#sacrifices and rituals and preaching and converting

[chronicbeans]

Chronicverse John Keeny (the little cousin of Jonathan Crane):

This will include comparisons between him and Jonathan Crane, as well as info about just John.

TW: Cultish Behavior, Self Harm, Rituals, Religious Fanaticism, Paranoia, Samhainophobia (fear of Halloween), Exorcisms

🎃 He was such a sweet boy. He was practically swaddled and coddled by his parents - the complete opposite of how Jonathan was treated. As such, unlike Jonathan, he grew a deep love and appreciation for God and Christianity. He still has his own beliefs that are different than most of his family, but that obsession and fanaticism are still present.

🎃 When he grew up, he became a priest of Catholic faith. Then, he moved to Gotham and purchased a large mansion on the outskirts of Gotham City. This mansion is nowhere close to Jonathan's house, so neither of them know that the other is in Gotham.

🎃 He also believes that certain holidays are sinful and worship the Devil, such as Halloween. In fact, he has grown to have a deep-rooted fear of Halloween, which has morphed into Samhainophobia. Every October, he counts the days down until that fated day arrives, his paranoia rising as he does so. Even just seeing a Jack-o'-lantern makes him panic.

🎃 He owns an orphanage on the outskirts of Gotham, which is relatively close to Arkham Asylum, called The Keeny Orphanage. He bought the large mansion with the sole intention of converting it to an orphanage where he can take care of children that lost their parents, be it from a crime related incident (which is most of the children there), or by other means. While the children are there, he preaches about God, Christianity, and other religious topics with the goal of giving them hope and faith that things will get better.

🎃 He loves and cares about every child in his care, but that doesn't mean he treats them the best. He never intends to hurt them, but especially around Halloween, his paranoia gets the best of him. Halloween is the Devil's day! October could be the Devil's month, for all he knows. He firmly believes that demons, spirits, and other "hellish beings" can possess humans, and the poor children under his care may be more susceptible to their influence. If he feels as though one of the children has been possessed, he will gladly perform and exorcism to "save" them.

🎃 He has performed rituals in order to protect the orphanage from spirits. Again, these are mostly around and on Halloween. These rituals are one of the more cultish behaviors some of the Keeny family members present. These rituals, more specifically, blood sacrifices, involve self harm in the name of the Lord. John, however, takes it to a whole new level- so much so that, as a young boy, his parents were even concerned for him, despite the fact that they also performed these sacrifices. He doesn't require the children of the orphanage to participate, and actively tells them not to, as he sees himself as their protector from harm. In the back of his mind, he is well aware that these thoughts and actions for God are not normal, but he feels the need to do so, out of fear that failing to provide sacrifice will let demons and the Devil harm the children he cares for. He makes sure to perform this little ritual every Halloween.

🎃 He lives in the orphanage, having his own room on the top floor, next to the stairs to the attic. The attic is locked, due to that being where he performs his yearly rituals. The children live on the second and first floors, with John's room and the activity rooms being on the third floor. The first floor also holds the kitchen, cafeteria, a room for religious services, and visitor/adoption area. Not many people seem to visit, for some reason.

🎃 John wants to see Jonathan Crane, again. He genuinely misses him, having been forced to stop visiting him by his parents. If he were to meet Jonathan in Gotham, however, it probably wouldn't go well. Due to Professor Crane's criminal actions, fear of religion, and John's own obsession with religion and purity, they most likely would have a mutual fear of one another. Jonathan's seeming obsession with Halloween doesn't help. Even so, John would always love his older cousin, seeing him just as much as family as the Keeny family, even if the Keeny family doesn't see Jonathan as a part of them.

#Chronicverse #John Keeny #batman au #batman oc #jonathan crane

[berenices-commas]

Hoping for an Angel of Vengeance: the tuFatingau Mission to the Court of Stars Uncounted (209–16/123-9) - 3.7

Tsuaidah’s decision to transfer the court from Manarang to Asiga in 191/112 forced the tuFatingau to reorganise the mission. To avoid hampering the limited but encouraging progress made in the city, Katupu remained in Manarang, while Rout and Rina followed Tsuaidah to Asiga. Without the presence of the world-queen and her courtly milieu, Katupu began to preach to the masses and cultivated close relations with local officials to guarantee the necessary political protection for her proselytising activities.

Katupu’s investment in a popular mission was not merely the consequence of Tsuaidah’s decision to move the court to Asiga, however. The failure of the two previous missions to produce converts was seen by the tuFatingau administration as an indicator that Umliwe Ikam was far from being a promising mission zone. Although the tuFatingau recognised that Obedience generated intellectual curiosity at the Umliwe court, the reports sent by the missionaries highlighted the difficulties that many Listeners had in accepting concepts such as Total Alignment. The problem seemed to be due not only to the complexities of Obedient theology but also because of the failure to define an efficient proselytising strategy. As a worried Rout confessed, while reporting on the first stages of the Asiga mission, “the Toma certainly see us as inept instruments for such hard hearts.” This initial perception of failure was also the factor that encouraged Rout to successfully develop an Ikam-Ikilam Obedient literature to present Obedience in an accessible and familiar way to Umliwe courtiers and literati.

Confronted with difficulties in attracting the upper echelons of the Umliwe polity, Katupu targeted other strata of Listener and Ikam society. Obedient art, charity, and political networking were at the centre of a strategy that sought to make Obedience more attractive to the local population and ensure the incorporation of Legitimate worship into Manarang’s civic life. Encouraged by the positive reaction of the lower classes to the images displayed by the tuFatingau and their religious ceremonies, Katupu invested in the organisation of “sumptuous,” “solemn,” and “beautiful” rituals during important moments in the Legitimist liturgical calendar such as Childbirth and the Song for the Sacrifice.

Katupu’s decision to focus on the lower strata of Umliwe society seems to have been opposed by Rout. In a letter of 187/110 to Tufako Taimauli, Katupu mentions that Rout disapproved of her strategy:

The sister had many concerns, though she did not say a word, because she does not like that I bring to Obedience, especially among the Cousins, and it will be a mistake to demean these conversions as some of ours, who judge from the comfort of their abbeys, have done, since it is for this reason that this mission has been discredited in Ikam.

These words suggest a tension between two visions for the modus operandi that should guide the Umliwe mission. Rout favored the traditional tuFatingau top-down approach, conceiving the ruler and the court as the only real targets of the mission. Rapid and successful bringing-to-Obedience of the Universal Empire would only be possible if the tuFatingau were able to convert Tsuaidah and other relevant figures among the Umliwe elite. As the head of the body politic, the world-queen could establish Obedience as the official religion or encourage other relevant social or political actors to embrace Legitimacy. If the world-queen herself was reluctant to convert, the conversion of relevant courtiers and officials nonetheless had the potential to create an influential Obedient elite that could in turn set the necessary political conditions for the ruler’s conversion and the subsequent coming-to-Obedience of Umliwe Ikam. As in other mission zones such as Tahana, Hamanta, and Imayenisi, the missionaries should concentrate their efforts on infiltrating Disobedient political structures and promote conversion “from within.”

For Rout, despite the encouraging numbers reported from Manarang, Katupu’s “popular mission” threatened the success of the top-down strategy being employed at the Court of Stars Uncounted. The association of Legitimism with the lower strata of Umliwe society, in particular Ikam of no famous lineage, had the potential to reduce its appeal to the Listener and Ikam Umliwe elite. Indeed, in 182/107, Rout complained that most of the Manarang converts were “common and low people”.

As her comments to Taimauli suggest, Katupu instead aimed to establish a native Obedient community in Manarang that could safeguard the mission and, simultaneously, establish Legitimism as an integral part of the Umliwe sociopolitical landscape. Indeed, the formation of native Obedient communities, and the role of the tuFatingau as their spiritual leaders, allowed the missionaries to pose as domestic political actors and explore different ways to engage with the Umliwe polity and its elite.

Katupu’s strategy in Manarang revolved around an implicit acknowledgment that the tuFatingau missionaries were part of a subordinate minority, the Obedient community, and an inferior polity, the tuIto’o monarchy. Her progressive “Umliwisation” was thus part of a proselytism strategy that sought to reach all layers of Umliwe society and form a solid local community of Obedient, as well as to guarantee political protection and some degree of influence in her host society. The Umliwe authorities encouraged this process in an attempt to integrate the different tutu into the Universal political order. Katupu’s language skills and direct access to both tuFaruao and Umliwe officials led her to be viewed as a viable mediator between the Umliwe polity and a diverse Obedient community formed by Legitimist tuSi, Imetya,[1] Loyalist tuMwala,[2] Ihasi,[3] and tuIusa. Indeed, the supportive imperial edicts and privileges granted to Katupu suggest an attempt to implement something resembling the pluralist religious culture developed by the Shouhougo Empire. Queen Chumi (r.201–160/118-94) was engaging in similar experiments with the tuU’san and tuTutuputupu sisters in Jiwinjeng Ikilam around the same time.

[1] Arrakia.

[2] Dinasi.

[3] Barache.

#TuFatingau Encounters with Anticipation in Oru and Beyond #worldbuilding #academic fanfiction #rude mechanicals

[ohbaby-obeyme]

Corrupting simeon so after he falls all he has is you then he worships you as his god

#you fucking dead-on nailed my god complex #FUCK #inquiries #simeon #he tries so hard to find ways to worship you that please you #sacrifices and rituals and preaching and converting #he knows now that the only god worth his time was you and he’s determined to make everyone else see it as well #anon this was a mistake #worship is top tier for me #hnnnggggg #praising him for being such a good little follower #encourage him and laud his efforts #wrap him round your finger so completely all he is anymore is yours #when i tell you how much i want that - #scrawling

[druj-of-downwards-spirals]

Dark Apostles

Dark Apostles are the spiritual leaders within many Heretic Astartes Traitor Legions, and are utterly devoted to the Dark Gods and the preservation of the beliefs of their Primarchs and other leaders. Each is thoroughly learned in occult teachings, ritual sacrifice, and the devotions contained in the books of Lorgar and other vile Chaos tomes, having painfully etched their forbidden characters into their minds, bodies, and souls through a ghastly array of torturous and barbaric means.

This fanatical devotion to the Ruinous Powers defines a Dark Apostle, and all are entirely dedicated to spreading their message of worship and devotion to every corner of the galaxy.

Dark Apostles preach that the feeble and hollow sermons of the Imperial Ecclesiarchy are but rote superstition and propaganda compared to the terrible power of Chaos. To demonstrate these unholy claims, they frequently act as direct conduits for their Dark Gods' power in the material realm and bestow blessings of Chaos on their followers, further fuelling their fanaticism and devotion.

To a Dark Apostle, Chaos is an all-powerful pantheon. Many therefore choose to venerate all the Chaos Gods equally, and rarely ally with only one path for very long. When it comes to the particulars of their blasphemous faith, each is bound by his own deranged and arrogant interpretations of the profane writings of Lorgar and other heretical works. Dark Apostles are skilled orators capable of converting entire cities, Astra Militarum regiments, or planetary populations to their unholy cause with promises of power and recognition from the denizens of the Warp.

Through their honeyed words, they establish vast networks of Chaos Cultists and false churches, secretly planting the seeds of the Imperium of Man's corruption on every planet they touch. These zealous followers are often incorporated into their master's diabolical designs, and frequently serve as willing slaves or sacrifices to the glory of their new gods.

The Dark Apostles of the Word Bearers, in particular, construct great monuments and monolithic symbols of their blasphemous faith, and dedicate them to their chosen patrons to mark their profane victories. They take perverse delight in incorporating the religious structures of those they conquer into these foul rites, and often go out of their way to desecrate the holy icons of the Ecclesiarchy. The Dark Apostle’s legions of followers frequently aid in these endeavours, and just as frequently find themselves sacrificed on the very altars they helped construct.

A Dark Apostle arrayed for combat is an imposing sight, with ancient armour adorned with sigils of his foul allegiance and reams of parchment covered in blasphemous devotions and invocations. Many even tattoo litanies directly onto their flesh or the flayed skins of their opponents in order to enhance their potency and further prove their devotion.

"Light unto Self is Darkness onto Others"

In Evil. By Evil. To Evil "

________________________

ill thoughts, ill words, ill deeds Druh, the Unlighted Ashemaogha of Ahriman

[laughtermagick]

Hell: Everything Is Made Up & The Points Don't Matter Anyway

The "traditional" image of hell for most folks today looks like this: creative torture in a sulfuric lake of fire ruled by a pitchfork-wielding horned red Devil. The concept of hellish afterlife is present in many religions, but the details differentiate dramatically, and what may seem nightmarish to one culture can honestly sound comically ridiculous to another. In fact, some of the very early Christians might laugh to hear how hell is now being portrayed in Western culture. "Hell" as we think of it today didn't exist when Christianity was first founded.

There are four different words in the original languages of the Bible that were later mistranslated into the single English word "hell". Here's the original words and their meanings:

Sheol (Ancient Hebrew)

Every single time the word "hell" appears in the Tanakh (or the Old Testament), the real word being used is "Sheol," which means "death" or "grave". For many ancient Jews, there was absolute nothingness after death, and even worse, there was no more blessed awareness of God. This is where the modern Christian concept of hell being "total separation from God" comes from. The soul didn't exist apart from the body, and when someone died, their breath/soul/consciousness didn’t go anywhere: it just vanished.

After military defeats and political subjugation for millenia, Jews began to change their view on the permanence of death. Around 200 years before Yeshua (aka Jesus), the Israelite nation was longing for justice. They revived an even older worldview (that of Iyov [Job] in the Tanakh): Evil has been allowed to run amok, but has very little time left! God will surely intervene to bring forth the "Kingdom of God," a paradise right here on earth. Furthermore, God will resurrect everyone who's ever died (moral AND immoral) in order to dote on the righteous and totally rub it in the faces of all the evildoers.

Yeshua put a new spin on this concept: Actually, the Kingdom of God would be literally created simply by people returning to the two greatest mitzvah (commandments) in Jewish scripture: a deep love of God and dedicatedly loving all human beings. Yeshua was especially concerned for the poor, the outcasts, the marginalized, the immigrants - a total OG SJW, and definitely not someone preaching about Christian hell.

