{"id":37057,"date":"2019-06-10T14:14:35","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T20:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=37057"},"modified":"2019-06-11T10:41:23","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T16:41:23","slug":"the-divine-arrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-divine-arrow\/","title":{"rendered":"The Divine Arrow","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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My time in the Ottawa\/Kingston region in Canada was powerful over the course of six evenings with hundreds of people attending from the area. I came without prepared talks or notes with only the desire to speak the “now word” to God’s children. Thanks in part to your prayers, many experienced Christ’s\u00a0<\/em>unconditional love and presence more deeply as their eyes were opened again to the power of the Sacraments and His Word. Among many of the lingering memories is a talk I gave to a group of junior high students. Afterward, one girl came up to me and said she was experiencing the Presence and healing of Jesus in a profound way… and then broke down and wept in my arms in front of her classmates.<\/em><\/p>\n

The message of the Gospel is perennially good, always powerful, always relevant. The power of God’s love is always capable of piercing even the hardest of hearts. With that in mind, the following “now word” was on my heart all last week…\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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DURING\u00a0<\/b>the missions I gave around Ottawa last week, the image of an arrow<\/em> was foremost in my mind. After my last two writings on being careful how we witness\u00a0with our words, <\/em>there were still\u00a0a few comments from readers suggesting that I am promoting cowardly “silence” and “compromise” or that, with all the crises happening in the hierarchy, I’m living “in another world.” Well, to that last comment, I truly hope that I am living in another world\u2014the realm of the Kingdom of Christ where\u00a0love of God and neighbour\u00a0<\/em>is the rule of life. To live according to that rule is\u00a0anything\u00a0<\/em>but cowardly…<\/p>\n

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For God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but rather of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is precisely when one operates in that spirit that their\u00a0witness has the capacity to\u00a0conquer the world.\u00a0<\/em>[1]<\/sup><\/a>1 John 5:4<\/span><\/span>