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allaboutjoseph · 3 years

Text

Patris Corde - Apostolic Letter of Pope Francis

https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20201208_patris-corde.html

APOSTOLIC LETTER - PATRIS CORDE

OF THE HOLY FATHER, FRANCIS

ON THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE PROCLAMATION OF SAINT JOSEPH AS PATRON OF THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH

WITH A FATHER’S HEART: that is how Joseph loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels refer to as “the son of Joseph”.[1]

Matthew and Luke, the two Evangelists who speak most of Joseph, tell us very little, yet enough for us to appreciate what sort of father he was, and the mission entrusted to him by God’s providence.

We know that Joseph was a lowly carpenter (cf. Mt 13:55), betrothed to Mary (cf. Mt 1:18; Lk 1:27). He was a “just man” (Mt 1:19), ever ready to carry out God’s will as revealed to him in the Law (cf. Lk 2:22.27.39) and through four dreams (cf. Mt 1:20; 2:13.19.22). After a long and tiring journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, he beheld the birth of the Messiah in a stable, since “there was no place for them” elsewhere (cf. Lk 2:7). He witnessed the adoration of the shepherds (cf. Lk 2:8-20) and the Magi (cf. Mt 2:1-12), who represented respectively the people of Israel and the pagan peoples.

Joseph had the courage to become the legal father of Jesus, to whom he gave the name revealed by the angel: “You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:21). As we know, for ancient peoples, to give a name to a person or to a thing, as Adam did in the account in the Book of Genesis (cf. 2:19-20), was to establish a relationship.

In the Temple, forty days after Jesus’ birth, Joseph and Mary offered their child to the Lord and listened with amazement to Simeon’s prophecy concerning Jesus and his Mother (cf. Lk 2:22-35). To protect Jesus from Herod, Joseph dwelt as a foreigner in Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-18). After returning to his own country, he led a hidden life in the tiny and obscure village of Nazareth in Galilee, far from Bethlehem, his ancestral town, and from Jerusalem and the Temple. Of Nazareth it was said, “No prophet is to rise” (cf. Jn 7:52) and indeed, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (cf. Jn 1:46). When, during a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Joseph and Mary lost track of the twelve-year-old Jesus, they anxiously sought him out and they found him in the Temple, in discussion with the doctors of the Law (cf. Lk 2:41-50).

After Mary, the Mother of God, no saint is mentioned more frequently in the papal magisterium than Joseph, her spouse. My Predecessors reflected on the message contained in the limited information handed down by the Gospels in order to appreciate more fully his central role in the history of salvation. Blessed Pius IX declared him “Patron of the Catholic Church”,[2] Venerable Pius XII proposed him as “Patron of Workers”[3] and Saint John Paul II as “Guardian of the Redeemer”.[4] Saint Joseph is universally invoked as the “patron of a happy death”.[5]

Now, one hundred and fifty years after his proclamation as Patron of the Catholic Church by Blessed Pius IX (8 December 1870), I would like to share some personal reflections on this extraordinary figure, so close to our own human experience. For, as Jesus says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt 12:34). My desire to do so increased during these months of pandemic, when we experienced, amid the crisis, how “our lives are woven together and sustained by ordinary people, people often overlooked. People who do not appear in newspaper and magazine headlines, or on the latest television show, yet in these very days are surely shaping the decisive events of our history. Doctors, nurses, storekeepers and supermarket workers, cleaning personnel, caregivers, transport workers, men and women working to provide essential services and public safety, volunteers, priests, men and women religious, and so very many others. They understood that no one is saved alone… How many people daily exercise patience and offer hope, taking care to spread not panic, but shared responsibility. How many fathers, mothers, grandparents and teachers are showing our children, in small everyday ways, how to accept and deal with a crisis by adjusting their routines, looking ahead and encouraging the practice of prayer. How many are praying, making sacrifices and interceding for the good of all”.[6] Each of us can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble. Saint Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in the history of salvation. A word of recognition and of gratitude is due to them all.

1. A beloved father

The greatness of Saint Joseph is that he was the spouse of Mary and the father of Jesus. In this way, he placed himself, in the words of Saint John Chrysostom, “at the service of the entire plan of salvation”.[7]

Saint Paul VI pointed out that Joseph concretely expressed his fatherhood “by making his life a sacrificial service to the mystery of the incarnation and its redemptive purpose. He employed his legal authority over the Holy Family to devote himself completely to them in his life and work. He turned his human vocation to domestic love into a superhuman oblation of himself, his heart and all his abilities, a love placed at the service of the Messiah who was growing to maturity in his home”.[8]

Thanks to his role in salvation history, Saint Joseph has always been venerated as a father by the Christian people. This is shown by the countless churches dedicated to him worldwide, the numerous religious Institutes, Confraternities and ecclesial groups inspired by his spirituality and bearing his name, and the many traditional expressions of piety in his honour. Innumerable holy men and women were passionately devoted to him. Among them was Teresa of Avila, who chose him as her advocate and intercessor, had frequent recourse to him and received whatever graces she asked of him. Encouraged by her own experience, Teresa persuaded others to cultivate devotion to Joseph.[9]

Every prayer book contains prayers to Saint Joseph. Special prayers are offered to him each Wednesday and especially during the month of March, which is traditionally dedicated to him.[10]

Popular trust in Saint Joseph is seen in the expression “Go to Joseph”, which evokes the famine in Egypt, when the Egyptians begged Pharaoh for bread. He in turn replied: “Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do” (Gen 41:55). Pharaoh was referring to Joseph the son of Jacob, who was sold into slavery because of the jealousy of his brothers (cf. Gen 37:11-28) and who – according to the biblical account – subsequently became viceroy of Egypt (cf. Gen 41:41-44).

As a descendant of David (cf. Mt 1:16-20), from whose stock Jesus was to spring according to the promise made to David by the prophet Nathan (cf. 2 Sam 7), and as the spouse of Mary of Nazareth, Saint Joseph stands at the crossroads between the Old and New Testaments.

2. A tender and loving father

Joseph saw Jesus grow daily “in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favour” (Lk 2:52). As the Lord had done with Israel, so Joseph did with Jesus: he taught him to walk, taking him by the hand; he was for him like a father who raises an infant to his cheeks, bending down to him and feeding him (cf. Hos 11:3-4).

In Joseph, Jesus saw the tender love of God: “As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him” (Ps 103:13).

In the synagogue, during the praying of the Psalms, Joseph would surely have heard again and again that the God of Israel is a God of tender love,[11] who is good to all, whose “compassion is over all that he has made” (Ps 145:9).

The history of salvation is worked out “in hope against hope” (Rom 4:18), through our weaknesses. All too often, we think that God works only through our better parts, yet most of his plans are realized in and despite our frailty. Thus Saint Paul could say: “To keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, but he said to me: ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Cor 12:7-9).

Since this is part of the entire economy of salvation, we must learn to look upon our weaknesses with tender mercy.[12]

The evil one makes us see and condemn our frailty, whereas the Spirit brings it to light with tender love. Tenderness is the best way to touch the frailty within us. Pointing fingers and judging others are frequently signs of an inability to accept our own weaknesses, our own frailty. Only tender love will save us from the snares of the accuser (cf. Rev 12:10). That is why it is so important to encounter God’s mercy, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where we experience his truth and tenderness. Paradoxically, the evil one can also speak the truth to us, yet he does so only to condemn us. We know that God’s truth does not condemn, but instead welcomes, embraces, sustains and forgives us. That truth always presents itself to us like the merciful father in Jesus’ parable (cf. Lk 15:11-32). It comes out to meet us, restores our dignity, sets us back on our feet and rejoices for us, for, as the father says: “This my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found” (v. 24).

Even through Joseph’s fears, God’s will, his history and his plan were at work. Joseph, then, teaches us that faith in God includes believing that he can work even through our fears, our frailties and our weaknesses. He also teaches us that amid the tempests of life, we must never be afraid to let the Lord steer our course. At times, we want to be in complete control, yet God always sees the bigger picture.

3. An obedient father

As he had done with Mary, God revealed his saving plan to Joseph. He did so by using dreams, which in the Bible and among all ancient peoples, were considered a way for him to make his will known.[13]

Joseph was deeply troubled by Mary’s mysterious pregnancy. He did not want to “expose her to public disgrace”,[14] so he decided to “dismiss her quietly” (Mt 1:19).

In the first dream, an angel helps him resolve his grave dilemma: “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Mt 1:20-21). Joseph’s response was immediate: “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him” (Mt 1:24). Obedience made it possible for him to surmount his difficulties and spare Mary.

In the second dream, the angel tells Joseph: “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him” (Mt 2:13). Joseph did not hesitate to obey, regardless of the hardship involved: “He got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod” (Mt 2:14-15).

In Egypt, Joseph awaited with patient trust the angel’s notice that he could safely return home. In a third dream, the angel told him that those who sought to kill the child were dead and ordered him to rise, take the child and his mother, and return to the land of Israel (cf. Mt 2:19-20). Once again, Joseph promptly obeyed. “He got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel” (Mt 2:21).

During the return journey, “when Joseph heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. After being warned in a dream” – now for the fourth time – “he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth” (Mt 2:22-23).

The evangelist Luke, for his part, tells us that Joseph undertook the long and difficult journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be registered in his family’s town of origin in the census of the Emperor Caesar Augustus. There Jesus was born (cf. Lk 2:7) and his birth, like that of every other child, was recorded in the registry of the Empire. Saint Luke is especially concerned to tell us that Jesus’ parents observed all the prescriptions of the Law: the rites of the circumcision of Jesus, the purification of Mary after childbirth, the offering of the firstborn to God (cf. 2:21-24).[15]

In every situation, Joseph declared his own “fiat”, like those of Mary at the Annunciation and Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.

In his role as the head of a family, Joseph taught Jesus to be obedient to his parents (cf. Lk 2:51), in accordance with God’s command (cf. Ex 20:12).

