Inscribing an iPad3

Which very short Bible verse or portion of a Bible verse would you inscribe on an iPad 3?  Yesterday it took me over an hour to pick one -  I think it was an hour and 15 minutes.  It was much easier to pick the color, memory, wi-fi over network, leather vs. vinyl, and the color of the cover.  I am a techie, but I am a frugal techie.  This is my first iPad. Yes I know it is a blessing to be able to buy one, and yes, I am thankful to God that I was able to buy one.

When I got to the inscription part, it was fairly quick jump to include a Bible verse.  It was easy to fit my name and phone number on the first line.  Using the second line to put my business name (LLC with one employee--me), which is very similar to my given name seemed redundant. Why not a verse?

First verse that entered my mind:

1 Corinthians 16:14 Do everything in love.

It was the perfect size.  The notation would not fit of course, but it was the right size.  Then I started thinking, it isn't enough.  It doesn't say why to do everything with love.  

So I started hitting the search prompts.  My searches included:

• Best Bible verses
• Bible verse to inscribe on iPad
• Jesus's favorite Bible verses
• Praise Jesus Bible verses

I was praying when I did this, "Holy Spirit, which verse do you want?  Jesus which verse do you want me to use?"  

All the searches pretty much gave the same few websites.  One link was to a Yahoo question "Which Bible Verse should I use in a tattoo?"  Of course that person ironically kept getting quoted Leviticus 19:28 to not get a tattoo, among other verses. Personally I prefer to inscribe my iPad over my arm, but I think if someone is going to get a tattoo, why not use that skin art to witness?  It isn't like the people quoting that verse to this person were also not eating bacon as prohibited in Leviticus 11:7-8 and several other places in Leviticus.  Of course Peter's dream in Acts 10:9-19 gives us license for the meat, but not sure about the tattoo.  It didn't come up in the dream . . . seems like really small, teeny, tiny, potatoes though.

John 3:16 is the most frequent hit, and of course I LOVE that verse.  As Fr. John Bartunek explains in this meditation that was sent to me twice by the Catholic Spiritual Direction website.  I am not sure if it was an intelligent emailing routine that sent another email because I didn't take the link, or if it was the Holy Spirit, or you know, a Holy Spirit inspired email campaign programmer?  My favorite quote from this meditation that I used when I shared it on Facebook,

 "In this conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus lays bare the heart of God."

It occurred to me, while John 3:16 is great, and used enough that I didn't need to pick it, the verse should be another one that was spoken by Jesus, a red-letter verse.  That narrowed it down to the Gospels and Revelation as the source books.

I ended up selecting "Seek first the Kingdom of God" a portion of Matthew 6:33:

Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 

I took out the "ye" because I've been helping my oldest son much with his Grammar homework and the ye is implied.  

I would have liked to include his righteousness, because especially here in Lent I've heard that teaching of Jesus renewed in my mind.  I am hearing the wake-up to leave the lukewarmness, the tendencies to seek a remedy for my existential loneliness behind, and strive more to turn to God.  To wait on the Lord, to immerse myself in scripture to hear his words for me.

Wake-up reminds me that if my older two kids won't get up for Church this coming Sunday on my first attempt, there is going to be a little dousing of water without warning.  Well, maybe I will warn them.  Actually I've been warning them since I got home from Liturgy last week, the one that they didn't make because they didn't get out of bed and get ready!  So, they are just going to get a bit wet if they don't get up.

God is more gentle with me.  No dousing.  

I do need to turn more often to God, inside and outside of Lent, to seek his Kingship, his Lordship, his righteousness.  

To follow the example of Jesus, who rose up after each fall carrying the cross, to complete his mission to be the sacrificial Lamb of God.

Passion of the Christ:  Jesus getting up after a fall

I also thought that if someone did find the iPad somewhere, this would be a good verse for them to Google too.  It would mean more without the notation than "Do everything with love."

Even though I love the following verse, I didn't choose it, because this verse came up twice during basketball season--you know how verses come up, could be the Klove "Encouraging word of the day", it could be on the opposing coach's website as her favorite verse.  Anyway, both times this verse came up, my team lost the next big game we played.  So, it has now slipped from being my favorite verse.  Yes I do realize that losing a game is a very minuscule amount of suffering to learn a lesson that is a remedy for my pride, self-love, and inconstant dependence on God.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters (Colossians 3:23)

You can find other good verses the same way I did with the Google searches above, or here are the best sites I found:

http://www.ilovejesusonline.com/best-bible-verses-and-quotes.html

http://www.top10-best.com/b/top_10_best_bible_verses.html

http://www.topbibleverses.com/

http://christianpf.com/famous-bible-verses/

http://www.jollynotes.com/inspirational-verses/favorite-verses/

Have an awesome and blessed rest of Lent!  As of today, we are past the half-way point.  Hope the Lord will sustain you in the resolutions and help you retain the insights you have gained by fasting from the distractions that keep us from the healing power of His presence, His grace!

