tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-252577992024-03-13T11:54:34.503-04:00Sword in the Firediscussion about the Bible, books, life and ministryUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger288125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-24704695107401910542018-03-20T09:31:00.000-04:002018-03-20T16:54:28.747-04:00Is Theistic Evolution Orthodox?<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Eagle River Institute, I’m disappointed. Your institute has produced consistent edifying lectures for the Orthodox Christian. Yet, you allow someone to present on Evolution as if this is the only sensible position for an Orthodox Christian. It is not! The presentation is upsetting. Maybe you found the arguments edifying for the average Orthodox Christian, but please qualify it. This is a historical aberration and deserves to be contrasted in the light of the historic Christian position.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This article stands as a counterpoint to the theistic evolutionary position held by <a href="http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/everydaytheology/evolution_creation_and_eternity_part_1"><span style="color: blue;">Dr. Gayle Woloschak in her presentation at the Eagle River Institute in August.</span></a> There are more episodes to come, and depending on their content, I may put together another response.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">First of all, I am not judging this person’s Christian faith and commitment to Christ and Orthodoxy. I am not judging her piety or personal holiness. I am judging her ideas about theistic evolution (TE), and her belief that it is necessary for an Orthodox Christian to accept these ideas. My purpose in this response is that TE is not the historic position of the Church, is theologically destructive, and scientifically unnecessary.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Evolution is Scientific Fact</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Early in her lecture, Dr. Woloschak claims evolution as indisputable scientific fact, and not mere theory. One analogy she gives is to equate the theory of evolution with the theory of gravity. This is an attempt to show how silly it is for a Christian, who readily accepts the theory of gravity, to reject evolution. This is a false comparison. Evolution is not like gravity. Gravity is observable and testable. Evolution is not observable and testable. There are no observable changes of one species into another.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Evolution is not science. Science can get done inside of evolutionary frameworks, but evolution reaches far beyond scientific data. It is a philosophy built upon empiricism and immediately negates non-empirical explanations. It is not scientific fact, but a paradigm or lens for viewing data. It is an explanation and interpretation of fact. At times it does a serviceable job of explaining scientific data, but it is not an airtight explanation.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The examination of Origins is the realm of philosophy and theology. No one was there and could observe the beginning of the universe and life. Evolution was born out of the desire to create a naturalistic explanation of the universe without the need for an active God. Once those presuppositions are established, the data looks different and different conclusions are reached about origins.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Evolution is Limited to Biology</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dr. Woloschak claims to limit Darwinian evolution strictly to biology. She pigeonholes biology into this paradigm, refusing any bleedover into other disciplines. This paradigm can’t be pigeonholed into this one aspect of earth origins. Once Darwinian explanations for human biology are accepted, millions of years are needed to explain the potential accretions of mutations that would lead to a diversity of Earth species as well as human origin. The millions of years bleed into geology, because if you accept millions of years for biology, then you must interpret geological data in the same light. That same framework then seeps into cosmological origins which in turn becomes billions of years for all these chance events of explosions to form physical laws that in turn spin out matter becoming stars and galaxies and planets, and conditions for chemistry that could in turn potentially have life.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Once a paradigm for origins exists without the necessity for a Creator, this philosophy becomes the ground for all human endeavor. Dr. Woloschak wants to limit evolution to biological life, but prevent it from seeping into the culture. This is impossible, primarily because evolution is an explanatory device in a naturalistic universe, and the paradigm gets extended into all spheres once God gets pushed away. Theistic evolutionists want to have their cake and eat it too on this important point, without actually dealing with the historically observable and tragic consequences of their worldview.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Death is Necessary</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dr. Woloschak states that “evolution depends upon death.” This is a bold admission. My experience is that either TE has not thought about these implications or are afraid to admit to them. Later in her talk, she tries to tease out the spiritual meaning of the Genesis account by pointing out that God made the world good. This is a real theological problem. If the mechanism for creation is death, God the creator (via evolutionary means), becomes the author of death. Nowhere in Scripture or the Fathers can this be supported. In fact, it was man’s sin that brought death, not just to humanity but into all the cosmos. The incarnation of Jesus is an overturning of death: “Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death!” Creation itself groans for this salvation.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Biology Necessitates Evolution</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Biology cannot be understood apart from Evolution.” This is a broad all-encompassing statement that is unprovable. Evolution is not the only paradigm to understand biology. I’ve known successful biologists in research fields as well as areas such as medicine who are thoroughgoing creationists. Rejection of Darwinian evolution has not been a barrier to their understanding or success in their fields of study. There are multiple biologists that espouse creationism successfully in a peer review format. They are not hard to find. Michael Behe and Todd Wood come to mind.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Intelligent Design Dismissed</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I am surprised at her attack on the intelligent design movement. She quickly dismisses the movement as though it was a brief scientific fad waning in influence among the scientific community. Intelligent Design (ID) is a big tent term that includes everyone from theistic evolutionists to young earth creationists and everyone in between. The philosophy that holds everyone together is the belief that there is design in the universe that can’t be explained through purely naturalistic processes, and the world is bigger than just matter. On the leading ID proponents, William Dembski said:<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Intelligent design, by contrast [to evolution], teaches that biological complexity is not exclusively the result of material mechanisms but also requires intelligence, where the intelligence in question is not reducible to such mechanisms.”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would think she would celebrate this movement as a stand against a strict material universe that rejects any action of God inside of it.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Contradictory Creation Accounts</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Multiple Creation accounts in Scripture reveal contradictions and prove the need for a non-literal approach, according to Dr. Woloschak. This is a tiresome TE argument. Yes, there are “two” creation stories in Genesis, but she mentions more, including creation accounts in Job and the Psalms. Let me address the non-Genesis accounts first. To act as if these are unique expressions of the creation narrative is to do injustice to the texts of Scripture. These particular texts like others in the Psalms are poetic expressions of God’s act of creation. They are not intended as a narrative chronological description of the text. The average reader of Scripture with no knowledge of original languages can easily determine the differences in the genre here.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The other passages mentioned are in the early chapters of Genesis. Yes, there are 2 accounts, but not until modern times do people like to point out this fact as if 2 accounts mean opposing accounts. Intelligent people from Jewish commentators to Church Fathers have easily reconciled these texts. In fact, you have to look hard and do some hermeneutical gymnastics to make them feel contradictory. One is a narrative of the creation week and the other is an expansion of the creation of man on Day 6.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Insisting on contradictory creation accounts in Scripture is a TE red herring. What is problematic for TE is not repeated insistence in Scripture for God as Creator but God as Sustainer. He is praised throughout Scripture for not only creating but upholding the world (Colossians 1:17). An evolutionary world set on course by a Creator doesn’t allow for an intimate Sustainer of creation.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Literal Readings Miss the Point</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dr. Woloschak states, “If we take literally we miss what the text is telling us”. Literal and symbolic reading can be both held as true. Christians & Jews have read Scripture this way since the beginning. A four-fold interpretative approach to Scripture meaning has been the standard, and never rejected the historical nature of the text as opposed to a symbolic meaning. She is setting up a false dialectic between literal and spiritual. Understanding a literal narrative doesn’t prevent a spiritual understanding. Stepping away from the literal actually undermines the spiritual significance. These passages are written in a way not as a parable or poetry of fiction but with the intent of expressing a true retelling of historic events. All Scripture that references these chapters of Genesis assumes the real nature of these events and the veracity of the story. Jesus and Paul refer to Adam and Eve as real people and not metaphorical.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">The Fathers Don’t Read Genesis Literally</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are no Fathers of the Church that treat these narratives as anything but historic and to say otherwise is to proof text their writing. It is not only those ancient Fathers of the Church but even the post-Darwinian “modern” saints who continually uphold the historicity of these accounts.