Roasted honey red stretch

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Theology 101

I am spending some time learning a bit of Theology. I have neglected this part of my spiritual growth for many years as i always thought that i was too ADD to read that stuff. A very good friend has spent about a year challenging my under-worked brain in this area, and going to college has helped me hunger for knowledge of this also. The college i chose to finish my Bachelors is a Christian Free Methodist University. So our curriculum includes a lot of Christian thought and we are free to quote the bible and Christian ideas. Even though I am Catholic, that has not been a problem for me as I have a great love for Scripture and have a good knowledge of it. We dabbled a bit into basic Theology and philosophy in a couple classes.

Right now I am reading a delightful book called "Man and Woman in Christian Perspective" by Werner Neuer. I suspect that it is far easier reading than the much lauded "Man and Woman in Christ" By Stephen B. Clark, even though he is Catholic. I don't think i am ready for anything that heady.

Though I am familiar with the concept of man being the head of the family as shown in Genesis this writer digs much deeper and it is amazing stuff. For instance He points out that a man named J.T. Walsh came up with the theory that God has four levels of Authority in Creation. The first is of course God, then man, next is woman, and last the animals. He brings out that God only spoke to Adam about His regulation to not eat from the tree in the "midst of the garden", in Eden. Additionally he points out that when Adam and Eve fell into sin, God came to Adam about it. He had given the regulation to Adam and He held Adam accountable.

The sin had reversed the authority structure in creation. Woman had obeyed the serpent and man obeyed woman. Walsh also points out that in God's judgment that He specifically restored this order again. Telling woman that he will place the serpent under her feet and that she will desire to submit herself to her husband again.

Of course we know that the fulfillment of this prophecy is in Our lady and her submission to God that brings about the Incarnation of Christ.

Monday, December 29, 2008

New Music on Playlist

I have added some new tracks, they are located at the end of the playlist. They are favorites from our local House of Prayer and from the Christian Nightclub where i sometimes volunteer. They just became available. Enjoy.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

A Series of Unfortunate Events....

One week before Christmas, my daughter was feeling increasingly sick and i scheduled an appointment to take her in to the doctors on a Wednesday. When I picked her up at school her condition had worsened and she whimpered at each swallow, with pain. At the doctors the verdict came back--Strep throat. No wonder she was in pain and her eyelids were swollen. I ran her quickly to the nearest pharmacy. After summoning her father on the phone the pharmacy reported that they did not take her insurance.The Pharmacy tech quietly notified me that our local superstore chain(called Meijers) might provide Amoxillan for free. I had heard something like this and was pleased to be reminded.

When i dropped the poor sick child at the house(she is 18) I ran down to the local Meijers store after a long day at my job. They quickly provided the medication and i charged a humidifier for her also. When I arrived home i was notified by phone that my ex-husband had our 21 year old son at the local Urgent Care for a bad cough and may need me to pick him up. I told him I would be on call as it is only a mere 5-6 blocks from the house. I picked up my son about an hour later, when he called for a ride and HE needed an antibiotic too! I drove him back to Meijers and told him to run in and see if his was free also. It was. I waited in the parking lot in the cold to spare my poor tired feet, with only the heat and radio running. After some time I pulled up in front of the store to have my son come out ready to go and my car would not start!

With a dwindling battery on my cell phone my son called a friend of his who is a "car guy". When Dom's friend arrived he knew immediately that i needed a battery jump and proceeded to do so. Then he could not open the hood of the old beater that he drives around town! He had an idea, to buy a battery from the store and jump me. I told him i did not want to know, he bought the battery and jumped my car and drove off with the excess battery.

The next morning, when i woke up for work,with my sick daughter sleeping soundly and restfully in her warm bed, it was only 61 degrees in the house and the furnace was blowing cold air! At the lowest the house should be at 68. I changed the batteries in the thermostat, fiddled with it and approached the basement. I found one side of the basement full of sewer water(!) and the furnace seemed fine, had a flame and was running constantly. My girlfriends husband came over that evening to access the disaster scene.

His verdict was that i should start calling charitable agencies first thing in the morning(Friday). I started in first thing with sick child back in bed, to call programs that were out of money and full of weatherizing advice. Then one furnace company told me that they would not look at it until the sewer situation was cleaned up.

Finally my girlfriend called to say that her husband had ordered her to research sewer men first thing for me and there was one on the way and she would meet him at my house to pay the BILL!!! Hallelujah! The Lord cares for widows and orphans!

