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Resolution Update

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Resolution update time!

Resolution #1. Go dancing at least once a week.
I’ve done reasonably well on this one, doing a load of swing and a little bit of salsa.

Resolution #2. Check bank statements once a week.
Utterly failed. Only checked it once. C’mon man!

Resolution #3. Complete Reading List
So far I’ve finished The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, Mere Christianity, Problem of Pain,
The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks. I’m about a  50% through After Jesus,  30% through Every Man’s Journey and 10% through both Confessions and Hold Me Tight.

Resolution #4. Give up Facebook for Lent
It’s not Lent yet 🙂

Resolution #5. Guard free time more jealously
I’ve done pretty well at this and I’ve also managed to do a Holy Hour each week (even if I did get kicked out of the Adoration chapel a few days ago!). I had an hour-long massage this week. Things have been a little stressful and I’ve been really glad about the extra “margin” in my life 🙂

Resolution #6. Invest more time in friendships
Had several hang outs with friends who I haven’t seen in a while.

Resolution #7. Blacklist TV Shows
Blacklisted shows have remained blacklisted. I’m still spending more time in front of the TV than I would like though.

Resolution #8. Run a half marathon and do a 15 minute plank
I’m currently up to a 10 minute plank. I also signed up for the Warrior Dash in April.

Resolution #9. Cook a proper meal once a week
I’ve only done some proper cooking for two out of the four weeks. I need to be a bit more disciplined about this.

Resolution #10. Write the book
I haven’t done any more work on it yet, but I’m trying to clear out the “Drafts” folder of my blog first.

resolutions

Council of Jerusalem Guidelines

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I mentioned a couple of times last year that I was leading a Bible study working through the Acts of the Apostles. During that time, Paul Pavao over at The Rest of the Old, Old Story was writing a series of posts working through books of the Bible (he was also recently recently kind enough to advertise this blog).

When my Acts of the Apostles Bible study was just beginning, Paul wrote a post about the Council of Jerusalem which is found in Chapter 15 of Acts. The Council of Jerusalem was the first recorded council of Church. The apostles and elders of Jerusalem were called together to respond to an issue concerning the Gentile converts to Christianity. Did a Gentile convert need to be circumcised? Did he have to become a Jew before he could become a Christian?

Twelve Apostles

The Council’s Response

At the Council there was extended discussion around the issue before Peter stood up and affirmed that the Gentiles did not need to be circumcised. St. James then said:

Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the pollutions of idols and from unchastity and from what is strangled and from blood. – Acts 15:19-20

In his blog post, Paul wrote:

“The council decides that they will ask just four things from the Gentiles, and they make it clear that circumcision is not necessary for the Gentiles. There may be people who understand why those specific four things were chosen, but I’m not one of them.”

In the comment section of the article I offered my two cents, saying:

“I’ve always seen the requirements from the Council of Jerusalem as measures to ease tensions between Jews and Gentiles in the Church.

“If I was a lifelong Jew who subsequently recognized Jesus as the Messiah I may find it hard to get used to the relaxed restrictions of the New Covenant. I may be a little sensitive about it, so if my gentile brothers and sisters could refrain from consuming strangled meat, food sacrificed to idols and blood, it would be far more likely that family harmony would be maintained.

“Just a thought”

As my own Bible study progressed towards Acts 15, I had the opportunity to do a little bit of research looking at this question and to dig into it a little more…

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Great Apostasy Questions

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A while back, I produced a post in which I listed some Canon Questions, some specific questions I ask when talking to non-Catholics about the Table of Contents found in their Bible. Following my post concerning my recent encounter with a Jehovah’s Witness, I’ve decided to do another post similar to my Canon Questions, but this time concerning the “Great Apostasy”, the belief that that the Church effectively disappeared from the earth some time after Christ’s death.

Apostasy

Groups like the Mormons hold to the Great Apostasy and use this as an explanation for the significant differences between their doctrine and the doctrine of historic Christianity. Muslims hold to this narrative too, to justify the teachings of Muhammad which stand in stark contradiction to the New Testament. Additionally, most Protestant groups, while typically not holding such a radical version of this doctrine, usually hold to some variation of it, saying that somewhere along the line the Church went off-track in a rather major way.

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Introduction to Islam

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This is one of the many blog entries I was halfway through before being distracted by something shiny… I started preparing this series of entries around the time of the media storm from the “Burn a Qur’an Day“. I was rather surprised by the reaction of many Christians to this dispute, but what I found even more troubling was their apparent lack of basic familiarity with the religion of Islam.