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To separate literal from spiritual and set these ideas at odds does not solve a problem for her, but creates more. Where do you stop ignoring the literal in favor of the symbolic? Do you only apply this hermeneutic to the first several chapters of Genesis? Why not Abraham? Or Moses and the Exodus? Perhaps the Old Testament as a whole? What about Jesus? If the literal is unimportant, then the historicity of His life, death, and resurrection are not crucial to our faith, only the symbolic reality of what it teaches.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">God works in creation and always reveals Himself there. There is no central revelation disembodied for our minds and spirits to grasp. To jettison the literal in one section of Scripture is to jettison it all. The literal understanding of the creation account undergirds the totality of the Bible.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To further illustrate the Fathers on Genesis, I want to quote multiple passages as well as more modern Fathers of the Church. I could quote St. Chrysostom, St. Iraneaus, St. Andrew of Crete, St. Ephrem the Syrian, etc., but because she mentions Sts. Basil & Maximos, let me quote their works.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">St. Basil in his commentary of the 6 days of creations says:<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“Those who do not admit the common meaning of the Scriptures say that water is not water, but some other nature and they explain a plant and a fish according to their opinion…[But] when I hear “grass”, I think of grass, and in the same manner, I understand everything as it is said, a plant, a fish, a wild animal, and an ox. Indeed, “I am not ashamed of the Gospel”...[Some] have attempted by false arguments and allegorical interpretations to bestow on the Scripture a dignity of their own imagining. But theirs is the attitude of one who considers himself wiser than the revelations of the Spirit and introduces his own ideas in pretense of an explanation. Therefore, let it be understood as it has been written.”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">St. Basil on the authorship of Genesis by Moses says,<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“This man [Moses], who is made equal to the angels, being considered worthy of the sight of God face to face, reports to us those things which he heard from God.”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">St. Maximos the Confessor referring to the Fall says,<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“God, at the very moment humanity fell,...gave the body the capacity to suffer, undergo corruption, and be wholly dissolved---as was evinced when God covered the body with garments of skin.” also “In not wishing to be nourished by Him, the first man rightly fell away from the Divine life, and took death as another parent. Accordingly, he put on himself the irrational form, and blackened the inconceivable beauty of the Divine, and delivered over the whole of nature as food for death. Death is living on this through the whole of this temporal period, making us his food.”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This assumes a literal reading and excludes belief in evolutionary death and suffering prior to the creation and fall of man.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Evolutionary theory was not unknown to educated men like St. Basil and St. Maximos. It was part of the Ancient Greek tradition, and one of the uniquenesses of Christianity was its rejection of that origin story. Anaximander of Miletus (610-546 BC) is the first evidence we have of evolutionary thought. He suggested the world began with a watery primordial sludge, and out of this sludge, man emerged, believing him to have been a fish at one time. Empedocles (490-430 BC) proposed a theory similar to modern natural selection. Epicureans also held that life originated out of the earth and thinned out and changed due to a process of natural selection. The Roman Lucretius held a naturalistic view of origins as well.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As Christianity wrestled with Paganism in the early centuries of the Church, apologists and theologians argued with Pagans regarding the Origin of man. One Bishop of Antioch, St. Theophilus (115-181) wrote to the pagan Autolycus:<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“For my purpose is not to furnish mere matter of much talk, but to throw light upon the number of years from the foundation of the world, and to condemn the empty labour and trifling of these authors, because there have neither been twenty thousand times ten thousand years from the flood to the present time, as Plato said, affirming that there had been so many years; nor yet 15 times 10,375 years, as we have already mentioned Apollonius the Egyptian gave out; nor is the world uncreated, nor is there a spontaneous production of all things, as Pythagoras and the rest dreamed; but, being indeed created, it is also governed by the providence of God, who made all things; and the whole course of time and the years are made plain to those who wish to obey the truth.”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As for more modern saints, I could quote men like Sts. Ambrose of Optina (1812-1891), Theophan the Recluse, John of Kronstadt, Nectarios, Nikolai of Zica, Justin Popovich, Sophrony of Essex, St. Paisius, and Fr. George Calciu, etc. Many Christians died as martyrs during the Communist era partially for their rejection of Darwinism. Hieromartyr Paul Andreyev for exampled was imprisoned and eventually martyred under the Soviets. One of his cellmates overheard him in a prison cell: “The priest Andreyev...said that the Soviet authorities preach the teaching of Darwin, that man proceeded from apes, but that this is a blasphemy and a lie.”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">St. Nikolai writes often against Darwinism and in one place says, “It takes a million years, say the ignorant minds of our day, for a monkey’s spine to become straight and a monkey to become a man. Thus they speak, not knowing the power and the might of the living God.”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Hiero Confessor Luke of Simferopol, a doctor of medicine, professor, and pioneering surgeon said: “Darwinism, which declares that man, by means of evolution, has developed from the lower species of animals, and is not a product of the creative act of the Godhead, has turned out to be merely a supposition, a hypothesis, which has become obsolete even for science. This hypothesis has been acknowledged as contradictory not only to the Bible, but to nature itself…”<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For a more comprehensive look at the Fathers regarding their views on Jesus pick up the expansive volume by Fr. Seraphim Rose entitled Genesis, Creation, & Early Man.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #434343; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">Concluding Thoughts</span><b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Darwinism at its heart is a faith claim. No one observed the creation of the universe or of man and life on this planet. These are areas where science can not generate reliable answers. Only philosophy, metaphysics, and theology can approach the question of origins, and this is what Darwinism has done. Darwinism created a naturalistic approach to the origin of the universe without the intervention of a personal Creator. From that materialistic perspective, all scientific data is filtered and generates Evolutionary science. That same data can be filtered through the paradigm of creation and generate equally valid and often times more accurate results.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Origins, whether naturalistic or creationist, is not science, but a paradigm for understanding scientific data, and more importantly a faith commitment. It is this commitment that makes the Orthodox acceptance of the evolutionary faith all the more disturbing.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">No doubt, we live in times where rejecting the majority dogma about our origins is hard. Being in the minority is nothing new for Christians. St. Athanasius among the Arians, St. Maximos standing firm on the nature of Christ, St. John of Damascus living with the Muslim elite, Christians under the Islamic and Communist yoke, all felt the pressure to conform and compromise, but held fast. I pray for the committed Creationist who lives, breathes, and work in the scientific community. Yet, many have done it and continue to do it, finding success in their work and research.<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you are curious to explore this topic, see the below resources:<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Fr. Seraphim Rose, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Genesis-Creation-Early-Seraphim-Rose/dp/1887904255/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520900938&sr=8-1&keywords=seraphim+rose+genesis"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Genesis, Creation & Early Man</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">John Mark Reynolds, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.ancientfaith.com/browse/search/search&keywords=reconciling+faith+and+the+theories&ty0=p&ty1=s"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Reconciling Faith & The Theories of this Age</span></a></span>, Parts <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/recollectingglory/faith_and_theories_1"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">1</span></a></span>, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/recollectingglory/reconciling_faith_and_the_theories_of_this_age_part_2"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">2</span></a></span>, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/recollectingglory/reconciling_faith_and_the_theories_of_this_age_part_3"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">3</span></a></span>, & <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/recollectingglory/reconciling_faith_and_the_theories_of_this_age_part_4"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">4</span></a></span> <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Seraphim Hamilton’s <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://kabane52.tumblr.com/creationism"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">excellent articles about his journey from TE to young earth creationism</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Biologist <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://toddcwood.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Dr. Todd Wood’s blog</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Netflix documentary, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80186671"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Is Genesis History?