JimR-OCDS

Mother earth, brother sun, sister moon, are nothing more than figure's of speech. St. Francis of Assisi used them. It is from a deep love for God, which inspired such words. Seeing God in everything created and knowing that we creatures are part of that creation, is what Francis understood. It is said that he once picked up a handful of dirt in his hand and stated, " I can feel the pulse of God, in this." Being united to God, unite's us to everything that God is and God is love. I guess it's much the same as when your child gives you a drawing that they've done. When you look at the drawing, you feel the love of the and love for the child. So, when you look at God's creation, you feel the love of God and love for God. For those who love God, I don't see how you could miss such a thing? God can not be grasped, except through love.

Did it really take the report on Dateline, to convince you about Benny Hinn?

Also, Jesus said, "the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." As Christians, we observe the "Lord's Day," Sunday, because this is the day, Jesus rose and gave us eternal life.

My morning and evening prayers consist of the Psalms, which are part of the "Liturgy of the Hours," also known as the "Divine Office." There is a four week cycle where all 150 psalms are said. In the old monastic days, all 150 were said daily, and each monk memorized them all and the community would sing the psalms in chant, which many know as Gregorian Chant. Anyone wishing to deepen their spiritual life, can't go wrong by using the Psalms. Awesome stuff!

Again, Baptism is only 1/3 of the affirmation of faith. 2nd is laying on of hands,(confirmation) 3rd, reception of the body and blood of Jesus in Holy Communion. An infant that is baptised, is done so, out of the faith of the parents, who promise to raise and instruct the child in the faith. This promise is taken so seriously, that godparents are appointed to do the task, should something happen where the parents can not raise the child in the faith. Even though the child is baptised, he/she will confirm their faith when they reach the age of reason, and receive Confirmation, i.e. laying on of hands. They will also receive Holy Communion. This is the way it was done since the first century Christians. The sacrament of confirmation is found in Bible passages such as Acts 8:14

This is the best description of the difference between lust, and God-given sex drive I have ever seen, but there is still one problem. Even though this is exactly right, we, being fallen, and so easily turning to our sinful ways, deceive ourselves into thinking we are in love, into thinking somehow the other person wants us too, and we aren't violating them in any way. I am a single 24 year old. I know what I'm saying, because this is a huge struggle for me in finding "miss right". Everytime I meet a woman about my age, I go through the "I think I'm in love" thing, and it is really just lust. What's worse, once I get in the flesh, I am as weak as a kitten in all respects, so just compounds and gets worse and worse. Sometimes the Lord has to hit me over the head to get me back to my senses. It kills me because I don't want to be like that, but I trust God to change me by the Blood of Jesus. Well, He will too, and just at the right time. LOL. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You will never get over the sexual attraction towards women. It is rooted in our biological make-up and not possible to eradicate. Lust however, goes beyond that desire and is only sinful, when you become conscience of it and willfully refuse to end it. A piece of advice given to me years ago was, "you are allowed to look at an attractive female, other than your wife, for no more than 30 seconds."

Well I have never watched Desperate Housewives, because I knew the content and it didn't attract me. That does not make me free from sin however. I like to watch "Survivor," which purpose is to out-lie and backstab your opponents, in order to win a million dollars. I'm also addicted to "Lost." Which so far, has been harmless in the morality thing. Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. I cut way back on tv during this time, and even try to cut out the news. I try to get totally focused on my prayer life and relationship with Jesus.

Being attracted to the opposite sex is a natural part of our biological make up. Especially for men who are easily visually stimulated by the female anatomy. However, Jesus warned about lust, and that a man who looks at a women with lust in his heart, has already committed adultery with her. His intention was not getting into details, of whether the man or woman are married and thereby technically committing adultery. Jesus was addressing what is in the heart. If you lust after another person, regardless if she is married or if you are married, it is a sin. Now, you have to understand the difference between sexual attraction and lust. Sexual attraction is the natural biological desire that God instilled in us, in order that we would pro-create. Even if you are married, these urges, do not go away. Lust on the other hand, is something far different. Lust is the extension of the ego, onto the other person. It is the willful desire, to have sex with the other person, for nothing other than pleasure of the self. It has no regard for the dignity of the other person, or what the other person's well-being. It is a purely self-centered desire. It is absent of love. So, it doesn't matte if you're married or not, nor if the other person is married or not. To lust for them, is sinful.