Hades (Ancient Greek)

It's important to note that the Greek underworld wasn't merely "Greek hell". There were designated places for bad souls (Tartarus), good souls (Elysium), really good souls (Isle of the Blessed), unremarkable souls (Asphodel Meadows), and even hopeless romantics (Mourning Fields). The word "Hades" occurs 10 times in the New Testament. Sometimes, the authors were even directly quoting scripture from the Tanakh, but they were writing in Greek, so they instead translated Sheol to "Hades," the name of the Greek god of the underworld. They were simply referring to where everybody goes after death: the grave.

Tartarus (Ancient Greek)

Remember how Tartarus is the place where Hades puts all the bad souls? This word only appears once in the New Testament: "For God did not spare the angels who sinned; on the contrary, he put them in gloomy dungeons lower than Tartarus to be held for judgment." What an interesting example of ideas cross-pollinating between cultures! The author was referencing Hebrew scripture (which originally said "deeper than Sheol") while also referencing Hellenic religion. The author was culturally Jewish, but he was writing this for gentile Christians who were very familiar with Hellenic ideas about afterlife.

Gehenna (Ancient Greek)

The word most often translated as "hell" in the New Testament (although it only appears 12 times) is "Gehenna". Gehenna is the name of an actual place located just outside of Jerusalem. "Gehenna" is the Greek version of the Hebrew word "Ge Hinnom," which literally meant "Valley of Hinnom." You see, the Valley of Hinnom has a dark history. Without going into too much detail, let's just say there were once rituals to evil gods that had a taste for babies. Later, the area was a landfill used to burn all the trash from the city. There aren't many other options for a place formerly designated for grisly human sacrifice, I guess.

When Yeshua occasionally seemed to speak of "hell," the word sometimes used (when not "Sheol") is actually "Gehenna." He was referring to the notorious valley that many Jews believed was the most desecrated dumping ground on the planet. Jews had even created some lore around Gehenna being a kind of purgatory; however, the longest a person could remain in Gehenna is 12 months, which is not even close to eternal suffering.

So, where did our current ideas about hell really come from? Largely, the book of Revelations (trippy AF and very, very open to interpretation) and especially the Apocalypse of Peter. Whereas Revelations was accepted by early Christianity as being scripture, the Apocalypse of Peter was definitely not. This is understandable, because it's even more batshit-crazy than Revelations. It describes hell as being... well, pretty much exactly how we imagine it today. It was incorporating all kinds of pagan sources and Greek philosophy, making a Frankenstein's monster of horror stories. And it gets really, really in-depth about the specific tortures assigned for different kinds of sins. I wouldn't be surprised if the writers for the "Saw" movie franchise were reading the Apocalypse of Peter for inspiration. The book was banned entirely in many churches, but this wasn’t the only "Apocalypse of-" book in circulation at the time, and those writings permanently implanted the idea of hell within the Christian religion.

The eternal torments of hell were not taught by Yeshua - it emerged much later among gentile converts who had preconcieved notions about afterlife. All these ideas about hell that were developed over the past 1,600 years are being retroactively tied back into the original scriptures by unaware Christians today. Hell started as fanfiction and got mistaken for canon.

#hell #religion #mythology #christian mysticism #jewish mysticism #jewish mythology #christian mythology #Q&A

[sunday-school-lessons]

The Church is United in the Essentials

(Note to readers: “If” you would rather watch a video of this lesson, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/jB7BcEjS2mQ ).

Today we're going to begin a new series of lessons under the general heading of:

Don't Forget.

 We will be drawing Scriptures from the 15th chapter of the Book of Acts.

  We're going to be discussing the nature of salvation with a focus on the subject of "justification."

 Now, even though we have discussed this subject of justification before, I think it would be a good idea to revisit the theological definition of the word again.

 In Christian theology,

justification is God's righteous act of removing the condemnation,

the guilt,

and the penalty of sin,

by grace, while, at the same time,

declaring the ungodly to be righteous,

through faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice.

 Lots of words get thrown around by the "religious" crowd.

Sometimes, when we get all in to it and use words like justification, sanctification, glorification, and others, and without realizing it, we’re talking over the heads of lots of people.

But before we get into the lesson, I'd like to talk briefly about something that often happens among groups of people who are "trying" to get something..... spiritual to happen.

We’ve all heard the word, "ritual"

casually used in conversation.

And, all of us perform rituals without giving them a second thought.

When you habitually do the same things every morning preparing for your day, it's said to be a ritual; you’re “routine.”

Yet, there are lots of rituals people perform in an effort to experience something......supernatural.

If you're watching this video, more than likely, you do believe in the supernatural.

And it's a good thing to believe in the supernatural.

In 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 18 Paul writes:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."

But it's not "just" the message of the cross that the church is projecting to the rest of the world.

Thanks to modern technology, people from every culture can watch as Christians perform a variety of rituals throughout the year.

Rituals, defined, are solemn ceremonies that incorporate a series of actions that are performed according to a prescribed order.

It's kind of like following a recipe to end up with a dish you want.

I mean, you don't use tuna to make a strawberry cake.

It wouldn't be fair to single out any particular group here.

However, to the world at large, religious folks do some pretty strange things at times.

Here's a few of them.

This video that’s playing in the background here shows the holy fire ceremony of Easter in Jerusalem, …. Jewish people at the wailing wall, also in Jerusalem,… and a baptismal ceremony in the Jordan River.

I'm not condemning any celebration that lifts up our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

But at the same time, there's a big difference between commemorating a holy day and trying to perform something........ well..... magical.

There are tons of people in this world that know full well that magic, real magic, exists.

Magic is where you apply beliefs, rituals, or certain actions so that you can control and manipulate natural or supernatural beings or forces.

Magic's something that's not really science or religion.

But, the most important thing to remember about magic is that God hates it!

In Deuteronomy 18:10-12, Moses is inspired by God to write:

"Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens,

engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD;

because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you."

(people really did offer their babies to Baal...through the fire; and they really did, and still do practice all of the things I just read to you...... and God hates it!)

On the surface, it would appear that God detests these sorts of things because they lure people away from Him.

And, I’m sure that’s part of it. But it goes much deeper than that.

Where do you think the power behind magical abilities comes from?

Right!

It comes from the ultimate liar!

It comes from Lucifer himself.

And, just in case you didn't already know it; Lucifer hates you!

On the other hand, God created man to ultimately be His companions far beyond time itself.

Lucifer is not invited to that party!

He had already been thrown out of heaven long before God created man.

And it's because of Satin's work to sully the purity that Adam and Eve lived in, that sin, ….. that rebellion entered the world of humans.

Now, God has made the way for individuals to make their way back to Him.

He has made a way to justify us.

 So, once again,  

justification is God's righteous act of removing the condemnation,

the guilt,

and the penalty of sin,

by grace, while, at the same time,

declaring the ungodly to be righteous,

through faith in Christ's atoning sacrifice.

  Section 1:

 The Church Debates the Nature of Salvation

 Acts 15:1-5;

 Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers,

"Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses,

you cannot be saved."

 After Paul and Barnabas had engaged them in serious argument and debate,

Paul and Barnabas and some others were appointed to go up to the apostles and elders in Jerusalem about this issue.

 When they had been sent on their way by the church,

they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria,

describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles,

and they brought great joy to all the brothers and sisters.

 When they arrived at Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church,

the apostles, and the elders, and they reported all that God had done with them.

 But some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said,

"It is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses."

 From the very beginning, different people had different understandings about salvation. It’s important that we be constantly vigilant of the things we accept as truth. We just can’t afford to allow things like legalism to creep into the church. So, what’s legalism look like? The 1st verse I just read to you: Some men came down from Judea and began to teach the brothers,

"Unless you are circumcised according to the custom prescribed by Moses,

you cannot be saved."

At the very heart of legalism, is the idea that ’unless you add so-and-so to your faith, you cannot be saved. The Bible teaches us that we are graciously accepted by God as righteous by faith alone in Christ alone; nothing else. I have attended churches over the years who preached and believed that unless you…… well, they were hanging

customs, rituals, and “procedures” onto this simple salvation that the Lord offers us. So, always remember, salvation comes ”by faith alone in Christ alone.” Nothing else. Seriously, adding any other means of seeking God’s acceptance is misguided, wrong, and, quiet frankly, it’s downright dangerous. That group of Jewish Christians that spoke up were insisting that the Gentile converts had to   become Jews through the rite of circumcision in order to become Christians. These Jews who resisted the idea that Gentiles were converting to Christianity without becoming Jewish believed that salvation was something that had been offered to the Jews alone. These very same people believed Jesus was the Messiah, and that salvation was in Jesus alone. Yet, they were trying to add ritual or custom to salvation in demanding the converts become Jewish as well. We just studied the subject of “unity.” Legalism is a device of the devil. When people among the congregation go down that road of legalism, their words and actions rob the members of their joy and unity. In adding their demands to the gospel of grace, these legalists begin to pass judgment on everyone who does not meet the new demands. Then, the legalists criticize the leadership for not imposing their standard on the rest of the body. Then, division begins as the legalist tries to gain support for their position. Now you have two sides. The demands and judgments of the legalists continue to tear the church apart. Never let your guard down. It’s so easy to be drawn in, and the truth is still as simple as I’ve already stated. Salvation is in faith alone, in Christ alone.

Legalism distorts our Biblical view of God. The root of legalism is our own distorted view of God. When we have a wrong view of God, we WILL have a wrong view of salvation. A wrong view of God is why sinners are still sinners. The world does not see our God as we do. This is why it is so very important that we live our lives in a way that others can Jesus in us.

 Section 2:

 The Church Affirms Justification by Faith Alone

 Acts 15:11, 14-18;

 The apostles and the elders gathered to consider this matter.

 After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them,

"Brothers, you are aware that in the early days God made a choice among you,

that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the gospel message and believe.

 And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit,

just as he also did to us.

 He made no distinction between us and them,

cleansing their hearts by faith.

 Now then, why are you testing God by putting a yoke on the disciples' necks that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear?

 On the contrary, we believe that we are saved thorough the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way they are."

 ..................................

 Simeon has reported how God first intervened to take from the Gentiles a people for his name.

 And the words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:

 After these things I will return and rebuild David's fallen tent.

I will rebuild its ruins and set it up again,

 so that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord..... even all the Gentiles who are called by my name.....

declares the Lord who makes these things

 known from long ago.

 What’s being described in these verses was the 1st church council; the Council of Jerusalem. The Apostles and the church elders convened together for the purpose of making an important decision concerning a matter of salvation through justification. In all, there have been 22 councils held. By the year 325, the year the Council of Nicaea was called by the Roman Emperor Constantine, the church was already calling itself “Catholic” (a word that means all-encompassing, universal, or all-embracing). The Council of Nicaea, and the following 20 councils were convened primarily because of, you guessed it, legalism that had entered the church. There was great division within the body of Christ on a variety of subjects that the church “fathers” felt they had to over and over again to settle the matters. By 1517 the German monk, Martin Luther, nailed his proclamations onto the church doors and started the Protestant movement. Today, there are those who claim that as many as 38,000 different denominations of the church exist. Churches have split over things as simple as whether to use the word, “is” or “as.”

 One that I’ve toyed around with for years, is often quoted from the pulpit. It’s: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:8 KJV "We are confident, [I say], and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord."

Preachers will misquote the Scripture and say something along the lines of: ”To be absent from the body IS to be present with the Lord.” The words “is” and “and” are not equal and they do not mean the same thing. But I’m not telling y’all this to divide us; it’s just an example. An example that illustrates how easily you can be drawn in to a “legalistic” argument. But, before moving on, I would like to point out that the example I just used has absolutely nothing at all to do with salvation. The important thing to always remember is that salvation comes by grace alone, in faith alone, in Christ….ALONE! This is not double-speak; it follows a very logical progression of thought.

This message of salvation is for everyone; whether Jew or Gentile.

 Section 3:

 The Church Advocates Freedom in Love

 Acts 15:19-21;

 Therefore, in my judgment, we should not cause difficulties for those among the Gentiles, who turn to God,

 but instead we should write to them to abstain from things polluted by idols,

from sexual immorality,

from eating anything that has been strangled, and from blood.

 For since ancient times, Moses has had those who proclaim him in every city, and every Sabbath day

he is read aloud in the synagogues."

 If memory serves me right, Moses issued a total of 613 laws.

There was a reason God gave these to Moses. It was to show the children of Israel that no matter how hard they tried, they could not save themselves, because they could not keep the law in its entirety. So why did the Jerusalem Council tack on four of the Mosaic laws? (abstaining from things offered to idols, from sexual immorality, from eating things that have been strangled, and from blood?) For one thing, these four things were tied to the pagan temple practices of their day. This was certainly the case for the people of Corinth at that time. It was there that some in the church believed that since they were saved by faith, it freed them to actually continue to sin. And, there are folks out there today who believe that justification by faith frees them to continue to sin. The Apostles mentioned these things because they understood that the gospel still has expectations for holiness and for love in the lives of believers. There’s a section of Scripture in the 1st chapter of 1st Peter entitled:

Living Before God Our Father.

 In it, Peter quotes from the Law of Moses by saying, As Christians, we’re to seek, to strive to live our lives in love and holiness; not because we’re attempting to gain God’s favor, but because He has clearly told us to be holy because He is. Paragraph from lesson: …………………………………………… The apostles and the elders, with the help of the Holy Spirit, maintained the unity of the church by not adding anything to the gospel of grace. But with their four commands, for the sake of the Jews, they did ask the Gentiles to obey the “law of Christ”, or ”the royal law”…… ”Love your neighbor as yourself.” Our obedience to God and His Son, Jesus, is out of love. If we love God, we will obey Him.

 If we love Jesus, we will keep His commandments. The doctrine of justification by faith does not free us to sin; it empowers us to love….. to love God and to love others. ……………………………………….

