Tag: books

Categories
Bible reading Scripture

Give Paul a Break

You may be tempted to read the letters written by the Apostle Paul.

My advice: Don’t. Not yet.

Not until you’ve soaked in the Gospels for a good while. And John’s letters. And James’s letter. And Peter’s letters. And maybe a good bit of the Old Testament.

Why? It’s easy to get things all turned around otherwise.

It’s easy, because of Paul’s logic and eloquence and personal story, to make Jesus about Paul instead of Paul about Jesus.

Paul would scold us for that.

But the church has split itself into hundreds of factions because it got things turned around, mostly about what Paul wrote.

Reading Paul is like handing a dangerous chemical: if you don’t handle it carefully, it can can be deadly to you and others.

So, stick with the Gospels. And the letters of John and James and Peter. For now, anyway.

(Even Peter struggled a bit with Paul’s writings…he writes about it!)

Grace and peace to you…

dw

Categories
Bible reading Scripture

Continue continuing

Once you have read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John…

If you find yourself wanting to move on

(maybe you’re thinking “Ok, I’ve read that bit, now let’s get to the rest of the story”

or maybe you’re not)

Don’t do it. Stay right here.

You’ve just met the person you’ve been longing to meet your whole life

And he wants to hang out.

(Maybe you remember reading “Abide with me” – that’s what he means.)

So, hang out. Read John’s gospel again. Find out more about this person, what he’s really like, who he really is.

Read slowly, hear what he is telling you. Ask questions, tell him what you think. Like you are on a walk together, or in a coffee shop.

Getting to know Jesus is the best part, the whole reason to read the Bible. As you get to know him, he’ll tell you about the rest.

You’re already where you long to be, need to be – with him.

Linger.

Grace and peace to you…
dw

p.s. Go here to see the rest of this series on reading the Bible.

Categories
Scripture

Posts about Bible reading

I posted a new page of posts

A short series on Bible reading

I hope the series will grow over time

Anyway, here it is: Pages on Bible Reading

You can find it in the Menu, too

Grace and peace to you…

dw

Categories
Catechism Current Events

Scandal

There exist also sinful inequalities that affect millions of men and women. These are in open contradiction of the Gospel:

Their equal dignity as persons demands that we strive for fairer and more humane conditions. Excessive economic and social disparity between individuals and peoples of the one human race is a source of scandal and militates against social justice, equity, human dignity, as well as social and international peace.

Vaticana, Libreria Editrice. Catechism of the Catholic Church . United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Kindle Edition. Paragraph 1938

In case anyone was wondering, this is the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church.

Conservative Catholics, what do you think? How does this affect your politics?

Protestants and Evangelicals, though not a matter of doctrine for you, what do you think?

People not part of the Christian tradition, is this teaching a surprise to you?

Grace and peace to us all…

dw

p.s. This is the 12th in a series of recent posts on what the Catholic Catechism has to say about social justice.

Categories
Catechism Current Events

Differences

On coming into the world, [people are] not equipped with everything [they need] for developing [their] bodily and spiritual life. [They need] others. Differences appear tied to age, physical abilities, intellectual or moral aptitudes, the benefits derived from social commerce, and the distribution of wealth. The “talents” are not distributed equally.

These differences belong to God’s plan, who wills that each receive what [they need] from others, and that those endowed with particular “talents” share the benefits with those who need them. These differences encourage and often oblige persons to practice generosity, kindness, and sharing of goods; they foster the mutual enrichment of cultures:

“I distribute the virtues quite diversely; I do not give all of them to each person, but some to one, some to others…. I shall give principally charity to one; justice to another; humility to this one, a living faith to that one…. And so I have given many gifts and graces, both spiritual and temporal, with such diversity that I have not given everything to one single person, so that you may be constrained to practice charity towards one another…. I have willed that one should need another and that all should be my ministers in distributing the graces and gifts they have received from me.”

Vaticana, Libreria Editrice. Catechism of the Catholic Church . United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Kindle Edition. Paragraph 1936, 1937

Hear this, Catholics, Protestants, Evangelicals.

Can we hold these thoughts in our minds long enough to dislodge the knee-jerk hate responses we have been conditioned to use and excuse, time and again?

Can we be born anew?

Grace and peace to us all…

dw

p.s. This is the 11th in a series of recent posts on what the Catholic Catechism has to say about social justice.