to keep warm, eating pizza and watching The Pink Panther. It was pretty funny but doesn’t come close to the original, IMHO. Peter Sellers was hilarious in the old ones, Steve Martin was, well, okay, I guess.
SU and I took Buddy on the three mile loop this morning, 41° in overcast Shoreacres. Brr cold. Had a nice chat along the way, talking about Christmas, then things spiritual in general. I have to stop one day on the journey up the coast and take a picture that will prove to one and all that Christ has not been taken out of Christmas. Trust me, it won’t be a picture of a church billboard. Coming soon. We talked about the hypocrisy of the season and the total misuse of Christ for gain. Sometimes you just want to tell people to pull their heads out and get a view of what they are doing. I wonder if they had a ten-foot inflatable Santa in the cave where Jesus was born?
Then we moved to wealth and if Christians could indeed be wealthy and represent Christ at the same time. My opinion is that yes, we can, nothing that I read in the Bible prevents it. There are some indicators we can use in viewing such wealth though. Was it gotten by deception, thievery, trickery, exploitation, etc.? Is the person of wealth using that wealth for “good” or to gain more wealth? And wealth is in the eye of the beholder, I wouldn’t think that Bill Gates would consider SU and I to be wealthy but most probably a kid born in the barrio or ghetto would. And are we using our “wealth” (yes, I know, a very relative term in the Bigjolly’s case) according to the principles outlined in the Bible? Something to consider.
Tomorrows class will be on confidence, specifically in overcoming the obstacles that seem to pop up everywhere when you are trying to do God’s work. Using Ezra 4-6 as background. Funny how history repeats itself. I especially like how the local people used bribes and lobbyists to slow down the building of temple. So often we see that happening today – you tried building a church lately? It is very difficult, local officials don’t want anything build that doesn’t increase the tax base.
Speaking of churches, Orthodixie had a link to a pathetic story about two Presbyterian churches merging, then selling one of the old church buildings to an Islamic group. Cross comes down, crescent goes up. The really pathetic part for a Christian was in the quotes from the two pastors. Wow. Our faith has been totally, systematically corrupted. Is it a wonder that I’m still searching? That quote from Buddha makes a whole heckuva lotta sense.
The quote from Buddha’s fine, I suppose. It’s just not the fullness of the Truth. All of creation, I submit, fell with the Fall … including (especially) our own reasoning.
Wow, that is a pretty broad condemnation of God’s creation Fr Joseph. As I have read more on Orthodoxy, I think I understand where you are coming from but even so, to think that God gave us such tremendous thinking skills only to have us lose our ability to reason seems to be a stretch.
Is this the basic reason you are so condemning of Protestants and Biblical interpretations other than those handed down by the Church Fathers?
The whole man, the whole Adam, fell in the Fall. That would include human reasoning.
My whole family, and my wife’s, is Baptist of one stripe or another. Having done my MDiv at an Episcopalian Seminary and DMin in conjunction with a Presbyterian Seminary, I hope that I’m not “condemning of Protestants and Biblical interprestions” in general — just those that are, forgive me here, in error.
Perhaps you meant “you” in the general sense. There, too, I’d have to say: It is error that is to be shunned (no matter the source).
Fr Joseph, no, I won’t hide behind a general you, I was speaking of you alright. And you are rather condemning, no? Yes, not even maybe so. 😀
Take for instance, please, your take on Max Lucado. Not very nice, eh?
Ok, well, I’m just not right tonight, too much reading I suppose. Forgive me.
Let me ask you something: Do you really think, I mean really think, as a human being, as a pastor, as a theologian, as a seminarian, do you really, really think that those hundreds of thousands of lives that have been changed, that have indeed been directed towards the Lord Jesus Christ because of Max Lucado’s writings, have all been directed in error?