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  M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E Have You Been Born Again?By Brent L. TopAt a large gathering of Latter-day Saints several years ago, something was said to me by one of the guests that both surprised and troubled me.  The speaker was addressing the important doctrinal topic of salvation by grace and spiritual rebirth--being "born again." After the talk was completed, one of the people in attendance approached me with this question, "We don't believe that stuff, do we?"The "we" in his question meant Latter-day Saints, and the "that stuff"...

A group of people claiming to be the heirs of the legendary Knights Templar are suing Pope Benedict XVI, seeking more than $150 billion for assets seized by the Catholic Church seven centuries ago. They also want to restore the order's good name. Founded in 1119, the Knights Templar was a secretive order of Christian warriors who protected pilgrims on their way to Jerusalem during the Crusades. They fell out of favor years later, and members were accused of denying Christ, worshipping the devil and practicing sodomy. Many Templars were tortured and burned at the stake. In 1307, Pope Clement...

You know it is time to leave the Catholic Church when…“Mass doesn’t inspire you.�  Over the course of the past few years I’ve become keenly aware of friends and family who have opted to leave the Catholic Church on the grounds that the Mass wasn’t “inspiring.�  Upon hearing this, again, just a few days ago I felt prompted to make that the top reason why people ought to leave the Catholic Church.  After all, Mass should be inspiring and uplifting and if you, as a congregant, can’t be inspired by the rich history of the Mass and the fullness of...

The Birth of the Virgin Mary - Esteban Murillo (Louvre, Paris)   Thy birth, O Virgin Mother of God, heralded joy to all the world. For from thou hast risen the Sun of justice, Christ our God. Destroying the curse, He gave blessing; and damning death, He bestowed on us life everlasting. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. For from thou hast risen of Sun of justice, Christ our God. ­ from The Divine Office - Matins (Morning Prayer)The Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary has been celebrated in...

Fountains of Blessings " The water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life " —John 4:14 The picture our Lord described here is not that of a simple stream of water, but an overflowing fountain. Continue to "be filled" ( Ephesians 5:18 ) and the sweetness of your vital relationship to Jesus will flow as generously out of you as it has been given to you. If you find that His life is not springing up as it should, you are to blame— something is obstructing the flow. Was Jesus...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - September 7 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay." - Mark 2:4 Faith is full of inventions. The house was full, a crowd blocked up the door, but faith found a way of getting at the Lord and placing the palsied man before him. If we cannot get sinners where Jesus is by ordinary methods we must use extraordinary ones. It...

Is prayer to saints / Mary Biblical?" The issue of Catholics praying to saints is one that is full of confusion. It is the official position of the Roman Catholic Church that Catholics do not pray TO saints or Mary, but rather that Catholics can ask saints or Mary to pray FOR them. The official position of the Roman Catholic Church is that asking saints for their prayers is no different than asking someone here on earth to pray for you. However, the practice of many Catholics diverges from official Roman Catholic teaching. Many Catholics do in fact pray directly...

September 7, 2008                               Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time         Reading 1Responsorial PsalmReading 2Gospel Reading 1Ez 33:7-9 Thus says the LORD:You, son of man, I have appointed watchman for the house of Israel;when you hear me say anything, you shall warn them for me.If I tell the wicked, “O wicked one, you shall surely die, ”and you do not speak out to dissuade the wicked from his way,the wicked shall die for his guilt,but I will hold you responsible for his death.But if you warn the wicked,trying to turn him from...

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - <'If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross and follow me. Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it. What, then, will anyone gain by winning the whole world and forfeiting his life?> (Mt 16, 24). The Lord Jesus never forces anyone to follow Him and so he says: “If anyone…”. But for those who do heed his call, he sets precise conditions of which the finality is to reach the...

In recent days, Black Liberation Theology has risen to the forefront of our national debate. With the publicity surrounding Barack Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and the inflammatory rhetoric with which he speaks, many have come to question the basis for the beliefs of this system.

Monday and Thrsday mornings, 9/8 and 11Kohen--Deuteronomy 21:10-14Levi--vs. 15-17Yisra'el--vs. 18-21 Strday 9/13--Shabbat Parashat Ki-Tetze'MORNING Kohen--Deuteronomy 21:10-21Levi--21:22-22:7Shelishi--22:8-23:7Revi`i--23:8-24Chamishi--23:25-24:4Shishi--24:5-13Shevi`i--24:14-25:19Maftir--25:17-19Haftarah--Isaiah 54:1-10 EVENING Kohen--Deuteronomy 26:1-3Levi--vs. 4-11Yisra'el--vs. 12-15

"...The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." James 5:16 Is it all just a coincidence that Sarah Palin was picked for VP? Was it nothing but a smart political move? Or did God intervene in the mind of a man?All across the nation Christians are beginning to wake up and press in with prayer and fasting. Sept 28 to Oct 4 is a week set aside to pray and fast for our nation! Please consider joining with us that week for revival in America and the future of our nation!John Hancock: • “In circumstances as dark as...

