Posted on 06/16/2019 4:55:18 AM PDT by CharlesOConnell
In Captains Courageous, with Spencer Tracey, Freddy Batholomew is a blowhard millionaire's son who is socially, poorly adjusted. He uses his father's incredible wealth, to bully his classmates and even his teacher, but he's roundly disliked, and ostracized. While on an ocean liner, he unsuccessfully tries to impress some other boys by eating 5 ice cream sodas. When he has to throw up, to escape the mocking boys, he runs into a lifeboat area to evade their ridicule while purging his overindulgence, and manages to fall overboard into the ocean.
Instances of people falling overboard into the open ocean are rather commonly reported in the news. Usually they are lost, but if by chance their accidents are observed and a life-preserver is thrown to them, is that the end of the story, do we just say, "oh, well, you have a floatation device, you're okay now"?
No, we have to pull them in. The life-preserver, the lifesaver, is only part of the formula for saving their lives. There is also a rope, which must be attached to the life-preserver, and must be used to finally accomplish their salvation.
Jesus Christ is the one mediator between God and man. But on the man side of the equation, unlike the radical individuality most typified by J.J. Rousseau, we who life the life of Christians do so in communities. But even then, we do not abide as atomistic individualists. We live our Jesus-oriented life in relation to our fellows. "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." – Hebrews 10:25.
Jesus' first disciple was his mother, who gave us the total account of his early life and who "treasured these things up in her heart". "A sword will pierce your own soul too, so that the secret thoughts of many hearts might be revealed". On the cross, he gave his mother to John to take in his home, but when you take your master's mother, she takes care of you.
Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.
And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days. …
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with the flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river which the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus. - Rev 11:19 -- 12:17
She forms the body of Christ. She schools her son's disciples. Those who won't attend her school, remain ignorant.
We are in a time when any merely human institution would be washed away. Our churches are going under the shadow of a new Heresy of Ba'al of Peor, as when the Hebrew people were successfully attacked and overwhelmed through human sexuality. Our churches are now pro-gay and as soon as the civil authority authorizes child sex, they will be indistinguishable from the denizens of the town of Sodom: "Bring them out that we may know them".
Jesus' mother forms the few of the elect who will resist being fooled by the great apostasy. Those who will not avail themselves of the lifeline of Mary, will be lost.
There's the action; but what is the method?
No, thank YOU!
We all tend to get occasionally frustrated at this way of communicating and can get into cat fights if we do not watch out.
How you guys keep YOUR sanity, while trying to herd us, is beyond my understanding.
Good idea; since that would be kinda like mindreading; right?
So you probably shouldn't do it later; either.
We DO; however; have written accounts about what MANY Catholics think about Mary; so there is not much need for any PROT to use their imagination.
Most often they attribute WAY more power to her than is found anywhere in the Book Rome produced so long ago.
How DARE you 'believe' Jesus' words in John 6:28-29!
Next ya know you'll be following His command in Matthew 23:9!
Later has arrived...
The symbolism of this sterling silver bracelet indicates that the wearer has made the Total Consecration to Mary through the formula set forth by St. Louis Marie de Montfort in "True Devotion to Mary."
This beautiful sterling silver bracelet, symbolic of the chains of slavery, features a centerpiece of the the "M" representing Mary and the cross entwined in it represents the slogan "to Jesus through Mary."
You won't find this unique bracelet anywhere else! Made exclusively for the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
"It is very praiseworthy and helpful for those who have become slaves of Jesus in Mary to wear, in token of their slavery of love." – True Devotion to Mary
https://truedevotionals.com/sterling-silver-true-devotion-bracelet/
What a tangled web we weave...
Not sure that's possible.
Anything you add to the saving work of Christ on the cross is what you are depending on for salvation because you are saying that the work of Christ on the cross, suffering and dying and pouring out His blood for the atonement, itsn't enough.
Next ya know you'll be following His command in Matthew 23:9!
