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August 20, 2015   Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church Reading 1 Jgs 11:29-39a The Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah.He passed through Gilead and Manasseh,and through Mizpah-Gilead as well,and from there he went on to the Ammonites.Jephthah made a vow to the LORD.“If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,” he said,“whoever comes out of the doors of my houseto meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonitesshall belong to the LORD.I shall offer him up as a burnt offering.” Jephthah then went on to the Ammonites to fight against them,and...

Jesus is becoming less and less a figure to whom people commit their lives. A Barna survey earlier this year found that while 65 percent of Boomers made a personal commitment to Jesus, only 46 percent of Millennials had. They are also 10 percent less likely to believe Jesus was divine, compared to Boomers. Jesus may be losing his luster in our culture of decreasing church attendance and religious beliefs. Still, I find there is a Jesus who everybody loves, the Jesus who modeled what it means to show compassion to the stranger, care for the widow, bind up the...

Daily Devotional For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. Philippians 1:21 Bible Reading Philippians 1:12–26 Devotional What does it mean to live? If you say, “I want to live,” or, “I don’t want to live anymore” what are you saying? When Paul states, “For to me to live is Christ” he is saying that life means Christ. Everything that he does is influenced by Christ and is done for Him. Christ gives direction, purpose and meaning to his existence. That is the way it should be for us, too! Paul views his life as totally...

In Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17, He says: “And now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was” (v. 5). Here Jesus alludes to a position He held before creation. It is a tacit claim to His participation in the eternal glory of God. In the fourth century, the church faced a serious crisis with respect to the deity of Christ. The Arian heretics denied the deity of Christ, claiming that Jesus was a creature who was adopted into a special relationship with God. In their controversy with...

Just a brief note to inform you that I have been blocked from Facebook. They claim that Msgr. Charles Pope is not my real name and are requiring me to submit government ID proving that Msgr. Charles Pope is my true identity. As of now, I have no intention of doing this since I consider it an unreasonable demand by them. They further indicate that even if I supply the IDs from at least two sources, that they reserve the right not to reactivate my account if the name I have used does not meet their preferences. They explain the...

In light of the recent videos exposing Planned Parenthood’s trafficking of the organs and tissues of preborn babies, the Lepanto Institute interviewed former satanic High Wizard, Zachary King. Zachary was an average boy from an American neighborhood who grew up in a Baptist home. He began practicing magick at 10, joined a satanic coven at 13, and had broken all 10 Commandments by the time he was 15 years old. From his teen years to adulthood he worked his way up to High Wizard in the coven and actively pushed satan’s agenda including ritualistic abortions. Zachary is currently writing about...

“‘Thine is the dominion, O Lord, and Thou dost exalt Thyself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from Thee, and Thou dost rule over all’” (1 Chronicles 29:11-12). Trust God, who controls everyone and everything. In Daniel 6, King Darius chose 120 princes to help him govern his kingdom. Over the princes he appointed three presidents, with Daniel being the first president. The princes and other two presidents were jealous of Daniel, so they devised a scheme against him. They told the king that he should make a law requiring every person to make his requests only...

"[Love] does not seek its own" (1 Cor. 13:5). Love transforms selfish people into self-sacrificing people. From the time of Adam and Eve, replacing God with self has been at the root of all sin. Our first parents had only one restriction: "From the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die" (Gen. 2:17). But Eve believed the serpent's lie that God was trying to keep her from realizing her full potential (Gen. 3:5). She ate the forbidden fruit, gave some to Adam,...

A massive gate unearthed in Israel may have marked the entrance to a biblical city that, at its heyday, was the biggest metropolis in the region. The town, called Gath, was occupied until the ninth century B.C. In biblical accounts, the Philistines — the mortal enemies of the Israelites — ruled the city. The Old Testament also describes Gath as the home of Goliath, the giant warrior whom the Israelite King David felled with a slingshot. The new findings reveal just how impressive the ancient Philistine city once was, said lead archaeologist of the current excavation, Aren Maeir, of Bar-Ilan...

August 19, 2015   Wednesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jgs 9:6-15 All the citizens of Shechem and all Beth-millo came togetherand proceeded to make Abimelech kingby the terebinth at the memorial pillar in Shechem. When this was reported to him,Jotham went to the top of Mount Gerizim and, standing there,cried out to them in a loud voice:“Hear me, citizens of Shechem, that God may then hear you!Once the trees went to anoint a king over themselves.So they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us.’But the olive tree answered them, ‘Must I give up...