</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Michael Behe’s, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Black-Box-Biochemical-Challenge-ebook/dp/B000FBJHS0/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520900993&sr=1-3&keywords=michael+behe"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Darwin’s Black Box</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Jay Dyer’s collection of articles and videos, for example: <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://jaysanalysis.com/2016/05/26/darwinism-and-its-mongoloid-mutations-refuted/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Darwinism</span></a></span>, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://jaysanalysis.com/2016/08/18/jaysanalysis-genesis-the-creation-mysteries-with-tommy-hamilton-half/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Genesis and the Creation Mysteries</span></a></span>, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://jaysanalysis.com/2018/03/18/genesis-vs-atheism-paganism-introduction-to-theology-jay-dyer-half/"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Genesis vs Atheism and Paganism</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leonard Brand, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Faith-Reason-Earth-History-Intelligent-ebook/dp/B06XR6SSYW/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520901706&sr=1-1&keywords=faith+reason+and+earth+history"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Faith, Reason, & Earth History</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Cornelius Hunter, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Darwins-God-Evolution-Problem-Evil/dp/1587430533/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521454887&sr=8-2&keywords=darwin%27s+god&dpID=51GJW1A0WWL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Darwin’s God: Evolution and the Problem of Evil</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Philip Johnson, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Darwin-Trial-Phillip-Johnson/dp/0830838317/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1521552193&sr=8-2&keywords=darwin+on+trial&dpID=41ffsM18KbL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Darwin on Trial</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">John Mark Reynolds, <span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Three-Views-Creation-Evolution-Counterpoints-ebook/dp/B0050J1NVG/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1521552234&sr=1-1&keywords=john+mark+reynolds"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: "" "arial" "" , "serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Three Views on Creation and Evolution</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-44341611800232518092013-11-04T07:54:00.004-05:002013-11-20T13:32:18.688-05:00Exposing My Poor Spirit<div class="itemImageBlock" style="background-color: #ecf2f5; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Optima, Lucida, 'MgOpen Cosmetica', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.390625px; margin: 0px 0px 16px; outline: 0px; padding: 8px;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Years ago, early in my Orthodox journey, I purchased Nicholas Cabasilas’ </span><em style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Life in Christ</em><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">. I remember enjoying it and being helped by it, but the details escape me. Recently, upon recommendation by a friend, I decided to pick it back up.</span></div>
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<a class="modal" href="http://www.soundingblog.com/media/k2/items/cache/2e8bf6f45fb2b01f7bc63e367c45fa81_XL.jpg" rel="{handler: 'image'}" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease-out; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; clear: right; color: #3b74b7; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s ease-out;" title="Click to preview image"><img alt="Exposing My Poor Spirit" src="http://www.soundingblog.com/media/k2/items/cache/2e8bf6f45fb2b01f7bc63e367c45fa81_L.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 1px solid rgb(227, 227, 227); height: auto; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 8px; width: 200px;" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-family: georgia, palatino; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Cabasilas spends the bulk of his work discussing the sacraments and how they allow us to unite with Christ, and toward the end, he talks about how we live in between those sacramental acts. How do we retain and cultivate this life of Christ, this union we experience through the mysteries of the church, as we walk through our families, and jobs, and hobbies, and chores? One answer he gives is contemplation, which for Cabasilas is a mirror of the Jesus Prayer, something slightly more active, whereby we consider and fill our minds with Christ so the image begins to radiate from our hearts toward our lips, our hands, and our feet. ....</span></div>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-90363606380342585502013-10-07T09:39:00.003-04:002013-11-20T13:32:32.682-05:00An Orthodox Approach to Youth Ministry<div class="catItemHeader" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Optima, Lucida, 'MgOpen Cosmetica', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.390625px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 15px;">
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<a href="http://www.soundingblog.com/index.php/ministries/youth-young-adult/an-orthodox-approach-to-youth-ministry.html" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.3s ease-out; background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #3b74b7; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.3s ease-out;">An Orthodox Approach to Youth Ministry</a></h3>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Group of teens walking together" height="215" src="http://www.soundingblog.com/images/Theron_Mathis/medium_5130733677.jpg" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; float: right; margin: 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="281" />Earlier this summer, I was asked to speak to a group of youth workers in our diocese. It’s been years since I have done any full-time paid youth work. I turned 40 this year, and past the point where my kids think I am cool, so speaking about youth ministry is not a topic I am tagged with very often. Yet, my wife and I direct our Church School program, and as my own boys enter the teen years, I have been especially burdened about the necessity for such a ministry in our churches at large. </span></div>
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....read the rest <a href="http://www.soundingblog.com/index.php/ministries/youth-young-adult/an-orthodox-approach-to-youth-ministry.html" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-43363788220567352712013-05-13T05:44:00.003-04:002013-11-20T13:32:46.141-05:00Breaking News: Horses Causes Orthodox Calendar Controversy<br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">This Paschal season, there has been a calendar controversy that has been missed by most of the Orthodox world. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.soundingblog.com/index.php/orthodoxy-basics/breaking-news-horses-cause-calendar-controversy.html" target="_blank">read the rest here</a><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bombeador/4352823032/">Eduardo Amorim</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com/">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a></span>
<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-7295998449862845622012-12-18T06:18:00.004-05:002013-11-20T13:32:57.687-05:00Two Powerful Songs You May Never Have HeardIt's been a while since I have done posts that are pure recommendations, so here goes.<br />
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Yesterday, I learned that my book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_tl?ie=UTF8&keywords=theron%20mathis&tag=swointhefir-20&index=aps&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325" target="_blank">The Rest of the Bible</a> had been quoted by one of my favorite online writers, Joel J Miller. He was writing on the <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/2012/12/the-song-of-three-holy-youths-in-the-fiery-furnace/" target="_blank">Two Songs of the Three Holy Youths in the Fiery Furnace</a>, which is found only in the LXX Old Testament. <br />
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If you don't currently read his work, you need to subscribe to Joel J. Miller's posts on Patheos. I will give you the link in a minute. <br />
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I have been following Joel for some time. He's an Orthodox Christian who maintained his own blog, where he wrote great essays only too infrequently. <br />
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Recently he was picked up Patheos, and online repository for religion writing. Since then his posts have become more regular and consistently good. <br />
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Joel is the Vice President of Acquisitions and Editorial in the Non Fiction Trade Group at Thomas Nelson. He is also the author of <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/books/" target="_blank">5 books</a>, and his recent <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/angels/" target="_blank">Lifted by Angels</a> has been highlighted through an interview on <a href="http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/aftoday/angels_our_heavenly_guides_and_guardians" target="_blank">Ancient Faith Live</a>. Hopefully our church book club will add it to the list of 2013 books. <br />
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Add Joel to your list of online destinations. Here's the <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/joeljmiller/" target="_blank">link</a><br />
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-80938519837095061102012-12-10T06:11:00.000-05:002013-11-20T13:33:09.333-05:00Do You Know the Christmas Carol, "God Will Come From Teman?"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">The carols of Christmas have begun as we prepare for the birth of Christ. Joyous old hymns celebrating “The First Noel”, honoring a “Silent Night”, and hearing angels beckon “Come All You Faithful” pulse through speakers of our local marketplace. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Orthodox songs are absent in popular American life, so we may be less familiar with the words and meanings. Leading up to the Nativity, several hymns repeat each service, bringing to us the theology of the Church and helping us understand the fullness of the Incarnation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">No service of the Christmas season is more full of wonder and theology than the Royal Hours preceding the celebration of the Nativity of Christ. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Hymns explaining the mystery of God becoming Man through the womb of a Virgin are scattered among litanies, Psalms, and Readings of Scripture. Yet throughout this service a strange phrase is repeated: <i><a href="http://blog.myocn.com/orthodoxy-basics/bible/do-you-know-the-carol-god-will-come-from-teman.html" target="_blank">click here for the rest</a></i></span></div>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-38710514374433855352012-11-12T06:31:00.002-05:002013-11-20T13:33:23.956-05:00How To Survive Political Disappointment<br />
