Reformuslim

Islam is going through its Protestant Reformation in the West now, as it can't control the narrative;  Free speech is the Guttenburg Press.  Except, rather than the Guttenburg Press and German princes, they have social media contend with as their grip loosens.

Muslim Tries to Find Muhammad in the Bible… It Goes Wrong

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We are all Paarthurnax

I was in a debate today.  The topic--once again--was:  People can change

I disagree.  I don't believe the do.  Let me make my case. 

A person's personality is formed by age 5.  Unless there is trauma, it remains unchanged.  So, they don't change.  

They can learn new skills.  They can modify habits and behaviors.  But, they do not change.

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Bella The Devil

Cindy walks around the kitchen island to exercise.  Once, she made the comment that Bella gets in here way--our basset hound--as if intentionally trying to keep Cindy from reaching her daily step goal.  She said, it's like the Devil is trying to keep her from this good goal.  It's sort of a metaphor for all the things in life that get in our way of doing good.

Irony, or the Thanksgiving Turkey

A study (survey?) has shown that women don't find men with a pot belly attractive.  But, every women I've ever known overfeeds you.

Hindsight is 20 20

The book of Job has so much foreshadowing of the messiah in it.  Take 25:4, who can be born pure of a woman?  Well, I have the answer to that.  ...now.  

Clack Clack Bang Bang (as Cypress Hill would say)

It feels like we're living in the end times.  I know that we're told that no man knows the day or the hour and that there will be wars and rumours of wars and that the end would not come.

I want the Lord Jesus to return.  With all the crap in the world, I'm ready.  I hope it happens in my life time.  And, most of the time, I've thought that it will never happen in my lifetime; every generation has thought that it will happen in their lifetime and it never does.

Right now, we have a war in Europe (again), we have Israel trading missile strikes with Iran in the Middle East, at least two active super volcano, solar storms that have caused blackouts and the potential to cause a Carrington Event (don't Google it), we're being told that the Earth's magnetic poles are due to reverse in a series of devastating cataclysms of earthquakes and tysunamis, and even that another universe has been discouvered in our plain of reality and that we may all be living on the inside of a massive black hole.

Man's knowledge will increase in the last days, I've been told.  But, are these the birth pains that the book of Revelation speaks of? 

Maranatha! 

Isa

Apologetics has changed for me.  I'm not arguing about if God is real anymore.  It has become:  How could a man be God?

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Dread

Often before sleep or after waking, I have thoughts of death with an overall feeling of dread coming over me, despair.  Today, after a snooze, I found myself thinking, "I'm 50.  I only have 30 years left.  I have spent more of my time than I have left."  Then, I get up, push the thoughts from my mind, and get on with my day.

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Mark

In St. Mark's Gospel account, he tells the story of the official's daughter who dies before he arrives at the house.  This story always touches my heart, maybe because I'm a father.  It has such a happy ending!

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I don't know, but it's been a meaningful ride

I'm one for history, time lines, journaling, etc..., so it bothers me that I can't remember when I started to pray the office.   I've scoured my blog.  I've looked at old posts on my God Wall.  My journey--faith is a journey--was not well documented, at least in so far as praying the Office.  Here's what I know.

• My step-father gave me his old BCP after I started attending St. Paul's Stratford, and
• I developed a love of and desire for praying at home "like a monk," starting with the BCP
• At some point during his first interim ministry, Fr. Ted introduced me to the existence of CAROA 
• I somehow discovered Holy Cross Priory (I'm not sure which of these two points happened first), and
• All of these things happened in the early 2000s

I had no idea that the Anglican Communion had monks; I thought monks were a Catholic or Orthodox thing in the Christian world.  At some point, my mother-in-law bought me my very own new copy of the BCP to use.  Probably before that, I found (somewhere online) a very simple way to pray with the BCP at home, an Office.  I've believed in God for as long as I can remember, since childhood.  Praying was, then, the Lord's Prayer.  Sometimes, I would ask for things, but that was pretty primitive.   

