the author of love and of judgment and mercy.

So the completion that Jesus refers to, the "coming to furition" is both internal and external.  He explains that the internal completion is focused on becoming the person God made us to be.  This is the person God longs to love and in our heart of hearts we long to become.  Achieving this becoming is what Heaven is all about.  It is that place where the true and perfect reside.

This talk about things "coming true" is realizing how our basic desire for God is written in the depth of our heart, written in such a way that we know from within that we are created by God and for God and that He never ceases to draw us to Himself.  We must realize that only in God will our soul be at rest and there we find the truth and the happiness we never stop searching for.  Grace is the supernatural help God gives us to help us draw close to our vocation of becoming His adopted sons and daughters.

Becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ means accepting the invitation to vocation to God's family, to live in conformity with His way of life: "For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother, and sister, and mother." (Matt 12:50)

So, our dignity rests on the fact that we are made to live in intimate communion with God.  The Christian life is just this!  This vocation is initiated from the very moment we come into being in our mother's womb.  We "live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28) because God wills this through His love and by means of His eternal love He continues to hold us in existence. We cannot live fully according to truth and come into fullness and completion unless we freely acknowledge God's sustaining love and prayerfully entrust ourself to Him always.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Rosary, and other Marian teachings.

Fr. Klein will make a presentation to the St. Elizabeth's Guild on Thursday, July 8 at 10:30 am.  He will discuss the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in salvation history, the Holy Rosary and he will answer any questions one may have.

This is an invitation for you to join us.  Please come and learn about the greatest woman to has ever lived!