Next I reached my other friend finally, who helps me maintain my finances, and is committed to helping me stay afloat, she accessed the situation and said she would call back.

In the meantime the sewer man came and was very excellent and thorough and was extremely grateful for my good coffee as fast as i could send it to the basement. I was happy that i had made too much that day. My accountant(that is what i call her) called back to say that she and her husband had decided to pay for the furnace repair if I arranged for it!

In the long run we could not get the furnace repaired until Monday but with borrowed space heaters, sweaters and warm socks we did quite well. Additionally,the furnace company gave us about 50 dollars off the bill because i took care of one of the owners sons for about a year.

Truly God cares for the poor, He lifts the needy from the dung heap to give Him a place with princes of men!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Tradition Revisited.

Where did the Bible that I love come from? Tradition. What is the Bible, a tradition of God's and the Church's.

What are "traditions of men" as Paul calls them? Men deciding that they can abort parts of scripture that they disagree with, and then claim that what is left is the only acceptable source for all knowledge.

St. Jerome

St. Jerome, pictured here, is often depicted by artists with a skull "The skull represents the seat of thought, and also symbolized spiritual perfection. Death of the physical body (symbolized by the skull) enabled one to be reborn at a higher level at which the spirit could rule."

Friday, December 12, 2008

Revelation 12

Today's reading, from Revelation 12 struck me in a new way today. It is the description of the Incarnation. A direct reflection of the prophecy in Genesis, where God speaks to Adam and Eve:



14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.

15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring [a] and hers;
he will crush [b] your head,
and you will strike his heel."

here in Revelation it says:

"3Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. 4His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. 5She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. 6The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days."

It strikes me that if, as Jehovah's Witnesses and some other small cults claim, Jesus was simply a man, as it seems the serpent was expecting Him to be, He would have been devoured by the serpent.

There are so many many reasons why Jesus had to be both true God and true man. This is only one.

There are so many Christians out there who in their niavate' believe that they can reinvent Christianity just by reading their own Bible at home. But there are so very many revelations and so much wisdom that God's Holy Church has gleaned over 2000 years of study and sacrifice for God's Church. People are truly missing out when they claim they don't need a Church or they don't need tradition.

Tradition (including well known facts about The Virgin Mary in the land where she lived out her final days, Ephesus Turkey) tells us that Mary never died. She just disappeared. Never has anyone claimed a grave site or anyone claimed to have been with her when she died.

So did Our Lady, go into the desert for 1,260 days and then was she "taken up". Or was she buried tenderly by God himself like Moses(Deuteronomy 34: 5&6)?

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Save the Mint Farm!!

Spread the word, St. John's MI is famous for its Mint festival, it is a nice little town with little crime and lots of good folks. Please spread the word about Crosby farm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yFtlrKKfLQ

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Confirmation Bias

Finally a name, I am taking a class in cognitive psychology and finally we have encountered the classic problem with much scientific research, especially opinion polls.

I would postulate that it is virtually impossible to do almost any "pure" research that does not have confirmation bias.

Confirmation Bias is defined as "the tendency to selectively look for information that conforms to our hypothesis and to overlook information that argues against it"(Goldstein, Bruce, Cognitive Psychology, 2nd Ed. 2008, Thompson Wadsworth. Now many scientists think that if they go into research assuming nothing that they have no bias. But I would say that by assuming that there is no mover of events or maker of matter they are using their own Bias. Likewise persons of faith assume that there is a creator will use that assumption behind their research.

Of course opinion pollsters are subject to their in the way that they word their questions or just the tone of voice in which they are couched. I have taught my new voters(a 21 year old and an 18 year old) to be intelligent voters and to read between the lines. Always ask what were the questions asked in the poll, what were you actually trying to measure, support for your candidate or the mood of the nation, and how did you go about measuring it?

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Snow

Snow glorious snow! It has snowed here for two solid days and the world is a white wonderland. Every surface is softened in white. Wires, tree branches, any leftover fallen leaves. It is all clean and fresh and white.

Our grubby city needed this softening. My stress level goes down immediately just from the beauty of it all.

Of Course my stress level increases when I try to walk on the slippery surfaces but it is well worth the extra effort to stay afloat.

I love snow. I feel sorry for those who only have a rainy season in winter, and must look out on the grubby damp landscape. Snow is one of God's wonders, it provides insulation for all the animals that do not hibernate, it softens the sounds of the city. Everything is less sharp, less harsh, easier on the eye.

Thank you God for snow.

The Big Mac