 The thing is, the Jews had been dispersed throughout the known world of their time. These people, God’s chosen people, though scattered, continued to take part in their traditions and their law-keeping in their synagogues. So, to maintain a faithful witness to the Jews and to maintain loving fellowship with their Jewish-Christian brothers, the apostles asked the Gentiles to abstain from those things that most offended the Jews. So, out of love, Gentiles were

To pursue holiness and leave off their old pagan ways. The gospel of grace frees us to love one another. We are no longer under the Old Testament and it’s myriad of laws. However, the Mosaic Law still has implications for believers because it’s God’s Word. The 10 Commandments were given under the law. Just because Christ came and fulfilled the law, does that mean it would be okay to murder, to steal, or to lie on your neighbors? Of course not! The Scriptures are an infallible guide to salvation. The Bible does use round numbers here and there, and varying perspectives of different events, but it is still completely truthful. As for Christianity, until Christ returns, there will always be disagreement over issues; both small and great. We really do have the freedom to disagree with one another over some things in our faith and understanding. But I like to think these are things that, in no way, affect our salvation. Our understanding of God and of the gospel of Jesus Christ just can’t be a point of divisiveness. Eternity lies in the balance. We should all be determined to contend vigorously for the foundational doctrines, like justification by faith alone. From Jesus to the apostles to us, the Holy Spirit has safeguarded the Christian faith over many, many generations. That’s how the Spirit keeps us united in faith and united for our mission to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. Let’s pray….

[gameofthronestldr]

Melisandre

“The night is dark and full of terrors, old man, but the fire burns them all away." - Melisandre

Born: 97 BC at Asshai

Hair: Long, burnished copper 

Features: Beautiful and tall with unblemished skin. Slender and graceful with full breasts, a narrow waist, and a heart-shaped face.

Culture: Asshai

Lover: Stannis Baratheon

Aliases:

Melony

Lady Melisandre 

The Red Woman

The Red Witch

The King's Red Shadow

Lady Red

Lot Seven

Melisandre of Asshai

Allegiance:

R'hllor, the Lord of Light

Jon Snow

Daenerys Targaryen

Stannis Baratheon

House Baratheon of Dragonstone

Religion: R'hllor, the Lord of Light

History

Melisandre is a shadowbinder and red priestess of R'hllor from the distant country and city of Asshai, acting in the service of King Stannis Baratheon. She is also a priestess of the Lord of Light or Red God, R'hllor. She was sold into slavery as a child. Her name was once Melony.

Originally born a slave in Essos centuries ago, Melisandre is a Red Priestess of the Lord of Light, a deity that is not widely worshiped in Westeros. Hailing from Asshai, a country located in the far east of the continent of Essos, she claims to wield powerful magical abilities, particularly the power of prophecy. Melisandre wears a large ruby necklace that seems to glow whenever she performs her magic. Some years ago she crossed the Narrow Sea and came to the court of Lord Stannis Baratheon on the island stronghold of Dragonstone, to preach her faith. Stannis and the majority of his household have now converted to her religion, and she has become a close adviser to Stannis himself.

According to Melisandre, her ultimate goal is to ensure the victory of R'hllor over the Lord of Darkness and Cold, the Great Other, whose return will be heralded by a deep and lengthy winter. Melisandre has the ability to see visions of the future in fire, and concluded that Stannis Baratheon was Azor Ahai reborn, the man prophesied to lead the victory over the Others in this war. To do this he must become the King of Westeros.

After Stannis' defeat at the Battle of the Blackwater, Melisandre claims to have arranged the deaths of Robb Stark, Joffrey Baratheon and Balon Greyjoy through her magic, although the truth of this is uncertain. Melisandre sees that Davos is plotting to kill her and has him arrested. Davos is freed, but then he arranges the escape of Edric Storm who is one of Robert Baratheon's bastards and who Melisandre wishes to use in one of her blood sacrifices. When Davos Seaworth discovered a long-forgotten message from the Night's Watch begging for aid and warning of unusual events happening beyond the Wall, Melisandre realized this was the beginning of the true struggle and convinced Stannis to sail for the Wall with his remaining strength to prosecute the war from there.

Despite claiming benign motivations, Melisandre is viewed with suspicion from some, due to her extreme ruthlessness. She tries to warn Jon Snow that he is in danger, but he disregards her advice.

After Stannis Baratheon's death at the Battle of Winterfell, she revives Jon Snow after he is murdered by various members of the Night's Watch, believing him to be The Prince That Was Promised, and serves Jon as an adviser until she is banished from the North after the Battle of the Bastards when Jon learns that she sacrificed Shireen Baratheon and countless innocent people while in Stannis's service. However, she later unites the newly crowned King in the North with Daenerys Targaryen, believing they both have an important part to play in the Great War.

Appearance and Personality

Melisandre is a woman of almost terrible beauty. With a mane of dark red hair and pale skin, Melisandre is tall, slender and full-breasted, with a narrow waist and a heart-shaped face. Her voice is deep, with an Eastern accent, and she is rarely ever seen not dressed in flowing red robes. Those who are not entranced by how beautiful she is are very frightened of her. She is never seen without a red-golden choker around her neck.

Melisandre appears to be an extremely powerful individual who can see visions in the flames, and gives the impression of somebody who knows the will of R'hllor, though she admits that nobody can truly know his will in full as she can only see what the Lord of Light allows her to see. She is completely confident in the Lord's power, to a fearsome extent. She is generally serene, dark and mysterious, described as terrible by Maester Cressen. She is capable of anticipating moves made directly against her, but there are certain limits to what she can see. Melisandre is clearly intelligent enough to manipulate other people's perspectives in her favor, so that she remains in a certain position of power.

From the one time in the series her perspective is shown, Melisandre appears to be an insecure individual with a mysterious past and a fear of the darkness that apparently awaits everyone.

Melisandre is best defined by her seemingly unwavering faith in the Lord of Light, which seems to dominate every move she makes. A religious fanatic, she attributes many, if not any, great thing to be done in the world as an act carried out by the Lord; however, funnily enough, she doesn't credit herself with anything she does in the fire god's service, describing herself as simply a vessel for his will. She is extremely intelligent in her own way and appears to have an uncanny understanding of other people, which enables her to either gain their trust or to subdue them in a confrontation without it coming to blows between them, which sets her apart from women like Cersei Lannister and Margaery Tyrell. The latter is a person whom Melisandre especially contrasts with in this regard, because almost everyone feels uneasy around her, in spite of her calm and serene behavior.

Melisandre has a habit of being exceptionally changeable in spite of her absolute faith in R'hllor, which is demonstrated several times. When she meets Stannis Baratheon, she convinces him that he will win the war with great ease on the basis that he is the one true king, and goes to extremely great lengths to ensure that this victory is carried out. When Stannis broods over losing at Blackwater Bay, he actually threatens her and she remains faithful to R'hllor, although she doesn't willingly admit that her god wronged both her and Stannis by causing the loss at Blackwater Bay - a suggestion which Melisandre ought to believe because she is convinced that the Lord of Light controls everything, and seems to have protected the usurping lords who stand against Stannis. She defends herself by assuring Stannis that the war between Stannis and his enemies will be long and costly, but eventually he will succeed.

Melisandre is a woman who is completely aware of her own enigma - in fact, her enigma is something that she relishes. Very little is truly known about her past other than generalizations that she gives other people; she claims that she has been fighting for far longer than Stannis ever has, and is revealed to actually be a ferocious opponent in her own right, as she subdues Stannis when he attacks her by reminding him of how he needs her alongside him. She also frightens Davos Seaworth with her own powers, especially by alluring him in anticipation for what he is about to see. One prime example is when Davos returns to Dragonstone and Melisandre maintains control over Stannis by provoking Davos into attacking her, which leads to him being arrested. In spite of her animosity, Melisandre wasn't above realizing that Davos was still of use to Stannis and that he would be needed in the coming war. Melisandre is also completely able, and adept, at using her own sex to her advantage, seducing Gendry into being a part of her ritual for Stannis - however, when Robb Stark is killed as a result of this ritual, Melisandre scorns Davos for wanting to see the Lord's power, since the ritual still hasn't brought Stannis closer to the Iron Throne, even though Melisandre performed the ritual herself.

Melisandre, although apparently representing a god who is good and true, can deliberately be incredibly ruthless and cruel. She is completely willing to erase hundreds of lives in representation of her faith in the Lord of Light, to the point of outright murdering good men and allies under the assumption that it will win Stannis favor with her god. She saw nothing wrong with burning people publicly, and behaved as if they had been freed from their sinful bodies and become assets to the Lord of Light, comparing it to how a woman screams before she gives birth and is immeasurably happy afterwards - Shireen Baratheon is quick to point out the drastic difference being that women giving birth aren't ash and bone afterwards. Melisandre speaks of the sinfulness and cruelty of her enemies, even though she herself can be cruel and even arrogantly, unapologetically sadistic, shown prominently when she taunts Davos with the concept that the mass-casualties at Blackwater Bay were his fault because Melisandre wasn't there, and how she uses Mathos's own death as an example to this. The worst example of her cruelty by far is when she convinces Stannis to burn his own daughter alive in public, indifferent to the screams of both Shireen and her mother, and the brutal despair that Stannis experiences.

As the War of the Five Kings climaxes and devolves into disaster, Melisandre's faith begins to crack. She begins to lose faith in Stannis as the Battle of Winterfell comes closer at hand, but remains at his side for the most part; however, after the deaths of Shireen and Selyse, Melisandre flees the battle, perhaps in fear of Stannis's rage, and is unable to do anything to help Stannis crush the Boltons in battle, even though she claimed to Davos that she would have eased Stannis's victory at Blackwater. Melisandre's faith is crushed at the news of Stannis's defeat and the concept that she was wrong, and she becomes more withdrawn than before. She seems to transfer her faith to Jon Snow, who actually proves to be the man who would win a great battle in the North, and supports him after she resurrects him. This is a surprising turn for Melisandre because she supported Stannis so strongly under the impression that he was the one true king that would defeat the great evil to come, only to transfer her faith to somebody else. On the other hand, this is an understandable move by Melisandre because she tries to maintain her faith in the Lord of Light, in spite of the misfires and obstacles that come her way. It should be noted that during her service to Jon, Melisandre stops proselytizing her faith and only uses her magic when he commands it, adopting a more subdued approach to her religion and future events and ultimately behaving a bit more like Thoros.

Melisandre's inadvertent cruelty and ruthlessness, as well as her extremely costly faith in the Lord of Light, finally explodes in her face when Davos finally confronts her over the death of Princess Shireen. Having quarreled with Davos over the true greatness of the Lord of Light from the beginning, Melisandre is defenseless when Davos berates her over the wastefulness of her sacrifices and the fact that, in spite of her claims to represent a great god, she purposefully burned a child at the stake on the basis that she had king's blood in her veins. Melisandre is unable to speak when Davos condemns the Lord of Light as evil because of what he 'made' Melisandre do, and has the gall to shame Stannis and Selyse as equivalently responsible for Shireen's death, even though, out of the three of them, Melisandre was the only one who didn't show restraint in the act. She is unapologetic about her own blind faith, and maintains her philosophy that the Lord of Light is influential in the battle between good and evil, and the fact that she committed unforgivably evil acts in representation of good.

Even though Melisandre stakes a claim of superior knowledge about the Lord of Light, she faces several incidents and outcomes which she proves unable to predict or even understand. She is speechless at the revelation that Beric Dondarrion had been brought back six times by the Lord of Light, which she deemed impossible. She is also disappointed at the concept that there is nothing after death, even though she convinced herself and tried to convince many others that death would be a release into someplace much greater than the hell that everyone lives in.

#melisandre #r'hllor #rhllor #the lord of light #house baratheon #house baratheon of dragonstone #ours is the fury #game of thrones #got #a song of ice and fire #asoiaf

[seekfirstme]

The following reflection is courtesy of Don Schwager © 2021. Don's website is located at Dailyscripture.net

Meditation: If God is all-loving and compassionate, then why is there so much suffering and evil in this world? Many agnostics refuse to believe in God because of this seemingly imponderable problem. If God is love then evil and suffering must be eliminated in all its forms. What is God's answer to this human dilemma? Jesus' parable about a highway robbery gives us a helpful hint. Jesus told this dramatic story in response to a devout Jew who wanted to understand how to apply God's great commandment of love to his everyday life circumstances. In so many words this religious-minded Jew said: "I want to love God as best as I can and I want to love my neighbor as well. But how do I know that I am fulfilling my duty to love my neighbor as myself?"

Jesus must have smiled when he heard this man challenge him to explain one's duty towards their neighbor. For the Jewish believer the law of love was plain and simple: "treat your neighbor as you would treat yourself." The real issue for this believer was the correct definition of who is "my neighbor". He understood "neighbor" to mean one's fellow Jew who belonged to the same covenant which God made with the people of Israel. Up to a certain point, Jesus agreed with this sincere expert but, at the same time, he challenged him to see that God's view of neighbor went far beyond his narrow definition.

God's love and mercy extends to all

Jesus told a parable to show how wide God's love and mercy is towards every fellow human being. Jesus' story of a brutal highway robbery was all too familiar to his audience. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho went through a narrow winding valley surrounded by steep rocky cliffs. Many wealthy Jews from Jerusalem had winter homes in Jerico. This narrow highway was dangerous and notorious for its robbers who could easily ambush their victim and escape into the hills. No one in his right mind would think of traveling through this dangerous highway alone. It was far safer to travel with others for protection and defense.

Our prejudice gets in the way of mercy

So why did the religious leaders refuse to give any help when they saw a half-dead victim lying by the roadside? Didn't they recognize that this victim was their neighbor? And why did a Samaritan, an outsider who was despised by the Jews, treat this victim with special care at his own expense as he would care for his own family? Who was the real neighbor who showed brotherly compassion and mercy? Jesus makes the supposed villain, the despised Samaritan, the merciful one as an example for the status conscious Jews. Why didn't the priest and Levite stop to help? The priest probably didn't want to risk the possibility of ritual impurity. His piety got in the way of charity. The Levite approached close to the victim, but stopped short of actually helping him. Perhaps he feared that bandits were using a decoy to ambush him. The Levite put personal safety ahead of saving his neighbor.

God expects us to be merciful as he is merciful

What does Jesus' story tell us about true love for one's neighbor? First, we must be willing to help even if others brought trouble on themselves through their own fault or negligence. Second, our love and concern to help others in need must be practical. Good intentions and showing pity, or emphathizing with others, are not enough. And lastly, our love for others must be as wide and as inclusive as God's love. God excludes no one from his care and concern. God's love is unconditional. So we must be ready to do good to others for their sake, just as God is good to us.