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<span style="border: 0px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wednesday, November 7, many Christians awoke to disappointing election results. If not in the presidential race, then probably somewhere else---governor, senator, representative, school board, county coroner. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 20.383333206176758px;">To appreciate the mood, here is a sampling of some of my favorite mournful and joyful Tweets: </span></div>
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<span style="color: #555555; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 20.383333206176758px;"> - <a href="http://blog.myocn.com/culture/how-to-survive-political-disappointment.html" target="_blank">read the rest here.</a> </span></div>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-90377536736359972802012-11-07T06:00:00.000-05:002012-11-07T06:15:14.869-05:00Thank You and A Free Gift<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51+BOqnp9JL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51+BOqnp9JL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" /></a></div>
<b>Thank you to all the readers of <i>The Rest of the Bible! </i></b><br />
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It's been a little over a year, since the print and ebook publication, and I continue to be encouraged by the response.<br />
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There is very little in print regarding those "extra" Old Testament books, and this book fit that need. <br />
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If you have ever wondered about the content of Tobit, the Maccabees, Judith, etc, but never had the time to dig and read, this book will give you an overview of each book as well as discussing how Christian throughout history have used and understand these stories.<br />
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Thank you as well to those who commented on Amazon.<br />
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Here are a sample of the reviews. <br />
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">It is about time someone took to giving a good outline and reading companion to these books. So often they are overlooked because sadly most bibles do not include them. </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not only a readable book for those interested but in my mind opens up a world of 'forgotten' Scripture to the modern eyes.</span></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">A simple but brilliant idea for a book. I don't know what else to say, buy it and read it. This guy does a great job and he really knows his church history. These books should be a part of EVERY Bible, not just Catholic & some Orthodox Bibles.</span></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Mathis's cliff note style helps one quickly understand the gist of message for each book which further encourages us to read these books.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></i></blockquote>
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<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">I went from the Mathis book to read Tobit, Judith and 2 Maccabees and was not disappointed. They are truly very readable, uplifting books as the Mathis book promised. I can see where the early church would use them as preparatory texts.</span> </i></blockquote>
<i> </i>As a gift to readers and future readers, I have put together a study guide for this book. <br />
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Our parish used the text in book club, and many of the study questions came out of that discussion. <br />
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As well as study questions, several other articles regarding the Readables and further resources for deeper study are included. <br />
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<b>To get your free gift, send me an email at theron.mathis@gmail.com, and I will forward on the study guide.</b><br />
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Thanks again and God Bless.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-52226516460269587662012-10-22T09:19:00.001-04:002013-11-20T13:33:37.735-05:00Scarcity and Abundance<br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In Adult Sunday School, we are reading St. John’s account of the feeding of the 5000. This miracle of Jesus never fails to impress. Five thousand men plus their families have come to Him to hear His teaching and perhaps get a glimmer of the miraculous because, for many in the crowd, there have been rumors of miracles: rumors that people were healed, blind could see, life was transformed into something new. Who wouldn’t want to be present for something like this?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This would be especially appealing after your life has been spent occupied and controlled by a foreign power, yet the promise of God to your family and religious leaders is that God has given you this land, you will be strong, you will be great, your kingdom will never end...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">read the rest <a href="http://blog.myocn.com/orthodoxy-basics/we-must-bring-our-weaknessto-christ.html" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-15998676466751216252012-10-04T06:00:00.000-04:002013-11-20T13:33:56.628-05:00Bible Landscaping Secrets<span style="font-family: inherit;">A couple years ago my main water line burst. The fix was not a pretty sight. Half my front yard was excavated leaving a landscaping nightmare. Years later after much work and settling, the yard is beginning to recover. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">not my yard, but a close second</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Turning the earth from the bottom up brought up sizable prehistoric rocks into the front yard. My first priority to restore any green grass was to remove these large rocks. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">From behind the house, the wheelbarrow made its appearance and I bribed a couple of my children to help dad move rocks out of the front yard. Of course, for them it was not about moving rocks but looking for ancient fossils and possible dinosaur discoveries. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Soon the big rocks were gone, but lo and behold there were still rocks. Hidden among the large stones were others of lesser size, still preventing a lush landscape of enviable green grass from taking root. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">So these smaller stones were hauled away along with a "dinosaur tooth" or two. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Now the work of planting grass could begin. As I gathered the tools to prep the soil, more rocks had moved in, unfortunately they were smaller than the last batch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Eventually enough rocks and fossils were removed for grass to grow, but even today I am constantly finding insidious little rocks pushing through the dirt. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I was reminded of this story while studying to teach John 3 in our Adult Church school class. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">In John 3, Jesus talks to Nicodemus about exposing himself to the light as part of life in the kingdom of God:</span><br />
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">"But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen..."</span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Light has a way of revealing defects, and like my upturned front lawn, we first see the big boulders, those things that are not only obvious to us, but even those around us. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXnc_9NB9u3R3C3Kd4JTfwQZnvJTSBkUlVkRcxaFyCy1wl-hVwFZWq3DGNFCY60tOIriE86wmkHsXYYFEUNlkdr42peznRn0g9nk0-7H5BRG1J3LbiSlb2dwdm4LBDqkarMztd/s1600/Light+Beam+in+dark+Theater.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXnc_9NB9u3R3C3Kd4JTfwQZnvJTSBkUlVkRcxaFyCy1wl-hVwFZWq3DGNFCY60tOIriE86wmkHsXYYFEUNlkdr42peznRn0g9nk0-7H5BRG1J3LbiSlb2dwdm4LBDqkarMztd/s320/Light+Beam+in+dark+Theater.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Once cleared, the light reveals more that wasn't noticed until the large defects were removed. And the task continues as more and more sins are revealed and excavated from our life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is why the saints, who seem beyond sin in our eyes, bemoan their own defects. We don't feel like such large sinners because we only see one or two of the big rocks. But they never leave the light, having cleared the boulders, they see fields of small pebbles. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #f9fdff; color: #001320; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>"For everyone who does what is hateful, hates The Light and does not come to The Light, lest his works should be convicted."</i></span></span></blockquote>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-86563678027263390592012-09-26T07:27:00.001-04:002013-11-20T13:34:12.518-05:00Elderly Apostle John Chases Down Young Prodigal<br />
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In studying the Gospel of John, I stumbled upon a wonderful story of the Apostle John as an old man, and in memory of his repose today in the city of Ephesus the retelling seems appropriate.<br />
<br />
John unlike many of the apostles seemed to have never married, being tasked with the care of the Virgin Mary. Upon her repose, he left Jerusalem and traveled into Asia Minor, where he became the overseer of the churches there making his residence in the city of Ephesus. During this time, he was exiled and tortured, but eventually made his way back to his beloved city as an old man.<br />
<br />
John's life was inflamed by the love of God, and the story below demonstrates the zeal and passion that love had upon his life. <br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
6. “Listen to a tale, which is not a mere tale, but a narrative concerning John the apostle, which has been handed down and treasured up in memory. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For when, after the tyrant’s death, he returned from the isle of Patmos to Ephesus, he went away upon their invitation to the neighboring territories of the Gentiles, to appoint bishops in some places, in other places to set in order whole churches, elsewhere to choose to the ministry some one of those that were pointed out by the Spirit. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
7. When he had come to one of the cities not far away (the name of which is given by some), and had consoled the brethren in other matters, he finally turned to the bishop that had been appointed, and seeing a youth of powerful physique, of pleasing appearance, and of ardent temperament, he said, ‘This one I commit to thee in all earnestness in the presence of the Church and with Christ as witness.’ And when the bishop had accepted the charge and had promised all, he repeated the same injunction with an appeal to the same witnesses, and then departed for Ephesus.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