Early Christians received "three" sacraments, when coming into the Church. First was Baptism, second was laying on of hands, known as Confirmation, and third was receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus, in the Eucharist. Infants were Baptised from the very first Christians on, as shown in the Bible. "She was baptized, with her household" (Acts 16:15). he was baptized, with all his family" (Acts 16:33). And in his greetings to the Corinthians, Paul recalled that, "I did baptize also the household of Stephanas" (1 Cor. 1:16). Furthermore, Paul notes that baptism has replaced circumcision (Col. 2:11

Actually, that's not true at all, considering the fact that the New Advent (.org) website (under "Justfication") tells its readers that Catholic and Protestant teachings on justification differ greatly. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> The New Advent website Encyclopedia is old and has not been updated. The Roman Catholic CHurch and Lutheran Church came to an agreement on the doctrine of "Justification of Faith," about 7 years ago and it was the Lutheran's who moved towards agreement with Rome.

St. Valentine At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city. In William of Malmesbury's time what was known to the ancients as the Flaminian Gate of Rome and is now the Porta del Popolo, was called the Gate of St. Valentine. The name seems to have been taken from a small church dedicated to the saint which was in the immediate neighborhood. Of both these St. Valentines some sort of Acta are preserved but they are of relatively late date and of no historical value. Of the third Saint Valentine, who suffered in Africa with a number of companions, nothing further is known. Saint Valentine's Day The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read: For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate. For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the practice. Perhaps the earliest to be found is in the 34th and 35th Ballades of the bilingual poet, John Gower, written in French; but Lydgate and Clauvowe supply other examples. Those who chose each other under these circumstances seem to have been called by each other their Valentines. In the Paston Letters, Dame Elizabeth Brews writes thus about a match she hopes to make for her daughter (we modernize the spelling), addressing the favoured suitor: And, cousin mine, upon Monday is Saint Valentine's Day and every bird chooses himself a mate, and if it like you to come on Thursday night, and make provision that you may abide till then, I trust to God that ye shall speak to my husband and I shall pray that we may bring the matter to a conclusion. Shortly after the young lady herself wrote a letter to the same man addressing it "Unto my rightwell beloved Valentine, John Paston Esquire". The custom of choosing and sending valentines has of late years fallen into comparative desuetude.

This sounds a lot like you're alluding to the Roman Church. In my opinion, perhaps nobody knows more than the Roman church, but nearly 500 years of reformation has recovered many things that the Roman Church tried to keep hidden. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> And what things were revealed, which the Church tried to keep hidden? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Where should I start? Justification by faith alone, or Bible interpretation? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Seems you're out of touch. Even the Lutherans are in agreement with what the Catholic Church teaches on the "justification of faith."

This sounds a lot like you're alluding to the Roman Church. In my opinion, perhaps nobody knows more than the Roman church, but nearly 500 years of reformation has recovered many things that the Roman Church tried to keep hidden. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> And what things were revealed, which the Church tried to keep hidden?

This has been going on since the reformation, back in the 1500's. Every time some one picks up a Bible and reads it, they are convinced that they know more than the 2000 year old Church, even though they couldn't even tell you, who established the Bible they are reading. Following Jesus Christ require's a detachment from following your own agenda. Unless you can humbly submit to His will, you will be like a boat that is set adrift, in the ocean.

I am not very interested in the "modern" concept of Israel. My first question to you would be, where in the Holy Bible does God make a covenant with the American Indians that the Americas would be theirs forever? I tried to read the article you posted but when I made it through the first three paragraphs without any scriptural reference I could see where it was going. Without any biblical references I cannot accept anyones claims annulling any of Gods' covenants. The first was with Abram who was now Abraham. Genesis 15:18

So did God give the land here in what is now the United States, to the Native Americans, and then punished them by taking it away? If you want the real history behind the establishment of the modern state of Israel, go here; http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=4&ar=10

So you all believe that the expulsion and oppression of the indigeonous Arab people in Palestine, in 1948, by Israel, is God's will?

I would take the pencil with John 3:16 on it. Why? The real question should be, why not?

Remember; "A wealthy man getting into heaven, is like passing a camel through the eye of a needle."

Here's a piece about the movie with some of it's srcipt, if you don't think there's a message being pushed, think again. When Plankton opens his

From Animal Healt Care web-site. http://www.animalhealthcare.ca/ Pigs are Filthy? Dispelling the Myth. So are all of those TV shows, cartoons and movies that highlight the pig as a slovenly beast lolling in the muck true? If a pig likes rolling in mud, that makes him just like horses, elephants, rhinos and many other species that enjoy a mud bath. Even birds enjoy a dry dust bath

As we read in the Gospel of St. Mark, our Lord declared all foods clean, thereby setting aside Mosaic regulations in this matter: 7:14 And he called the people to him again, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand: 7:15 there is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him." 7:17 And when he had entered the house, and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable. 7:18 And he said to them, "Then are you also without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him, 7:19 since it enters, not his heart but his stomach, and so passes on?" (Thus he declared all foods clean.) 7:20 And he said, "What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, 7:22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man." St. Peter in which he learned to no longer regard certain food