Jesus not only taught God's way of love, he also showed how far God was willing to go to share in our suffering and to restore us to wholeness of life and happiness. Jesus overcame sin, suffering, and death through his victory on the cross. His death brought us freedom from slavery to sin and the promise of everlasting life with God. He willingly shared in our suffering to bring us to the source of true healing and freedom from sin and oppression. True compassion not only identifies and emphathises with the one who is in pain, but takes that pain on oneself in order to bring freedom and restoration.

The cross shows us God's perfect love and forgiveness

Jesus truly identified with our plight, and he took the burden of our sinful condition upon himself. He showed us the depths of God's love and compassion, by sharing in our suffering and by offering his life as an atoning sacrifice for our sins upon the cross. His suffering is redemptive because it brings us healing and restoration and the fulness of eternal life. God offers us true freedom from every form of oppression, sin, and suffering. And that way is through the cross of Jesus Christ. Are you ready to embrace the cross of Christ, to suffer for his sake, and to lay down your life out of love for your neighbor?

"Lord Jesus, may your love always be the foundation of my life. Free me from every fear and selfish-concern that I may freely give myself in loving service to others, even to the point of laying my life down for their sake."

The following reflection is from One Bread, One Body courtesy of Presentation Ministries © 2021.

MOBY DICK

“The Lord sent a large fish, that swallowed Jonah; and he remained in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” —Jonah 2:1

The Lord is calling just as many people now to be priests, sisters, and brothers as ever. Yet the world is full of Jonahs, who jump a ship to Tarshish to run from God’s call (Jon 1:2-3). The Lord is calling for large families just as He has for millennia. However, parents are playing Jonah and usurping family planning from God, as if He doesn’t know what He’s doing. The Lord is calling for more foreign and native missionaries than ever, for He wants all “to be saved and come to know the truth” (1 Tm 2:4). Still, the harvest remains great and the laborers few (Mt 9:37).

All of us Jonahs need a whale of a problem to turn us around. There’s nothing like a few days in a whale’s belly to help us change our minds about running away from God’s call. I pray we all follow God’s will for our lives. That’s the only way to be happy and pleasing to Him. I pray that, if we’re resisting any calls from God, we would be swallowed by a whale, or something to that effect. Can you say “Amen”?

Prayer:  Jesus, get me where I’m supposed to be, doing what I’m supposed to do in Your Kingdom. Amen.

Promise:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” —Lk 10:27

Praise:  St. Francis converted to the Faith while he was a prisoner of war. He dedicated his life to Jesus in a manner beyond what most can imagine. For instance, he went on the Fifth Crusade to preach the Gospel to the Muslim world.

Reference:  (For a related teaching on Hearing God, order, view or download our leaflet or order, listen to or download our CD 45-1 or DVD 45 on our website.)

Rescript:  "In accord with the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant the Nihil Obstat for the publication One Bread, One Body covering the time period from October 1, 2021 through November 30, 2021. Reverend Steve J. Angi, Vicar General, Chancellor, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio April 14, 2021"

The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements

[linuxgamenews]

RimWorld new DLC adds a belief system to the game

Ideology expands the games belief system in the RimWorld expansion for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to developer Ludeon Studios for adding more content. Which is now available on Steam and GOG. Ludeon Studios expands the epic RimWorld with the Ideology expansion. So now, each person in the game gets a belief system. These belief systems will define social roles. Such as leaders, moral guides, and skill specialists. They also include rituals from gentle festivals to brutal killings. These guild choices for food, comfort, love, technology, and violence. They favour certain animals, desire different apparel and tattoos. Giving access to different buildings and strategies. As a result, the games new expansion you can customize everything. So you can create your own story, such as pirate nudist cannibals. Create blind underground mole people, generous ranching cowboys, and machine focused trans-humanists. All the way to simple peaceful tribes who bond with tree creatures. All the while, offering support for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Ideology lets you build mind bending temples with colorful drug motifs. Even altars for sacrifices are all clad in skulls. Plus winding mazes of underground tunnels full of technology. Or simply create stunning orchards.

Social roles

Now you can make use of your colonists’ special strengths. Doing so by assigning them social roles. Each belief system in Ideology defines roles that believers can take on.

RimWorld - Ideology launch trailer (Linux, Mac, Windows PC)

There are three categories of roles:

The Leader: The leader role can only be assigned to one colonist. Leaders give moving speeches, buff combat allies around them, and motivate harder work. They also have a special role in some rituals. They can even accuse prisoners or colonists of crimes. If they can actually prosecute the defendant in a trial. Then you can punish the accused without social outcomes. Since you can decide what is true or false in Ideology.

Moral Guide: The moral guide role can be assigned once for each belief system. This will the duty of at least three colonists. Moral guides support the mental well being and spiritual strength of your people. Likewise, they lead many rituals including funerals, sacrifices, and more. They can preach health to the sick to speed up healing. Provide counsel to sad colonists to lift their moods and convert non-believers to their own belief system.

Specialist Roles: Finally, the specialist roles can be assigned to any number of believers. There are a variety of specialist role types – one for each skill. Specialists are better at their primary skills. They also gain a unique ability related to that skill. However, specialists will focus more on their specific skills and won’t do some other work.

With Ideology, colonists with social roles will want a change their appearance. They may ask for elegant capes, creepy visage masks, solemn hoods, and painful torture crowns.

Rituals in Ideology

Holding rituals are player controlled events. Special gatherings have a variety of impacts depending on how they play out. These also add to the story of your colony. You can hold somber funerals for fallen soldiers. Even silence rebellious behavior with public killings. Even pit slaves and prisoners against one another in vicious gladiator duels. Likewise, Ideology will let you host parties in dance halls or drum circles. Set famed statues on fire to watch them burn. Maybe breathe in smoke leaf fumes from a giant bong. There are also tasty feasts of human meat, ceremonial blindings, and scarifications. Visitors that have a good time will leave with mood boosts. So if the ritual was truly spectacular, there may be additional bonuses. Such as unlocking psychic powers, new recruits, improved goodwill with your neighbors. And finding the places filled with treasure in ancient complexes. At the same time, certain rituals may upset spectators and cause a mood deficit. Since it depends on their personal beliefs. Ideology expansion is available now for RimWorld. The games belief system content is priced at $19.99 USD. Along with continuing support for Linux, Mac, and Windows PC. Available on Steam and GOG.

#rimworld #ideology #expansion #linux #gaming news #ludeon studios #ubuntu #mac #windows #pc

[iamastrongchristian-blog]

How Sacrifice Releases Power

For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the POWER OF GOD.

1 Corinthians 1:18

Every sacrifice releases some power! The preaching of the cross is the preaching of sacrifice. It is also the preaching of power. As Christians, we should preach boldly about the cross and what it means.

The Bible tells us in the verse we read, that the preaching of Christ is foolishness to those that are perishing but unto us, it is the power of God.

Every Sacrifice releases spiritual power! This explains why many demonic rituals involve some kind of sacrifice. Various animals and sometimes human beings are sacrificed in rituals, to release power. Occultists make sacrifices. People seeking spiritual power are always asked to sacrifice something.

The king of Moab sacrificed his son when he saw that he was losing a battle with the Israelites:

And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not. THEN HE TOOK HIS ELDEST SON THAT SHOULD HAVE REIGNED IN HIS STEAD, AND OFFERED HIM FOR A BURNT OFFERING UPON THE WALL. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.

2 Kings 3:26-27

This sacrifice turned away the approaching armies. Power was released by sacrificing the king’s son. This saved the king’s life and the lives of his people. Sacrifice will always release power. Learn this principle - sacrifice will always release power.

The Israelites made God angry because they sacrificed their children to idols for power:

Yea, THEY SACRIFICED THEIR SONS AND THEIR DAUGHTERS UNTO DEVILS, And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.

Psalm 106:37-38

Many pastors and leaders of churches are powerless because they make no sacrifices for the Lord and have no intention to do so.

Some years ago, the Church in Switzerland was very powerful. They sent missionaries to Ghana, even though they could not speak Ghanaian languages. One of these missionaries called Johann Riis translated the Bible into Twi, one of the most widely spoken dialects in Ghana. He also translated 6000 Twi proverbs into English.

Today, there are still Swiss people who speak fluent Twi. They are descendants of the original missionaries.

If I were to send people to certain places for missionary work, there would be an outcry. That is why there is no power in our ministries. There is power only when there is sacrifice!

A lot of power is released, for instance, when you fast. This is because a sacrifice is made when you fast. Fasting is sacrificing your meals. When people give up something for the ministry, power is released.

The early church was so powerful. The more they were martyred, the stronger they became. However, when the Church was accepted officially in Rome, it lost its power. This acceptance removed the need for sacrifice and therefore weakened the Church.

The power of the Church is often increased where there is opposition and much need of sacrifice.

Three Types of Power Released through Sacrifice

a. The power to make people follow you

There is an aura around anyone who makes great sacrifices. He is respected and held in high esteem by people around him. People see this person doing things that they fear to touch. This inspires confidence and stirs up followers to do the same.

Let’s face it: How many of the democratically elected politicians are prepared to die for what they believe? Some of them do not even believe in their own speeches. They read speeches that are written for them and make promises that are not true. I sometimes marvel at how unreal some of these people are. They rarely speak extemporaneously. Tell me, am I lying?

b. The power to convince people

Have you ever wondered why some people are so unconvincing? No one wants to hear what they have to say. Have you asked yourself why some pastors have very few members (followers)? Many politicians claim to love their countries. They talk about their concern for their countries at political rallies and news conferences. Unfortunately, many people do not believe them.

Think about Jesus. He never wrote a book and never published an article. He never campaigned for votes or support. In fact, He constantly told people not to publicize the good things He had done for them.

He never travelled more than two hundred miles from His hometown. He never preached on TV or on radio. He did not build any institutions to His memory! His picture was never on a billboard and He never owned a car.

Yet, the whole world has gone after Him. Two thousand years have gone by and millions still believe in Him. Thousands are converted to Him daily and there are volunteers who are ready to die for Him today.

What is the reason for the long-lasting effect of His ministry? The answer is simple. The sacrifice! The sacrifice of His life on the cross was the most significant spiritual thing that Jesus did on earth. He preached, He taught and healed the sick. However, the eternal fruit was borne when He gave up His life on the cross.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus did not stay around longer than 33 years? When He was threatened why didn’t He travel to Morocco, Algeria, Macedonia or Egypt? Why didn’t He preach for a few more years? Were there no more good works that He could do on earth?

What we need to learn here, is that obedience and sacrifice will bear more eternal fruit than any other good works we do. This one sacrifice for humankind has released so much power into the earth.

This is why millions from all nations believe and follow Him. This is why Jesus focused on sacrificing Himself on the cross. The sacrifice on the cross was the key that would release the power of salvation. No amount of preaching or teaching could replace what would be accomplished on the cross.

c. The power to make people committed

But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Philippians 3:7-8

Many great men and women have left all to follow Jesus. Kathryn Kuhlman had to leave her husband. Not many women would be prepared to leave their husbands.

In one of Kathryn Khulman’s biographies, the author talks about how he had asked Kathryn about her marriage. He said they were alone in a room together when he asked about this chapter of her life. In a rare moment, she began to speak about her former husband and what it had cost her to leave him.

Suddenly, the power of God entered the office. The writer described how he could hardly stand. He said the presence of God came into the room so powerfully that he had to leave. A sacrifice always releases power. Sometimes even talking about the sacrifice releases the power.

I once had an uncanny experience when the holy presence of God walked into my office. I was in conversation with two other pastors when the anointing walked into the room. The three of us suddenly knew that someone had walked in.

Everyone there could feel that He was standing by us. These things are real. I had never had an experience like that.

We have so much knowledge and so little sacrifice. There is power ready to break forth in our lives the moment we make the sacrifice. You will be surprised at how many people will become committed to your cause when you make the sacrifice.

Do People Take You Seriously?

I once asked some pastors, “You preach the same messages that I do, don’t you?” Then I asked them, “Is the impact of your message felt?” They stared at me silently.

I continued, “Because you have not given up anything for what you believe, people do not take you seriously. You may say the same things that I do but if you do not pay the price, you will never make the impact you need to.”

Many preachers are not taken seriously. Many of their statements are ignored. But everything changes when someone pays the price. Every situation changes in the moment that blood is shed.

There was a time when our church was attacked. The people in the community were hostile to us. My young men wanted to fight back and kill the invaders. They wanted us to arm ourselves and launch counter-attacks. But I knew that if someone was killed in the confrontation, the intensity and seriousness of the conflict would change forever. We did not want to shed blood. This is the reason why we did not fight back when our church was attacked. Macbeth said, “Blood will have blood!” Jesus said, “He that comes by the sword will go by the sword.”

You see, the gravity of every situation changes as soon as a sacrifice of someone’s life is made. Where there is no sacrifice, there will be no power. You may have many doctrines and ideas, but without sacrifice you will have no power in your ministry.

You should come to the Lord and ask Him if there is anything He wants from you. You must give yourself as a living sacrifice to Him. There can be no power without a sacrifice. Sacrifices release the power of God in your life.

When there is sacrifice, there is power. This is why suicide bombers are making such an impact in the world today. You would think that these terrorist acts would drive people away from their religion. On the contrary, it stirs up more commitment. Sacrifice attracts more followers.

God told me that He called me to start churches. He has asked me to send people to the corners of the world to start churches. The Lord told me that there are several people who will respond to this call. He told me not to worry about people’s lives but to sacrifice my best sons and daughters on the harvest fields. I tell you, many have responded and are doing great things for the Lord.

God is going to make you sacrifice. He may change your life and change everything about you. He is going to ask you to give up certain things, and as you do, you are going to see His power. When you speak, your words will be taken seriously because of the sacrifices you’ve made.

by Dag Heward-Mills

[specialchan]

Halloween Holiday via /r/islam

Halloween Holiday

Halloween

Too often, we are in the dark about the background of occasions and holidays like Halloween, Easter, etc. Don’t think this is a trivial matter because once you find out why these are celebrated, you will think twice about getting yourself or your kids involved in it.

​

Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. The festival of Samhain was a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped, and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops. Masks and costumes were worn in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease them. The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween.