During the hidden years in Nazareth, Jesus learned at the school of Joseph to do the will of the Father. That will was to be his daily food (cf. Jn 4:34). Even at the most difficult moment of his life, in Gethsemane, Jesus chose to do the Father’s will rather than his own,[16] becoming “obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil 2:8). The author of the Letter to the Hebrews thus concludes that Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered” (5:8).

All this makes it clear that “Saint Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood” and that in this way, “he cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation and is truly a minister of salvation.”[17]

4. An accepting father

Joseph accepted Mary unconditionally. He trusted in the angel’s words. “The nobility of Joseph’s heart is such that what he learned from the law he made dependent on charity. Today, in our world where psychological, verbal and physical violence towards women is so evident, Joseph appears as the figure of a respectful and sensitive man. Even though he does not understand the bigger picture, he makes a decision to protect Mary’s good name, her dignity and her life. In his hesitation about how best to act, God helped him by enlightening his judgment”.[18]

Often in life, things happen whose meaning we do not understand. Our first reaction is frequently one of disappointment and rebellion. Joseph set aside his own ideas in order to accept the course of events and, mysterious as they seemed, to embrace them, take responsibility for them and make them part of his own history. Unless we are reconciled with our own history, we will be unable to take a single step forward, for we will always remain hostage to our expectations and the disappointments that follow.

The spiritual path that Joseph traces for us is not one that explains, but accepts. Only as a result of this acceptance, this reconciliation, can we begin to glimpse a broader history, a deeper meaning. We can almost hear an echo of the impassioned reply of Job to his wife, who had urged him to rebel against the evil he endured: “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God, and not receive the bad?” (Job 2:10).

Joseph is certainly not passively resigned, but courageously and firmly proactive. In our own lives, acceptance and welcome can be an expression of the Holy Spirit’s gift of fortitude. Only the Lord can give us the strength needed to accept life as it is, with all its contradictions, frustrations and disappointments.

Jesus’ appearance in our midst is a gift from the Father, which makes it possible for each of us to be reconciled to the flesh of our own history, even when we fail to understand it completely.

Just as God told Joseph: “Son of David, do not be afraid!” (Mt 1:20), so he seems to tell us: “Do not be afraid!” We need to set aside all anger and disappointment, and to embrace the way things are, even when they do not turn out as we wish. Not with mere resignation but with hope and courage. In this way, we become open to a deeper meaning. Our lives can be miraculously reborn if we find the courage to live them in accordance with the Gospel. It does not matter if everything seems to have gone wrong or some things can no longer be fixed. God can make flowers spring up from stony ground. Even if our heart condemns us, “God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything” (1 Jn 3:20).

Here, once again, we encounter that Christian realism which rejects nothing that exists. Reality, in its mysterious and irreducible complexity, is the bearer of existential meaning, with all its lights and shadows. Thus, the Apostle Paul can say: “We know that all things work together for good, for those who love God” (Rom 8:28). To which Saint Augustine adds, “even that which is called evil (etiam illud quod malum dicitur)”.[19] In this greater perspective, faith gives meaning to every event, however happy or sad.

Nor should we ever think that believing means finding facile and comforting solutions. The faith Christ taught us is what we see in Saint Joseph. He did not look for shortcuts, but confronted reality with open eyes and accepted personal responsibility for it.

Joseph’s attitude encourages us to accept and welcome others as they are, without exception, and to show special concern for the weak, for God chooses what is weak (cf. 1 Cor 1:27). He is the “Father of orphans and protector of widows” (Ps 68:6), who commands us to love the stranger in our midst.[20] I like to think that it was from Saint Joseph that Jesus drew inspiration for the parable of the prodigal son and the merciful father (cf. Lk 15:11-32).

5. A creatively courageous father

If the first stage of all true interior healing is to accept our personal history and embrace even the things in life that we did not choose, we must now add another important element: creative courage. This emerges especially in the way we deal with difficulties. In the face of difficulty, we can either give up and walk away, or somehow engage with it. At times, difficulties bring out resources we did not even think we had.

As we read the infancy narratives, we may often wonder why God did not act in a more direct and clear way. Yet God acts through events and people. Joseph was the man chosen by God to guide the beginnings of the history of redemption. He was the true “miracle” by which God saves the child and his mother. God acted by trusting in Joseph’s creative courage. Arriving in Bethlehem and finding no lodging where Mary could give birth, Joseph took a stable and, as best he could, turned it into a welcoming home for the Son of God come into the world (cf. Lk 2:6-7). Faced with imminent danger from Herod, who wanted to kill the child, Joseph was warned once again in a dream to protect the child, and rose in the middle of the night to prepare the flight into Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-14).

A superficial reading of these stories can often give the impression that the world is at the mercy of the strong and mighty, but the “good news” of the Gospel consists in showing that, for all the arrogance and violence of worldly powers, God always finds a way to carry out his saving plan. So too, our lives may at times seem to be at the mercy of the powerful, but the Gospel shows us what counts. God always finds a way to save us, provided we show the same creative courage as the carpenter of Nazareth, who was able to turn a problem into a possibility by trusting always in divine providence.

If at times God seems not to help us, surely this does not mean that we have been abandoned, but instead are being trusted to plan, to be creative, and to find solutions ourselves.

That kind of creative courage was shown by the friends of the paralytic, who lowered him from the roof in order to bring him to Jesus (cf. Lk 5:17-26). Difficulties did not stand in the way of those friends’ boldness and persistence. They were convinced that Jesus could heal the man, and “finding no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the middle of the crowd in front of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you’” (vv. 19-20). Jesus recognized the creative faith with which they sought to bring their sick friend to him.

The Gospel does not tell us how long Mary, Joseph and the child remained in Egypt. Yet they certainly needed to eat, to find a home and employment. It does not take much imagination to fill in those details. The Holy Family had to face concrete problems like every other family, like so many of our migrant brothers and sisters who, today too, risk their lives to escape misfortune and hunger. In this regard, I consider Saint Joseph the special patron of all those forced to leave their native lands because of war, hatred, persecution and poverty.

At the end of every account in which Joseph plays a role, the Gospel tells us that he gets up, takes the child and his mother, and does what God commanded him (cf. Mt 1:24; 2:14.21). Indeed, Jesus and Mary his Mother are the most precious treasure of our faith.[21]

In the divine plan of salvation, the Son is inseparable from his Mother, from Mary, who “advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son until she stood at the cross”.[22]

We should always consider whether we ourselves are protecting Jesus and Mary, for they are also mysteriously entrusted to our own responsibility, care and safekeeping. The Son of the Almighty came into our world in a state of great vulnerability. He needed to be defended, protected, cared for and raised by Joseph. God trusted Joseph, as did Mary, who found in him someone who would not only save her life, but would always provide for her and her child. In this sense, Saint Joseph could not be other than the Guardian of the Church, for the Church is the continuation of the Body of Christ in history, even as Mary’s motherhood is reflected in the motherhood of the Church.[23] In his continued protection of the Church, Joseph continues to protect the child and his mother, and we too, by our love for the Church, continue to love the child and his mother.

That child would go on to say: “As you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). Consequently, every poor, needy, suffering or dying person, every stranger, every prisoner, every infirm person is “the child” whom Joseph continues to protect. For this reason, Saint Joseph is invoked as protector of the unfortunate, the needy, exiles, the afflicted, the poor and the dying. Consequently, the Church cannot fail to show a special love for the least of our brothers and sisters, for Jesus showed a particular concern for them and personally identified with them. From Saint Joseph, we must learn that same care and responsibility. We must learn to love the child and his mother, to love the sacraments and charity, to love the Church and the poor. Each of these realities is always the child and his mother.

6. A working father

An aspect of Saint Joseph that has been emphasized from the time of the first social Encyclical, Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum Novarum, is his relation to work. Saint Joseph was a carpenter who earned an honest living to provide for his family. From him, Jesus learned the value, the dignity and the joy of what it means to eat bread that is the fruit of one’s own labour.

In our own day, when employment has once more become a burning social issue, and unemployment at times reaches record levels even in nations that for decades have enjoyed a certain degree of prosperity, there is a renewed need to appreciate the importance of dignified work, of which Saint Joseph is an exemplary patron.

Work is a means of participating in the work of salvation, an opportunity to hasten the coming of the Kingdom, to develop our talents and abilities, and to put them at the service of society and fraternal communion. It becomes an opportunity for the fulfilment not only of oneself, but also of that primary cell of society which is the family. A family without work is particularly vulnerable to difficulties, tensions, estrangement and even break-up. How can we speak of human dignity without working to ensure that everyone is able to earn a decent living?

Working persons, whatever their job may be, are cooperating with God himself, and in some way become creators of the world around us. The crisis of our time, which is economic, social, cultural and spiritual, can serve as a summons for all of us to rediscover the value, the importance and necessity of work for bringing about a new “normal” from which no one is excluded. Saint Joseph’s work reminds us that God himself, in becoming man, did not disdain work. The loss of employment that affects so many of our brothers and sisters, and has increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, should serve as a summons to review our priorities. Let us implore Saint Joseph the Worker to help us find ways to express our firm conviction that no young person, no person at all, no family should be without work!

7. A father in the shadows

The Polish writer Jan Dobraczyński, in his book The Shadow of the Father,[24] tells the story of Saint Joseph’s life in the form of a novel. He uses the evocative image of a shadow to define Joseph. In his relationship to Jesus, Joseph was the earthly shadow of the heavenly Father: he watched over him and protected him, never leaving him to go his own way. We can think of Moses’ words to Israel: “In the wilderness… you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as one carries a child, all the way that you travelled” (Deut 1:31). In a similar way, Joseph acted as a father for his whole life.[25]

Fathers are not born, but made. A man does not become a father simply by bringing a child into the world, but by taking up the responsibility to care for that child. Whenever a man accepts responsibility for the life of another, in some way he becomes a father to that person.

