What To Do Now That the Sky Has Fallen

The news is not good for America. In fact it is catastrophic. Here are 2011-2012 statistics for the new American “normal.” Keep in mind that 78% of Americans consider themselves to be Christians:

• Third highest divorce rate on the planet. Half of all marriages will end in divorce.

• Every second $3,075 is spent on internet pornography, 25% of daily internet searches are for sexual websites--that is 68 million. 24 million Americans are addicted to online porn.

• Half of all births to women under 30 are born out of wedlock, 29% of white, 53% of Latinos and 73% of black children. This growing trend leads to a poorly educated populous and poverty. 

• In 2012, 7.5 million unmarried couples lived together. 8 out of 10 of these will end their relationship before or after marriage. Children of cohabiting parents are 22 times more likely to be incarcerated.

• 80% of unmarried evangelical young adults have had sex and 43% are currently in an sexually active relationship--slightly less than the 88% of unmarried non-Christians.

• 1 in 4 in the U.S. have a sexually transmitted disease.

• Every 9.5 minutes someone is infected with the HIV. Over a million people already have it.

• Almost 30 million use illegal drugs.

• 1 out of 10 Americans are chronically depressed. 27 million use antidepressants, (doubled in the last decade).

• 10% adults are alcoholics or have alcohol problems.

• Over six million children are raised by at least one parent who has a drug addiction.

• Three million children a year are sexually abused. 

• 4.5 million students currently in grades K-12 have suffered some form of sexual abuse by an educator--from romantic relationships between teachers and student to pedophilia.

• 8 to 18-year olds spend 10.5 hours a day connected to the media with phones, video games, computers and television. Three of those hours are multitasking.

• The National Debt as of 3/28/2013 10:00 am is: $16, 747, 851,453.251.78 increasing $3.86 billion per day. With a deficit of 1.057 trillion and a total debt per US citizen of $187,782. 

• U.S Money is unstable as it is not based on gold. (I know, a bit random, but our money is worthless and that means an unstable America.)

• 1.2 million a year are diagnosed with kleptomania.

• Highest obesity in the world, with 64% of adults overweight or obese.

• 22% of our children are murdered before they’re born.

• The US provides $500 million from taxes to the UN Family Planning Organization per year that promotes and enforces a one-child policy worldwide. 

• Yearly, 13 million people (or 5%) are victims of crime. 1.5 million of those crimes are violent.

Our culture is bombarded with violent video games, pornography everywhere: online, in magazines racks in grocery store lines, on billboards, on television, in malls. School curriculum is dumbed down. 

It is no wonder that a study from Yale shows that we are very unhappy compared to other countries, (including third world countries) even though we have the best standard of living. 

And the worst is that the situation is so overwhelming and alarming most people simply cannot deal with it. So they ignore it. The few who do understand the catastrophic failure of America think we can vote ourselves out of this mess--we can elect a few good people and voila! America will go back to the 1950’s. 

Understand clearly what I am stating here. I am not crying that the sky is falling. Nope. The sky fell in the 1960’s. Many of us were hardly old enough to realize it. We now have an entire generation who think that all these statistics are normal and have no idea how to fix our country.

What Happened?

This is not a political problem. This is a chronic spiritual crisis. America was so warm and comfortable, Christians fell asleep while watching “Ozzie and Harriet” in the 1950’s and have yet to awaken. 

America has repeated the Garden of Eden, when irresponsible, cowardly Adam played the victim and shirked his duties while Eve took charge and makes some very ruinous choices. And if we don’t do some authentic repenting, God will be throwing us out of America with a sword-wielding angel.

What To Do?

Our Western culture looks hopeless, I know. It feels like we would have to be God to make any kind of real change. We’re too powerless, we’re too crippled with our own sins to take on the sins of the world. And yet we have to. As Christians we are our brother’s keeper. We are guardians of our world. Christians must awaken. Not simply to go to the polls and fight for our freedom and rights, but to do something even more potent, more substantial.

Christians must find the courage to start at ground zero, and that is ourselves. If each Christian alive today would concentrate on being like Christ themselves and dealing with their families, we could indeed change our world--one soul at a time.