8. But the presbyter taking home the youth committed to him, reared, kept, cherished, and finally baptized him. After this he relaxed his stricter care and watchfulness, with the idea that in putting upon him the seal of the Lord he had given him a perfect protection.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
9. But some youths of his own age, idle and dissolute, and accustomed to evil practices, corrupted him when he was thus prematurely freed from restraint. At first they enticed him by costly entertainments; then, when they went forth at night for robbery, they took him with them, and finally they demanded that he should unite with them in some greater crime. 10. He gradually became accustomed to such practices, and on account of the positiveness of his character, leaving the right path, and taking the bit in his teeth like a hard-mouthed and powerful horse, he rushed the more violently down into the depths.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
11. And finally despairing of salvation in God, he no longer meditated what was insignificant, but having committed some great crime, since he was now lost once for all, he expected to suffer a like fate with the rest. Taking them, therefore, and forming a band of robbers, he became a bold bandit-chief, the most violent, most bloody, most cruel of them all. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
12. Time passed, and some necessity having arisen, they sent for John. But he, when he had set in order the other matters on account of which he had come, said, ‘Come, O bishop, restore us the deposit which both I and Christ committed to thee, the church, over which thou presidest, being witness.’</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
13. But the bishop was at first confounded, thinking that he was falsely charged in regard to money which he had not received, and he could neither believe the accusation respecting what he had not, nor could he disbelieve John. But when he said, ‘I demand the young man and the soul of the brother,’ the old man, groaning deeply and at the same time bursting into tears, said, ‘He is dead.’ ‘How and what kind of death?’ ‘He is dead to God,’ he said; ‘for he turned wicked and abandoned, and at last a robber. And now, instead of the church, he haunts the mountain with a band like himself.' </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
14. But the Apostle rent his clothes, and beating his head with great lamentation, he said, ‘A fine guard I left for a brother’s soul! But let a horse be brought me, and let some one show me the way.’ He rode away from the church just as he was, and coming to the place, he was taken prisoner by the robbers’ outpost. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
15. He, however, neither fled nor made entreaty, but cried out, ‘For this did I come; lead me to your captain.’ 16. The latter, meanwhile, was waiting, armed as he was. But when he recognized John approaching, he turned in shame to flee. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>17. But John, forgetting his age, pursued him with all his might, crying out, ‘Why, my son, dost thou flee from me, thine own father, unarmed, aged? Pity me, my son; fear not; thou hast still hope of life. I will give account to Christ for thee. If need be, I will willingly endure thy death as the Lord suffered death for us. For thee will I give up my life. Stand, believe; Christ hath sent me.’</b> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
18. And he, when he heard, first stopped and looked down; then he threw away his arms, and then trembled and wept bitterly. And when the old man approached, he embraced him, making confession with lamentations as he was able, baptizing himself a second time with tears, and concealing only his right hand. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
19. But John, pledging himself, and assuring him on oath that he would find forgiveness with the Saviour, besought him, fell upon his knees, kissed his right hand itself as if now purified by repentance, and led him back to the church. And making intercession for him with copious prayers, and struggling together with him in continual fastings, and subduing his mind by various utterances, he did not depart, as they say, until he had restored him to the church, furnishing a great example of true repentance and a great proof of regeneration, a trophy of a visible resurrection.” - <i><span style="font-size: x-small;">from Church History by Eusebius</span></i></blockquote>
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May God give us such zeal not just in youth but even at the end of our life!<br />
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-11069137639838474682012-09-20T06:00:00.000-04:002012-09-20T06:00:11.179-04:00What is John's Mission in His Gospel?<br />
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I love the Gospel of John.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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If for no other reason, it is different. Unlike the other three gospels, there is no
birth story, no temptation, or no transfiguration. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In Orthodoxy, we read John in the lectionary during the
Easter season. The Gospel for Easter
Sunday is John’s Prologue in Chapter 1. <o:p></o:p></div>
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This gives a clue as to why the Church thinks John was
written. The newly baptized experiencing
their first Liturgy on Easter Sunday begin to read a new Gospel – the Gospel of
John. John himself proclaims his purpose
for writing at the end of his book. He
wrote so that the reader would know that Jesus is the Son of God, and by
trusting in Him, would have eternal life.
<o:p></o:p></div>
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John is designed to bolster faith, perhaps in the face of
heresy, for there were many false teachers who questioned the fullness of Jesus’
humanity and divinity. Or perhaps, John
is trying to protect us not from the heresy of the head, but of the heart. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In a later book, John chides his own flock in his adopted
city of Ephesus never to abandon their first love, because the path of heresy,
the desertion of the faith, the denial of Jesus as God, begins at the point of
love. <o:p></o:p></div>
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To lose this personal connection, to open the heart to other
affections, will only draw us slowly away from Christ. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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So how does John accomplish this in this Gospel.</div>
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</div>
<ol>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">He guides
us through path of faith.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">He tells us
story of water, bread, light, and life, reminding us of our baptism, our
reception of Communion, the light of the commandments, and the life that
comes.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">This is our journey from death to
life.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">He shows us signs of Godhead breaking into our
life.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">John has no miracles.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">He has signs, and yes they are miraculous,
but they are few (only 7), and they reveal Jesus.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">We hear the voice of Jesus.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Jesus himself proclaims His divinity by using
the Old Testament name for God – I </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">AM.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Yet, He does so in relation to our life.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">He says, I AM the Living Water, I AM the Bread of Life, I AM the Light
of the World.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">We need to hear these
because they touch us where we are.</span></li>
<li><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">We hear the voice of others.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">John
the Baptist witness, other disciples witness, the Father and the Spirit witness
to who Jesus is.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></li>
</ol>
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John proudly proclaims that Jesus is the one with the power
to save, the one to transform us, the one who can teach us to love. <o:p></o:p></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-68961650435720638282012-09-14T06:00:00.000-04:002013-11-20T13:34:41.562-05:00The Orthodox Mega-Church?<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><b>I believe in the
mega-church. </b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><b><br /></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the last 30 years,
American Christianity has seen the rise of the mega-church. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">According to sociologists, the mega-church is
defined by having 2000+ members. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In my backyard, exists the
fifth largest church in the US, Southeast Christian Church, with a membership
of 30k and average weekly attendance of 20k.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">No doubt this type of
church can only exist in the numbers it does today, due to our mobile
environment. You can live 10 – 15 miles
from the church, and still be an active participant due to quick and easy
transportation. Historically, you went
to church where you lived, and usually within walking distance, and a church
could only grow to such numbers in a densely populated area. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Because of the size of
these churches, certain advantages began to happen. First is that growth generates more
growth. One trend-observer said: “You
hit a certain size and you can become self-generating. You attract people by
your sheer size. People know that you are on TV and that this is that big
place...There is a sense of something going on here...and size itself begets
more growth.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">To perpetuate this size,
the leadership must demonstrate dynamic communication skills and organizational
shrewdness that typically has only been found in high-level business
environments. Dynamism must be present
to attract and retain members as well as a variety of organized and
well-designed programs executed and produced with excellence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The sheer numbers of
people attending contribute to a crowdsourcing phenomenon. Crowdsourcing allows problems</span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"> to be broadcast to an
unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. In a church environment, the open call to
develop & innovate ministry within and without a congregation allows a
greater variety of programs to develop. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The
newest development among mega churches is the multi-site church. Rather than continuing to grow larger and
larger, these churches have decided to replicate themselves at other
geographical locations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In
1990, there were 10 multi-site churches.