ISSUE: Catholic Bibles contain seven more Old Testament (46) books than Protestant Bibles (39). Catholics refer to these seven books as the “deuterocanon”[1] (second canon), while Protestants refer to them as “apocrypha,” a term used pejoratively to describe non-canonical books. Protestants also have shorter versions of Daniel and Esther. Why are there differences?RESPONSE: Catholic Bibles contain all the books that have been traditionally accepted by Christians since Jesus’ time. Protestant Bibles contain all those books, except those rejected by the Protestant Reformers in the 1500’s. The chief reason Protestants rejected these biblical books was because they did not support Protestant...

From the Bishop of the Diocese of Baker, Oregon, in the most recent issue (Sept. 5, 2008) of The Catholic Sentinel: I certainly commend the public official for going to Saint Augustine, a great theologian and philosopher, for views on morality but Augustine’s views need to be read and adopted in context. It is highly disingenuous, deceptive and intellectually dishonest to take this ecclesial sound bite from 1,500 years ago and treat it as if it is the last definitive word on the subject. This is particularly true since Augustine himself “vigorously condemned the practice of induced abortion” despite the...

  5 For behold, if the knowledge of the goodness of God at this time has awakened you to a sense of your nothingness, and your worthless and fallen state—   6 I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping...

Full disclosure: I was raised Presbyterian, attended both Methodist and Episcopalian seminaries where I took Theology from both an Anglican and a Roman Catholic, OT exegetics from a Hebrew scholar, NT from an ancient Greek professor, and ethics from a Mennonite; served as an ordained minister in both “high” and “low” Episcopal parishes for almost a decade; married a Church of God pastor and two years ago was received into the Orthodox Church. If one can dine from the smorgasbord of Christianity, I certainly have eaten my fill. My choice of the Orthodox Church was a very thoughtful, deliberate one;...

Archbishop Chaput’s book makes NYT Best Seller List, beats Biden’s book New York, Sep 5, 2008 / 05:38 pm (CNA).- Just three weeks into the publication of “Render Unto Caesar,” Archbishop Charles Chaput’s new book has made the New York Times Best Seller list. The archbishop’s book is currently one place ahead of “Promises to Keep,” written by Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden. “Render Unto Caesar” is currently number 27 on the New York Times Nonfiction Best Sellers List for the week of September 14, outpacing Sen. Biden’s book by one spot. During the week of August 29,...

Choices are what send people to hell Saturday, September 6, 2008 As an ardent Roman Catholic, I am disappointed by the fact that 41 percent of the 35,000 respondents in the recent survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life do not believe in hell. I am even more disappointed, however, by the fact that the Religion News Service's article on this question, printed in the Aug. 29 Faith & Values section, "For Americans, belief in hell both ebbing, changing," relied exclusively on Dominican Sister Carmella Conway for the Catholic theological teaching on hell. While Sister Conway is...

OUR ADVERSARY - THE DEVIL By Father Paul A. Duffner, O.P. On Nov. 15, 1972 Pope Paul Vl began his general audience with these words: "What are the church’s greatest needs at the present time? Don’t be surprised at our answer, and don’t write it off as simplistic or even superstitious: one of the Church’s greatest needs is to be defended against the evil we call the devil." THE KINGDOM OF SATAN We recall from the book of Genesis that when God created the various things that He brought into being (e.g. the light, the waters and dry land, the...

Re: The Name (HaShem) יהוה and the name David דוד A closer look at the letter Hei... Design The fifth letter of the alef-beis is the hei. The Maharal1 tells us that the design of the hei is comprised of a dalet and a yud. The dalet is composed of one horizontal line (signifying width) and another that is vertical (signifying height), which together represent the physical world, the world of materialism. The yud (the detached left leg) represents G-d, and thus spirituality. The Maharal teaches us that just as the dalet and the yud come together to form the hei, so, too, one has an...