Children today often seem orphans, lacking fathers. The Church too needs fathers. Saint Paul’s words to the Corinthians remain timely: “Though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers” (1 Cor 4:15). Every priest or bishop should be able to add, with the Apostle: “I became your father in Christ Jesus through the Gospel” (ibid.). Paul likewise calls the Galatians: “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!” (4:19).

Being a father entails introducing children to life and reality. Not holding them back, being overprotective or possessive, but rather making them capable of deciding for themselves, enjoying freedom and exploring new possibilities. Perhaps for this reason, Joseph is traditionally called a “most chaste” father. That title is not simply a sign of affection, but the summation of an attitude that is the opposite of possessiveness. Chastity is freedom from possessiveness in every sphere of one’s life. Only when love is chaste, is it truly love. A possessive love ultimately becomes dangerous: it imprisons, constricts and makes for misery. God himself loved humanity with a chaste love; he left us free even to go astray and set ourselves against him. The logic of love is always the logic of freedom, and Joseph knew how to love with extraordinary freedom. He never made himself the centre of things. He did not think of himself, but focused instead on the lives of Mary and Jesus.

Joseph found happiness not in mere self-sacrifice but in self-gift. In him, we never see frustration but only trust. His patient silence was the prelude to concrete expressions of trust. Our world today needs fathers. It has no use for tyrants who would domineer others as a means of compensating for their own needs. It rejects those who confuse authority with authoritarianism, service with servility, discussion with oppression, charity with a welfare mentality, power with destruction. Every true vocation is born of the gift of oneself, which is the fruit of mature sacrifice. The priesthood and consecrated life likewise require this kind of maturity. Whatever our vocation, whether to marriage, celibacy or virginity, our gift of self will not come to fulfilment if it stops at sacrifice; were that the case, instead of becoming a sign of the beauty and joy of love, the gift of self would risk being an expression of unhappiness, sadness and frustration.

When fathers refuse to live the lives of their children for them, new and unexpected vistas open up. Every child is the bearer of a unique mystery that can only be brought to light with the help of a father who respects that child’s freedom. A father who realizes that he is most a father and educator at the point when he becomes “useless”, when he sees that his child has become independent and can walk the paths of life unaccompanied. When he becomes like Joseph, who always knew that his child was not his own but had merely been entrusted to his care. In the end, this is what Jesus would have us understand when he says: “Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven” (Mt 23:9).

In every exercise of our fatherhood, we should always keep in mind that it has nothing to do with possession, but is rather a “sign” pointing to a greater fatherhood. In a way, we are all like Joseph: a shadow of the heavenly Father, who “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt 5:45). And a shadow that follows his Son.

* * *

“Get up, take the child and his mother” (Mt 2:13), God told Saint Joseph.

The aim of this Apostolic Letter is to increase our love for this great saint, to encourage us to implore his intercession and to imitate his virtues and his zeal.

Indeed, the proper mission of the saints is not only to obtain miracles and graces, but to intercede for us before God, like Abraham[26] and Moses[27], and like Jesus, the “one mediator” (1 Tim 2:5), who is our “advocate” with the Father (1 Jn 2:1) and who “always lives to make intercession for [us]” (Heb 7:25; cf. Rom 8:34).

The saints help all the faithful “to strive for the holiness and the perfection of their particular state of life”.[28] Their lives are concrete proof that it is possible to put the Gospel into practice.

Jesus told us: “Learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart” (Mt 11:29). The lives of the saints too are examples to be imitated. Saint Paul explicitly says this: “Be imitators of me!” (1 Cor 4:16).[29] By his eloquent silence, Saint Joseph says the same.

Before the example of so many holy men and women, Saint Augustine asked himself: “What they could do, can you not also do?” And so he drew closer to his definitive conversion, when he could exclaim: “Late have I loved you, Beauty ever ancient, ever new!”[30]

We need only ask Saint Joseph for the grace of graces: our conversion.

Let us now make our prayer to him:

Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer, Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary. To you God entrusted his only Son; in you Mary placed her trust; with you Christ became man.

Blessed Joseph, to us too, show yourself a father and guide us in the path of life. Obtain for us grace, mercy and courage, and defend us from every evil. Amen.

Given in Rome, at Saint John Lateran, on 8 December, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the year 2020, the eighth of my Pontificate.

Franciscus

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boykeats · 5 years

Note

I don’t know if you take prompts but it’s this time of year again so can we request something about Jesus and/or Judas?

matthew wrestles you down into the dirt, the both of you laughing as he wrenches one arm behind your back and keeps you pinned. you choke out a gentle shout for help, and jesus looks up from his halfway-woven crown of irises, his cheekbones sunburnt, his fingers grass-stained.

the three of you have a running joke when you and matthew are wrestling:

“alright, judas,” jesus calls to you. “what should i do?”

you try to kick at one of mattew’s legs and miss spectacularly. you flash jesus a bright grin. “turn his tongue into wine, that’ll get him to stop.”

then matthew tightens his grip and, grinning right back, goes, “turn his teeth into fish scales. he’s the one who started it.”

jesus pretends to take a moment to think. “the spirit of the lord is already with you both,” he declares. “you have to get yourselves out of this, but i promise there will be no broken noses.”

the air shudders with heat and the humming of gnats. as you look at jesus sideways from your place on the ground, you think maybe, for a split second, you see the human form of him shudder too.

–

you and the other disciples reach the edges of gethsemane by sunset. john and james walk with the supply bags on their backs, and with their arms around each other’s shoulders, as if it is all they can do in their tiredness to prop each other up. peter carries the water flasks, simon the fresh loaves of bread, thomas the figs and dried meat, you the olive oil.

the twelve of you meet jesus in the camp nestled in a clearing near the river. by the time dinner is set up, prayers whispered and bread broken, the moon hangs as full of light as a lover’s voice, and through the dark stretches of forest come the heady cries of owls preparing for flight.

at first, dinner proceeds in the usual manner: simon tells a story about a carpenter in cairo that has you in stitches, jude steals jesus’ now half-withered iris crown, puts it on his head, and refuses to take it off because peter has dared him to do so, and then john, robes covered in breadcrumbs, lips shining red with wine, lays his head on jesus’ shoulder and starts to sing hymns.

but as the last notes of john’s songs evaporate into the night, jesus’ mouth twists into a frown.

“there’s something i must tell you all. soon one of you will betray me.”

everyone glances at each other. no one dares say anything. who of the disciples could be so foolish? oh, but there is a lump in your throat. it has been pressing at you all day, changing from a small worry to a great splintering ache.

you gaze meets jesus’ from across the table. the glow of the lamplight drowns his dark irises in a cloak of gold. you can’t see it, but you can feel it there, how those eyes have beheld stars shivering their way into life.

–

the pouch of silver hangs from your neck and thumps against your chest as you walk. your heart beats in your ears so loudly that you think it must overtake even the clatter of soldiers’ armor.

your hands shake when you reach the clearing.

with chapped lips, jesus kisses you back.

–

he told you once that it was his mother who taught him how to play tag. you had shook your head at that. of course you knew the jesus of blistered heels and frayed linen, but he was always a man. jesus, the man who can pull back the shroud of cloth from a dead body and wake him up again under the morning sun. jesus, the man who spends hours in poor villages changing dead crops into fresh stalks of wheat. when he sings with his low, sweet voice, the skies crack themselves apart with thunder and rain.

it is as much of a miracle, then, that at one time he had stumbled around on baby fat legs with his mother chasing him through the meadow grass.

you are sitting now with your feet in the river, your hands full of rope, and your eyes shut. you think about jesus screaming as the whips leave stripes of blood all down his back. you think about wet, crunching sound of the nails going through his hands and feet. you think about the arc his body makes as he gasps for air on the cross. you think about what the devil will do to you when, in a half hour’s time, you arrive at the hemlock-covered gates of hell.

forgiveness is a word made of starlight and honey. it will never belong to men like you.

–

later, you will not remember anything more of it except that, just before the world flashed white, you could hear flies humming in the brush.

–

mary magdalene is the one who finds your body lying by the river bank, the snapped noose trailing in the water, spilled silver coins gleaming up from between the rocks. for three days and three nights, through the haze of your fever, she feeds you bone broth and hyssop tea.

the first thing you see when you wake is her smile, as sharp and bright as sea salt.

“thank the lord you’ve made it.”

all you can do in response is wheeze through the pain in your throat. “how…”

“oh,” she says, with a gleam in her eyes that reminds you how she carried seven demons in her body and survived. “he told me himself that he had more plans for you.”

before you slip back into an exhausted sleep, you try to wrap your tongue around that word, “told?”

–

mary magdalene has a hand on your shoulder, and you have a hand on the cold stone of the inside of the tomb. it has been seven days since the river mud was cleaned from your feet. when mary had told you where she wanted to take you, you spent that whole morning praying not to be struck down by lightning or swords.

“where do i go from here?” you ask the emptiness and the silence.

mary responds, “you keep going forward, one day a time.”

#i'm going to be late for easter lunch because this is a thousand words long #also five of you requested this so i hope y'all enjoy!!#prose #judas iscariot #gore tw #suicide tw #ok to reblog

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fan-art-ic · 5 years

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THE PRINCIPLES OF BEING AN UNTETHERED ZEALOT by @fan-art-ic

[id under cut]

THE PRINCIPLES OF BEING AN UNTETHERED ZEALOT

if you stopped telling people it's all sorted out after they're dead,

they might try sorting it all out while they're alive.

I grew up in a small room with white walls and grey floors, with plastic tables where I sat, making a cross from craft foam and a glue stick. An older lady named Mrs. K, or Ms. Z would tell the room about a man named Jesus, who died for our seven-year old sins of lying —about if we brushed our teeth— stealing —a french fry off a plate, and cheating —at monopoly.

I grew up in church after church after church, in car rides ten twenty and eighty minutes long, told that something holy exists, and how my mom may have cried out in pain as my head crowned, but there was a man in the sky who created me. I learned to recite words of punishment, the same words that the angels spoke at gomorrah, to earn pieces of candy and pocket-toys.