In ’98, there were about 100, and by 2008, over 2000 multi-site churches
existed throughout the US. </span><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">This
is different from the church plant of old, where a team of members would leave
to start a new autonomous church. In
this model, the new church is planted but remains under the authority of the
“mother church”. The head pastor in
effect becomes the leader or overseer of the multiple churches. In another time or place, he would be called
a “bishop”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>This
is the model of the Orthodox Church. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The
light bulb came on while listening to an interview with <a href="http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/aftoday/back_to_the_future" target="_blank">Fr. John Braun</a>. His biggest challenge to North American Orthodox
is more to create more parishes, and I think he right. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">I
believe it is one way we can compete in the religious marketplace within North America.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">I
work in marketing, and we constantly talk about increasing distribution points
to increase market share. We can have
slick ads and robust products with competitive prices, but if people can’t get
to the product then we never sell anything.
One way we can be successful is create more places to distribute our
goods. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>The
parish is the distribution point of Orthodoxy.
</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">In
America, the vast majority of people that regularly attend church go to congregations
of 100-500 people. Once a parish hits
300-500 people, it should begin praying about and developing a team of people
to start of new parish. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Sure,
there will be fear. Fear that the
starting church will lose too many members.
Fear that the new mission will not succeed. Unless we try, we will never know.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Money
will be a fear, but practically, 10 tithing
families should be able to support a priest at their average salary. That does not seem too daunting. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Multiple
parishes can come together for the Sunday of Orthodoxy, festivals, youth and
children’s activities. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The
more parishes we have the smaller dioceses can become, and will give bishops
greater contact with their flocks. </span></div>
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<i><b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">Bishops
of North America, prod us to start new missions, equip us with the tools and
strategies.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;">Push us to do more and reach
more people!</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"> </span></b></i></div>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-86439531407398776202012-09-11T06:00:00.000-04:002012-10-04T06:25:41.882-04:00To Be Wise You Must Get Out Of Your Head<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjYjt_chnsPZARyVTixpWI55IOcJ8maec8xUSRyTJ4DxrHPAteKoS52mTvnhAh7K6NewmRJ1vCEcnZSFH_xw2w3OFKHU9hYq5fvPi9QcrV7pipGRXbjI_HVv3s2u1x8UWlm1oDA/s400/pc-germany-scholar-72.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPjYjt_chnsPZARyVTixpWI55IOcJ8maec8xUSRyTJ4DxrHPAteKoS52mTvnhAh7K6NewmRJ1vCEcnZSFH_xw2w3OFKHU9hYq5fvPi9QcrV7pipGRXbjI_HVv3s2u1x8UWlm1oDA/s320/pc-germany-scholar-72.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">For years, I found myself geeking out at the intricacies of theology, the minutiae of textual criticism, the obscurities of history. It’s one of the reasons I spent years in undergraduate and graduate school reading dusty books and ancient scholars. Post-college, I continued dipping into various theologies as a pastime – some watch Sports Center, I picked up Lossky. Finding my way to Orthodoxy did give me an ocean of theology so deep I often felt like I was drowning, but eventually I found my way back to shore only to come back another day. </span>
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">... continued<a href="http://blog.myocn.com/orthodoxy-basics/bible/to-be-wise-you-must-get-out-of-your-head.html" target="_blank"> here</a></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-25458261789035207772012-09-05T06:31:00.003-04:002013-11-20T13:45:13.724-05:00The Problem of Orthodox Culture<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Over the past months several Orthodox writers have taken up
the topic of Orthodox culture and whether we can create one in this
country. Much of the writing flows out
the pens of artists, so I am sure that this is a desire longing for an ethos
where there is a richness of art seen in places like old Russia with majestic
architecture, beautiful music and haunting works of literature. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I long for this too.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What is the critical mass of people for such a culture to
emerge? Evangelicals have had this mass
in America for some time, but only recently is there a serious arts movement
bubbling up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rather than a culture of high art, I propose we are looking
for community, and this is the base where we must start. The magnet that draws
Americans into the Evangelical world, robust Catholic life, and even stranger American
movements such as Mormonism is not theology, but community. This is a place where you can enter and every
part of your life is infected by it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For these believers, opportunity is given to immerse
themselves not only in the worship and in the dogma of their faith, but their
life and relationships are intertwined in their “church” life. Ministry, schools, sports, fellowship, etc.
force them to live so closely together a fabric of continuity and group life is
maintained and perpetuated. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In Orthodoxy, our theology demands community. For many American faiths, truth is
disembodied, an ethereal concept or philosophy, perhaps an ideal to attain, but
in Orthodoxy, truth must have flesh. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This “truth made flesh” is where we must begin if culture is
to be created. Our faith can’t be
relegated to 2hrs a week of Liturgy where interaction with other persons are
minimal. Even multiple services will
fail us unless we learn to live with each other in sacrificial love. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We must create community, and in our fragmented American
suburban society this will take work.
Consistent programming must be created where we can minister together
and fellowship with one another. No
longer can we rely on family, ethnic, or neighborhood connections for this to occur
naturally. We are too diverse and
scattered. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our deepest relationships for ourselves and especially our
children must be among those of our parish and the surrounding Orthodox
community. Our life must be made up of
the people of our faith, and we should live with each other in the shadow of
the church’s dome. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For me culture is a problem of community and until we
develop community within our own parishes and our neighboring parishes
(regardless of jurisdiction) a recognizable Orthodox culture will not be seen
in this land. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">What do you think?</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">For other blogs on this topic see the following links:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>
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<br />
<br />
<br />
<li style="background-color: #fff5da; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Melinda Johnson on <a href="http://melindasmailbox.wordpress.com/2012/07/24/no-orthodox-culture/" target="_blank">No Orthodox Culture</a> & <a href="http://melindasmailbox.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/fracture-lines-in-orthodox-culture/" target="_blank">Fracture Lines in Orthodox Culture</a></span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: #fff5da; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Dn Stephen Hayes of <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Khanya</em> on <span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: blue; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://wp.me/p3gtp-Tr" style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Orthodoxy and culture</span></a></span></span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: #fff5da; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Jonathan Kotinek of <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Fixing a Hole</em> on <span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; color: blue; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://jkotinek.blogspot.com/2012/08/orthodox-synchroblog-orthodoxy-and.html" style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Orthodox Synchroblog – Orthodoxy and Culture</span></a></span></span></span></li>
<li style="background-color: #fff5da; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: small; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: blue; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: black; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Katherine Hyde of <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">God Haunted Fiction</em> on</span> <a href="http://kbhyde.com/literature-and-orthodox-culture/" style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Literature and Orthodox Culture</a></span></span></span></span></li>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-8861231225304969562012-08-15T08:09:00.001-04:002012-08-15T08:09:58.839-04:00Heading Off to the School of Christ<br />
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<a href="http://www.arts.ri.gov/images/schoolbus.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.arts.ri.gov/images/schoolbus.gif" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
It’s that time of year again. Tomorrow, my wife and I will help gather supplies into a well-worn book bag, and shuffle our eldest out the door to a new school. Then one week later, the little ones will be ushered out of the house with notebooks, pencils, and a bagged lunch in hand. </div>