Roman and Christian influence:

By 43 AD, “Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory.” For the 400 years, they occupied Celtic lands, two Roman festivals, Feralia (the commemoration of the passing of the dead), and a day to honor Pomona (the Roman goddess of fruits and trees), were celebrated. The apple was served as a symbol for Pomona and might have been incorporated into Samhain by the practice of “bobbing for apples”.

When “local people converted to Christianity during the early Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church often incorporated modified versions of older religious traditions in order to win converts.” Pope Gregory IV wanted to substitute Samhain withAll Saints’ Day in 835, but All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2nd) which is closer in resemblance to Samhain and Halloween today, was “first instituted at a French monastery in 998 and quickly spread throughout Europe(1).” In the 16th century, “Christian village children celebrated the vigil of All Saints’ by doing the Danse Macabre. The Seven Brethren whose grisly death is described in the seventh chapter of the deuterocanonical book of Second Macabees” is also said to have resulted in children dressing up in grisly costumes to signify these deaths(2).

What is Halloween made of:

Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting “haunted houses” and carving jack-o-lanterns. Part of the history of Halloween is Halloween costumes. We find it innocent enough to let our children dress up as a Vampire or a Frankenstein at the parties held at a house or at the very least, attend the school functions because the teacher says “it’s mandatory.” But we forget or are oblivious to the fact that the practice of dressing up in costumes and begging door to door for treats on holidays goes back to the Middle Ages, and includes Christmas wassailing. This was done so that the spirits of the dead would not recognize people. The Druids would actually sacrifice animals and sometimes humans and dress in these animal skins. Wearing these clothes, they would engage in fortune-telling. Another explanation is that today, children who dress up, represent these spirits.

Trick-or-treating resembles the late medieval practice of “souling,” when poor folk would go door to door on Hallowmas (November 1), receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2). Today, when kids are offered treats by neighbors, this goes back to the time people would offer food to appease the spirits.

Halloween can be a time for MAJOR SHIRK (making partners with Allah ). There are games and rituals which involve fortune-telling. Young people, for instance, try to see what their marriage prospects are by using omens like apple pairings that are thrown over their shoulders, or nuts being burned in a fire.

Jack-o’-lantern started off as a legend associated with a man of Irish origin named Jack who supposedly enjoyed playing pranks on the Devil. After his death, Jack did not go to Heaven or Hell and therefore, had to wander the earth carrying a lantern which gave him some light to see where he was going. Pumpkins that were hollowed out and had candles lighted inside did the job and they were also supposed to scare evil spirits away.

The Islamic stance is clear:

When you look a few of these evidences, (there are a whole lot of them), you get the clear Islamic stance towards Halloween:

“Say: ‘None in the heavens and the earth knows the ghayb (unseen) except Allah…" - Quran 27:65

This leaves no room for Halloween fortune-telling; and, “Whoever imitates a people is one of them(3)” puts an end to all the Halloween hype. In Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah, it says:

“The clear evidence from the Qur’an and Sunnah – on which there is consensus among the early generations of the ummah – that there are only two Eids or festivals in Islam:

Eid al-Fitr (Celebration after fasting for 30 days on the month of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha. Any festivals other than these, whether they are connected to a person, a group, an incident, or anything else, are innovated festivals and it is not permissible for the Muslims to celebrate them or approve of them, the express joy on them or help with them in any way because that is transgressing the sacred limits of Allah …” And to top it off, it becomes totally out of the league for us Muslims when it includes pagan-origins. It may seem very alluring to you with all the hype, and it may also be very difficult for you to stand apart from the mainstream crowd, but no matter how much fatwa shopping we do, how many ever “moderate” versions we try to seek, there is still just two words for it: not permissible.

And since it attracts children mostly, what with all the free candy, it becomes increasingly essential for parents to be proactive and handle the situation wisely.

Here are some handy tips for parents:

Be open and tell them the origin of Halloween and why our religion can’t allow it. Telling them the reason of banning it in the house will convince them more than any other lame excuse you could come up with.

Whenever you take away something from someone and leave a gap, never forget to provide them a suitable alternative. In this case, get your children to anticipate Eid more or get them involved into some other halal fun activities.

Another way is to keep them entertained on a daily basis. Sports, baking, hanging out with friends, and food of their choice should be a regular-fun-thing in their time table. This way, they will not be so keen to seek it elsewhere.

Last but not the least, keep them away from school when Halloween parties take place. Because no matter how many times you tell them it’s wrong, they are bound to get influenced to be a part of its festivities. Remember, what your children SEE influences them more than what they HEAR. Your advice will not affect them if their environment preaches otherwise.

Closing Thoughts:

The Halloween hoop-la is crazy and seems like it takes over everyone every year. But instead of going with the tide, we need to educate ourselves and especially our kids about it and tell them why we do not become a part of its festivities. It’s not a bad thing to be different. Our religion gives us fun-off times (Come on, you just celebrated two Eids!)

and-that should be enough for us. Having fun is absolutely permissible but going to extremes to have it and on the way trampling our beliefs is not only revolting but also implies our extreme lack of faith and lack of pride in our religion. Moreover, it can promote useless phantom fears in the minds of our children and affect their psychology by getting them desensitized to the idea of begging/asking people for things. Hopefully, trick or treat does not look so tempting now. It’s important to stay clear from these dangerous festivals because when we become a part of these things, we bear witness to that which is AGAINST our basic aqeedah (creed). Watch out.

Reference:

(1) MSN Learning & Research- Halloween

(2) Source: History of Halloween 29 Feb. 2001. Indiana University. 12 Oct. 2002

(3) Narrated by Abu Dawood, 4031 (classed as saheeh by al-Albaani)

Source: Islamic Online University Blog

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[32flavasshoetique]

The New Way: Protestantism additionally the Hmong in Vietnam

The New Way: Protestantism additionally the Hmong in Vietnam

The transformation of Hmong people in Vietnam to Protestantism is notable not just for the size—with an expected 300,000 Hmong Protestants in Vietnam away from a basic populace of more than one million Hmong in Vietnam—but additionally as the first converts stumbled on faith through radio broadcasts. This guide examines such an account by way of a sociological lens. Tam Ngo lived with Hmong Protestants in north Vietnam. Her interviews and findings give you the history for the analysis. The guide provides unique source product for understanding conversion in Southeast Asia, specially among the Hmong in Vietnam.

It’s no effortless task to account fully for the Hmong Protestant motion in Vietnam. The easiest description is millenarian expectation in Hmong tradition blended well aided by the Protestant message. But comparable millenarian tendencies can be viewed in a lot of East Asia. Ngo reminds us of this Taiping Rebellion in nineteenth-century Asia along with the Hoa H?o movement in twentieth-century Vietnam.

Ngo concludes that no theory that is single account completely for transformation with this scale.

Yet as a suggestion that is tentative she proposes that Protestantism provides an alternative solution road to modernity for Hmong people, the one that bypasses the state worldview of Vietnam (10). Ngo recognizes that it is nevertheless maybe perhaps perhaps not the whole photo. Conversion is complex, along with her research illustrates just just exactly how initial good reasons for transformation may vary through the reasons individuals carry on when you look at the Protestant faith.

Chapter 1 describes the plight of contemporary Hmong in Vietnam. Ngo catalogues a few federal government programs built to civilize and manage Hmong groups. These have remaining the feeling that is hmong and belittled. For instance, as Vietnam transitioned to an industry economy within the late 1980s and very early 1990s (the D?i M?i reforms), the us government permitted for partial privatization of land but limited how big is household land plots to ensure that few Hmong had farmland that is sufficient surplus crops. Ngo spent amount of time in a village composed of Hmong who had previously been relocated into the 1990s from higher elevations. Provided the vow of better farmland, that they had relocated nearer to interaction tracks but discovered the advantage minimal. Vietnamese federal government officials, nevertheless, blame the Hmong on their own for his or her poverty because, they state, Hmong individuals refuse to completely enter the free market system. This mindset has added to Hmong distrust of Vietnamese leadership.

Chapter 2 details the very first conversions to Protestantism of Hmong in Vietnam through the preaching of John Lee on radio broadcasts sponsored because of the asia Broadcasting Company. Lee deliberately used Hmong people history interpreted through Christian language in the preaching. Hmong tradition currently had a Fall narrative, and Lee preached you can go back to the “god of heaven” through Jesus Christ (44–46). FEBC first found out about Hmong conversions in 1991 each time a Vietnamese magazine lamented that a lot of Hmong had become Christians through FEBC broadcasting. During the early 1990s, Vietnamese authorities attempted to impede a lot more of these conversions but without success.

Chapter 3 traces the transnational character of Hmong tradition as a factor that is significant Hmong transformation to Protestantism.

Diaspora Hmong Protestants in america as well as other nations have missionary zeal, which Ngo features with their breakthrough of contemporary life away from Southeast Asia. This results in a desire that is strong indulge in the evangelism of the previous homeland. But Ngo observes that this zeal is double-edged. By launching the transnational Hmong network of Protestants to the Hmong in Vietnam, Hmong coming back as “missionaries” also introduce methods of life characteristic associated with modern world that is developed. She concludes that Protestant Hmong in Vietnam may have difficulty keeping conventional types of life in the act.

Chapter 4 details the suspicion that Protestantism and millenarianism that is apocalyptic turn in hand. Ngo informs on how certainly one of her connections first heard the air preaching after which taken care of immediately neighborhood eschatological hype in 1990 by ceasing to farm for some time. In 1992 as soon as the radio instructed Christians to get hold of a church in Hanoi, but, he discovered Christian resources in Hmong and burned their altar that is ancestral in ceremony along with their descendants (85-87). This tale is typical and shows the clear presence of a millenarian tendency in Hmong tradition that may be along with Christianity in order for “little religious modification is needed” (95). But millenarianism is certainly not a beast that is tame. Because recently as might 2011, a sizable group including some Protestant Hmong collected in remote Mu?ng Nhe, partially provoked by the prophecy of Harold Camping about Christ’s imminent return. Ngo concludes that Protestantism could perhaps perhaps not include Hmong millenarianism. Through the chapter, nevertheless, she records that numerous Hmong Protestants deny that such radical millenarianism is just a force that is driving. As soon as 1992, Ngo’s connections started getting together with main-stream Protestantism. Ngo also visited a church team in 2007 that questioned her to be yes she had not been an apocalyptic preacher (99).

Chapter 5 explores the tangible reasons Hmong convert to Christianity. Specially in the first 2000s, these included certain financial benefits: eliminating high priced shaman rituals, eliminating bride cost, and a wholesome life style. Ngo concludes that the Vietnamese government efforts at changing Hmong tradition have actually unsuccessful while having alternatively exposed up the chance of alternative identities. Christianity, with a transnational message, offers a platform for identity that goes beyond the second-class situation of Hmong in Vietnam.

Chapter 6 details the intricate negotiations between church and state among the list of Hmong.

Constant surveillance and stress forced many Protestant Hmong to meet up in general privacy throughout the 1990s. Whenever church enrollment had been permitted in 2004–2005, Ngo reports that authorities denied numerous families from joining worship solutions simply because they weren’t formally registered in the neighborhood. Worship services had been under surveillance and had been necessary to occur exactly as was prepared. Protestant Hmong also face stress from non-Christian Hmong. Family animosity continues to be because Protestants will not participate in funeral rituals such as animal sacrifice.

Chapter 7 analyzes the changed stance that is moral Protestant Hmong, especially in regards to sexuality. Protestant conversion has visibly impacted marriage and courtship. Christians talk against key courtship very often involves sex that is pre-marital. Christians try not to exercise spending a bride price and frown regarding the tradition of bride-capture (frequently an orchestrated occasion). The language in Hmong for individual sin that is sexual also been broadened by Protestantism, although Ngo is ambiguous just what this may indicate. In quick, “Soul re searching, introspection, together with conception of sin be seemingly probably the most crucial areas of the Protestant contribution” (161).

Evangelical missiologists and theologians will see this text a complement with other sociological studies of transformation among cultural minority teams. Ngo resists the urge for a purely governmental narrative to describe Hmong transformation, although she prefers the storyline of the social trajectory linked to the modern developed globe. Protestantism offers a jump forward into contemporary identification structures for Hmong individuals, a jump that neither Vietnamese Communism nor conventional Hmong faith could offer. Although this can help explain specific areas of conversion, pragmatic reasons usually do not take into account the tenacity of several Hmong believers despite persecution during the early 1990s. In a single astonishing statement, Ngo compares transformation narratives in 2004–2005 to 2007–2008. Some people had stated that pragmatic considerations were foremost (e.g., not mail-order-bride.net – find your baltic bride enough a bride cost) in 2005, yet the exact same individuals explained that Protestantism had been superior as a belief system if they had been interviewed once more in 2007 (103). Let me reveal an understanding for missiologists and missionaries that are disciple-making. Burning one’s ancestral altar had been, when it comes to Hmong, just the start of transformation and maturity in Christianity.

Ngo’s work provides the opportunity for evangelicals to think on the observable, social, and also governmental nature of transformation. The recognition of public, gathered Hmong churches in communist Vietnam is really a testimony towards the power that is continuing of Christian message. As well, this sourcebook of Hmong expertise in transformation points out of the numerous actions taking part in changing one’s identity. The way in which one very very very first confesses Christ may alter after representation and engagement with Scripture together with global Christian community. Ngo’s work reminds evangelicals that many different human being facets make within the procedure of Christian conversion and serves as a resource that is helpful recording this history one of the Hmong.

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[gracewithducks]

For Freedom (Galatians 5:1, 13-25)

This week, I saw a story online, a story which has since been shared over a hundred thousand times. It’s a story written by a mom named Jen, about something she witnessed at the local pool.

 She wrote, “Yesterday while at the pool I watched a young Mama and her little daughter enter the pool area dressed in very nice coordinating swimming suits…” After spending several minutes on the phone, the mom finally turns her attention to her daughter – spending several minutes staging and capturing the perfect selfies and photos. Finally mom let her daughter get into the pool, but instead of joining her, mom instead got back onto the phone, ignoring her little girl. After about ten minutes, the mom ended her phone call, packed up unused sunscreen and untouched toys – nothing but photo props – bundled her daughter out of the pool, and left.