But the independent senator from Vermont , who is vying to be the Democratic party’s 2016 presidential nominee, has been booked to speak there next month at a university convocation. “It goes without saying that my views on many issues -- women’s rights, gay rights, education and many other issues -- are very different from the opinions of some in the Liberty University community,” Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who is Jewish, said Wednesday night, in comments relayed by a spokesman. But Sanders said he would like to see if “we can reach consensus regarding the grotesque level of income...

Is the ability to read Greek necessary to understanding the Bible? Or is access to Greek scholarship necessary for avoiding the pitfalls of the translations from men? No doubt reading Chekov or Baudelaire or Julius Caesar in their original tongues adds a richness otherwise missed. And understanding the "Hebraisms" and Hebrew poetic devices found in the Scriptures enhance our enjoyment. As the saying goes, there's often something lost in the translation. But what is it? Can TRUTH be lost in the translation of the Scriptures? God did not leave us at the mercy of Greek scholars and "experts" for our...

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains, the world, and those who dwell in it” (Psalm 24:1). God owns everyone and everything. One day when John Wesley was away from home, someone came running to him, saying, “Your house has burned down! Your house has burned down!” Wesley replied, “No, it hasn’t, because I don’t own a house. The one I have been living in belongs to the Lord, and if it has burned down, that is one less responsibility for me to worry about.” John Wesley viewed his material possessions from a biblical perspective, for Scripture makes...

"[Love] does not act unbecomingly" (1 Cor. 13:5). Considerate behavior demonstrates godly love and adds credibility to your witness. When I was a young child, I loved to slurp my soup. I didn't see any harm in it even though my parents constantly objected. Then one evening I ate with someone who slurped his soup. He was having a great time but I didn't enjoy my meal very much. Then I realized that proper table manners are one way of showing consideration for others. It says, "I care about you and don't want to do anything that might disrupt your...

“For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death” (vv. 35–36). - Proverbs 8:22–36 Lady Wisdom’s call in Proverbs 8 for all who are listening to heed her instruction has inspired generations of Christians to reflect on the wise sayings of the book of Proverbs and apply them diligently to their lives. The text has also been at the center of some of the most important theological debates in church history. First Corinthians 1:30 tells us that Christ Jesus is our “wisdom...

August 18, 2015   Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 Jgs 6:11-24a The angel of the LORD came and sat under the terebinth in Ophrahthat belonged to Joash the Abiezrite.While his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine pressto save it from the Midianites,the angel of the LORD appeared to him and said,“The LORD is with you, O champion!”Gideon said to him, “My Lord, if the LORD is with us,why has all this happened to us?Where are his wondrous deeds of which our fatherstold us when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring...

DALLAS (Christian Examiner) – Conservative black commentator and pastor Jesse Lee Peterson believes T.D. Jakes, pastor of the Dallas-based Potter's House, is a "blind, cowardly man misleading many thousands of lost people." Peterson made the claim in an editorial at World Net Daily Aug. 16, two weeks after Jakes was interviewed by the Huffington Post and asked if he believed the black church and the LGBT community could "coexist." Jakes said he believes they can."Absolutely .... I think it is going to be diverse from church to church. Every church has a different opinion on the issue and every gay person...

“Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver” (vv. 18–19). - Proverbs 8:12–21 How valuable are the lessons that Lady Wisdom can teach to her subjects? No one (except the Lord), Lady Wisdom tells us, can calculate the value of what she reveals. Far more valuable than silver, choice gold, or jewels, no inheritance can be greater than divine wisdom (Prov. 8:10–11, 19). In fact, pursuing Lady Wisdom is the only way to be sure of receiving an inheritance. Those who love her...

O Lord our Lord, there is none like Thee in heaven above or in the earth beneath. Thine is the greatness and the dignity and the majesty. All that is in the heaven and the earth is Thine; Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, O God, and Thou art exalted as head over all. Amen. When we speak of God as transcendent we mean of course that He is exalted far above the created universe, so far above that human thought cannot imagine it. To think accurately about this, however, we must keep in mind...

IT IS VITAL TO ANY UNDERSTANDING of ourselves and our fellowmen that we believe what is written in the Scriptures about human society, that it is fallen, alienated from God and in rebellion against His laws. In these days of togetherness when all men would brothers be for a' that, even the true Christian is hard put to it to believe what God has spoken about men and their relation to each other and to God; for what He has spoken is never complimentary to men. There is plenty of good news in the Bible, but there is never any...