We are all called to sainthood. Be a Christian hero by cleaning up your own life. Turn off the pornography, quit making eating and sports the focus of your down time and what the heck, just turn off the television all together. Start reading scripture and other books of faith. Have personal and family worship. Go to church, get involved.

It is going to be hard, very hard to become a saint, but have courage for He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. St. Paul wrote about the sweat and effort he put into living a life of freedom in the Lord. (No, I am not talking about being saved.... but once you are a Christian! This isn’t about works-righteousness, but saving yourself and family from the hell of here and now---bad choices today!)

For Christians, playtime is over. If America was at war, many would find the guts to stand up and fight for our country. Well, reread the stats above, we are at war--spiritual war! Now God is asking you to fight for your faith and your family’s faith. This war isn’t about what others do, but what you are doing. Those dark spiritual forces who are seeking to destroy your life through addictions to sin, through making you lazy and confused and a coward.

If we don’t step up to the plate and get down on our knees now to create a whole new culture for our upcoming generations, no one will. Catastrophe is stalking our children and grandchildren. We are walking off the field of life and America’s future generations will never even get a chance to play. 

So start simple. Pray daily. Pray God will show you your sins so that you can repent and turn from your wicked ways. (Hey, you may be like me and not even be aware of your sins and need God to point them out to you!) 

For God’s sake, put Christ first in your life, for as Christ promised if we seek the kingdom of heaven with all our hearts and souls, all these other things (food, drink, clothes) He will take care of. 

Go! Get on your knees so that you can get up and put on the armor of God.

God bless you and see you on the front lines!

Holy Saturday: An Ante-type of Christ's Death

Holy Saturday, the final Sabbath.

Christians have been commemorating the last Sabbath it since the beginning of Christianity. Only, instead of observing the Jewish weekly Sabbath as a command, Holy Saturday is a yearly Christian tradition to remember Christ in the tomb during the passion week. It is said that St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, gave the first Holy Saturday sermon and we still have copies of that sermon passed down to our time. Some of this ancient sermon is recorded here:

"What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept in the flesh and raised up those who were sleeping from the ages. God has died in the flesh, and the underworld has trembled.”

The last Sabbath Christ spent in the tomb. His body rested in death. And its importance is vastly more than a day. This Sabbath, the Sabbath of salvation was prophesied all the way back at creation. The meaning of Sabbath slowly unfolded through time as recorded in scripture. 

Genesis: The Seventh Day

“Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Gen. 2: 1-3

God rested on the seventh day.  Since our Creator needs no rest, for He is spirit, His rest, in fact, was not for Himself but to show, among other things, that one day He would rest again. His first rest pointed to another rest in the future. 

This seventh day of creation week was unlike any of the other days, for the scripture records each day with a evening and a morning. The first six days had an opening and a closing. Each day began with the light dimming (evening) and ended with the light (morning). Only with a cycle of both darkness and light was there a complete day. With the evening and the morning, it was finished. But, in the creation account, the seventh day had no external boundaries. It had no beginning and end like the other days. That was for a very important purpose. 

The Seven Cycle in Scripture

Sevens in scripture point to cycles of completion. The seventh in all cycles signals the end, the finish, and then another cycle emerges. So in creation, God began a cycle that didn’t quite end. The seventh day did not end as it did not complete the cycle of both evening and morning. The creation week almost ended but not quite, for the seventh day rest began but never had a "morning" to complete it. As if God was saying, “The morning has not yet come.” The cycle of God’s physical creation ended, the heavens and earth were done... yet, it was not finished. 

There was something more.... 

Introduction of the Sabbath Rest

In Exodus 16, the newly freed people of God were tested in the wilderness to see if they would obey God. The test was the manna. One day a week, at the end of a cycle of seven, manna would cease falling from the heavens. The bread of angels would rest. On the day of Sabbath rest or “ceasing” Israel was not to work nor to even go outside (Ex. 16:29), as if Sabbath was kind of a rest of death. In fact, Israel was commanded not even to light a light! They were to stay inside their tents as if they were in a tomb.