As I evolved in the praying of the office, I:

• Was added to the St. Gregory's Abbey newsletter in 2013 or before
• By 2014, I was having regular correspondence with St. Gregory's Abbey and St. John's Convent
• I attended several quiet retreat days, hosted by the sisters of SSJD 
• I visited Holy Cross Priory with Cindy and Chandra, and
• In 2015 (a super stressful year, I might add) I made my first trip to St Gregory's Abbey for solitude, and
• I repeated the trip each year until COVID19 stopped that (returning in 2025)
• Cindy and Chandra accompanied me on several trips to the Abbey, a thin space for me 
• At some point, I had a deep desire--with no innate musical talent--to chant the psalms, and
• Through research of online videos and blogs, developed my own style of chanting the psalms
• During the 2020 lockdown, I even taught myself how to pray all seven offices from the Breviary 

 I--raised United--became Anglican around 2002 because of the Jehovah's Witnesses (long story).  Through Anglicanism, I discovered contemporary monasticism and the Daily Office.  A way to devoting my time to God and offering up a sacrifice of worship, praise, and intercessory prayer, I have found Morning and Evening Prayer meaningful, beneficial, and necessary.  I've even made terrible YouTube videos.

Looking back, I wish I could see the timeline, mark out the progression and growth.  Prayer beads, my membership on the board of the Anglican Fellowship of Prayer and learning Christian meditation, those things happened in conjunction with my love of the offering of prayer to God through the Office.

What I have now, is a Frankenstein of what I have found works and is meaningful, chanting, singing, using the BCP, BAS, and the Bible. It has grown and evolved from that first encounter with a BCP and the desire to use it at home.

Job?

Reading Job 7-9 today, I see that Job doesn't see God a s a god of mercy.  He sees God as a god of vengeance.  It's ironic when he mentions needing somebody to mediate on our behalf; there's some messianic prophecy there.  Job sees God the way the world sees God. But, God didn't do these things to Job; Satan did them.  

Now, there's the age old philosophical question of why bad things happen to good people.  Or, worse perhaps, why did God allow Satan to do these things?

The best answer that I can come up with is that the Father allowed His own Son to suffer on a cross, and for us.  Our god is a God of suffering; God the Son chose to suffer with us, live as a human mortal, and to suffer.  He suffered alongside us.

Just like us, Satan--to a large extent, I suspect--has free will (with some checks and balances).  God will not stop us from doing evil.  But, He does set limits. 

Rib

I was watching a YouTube video of a Christian influencer.  He introduced me to an idea; Adam wasn't deceived by the snake in the garden.  Eve was deceived.  Adam chose to disobey God because he was influenced by his flesh; Eve came from his rib.

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Alberta Calling

So, the CPC lost.  I'm comforted some by the scripture to be not part of the world but in it.  I belong to His kingdom.  

That being said, some people I know are talking about moving to Alberta if it leaves.  But, if all the conservatives move to Alberta, Ontario will be even more liberal.  I went through this once with the ACNA split. 

I had an instructor from Quebec once who said that in the 90s separation votes, he decided that he was banking on Canada, with our without Quebec.  But, I have to tell you that, the prospect of a conservative society in Alberta is tempting.

Dreamz

I had some very weird dreams last night.  Granted, I was sick and had a head ache.  First, I was in the hospital for an operation of some kind.  Somebody I know grabbed my penis and--stop reading if you're squeamish--pressing their lips to the end, blew up the foreskin like a balloon.  

 Then, I had a dream that I was on a balcony, yelling down at a friend that we were in a deity free zone.  He threw his drink of water at me.  I then yelled that was what my brother did in response too. 

I left a water park because I was angry at my family for a dispute, about nothing really.  Cindy had been driving on wet roads and didn't notice the cars ahead losing traction.  When I pointed out that they were freestyling, by brother corrected me and said they were just styling.  That was the argument.

The fourth, I have just now, at this moment, as I type, forgotten.

The Triumphal Entry

Dad told me this story about how donkeys have a cross in their fur. It's because the donkey carried Christ, as Dad says.  I've often seen it in my own fur.  I'd like to imagine that it's unique to me and that God has marked me as His own.  Either that, or I'm an @$$.

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🤔

Visited with Fr. Ted today, went down to St. Catherins to St. Barnabas Church, it was a nice service.  After, we went out for lunch.  He said something strange to me during our conversation; prophesy is not prediction.  We look at the prophets as fortune tellers.

Welease for me B'wabis!

The Gospel reading from St. Mark's account of the arrest and trial of Jesus reminded me of modern society's catch and release policy when I heard it this week.  The people of Jesus' time, 2000 years ago, so possessed by an ideology that, they were willing to release a hardened criminal to not admit they were wrong.  Win at all costs.  Like Glaude Principles, Barabbas was released because he wasn't Jesus, he didn't offend their ideology.  It's like the scene from the original Robo Cop movie where Robo Cop shoots the smoke out of a citizen's mouth while letting the violent offender go; it's backward and it's upside down. 

