In Season and Out of Season

Guest (Male): Behold, I stand at the door and knock. This is In Season and Out of Season, a Bible teaching ministry with Father Tom DiLorenzo.

Father Tom DiLorenzo: Good day, this is Father Tom, and I'm glad to be with you today. I'm looking at Hosea 6, first verse: "In their affliction they shall look for me. In their affliction they shall look for me." Why does it take affliction for us to turn to the Lord? Why do we have to reach the lowest point in our being in order to find Jesus, or be found by Jesus? Because Jesus is not lost.

In their affliction they shall look for me. Why are we so arrogant that we do not know that even when we're on the mountain, we are in absolute need of the Lord Jesus Christ? In their affliction they shall look for me. And what shall they say? "Come, let us return to the Lord." Return means that at one time I was with him.

I know so many people at one time were with him. I know so many people at one time experienced signs and wonders and miracles. So many people that experienced God working in their life in their everyday life. I meet them all the time. People will say to me, "Oh, those were my charismatic days. They were wonderful, but now I've grown up." Grown up? You've grown away from the Holy Spirit.

I don't care if you don't use the word charismatic. I don't even like that word. I know it means gifted. I'm talking of the Holy Spirit. I'm talking of the spirit of God. I'm talking about the answer of Jesus Christ for the world until he comes in glory, and that is the Holy Spirit. Come, let us return to the Lord. You had a good home and you left it. What did you leave it for? You left it for the kingdom of thingdom. You left it for fame, you left it for power, you left it for riches.

Come, let us return to the Lord. Don't waste your pain. Whatever pain you're experiencing, let it be used to run to Jesus. I had someone that I saw the other day, I hadn't seen him in a long time. He said, "I decided to come back to the Espousal because I needed to." But he said, "I didn't come back because I needed anything. I'm just very grateful." That's a very beautiful thing. But if he ever needed something, he should have run to the Espousal. It's okay to run to God when we need something, especially if we've left him.

The Lord will accept us. People say, "He's been so good to me and then I left him, and now I don't know what to do anymore." Return to the Lord. Come, let us return to the Lord. For it is he who has rent, but he will heal us. He will heal your defection. The defection that Jesus needs to heal is the defection in the heart. We are talking about heart trouble now when we talk about leaving the Lord. I'm talking about spiritual heart trouble. We are talking about heart trouble when people leave the Lord, when they start thinking that the kingdom of thingdom is enough for me. More goods, more power, more fame, more money.

He will heal you. He has struck us and he will bind our wounds. The Lord Jesus is exactly like that. Never does he ever say, "I told you so." Remember the prodigal son. The prodigal son realized in the pigsty that he had so much more with Papa. Has your pigsty paid off yet? Has your pain paid off yet? The prodigal son was in a pigsty, and from the pigsty, when the pigsty had done its work, he said, "I will return to my father."

Has your affliction, your pigsty, done its work yet? Why do you have to wait another day? Come, let us return to the Lord. Return with words, with tears, with sorrow. Let us return to the Lord. Has your pigsty paid off yet? You don't have to go any lower. You just need to return. He will revive us after two days. He will bind our wounds. On the third day, he will raise us up to live in his presence.

That is exactly what you have been created for. You have been created to live in his presence and you have been created to give him glory. I have been created for the glory of the name of Jesus. I have been created to give God glory. You have been created to give God glory. That is your destiny. Your destiny is not just to become a great doctor. Your destiny is to become a man of God who gives God glory through being a doctor, through being a nurse, through being a teacher, through being a plumber, through being an electrician.

Let us return to the Lord. Let us strive to know the Lord. Let's put some effort into it. Isaiah says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near." That implies there will be a time in your life when he will not be found. Call on him while he is near. That's now. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Seek his face. Seek the glory of his name. In your affliction, seek the Lord. In your affliction, get on your face and cry out, "I am in absolute need of you."

Cry out, "I'm sorry, I've departed from you." Who talks of repentance anymore? Yet Jesus went around declaring the kingdom of God. He said, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near." John the Baptist: "Repent, for the kingdom of God is near." We all need to repent. This childlike faith that you once had, God wants to give you again. There's nothing like childlike faith. Some of you have had this and you have departed from the Lord. He will give it back to you.

I was in the seminary and I was leaving Peterson Hall one day. All the jocks were there. These are the guys that run and lift weights and stuff like that. I walked by them and I realized that their automobile doesn't start. The Lord said to me, "If you pray with this automobile, I'll start it." I said, "But these guys don't even like me. They think I'm weird as it is." The Lord didn't say another word. They're trying to start the automobile and they can't. I go up to them and I said, "Would you mind if I pray?" Now they're saying, "Tom, you're out of your mind." I said, "Do you have a better idea?"