 Jen writes, “I sat there thinking about what I’d witnessed… I imagined the photos [that mom] took being perfectly edited and posted to social media with a caption like ‘Pool time with my [girl]! #makingmemories.’” And somewhere, Jen thought, another mom – a woman covered in spit-up and peanut butter, with messy hair in a messy house, who’s exhausted and overwhelmed – is going to see those perfect pictures and feel like a failure… but those pictures don’t tell the whole story at all.[1]

 We live in a curious moment in history, a moment when many of us and many of our neighbors carefully curate our online presence – looking for Instagram moments and snapshots worthy of our Facebook wall. But what we share online is only a tiny piece – a carefully screened and edited piece – of our whole lives. And when we look at other people’s best moments, and compare those to our worst, it’s easy to get discouraged – to feel like we’re the only ones with messy hair and messy families and bigger problems than what filter to use. There’s actually research into the ways that social media can contribute to depression and anxiety, in part because we compare our own realities to other people’s edited perfection – and we feel like our lives are coming up short.

What we see online isn’t reality. On some level, we know that – but we don’t always feel it; we forget. And maybe social media isn’t your thing. But we see the same phenomenon when we look to the past: we remember the past by looking at snapshots, retelling stories about the good old days, through the golden haze of nostalgia. We tend to forget the hardships, to gloss over the pain, to romanticize and idealize the past while forgetting what real life was like.

 We do it in the church, too. We like to remember John Wesley as this passionate, pioneering pastor who wasn’t afraid to break the rules to take the gospel to the poor and the lost – but we gloss over the fact that Wesley may have suffered from OCD and depression, that he was a less than inspiring preacher, that he led his pastors with an iron fist, and he was once run out of town and sent back from the colonies in disgrace because he refused to serve communion to the woman who broke his heart.

 When we write our own church histories, we fill the pages with smiling photos and inspiring triumphs, and we gloss over the times when we almost split over music choices and carpet colors.

 And I can’t tell you how often I’ve been in conversation with pastors and church members who wish we could just go back to the good old days of the early church – imagining this idealistic community where people spend all day in fellowship and prayer, with no buildings to maintain, no history weighing them down, where no one is in need and everyone sings kumbaya and boldly shares their faith and promises to love each other until Jesus comes.

But that’s not real life, either. And perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in Paul’s letter to the Galatian church. We don’t often revisit this little letter, except perhaps to trot out some of our favorite verses – and there are some good ones: this is the letter where Paul writes, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus,” and this is the letter where Paul makes the great list of the fruits of the Spirit, which we love to embroider and print on shirts and paint on walls and engrave on charm bracelets… We love parts of this letter, but we can easily forget the rest. The truth is, this is no carefully curated historical document; this is not a workshopped and vetted public statement – but this is a real letter, a very real letter, a real letter fired off by a very real and very angry apostle Paul, to a very real church full of very real conflict and strife. The Galatian Church is one of the churches that started after Paul travelled through the area, preaching the good news of Jesus’s death and resurrection, of grace and eternal life. It’s a Gentile church, a church full of people who weren’t Jews, who weren’t looking for or waiting for any kind of messiah, but who nevertheless found hope and purpose in the message that God so loves the whole world, and not even death is stronger than God’s love.

 When Paul leaves Galatia, he leaves behind seeds of faith and a fledgling community of grace. But after Paul had left, other preachers came – zealous and passionate missionaries, who came in the name of Jesus the Christ, but who proclaimed a slightly different gospel than the message Paul had shared. These new missionaries thought it was great that these Gentiles, these outsiders, had accepted that the messiah had come – but they needed to remember that Jesus was a Jew, he was the Jewish Messiah, who had come to fulfill the old Jewish prophecies and laws. And this meant, to these missionaries, that – while outsiders were welcome, they needed to become insiders; these Gentiles needed to convert to Judaism, to follow the rules of Jewish law, in order to fully belong to the Jewish Christ.

 These missionaries were passionate and zealous about their faith, as they taught the Galatian converts about kosher and cleansing and sacrifice and circumcision. And these missionaries certainly didn’t see themselves as Paul’s enemies, or as villains; like Paul, these were people who’d left their homes behind to travel and share the good news; they were trying to do what they earnestly believed was right, proclaiming the truth they believed to be true, for the sake of saving lost souls. And these new Christians in Galatia wanted to do what was right, too; they wanted to be faithful disciples – and Paul was far away, but these preachers were compelling, and they were right here – so the people started to believe all that they had to say.

When Paul hears what’s going on, he’s furious. He’s furious, because that message – that to follow Christ, you must follow the old rituals and rules – that message, those conditions, undermine the whole promise of grace. Paul’s furious, because the good news of Jesus is that Jesus has done what we can’t, that God welcomes us as we are, with no strings attached. He’s furious, because those well-meaning preachers are acting as if, after the resurrection, all of creation is still the same; they don’t realize that everything has changed.

 That’s why Paul writes this letter. And he is so passionate that he skips right over the usual greeting and blessing at the beginning; in most of his letters, he praises each church for their faithfulness before going on to offer corrections and advice. But in this letter, Paul is so anxious that the Galatians realize they’re being compelled away from the heart of the faith, that he skips the praises and jumps right into his critique. Paul writes this letter – one of his earliest letters – a letter that cuts to the heart of the gospel, that affirms that there is no longer Jew nor Greek, insider or outsider, because the old distinctions have passed away, and we are living into a whole new community and a whole new creation.

 That’s why Paul writes so fervently about freedom, as we heard in our scripture for today: “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore” in your freedom; don’t let anyone else put conditions or limitations on the message and grace of Christ.

 “For freedom. Christ has set us free,” Paul writes. “Only do not use your freedom for self-indulgence, but through love, use your freedom to serve one another. Do not bite and devour one another, but remember the one greatest commandment: love your neighbor as yourself.” God has put no limits on God’s love; don’t put limits and conditions on yours. Don’t add restrictions where God has poured out grace, but use your freedom to love as generously and humbly as Christ has loved you.

 That kind of love is hard. That kind of love goes deeper than a few carefully planned photo opportunities – it means loving the people whom we find most unlovable, on the days when we’re feeling unloving and unlovable ourselves.

It means being willing to inconvenience ourselves, to put others before our own comfort and our preferences, to make sacrifices for someone else’s sake. And that kind of love doesn’t come from guilt or duty; it can’t be compelled or forced – but it must be chosen, over and over again. That kind of love – real love – goes deeper than following the rules; that kind of love comes from being free.

 We talk a lot about freedom this time of year. We tell the story of where we’ve come from, and it’s a story about freedom: about brave pioneers who sailed the oceans in pursuit of freedom, who longed to build a city on a hill, to shine God’s light in the world, who fought for freedom, and who’ve continued to fight for freedom, not just at home but around the world, sharing that shining promise of the American dream: make good choices, work hard, and you, too, can have it all.

 We like to tell the story; we repeat it, passionately and with great zeal – the only problem is, we’re a lot like that mom by the side of the pool, more interested in sharing a perfect picture than getting our hair wet, getting our hands dirty, or telling the whole truth. We edit out the genocide of the native peoples; we gloss over all the ways those who fled oppression in search of freedom turned around to oppress others; we hide in a footnote that the society founded on freedom was built by slave labor… and we proudly salute the Statue of Liberty, with her bold proclamation: “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” – while turning our back to those who really are tired, poor, and yearning to breathe free – the parents and toddlers drowning at the border, where the luckier children sleep in cages under foil blankets on concrete floors, with no toothbrushes, no soap, no parents, no hope, and no idea when this nightmare will end.

The land of the free and the home of the brave, indeed.

 And we look the other way because those children aren’t “our” children, because they were born on the wrong side of an imaginary line, because their skin is a different color, and their prayers are spoken in another language. We don’t look. We don’t see. We don’t listen, and we don’t hear, and we don’t care. We say: they shouldn’t have come – when what we mean is, that promise of freedom isn’t for everyone, and we don’t want to share what we have, because we’re too greedy, too callous, and too afraid.

This isn’t about politics. When we’re putting children in cages, we’re talking about morality. When children are taking care of other children, when they’re crowded into warehouses, getting sick and dying and no one cares, we’re talking about basic humanity. If I made my children sleep in the garage, with no soap and no toothbrush and no blanket, you’d call the authorities to take them away. If your own grandchildren, if your nieces and nephews, if your friends were in those cages – you’d move heaven and earth to set them free. Because we know: that’s not right. It’s not okay. And it’s especially heinous in a so-called Christian nation, in a place we like to call the land of opportunity and the home of the free.

 It’s going to be awfully hard to celebrate freedom this year. Surely this isn’t the dream that our ancestors envisioned; surely this isn’t the kingdom that Jesus talked about – where the last are the first, and children are welcomed; where we treat the least of these as Christ himself, and they know we are Christians by our love.

As a people, as a nation, for all that we’ve gotten wrong, we are always at our best when we use our freedom for the sake of others – to fight against injustice and oppression, to stand up for those who are being trodden down. As people of faith, we are always called to a greater vision than just our own personal freedom and our own personal privileges and rights. For freedom Christ has set us free, not to bite and devour each other, not to destroy others with our own greed and prejudice and fear; we are forgiven and set free, not so we can do worse, but so we can do better. For freedom Christ has set us free: free to live with love, peace, kindness, generosity, self-control; free to be guided by the Spirit, to live a different way, to love as Christ loves us, to love others as we love ourselves.

 The United Methodist Church has called for this Sunday to be a Sunday of Solidarity for Suffering Children, in recognition and response to the travesty that’s happening at our border. Families escaping trauma, who have exercised their legal right to seek asylum have been treated as criminals, torn apart, and are being held indefinitely in unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Access is denied, not just to those who want to witness and report on the conditions, but to those who want to help – both private donors and established relief groups are being turned away; donations of blankets and hygiene kits, and offers to help, are being refused.

 So what can we do? First, we need to pray: pray for these children, pray for their parents, pray for our nation, for those who are desperate to help but powerless to do so, and for those with the power to make a change.

 If you want to give, one way to do so is by giving to support the work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief as they minister to migrants and refugees around the world. Although UMCOR and our partners aren’t being allowed into the camps, they are working with several church-run transitional shelters along the border helping those who’ve been approved to enter the country, they are working with JFON to provide immigration legal services, and UMCOR and its partners are also continuing to advocate for access and relief for the families who’ve been torn apart.

 And finally, so very importantly, use your voice. Relief for these children will take policy changes from the top down – so we need to let our officials and leaders know: this is not okay. Not in our homeland, and not in our name. Whatever you do, friends, don’t look away. Jesus waded into the most hurting and broken places – and he told us to do the same. Jesus welcomed the little children and he blessed them – and he told us to do the same. Jesus welcomed strangers, and he crossed borders, and he said, “Whatever you do for the last and the last, you do for me.”

 Don’t be silent. Don’t look away. Don’t let your fear be louder than your faith – there are lives at stake. Don’t look away. Don’t look away. Don’t look away.

 For freedom Christ has set us free – not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the hurting, the oppressed, the weak, the powerless, the least and the lost. For freedom Christ has set us free – not to add new restrictions and rules, not to limit God’s love, but to be a blessing, to love others, and to set them free, too.

 This week, friends, let’s do more than just pay lip service to freedom. May we not be so blinded by the fireworks that we ignore the very real darkness around us. May we not be so caught up in painting the perfect picture that we fail to live our faith in the real world – but speak up, shine in the darkness, offer help, offer hope – and may they know us, may they know who we are, by our love.

  I’d like to close with a prayer shared by the global church, which is being prayed in congregations across the country and around the world today:

  God of All Children Everywhere,

Our hearts are bruised when we see children suffering alone.

Our hearts are torn when we are unable to help.

Our hearts are broken when we have some complicity in the matter.

For all the times we were too busy and shooed a curious child away, forgive us, oh God.

For all the times we failed to get down on their level and look eye to eye with a child, forgive us, oh God.

For all the times we did not share when we saw a hungry child somewhere in the world, forgive us, oh God.

For all the times we thought about calling elected officials to demand change, but did not, forgive us, oh God.

For all the times we thought that caring for the children of this world was someone else’s responsibility, forgive us, oh God.

With Your grace, heal our hearts. With Your grace, unite us in action. With Your grace, repair our government. With Your grace, help us to find a way to welcome all children everywhere, That they may know that Jesus loves them, Not just because “the Bible tells them so,” But because they have known Your love in real and tangible ways, And they know that nothing, absolutely nothing, can separate them from Your love. Amen.

   This prayer is from a resource provided by the United Methodist Church, which also includes suggestions for how to take action:

https://www.umcmission.org/share-our-work/news-stories/2019/june/a-sunday-of-solidarity-for-suffering-children

 To find out more about what UMCOR is doing, check out:

https://www.umcmission.org/share-our-work/news-stories/2019/june/care-for-children-of-god

[1] Though of course I can’t vouch for its truth, this story made a buzz; it is shared, among other places, at: https://metro.co.uk/2019/06/28/woman-calls-mum-fake-instagram-photoshoot-daughter-pool-10084403/

[ilovearticlesoffaith-blog]

Repent

All through the Bible, God challenges people to repent. Preachers have been sent to give the message of repentance and remission of sins.

And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

Luke 24:47

To repent means to turn away from your sins and from your old lifestyle. A person who repents makes a complete turnaround in his life, often going in the opposite direction.

1. God commands men everywhere to repent: It is not an option that we have.

It is the command of God that all men repent and turn away from their sins everywhere.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now COMMANDETH ALL MEN EVERY WHERE TO REPENT:

Acts 17:30

The best example of repentance is the prodigal son who turned away from his past life and went back to his father.

2. God commands men everywhere to repent: Judas did not repent completely and ended up in hell.

The best example of someone who did not turn away completely from his evil ways was Judas Iscariot. Judas Iscariot felt sorry but did not come back to the Lord, humble himself and confess his wrongdoing.

Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, REPENTED HIMSELF, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and HANGED HIMSELF.

Matthew 27:3,5

3. God commands men everywhere to repent: God is asking you to repent and turn away from the wickedness of the thoughts of your heart.

When you turn away from your wicked ways, He will forgive you for your sins.

REPENT THEREFORE OF THIS THY WICKEDNESS, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.

Acts 8:22

Many people who claim to be Christians have not really repented because they do not turn away completely from their wicked ways and wicked thoughts. God expects you to turn away from wickedness. God expects you to turn away from bad thoughts and bad ideas. It is not enough to turn away from the actions. You must turn away from it in your mind and in your thoughts.