Until I was ten, I went to church. Then the bed called louder in the early morning hours, so I never went to Sunday school again. For over half of my life, I was told there was something righteous in the air, and something revenant in the water, and if I pried open my feral child heart to let the Lord in, I would not be damned, tortured, and abandoned to eternal agony in death.

II.

I’m not sure exactly, of how to explain this: I don’t believe in God, I believe in GOD in People. I believe in the pain of kneeling before something Bigger. I believe in how sunlight burns my skin like a cherub’s sword. I believe in the community of Same Heart and Faith. I believe in how hair glows like a halo under streetlights. I believe in the ineffability and complexity of a Humanity.

Does this make sense?

Does you witness the way my heart is bruised before you?

The LORD is my SHEPHERD, I shall not want— but I shall need and do need. I need so desperately. I own a gaping, aching need to fill myself with a Truth, a Truth that’s been left unfilled but created from hours of study, hunched over silk-thin paper and imprinting into my child mind the grief of Mary, the faith of Abraham, and the belief of Paul.

I ask myself —the hole asks itself— what about the tragedy of Emmanuel? Carpenter, friend, son, and Son? Whispered to by a man who called Himself “Father”, who ordered young Emmanuel to bleed and strip himself —hanging bone-splintered above his mother and city— humble to save his neighbors, his heroes, his mother and father?

I ask myself —the hole asks itself— what about the tragedy of Job? Faithful, beautiful Job, ever servant to his God, and suffered endlessly and countlessly as a test of his belief. His children dead and friends’ backs turned on him —blaming words like knives under his shoulder blade— now a man with nothing, toyed with by his God, who already knew Job would remain to any length in His name.

I ask myself —the hole asks itself— what about the tragedy of Lucifer? God’s right-hand, most beloved as all? Wings that glimmered and made sinless —for sin was not yet invented— angels shiny with awe? Lucifer Morningstar, named so for being full of light, bright and beautiful as the dawning sun painting color across the brand new sky, who God designed to have the tint of pride, to have thoughts God would not like, and who was destined to burn from curiosity into something dark, twisted, ashen, disturbed?

I cannot believe in God, for He would take my belief and grasp it with both hands and twist and yank and distort me into another story for a seven-year old child to be told in a room with white walls and grey floors.

III.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines religious as: ‘relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity // a religious person // religious attitudes 2 : of, relating to, or devoted to religious beliefs or observances //joined a religious order 3a : scrupulously and conscientiously faithful b : FERVENT, ZEALOUS’

I have faithful devotion to: -Doodling on tests and quizzes and legal documents -Staying up late to read yet another chapter -Finishing shows (unless I get bored mid-episode in which I never finish it) -A love of cats -Respecting my mother -Disrespecting my father (subtly though, I don’t want to get smacked again) -Writing bad poetry -Writing half-bad prose -Ordering the same food every time (because experience has taught me that the familiar is better)

I wouldn’t call myself [SCRUPULOUS] or [CONSCIENTIOUS], but I will accept, defend, and fight for [b: FERVENT, ZEALOUS]. I am this quiet, barren thing, dull as the metal hull of Oppenheimer’s pride. In my third eye I am Powerful and Strong and Shiny new like the metal glint of a knight with armor polished, my sword strung at the hip.

My child heart rests dormant in my chest and feral in my memories. Memories of bashing a head against a church floor, of a heady violent form taking hold of my dirty, grubby fingers.

IV.

The LORD became God when Man forgot to write about how the LORD wept for his Children on the Eighth Day.

I haven’t touched the ground today. I was too busy noticing the angels who sat on the park bench talking about deadlines and soul quotas. The same cigarette touched their not-lips and the one with muddy shoes flicked the doggend onto the sidewalk, grinding it into ash with his heel.

I heard one say that love isn’t Love —I could hear the capital in his voice— and the other snorted, a strange trill echoing from his inhuman fleshy throat. “What’s the difference, then?” he asked. “love is a service, a loan with one-hundred-and-ten interest.” My toes brushed the dirt and the first angel kept talking: “Love is a selfish act mangled and chewed and torn, it hurts worse than a Fall and is worth more than Grace.”

“I don’t get it, both sound fucking awful,” the other angel said.

“It’s called free will.”

They began a new cigarette and I started to walk again. I think I learned something there, in the park, near those angels. I think I saw the ash grey halos and heard human things for ethereal beings, and understood how the wine-dark of the sea crashes so brutally over the cliffs, drawing artists and writers to its beat, begging to be seen in its violent shores.

VI.

When I was twelve, I tried to touch God. I rode in tense silence, ten minutes there, ten minutes back, to a youth group at a big, white church that had a parking lot so big, I would collapse racing kids one end to the other. I stood in the gym where other twelve-year olds threw footballs and frisbees and free advice, before the pastor would give God’s advice after we all stood for five songs of worship to God, blessing him for shelter, food, water, life, for the absence of pain and presence of joy.

My feet ached and my baby soul hurt, wretched from the inability to embrace the Word of God from the mouths of people who preached kindness and then placed me in groups of kids during activities, where I became a specter: a disheveled, nail-chewing, hair band-snapping, too-solid ghost.

I abandoned church at age sixteen. I tried to find God in the evergreens and mountain air and streaking skies. When my counselor asked if everyone in the tent believed in God, I said maybe. I wanted to be honest and brave, knighted in Truth. What I got was an interrogation, a smiting on those wooded hidden paths, with commands of faith poured down my gasping throat and my pinched nose.

God is the name of justification, and I could not find Him for my own Justice.

VII.

When I was a child, I was told of a resolution, solution, dissolution of all worries, fears, trappings of the human sickness. I was told of Something not greater, but Bigger then my whole world —granted, a seven-year old’s world is the size of an oyster, with them as the pearl— that dealt in a hand of cards with each suit a different type of miracle. My mind was imprinted on with the imagery, the shining glory, of angels and wings and chariots, who swept man off his feet to spit Words of Truth, handpiece to God and examples to look up to —but no one ever mentioned how Moses was buried in the sand.

The neural pathways for divine faith have been ordered, constructed, red ribbon cut, all for no crowd to show up. I have an illness that requires an intervention of a LORD on HIGH, but all I have are the echoes of a Man’s God being read to a group of children in a white room with grey floors.

#poetry #religious poetry #queer poets on tumblr #my writing #religious poem #so uh. here's this i suppose #the formatting is a lil wonky but hopefully not too wonky for it to be problem

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dfroza · 3 years

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not everyone is open to see

that the Son is actually our Creator who reveals our heavenly Father. not every heart is open to “believe...”

but rebirth is still offered for those who seek.

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is chapter 6 in the book of Mark:

Jesus went back into His own hometown where He had grown up, and His disciples followed Him there. When the Sabbath came, He went into the synagogue in Nazareth and began to teach as He had done elsewhere, and many of those who heard Him were astonished.

Those in the Synagogue: Where did He gain this wisdom? And what are all these stories we’ve been hearing about the signs and healings He’s performed? Where did He get that kind of power? Isn’t this Jesus, the little boy we used to see in Joseph’s carpenter shop? Didn’t He grow up to be a carpenter just like His father? Isn’t He the son of Mary over there and the brother of James, Joses, Judas, Simon, and their sisters? Who does He think He is?

And when they had thought about it that way, they became indignant and closed themselves to His message.

Jesus (seeing this): A prophet can find honor anywhere except in his hometown, among his own people, and in his own household.

He could not do any of His great works among them except with a few of the sick, whom He healed by laying His hands upon them. He was amazed by the stubbornness of their unbelief.

Jesus went out among the villages teaching, and He called the twelve to Him and began to send them out in pairs. He gave them authority over unclean spirits and instructed them to take nothing with them but a staff: no money, no bread, no bag, nothing but the sandals on their feet and the coat on their back.

Jesus: When you go into a house, stay there until it is time for you to leave that town. And if someone will not accept you and your message, when you leave, shake off the dust of that place from your feet as a judgment against it. [On the day of judgment, that city will wish for the punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah.]

And so His disciples went out into the countryside, preaching the changed life as Jesus had taught them, casting out unclean spirits and anointing the sick with oil to heal them.

Jesus had become so well known that King Herod received reports of all that Jesus was doing. Some were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead and that these mighty works were the fruits of his resurrection.

Others (disagreeing): No, this Jesus is Elijah, returned to work on the earth.

And still others said He was another of the prophets.

Herod (to himself): No, it is John, the prophet I beheaded, risen from the dead.

For the blood of John was on his hands. Herod had imprisoned John in the days before Jesus began His teaching. John had preached to Herod that he should not have married his own brother’s wife, Herodias, for so it is written in the Hebrew Scriptures: “It is not lawful for one to marry his brother’s wife.”

Herodias held a grudge against John and would have had him killed, but she couldn’t. Herod feared John as a holy and righteous man and did what he could to protect him. John taught hard truths, and yet Herod found he usually liked hearing them.

So Herod had put John in prison instead of executing him; and there John sat until Herod’s birthday, when the governor held a great state dinner. That night, Herod’s stepdaughter danced beautifully for the state officials; and the king proclaimed a solemn vow in the presence of his honored guests, military officers, and some of the leading men of Galilee.

Herod: Ask me whatever you wish, and I will grant it. Whatever you want, I will give you—up to half my province.

She went out and consulted with her mother, Herodias, who had only one great desire and told her daughter what she must say.

Herod’s Stepdaughter (immediately, in response to Herod): I want the head of John the Baptist—right now—delivered to me on a platter.

Herod was horrified, but he had sworn an oath and could not break his word in front of his invited guests. So immediately he sent an executioner to the prison to behead John and bring them the head. It was brought to the girl upon a platter, and she took it to her mother.

When John’s disciples were told of this, they came for his body and gave it a proper burial.