Marriage should be protected as a relationship between a man and a woman, affirm Jewish and Catholic leaders. Rabbis and bishops joined in affirming their common beliefs regarding marriage in a joint statement titled "Created in the Divine Image." The statement was signed by Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld of Young Israel Synagogue in Kew Gardens Hills, New York, and Bishop William Murphy of Rockville Centre, with other Catholic and Jewish leaders The bishops and rabbis affirm "our shared commitment to the ordinance of God, the Almighty One, who created man and woman in the divine image so that they might share...

The Missionaries of Charity are again in the crosshairs of the fundamentalists: yesterday, September 5 - the anniversary of the death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta - four sisters of Mother Teresa were attacked by about 20 Bajrang Dal activists at the Durgh train station in Chhattisgarh, a state in central India. The Hindu radicals forced them off the train, and then handed them over to police officers while chanting anti-Christian slogans. The Hindu fundamentalists accused the sisters - Sr Mamta, the mother superior, Sr Ignacio, Sr Josephina, and Sr Laborius - of the "kidnapping and forced conversion" of four...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - September 6 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "In the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." - Philippians 2:15 We use lights to make manifest. A Christian man should so shine in his life, that a person could not live with him a week without knowing the gospel. His conversation should be such that all who are about him should clearly perceive whose he is, and whom he serves; and should see the image of Jesus reflected in his daily actions. Lights are intended for guidance. We are...

Father Ranjit Tigga has spent most of his life as a Jesuit missionary in rural India working with poor tribal villagers near the state of Orissa, southeast of Calcutta near the Bay of Bengal. Father Francis Ezhakunnel, another Jesuit missionary, was the director of a leprosy center in the state of Jharkhand, just north of Orissa. And Father Nicolas Santos teaches college in western India. All three Indian priests are now at Marquette University studying for advanced degrees in business administration and communications, so they can return to India and aid in the advancement of those they serve. Although immersed...

The Far-Reaching Rivers of Life " He who believes in Me . . . out of his heart will flow rivers of living water " —John 7:38 A river reaches places which its source never knows. And Jesus said that, if we have received His fullness, "rivers of living water" will flow out of us, reaching in blessing even "to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8 ) regardless of how small the visible effects of our lives may appear to be. We have nothing to do with the outflow— "This is the work of God, that you believe. ....

The Unambiguous Teaching of our Lord that Regeneration Precedes Faith According to Scripture, all people are born dead in sin (Eph 2:1). This simply means that, as a result of the Fall, people are born without the Holy Spirit and therefore, (left to themselves) are hostile to Christ and unable to understand to spiritual things (1 Cor 1:21). It does not mean they can do (or think) nothing in their state of common grace, but it means they can do nothing spiritual or redemptive ... that they will always think God's word is foolish (1 Cor 2:14) until the...

September 6, 2008                                            Saturday of the Twenty-second Week                                         in Ordinary Time       Reading 1Responsorial PsalmGospel Reading 11 Cor 4:6b-15 Brothers and sisters:Learn from myself and Apollos not to go beyond what is written,so that none of you will be inflated with pridein favor of one person over against another.Who confers distinction upon you?What do you possess that you have not received?But if you have received it,why are you boasting as if you did not receive it?You are already satisfied; you have already grown rich;you have become kings without...

Jose Juarez is a shaman, a Mesoamerican healer from a village in Mexico. He owns a botanica, called New Age Store Leecatzin, in Clifton's Botany Village. In the background an Aztec drawing represents life, strength and prosperity, with a reminder to rem A shaman helps clients with a variety of problemsAlbert Ponce had a broken spirit. Life for the 25-year-old Clifton resident had recently hit a bumpy patch. He couldn't land a job working in an office. He didn't want to settle for a retail job, or working in a factory; he wanted to make use of his business...

Organic Church. I’ve been using this term for around fifteen years now. Today it’s become somewhat of a clay word, being molded and shaped to mean a variety of different things by a variety of different people. T. Austin-Sparks is the man who deserves credit for this term. Here’s his definition: "God's way and law of fullness is that of organic life. In the divine order, life produces it's own organism, whether it be a vegetable, animal, human or spiritual. This means that everything comes from the inside . . . function, order and fruit issue forth from this...

The strawberry: luscious, red, juicy — and now forbidden fruit in some of North Jersey’s Jewish communities. Some rabbis have issued edicts classifying the fruit on market shelves as unclean and therefore in violation of Jewish dietary law. The culprit: small bugs called thrips and aphids attracted to strawberries and a variety of vegetables. The controversy, which began with local edicts that have affected Jewish enclaves in the cities of Passaic, Teaneck and Lakewood, has ripened into lively discussion worldwide in cyberspace. It’s also produced a lively debate about the limits of kosher law governing fresh produce. Despite assurances from...

