Saturday June 29, 2024

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“The angel of the Lord will rescue those who fear him.” (Psalm 34:5)

Good News Reflection for:

Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, Apostles
June 29, 2024

Today’s Readings:

Acts 12:1-11
Ps 34:2-9
2 Timothy 4:6-8,17-18
Matt 16:13-19
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062924-Day.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-june-29-2024-day

The key to staying in God’s protection

I love today’s responsorial Psalm! It contains the key to successfully living in God’s protection: “I will bless the Lord all the time! My mouth will always be full of praise for him.”

We have an Enemy who hates our relationship with Christ. Demons really do exist; Jesus didn’t symbolically cast out demons that were really only mental illnesses or the delusions of a superstitious world. And we have no reason to fear them if we follow Christ and allow Christ to be fully active and alive in us.

“Glorify the Lord Jesus Christ with me! Let us extol his name together.” Please do join me in celebrating Christ’s victory over evil. Demons hate Good News Ministries. We could not have survived our founding, let alone the 29 years since, without the protection and victory of Jesus. We’ve endured a lot of problems that could have put an end to GNM, but with the backup prayers of countless people around the world, the Enemy doesn’t stand a chance. Demons flee from the sound of praise and worship for God.

How does one glorify the Lord all the time? There are lots of times when I don’t feel like praising God. But the hard times — the depressing times, the scary times, the frustrating times — are when we could benefit from it most! That’s when it’s called a “sacrifice of praise.” Worship is a choice, not to be based on feelings nor on the facts as we see them. We praise God because he is God, he cares, he is bigger than all our problems, and he is already working a plan to deliver us from evil, even though we cannot see it yet.

“Look to him that you may be radiant with joy.” As I always say: Keep your eyes on Jesus! When we stay focused on our Savior and his great love, the power of evil shrinks from lack of attention.

“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear (love, respect, obey, hold in awe) God, and he rescues them.” One day at Mass, as I returned to my seat after consuming our Precious Lord in the Eucharist, I tripped over a kneeler. As I clunked down rather ungracefully, heading for the floor, it seemed to happen in slow motion and there seemed to be a cushion of protection softening the fall. Nothing was hurt except my pride — not even a bruise — and soon I was praising God for giving me angels and thanking him for the gift of humility.

“Taste and see how good God is; blessed are those who take refuge in him.” Let me share with you a true story about this. As you know, the mission of Good News Ministries is to evangelize and build up the faith of those who already follow Christ so that they, too, can be evangelizers. Well, effective evangelization usually involves miracles. In whatever we do for the kingdom of God, the hand of God reaches out to help our efforts become successful. Take a look at this testimony:

“I am in the wilderness. Because of this, I chose to not believe in God. … For the past few days, I lived without prayers and faith in God. But tonight I witnessed that there is really God, that Jesus is God, who loves everyone of us. I am crying as I’m writing this. I felt so loved by God, for he didn’t allow me to be lured to sinfulness and false belief. Earlier, I could not sleep, so I decided to browse the internet and came to a psychic reading. I recited their prayer and registered my name to get the psychic readings about my life. All of a sudden, a Good News Reflection from your website appeared. Amen, God is protecting me.”

Praise the Lord Almighty!

You too can evangelize by sharing the Good News:

1. Keep spreading the word about GNM to your family and friends (share pages, forward the daily reflections, recommend our prayer resources, etc.)
2. Follow and share our posts on X (Twitter) and Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram.
3. Subscribe, like, and share our videos on YouTube.
4. Join and share our groups on the Telegram text messaging app.

And keep this ministry going with your prayers and love offerings: gnm.org/donate.

© 2024 by Terry A. Modica

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