Then more rules were added:
No gathering, no working.
Stay inside.
Slaves rest.
Animals rest.
All Israel was commanded to cease.

Almost as if Israel was playing out a part of death by this Sabbath rest.

This rest was a sign for Israel, it pointed back to the seventh day of creation. That same seventh day that wasn’t quite finished. That day of evening and yet no morning, when God rested. 

The manna was a test from God. A test of resting, almost as if the test was joining God in His resting of creation. A rest that seemed like a death. No light. Stay in tent. No work. Total rest, like death.

In fact, if you did not cease from all work and stay inside your tent and complete the command of a seventh-day rest, God commanded your own physical death. (Ex. 35:3)

The end of this cycle of sevens was holy. To profane the sign of God’s rest at creation, meant physical death. As Israel wandered in the wilderness awaiting the promised land, Sabbath was not a day to go out at look at nature. It was not a day to enjoy. It was a solemn rest, just as if it were a preparation for Israel’s death.

The Sabbath Death

That endless cycle of sevens for the people of God which ended in a ceasing, a night without end, a rest that never seemed to complete itself, started over again. There wasn’t an eighth day. An eighth day would mean the end of the old cycle and a new would begin. The eighth day in scripture means a new beginning. The eighth day was also the first day of a new heaven and a new earth.

Israel played out in ceremonies of Passovers, sin offerings, and even in the seventh-day Sabbaths the signs that would point to our Savior. The Sabbath was Israel’s sign to look for the Messiah Savior and His rest.

God’s rest at creation began but was not finished until He would rest in the tomb. The eternal seventh day would culminate in the physical Sabbath on that Great and Holy Saturday when Christ would enter the tomb. As an ancient writer (perhaps even St. Peter himself) spoke about this Great and Holy Sabbath: 

“Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps...Truly he goes to seek out our first parent like a lost sheep.... He goes to free the prisoner Adam and his fellow-prisoner Eve from their pains, he who is God, and Adam's son. The Lord goes in to them holding his victorious weapon, his cross.  ‘Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light. I am your God, who for your sake became your son, who for you and your descendants now speak and command with authority those in prison: 

Come forth, and those in darkness: Have light, and those who sleep: Rise.

‘I command you: Awake, sleeper, I have not made you to be held a prisoner in the underworld. Arise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Arise, O man, work of my hands, arise, you who were fashioned in my image. Rise, let us go hence; for you in me and I in you, together we are one undivided person.

`I slept on the cross and a sword pierced my side, for you, who slept in paradise and brought forth Eve from your side. My side healed the pain of your side; my sleep will release you from your sleep in Hades; my sword has checked the sword which was turned against you.

‘But arise, let us go hence.’ “ (From ancient homily, “For Holy Saturday: The Lord’s Descent into Hell,” http://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010414_omelia-sabato-santo_en.html).

Holy Saturday Proclaimed, “It Is Finished!”

God’s rest at creation began but was not finished until He had conquered both Heaven and Hell, both the seen and the unseen, the physical creation and the spiritual creation. With the Sabbath rest of Holy Saturday, God’s rest was finally complete. It was finished. All those Sabbaths Israel was figuratively in the tomb with Christ, pointed to the ultimate fulfillment of the end of the cycle of sin. The end of the seven of sin, the seventh day was finally over. Now with the dawn of the eighth day, the evening of the seventh day dawned into the morning and the true light had come in Jesus. Our Messiah. Our Christ. Our Savior.

Sabbath was to proclaim as a sign what God was going to go through for us through His rest begun at creation. He was going to suffer the depths of the underworld, the tomb, the dark rest of no light, just as the sabbaths commanded for Israel.

Now a new heaven and a new earth has come. The cycle of sin is over and the Sabbath of death has been fulfilled. We continue to remember the Sabbath forever, that great commandment of God for the Jews, only we do it now through the lens of the New Covenant. We now commemorate the Holy Saturday once a year as a tradition, not a law-- as that Saturday was the completion of the seven-day cycle of creation.

 And now we remember that then, as Holy Saturday’s tomb trembled the rest of death is over. The curse is lifted and sin has been conquered. 