 M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E Lesson 16“Ye Shall Be Called the Children of Christ”Mosiah 4-6By Maurine Jensen ProctorChildren of ChristBefore his death, King Benjamin hoped to help his people make a covenant to become the children of Christ. He said: And now because of the covenant which ye have made ye shall be called the children of Christ, his sons, and his daughters; for behold, this day he hath spiritually begotten you; for ye say that your hearts are changed through faith on his name; therefore, ye are born of...

Liberals and the media seem baffled. They especially don’t know what to make of the reaction by conservative, and more specifically evangelical, Christians to the news that the 17-year-old daughter of the Republican vice presidential nominee is pregnant out of wedlock. The left-wing bloggers who peddled cruel and unwarranted rumors about Palin and her daughter undoubtedly hoped that accusations of a sex scandal and cover-up would destroy her political career. They succeeded only in forcing immediate revelation of a simpler truth -- that Bristol Palin, 17, is five months pregnant, and intends to keep the child and marry the father....

2 Corinthians 4:16-17 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,

The book is: Author: Chaput, Charles J. (OFMcap -- Archbishop of Denver)Title: Render Unto Caesar: Serving the Nation by Living our Catholic Beliefs in Political LifeISBN: 0385522282 I was killing time in my public library, and I thought I would see if there were any books by Charles J. Chaput. I was pleasantly surprised to see the book has been ordered by my Public Library, and there are already two requests for the book. The liberals have gotten, in my opinion, a lot of junk in our libraries by various tactics. I honestly think every public library, as well as...

Many are wondering what the next seven years (2008-2015) will hold. Are we looking at Daniel's seventieth week? Will the Tribulation Period be unleashed upon the world? Israel has expressed concern over Iran's nuclear program, saying that if something isn't done about it, Iran will be able to field a nuclear weapon by January 2009. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was outraged over the United States sending a top level negotiator to meet with Iranian representatives after President Bush assured him that we would not do that. Olmert is resigning as Israel's prime minister, effective as of the middle...

Old is New: Cedar church offers weekly Latin Mass BY GRETCHEN MURRAY Local Columnist Everything old is new again. That's particularly true for Roman Catholics who, once again, can attend weekly Mass in its original Latin form. Last year's decision by Pope Benedict XVI to restore the 16th Century Tridentine Mass has evolved into one of the worship opportunities the Diocese of Gaylord has offered since May 11. A weekly Latin Mass is celebrated at 12:45 p.m. Sundays at Holy Rosary Church in Cedar. The Latin Mass, which the Catholic Church refers to as the extraordinary form of the Mass,...

ZE08090404 - 2008-09-04 Oxford Professor Responds to Media Rumors LONDON, SEPT. 4, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Here is an article by Ian Ker, an Oxford University professor, regarding rumors circulating in the British press about Cardinal John Henry Newman. The article by the Newman scholar appeared Sept. 3 in L'Osservatore Romano. * * * The exhumation of Venerable John Henry Newman's body from his grave has led to calls in particular from the homosexual lobby that he should not be separated from his great friend and collaborator Father Ambrose St. John, in whose grave Newman is buried in accordance with his own...

One of the statements that surprised me the most at the Purpose Driven Community Gathering was when Rick Warren said that he believed that “Repentance was the central message of the New Testament”. Even more shocking was hearing Warren claim that the primary goal of all of his sermons was ‘repentance’. Up until I heard Warren say these words I believed that Warren’s sermons were completely devoid of repentance. The reason why I believed that is because in all the sermons I have heard Warren preach (I listen to them all), I couldn’t recall as single time where I had...

Rome, Sep 5, 2008 / 01:34 am (CNA).- An Italian priest has been ordered to pay more than eighty thousand dollars to a woman living near his church because she claims the bells were rung too loud and too long at “unsocial hours.”The judgment was handed down by a court in the town of Chiavari after retired university teacher Flora Leuzzi and others claimed the ringing of church bells created a form of noise pollution, the Guardian reports.Professor Leuzzi lives close to the Carmine church in Lavagna, which is near Genoa. She first voiced complaints about the bell ringing...