</div>
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<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20.383333206176758px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border: 0px; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">School days, I love them. For me, they bring up great memories, full of excitement at the newness waiting for me inside those classroom doors. I think I could spend the rest of my life as a student, if it was only feasible to the wallet and the mortgage. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin-bottom: 15px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">
<span style="line-height: 18px;">....check out the rest at <a href="http://blog.myocn.com/orthodoxy-basics/heading-off-to-the-school-of-christ.html" target="_blank">the Sounding.</a></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-90313346124738011152012-07-22T08:16:00.004-04:002012-07-22T08:16:59.817-04:00A Dark Night Rises in My HeartHere's a quick post I did for OCN in response to the tragedy in Colorado. Make sure to read the others. There are some really good reflections here. I struggled with this one.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.myocn.com/current-topics/how-a-dark-night-rises-in-my-heart.html" target="_blank">How a Dark Night Rises in My Heart</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-77485802302555578812012-07-20T06:00:00.000-04:002012-07-20T14:08:06.334-04:00Why Should I Use the Words of Others When I Pray?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRh9OVkKL-yfaT_PD6etzAT4jXIX_owy7QsIMMIBSVTr9hKrI8s" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRh9OVkKL-yfaT_PD6etzAT4jXIX_owy7QsIMMIBSVTr9hKrI8s" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">For years, I would come to God throughout the day and proscribed
times to offer up prayers and commune with Him. While at times, I found a
form to follow when praying, it was always a rough formula based on the Lord's Prayer
or some other scheme that tried to include all types of prayers such as Praise,
Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Not that these
extemporaneous offerings were bad, but I noticed I would always same the same
thing. Novelty in prayer only lasts so long. Perhaps my creativity
is lacking, but look at the blessing before meals as example. How many
ways can you ask for God's blessing and offer Him thanks without eventually
settling down into a certain rhythm?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Eventually I
needed more form and certainty in what I was saying. My prayers could
easily devolve into selfishness and egotism, and saying those words daily was
not shaping me into the likeness of Christ, but into a parody of myself. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The solution was the
words of others--written prayers. Christians for centuries and Jews prior
(Jesus included) have relied upon written prayers to form the bones and
structure of their prayers. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The usage of such
prayers and committing to a rule brings control over scattered words,
diminishes egocentric offerings, and provides training in prayer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4RHWDOvvtX7zEGOAwncx38rp07R5LjGTOAbUryGArWVpd1ky_" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4RHWDOvvtX7zEGOAwncx38rp07R5LjGTOAbUryGArWVpd1ky_" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Prayer can be
scattered and wandering, a prayer of thanks offered here, a confession
there, and perhaps a little supplication to finish off this session. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><i>The words of a prayerbook provide a form and guide that will
encompass all those necessary items, and prevent wandering.</i> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Using words forged in the fires of holiness for millennia will dampen
our ego. They force us to realize that
our thoughts and creations are not necessarily mature and wise as we enter into
a communion of prayer with voices throughout history. This is not just a solo prayer, but the
prayer of a body of believers connected in a relationship with the Holy
Trinity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">We are being trained in prayer by those words of saintly men and
women. Then when we are traveling in the
car, waiting in a lobby, trapped in conflict, those short extemporaneous
offerings suddenly are richer and deeper, full of greater wisdom, from time
spent making holy words our own. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Just as we fill our bodies with nutritious foods to be healthy and
fill our minds with positive, healthy input to think rightly, we must fill our
mouths and hearts with prayers proven in the forges of holy fire, so we too
will catch a spark of sanctity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">If reading prayers seems awkward, start with the Psalms. Don’t read as if you are studying, read as if
they are your words. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><i><b>What’s been your experience with praying with the words of
others? </b></i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-41496409205339131412012-07-16T07:12:00.000-04:002012-07-16T07:13:54.091-04:00Why We Should Bring the World into the Church<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;">Below you will find a link to my latest post on OCN's Blog the Sounding.</span>
<br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20px;"><a href="http://blog.myocn.com/ministries/why-we-should-bring-the-world-into-the-church.html" target="_blank">Why We Should Bring the World into the Church</a></span><br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-2578163513853852842012-06-27T14:19:00.001-04:002012-06-28T14:14:25.695-04:00How Do We Commune with Memories That Bring Life?<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSM3j08tFw29Cos6UwUNbp4JG64cRtwia7MiHJc4sRNr93kpQsU" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSM3j08tFw29Cos6UwUNbp4JG64cRtwia7MiHJc4sRNr93kpQsU" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I grew up in the Deep South, and it was common for people to talk
about the Civil War as if it was a current event rather than an event well deep
into our nation's history. Granted for some old timers, it had not been
that long ago, and they and certainly their parents had felt its influence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The memory of this war produced a wide range of effects. A
person could have nostalgia for a romantic version of the South that never
existed, and others a sense of inferiority with a need to prove their worth to
a larger nation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I am not wise
enough to know the place of such memory, nor how they should affect our
present. In fact, as a nation we are not alone in this behavior.
Other older nations can often hold onto and live in the presence of
memories centuries old. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">These memories do
exist and we are wont to continue to live in them. For not only do the
positive memories our life and ancestors shape us, those memories that are less
than pleasant often force us to live in communion with the painful and
negative. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Memory is powerful
for it enables us to commune with the past, and then transform us into the
likeness we commune with. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Knowing this
truth, I must admit its power and look for ways to commune with a past that
will shape me into the likeness of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Not being wise
enough to be the doctor of my own soul, I must submit to something larger,
wiser, and older than me, proven to produce results in those who live in Her
memories. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The Church is this
giver of memory that can shape me into the likeness of Christ. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Sharing Her memories
through the events of Her year, and remembering the lives of Her members, who
were transformed within Her, brings a confidence that I too can be transformed
in the likeness of Her Head. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Imbibing Her
memory is not a trip of nostalgia remembering the good old days but a
participation in events that have become our own and bring us life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">We are shaped by
memory--whether good or bad. Yet in the life of the Church, we can choose
to adopt new memories that can make us whole and grant a new life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
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<br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-72156836070899528952012-06-18T06:34:00.000-04:002012-07-19T09:35:21.964-04:009 Ways to Stay Awake During Church: From Sleepy to Sober<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpC7Dv5pMZE1svL-owSI8C9TM-ZA2iWazf1JFffgCBFORVK_yxSGOYUI16MrcyXHGS26WdmX4Mlu-4KjA2bUzyiP6qkdGdI4dtMl8VrlspfXVUzjBJkwUvwFQ6X3YWU8Olgn3h/s1600/image001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpC7Dv5pMZE1svL-owSI8C9TM-ZA2iWazf1JFffgCBFORVK_yxSGOYUI16MrcyXHGS26WdmX4Mlu-4KjA2bUzyiP6qkdGdI4dtMl8VrlspfXVUzjBJkwUvwFQ6X3YWU8Olgn3h/s200/image001.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Below you will find a link to my latest post on OCN's Blog the Sounding. <br />
<br />
Originally, I put this together as a ten minute talk for our local youth group. They got to be my guinea pigs, and no one fell asleep during the talk so I took it as a good sign. <br />
<br />
<a href="http://blog.myocn.com/orthodoxy-basics/9-ways-to-stay-awake-during-church.html" target="_blank">9 Ways to Stay Awake During Church</a><br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-34057710838990705272012-06-14T15:46:00.002-04:002013-11-20T13:48:37.683-05:00Are We Creating a Present for a Positive Future?<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NnlStspXzcM/TxEuN6ZCnII/AAAAAAAABsE/jgbLnR9GmXM/s1600/Childhood_Memories_angelslover_com_26.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NnlStspXzcM/TxEuN6ZCnII/AAAAAAAABsE/jgbLnR9GmXM/s320/Childhood_Memories_angelslover_com_26.jpg" width="279" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Think back to childhood and dredge up some good memories.