So to recap: 
1. The Sabbath rest at creation was open-ended.
2. The cycle of seven in scripture means a fulfillment, a completion. So the Creation Sabbath was not yet fulfilled. 
3. Israel's Sabbaths had requirements that looked like death and could be pointing to the Messianic last Sabbath in the tomb. Therefore, each Sabbath Israel was proclaiming the coming Messiah's death and the end of the cycle of Sabbaths.
4. The long Sabbath begun at creation was finally finished on that Sabbath when Christ entered the tomb. 

The Sabbath was Israel's sign that the Messiah would fulfill the law and the prophets by His death and entombment and finish the long cycle of unaccomplished rest. Christ was bringing in the New Covenant rest that was to be found in Him. "Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." 

We are now living a new cycle and its day of commemoration isn’t the tomb, but the SUN RISE!! THE MORNING HAS COME! With Christ’s resurrection, the cycle of creation was completed and now a new kind of rest was brought in. No longer a physical rest, but a rest in the completion of Christ’s salvation.

Morning has broken and we are living in a new day. A day of life. A cycle of morning and the Son that will never end. 

Having Patience With God

Love is patient... 

I Cor. 13:4 

Catholicism teaches that God is outside of time. Things for Him do not occur like they do for us. We experience one moment and it disappears into history and then another and it disappears into history. Time for us is sequential and we can only perceive and be aware of the moment that we are in, one moment at a time. Our brains can remember our own personal vanished moments, which is an extraordinary thing, but we cannot experience the future. We have to wait for it. 

Having all moments happen at once would probably kill us in human flesh. So, therefore, we can conclude as Christians, that time is a great gift for us. It allows us to listen to a symphony from beginning to end while the different movements build, ebb and flow, go from major key to minor and then finally resolve in the end back to a major key. Time allows us to eagerly anticipate which team will win a sports event. Time also can hold us in suspense during a crisis and push us towards fervent prayer that the end of the sequence of events will not hurt us or someone we love. 

We all want each and every moment we experience, as we are experiencing it, to be full of happiness, at the least, comfort. We dislike the moments of too much cold or hot or too much interpersonal stress or physical pain. When we are not experiencing comfort, we tend to become impatient waiting for relief. We learn ways of dulling pain quickly, so that we don’t have to experience too many sequential moments of discomfort.

Yet, for everyone time forces us to wait and therefore has the potential of teaching us patience. This unbending structure of time imposes upon our experience moment after moment of waiting. Which is a good thing if you understand it. For love is patient. We could not learn patience if we didn’t have this sequence of moments, one after the other.

Time is there to teach us to love, for the first definition of love is patience. We could not love if we didn’t have the gift of time.

All those “gravelly” moments of hearing your toddler scream and throw tantrums (as well as food), those hours of your husband snoring at night, those times of waiting for the train or a phone call, being thirsty or hungry; and less irritating moment such as reading a book, taking a walk, all those sunrises and sunsets that start and finish our days are meant to teach us to be patient with each other. And thus, we learn to love. Love is patient.

In fact we could not love if it wasn’t for time. Time is a gift of love from God that we may learn His love for each other and even for us to learn to love Him. For you see, if we are to love God, we are also to learn patience towards Him.

As we pray for our moments to be pain and tragedy-free and God doesn’t immediately answer those prayers, it is to teach us to have patience with Him, thus loving Him. If all our prayers were instantaneously answered, receiving the good things we ask for, there would be no time to teach us to love God. Learning to be patient, with faithful hope, that God is ultimately in control and will eventually make all things right and new and perfect is also learning to love God, through patience. 

Time is a wonderful gift, one moment following by another moment, drifting in and out of our perceptions, that we may learn to be patient with others and with God. For love is patient.

THE JOYS OF CATHOLICISM!

In less than two minutes this video shows the joy and rapture of Catholics as we watch a miracle. 




As Catholics, we believe GOD chooses our pope (at least inspired our leaders, if they are attuned to His will. It is a rare moment of open and worldwide transcendence when God shows us who is HIS choice to shepherd us until He comes again in the clouds to rule personally. WE are THRILLED to love and obey the man God chooses for us, because we love love love Jesus!