In Truth, Jesus is the Son of God

Jesus was nailed to the cross at 9 a.m.

From 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. there was darkness all over the land.  Jesus was on the cross not for 3 hours, but for 6 hours, after being brutally scourged, and after being beaten and abused by the Temple guards, leaders, and people before being handed over to the Romans.

Some meditations say that from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. was when Jesus experienced the soul torments of hell that come from sin.  

These meditations teach us to flee from sin as all sin contributed to the suffering and death of Christ from the original sin to the sins before the Incarnation, to the sins of all those living with the knowledge and understanding of Salvation History.  These meditations also teach us to flee from hell by not turning our eyes, understanding and hearts to the right or to the left, but instead everyday, under the guidance, sanctifying grace, and coaching of the Holy Spirit, remaining faithful in prayer, reading and studying the Bible, and taking God's and Jesus's commandments as musts, not guidelines or recommendations for how to live our lives.

Why did Jesus yell out "My God, My God, why have you deserted me?"

I have heard this explained as similar to when a father needs to hold down a son for a necessary but painful medical treatment.  He keeps his son from moving through act of will, because he knows it is for his good, but he tends to avert his eyes from looking at the face of his child, because it is more than his father's heart can take.

Maybe God the Father, who did not spare his Son for our salvation, averted his inward gaze away from his Son during this time because while he willed for this atoning sacrifice of his beloved Son so that we might have eternal life, joy, love, and communion with him forever, in this moment where his son was nailed to the cross, abandoning his divine power to escape the agony, and suffering the internal soul torment due to our sins, he looked away as his Father's heart was so pained to see the one he loved so much suffering internally, in addition to his external torments, what no one before or since has suffered.  Jesus had never experienced this before, and now here in his worst suffering he doesn't feel the gaze of his father.

It was also Jesus invoking the prophetic words of Psalm 22 written 1000 years earlier by King David.

"But Jesus gave out a loud cry and breathed his last.  And the veil of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom.  The centurion, who was standing in front of him, had seen how he had died, and he said, 'In truth, this man was the Son of God.'" Mark 15:37-39

Fr. John Bartunek in The Better Part in meditations on Mark 15:21-29 reminds us, 

The souls of those faithful men and women who had trusted in God, and in God's promise during the centuries before the Incarnation were not yet in heaven.  They had died in friendship with God, but the gates of heaven were still closed, because no one had yet atoned for the sin of mankind that had closed them in the first place.  Now Jesus comes and achieves the atonement.  And the first thing he does is go and announce the good news to the souls who were waiting their redemption. . . . Now the mystery of God's saving love is revealed to them in the piercing, loving gaze of their Savior.  Now they can experience what they longed for with vibrant faith and faithful hope, the full presence of God as they await the resurrection of their bodies and the final judgment. . . . 

Christ's self-sacrifice on the cross reveals that God's love for weak and selfish sinners has absolutely no limit. . . . Love is self-giving for the good of the beloved. . . . His love has no limits . . . . 

Paraphrasing Fr. Bartunek . . . Jesus loved us so much that He:

• Left the Heavenly Glory to become one of us
• He lived among us
• He worked and suffered the grind of ordinary life
• He taught and healed and revealed God's heart
• He founded the Church to extend his presence and grace throughout all time
• He let himself be betrayed, humiliated, condemned, mocked
• He subjected himself to excruciating physical torments
• He hung helpless on the cross in our place
• He took upon himself our sins, suffering internal torments, also in our place
• He the Creator and Lord of all, did not have his life taken from him, he laid it down for us his friends
• His love was completely self-giving
• His love has no bounds

Truly, Jesus is the the Son of God.  Truly, Jesus is one of the three persons in one God, one of the Glorious and Holy Trinity.  As God, He knows:

• Jesus is always with you
• Jesus understands you completely
• Jesus's compassion toward you is more perfect than you can imagine
• Jesus knows that you don't know this
• Jesus longs for you to know this because . . . 

Jesus yearns for you to trust him.  He knows this isn't easy for you.  It may be easy in a given moment, but how constant are we in this trust?

He has done so much for us.  Lord, please give me the grace to more faithfully pray:

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I place all my trust in you.  

Jesus, Son of God, I trust in you.  

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

"You are God’s chosen race, his saints; he loves you, and you should be clothed in sincere compassion, in kindness and humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with one another; forgive each other as soon as a quarrel begins. The Lord has forgiven you; now you must do the same." (Colossians 3:12-13)