For me, my best memories as a kid have nothing to do without getting
things. In fact, I can't remember many birthday or Christmas gifts, but I
do remember moments. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I remember being
in the front yard shooting cans out of the air with my dad. I remember
the mountain vacations with no TV to entertain, but being left to wander around
the cabin and explore with my parents. We bumped into old-timers with
crazy stories, panned for gold, and rafted in whitewater. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I rarely remember
a lecture or instructions the adults in my life gave (not that they were not
important), but I remember experiences: a Sunday School teacher taking
our class on a prison tour, a high school coach letting me hang at his house,
or my father shuffling me through plowed fields looking for Indian relics.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I am sure the
lectures and teaching shaped my soul, but it's the meaningful experiences that
let me slip back in time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Memory allows
us to commune with the past to shape us for the future.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This is incredibly
important if you have any influence with kids. If you are a parent,
grandparent, aunt, uncle, teacher, youth worker, etc., are you creating
memories? Will those memories help shape the future?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I won't stop
lecturing my kids, but I wonder if the experiences we have will create anchors
for their future life, constantly tugging their soul to the good and true and
beautiful no matter where their path leads. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>How can we be
intentional about creating lasting positive memories in the children we
influence?</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-72908817878815767512012-06-12T06:00:00.000-04:002012-06-12T06:00:12.372-04:00Journeys of Faith - A Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/151100000/151106407.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/151100000/151106407.JPG" width="214" /></a></div>
Recently I received a copy of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/031033120X/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=swointhefir-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=031033120X">Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=swointhefir-20&l=as2&o=1&a=031033120X" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />. It was written by Robert Plummer, a professor at Southern Seminary in Louisville.<br />
<br />
<i>Journeys </i>presents the stories of conversion from one segment of Christianity to another. These are not jumps between denominations, but leaps from the Protestant Evangelical world to Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism with one story in reverse of a cradle Catholic moving into Evangelicalism. <br />
<br />
The book was setup in a wonderful format. A person presented his story, then another would kindly refute the reasons given for leaving the former tradition, and the story conclude with a rebuttal on the part of the convert. <br />
<br />
The arguments were usually vigorous, but done in a spirit of love, so you didn't feel like you were on a religious O'Reilly show. <br />
<br />
As one who left Evangelicalism, I felt a kinship with most of the stories, but felt the refutations never got to the heart of the convert's dissatisfaction. The issue of authority and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sola_scriptura" target="_blank">Sola Scriptura</a> continued to crop up in each story, and the response never seemed quite adequate to address this issue. <br />
<br />
This was an enjoyable read, and humanized rather than demonized those who sincerely question their tradition in favor of another. <br />
<br />
While I don't think anyone will be swayed to one side or another, it does open a window to a world that believers in the Evangelical world never consider. <br />
<br />
Plummer did a great job, and provided a starting point for future dialogue, and gave a measure of common ground for all who hold to a robust Trinitarian faith.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-32176736119741993692012-05-31T06:00:00.000-04:002012-05-31T11:24:08.813-04:00Skewer Your Ideas With HumorDo you ever stumble into nostalgia that forces your face into an unexpected smile? The other day, I was rummaging through old files and uncovered old seminary publications. The finding filled me with a chuckle that grew as I scanned each word. <br />
<br />
Back in my seminary days, partly out of boredom, and partly our of contentionsness, myself and two other friends (who will remain nameless) created a fake newsletter patterned after the official Seminary publication--the Towers. We entitled ours the Faulty Towers. <br />
<br />
At most we only published 4 issues, and because of cost we didn't even print enough for all the students. We printed just enough to cause a stir and then effectively distributed them into the right hands to create controversy. We found a mole working inside the post office who would distribute them into the boxes of random students and select professors. <br />
<br />
The seminary had recently escaped a liberal phase via a conservative takeover, and was slowly embracing the theology of John Calvin. <br />
<br />
Not enamored with Calvin myself, I joined these two other kindred spirits to poke fun at the Calvin hysteria that 15 years later has become the dominant theological persuasion at the institution. <br />
<br />
(For my non-theological readers, Calvinism is an early Protestant reaction to another Protestant theology referred to as Arminianism. Calvinism essentially emphasizes the Sovereignty of God above all else, squeezing out much real freedom on the part of humanity.)<br />
<br />
In a brief window of time, a good bit of dialogue was created and serious discussions ensued, but I am don't think it had any lasting impact. However, it taught be a couple truths:<br />
<br />
1. It's ok to laugh at yourself and your ideas, if nothing else it keeps you humbles. <br />
2. Humor has a way of removing emotion from passionate controversies. <br />
3. Humor can be effective, if ideas not people are the target. <br />
<br />
I am sure there are other points that can be gleaned from this story. Today one of my favorite bloggers, who uses humor that pops the balloon of my pride is <a href="http://pithlessthoughts.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Pithless Thoughts</a>.<br />
<br />
Oh, and by the way, email me and I would be glad to send you those two long lost issues.<br />
<br />
Keep smiling. <br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25257799.post-42888345222953504832012-05-30T05:43:00.000-04:002013-11-20T13:48:23.703-05:004 Ways Memory Makes You a Better Person<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">This past weekend my sons and I joined our Boy Scout troop on a
trip to our local federal cemetery to install flags at the graves of all the
veterans. The ceremony surrounding our effort was short but sober
honoring the sacrifice of the men and women who in many cases gave their lives
for us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRhPM-CJXM715IeR11sdW39Lh5KK1Go99rOrAaSb6sng2b2iQBr" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRhPM-CJXM715IeR11sdW39Lh5KK1Go99rOrAaSb6sng2b2iQBr" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It was an
important event for my boys, if nothing else than to remind them that Memorial
Day is not merely the unofficial start to summer and the occasion for outdoor
grilling, but an important part of whom they are and will become. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">It is a time of
memory, a memory of those gone before whether they are military dead or
departed family. These people shaped our lives, and to forget is to cut
off their person from our own lives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Memory is a significant
part of humanity and has the ability to change us as we participate in
something bigger than ourselves. Here are four ways memory impact our
daily life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b>1. Memory is an essential component
of the image of God in our lives. </b>Humans are unique in that throughout time we
memorialize events and people. We set up
structures and monuments and create rituals and events to perpetuate what is
valuable beyond one generation.</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> <o:p></o:p><b> </b><b>2. Memory allows us to make present
past events. </b>An act of memory does not make past
reality again, or even bring it to our minds in a historical sense, but it
imparts the significance and meaning the past has for our lives. Through this memorial we re-enter the past
not playing the role of journalist, but experiencing the importance of the past
for our present. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Throughout Scripture, men initiated memorials and God Himself commanded
them as signposts of the work of God’s hand and light for future action. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b> </b><b>3. Our memory is a shadow of the
eternal memory of God. </b>Our existence and that of the whole world is held by the memory of
God. We only live because He holds us in
His eternal memory. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><b> </b><b>4. Memory lets us enter into
communion with those gone before us. </b>The love we hold for the living does not
stop when they depart, and when we recall their lives in our hearts we commune
with their lives. And as our mind’s eye
gazes upon their time here on earth, we can be changed into the goodness they
imparted to us. </span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
</blockquote>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Holidays such as Memorial Day are not antiquated relics but
provide us the ability to perpetuate what we value and to transform us into
better men. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">What role does memory play in your life?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
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<a href=https://plus.google.com/u/0/118238804164422497426?rel=author>Theron Mathis</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0