Monster Slayer

https://www.minds.com/newsfeed/1759956600116502528

Trusting in God

In 2 Corinthians Ch 1, we see again for the first time the idea of trusting in God, rather than trying to save ourselves.  My parish priest recently preached a sermon on the subject.  We can't go it alone.  God is the only one strong enough to save us from our sin.

Falling Away, Returning

Upon reading about how Ezra read the law to the Israelites, I see parallels.  The people of my society fall away from God, and discouver the Gospel.  Individuals themselves--myself included--see their faith wax and wane.  Although, I've recently read that that last part is evidence of demon activity.  

And, speaking of demons, the falling away of the Israelite people usually included the worshiping of foreign gods--and evil practices--and then the dispersing of the Hebrew people, often being taken into exile/slavery.  The evil practices, it is said, angered God.  It is what separated the people from God.

Gone Goofy

Today, we exchanged the Peace, and sang the Olfactory Hymn.  As we started in to the Eucharistic prayer. a woman--a warden once--behind me proclaimed loudly that we haven't even exchanged the peace yet.  I think her mind is going.  I guess we all get there.  It reminds me of the struggles with my own father when he was in the home.  The worst part of it all is than when we've gone goofy, we don't even know; it hurts those around us.

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It's all lies

Chilli con Carney--the Beijing Banker--says that he's going to get rid of the carbon tax and all that, in order to court the median voter.  But the left knows that he's lying too; or they wouldn't vote for him.  There will be no scrapping of the carbon tax, no pipelines built, and taxes will do nothing but go up.

Federal Polling Numbers

I just want to live in a cabin on an uninhabited mountain in the wild.  Eff the world.

14

1 Corinthians Ch 14 sure doesn't sound like St. Paul held speaking in tongues in very high regard.  And yet, so many evangelicals swear by it.  I've even been told that if I *were* a Christian, I would manifest *all* the Gifts of the Spirit.  Thomas Keating said that it was a distraction to the faith.  

And, speaking of Ch 14, there's that bit about women again.  Some would argue that St. Paul was a misogynist.  But, Cliff Knechtle says that it was (women's role in the Church) due to the fact the women were not allowed to be educated by Jewish custom; he wanted them to become educated to be authorities first, like Priscilla or Chloe.

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If Carbon Tax Carney, The Beiging Banker, gets elected, I'll have to stop writing here.

LPC internet censorship is coming y'all!

If I wanted to hear from an @$$hole, I'd fart OR opinions are like @$$holes ==> everybody has one, but you don't have to show it off.

On my way to work yesterday, I passed a car with very lard decals that said college educated evil feminist on the side.  Why do people have to instigate?  It's like the Darwin fish.  Why provoke people?

Cover your head?

St. Paul talks about women covering their heads, and somehow--maybe--being accountable to men.  It's a hard passage for modern man, for sure.  Brought up up constantly by Atheists and Feminists, I've only ever heard one real good answer, and I've forgotten it.  Sam Shamoun?  Cliff Knechtle?  I'd have to go looking.

Is it a sign, or a promise?

 Nehemiah talked about the Jews being brought home when they turned back to God.

Lent

My Lent is going pretty alright.  I'm praying some, fasting some.  I offer it-such as it is--up to God.  Not as pious as I should be, I've--somehow--made peace with who I am, my failings in faith this year.

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One Orange Buffoon

I'm so disappointed and discouraged. The pendulum was swinging back, toward fiscal responsibility, liberty, and small government.  Then Trump and his tariffs have single handedly handed the election to the left.  I can't take another four years of liberalism.  I want to withdraw from the world.

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Meal

At the Church last Tuesday night for the soup kitchen, I felt evil.  I encountered an individual who was either suffering from severe mental illnesses, or....

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Chilli Con Carney

I haven't been this disappointed with the Canadian electorate since they elected Socks McGroper after the black face scandal.  Carney is lying about cutting taxes and plagiarizing Pierre's plan.  We all know he's lying on the right, and the left knows it too or they wouldn't vote for him.

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Salvation after destruction of the body?

 Reading in 1 Corinthians, there's a part where St. Paul says to let Satan destroy the body so that they person would be saved on the Day of the Lord.  So, I was thinking:  Does this mean that one can be saved after death?  Is that heretical to ask?

Hmmm.....