They realized they didn't, so I prayed. I said, "Lord, start the automobile in Jesus' name." It wasn't a long prayer, believe me. I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Immediately that automobile started. I was known as a miracle worker. It's just a little bit of faith, that's all it was. One time I was at Wollaston Beach. It was 12:00 at night. I had been passing out my tapes when I was a young priest, how the Lord had changed my life. I had no more tapes. There was a motorcycle guy with his girlfriend and he's trying to start his motorcycle.

He's banging with his foot on the pedal. Nothing's happening. I walk by him. The Lord says, "If you pray over that motorcycle, I'll start it for him." I said, "Lord, please. It's 12:00. I want to go home and go to bed." He said it again. I turned around and I said, "What's wrong with your motorcycle?" He said it won't start. I asked, "Would you mind if I prayed?" The girl thinks I'm absolutely nuts. Her eyes go up in the air as if to say this guy is soft as ashes. The guy doesn't answer, so I prayed. I said, "Lord Jesus, start this motorcycle for this man, please." I walked away. The second I walked away, the motorcycle started.

I didn't even have a tape to give this guy. But I turned around and I said to him, "Jesus loves you. That's why he started the motorcycle." The next day when I was on Wollaston Beach, he was the first person I saw and I had a tape. He says, "How did you do that?" I said, "I didn't do that. Jesus did that because he loves you. Because he didn't want you to be embarrassed." Then the story about Carmen with the soap. I love this story. He was on his way to a pilgrimage in Canada, to Montreal.

As he's going, the radiator decides to overflow and there's a hole in the radiator. Carmen and his three little kids are praying with the wife, Teresa, that the Lord would do something. This man comes by and says, "I think I can fix that." What does the man do? He takes out a piece of soap from his car and he sticks the soap in the hole. He says, "That'll hold." They went all the way to Montreal and back. When they reached his driveway, the radiator gave way. Carmen has been looking for that soap for the last 30 years.

That was angelic soap. That came from heaven. This childlike faith that God gives us causes these great awesome miracles to take place. This childlike faith that you've departed from causes the awesome miracles to take place. Where is your childlike faith? It's still there, but you've depended upon yourself. Now your affliction is starting to get at you. What are you going to do with your affliction? Has your pigpen paid its price? Have you learned from your pigpen? Let us return to the Lord.

He will revive us. On the third day, he will raise us up so that we would live in his presence. Let us know, let us strive to know the Lord. Let us seek the Lord while he may be found. Let us call upon him while he is still near. For as certain as the dawn is his coming. He will come to you. You only need to repent. You only need to get on your face. You only need to say, "I had a good home and I left it." You only need to say, "Jesus, I'm sorry, I've departed from you. I'm sorry, but I'm back." He will never call it to mind again.

The father never said to the prodigal, "You've been gone six months or six years. You've been feasting with women, wine, and song. Who do you think you are?" The father never even listened to the sins of the son. He kissed away the sins of the son without even listening. This is God. Let us return to the Lord. He has greater things for you. People that have left the charismatic renewal, don't you think that there's more in the Holy Spirit than you experienced in the past?

I've been into this since 1968, and hopefully it's been into me since 1968. I'm just discovering, I'm just beginning. I'm seeing things now that I've never seen. Bones appearing in people's heads, cancer being healed, cancer being stopped. When I'm seeing things like this, I'm saying, "How much more is there?" There's a price to pay to be God's man, and there's a price to pay to be the devil's man. There's a price to pay.

If I told you there wasn't a price to pay, I'd be a liar. I'd rather pay the price for God and for Jesus Christ than for Satan and for the world. I'll tell you what the price is for God: it's to just completely know that I can do nothing on my own power. That only in him am I able to do anything. I can't even breathe on my own power. There's a price to pay, and it's the price of humility knowing that I am nothing and can do nothing, but in him I can do everything that he calls me to do.

The depth of his love is greater than I could ever imagine, and the depth of what he's calling us to is greater than we can ever imagine. Let us strive to know the Lord, for as certain as the dawn is his coming. In his judgment, he shines forth like the light. He will come to us like rain, how gentle. He will come to us like spring rain that waters the earth. That's the way he will come to us in our affliction when we repent. He will come like spring rain.

