"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
A few months ago, John and Greta from The Tolkien Road podcast did a series of episodes on religion in Tolkien’s Legendarium. David invited him onto the show to talk about those episodes and to encourage the Pints With Jack listeners to listen to them.
This weekend I finished Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan. It has been quite some time since I’ve read a book by a contemporary Protestant author which blew me away, but this is definitely one of those books. Over the course of this short volume, Chan re-sensitizes us to the holiness of God, to demands of obedience and to the call of Jesus to give him EVERYTHING.
If you want your life to continue uninterrupted, don’t read this book. If you are satisfied with a happy, comfortable Christianity, don’t even think about cracking the cover… However, if you have a sneaking suspicion that you’ve grown lukewarm in your faith, order this book right away. Don’t be surprised if you are made to feel more than a little uncomfortable.
Today marks my blogging anniversary. I have now been writing this blog for one year exactly.
[Pause for applause]
Over of the 365 days of this blog’s existence I have written 137 posts, which works out at about a post every two or three days. Not bad at all.
Not a lot of people know this, but I was officially declared dyslexic at school when I was ten years old. As such, writing has never come easily to me. Even if you see a post on this blog which is composed of even just a few sentences, I can guarantee you that I put quite some time into its composition. Therefore, the fact that I’ve managed to regularly write on this blog every two or three days for a year is really quite an achievement for me 🙂
My course through the Qur’an continues today with chapters 86, 54 and 38. I’m tackling fewer chapters in this post because Surah 38 is quite long and I have quite a lot to say about it…
Surah 86 – “The morning star” (At-Tariq)
This chapter begins by reminding man from what he was made. In the same way that Allah created them from nothing, He is able to give them life again on Judgement Day. The authority of the Qur’an is reasserted, as is God’s control over the events of life.
Questions
Q1. What does aya 4 mean when it says “There is no soul but that it has over it as a protector”? Is it saying that every soul has a protector? If so, is this Allah or an angel?
Q2. Does semen really emerge “from between the backbone and the ribs”? sperm production is far lower than that.
Happy Christmas everyone! I hope your day is filled with joy. As for me, I’m working my way through a very long chapter of the Qur’an…
Surah 17 – “The Night Journey” (Al-Isra)
This chapter begins with an brief reference to event which gives its name to this chapter: The Night Journey. We are told that, in a single night, Muhammad travelled from Mecca to Jerusalem. There’s a second journey made later that night to Heaven, but it is not mentioned in this chapter.
Then begins some teaching concerning the Children of Israel. We are told that Allah “gave Moses the Scripture and made it a guidance for [them]”. Again, there is no indication that the Hebrew scriptures have been corrupted at all.
After a brief mention of Noah, we are told that Allah told the Children of Israel that they would “surely cause corruption on the earth twice” and he promised punishment on both of these occasions.
1. On the first occasion, Allah promised that a servant of His, someone with great military power, would invade their homes. He then promised that the Israelites would eventually be victorious.
2. On the second occasion, Allah sent enemies who entered the Jerusalem Temple and destroyed it.
I’m not exactly sure which events are being described here, since we are given very little information. The destruction of the Temple was done first by the Babylonians and then by the Romans.
Continuing “Tolkien Month”, I interviewed Joseph Loconte, author of A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War which tells the story of how the First World War shaped the lives, faith, and writings of J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis.
S3E44: “After Hours” with Joseph Loconte (Download)
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The roadmap for Season 3 is available here.
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I put together a couple of memes for the occasion:
Everybody knows that Mary received a single angelic greeting from Gabriel, but a lot of times people forget about the messages given to Joseph. How many times did Joseph receive a message from an angel? No cheating now…