Domus Galilaeae, Mount of the Beatitudes
We’re going to take a little more serious tack on Ramblings today. To guide us, we’ll organize our thoughts using several of Jesus’ pronouncements in the Beatitudes.
Blessed are those who mourn . . .
Here, in a nutshell, is everything that is wrong with “Christian” teaching today. June Hunt, radio host and founder of the worldwide ministry Hope For The Heart, is a “biblical counselor” who “offers a biblical perspective while coaching people through some of life’s most difficult problems.” Here are some profound examples of that “biblical perspective”:
The Silver Lining of Suicide
10 Biblical Steps to Overcoming Procrastination
7 Biblical Steps to Defeat Deceit
Ray Rice, Domestic Violence, and You: 5 Steps on How to Respond
8 Biblical Steps to Recover From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Really? The Bible tells me about procrastination? It’s filled with clear “steps” for all my problems? And this is the “biblical” hope we offer people who are going through problems like PTSD and the suicide of a loved one? “I have heard all this before. What miserable comforters you are!“ (Job 16:2)
Blessed are the meek . . .
In our youth-oriented church culture, the senior saints sometimes get overlooked. One church decided to do something unique to reach out to them.
Peace Lutheran Church in Joplin, MO will hold a seniors Vacation Bible School. The event will feature four days of Bible studies along with art projects and other activities including classes on the Wii and iPhone apps, pinochle, chess, and other games, a fabric arts project, greeting card crafts, watercolor class, prayer shawl knit and crochet class. They also hope to help participants start on a personal history project, in which seniors get the opportunity to write their life stories.
You know what? That’s just a great idea. Does my heart good to hear it.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the right . . .
Apples, apples everywhere! In Poland, that is.
Michael Winship reports that people in Poland are eating lots and lots of them these days as an act of defiance.
Moscow has banned the importing of fruits and vegetables to Russia, in retaliation for the West’s sanctions against the country for supporting the separatists in Ukraine. Last year, Poland sold more than $400 million worth of produce to Russia, 90 percent of it apples. Now that market has disappeared.
So Poles are being urged to eat apples and then eat some more. It’s their patriotic duty. Cider sales have skyrocketed. Janusz Palikot, a controversial Polish businessman and politician declared to a local magazine, “Russia doesn’t want our apples? Then let’s make jam and booze!” The Polish ambassador to the US has even pronounced them “Freedom Apples,” in the dubious tradition of “Freedom Fries,” urging Yanks to take up the slack and buy more from Poland.
Winship calls these apples, “symbols of resilience in the face of adversity. The tenacity and desire for freedom they represent are why so many of the Poles, despite their history of enmity from within and without, and the fear of future conflict, seem determined to live in hope.”
Have an apple for Poland today!
Blessed are the pure in heart . . .
Well, this guy had better be anyway. Christian high-wire artist (a title I was unaware existed — is it in the NT spiritual gifts lists?) Nik Wallenda will walk the tight rope blindfolded in Chicago next month.
Wallenda said he plans to walk a tight rope 65 stories off the ground between the west and east towers of Chicago’s Marina City building blindfolded next month in the hopes of encouraging others to challenge themselves. Then he will perform a second high wire performance where he will walk uphill between Marina City’s west tower and the Leo Burnett Building.
Wallenda has a “never give up” attitude. “I believe that with persistence and with hard work and with that “never give up” attitude, you can accomplish anything … and with the grace of God.”
Glad he added that last phrase.
Blessed are the persecuted . . .
Brought to our attention by Michael Newnham, the Phoenix Preacher:
Jason Stellman, who will tell his story soon here on Internet Monk, was a Presbyterian pastor and leading spokesperson in conservative Reformed circles. Then something happened: he became Roman Catholic. Not willingly, but because he grudgingly came to believe the claims of the Church and its teachings. The consequences his Reformed “friends” have rained upon Stellman since his conversion have brought him “almost nothing but loss” in the past two years.
For example, just take a look at this excerpt from a, shall we say, less than gracious response from James White:
Apostasy has consequences. You abandon your vows, deny the gospel of grace, embrace the Papal system and promote it by your speeches and writings, and think you will be welcome in the church you almost single-handedly crippled? Your very presence would be divisive, troubling, and distracting even if you didn’t say a word. But can’t you see that your presence, given your positive profession of Rome’s teachings, would be a breach of the fellowship of the church?
Your final sentence truly explains it all: you are a traitor to the gospel, Jason. I warned you of that in my office. I made it clear, remember? We actually believe that to be true. Apostasy has consequences. You are surprised that we find you someone who needs to repent and abandon your error? That the church you had been entrusted with leading would rather not have a shepherd-turned-wolf wandering amongst the sheep? Is that really all that difficult to understand?
Later in his post, Michael Newnham shares a personal thought, and I consider it the quote of the week:
“I miss the days when I was dogmatically and doctrinally right and most of you were wrong. Life was much simpler when all my thinking had been done for me five hundred years ago…”
Finally, Blessed are the peacemakers . . .
Congratulations to Pakistani child education activist Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi, Indian child rights campaigner, joint winners of the Nobel Peace Prize.
At age 17, Yousafzai is the youngest recipient ever to receive the award, and her story is amazing and inspirational.