4. God commands men everywhere to repent: God is calling you to repent of murder. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer.

Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: ...

1 John 3:15

NEITHER REPENTED THEY OF THEIR MURDERS, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Revelation 9:21

5. God commands men everywhere to repent: God is calling you to repent of your sorceries and witchcraft.

Whoever dabbles in the occult brings upon himself a curse.

NEITHER REPENTED THEY of their murders, nor OF THEIR SORCERIES, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Revelation 9:21

The Idol in the Wardrobe

A Christian couple was living happily, enjoying their marriage and their lives together. One day, the mother of the husband visited their home. She had a private meeting with her son before she went back to her village. Everything seemed to be normal until one day the wife stumbled on an idol her husband had hidden in the wardrobe.

She confronted her husband, “What on earth is this?”

“Is this an idol? Are you into witchcraft? Are you into occultism?” she questioned.

After a while, her husband finally admitted and said, “This is our family idol and it is on a rotation. It stays with each member of the family for a year then it moves to the next family member. My mother brought it to me the last time she visited because she says it is my turn to keep the family idol.”

He continued to explain, “It is this graven image that protects our family.”

The Christian wife wanted her husband to take the idol out of the home and burn it. But he refused, saying that they all benefitted from the protective powers that it gave them.

This idol became a bone of contention in the home until the marriage broke up.

As you can see from this story, there are people who claim to be Christians but do not turn away from occultism and sorcery. If you have repented you must turn away from all these practices. Repentance means to turn around and to turn away from your past ways.

6. God commands men everywhere to repent: God is calling you to repent of your fornication.

All those who engage in sexual immorality will incur the wrath of God.

NEITHER REPENTED THEY of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor OF THEIR FORNICATION, nor of their thefts.

Revelation 9:21

Many people who claim to have come to Christ have not turned away from the sin of fornication. Sadly, they have not turned away from their lifestyle of indiscriminate sexual encounters with multiple partners. This is why the rate of HIV in the world is the same as the rate of HIV in the Church.

The Blood Donation

One day, a laboratory technician who worked at the blood bank gave me a sad and disappointing testimony. He said they had organised blood donation campaigns in many communities, including churches. He said it was unfortunate that they were unable to use much of the blood donated from the church. I asked why they were unable to use the blood from the church. He said in a hushed voice, “So much of the blood from the church could not be used because it was infected with HIV.”

He told us about the large percentage of blood that had to be thrown away because of the infection.

I thought to myself, “Where did the church members get the HIV infection from?”

Obviously, they had it from sexual intercourse with random partners. Today, many people in church are HIV positive.

To repent means to turn away from this lifestyle. When people do not turn away from indiscriminate sex and immorality it means they have not repented. Repentance is to turn away from your old and evil ways.

7. God commands men everywhere to repent: God is calling you to repent of your thefts.

There is a curse in the house of every thief. God is calling us to turn away from stealing of every kind.

NEITHER REPENTED THEY of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor OF THEIR THEFTS.

Revelation 9:21

There are many people who claim to be Christians but who are in prison today because they never truly repented and stopped stealing. I know this for a fact because whilst preaching in a prison service we would hear some of the prisoners respond with common and popular Christian slogans.

Obviously, attending church is not the same as repenting and turning away from sins. Many people who claim to be Christians have not turned away from stealing. That is why there are so many Christians in prison for stealing. One Christian brother told us how he had been sent to jail for five years for stealing.

8. God commands men everywhere to repent: God is challenging you to repent of religious dead works and dead religion.

…. the foundation of REPENTANCE FROM DEAD WORKS, and of faith toward God,

Hebrews 6:1

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD:

And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, WHEN YE MAKE MANY PRAYERS, I WILL NOT HEAR: your hands are full of blood.

Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Isaiah 1:11, 15-18

I used to go to Church every Sunday

I used to go to church every Sunday. Oh Sunday morning! I used to wear my best clothes and best shoes. I used to go to see my friends. Friends, oh friends, but I never knew that I had to be born again.

Many people are deluded because of their religious lifestyle just as I was. Being religious will not take you to Heaven. Jesus warned against people who served Him with religious rituals. All through the Bible God warns against religious sacrifice and behaviour that does not come from the heart.

Even though I religiously went to church, I hated the hymns, I hated the hymn books, I hated the preaching and I found the priests boring. I had never read the Bible. If I had died then, I would have gone straight to hell because I had not repented and turned away from dead worship and dead religion. When I found Jesus, I began to enjoy reading the Bible because I had come to know the author of this great book.

9. God commands men everywhere to repent: God is inviting you to repent; otherwise you will perish and go to hell.

I tell you, nay: but, EXCEPT YE REPENT, YE SHALL ALL LIKEWISE PERISH.

Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.

Luke 13:3-5

10. God commands men everywhere to repent: Repent and be converted. You must become a new person through conversion to Christianity.

You must change your life and change your ways. This is your chance to change. This is your chance to have a new life.

REPENT YE THEREFORE, AND BE CONVERTED, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

Acts 3:19

11. God commands men everywhere to repent: There will be much joy and celebration in Heaven over your repentance.

I say unto you, that likewise JOY SHALL BE IN HEAVEN OVER ONE SINNER THAT REPENTETH, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

Luke 15:7

by Dag Heward-Mills

[iprayunceasingly-blog]

The bishop who reaped a hundred-fold

New Post has been published on https://pray-unceasingly.com/catholic-living/catholic-news/the-bishop-who-reaped-a-hundred-fold/

The bishop who reaped a hundred-fold

Miao, India, Nov 7, 2018 / 07:00 am (CNA).- Many bishops spend their days carefully making plans to lead and manage the dioceses entrusted to them.

Bishop George Pallipparambil of the Indian diocese of Miao is different. He says that in his diocese, the planning is done by God. His job, he says, is to listen and respond.

Officially, his diocese has only existed since 2005. But Bishop Pallipparambil has been tending a flock in rural northeastern India for nearly four decades, watching it grow from 900 baptized Catholics in 1979 to more than 90,000 today, nearly 20 percent of the local population.

When he arrived, he had no plan, no church, no rectory. When asked how it happened, he told CNA simply “God did it.”

Early years

Until very recently, the diocese of Miao, situated along the Chinese border in the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, was considered remote, nearly inaccessible.

When Pallipparambil arrived 40 years ago, the region was run by the Indian military as a kind of “state within a state.” Populated by ethnically Mongolian tribes often in violent conflict, it was, Pallipparambil recalls, “in a way forbidden for the Church.”

Originally from Kerala, in southern India, Pallipparambil assisted in setting up a school for tribal children who had migrated south, long before he ever thought of dedicating his ministry to India’s northeastern region.

As students from his school returned home well-fed, able to read and write, and Christian, the elders of warring tribes called a truce, and sent a message south with returning students.

Pallipparambil remembers the children delivering the message, which they had memorized: “Dear Father George, please come to us and tell us more about this God Jesus, who has done so much for our children.” He smuggled himself north in 1979, and has remained there ever since.

Pallipparambil’s first years were marked by trial. Priests were banned in the region, as was evangelizing.

One day, as he walked from village to village preaching the gospel with a lay man, he was arrested and held in the regional police headquarters. It was Christmas, 1980.

“We were not welcome,” he recounted with a smile. “We were picked up around 10:30 in the morning and detained and questioned for hours.”

Word of their arrest made it back to a nearby village in which he had been preaching.

“They finished their Christmas celebrations, and then all the men – a few hundred of them – came with swords and torches to the police station.”

The tribal elder confronted the police superintendent, telling him “Give me back my father.”

“Finally,” Pallipparambil recalled, “at about one-thirty in the night, we were taken back to our mission.”

Freedom in the Gospel

Pallipparambil found the people hungry for the Gospel. “They were living at the level of animism,” he said.

“For them, the Gospel was something very meaningful; it brings liberation in a larger sense but particularly it gave them a dignity they had not known before.”

Conversion to Christianity was and remains a contentious issue in India, but for Pallipparambil it is not a question of “making” converts, but allowing the transformative message of the Gospel to speak for itself.

“Conversion properly understood, especially in India, is like a child growing up – it’s natural. For them it was as simple as this: they were born, were living a primitive kind of religion and then they found something better.”

“Religion is a part of every person’s life, and they were enslaved by these animistic beliefs, which were all they knew,” he told CNA.

The “slavery” to their natural religion was practical, not only theological, Pallipparambil said. The only worship the tribal people knew was ritual animal sacrifice, the cost of which kept them in literal poverty.

“Christianity, the freedom of the Gospel, was also an economic liberation for them,” Pallipparambil explained. Suddenly it opened the communities up to medicine, education, all things that before they simply could not have.

Social development and the spreading of the gospel go hand-in-hand, according to Pallipparambil.

“We never concentrated on pushing the Gospel down anyone’s throat,” he said.

“Our primary goal was to help them, whatever was needed – education, medicine, whatever. These were the works that we did, but they understood. They saw we were there, living with them, staying with them, they saw the witness. Accepting the Gospel was a fruit of our work of love, freely given.”

Human dignity is key to the change, according to the bishop, who has opened 40 schools in the region over the last 30 years. But a literally biblical hundred-fold increase of baptisms cannot be attributed to a few schools.

Achieved without any formal plan for “Christianizing” the people, the results have been nothing short of staggering.

“It is an actual, direct intervention of the Holy Spirit in their lives, it’s not us,” Pallipparambil told CNA.

While the growth of the local Church itself is large, the bishop said that it is its effect on the wider local community which has been most important, comparing it to the gospel metaphors of salt, light, and leaven.

He said that compared to religious tensions which characterize much of the country an atmosphere of tolerance exists in the region. He told CNA this is a fruit of the Church’s presence.

“The reason for this is that among the tribal communities there is equality. The caste system is not there, and for this reason they see the dignity in the Gospel but have rejected Hinduism.”

Dignity of women

One thing Christianity has brought to the tribal communities is advancement for women, Pallipparambil told CNA .

“This was their society, that the women were for housework and for children.”

In many places polygamy was common, Pallipparambil said, noting that child-brides and selling daughters into marriage was also normal.

That is not the case anymore. But like the conversion from animism to Christianity, the change came from example and witness, not by insistence.

“We did not fight that directly, or insist on telling them it is wrong,” the bishop said. “Instead, we started educating these younger girls, organizing training courses for them, teaching literacy and trade skills to young women who really blossomed.”

As the young men left to pursue work or education elsewhere, these women stayed. In short order, the bishop said, they became the leaders of the village, supported by Catholic women’s groups, fostering community and common life where previously they had been totally dependent upon men.

“It was a little thing that completely transformed the entire world of these women.”

Today, in an inversion of generations of practice, these women select their husbands from eligible men of the community. What they always insist on, Pallipparambil told CNA, is that they marry a Christian, or a man who will become a Christian.

“Christianity is a marriage of equals, based on love. This was transformative for the tribes, but it has now spread across the whole state.”

Universal call to holiness

The spread of the Gospel has not just yielded social change or economic improvement, it has also brought about vocations.

When the diocese was founded in 2005 and Pallipparambil made its first bishop, a minor seminary was erected with it. At the same time, many of the young women educated by the Church choose to enter religious life.

While these vocations are welcome, the diocese remains committed to its evangelizing mission, and that includes its approach to vocations.

“They are really committed to the mission, because their parents were lay missionaries; they are the ones who brought the Church here, planted the Church, suffered for the Church.”

The emphasis on the local faithful as lay missionaries is at the root of the diocese’s origin, and its growth.

“When I came here, no missionaries were allowed to even enter. That is how I ended up in jail over Christmas. Everything had to be done by lay people. At first it was the village people themselves, then it was the children, students coming home twice a year from the school in the south.”

“They preached, they converted people, they baptized, and – since Mass was impossible and no priests were allowed – one of them would gather them together in the villages once a week and they would pray together, read the readings of the day, and sing hymns.”

Today, the diocese has 28 priests, with another 68 from religious orders. They serve the 90,000 Catholics spread across the 17 thousand square miles of the diocese, much of it unreachable by car. While another bishop might view this as an intolerable shortage of priests, almost an impossible situation, Bishop Pallipparambil sees it as the key to continued growth in the diocese.

“No one leaves anything for the priest,” he told CNA. “They are the Church, they have to bring the gospel; they know this because they built it.”

When a new community begins in a village, it starts with meetings in the home of a lay catechist, when they grow to the point of needing a church, they physically build it themselves.

“The priests are essential, or course, for hearing confessions and saying Mass. But it is the lay people who evangelize, who form the Church.

In the remote villages, lay missionaries are not bringing the people into a church somewhere else, they are staying there, building the Church.”

The model is a stark contrast to the reality facing many dioceses in the West, where churches are closing. Asked if he thinks the near-total reliance on lay evangelization can be a lesson for the Church elsewhere, Pallipparambil has no doubts.

“Absolutely. We have to give more room to the Holy Spirit and his operation, and less to the ‘heavy machinery’ that generally as Catholics we rely on.”

Formation, the bishop told CNA, is a crucial part of a Church in which the laity truly live the faith and are the Church.

“For me, the biggest fallacy is that we begin formation [at a certain age] and end formation with the reception of the sacraments. Actually we never start and we can never end it. Our entire life has to be an experience of God.”

“Yes, the catechists have to attend certain courses and complete certain credits, but that is pure theory. How does it help to spread the gospel? For this it has to have a real experience of God in your life, and bring this into contact with another.”

When this is done, the bishop said, the Church grows.

Missionary priesthood

Pallipparambil said that while it is difficult for priests to reach all diocesan communities as often as they would like, the important thing is that the faith is alive in them.

Next year, the Synod of Bishops will meet in Rome to discuss the Church in the Amazon. Already, several bishops have suggested that a crucial topic will be the ordination of married men for service in remote communities – very much like the communities in Miao.  

But Pallipparambil says Catholics have no interest in the idea of married priests in his diocese.

“I don’t like to discuss the topic at all, it is a never-ending discussion,” he told CNA.

“One thing I know is this, whenever I have a meeting with a number of young people, university age, I always ask them ‘Do you think more of you would become priests if you were allowed to get married?’ They always say very clearly, ‘we do not want married priests.’”

“One thing I am sure of is this: by baptism all of us are priests, let us enhance this ‘priesthood’ in the laity and let there be less insistence on this clerical solution to everything.”