Vatican City, Sep 5, 2008 / 09:50 am (CNA).- This morning the Office of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff published a list of celebrations that Pope Benedict will preside over through the month of November.Among the notable celebrations are: the visit to Lourdes for the 150th anniversary of the apparitions there, the opening of the Synod of Bishops on the Bible, and the canonization of four blesseds.The full schedule is as follows: SEPTEMBER Sunday 7: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Pastoral visit to Cagliari, Italy. Friday 12 - Monday 15: Pastoral visit to France for the occasion of the...

Anabaptist Gk. ana “again, twice” + baptizo “baptize”, “re-baptizers” A term derived from the Greek word for “re-baptizer,” and used to refer to those groups associated with the so-called Radical Reformation of the sixteenth-century. The Anabaptists were labeled in association to their belief in believers’ baptism, but this practice has deeper roots in their general rejection of tradition all-together. Groups associated with the Anabaptist movement include Amish, Hutterites, Mennonites, Church of the Brethren, and Brethren in Christ. Early leaders of the movement include Menno Simons, Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and Müntzer. Because of their rejection of infant baptism...

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)--Four hundred goats descended on the verdant hillsides of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in July, cutting the grass as well as the seminary's costs for landscaping staff. "We save approximately $5,000 in labor and materials by contracting with Goats-R-Us," said Robert Dvorak, the seminary's facilities management director. Additional potential costs if Golden Gate staff did this work are possible injuries from attempting to use mowers and weed whackers on the steep terrain or potential poison oak infections, both of which could incur medical treatment and loss of work time. The goats, which were stationed for three...

Spiritual journey of a soul Initially the Lord attracts the devotee through miracles and creates belief and devotion in the mind of a human being. Thus the human being is converted into devotee. Thus from the stage of human being the soul carries on the journey to the stage of a devotee. This journey is taking place due to the effort of the Lord only. This is called as the “Marjala Kisora Nyaya”, which means the mother cat carrying on its off spring by catching it with her mouth. The effort of the human being is nil in this case....

Revival: The Arrow of Infinite Desire Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. -Matthew 5:6 These words are addressed to those of God's children who have been pierced with the arrow of infinite desire, who yearn for God with a yearning that has overcome them, who long with a longing that has become pain. "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled."... A dead body feels no hunger and the dead soul knows not the pangs of holy desire. "If you want God," said the old saint,...

  5 For behold, the time cometh, and is not far distant, that with power, the Lord Omnipotent who reigneth, who was, and is from all eternity to all eternity, shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.   6 And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which dwell...

Too Hard or Too Small by Henry Morris, Ph.D.   "Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee." (Jeremiah 32:17)This mighty declaration of faith in the Creator of heaven and earth was given by Jeremiah in respect to a mundane sort of need--the need of assurance that his real estate investment would be safe, even if he were forced to be away from it for many years. There is nothing too small for the Lord, just as there is...

Show me a person who cannot distinguish cleverness from wisdom or a good brain from a good heart, and I will show you somebody who is a fool.These words to live by returned to mind a few weeks back when I read a complaint piece on Apocalypto by a scholar specializing in Mayan civilization. She protested: “They’re shown as these extremely barbaric people, when in fact, the Maya were a very sophisticated culture.”A quote like this can only mean that somewhere in higher education impressionable minds are being formed by somebody who knows all about the Mayans — and nothing...

THE SEVENTY WEEKS BY THE REV. DR. E. BULLINGER (At the Glasgow Conference, June, 1894.) This is one of the Scriptures written a foretime for our learning. It is a part of the "more sure word of prophecy." It is commonly said today that prophecy is a dark place, and that you will do well to avoid it. But the Holy Spirit says that this world is a dark place, and that the "sure word of prophecy" is the only light in it, "and you'd do well to take heed unto it." This prophecy of the seventy weeks is the...

Spurgeon's Morning & Evening - September 5 -------------------------------- Morning Devotional "Woe is me, that I sojourn in Mesech, that I dwell in the tents of Kedar." - Psalm 120:5 As a Christian you have to live in the midst of an ungodly world, and it is of little use for you to cry "Woe is me." Jesus did not pray that you should be taken out of the world, and what he did not pray for, you need not desire. Better far in the Lord's strength to meet the difficulty, and glorify him in it. The enemy is ever on...

Clothed in Righteousness Today's Scripture “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10). Today's Word from Joel and Victoria Have you thought much about what you are wearing today? You probably took time this morning to select the right clothes and shoes in the natural, but have you thought about what are you wearing spiritually and emotionally? Just like wearing a coat, we can take off wrong attitudes, emotional heaviness, guilt and...