Love Letters to Lukewarm Souls

The Bible in a Year podcast is a gem for me. Like most of us in some big or small ways, I have been facing with some sort of a debilitating physical condition for the past several months now. Of course, there are a number of moments wherein I would fall into hopelessness and despair. Once again, hearing the word of God (thru the BIAY) reminds me and gives me a sense of comfort and pushes me to move forward despite and inspite of my personal circumstances. Like in chapter 43 of Isaiah. It's a long chapter but I will just give you the 1st 3 verses that I think in essence serves my point for today. Isaiah 43:1-3 But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob,     he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you;     I have called you by name, you are mine. 2 When you pass through the waters I will be with you;     and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through...

Taken from my community gathering exhortation (April 18, 2021). Edited for the purpose of this blog. I heard Fr. Mike Schmitz's Bible in a year (a.k.a. BIAY) is taking the podcast by storm. It started just this January of this year 2021. If you aren't familiar with Fr. Mike's BIAY podcast, basically each episode he would read a book or two from the Bible, chapters and verses based off of Jeff Cavin's Great Bible Adventure color-coded Bible reading plan or timeline as a guide, and then he would follow it up with a short commentary. Each episode runs around 20 minutes on average. In a few of Fr. Mike's commentaries after reading the book of Exodus, book of Numbers and Judges, he would mentioned Judah a few times. Judah was the 4th of the 12 sons of Jacob. The 12 sons of which the 12 tribes of Israel originated. If you are familiar with Joseph the dreamer, Judah is one of Joseph's older brothers. Anyway, I learned from Fr. Mike that the name Judah means "Pra...