Who knows about evil in the world?

I've just finished watching "Ghandhi"-again, Turner Classics Movies channel.

I've seen the movie many times and although I am always affected by this man of peace, it seems the further I am along my walk with Christ, the more I take from this man. It seems to me that although he was Hindu, he had a far better understanding of Christ than I do myself, a professed and confessing Christian.

Toward the end of the movie, a young Hindu father tries to convince Ghandhi to stop his fast (which was initiated to bring the religions of India together and stop the violence that had been going on amongst the religions). The young father offers bread to Ghandhi and says that he knows he is going to hell but does not want Ghandhi's blood on his hands. Ghandhi asks the young father why he is going to hell. The father tells Ghandhi that he killed a Muslim boy by dashing the boy's brains out against a wall because a Muslim had killed his own young son. Ghandhi listens to the young father and then tells him that he, Ghandhi, knows the way out of hell. The young father, grief-striken and horrified at his own actions, asks Ghandhi how to get out of going to hell.

Ghandhi tells the young father to find a boy the size and age of the son that was killed and whose parents have been killed because of the violence and raise him as his own. Then Ghandhi says, "But make sure that the boy is Muslim...and that you raise him as one."

Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow Me". How many of us can do that? Jesus said, "Go, and sin no more". How many of us even try? Take an orphaned child of your enemy and raise him in the knowledge of his people. We post 9/11 people shrink in horror at that thought and yet...isn't that what we're called to do? Aren't Christians to lead the way in tolerance, understanding and love because we have as a role model the Perfect picture of such tolerance, understanding, and love?

In the end, it was a Muslim man that shot and killed Ghandhi. Ghandhi's last words were, "God...God..." not pleading for his own life but pleading for peace in his land.

Evil walks the earth and draws to itself those who have lost their way; those who find their own agendas to be more important than anything else in the world; those whose lives are so empty and barren that they are easily picked up by the winds of damnation and carried to the gates of hell.

Pray for peace everywhere. Pray for the light of Christ to enter the hearts of all men everywhere. Pray that Christ's gospel of the Kingdom of God reaches every dark and lonely place harboring a withering soul.

Who knows about America?

I was watching the Turner Classic Movies (TCM) channel one day last week and watched a movie titled Life with Father, starring William Powell, Irene Dunne, and Edmund Gwinn (Santa in the movie Miracle on 34th Street). Life with Father is a lovely little movie about a turn of the century family (1800-1900, not 1900-2000, lol!)

What utterly amazed me, although I'm not certain why, was the movie's frank portrayal of an Episcopal family. At one point, early on in the movie, the Elizabeth Taylor (very young Elizabeth) character, in an apologetic manner, tells the eldest son of the family she is visiting that she is Methodist. The eldest son states that they are Episcopalian and his manner of speaking infers a sort of superiority based on that fact.

Living in today's world, you can imagine my jaw dropping when the Episcopal priest, played beautifully (of course) by Edmund Gwinn, kneels in church during a Sunday service and 'prays' the General Thanksgiving prayer from the Book of Common Prayer! He 'prayed' the entire General Thanksgiving! Word for word! In a movie! From Hollywood! Evidently the movie was well received by movie audiences as it was a faithful (pardon the unintentional pun) adaptation of a very successful Broadway play.

It is not for me to say anything about The Episcopal Church. My point is, rather, how did America get from there to here? We are so caught up in the here and now that we tend to forget that we were not always 'this America'. At one time, it was perfectly natural to portray a church service, to see people praying, to mention God and Jesus without those Names being used in vain.

America has come a very long way since the movie was made in 1947. The advances we've made in medicine, technology, travel, civil rights, and education is almost breath taking. Heartbreaking is what we seem to have left behind.

Who knows about the reason behind the boxes?

Very kind people are replying to my blogs but it baffles me-why would people respond in a font that I can't read? It seems counter-productive to me. If something I read elicited a response from me, I'd contact the originator of that piece and state my opinion or question in as clear and concise a manner as I possibly could.

Perhaps these little blank boxes are a computer joke for the savvy? Has my blog been attacked by Chinese Bots? Is there somewhere in cyberspace a translation for these boxes? But if the person who used them didn't care enough to write in some font that is understandable in English speaking countries, why should I care enough to try to find the translation?

I love the fact that you responded-I just wish you had enough faith to respond in a language I could understand.

Who knows?

In the book of Genesis, chapter two verse 17 the Bible states:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

We know that Adam and Eve did not die physically at the time they ate of the tree-God put them out of the Garden of Eden. So we are to understand that they died spiritually. That would suggest that when they died physically, there was no spirit. They, Adam and Eve, are completely and totally dead. Dead dead.

So, if that idea of complete and utter death is correct then there is no possibility of them being saved by the grace of Christ because their spirits died with them.

I think that's so, but who knows?

Who knows...I could be right about this....

Matthew 20:1-16 (Amplified Bible) is the parable of the man who hired workers for his vineyard. He told the men he hired first thing in the morning that he would pay them a denarius for the day's work. A few hours later the owner went out and hired a few more workers. Hours later, again he went and hired more workers til finally the last people he hired only had to work one hour before the work day was finished.

I thought at work today that this parable meant that no matter when you came to the Lord, either early in life or late in life, the gifts to all who come to Him are the same.

But maybe not...maybe that's not what Jesus meant when He said those that are first will be last and those that are last will be first. For many are called, but few chosen.

Who knows?

Lenten Season

For liturgical Christians-and you know who you are, lol!-this is such a sad and somber time in the church year.
At my church, on Wednesday evenings in Lent, we have a simply supper in community and then go to the sanctuary and do Stations of the Cross as well as the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Nope-we're not Roman Catholic.
How does your church commemorate the last 40 days of our Lord's life and ministry?

Who knows about St. Paul and Jesus?

When Jesus gave St. Paul his Damascus moment, did Jesus just unload all the knowledge He wanted Paul to have- and share- all at once, or was St. Paul in communication with Jesus throughout his (Paul's) journeys and was Jesus holding the pen St. Paul's scribe was using?

Some day a Bible scholar and theologian will find this blog and give me the scoop from the educated, studied point of view. Lacking that, I'm just going to have to keep asking these questions.

It would be nice, though, if occassionally, I got a comment!