There is such joy and beauty in Catholicism. 

Thank you Christ Jesus for our new papa! When the world looks to youth and beauty for its leadership, you choose wisdom and holiness. 

We love you Jesus and we love Your new chosen leader. We are full of joy!!! 

Adopt a Cardinal.

http://www.adoptacardinal.org

My Thoughts During Sede Vacante, Day Four

It is extremely difficult to explain Catholicism, the real Catholicism, to a world drenched in media broadcasting every real and imagined Catholic corruption. With sexual scandal heaped upon sexual scandal in the priesthood, who the heck would want to become Catholic amidst all this? And how can we legitimately stand in front of lapsed Catholics and non-catholics, in the new evangelization, and ask people to join Christ's Bride and the Kingdom of Heaven when our leaders seem to be leading us all to hell?

We had enough to handle with external difficulties such as Catholic and Protestant theological communications to add to it internal dissent and wickedness. Are these priests and bishops aware of the fact that they are making it impossible to bring anyone into the faith? Or are they so fallen that this scandal was orchestrated by them to try and bring the church down? Is the church being led by extremely weak men or is this a massive conspiracy? Either way, they are making it near impossible to show the world the beauties of this great faith. They are causing a disastrous distraction to the mercy of Christ's cross. God help us!

All we can do as those within the Church is to pray that during this deeply distressing time, where it looks like Christ's Bride is being assaulted and beaten beyond human recognition by forces from without and within, that the Holy Spirit will grant the cardinals abundant wisdom to choose a hero for our times. That they will clearly see the crisis and who God chooses to lead us through it, a man who will drive the filth out of the Church as Christ drove the merchants out of the Temple with vigorous judgment and abundant mercy, with courage and wisdom, with superhuman grace. Let us pray diligently for our cardinals and those currently in RCIA that they will transcend human understanding and see the Church for who she is going to be as well as who she is.

My Thoughts During Sede Vacante, Day Two

Inside, I have such joy at being Catholic, but I rarely talk how Catholicism makes me feel, because I think it offends Protestants. I don't want my joy to ever irritate or anger anyone, but it does, so I tend to want to prove my Catholicism first by reason and then I can gush emotionally. 

I know why I suppress my desire to prance about bursting forth with love of Christ and His Blessed Church, but I am not sure that is why other Catholics are so quiet. Perhaps it is because they, like me, don't want their relationship with the Lord mocked and derided. Catholics can be intimidated into silence because certain Protestants will (knowingly or unknowingly) place our theology and sincerity on trial. Sometimes we feel our relationship with Christ is examined and judged in a Protestant Inquisition with a pronouncement of "heretic" because we don't fall in line with what they decide a Christian should believe.

But that isn't the whole reason. I think there is a much deeper reason we do not look like Protestant evangelists. We don't go knocking door to door and hand out pamphlets. We don't give seminars, nor learn gospel proclaiming techniques with fake money or salesman-like pitches we take to the street. 

We tend to be quiet. (Unless you encounter some zealous Protestant converts to Catholicism and they will often use their known methods of proselytizing.)

Just as an observation, having been both a Protestant and Catholic, it seems that Protestants have the energy of a great "fan" in their religion. They are so excited to know Christ, they just can't help but tell everyone "who" they know. They want everyone else to be a fan of Christ. It's like knowing a great celebrity, Protestants will proclaim aloud their friendship with the greatest of the Kings of Kings, the biggest celebrity of all. 

That is what you are seeing with the zeal of a Jesus fanatic. And that is terrific! I felt that way too as Protestant. Jesus is my friend and I wanted the whole world to know how great that is and how they too can feel this wonderful and be assured of salvation when the Kingdom of God comes. We don't have to fear judgement, nor death, for Jesus loves us and died for us! 

Catholics think differently--not to say we have any less love for the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The 2000 year-old Catholic Church goes all the way back to Peter and see themselves as the Bride of Christ, already living securely inside the Kingdom. We are living eternity now within the security of the Kingdom of Heaven, for it is a church!