Interesting:  Thomas Keating says that the charismatic gifts of the Spirit are emotionally addictive and can be a distraction, an impediment, to our spiritual development. 

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🤔

A phrase from liturgy struck me this weekend, first born of all creation.  It didn't sit well; if Jesus is eternal, how can He be first born?  Unless, maybe Sam Shamoun is right in that the term first born means something different in context.  King David was not the oldest.

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Psalm 127-128 NIV - A song of ascents. Of Solomon. Unless - Bible Gateway

As I listen to the monks chant psalms 127 to 128 today, I wondered; is God blessing me for doing some of the right things?  My daughter and wife surround me, I have been richly blessed with money, a home, a nice car.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%20127-128&version=NIV

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1 cor 8 NIV - Concerning Food Sacrificed to Idols - Bible Gateway

My Evangelical brothers and sisters are still hung up on the idea that gays go to Hell.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20cor%208&version=NIV

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Psalms 124:7 NIV - We have escaped like a bird from the - Bible Gateway

Is this a reference to being free from the law?

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalms%20124%3A7&version=NIV

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Psalms 19:12 NIV - But who can discern their own errors? - Bible Gateway

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=psalms%2019%3A12&version=NIV

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Molech

Jordan Peterson said something once that I think is important to share here. He said that if you read something from an author or intellectual that you disagree with, you shouldn't throw out all their thoughts. You should be able to accept the good thing that they say that you do agree with while rejecting the bad. Some points that I made as I make my way through the video: • First, politics do not belong in the Church (be apart from the world) • The book of Romans has women in authority in the Church • Do we know why Jesus only chose men? Was it simply because culture would have thwarted their ministry otherwise? • The woke left male priests that I've encountered are far more disturbing than the women (two of whom really tried not to be political from the pulpit) • Seminaries (in my own personal observations) no longer produce conservative clergy (don't assume it is women), and • Correlation does not prove causation (women, or is it seminaries?) • Institutions of higher learning have an imbalance of woke vs. conservative thought/leadership • St. Paul may have said for women to be silent because of culture, but society now worships Gaia and Molech, and • The Church tries too hard to be culturally relevant

Relationship

According to Fr. William OSB the prayer for other, intercessory prayer, binds us to those that we pray for.  It is an interesting concept.

Gal 3

Paul does what many modern Christian appoligists do, he goes to the Hebrew and says what one seed means.  He also makes a point about the law being only to show us what is bad....

Be Ready

Long familiar with the phrase *like a thief in the night*, tonight I'm stopping to ponder 1 Thessalonians 5's remark about being ready.  Jesus will return lime a thief in the night, yet we should not be caught unprepared as we are believers of the faith.

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Cum

So, there are contemporary Muslim scholars who misunderstand what it means when the scriptures say that The Holy Spirit came upon Mary.  To them, it is both offensive and proof that God did not become incarnate of The Virgin Mary.  How could God do something so repugnant.  But, as Sam Shamoun points out, if you think with a filthy mind, that is how you will interpret the scriptures; they've confused the word come with the word cum.

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Perspective

So, I always had trouble with (misunderstood?) how Jesus could be begotten by God; if Jesus is eternal, uncreated, how could He be begotten?  As I move further to the right on the Arianism spectrum in my faith and understanding--much of which was formed in a United Church basement Sunday School--I've come to understand the Mystery of the Trinity a little better, the nature of Christ a little better.  Moving away somewhat from Demonology and toward Christology maybe, Christ's nature is a little more clear to me now than in years past.  Part of that is in my exploration of Apologetics toward Islam; previously, I had focused on Atheism.  Getting to the point, I've considered a new perspective.  If Nestorianism is wrong, and if Jesus is fully man and fully God, then God could have begotten His fully human nature, and Christ is still eternal.  I hope that isn't heresy to suggest.  Do we need to figure all this out?  No.  All we have to do is confess that Jesus is Lord and that He was raised from the dead.

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When you pray, pray toward the temple

When King Solomon built the first temple to The LORD in Jerusalem, II Chronicles says that Solomon asked God to hear those who prayed toward the temple.  And, Solomon said that God's presence was in the temple.

I see the parallels here with Christ.  We pray toward the temple that Christ Jesus rebuilt (the 3rd temple?), for God's presence is in that very temple.

Hmmm...

In Romans Ch 11, the writer (St. Paul) said that the Jews won't accept Christ as the Messiah until the last of the Gentiles come to him.