In this series of posts I will not be disputing any assertion made by Islam. I only intend to provide a brief sketch of the religion.  I would like this to be an introduction and brief overview for the average Christian who is unaware of Islam’s claims.

Please note, I have done my best to ensure factual accuracy in all these posts and have used Islamic sources as much as possible to ensure that I’m not propagating Christian misconceptions of Islam.  I did send this to some Muslim friends for comment, but I have yet to hear back. If you are a follower of Islam and believe that I have misrepresented your religion, please drop me an email and I will  remedy the situation.

Muhammad

Islam (“submission to God”) was founded by Muhammad in the early 7th Century, a little over six hundred years after Jesus’ ministry, seven hundred and sixty-six miles away from Jerusalem in Arabia.  In the early part of Muhammad’s life he was a successful trader and then, through marriage to a wealthy widow, he became an important figure.

Thanks to his wealth, at the age of forty, Muhammad was able to spend much of his time in meditation in a cave on the outskirts of Mecca. It is said that it was during this time that he began to receive messages from Allah (God) through Jibril (the Archangel Gabriel).  He was told that these messages were to be preached to all mankind.  They were subsequently written down by his companions and collected together to form the Muslim holy book: the Qur’an/Koran (literally “the recitation”).

Muhammad’s followers were initially fairly small in number, consisting mainly of his own family. There were soon violent persecutions in Mecca against the Muslims, causing Muhammad to move to Medina where Islam was more favourably received.  A little later, the first jihad (holy war) took place. Muhammad returned to Mecca and destroyed the idols there and within eight years Muslim armies had conquered (and effectively converted) the whole of Arabia.

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TOT: Karen Reynolds

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May 2, 2017: Karen Reynolds @ St. Luke, El Cajon

Karen Reynolds is a missionary with a lifetime of faithful service to the Church. She currently serves Dirty Vagabond Ministries as the Chief Operating Officer and Director of Development. She is passionate about sharing the love of Jesus Christ with the lost and training/equipping missionaries.

A veteran of over 20 years of youth, college and young adult ministry, Karen started her career with Young Life serving as the Development Director of the Ohio Valley. Prior to her leadership with Dirty Vagabond, she was a diocesan and parish ministry director in Ventura CA, Denver CO, and Bermuda – to name a few.

Karen is a nationally recognized speaker, having witnessed to thousands over the past 15 years. In addition to being an avid reader and traveler, she has recently begun her plans to play drums in a rock band.

“Dirty Vagabond Ministries & Evangelization” (Download)

Karen

Qur’an Cover-to-Cover: Day 11 (“Mary”)

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mary

Today is a particularly special chapter of the Qur’an, the one dedicated to Mary (“Miriam”), the Mother of Jesus (“Isa”):

Surah 19 – “Mary” (Maryam)
We begin this chapter with the story of Zechariah. As in the Bible, we are told that he and his wife had failed to have children. He is told through an angel that he will have a son named John. However, we soon start seeing a departure from the Biblical narrative…. Zechariah asks Allah to “make for me a sign”. He is then told that the sign will be that he will not be able to speak for “three nights”. However, in the Bible Zechariah cannotspeak until John’s circumcision. An interesting side note is that Allah tells John to “take the Scripture [i.e. adhere to it] with determination”, which shows that, at least in this chapter, the Old Testament is assumed to be preserved without corruption (contrary to the claim of most Muslims with whom I’ve spoken).

We now come to the story of Mary. We’re told that she withdraws from her family, heads eastwards and takes seclusion behind a screen – it’s not clear to me why. At this point, Gabriel visits her to give her “[news of] a pure boy [i.e. son]”. As in Luke’s Gospel, she does not understand how this will happen. There is a conspicuous absence of St. Joseph in this story – he is not mentioned once.

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Blessed are the Gifts

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A couple of days ago on Facebook, my friend Rachel referred to the “seven gifts of the Spirit”. These are the gifts mentioned in the Prophet Isaiah:

And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
    the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the spirit of counsel [right judgement] and might [fortitude],
    the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord [piety]…

– Isaiah 11:2-3

I commented briefly on Rachel’s Facebook posting, saying that St. Augustine associated these seven gifts with Christ’s beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:3-10). In today’s post I wanted to explain in a little more detail what St. Augustine taught about the relationship between these gifts and the beatitudes…

Sermon on the Mount Copenhagen Church Alter Painting
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