Just as the wife of the president doesn't go door to door announcing she is the president's wife, so the Bride of Christ doesn't announce to everyone she meets who she is. Instead, the Bride invites everyone to her and she gives them a banquet. She humbles herself to serve her guests and wants them to feel honored. The focus is shifted from a fan to a Bride. And that shift in perspective is important to understand when we dialogue as Protestants and Catholics.

My personal understanding: 

I grew up in Dallas during the 1960's and 1970's when my grandfather was a celebrity of sorts. He founded Ling-Tempco-Vought, Inc. and was wealthy. 

Many of my friends bragged that they were friends with the Ling family. They were so excited to come to my house and be a part of the rich and important people of Dallas. 

But having grown up inside the family, I was taught not to go around announcing who I was--and in fact, it didn't seem a big deal to me. In fact, it was natural. I was taught that it was my obligation to be gracious and invite people into my world so that they could be a part of what they thought was a great way of living. I was expected, even obligated, to do the giving, to be humble. I was to be gracious and kind and inclusive. 

It is just a different way of thinking. We should be accepting and understanding of both Protestant and Catholic perspectives. We should be careful not judge each other on how many times we say God's name or how emotionally we talk about our relationship with God. 

Catholics and Protestants are both going about the business of preaching the gospel of Jesus. Both are enthusiastic, both are wanting to bring others to Jesus, but they are done with a different understanding. One believes in silently serving, first. The other believes in shouting it from the housetops before even an introduction occurs! Both are wonderful. 

I loved being a Protestant and I love being a Catholic. Both have tender hearts towards Christ.

My Thoughts During the Sede Vacante, Day One

Since Catholicism is in the news with the pope's renouncing the Seat of Peter, I thought I would just jot down some of the things I am thinking during this time of Sede Vacante (the seat being vacant.)

Some atheists and Protestants are rolling their eyes at the pomp and circumstance of the pope's departure from the Vatican. "Why all the hoopla? Sickening traditions of man.... You are making the pope a god!"

Well, my response is that Catholics make a big deal about everyone and everything. We celebrate every life conceived as each human is a creation of God for whom He died. Each man and woman's ultimate destiny is to be united with His Divine Life for all eternity if he or she doesn't reject His love and His life. We are marvelous, we are very good. That's what He said about us. And the grandeur of the Catholic Church and all its buildings and ceremonies show us how God want us to be treated. We are to be kings in Heaven, glorified by Christ Himself. How we treat Mary and the Pope is just a little taste of what is in store for us. God will share His glory with His children. We are co-heirs with Christ! Co-heirs! Think about what that means for a moment.

We love our pope. He is not just the head of our church. He is our papa. God gave Him to us to lead us as a good papa should. While He is preparing the Kingdom for His Second Coming, He gave us a Holy Father who is standing in Peter's place as our leader and a Blessed Mother in Mary. Both of them we are to honor and love, just as Christ honored them. All our honor and love to them is showing God how much we love Him, just as when we honor our biological parents we are giving Christ honor. In fact, the more we respect and love God's creation the more we are loving Christ. In fact, obedience to God's leaders is the way we love God. "If you love me keep my commandments." That is exactly what we are doing when we honor Christ's Church and His appointed leaders. Because Christ told us to submit to His leaders.

Isn't it wonderful that God have us layer after layer of family to make sure we don't get lost. He gave us our biological fathers, grandfathers, uncles and our parish father, then our bishop and then our pope. All of these point ultimately to our Father in Heaven. If one of these men fail us, we have so many back ups in God's kingdom.

Also, the glorious ceremony keep us mindful that everything matters. All we think, all we do, all we fail to do, every tear, every smile has meaning. We are so, so important and we are constantly lifted up and reminded that it all has meaning when we go to the trouble to have elaborate rituals. We ritualize that which is important to us--sports games and teams, exercise and meals. We are naturally a people of traditions and our traditions tell the universe what is important to us. Spiritual and religious traditions are vital to our lives. Even scripture tells us that traditions are good as long as they do not usurp God's word.

Life needs to be celebrated. People need to be celebrated. Life has meaning. That's what all the hoopla is about.