Yeah, I had a weak moment, and I actually believe the words of Jesus. I wish I could say it won’t happen again, but I can absolutely guarantee you it will. 😁 When I was a catholic, I called the priest, father. Like “bless me father, for I have sinned. It’s been 75 years since my last confession. Father, have you got about 8 hours, so I can list all my racy sins?” Now that I am an ex catholic, I don’t call any man father. 👍🤣😆🇵🇭
You, sir/madame have NAILED IT!
Is this thread not touting Mary as the rope to reel in sinners? Mary is fair game, the Mary of Catholiciism that is, not The Blessed Mother of Jesus.
“The Body of Christ is made up of ALL those born from above by the Holy SPirit, and the members can be found in many denominations, even Catholic churches....”
I believe that, too. And I’ve wondered lately if those who are born from above while remaining in the Catholic Church throughout their lives here are something like the nine of Jesus’ twelve disciples, who were close to Him and knew Him, but not nearly as close as Peter, James and John, or perhaps they were even more distant still, like the other unnamed disciples Jesus had. Many in those groups also fell away because they just didn’t really know the Lord, either. In any case, I believe that there are far more people who are very close to the Lord and experience knowing Him in evangelical Protestant churches than there are in the Roman Catholic church. Through the Bible the Lord reveals Himself to us and teaches us about Himself, and through meditating on His Living Word that life in His Word works in us. If we are drawn to Him, too, we’ll want to know Him better through His Word.
I (male) would rather NOT have made the observation at ALL. I was in many ways a lot happier in ignorance. I’ll say this much though... if a person cares to be honest “enough” with themselves and with The Father... they’ll get answers from Him that are true, if not quite unexpected. What I wrote in that previous posting isn’t something that’s easily or trivially perceived. In fact, most can’t or WON’T. But what does it say about the time we live in when an “apostate” entity is given the title of “The Church”? Things that make ya go, “Hmmmmmm!”
Dear brothers, I think we all know that.
Thank you for letting me know what's on your mind.
Mrs. Don-o, if you were to read to uninitiated children the descriptions of Mary by Catholics, they would describe her as a goddess. I can’t imagine and just don’t want to imagine addressing another creature as “our life, our sweetness and our hope.” And the next line says, “to THEE do we cry,” does it not? Not being worldly minded, as many Protestants are who convert to Catholicism (saying things such as that Catholicism has more respect for science), but being minded to follow Jesus and know and love Him ever more, it profoundly saddens and disturbs me to see how Catholics miss out on not knowing what it’s like to acknowledge all of God’s nature to be His alone. We make our choices and we can only know the experience of what we choose and “miss out” on what we don’t choose. When Catholics do things such as call Mary “our life, our sweetness and our hope,” it is one more way in that they miss out on attributing to God what’s His alone.
This is an example of Mary sounding like a goddess in many ways:
https://www.thedivinemercy.org/news/Our-Life-Our-Sweetness-and-Our-Hope-7870
This shows why children need careful instruction, so they do not carry this misunderstanding into adulthood.
I would start with three sets of poker chips stacked up in small, medium, and large stacks.
Then I would explain that some people might think that the honor accorded to good people (like your mother and father), compared to Mary, compared to God, corresponds to the small, medium, and large stacks.
I would then say "But that's wrong!"
Then I would combine all the stacks into one, and say that represents the honor accorded to all God's creatures (including your mom and dad); and the honor accorded to God is (here I would raise my hand up, up, up) is so high it would go through the ceiling and the roof, and up above the clouds, and then up to the moon (depending on how much the child knows about the dimensions of the Universe) and then so high nobody could reach it, because the honor of God is infinite.
An important vocabulary word: infinite.
So the honor we properly give to human persons ("honor to whom honor is due") cannot even be compared to God; because even the top person GOD told us to honor (as in "Honor thy Father and thy Mother") is way, way way below the honor we give to God Himself.
I might put one poker chip on top of the "human honor" stack and explain that for most little children, their mother is the top-honor person, but since Jesus' Mother is someone He greatly honored, let's put her on top.
Because God blessed her above all women. Even above Wonder Woman and Melania Trump.
Semiramis is fair game. 😁
In your ‘other religion’ the titles given to the Mary of your religion nullify your specious claim. It is not surprising that you are unable to ‘see’ that for spiritual things are discerned by the spirit, THE ALIVE spirit.
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