Now the twelve returned from their travels and told Him what they had done, whom they had seen, and how they had spread the news of God’s kingdom.

Jesus (to the disciples): Let us go out into the wilderness for a while and rest ourselves.

The crowds gathered as always, and Jesus and the twelve couldn’t eat because so many people came and went. They could get no peace until they boarded a boat and sailed toward a deserted place.

But the people would not be put off so easily. Those along the shore who recognized Jesus followed along the coast. People pushed out of all the cities and gathered ahead of Him so that when Jesus came ashore and saw this crowd of people waiting for Him in a place that should have been relatively deserted, He was moved with compassion. They were like sheep without a shepherd.

He began to teach them many things as the day passed; at last the disciples came to Jesus.

Disciples: It is getting late, and there is nothing around for miles. Send these people to the surrounding villages so they can buy something to eat.

Jesus: Why don’t you give them something to eat?

Disciples (looking at Him): What? It would cost a fortune to buy bread for these people!

Jesus: Does anyone have any bread? Go and see.

Disciples (returning from the crowd): There are five pieces of flatbread and two fish, if that makes any difference.

Jesus: Listen, tell them to gather in smaller groups and sit on that green patch of grass.

And so the disciples gathered the people in groups of 100 or of 50, and they sat down.

Jesus took the five pieces of flatbread and the two fish, looked up to heaven, thanked God for the food, and broke it. He gave the pieces to the disciples to distribute, and all of the people ate until no one was hungry. Then they gathered twelve baskets full of leftovers.

That day, 5,000 men ate their fill of the bread when Jesus fed the hungry crowd.

Not long after, He sent His disciples out onto their boat to sail to Bethsaida on the other shore, and He sent the crowd away. After everyone had gone, He slipped away to pray on a mountain overlooking the sea.

When evening came, the boat was out on the sea and He was alone on the land. He saw that the disciples were making little progress because they were rowing against a stiff wind. Before daylight He came near them, walking on the water, and would have passed by them. Some of them saw Him walking on the surface of the water, thought He was a ghost, and cried out. When they all saw Him, they were terrified.

Jesus (immediately calling out): Don’t be frightened. Do you see? It is I.

He walked across the water to the boat; and as soon as He stepped aboard, the contrary wind ceased its blowing. They were greatly astonished; although they had just witnessed the miracle of Jesus feeding 5,000 with bread and fish, and other signs besides, they didn’t understand what it all meant and their hearts remained hard.

When they finished their journey, they landed the boat in Gennesaret. People at once recognized Jesus as the Healer. Immediately they hurried to collect the sick and infirm—bringing them to Him in beds if they had to—laying them out in the markets of any village, city, or field where He might pass.

Gennesarites: Just let us touch the fringe of Your robe.

Even the people who touched only it were made whole again.

The Book of Mark, Chapter 6 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 8th chapter of the book of Esther when a new decree was issued in favor of the Jews who Haman sought to kill:

On the same day, King Ahasuerus gave Queen Esther all the household of Haman, the enemy of the Jews. Then Mordecai was brought before King Ahasuerus, for Queen Esther had told the king how they were related. The king took off his signet ring (the one he had taken back from Haman) and gave it to Mordecai. Then Esther put Mordecai in charge of all of Haman’s household.

Esther came before the king once more. This time she fell at his feet, wept, and begged the king to do something to stop the evil plan that Haman (the Agagite) had brought upon the Jews. The king, as before, extended his golden scepter to Queen Esther; and she stood to her feet before him.

Queen Esther: If it pleases the king, and if I am in his favor, and if the king believes it is the right and just thing to do, let there be an official decree written that will cancel out the order that Haman (son of Hammedatha, the Agagite) had written to rid all the king’s provinces of the Jews. For I can’t bear to see this catastrophe brought against my people; how can I live another day if I witness the destruction of my kindred?

King Ahasuerus (to Queen Esther and Mordecai the Jew): Look, I have given you, Queen Esther, Haman’s household because of his vengeful actions against your people. That is also why he hangs on the pole he had made for Mordecai. I have done all I can do; the rest is your responsibility because no order that has been written in the name of the king and sealed with the king’s signet ring can be overturned. So you must write a new order to the Jews to remedy the situation; it, too, must be written in the king’s name and sealed with the king’s signet ring.

So the royal secretaries were summoned together on the 23rd day of the 3rd month (the month of Sivan). The king’s new orders were written down exactly the way Mordecai dictated them, and they were written to the Jews, the rulers, the governors, and the nobles of the 127 provinces stretching from India to Ethiopia. The orders were written down in every script and every language spoken in the provinces, including the Jewish script and the Jewish language. Mordecai wrote in the name of King Ahasuerus and sealed it with his signet ring. Then, these orders were dispatched to the provinces by couriers who rode on the finely bred horses sired by the royal stud. The king’s new orders gave the Jews in every city the right to gather together, to protect themselves, and to kill or destroy any army of any nation or province (including their women and children) who might attack them. The orders also gave the Jews the right to take over the assets of their enemies. These new orders were set to go into effect on the 13th day of the 12th month (the month of Adar). This was the same day Haman had determined by casting lots to kill the Jews. An official copy of the king’s order was to be issued to every province and read publicly to all nationalities, so that the Jews would be ready to protect themselves against their enemies. The couriers were quickly dispatched by order of the king, and they left the capital riding on royal steeds. Then the decree was publicly proclaimed in the citadel of Susa.

Mordecai went out from the king’s presence donning blue and white royal robes, a large gold crown, and a fine linen and purple cape. When the people of the city of Susa saw this, they exploded into joy. For the Jews, it was a time of celebration. Darkness had turned to light. Sadness to joy. Shame to honor. In every city and province, wherever the king’s law and orders were received, there was happiness and joy among the Jews. They feasted, they danced, they celebrated—and people from other nations living among the Jews professed to be Jews because they were afraid of the Jews’ sudden political power in Persia.

The Book of Esther, Chapter 8 (The Voice)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for monday, April 5 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible, along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

A post by John Parsons that takes a look at this week’s Torah reading by Jews around the world:

Our Torah reading for this week, called parashat Shemini (“eighth”), continues the account of the seven-day ordination ceremony for the priests (as described earlier in Parashat Tzav). During each of these "seven days of consecration" Moses served as the first High Priest of Israel by offering sacrifices and training Aaron and his sons (i.e., the kohanim or priests) regarding their duties at the mishkan (i.e., "Tabernacle"). On the eighth day however, (i.e., Nisan 1), and just before the anniversary of the Passover, Aaron and his sons began their official responsibilities as Israel’s priests. In the midst of the dedication, however, tragedy struck as Aaron’s sons Nadav and Abihu took it upon themselves to make their own offering before the Holy of Holies of the tent. Since this was not the prescribed means of offering sacrifice, God considered the incense offered to be “strange fire” (i.e., esh zarah: אשׁ זרה) and both sons were tragically consumed by fire before the LORD (Heb. 10:29,31). Aaron was required to remain silent as his sons’ bodies were removed by his cousins, and Moses then warned Aaron’s two remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, not to mourn during this sacred occasion.

The Torah portion then includes a list of various animals, birds, fish and insects permitted (or fobidden) as food, a list which subsequently provided the framework for Jewish dietary law (i.e., kosher law). The Israelites were permitted to eat any mammal that has both a split hoof and chews its cud (Lev. 11:3). Likewise, only fish that have both scales and fins were to be regarded as kosher. A list of acceptable (i.e., non-predatory) birds was given, along with the commandment not to eat any insects unless they have a pair of jointed legs used for leaping. The dietary laws were intended to sanctify the Israelites by separating them for holiness: “For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy” (כּי קדוֹשׁ אני).

Providentially considered, it is no coincidence that the inauguration of the Sanctuary is directly connected to the Passover (פסח), since the daily sacrifice of the Lamb (i.e., korban tamid: קרבן תמיד) presented an ongoing memorial of the great Exodus from Egypt. Indeed, consider that the central sacrifice of the Mishkan (i.e., “Tabernacle”) was that of a defect-free lamb offered every evening and morning upon the altar in the outer court, along with matzah and a wine offering, signifying the advent of the true Passover Lamb of God given sacrifice for us. This is called “God’s Food” in the Torah (Exod. 29:38-42; Num. 28:4-10; John 1:29). [Hebrew for Christians]

4.5.21 • Facebook

Today’s message from the Institute for Creation Research

April 5, 2021

Pleasant Perplexities

“For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.” (Philippians 1:23-24)

As we mature in the Lord, our fear of death recedes into the background and ultimately, as this verse demonstrates, becomes a desire to leave this sin-cursed world behind and pass into the presence of the Creator.

The word choices in this passage are unusual. The verse could be translated “I am held together out of two pressures, a passion to be loosed to be with Christ; which is very much more serviceable for me: but remaining here in the flesh is, out of necessity, more critical for you.”

Thus, the tension of the true saint of God. The more that is known about the joy awaiting us in the presence of our Lord, the less we see earthly values and goals as things to work toward. Yet, the needs of churches, new Christians, troubled souls, and challenges surrounding our lives require a commitment to complete the “course” that God has given us to finish (2 Timothy 4:7).

The Lord Jesus insisted that we not worry about tomorrow because the evil of each day was “sufficient” (Matthew 6:34), since there is trouble enough in the world among those who reject God’s authority (2 Timothy 3:1-7). The evil that surrounds us should motivate us to long for the eternal rest promised to the people of God (Hebrews 4:9).

But to struggle with conflict resolution among the churches adds to the burden. Many in the ministry know this tension, as do most who serve regularly in their own churches. Perhaps our own peace comes when we finally determine that it is “far better” to serve. HMM III

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frederickwiddowson · 4 years

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Paul’s Letter to the Romans 1:1-7 comments: Paul’s introduction

Traditionally this is called The Epistle (defined as a letter in 2Corinthians 7:8) of St. Paul the Apostle to the Romans. The postscript in the King James Bible says that Paul wrote it from Corinth and it was sent to the Romans by way of Phebe the servant (deaconess) of the church of Cenchrea, something we will discuss when we get to that part where she is mentioned.