The lesson of Maio seem especially relevant even for dioceses in the United States, where priests now find themselves stretched across several different parishes.

“Priests have to become a little more available so they can reach out to many more with fewer numbers. We have to change certain things with our thinking, our scheduling of priestly life, and become much more elastic.”

“We grow by interaction. We can all of us spend our lives locked in libraries or on websites reading everything, becoming an expert – a giant – but on our own. Will I not become much more useful to God if I know half of it, but live my whole life sharing it with others?”

CNA Daily News – Asia – Pacific

#bishop #hundredfold #reaped #Catholic News

[pamphletstoinspire]

THE ROMAN RITUAL - PART 1

Translated by PHILIP T. WELLER, S.T.D.

Copyright 1964 Philip T. Weller

PART XI. BLESSINGS AND OTHER SACRAMENTALS

CONTENTS IN THIS FILE:

Blessings and other sacramentals, introduction and general rules Blessings for special days and feasts Blessings of persons Blessings of animals Blessings of places not designated for sacred purposes Blessings of places designated for sacred purposes Blessings of things designated for sacred purposes Blessings of things designated for ordinary use

Processions, general rules Rites for processions

Exorcism, introduction and general rules Rite for exorcism

Litanies

Blessings formerly reserved to religious orders

Appendix: reception of converts; profession of faith; itinerarium; prayers at meals; oath against modernism

Index

Index of psalms, canticles, hymns

BLESSINGS AND OTHER SACRAMENTALS

INTRODUCTION

A subheading to the above heading could well be: "The Sacramentals-Christ in Daily Life." In the ordination service, the Church, through the bishop, anoints and blesses the hands of the newly made priest, accompanying the action with these words: "May it please you, O Lord, to consecrate and sanctify these hands by this anointing and our blessing; that whatever they bless may be blessed, and whatever they consecrate may be consecrated in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." By this and other ceremonies in the rite for ordination the young priest has it impressed on him that his sacramental ministry, namely, the power to offer sacrifice, the duty of preaching the word of God in Mass and of distributing the Bread of life to the people, the duty of administering the other sacraments, the duty of dispensing blessings and other sacramentals - -that all these constitute the main reason for his being what he is, a mediator between God and men, the dispenser of God's mysteries.

For a priest all else must be kept subordinate to his sacramental ministry. In the first age of the Church the apostles, as soon as they discovered that other works were interfering with their strictly priestly ministrations, ordained other men as deacons or assistants, whose function it was to take over a large share of those activities not absolutely required of pastors of souls. So nowadays too the priest can find auxiliaries to aid him in the office of teaching, in the good work of visiting the sick and seeking out the stray sheep, in tending to the needs of the poor and the widows and orphans, in keeping files and financial books, in running parish organizations and recreational programs. But he cannot turn over to them his sacramental powers, neither the greater ones of consecrating at Mass, of baptizing, of absolving, of anointing, nor even the lesser ones of bestowing on persons and objects the official blessing of the Church. Her sacramentals, then, ought not to be "the twentieth-century stepchildren of Mother Church," as someone has referred to them.

If it is true that in the world of today conditions are not conducive to a high evaluation and appreciation of the seven sacraments of Christ, then surely it can be admitted all the more readily that the sacramentals fare even worse. If a certain measure of humility and simplicity is needed by man to recognize God at work with, and in, and for us in the greater mysteries, the Eucharist and the other sacraments, it is required even in greater measure to recognize His action in those consecratory acts which are lesser than those seven, namely, the sacramentals. Pride and sophistication are a hindrance to understanding that God, when He created the universe, consecrated all creation, not alone man, but every lower form; and that Christ, in redeeming the world after the Fall, removed the curse fallen on creation, not only from man but from the lesser species as well. Thus for a long time the sacramental acts such as the many consecrations and blessings of the Church have been, if not actually disdained, looked upon with apathy and indifference by her children. So much so that some are apt to be disedified rather than edified when they are made aware that the Church has a mind to speak a blessing on horse, silkworm, bonfire, beer, bridal chamber, medicine, or lard.

God's ultimate purpose in creating the world is the manifestation of His goodness and excellence, and a communication of them in part to His creatures. Consequently, creation's first reason for existence is to glorify the Creator. Human beings fulfill this obligation to glorify God by living in conformity with the laws which govern human existence, but they do so more nobly still in those positive acts of religion, sacrifice, sacraments, social and private prayer, consecrations, and blessings. For in this latter way man does not praise God in isolation, but he is united with the praise which his elder brother, Jesus Christ, everlastingly renders to the Blessed Trinity. Irrational creatures fulfill their obligation also in their existence and functions, according to the laws that govern their nature. This is their silent voice of praise. But lower creation too is destined to take part in the direct and positive act of praising the Creator. The psalms and canticles leave no doubt about this. The fall of man caused lower creatures to be separated from God, for they were bound to God through mankind. And they became once more consecrated in the redemption, not purely for their own sake, but for the purposes of higher creation. Therefore, in union with man, and in union with the God-man, the rest of creation participates in the praise which without ceasing raises its voice to the adorable Trinity.

In the Epistle to the Romans St. Paul records that the complete emancipation of creation will not be effected until the end of time. But ever since our Lord transfigured lower creatures by employing them in sacramental ways--consider His use of bread, wine, water, oil, sacred signs - material things have been participating with Him and with man in divine worship. And where Christ left off, the Church continues. The consecration and transfiguration of the creatures of God is done through sacraments and sacramentals. The passion and resurrection of Jesus notwithstanding, the individual man is not justified until the fruit of these momentous acts is communicated to him by way of sacramental sanctification. Lower creatures in similar fashion are freed from their enslavement by being sacramentalized. Before the Church will use them in the service of God or of men, she wills that first they be exorcised of any allegiance to Satan, then sanctified by her consecratory hand.

Certainly there is a difference of kind and of efficacy between the seven sacraments and the lesser sacraments called sacramentals. There is a difference of degree in the seven sacraments themselves. One is not so necessary or sublime as another. Furthermore, it is not true to say without qualification that one distinction between sacraments and sacramentals is that the former owe their institution to Christ, the latter to the Church. For some of the sacramentals definitely come directly from Christ, exactly how many and actually which ones is not clear. There is one sacramental, however, of whose origin there is not a particle of doubt. This is the mandatum, the washing of feet, carried out by our Lord at the Last Supper, and today still used in the liturgy of Maundy Thursday. What requires stressing here is that men should not belittle the sacramentals because of the fact that they owe their institution in greatest part not to the positive will and act of Christ, but instead to the will and act of the Church. For in the light of the doctrine of the mystical body both have a sacred origin, the sacraments from the personal, historical Christ, the sacraments from the mystic Christ -- Christ living and working in His mystical bride, the Church. The sacramentals are aptly designated as extensions and radiation of the sacraments. Both are sources of divine life; both have an identical purpose, divine life. They have, moreover, an identical cause, the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ; albeit they differ in nature, efficacy, and intensity.

Because man is weakened by sin both in his mental and physical faculties, he needs in striving for salvation, in addition to the sacraments themselves, other supernatural aids constantly at hand, in order to overcome his own inherent weakness as well as the obstacles put in his way by creature things. These auxiliaries, the sacramentals, are the many powerful supports by which man's course to heaven can be lightened, affording protection against the enemies of his soul and promoting bodily well-being in the interests of the soul. As the code of Canon Law defines them: sacramentals are objects and actions which the Church is wont to use, somewhat as she uses the sacraments, in order to obtain through her intercession effects, especially effects of a spiritual nature (can. 1144).

As Christ has endowed with infallible grace the outward signs by which sacraments are effected, so in a similar way the Church has endowed with spiritual powers the outward signs by which sacramentals are constituted. And why are such simple things like the sacramentals so efficacious in the life of grace? Because their efficacy is dependent on the power of the Church's impetration, and not solely on the devotion of the subject who uses them. We say that the sacraments work "ex opere operato," that is, in virtue of the outward signs that are posited. On the other hand, we are accustomed to hear that the sacramentals work "ex opere operantis," which would mean in virtue of the intensity of devotion in those who use them. Yet this is only part of the truth. The thing is cast in an altogether different light when it is stated in full precision, namely, that the sacramentals work "ex opere operantis Ecclesiae," which means that their efficacy is in first place dependent on the power of the Church's intercession, and only secondly on the devout dispositions of the subject concerned. Back in the Middle Ages, William of Paris stated: "The efficacy of the sacramentals is rooted in the nobility of the Church, which is so pleasing to God and so beloved by Him that she never meets with a refusal from Him."[1] The matter could hardly be expressed better. Owing to the resurgence of the doctrine of the mystical body, it has been granted to our times to view the Church once more in her true nature as the body of Christ, flesh of His flesh, bone of His bone, more intimate a part of Him than a bride is of her bridegroom. Therefore, it is not exactly improper to speak of an efficacy "ex opere operato" in the case of sacramentals. For example, an altar that receives the consecration of the Church is consecrated and remains consecrated, no matter how fervent and devout was the bishop who performed the consecration.

Sacramentals have been classified in many ways. But a simple and clear way of classifying them is to divide them into three groups. First, those that lay the basis for divine worship by creating the place and the atmosphere, by raising up certain persons - apart from bishops, priests, and deacons - officially designated to perform divine worship, and by supplying the appurtenances necessary for divine worship, for example: (a) the consecration of a church and an altar, or the consecration of a cemetery; (b) the blessing of an abbot, of monks and virgins, of the ministers in minor orders; (c) the consecration of a chalice or paten, the consecration of a church bell, the blessing of vestments, etc. Second, those used in the course of celebrating Mass and administering the sacraments; for example, the incensation of the altar, the reading of the Gospel, the last blessing, or the giving of salt and the anointings in baptism. Third, those that extend from the worship in church to the Christian home and family circle, to the occupations of farming, industry, and trades; for example, the blessing of a home, field, animals, printing presses, fire-engine, etc.

Although we have stressed the truth that the sacramentals derive their efficacy chiefly from the intercessory power of the Church, we may not minimize the role played by man's own subjective dispositions. The sacraments, too, for that matter, demand something of the individual recipient--at the very least that the subject place no obstacle in the way of grace. But in the case of the sacramentals man's cooperation has a very large part to play if they are to attain their full purpose. Their function is to provide an atmosphere in which the virtue of religion can thrive, and to produce a psychological reaction in man, to raise his thoughts and aspirations out of the realm of the profane and up to the realm of the sacred, to fix his heart on the things of the spirit, to impress on his consciousness God's will for him and God's providence always hovering over him.

Before ascending into heaven our Lord, in His infinite wisdom and love, bequeathed to His followers the seven sacraments, which were to occupy the center of their religious life, to be like so many milestones for them on the journey to heaven. But He also foresaw that the periphery of the Christian life could be sanctified by further supports of a lesser kind, supernatural helps that would be constantly at hand, even every hour, serving to consecrate the works and activities of the day and to lighten its burdens and sorrows. Thus He indicated to the apostles in broad lines how they might make use of other signs and symbols in furthering the work of sanctifying souls. Seeing that the Master Himself had employed the sign of the cross, the act of exorcism, the washing of feet at the Last Supper, and had commanded them to do like things in His name, the apostles were soon imitating Him, performing exorcisms and blessing creatures, as St. Paul has testified in 1 Timothy 4.5. Certainly the Church was inspired by the Holy Spirit, when, following the apostolic period, she began to introduce rites that we now call sacramentals, such as the solemn blessing of baptismal water, of oils, salt, and bread, of first-fruits, and the blessing of milk and honey in connection with first holy communion of the neophytes on Easter morning, to mention only some of the ceremonies that very early embellished the celebration of Mass and the administration of the other sacraments. How wrong were men like Luther and Harnack when they asserted that the sacramentals of the Catholic Church were an invention of the Middle Ages, and scarcely better than a return to the legalistic rites of the Talmud and the Pharisees. In response to the natural craving of man for ritual and ceremonial, for tokens and memorials, the Church gave her children, instead of "panis et circenses," blessed bread and religious processions, instead of antiques, sacred relics and medals. The legitimate demands of a Christian people were as much a factor as the will of the Church herself in promoting the development and the multiplication of pious ceremonies. Soon every province of life was consecrated by the Church's benediction. From the church edifice the sacramentals widen out to embrace the totality of Christian life. Home and hearth, granary and workshop, field and meadow, vineyard and orchard, fountain and river receive a consecration. In private life there was a blessing for the wife who had recently conceived and one for the woman in the pangs of labor; a blessing for the lad who had just reached the age when he could be introduced to the ABC's, and one for the young man about to sprout his first beard; for the sick, blessed medicaments of water, salt, bread, and herbs, instead of a doctor, harder to come by then than even now. Public life also had its blessings, a blessing of a king and queen, emperor and empress, a blessing of a knight and his accouterments of sword and lance, a blessing of public penitents, of pilgrims, of crusaders. In time of plague and famine, a deprecatory blessing against rats, mice, locusts, and noxious vermin. In time of calamity, a blessing to protect the people against fire, wind, earthquake, and flood.

In all this, to be sure, abuse and superstition eventually crept in, especially in the later Middle Ages. When diocesan synods failed to stem such misuse of sacred things, Paul V finally stepped in, and by a Bull of June 16, 1614, published the official Roman Ritual for the universal Church, to which model all diocesan rituals were thenceforth to conform. But in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the abuse was revived, particularly through the religious orders, who printed private collections of blessings and especially exorcisms with prayers and formulas of such a nature as to outdo even the superstitions of the late Middle Ages.

Perhaps it is a conscientious fear of reviving superstition that prompts us to be so hesitant about restoring the sacramentals to their onetime place of honor. Or perhaps, as we say, you can't turn back the clock. Young men no longer grow beards, save for an exceptional group, and professional exterminators have arisen to make short shrift of every kind of pest, from bedbug to termite. Admittedly we would look foolish trying to revive some of the olden pious customs. Yet there are a good many sacramentals, most of those given in this ritual, that could be resurrected to considerable profit. With some efforts at instruction and with continual encouragement, the people's sensibilities as to their significance and value would be aroused, as it has been shown where it has been tried. - TRANSLATOR

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ENDNOTES

1. "De sacramentis," 1.524.

#roman rituals