Wise Words on Wednesday: Glorifying God
“It is the process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God”
– Oswald Chambers
Journey Home: Brantly Callaway
Many of you will have heard of the Coming Home Network, an organization which supports converts and reverts entering the Catholic Church and shares their inspiring stories. A couple of days ago Brantly Callaway was on the show. It’s really good episode, even if Brantly’s three-year old son apparently thought it was “boring” 🙂
Brantly also has a blog. If you didn’t get a chance to read it before, I’d invite you to read the series Brantly wrote with his wife, Krista, entitled Why we’re contraception free. If you’ve ever been puzzled by the Catholic teaching concerning contraception, this is one of the clearest, methodical, yet engaging stories I’ve read.
If you’re in the mood to read even more, Brantly’s article on Total Apostasy really gets to the heart of the claims of groups such as Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons, as well as many Protestants, who claim that there was massive corruption in the Early Church.
Who’s conversion story have you found most inspiring?
Music Monday: Our God Reigns Here
I thought today’s Music Monday should be an upbeat number from John Waller, “Our God Reigns Here”…
Spirit of doubt you have no place here
I command you to leave in Jesus’ name
Spirit of fear you have no place here
I command you to leave in Jesus’ name
You’re not welcome here so go, just go
Spirit of doubt you have no place here
I command you to leave in Jesus’ name
Envy and jealousy you have no place here
I command you to leave in Jesus’ name
Go back from whence you came
‘Cause our God reigns here, our God reigns here
We claim this ground in Jesus’ name
‘Cause our God reigns x2
Anger and rage, guilt and shame
I command you to leave in Jesus’ name
Depression, anxiety, addiction, infirmity
I command you to leave in Jesus’ name
Oh, go back from whence you came
Our God reigns here, our God reigns here
The battle’s won, have no fear
The battle’s won, have no fear
The battle’s won, have no fear
‘Cause God reigns here
Been to confession yet this Lent?
St. Thomas Aquinas: Pro-Choice?
A friend of mine recently referred to the book “Good Church, Bad Church” by Tom Kane, a former Catholic priest. I read the synopsis on Amazon and read the extract on the author’s website. Â In the extract, a couple came to Kane while he was still a Catholic priest and he counseled them to have an abortion, calling upon St. Thomas Aquinas as justification:
“The great Catholic theologian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, whose theological reasoning is the foundation of Catholic morality, said that a fetus does not contain a soul until several months because there is not enough development yet to hold a soul, so the fetus, Thomas says, is not a person,” I said. “Yet the Vatican and the Vaticans of Protestantism would sacrifice an endless number of lives for a miniscule embryo that resembles an amoeba.”
“But the fetus has life,” he said.
“Yes, but what kind of life? Plant life? Animal life?” I said. “A fetus has a very primitive form of life—not yet a human life.”
That Catholic Show
In The Beginning: When God builds a house…
In Bible study we’re currently doing a whistle-stop tour of the Bible. Last week we looked at the opening verses of Genesis. It often goes unnoticed what God is actually doing in the account of creation found in the opening verses. Today I’d like to do a short post covering the first part of our discussion and speak about the literary structure of the first chapter of Genesis.
In Chapter 1, verse 2, after affirming that “God created the heavens and the earth”, the author says that “the earth was formless and void” (Hebrew: “tohu wabohu”). The rest of the chapter sets about explaining how God solved both of these problems…