Romans, chapter 1

Romans 1:1 ¶ Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, 2 (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) 3 Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; 4 And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: 5 By whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: 6 Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ: 7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

An apostle, from verse 1, is separated for the gospel of God. He is a preacher and a teacher;

1Timothy 2:7 Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

2Timothy 1:11 Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

The apostles were chosen by Jesus Himself;

Luke 6:13 And when it was day, he called unto him his disciples: and of them he chose twelve, whom also he named apostles; 14 Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, 15 Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, 16 And Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot, which also was the traitor.

Acts 9:10 ¶ And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. 11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, 12 And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. 13 Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: 14 And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that

call on thy name. 15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: 16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.

They were sent out for the purpose of spreading the gospel;

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

In verse 3 is a phrase that has caused many Christian groups to insist that God and Christ are two distinct persons with individual wills, one being subordinate to the other. It has also led Mohammed of Islam to call Christians idolaters, worshipping multiple gods. Concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord does not mean that God had a son in the way that it means we might have a son.

Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Gabriel, the angel in this passage, announces to Mary what she is going to be a part of. This will be the basis of the phrase only begotten Son of God in John. Even though Alexander the Great had himself declared the son of god or the gods and Roman Emperor Augustus even signed his decrees ‘deus fide’ or son of god, God only came to live on earth as a man one time, in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, not a king appointed by man or an emperor by virtue of his military conquests, but a poor Jewish carpenter’s son from a backwater of the Roman Empire who was the Son of God at the same time in that He was God in human flesh.

It is important to understand the meaning of sonship in the ancient world. The Jews understood that for Jesus to be declared the Son of God meant He was equal with God, invested with God’s authority.

John 5:18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Philippians 2:6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

We believe and have faith that Jesus Christ was God walking in human flesh.

John 1:1 ¶ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

God is composed of three parts, as man and woman are; a body, a soul, and a spirit.

1Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God has a soul, the seat of self-identity and will.

Psalm 11:5 The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

This is God the Father, sometimes referred to just as God in the New Testament. He is invisible to us. As John says in John 1:18 and in 1John 4:12 no one has seen God, presumably God the Father, at any time. Every act of God’s will originates with Him.

God has a Spirit, how He moves throughout creation and acts on it and in it.

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Romans 8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

This Spirit is called the Holy Ghost, the Comforter.

1Corinthians 12:3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

John 14:16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you…26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

The Holy Spirit in its function, the Holy Ghost in His identity, is the mind of God and also God.

For contexts where the Spirit of God or the spirit of man can be synonymous with mind please see the following;

Romans 8:27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

1Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Ephesians 4:23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

2Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

God not only has a soul and a mind but has a body, His person, whom man can see, and has even touched, as God in the flesh, called the Son of God.

Hebrews 1:1 ¶ God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

Colossians 1: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:15 Who is the image of the invisible God…

Of course, an image is the likeness of someone, what he looks like.

Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Exodus 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

(Refer back to these verses when someone insists that the image of God is man’s ability to discern between good and evil, which is nonsense, as Adam was made in the image of God but did not taste of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil until he fell).

Jesus Christ is also the Word by which all things were created. Read the first 18 verses of the Gospel According to John. God’s mind formed creation and God’s Word spoke it into existence, bringing forth the light, which He is.

Genesis 1:3 ¶ And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

One stark difference between man and God is that God’s three parts can act independently of each other and still be one God.

Deuteronomy 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:

Mark 12:29 And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

2Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

1John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Christ is then that bridge between God and man, fully God and fully man, without whom the believer in God would be in the same predicament as other religions where their god is so distant from man that there is no connection, no compassion for man’s suffering, no understanding of the human heart, fears, and affections.

God reveals Himself to special select people under the Law and to all believers under Grace.

Amos 3:7 Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

(To deny this is to say that the so-called ‘Great Commission’ of the end of Matthew does not apply to every believer but only the Apostles).

The Lord Jesus Christ, while walking in biological flesh on the earth, also had a human spirit, a human will, being fully man and fully God. This spirit also manifested itself to us.

Luke 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

There was a great argument in the Roman Empire’s church regarding whether Christ even had two natures. Some focused on His divinity while others His humanity. The issue was somewhat settled at the Council of Chalcedon in 451AD in Bithynia in Asia Minor, in what is the country of Turkey today. It was understood that Christ was one person with two natures, divine and human, God in the flesh. This does not mean that they just figured that out but that they declared the other ideas as incorrect.

The Son of God is God in the flesh. In eternity;

1Corinthians 15:27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

Notice in verse 4, the importance of the resurrection. The resurrection of Christ and the promise of our resurrection and our eternal life is the centerpoint around which Christian faith revolves. Without the resurrection Christianity becomes a mere philosophy of living and Christ only a great teacher or even a madman. The resurrection seals the deal, so to speak. We should celebrate it in our hearts every day not just at Easter. It is how we know Christ was God in the flesh and it is the basis on which the authority of the apostles rests.

Romans 1:6 includes us down through history as also the called of Jesus Christ including us in the command and authority to fulfill Matthew 28:18-20.

Saints has special meaning in the Bible and that is not special individuals honored by the Roman Catholic Church and given special mystical powers after their deaths. Saints are sanctified ones, called to be holy, God’s chosen people, either the Gentiles who still worshipped the true God or the Israelites in the Old Testament or the Christian in the New Testament.

Deuteronomy 33:2 And he said, The LORD came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; he shined forth from mount Paran, and he came with ten thousands of saints: from his right hand went a fiery law for them. 3 Yea, he loved the people; all his saints are in thy hand: and they sat down at thy feet; every one shall receive of thy words.

Acts 9:13 Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:

And yet, these are all sinners, imperfect, depending completely on God’s goodness, His mercy, and His grace.

Job 15:15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.

Paul wishes for God’s grace, His unmerited favor, to the church at Rome, and peace with God which is one of the main points of the Bible and the reason for God’s sacrifice on the Cross at Calvary. Having peace restored with our Creator after living in a state of rebellion should be our first duty. Here in the next passage quoted, Paul further explains peace with God and the union of Jew and Gentile to form the church.

Ephesians 2:1 ¶ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

4 ¶ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

11 ¶ Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

14 ¶ For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; 15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; 16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

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goswagcollectorfire · 4 years

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CARL’S BLOG: BLUE SKIES OF EL DORADO, ARKANSAS; carlsblog.online; http://sbpra.com/CarlJBarger

5-26-20: Catherine Bradford’s Christmas message to her entire family.

Mother was normally the first to start off the sharing time,

but today she announced she wanted to be last.

Finally, the time came, and Mother stepped forward.

“I know you’ve wondered why I wanted to be last. Well, to

tell you the truth I have got a lot to say. Please excuse me if I get

sentimental and emotional.

“I want to start by saying this year, 1866, has been the best

year of my life. I can’t think of another year that can top this one.

“One of the hardest things I’ve ever endured in my life

was leaving part of my children and grandchildren behind in

Autauga and Dallas Counties. I started praying after coming to

Union County that someday God would bring those from Dallas

and Autauga Counties here.

“Take a good look around this room. Today every member

of my family is present. Praise the Lord for answered prayer!”

Everyone in the parlor started applauding.

“I know if James could be here, he would be praising the

Lord and rejoicing with me.

“I want all you to know how much I love you. You are the

reason I live. Every morning when I wake up, I thank my Lord

for my large family. God has given me Godly children and marvelous

grandchildren. Every day I look forward to getting up

and helping Penelope with my grandchildren. There is not a day

goes by that I am not thinking about every one of you and what

amazing things you are doing in your lives.

“I’m proud of all of you. You give me hope and something

to look forward to daily.

“I’m amazed to see what my older grandchildren have

already accomplished in their lives.

“Today, I want to do something I’ve never done at Christmas.

Dent has already shared with everyone his traditional

reading of the Christmas Story. He always does a great job. My

story is a little different, in that it consists of certain events of

the Bible that have sequentially come about because of God’s

plan for all of us.

“It means a lot to me and has given me reassurance over

the years that we have a loving God, one who meets our every

need. It is a story that we should remember all through our lives,

a story that I have treasured throughout my adult life and from the

time I first came to know Jesus Christ as my savior.

“Several years ago, I taught a girls’ Sunday school class. It

gave me great pleasure to work with those girls. At first, not all

the girls knew Jesus Christ as their savior, but before I stopped

teaching the class, every one of them had accepted Jesus.

“To pave the way to salvation, I taught them a brief history

of whom God really is. I did this through exposing them to Bible

facts. Here is that story.

“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.

“He then created man in His own image. He made the first

man, from clay and breathed life into him. God called him Adam.

“After God created Adam, He saw that Adam was lonely. He

decided that Adam needed a helpmate, so he put him into a deep

sleep and removed one of his ribs and made a woman. He called

her Eve. Eve became Adam’s wife and helpmate.

“God gave Adam and Eve a beautiful place to live, the Garden

of Eden. God instructed Adam that he and Eve could eat

any fruit in the garden, except that from the tree of knowledge

of good and evil. God said, ‘If you do, you will surely die.’

“In the Garden of Eden, Satan lived. Satan, with his

craftiness, convinced Eve that she and Adam would not die if

they ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

They disobeyed God and ate fruit from the tree of knowledge

of good and evil. Their disobedience brought sin into the

world. As a punishment, God expelled them from the Garden

of Eden.

“Although God was angry with Adam and Eve, He blessed

them with three sons, Cain, Abel, and Seth. Cain killed his

brother, Abel, out of greed and jealousy and fled the country.

“Many years passed, and the earth was populated with sinful

people. God grieved that he had created man.

“God looked down from Heaven and spoke to a man named

Noah. Noah was a Godly man who found favor with God, and

God chose him to build an Ark. Noah filled the Ark with two

of every kind of animals, reptiles, and anything that could walk,

crawl, or fly.