We can place our faces in that rain and we can smile as that rain soaks us. Spring rain, not the rain we've been experiencing in Boston, like November. Spring rain, warm rain, gentle rain. He will come like spring rain. The Lord asks a question: "What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your piety is like a morning cloud." In Israel, when the cloud is there in the morning, in about an hour it's gone. In other words, your piety, your faithfulness, your childlikeness doesn't last very long.

What can I do with you? For this reason, I smote them through the prophets, I slew them by the words of my mouth. For it is love that I desire, not sacrifice. It is the knowledge of God rather than holocausts. What does God desire from you? He desires faith working through love. He desires childlike faith that moves mountains, working through love. I desire love. The greatest thing you can say to Jesus when you wake up in the morning is, "I love you, Jesus."

The greatest thing you can say to Jesus as you wake up in the middle of the night to go to the laboratory is, "I love you, Jesus." The greatest thing you can say during the day is, "I love you, Jesus." What a beautiful prayer that is. I love you, Jesus. You're so wonderful. I thank you, Jesus, that you're not going to give me what I deserve because I'm back. I've returned. I don't want my piety to be like a morning cloud. I'm here. I want to be your disciple. I want to learn at your feet. I love you, Jesus. I need you, Jesus. I'm desperate for you, Jesus.

Grace of God and my desperation has kept me all these years. I have always been desperate for God. I cannot do one thing without him other than do messy things, sinful things, dark things, awful things. I am so desperate for Jesus. I have not outgrown my desperation. If Jesus decided today he was going to take a trip away from Tom, he might as well kill me. I am so desperate for him because I know I can do absolutely nothing apart from him.

I also know that in him I can bear much fruit. I know that in him the fruit that I bear will last. I also know that in him I am his and he is mine. In him, all things work together for the good for those who love him. I'm a desperate man. Maybe this broadcast has lasted 27 years because I speak to desperate people. I speak to them not with any eloquence that I have this great Christian walk, that I'm the paradigm. I'm just like everybody else.

I need Jesus, I'm desperate for Jesus. When I stray, I need to say, "Lord, the pigpen has done its work. I don't want any more of the pigpen. I'm returning to you." And the Lord says, "Now we're going to continue where you left off. We're not going to do anything else but continue where you left off." "But Lord, I don't deserve it." He said, "You never deserved it." But Lord... no more buts. That's a billy goat Christian. No. I've returned and we're going to begin where I've left off, Jesus says.

Do you understand what I'm saying? You had that childlike faith. You have it. Start using it again. Start believing, start surrendering. Surrender to the Lord and he will do great things for you. Surrender to the Lord and mighty things will happen again. Surrender to the Lord and life will change again. Surrender to the Lord, surrender to the Lord, surrender to the Lord. Just tell him how much you need him. Tell him how much you love him. Tell him that without him you can do nothing.

Father today we come to you because Lord we have departed from you and we want to tell you: I surrender all. I surrender all. I surrender all to Jesus, precious savior, I surrender all. Come on, open your hands, your past, the brokenness, your sexual sins. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Jesus, precious savior, I surrender all. Now your pride that keeps you from coming back. Open your hands. I surrender all. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Jesus, precious savior, I surrender all.

Father, hear our tears before you hear our words. Manifest your glory again. Show us, Lord, that you have great plans for us. Renew within us the years that the locust ate our crop. Fill us with faith again. Faith working through love. Faith working through love. If you haven't been to confession, get to confession, and get there quickly. On Sunday night at the rectory at Holy Rosary, we praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Oh yes, we sit around the table and start singing in the spirit.

We start banging our drums. People bring their pots and pans. We have a good time every Sunday night at Holy Rosary at 993 Shirley Street in Winthrop and you're welcome to come every Sunday night. I do need to hear from you. Father Tom, Post Office Box 602, East Boston, Mass, 02128. That's Father Tom, Post Office Box 602, East Boston, Mass, 02128. We need the sun, so pray: Father bring the sun to Boston.

Not only Jesus but the sun that shines in the sky. Bring Jesus, the son of God to Boston, and bring that beautiful disc up in the sky again, Lord. We need the sun, Lord. We've had too many dark days. We need the sun. The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceived of the Holy Spirit. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done unto me according to thy word. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. I surrender all. I surrender all. All to Jesus, precious savior, I surrender all. May Jesus Christ be praised. May he be praised in your heart, on your lips and in your hands. Tell him today, "Jesus, I love you." God bless you.

Guest (Male): Behold, I stand at the door and knock. This has been In Season and Out of Season with Father Tom DiLorenzo. Remember that this ministry is supported only by the donations of listeners. So please help as the Lord leads you. Father Tom DiLorenzo, PO Box 602, East Boston, Mass, 02128. In Season and Out of Season.