“After the Ark was built, God caused a great flood to come

upon the earth. The rain fell for forty days and forty nights and

covered the entire earth. Every living human being and creature

that God had created was destroyed except for Noah and his

family and the life Noah took onto the Ark.

“After the rain stopped, the waters eventually receded into

the seas and rivers. Noah and his family left the ark and started

replenishing the earth. God blessed Noah and his family.

“Several years after the flood, mankind returned to their

sinful and wicked ways. Instead of destroying mankind again,

God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be born of Mary, a virgin, for

the purpose of saving mankind. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of

Judea. He grew up in the city of Nazareth. He worked with his

earthly father, Joseph, as a carpenter.

“At the age of thirty, he started His ministry, by calling out

twelve disciples to accompany Him in His ministry. He taught

them many good things. Jesus enabled them to heal the sick and

afflicted and perform miracles.

“During the three-year period that Jesus ministered to the

lost, he faced opposition every day from the Pharisees and Sadducees.

They considered Jesus’ teaching a threat to what they

taught regarding the Law of Moses or Jewish law.

“After seeing the many followers of Jesus, the Pharisees

and Sadducees made plans to kill Jesus. They were successful

in turning the heart of one of Jesus’ disciples, Judas, to plot a

way to have Jesus arrested. They were successful, and Jesus was

brought before Herod and was later crucified on the cross.

“Jesus paid the price for our sins by dying on the cross. He

was buried in a tomb with a large rock rolled over the entrance

of the tomb. He lay in the tomb for three days and three nights.

On the third day, an angel of the Lord came and rolled back the

rock from the empty tomb.

“After Jesus rose from the grave, He joined his disciples for

a meal. Jesus continued his teaching to his Apostles and was

seen by more than five hundred people during the forty-five

days before ascending to his Father in Heaven.

“Our Jesus lives today in Heaven. He intercedes for us in our

prayer lives. He is there for us to call upon any minute of the day.

He is our one and only savior.

“The Bible tells us that whosoever believes that Jesus Christ

is the Son of God can be saved. All we have to do is confess our

sins, repent, and ask Jesus to come into our hearts and we will

be saved.

“John 3:16, says, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave

His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should

not perish but have everlasting life. ‘

“The Bible teaches us that God loves us despite our sins.

“He gives us a way to be forgiven of our sins by praying for

forgiveness. It is not His will that any man should perish and go

to hell. He has prepared a place called Heaven, where we will

live with Him for an eternity.

“My whole point in telling you this story is to remind everyone

here that we are all sinners. We are saved by grace and not

by works. It is my hope that everyone in this room will come to

know Jesus Christ as their one and only savior.

“I want to end my talk with these words of encouragement.

It is worked for me all these years, and it will work for you as

well.

“Always pray, keep your faith, trust Him in all you do, and

sit back and count your blessings. There will be many; I can

assure you of that!”

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tabiochan-blog · 6 years

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10 Best Movies like The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)

The carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth, tormented by the temptations of demons, the guilt of making crosses for the Romans, pity for men and the world, and the constant call of God, sets out to find what God wills for Him. But as His mission nears fulfillment, He must face the greatest temptation; the normal life of a good man. Based, not on the Gospels, but on Nikos Kazantzakis' novel of the same name.

Here are list of 10 Best Movies like The Last Temptation of Christ (1988):

1. Life of Brian (1979)

The story of Brian of Nazareth, born on the same day as Jesus of Nazareth, who takes a different path in life that leads to the same conclusion. Brian joins a political resistance movement aiming to get the Romans out of Judea. Brian scores a victory of sorts when he manages to paint political slogans on an entire wall in the city of Jerusalem. The movement is not very effective but somehow Brian becomes a prophet and gathers his own following. His fate is sealed however and he lives a very short life.

2. Ben-Hur (1959)

Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. Together with the new governor his old friend Messala arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions. At first they are happy to meet after a long time but their different politic views separate them. During the welcome parade a roof tile falls down from Judah's house and injures the governor. Although Messala knows they are not guilty, he sends Judah to the galleys and throws his mother and sister into prison. But Judah swears to come back and take revenge.

3. The Holy Mountain (1973)

A Christlike figure wanders through bizarre, grotesque scenarios filled with religious and sacrilegious imagery. He meets a mystical guide who introduces him to seven wealthy and powerful people, each representing a planet in the Solar system. These seven, along with the protagonist, the guide and the guide's assistant, divest themselves of their worldly goods and form a group of nine who will seek the Holy Mountain, in order to displace the gods who live there and become immortal.

4.Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916)

Intolerance and its terrible effects are examined in four historical eras. In ancient Babylon, a mountain girl is caught up in the religious rivalry that leads to the city's downfall. In Judea, the hypocritical Pharisees condemn Jesus Christ. In 1572 Paris, unaware of the impending St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, two young Huguenots prepare for marriage. Finally, in modern America, social reformers destroy the lives of a young woman and her beloved.

5. The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

"My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?" It is towards this climactic crossroads that the story of Jesus of Nazareth leads, and to which, at the final moment, it again looks back in triumphant retrospect. It is the anguishing crossroads where the eternal questions of faith and doubt become resolved.

6. King of Kings (1961)

The story of the life of Jesus Christ from his birth in Bethlehem to his crucifixion and subsequent resurrection. Filmed on a relatively grand scale, the film includes all of the major events referred to in the New Testament; his baptism by John the Baptist; the miracles - cripples walking, blind men seeing; the fishes and the loaves; and so on. The film actually begins with the Roman invasion by Pompey in 65 B.C., the appointment of King Herod the Great by the Romans and finally the crowning of Herod Antipas after he murders his father. The revolt led by Barrabas is also included and John the Baptist's beheading as Salome's price for dancing for Herod.

7. The Robe (1953)

Marcellus is a tribune in the time of Christ. He is in charge of the group that is assigned to crucify Jesus. Drunk, he wins Jesus' homespun robe after the crucifixion. He is tormented by nightmares and delusions after the event. Hoping to find a way to live with what he has done, and still not believing in Jesus, he returns to Palestine to try and learn what he can of the man he killed.

8. The Passion of the Christ (2004)

A depiction of the last twelve hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, on the day of his crucifixion in Jerusalem. The story opens in the Garden of Olives where Jesus has gone to pray after the Last Supper. Betrayed by Judas Iscariot, the controversial Jesus--who has performed 'miracles' and has publicly announced that he is 'the Son of God'--is arrested and taken back within the city walls of Jerusalem. There, the leaders of the Pharisees confront him with accusations of blasphemy; subsequently, his trial results with the leaders condemning him to his death. Jesus is brought before Pontius Pilate, the prefect of the Roman province of Judaea, for his sentencing. Pilate listens to the accusations leveled at Jesus by the Pharisees. Realizing that his own decision will cause him to become embroiled in a political conflict, Pilate defers to King Herod in deciding the matter of how to persecute Jesus. However, Herod returns Jesus to Pilate who, in turn, gives the crowd a choice between which prisoner they would rather to see set free--Jesus, or Barrabas. The crowd chooses to have Barrabas set free. Thus, Jesus is handed over to the Roman soldiers and is brutally flagellated. Bloody and unrecognizable, he is brought back before Pilate who, once again, presents him to the thirsty crowd--assuming they will see that Jesus has been punished enough. The crowd, however, is not satisfied. Thus, Pilate washes his hands of the entire dilemma, ordering his men to do as the crowd wishes. Whipped and weakened, Jesus is presented with the cross and is ordered to carry it through the streets of Jerusalem, all the way up to Golgotha. There, more corporal cruelty takes place as Jesus is nailed to the cross--suffering, he hangs there, left to die. Initially, in his dazed suffering, Jesus is alarmed that he has been abandoned by God his father. He then beseeches God. At the moment of his death, nature itself over-turns.

9. The King of Kings (1927)

Mary Magdalene becomes angry when Judas, now a follower of Jesus, won't come to her feast. She goes to see Jesus and becomes repentant. From there the Bible story unfolds through the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

10. Jesus of Nazareth (TV Mini-Series 1977)

Beginning before the Nativity and extending through the Crucifixion and Resurrection, this miniseries brings to life all the sweeping drama in the life of Jesus, as told by the Gospels.

Source: https://moviessimilarto.com/title/the-last-temptation-of-christ-1988

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the-christian-walk · 6 years

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IN THE RIGHT TIME

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to [email protected]. In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill Him.

But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to Him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that Your disciples there may see the works You do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since You are doing these things, show Yourself to the world.”

For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because My time has not yet fully come.”

After He had said this, He stayed in Galilee.

John 7:1-9

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

How many times do people expect Jesus to act in accordance with their terms, not His?

Too many, I’m afraid.

You see, so many people fail to see Jesus for who He really is, the Son of the Most High God, the God who is the Master and Maker of everything, the God who delegated authority over all heaven and earth to His Son.

Think about that a moment.

Jesus has been placed over everything in heaven and on earth. And that includes all people. So who has any right to demand or dictate anything to Jesus? Who?

The point is that no one has the right. Jesus works in His time frame and in His perfect way. We are expected to place our hope and trust in Him, waiting patiently and faithfully for Him to move in our situations. For Jesus knows best as He is One with God the Father.

This matter of trying to command Jesus isn’t a modern day problem by any means. For as we see in today’s scripture passage from the opening verses of John 7, even Jesus’ own family tried to tell Him what He should do. Look again at these words here:

After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill Him.

For even His own brothers did not believe in Him.

After He had said this, He stayed in Galilee. John 7:1-9

You’ll recall that Jesus had been in Capernaum through most of Chapter 6, going there after miraculously feeding the 5,000. In Capernaum, we found Jesus trying to teach a group of Jews who had followed Him after the great feeding as well as His own disciples. You’ll recall that both the Jews and the chosen Twelve had difficulty understanding what Jesus was trying to convey, so much so that many of the Jewish followers abandoned Jesus. The Twelve remained faithful to their Master.

As Chapter 7 opens, we find Jesus still in Galilee, the region where Capernaum was located on the northwestern shores of the Sea of Galilee. We read where Jesus intended to stay in Galilee, fully knowing that the Jewish leaders in Judea were looking for an opportunity to kill Him and it was not yet time for that to happen.

Jesus remained in Galilee even when the Feast of the Tabernacles was drawing near, a sacred observance that God had commanded Israel to observe five days after the most sacred day on the Hebrew calendar, the Day of Atonement. The Feast of the Tabernacles started and ended with a Sabbath rest, and included the six days in between. It occurred around the time of the fall harvest and because it was considered a pilgrim feast, native born Jewish males were expected to make the journey to Judea for the observance.

With this as the backdrop, we find Jesus’ brothers encouraging Him to go to Judea with them to observe the Feast and so that His disciples might see the works He could do. The brothers tried to use worldly reasoning with Jesus, telling Him that “no one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret” and so He should “show (Himself) to the world.” Note here that it’s no surprise the brothers would make such a suggestion because they didn’t believe He was who He said He was and so they would not have seen Him as God’s Son and respect His judgment as divine and well above their own.

Before I move on much further, let me address the matter of Jesus’ brothers because the scriptures do discuss them. Look at this verse from the Gospel of Matthew:

“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?”

Now most people know about James because he has a book in the New Testament but not much is known of the three others. Of interest, Jesus had sisters too but we never find out their names in the Bible. We only get to know about his brothers, the brothers Jesus addressed with these words in response to their suggesting He should go with them to Judea:

“My time is not yet here; for you any time will do. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify that its works are evil. You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because My time has not yet fully come.”

Jesus knew His Father’s will which included everything He should do and when He should do it. God had purposed His Son for things in their perfect time and Jesus, obedient to His Father, would not allow anyone to sway Him from what God wanted Him to do, when He wanted Him to do it. Indeed, the world, including the Pharisees and Sadducees, hated Jesus for calling them out for acts that were evil and He knew the Jewish leaders intended to kill Him at the first chance they had. This is why it wasn’t the right time for Him to go to Judea.

As for the brothers, they didn’t have such a problem and so they could go ahead and do as they had planned without their brother who chose to stay behind in Galilee.

As we are going to see, Jesus will make an appearance at the feast but at the time He deems appropriate, the time His Father would send Him there. He has moved in every circumstance since then in the same way and He always will.

This is why we are to wait on the Lord Jesus and wait patiently, trusting that He will move in the right time, in God’s perfect time to fulfill the Father’s will for His people, all the way up to when He returns and comes a second time, this time to bring eternal life to all those who placed their belief.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to [email protected]

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pamphletstoinspire · 6 years

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Children's Religious Stories - Part 54 - Other New Testament Stories - Story of the Child in the Temple

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/childrens-religious-stories-part-54-other-new-testament-baines/?published=t

Jesus was brought to Nazareth when he was a little child not more than three years old; there he grew up as a boy and a young man, and there he lived until he was thirty years of age. We should like to know many things about his boyhood, but the bible tells us very little. As Joseph was a working man, it is likely that he lived in a house with only one room, with no floor except the earth, no window except a hole in the wall, no pictures upon the walls, and neither bedstead, nor chair, nor looking-glass. They sat upon the floor or upon cushions; they slept upon rolls of matting, and their meals were taken from a low table not much larger than a stool.

Jesus may have learned to read at the village school, which was generally held in the house used for worship, called the “synagogue.” The lessons were from rolls on which were written parts of the Old Testament; but Jesus never had a Bible of his own. From a child he went with Joseph to the worship in the synagogue twice every week. There they sat on the floor and heard the Old Testament read and explained, while Mary and the other women listened from a gallery behind a lattice-screen. The Jewish boys of that time were taught to know almost the whole of the Old Testament by heart.

It was the custom of the Jews from all parts of the land to go up to Jerusalem to worship at least once every year, at the feast of the Passover, which was held in the spring. Some families also stayed to the feast of Pentecost, which was fifty days after Passover; and some went again in the fall to the feast of Tabernacles, when for a week all the families slept out of doors, under roofs made of green twigs and bushes.

When Jesus was a boy twelve years old, he was taken up to the feast of the Passover, and there for the first time he saw the holy city Jerusalem, and the Temple of the Lord on Mount Moriah. Young as he was, his soul was stirred, as he walked among the courts of the Temple and saw the altar with its smoking sacrifice, the priests in their white robes, and the Levites with their silver trumpets. Though a boy, Jesus began to feel that he was the Son of God, and that this was his Father’s house.

His heart was so filled with the worship of the Temple, with the words of the scribes or teachers whom he heard in the courts, and with his own thoughts, that when it was time to go home to Nazareth, he stayed behind, held fast by his love for the house of the Lord. The company of people who were traveling together was large, and at first he was not missed. But when night came and the boy Jesus could not be found, his mother was alarmed. The next day Joseph and Mary left their company and hastened back to Jerusalem. They did not at first think to go to the Temple. They sought him among their friends and kindred who were living in the city, but could not find him.

On the third day, they went up to the Temple with heavy hearts, still looking for their boy. And there they found him sitting in a company of the doctors of the law, listening to their words and asking them questions. Everybody who stood near was surprised to find how deep was the knowledge of this boy in the word of the Lord.

His mother spoke to him a little sharply, for she felt that her son had not been thoughtful of his duty.

She said:

“Child, why have you treated us in this way? Do you not know that your father and I have been looking for you with troubled hearts?”

“Why did you seek for me,” said Jesus. “Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?”

They did not understand these words; but Mary thought often about them afterward; for she felt her son was no common child, and that his words had a deep meaning. Though Jesus was wise beyond his years, he obeyed Joseph and his mother in all things. He went with them to Nazareth, and lived contented with the plain life of their country home.

As the years went on, Jesus grew from a boy to a young man. He grew, too, in knowledge, and in wisdom, and in the favor of God. He won the love of all who knew him, for there was something in his nature that drew all hearts, both young and old.

Jesus learned the trade of a carpenter with Joseph; and when Joseph died, while Jesus was still a young man, Jesus worked as a carpenter, and helped his mother take care of the family. And so in the carpenter shop, and the quiet life of a country village, and the worship of the synagogue, the years passed until Jesus was thirty years of age.

Question:

What did Mary say to Jesus when they found Him in the Temple?

#children's religious stories

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ejlapple-blog · 8 years

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The Carpenter Leaves His Shop

by Jesse Lyman Hurlbut

AFTER SOME months the news was brought to Nazareth that John the Baptist had come up the river Jordan and was now preaching at a place about twelve miles south of the Sea of Galilee.

The place where John was preaching had two names. It was called "Bethany beyond Jordan," there being another Bethany quite near Jerusalem; and it was also called "Bethabara," a word which means "the place where one can walk across the river"; for there the river Jordan was so shallow that people waded across it.

John had chosen this place because the sloping shore beside the river was fitted for the crowds to listen to his preaching, and the shallow water was near at hand for baptizing the people.

Bethabara or Bethany was about twenty-five miles from Nazareth; and over the plain just across the hill was a road leading down to the river at that place, where people used to cross the Jordan on their way to the land of Decapolis and Perea beyond. Nearly all the people had heard John preach, and most of them had been baptized by him as a sign that they promised to turn from evil and do good and look for the King who was soon to come.

Jesus felt that the time had now come for him to begin the work to which God had called him. He had told no one of his purpose, not even his mother; but one day he left his carpenter shop to his younger brothers, who were now young men and able to care for their mother.

He walked down the valleys, came to the river Jordan, waded the stream, and at Bethabara, in front of a crowd of people from every part of the land, for the first time he saw John the Baptist. No doubt Mary had told her son all the story of the angel by the altar, of John's birth and of his early life; but in all the years Jesus and John had never met.

Jesus listened to the words of John, and then with the others he came forward to be baptized. John looked at this strange young man who was drawing near, and as he looked the voice within him said:

"The long-promised King has come! This Man is He!"

John felt that here was one who needed no baptism; for he knew that this man had no sins to give up, and was already doing God's will perfectly. He felt unwilling to baptize him, and said:

"It is not fitting that I should baptize one so good and so great in the sight of God as you are. I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"

But Jesus answered him:

"It is best that it should be so. Whatever is right for other men is right also for me. Let me do this as my duty to God."

Then John yielded to the will of Jesus and baptized him. Just as Jesus rose out of the water a strange thing happened.

While he was praying a light flashed from the sky and seemed to rest upon the head of Jesus like a white, shining dove coming down upon him; and a voice was heard somewhat like a peal of thunder. Those standing on the shore felt that some words were spoken, but they could not understand them. John alone heard and understood. It was the voice of God, and John afterward told the people that these were the words spoken:

"This is my Son, my Beloved, in whom I am well pleased."

At that instant a mighty Power came upon Jesus. The Spirit of God had always been with him and had caused him to feel that the Lord was fitting him to do some great work. But in that moment when the light from heaven fell upon him and the voice of God was heard, Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God as no man, not even the greatest of the prophets, had been filled before. He knew now that he was not only a prophet, one who hears God's voice and speaks God's words; but more than a prophet, he himself was the Son of God.

He saw as in a flash what was God's plan for his kingdom on the earth; and that it was a kingdom far different from that expected by the Jewish people. He knew that he, who up to that moment had been the woodworker of Nazareth, was from that hour to be the Prince of the heavenly kingdom.

He was to lead the people to God and to show in his own life how men should live. He was to bring God down to men and to bring men to God. All this and more that we cannot understand came to the soul of Jesus as he stood on the brink of Jordan with the light of God upon his face.

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dfroza · 4 years

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some people will close their hearts to the message of grace

but not all.

some will welcome it in with humility of heart & mind.

what will you do with the message of rebirth that is held in the Scriptures?

Today’s reading in the book of Mark: