7 posts in 7 days

Jennifer Fulwiler at Conversion Diary is hosting a challenge to all bloggers to write 7 blog posts in 7 days, starting tomorrow. I'm taking the challenge. I love to write - it's therapeutic for me. But I always have so many reasons not to write - I have too many things I want to write about and can't commit to any of them, I don't have any writing experience to make me a really good writer, I am afraid of people seeing that I'm not good enough. Enough with the excuses, and this challenge is the perfect chance to get over all of my focus on myself. I don't care if it's perfect. There, I just let myself off of the hook if I say things that aren't perfect.

I would appreciate some ideas on what I should write about. I have around 74 things I'd like to write about. Maybe you can give me some additional ideas - something that's maybe not already on my list of 74 topic ideas.

My passion is theology. I haven't had any formal training in theology, but I love reading and learning theology. I used to think the very word "theology" was for people who were too smart to have a relationship with Jesus. But the definition of theology is the study of the nature of God. Wouldn't knowing God through a deeper understanding of his nature cause a person to have a deeper relationship with him?

As a former nominal Catholic turned Baptist turned Pentecostal turned on-fire, Jesus-freak Catholic, I have a heart for (1) Catholics who don't know the faith and (2) Evangelicals who are misinformed about what the Catholic church teaches (pssst we don't think we're getting to Heaven by our works). I was an anti-Catholic Evangelical (I'm not saying all Evangelicals are anti-Catholic - I'm just saying I was) for 18 years. I always wondered how in the world Catholics could believe this or that, infant baptism or confession to a priest, for example.

I should also point out that I'm not perfect in all matters of Catholic teachings, although I strive very hard to diligently and thoroughly present the truth of Catholic teaching. I will always present fact, not my opinion (because truth is not based on my opinion). And if ever I write something that is contrary to what the Magisterium teaches, go with the Magisterium. And if there are any Catholic readers who want to correct my errors, please do. I never want to lead anyone astray from the truth.

So what is the one thing you'd like to see discussed?

kristy

a glimpse of what unity looks like

Once upon a time a long time ago I tried to understand denominations. When I gave my life to Jesus at a Southern Baptist youth convention at the age of 15, I didn't have any information about church history. All I saw were lots of good, well-meaning Christians attending their individual churches and doing their own thing. They each had their church camp. They each had their youth conventions. I didn't understand why the Southern Baptists didn't go to the same church camp as Methodists or Presbyterians or the Church of Christ believers. Why did we all have our separate youth conventions? I didn't know what Methodists or any of the other denominations even believed nor how it was different from what I believed. And on top of that - we all believe in the same Bible! How can one book lead to so many different beliefs?

This lead me to wonder if I could really be in the right church if I didn't know what the other denominations taught. Would I need a degree in theology to determine the right denomination? Furthermore, where were denominations even in the Bible? No one talked about it much, and as an introvert I pondered these things in my heart without asking these questions. I would ask God about these things, with no answer (well, He began to slowly reveal an answer about 14 years later when an evangelical Catholic I worked with said, "Imagine what we could do against evil if we were united!)

The word "unity" never entered my ears as a young believer. Maybe I thought we were all united by the bond of our faith in Jesus. But this unity is not a true unity. One doesn't have to go through too many church splits (I've experience two church splits myself and one happened after I left a church and one happened to a church before we joined - that's 4 out of 5 Protestant churches we belonged to that I know had gone through a church split!) to figure out there ain't much unity going on within the body of Christ. This invisible "unity" was more of a common trait - the common trait of believing in Christ - than anything that bonded people together as one body.

So what does the Bible say about unity? In John 17:20-23 Jesus prays before his death that all believers would be one so that "the world may believe that you sent me". Jesus refers to his church as the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven many times through the Bible and in Matthew 12:25 Jesus warns that "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand." Jesus' words express close unity.

Likewise, Paul insist on the unity of the church. In speaking to the Galatians he includes dissension and factions as sins of the flesh that will not inherit the kingdom of God (Gal. 5:20-21). In 1 Corinthians 1 Paul explains to the believers that they need to be unified. He asks the important question, "Is Christ divided?" In Ephesians 4 Paul emphasizes the importance of being one in unity and peace and warns the believers to not succumb to every wind of doctrine that will lead them astray. 

Oh, so that's what the Bible says about unity. There is no Biblical evidence that denominations/divisions are the will of God. I want to be in the will of God. In order to be in God's will I have to give up my will. Even if that means going where I never thought I'd go.

This is a glimpse of what unity can be like. I say a glimpse because, while all Catholics share a visible unity, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who do not share this same unity. While this is awesome and exciting, it could be much, much more if ALL believers were united: 

kristy

who built your church?

There are at least 8,000 Protestant denominations. Many estimate the number to be more like 20,000 to 30,000. It is hard to tell since there are so many break-away factions from the mainstream Protestant denominations a.k.a. "non-denominational" churches.

This drove me nuts when I was a Protestant. I had been in enough different churches to have known men and women who were truly in love with Jesus and very sincere about their love and faith. But if there is one God, why are there so many divisions among His people?

Jesus prayed for all believers to be one (John 17:20-23). Denominations seemed so contrary to the will of Jesus.

I was left with the question, "Which one is right? Which one contains the fullness of what God has for the world?" It took me about a year and a half of prayer and digging and listening to God.

My question to all Protestants is this - who built your church? Who was responsible for its formation? Was it John Smyth (Baptists), Charles Mason (Church of God in Christ), Martin Luther (Lutherans), John Calvin (Presbyterians), John Wesley (United Methodists), or someone more recent in history as in the case of each small non-denominational church throughout the world? 

The Catholic Church is the only Christian church who claims to have been created by Jesus. They trace their history all the way back to Jesus! This is incredible and AT LEAST worth looking into to see if it is true. I don't know John Smyth, Charles Mason, Martin Luther, John Calvin or John Wesley. But I know Jesus, and I want the Church HE formed! If you look at the evidence and disagree, fine. At a minimum you will have more knowledge of church history.

Imagine how strong we could be against Satan if we were united as one?!



kristy

How the Eucharist brought me to the Catholic Church

I was very poorly catechized as a child.  I left the Catholic Church when I was 15 and started attending a Baptist church with my friend, and I didn't even know that the Catholic Church believed that communion they received every day was truly the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus.  So when I started watching "The Journey Home" on EWTN over 15 years after leaving the CC and heard guests talking about the Eucharist and what it is and one guy even talking about longing for the Eucharist, I was shaken.  And come to find out, this truth they talked about is in the very Bible I wholeheartedly professed to believe in!  

In John 6 Jesus says, "Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink." (John 6:53-55).  Obviously this was not a favorite verse of my Evangelical pastors over the years, because I never. heard. this. verse. before.  

Well, surely there was some misunderstanding.  Surely this couldn't be true.  I had to find out.  Then I heard guests on "The Journey Home" talk about the "early church fathers" and claimed that the writings of these early Christians was further evidence to back up the Catholic belief of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist.  I had never in my years of being in Evangelical churches heard anyone mention anything about writings from the early Christians.  I had been in churches who claimed to be as true to what the early church was like as any church could be, but they never mentioned any historical writings or evidence to back up their interpretation of what the early church was like.  

For the first time I heard people mentioned such as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Clement of Rome, Eusebius, Iraneus, Tertullian, and Polycarp.  I had never heard these names before, and I had to use the DVR to pause and replay over and over and try to write these names down as best I could.  I did my best to decipher how their names must have been spelled so that I could look up this information.  Then I wanted to make sure to look these people up from non-Catholic websites, because I wasn't very convinced that I could trust what Catholics would say about these so-called "people", if they really did exist.  

Wikipedia became my new best friend.  I then came across what these early church fathers had to say about the Eucharist in the early years of the church, some during the age of the Apostles.

Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, Chapter 6, 110 A.D.:Take note of those who hold heterodox opinions on the grace of Jesus Christ which has come to us, and see how contrary their opinions are to the mind of God ... They abstain from the Eucharist and from prayer because they do not confess that the Eucharist is the flesh of our Savior Jesus Christ, flesh which suffered for our sins and which that Father, in his goodness, raised up again. They who deny the gift of God are perishing in their disputes.

 St. Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Romans, 7, 110 A.D.:
I desire the Bread of God, the heavenly Bread, the Bread of Life, which is the flesh of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became afterwards of the seed of David and Abraham; I wish the drink of God, namely His blood, which is incorruptible love and eternal life.

 Justin Martyr, Apology, I.66-67, 2nd century:Communion in the Body and Blood of ChristIt is allowed to no one else to participate in that food which we call Eucharist except the one who believes that the things taught by us are true, who has been cleansed in the washing unto rebirth and the forgiveness of sins and who is living according to the way Christ handed on to us. For we do not take these things as ordinary bread or ordinary drink. Just as our Savior Jesus Christ was made flesh by the word of God and took on flesh and blood for our salvation, so also were we taught that the food, for which thanksgiving has been made through the word of prayer instituted by him, and from which our blood and flesh are nourished after the change, is the flesh of that Jesus who was made flesh. Indeed, the Apostles, in the records left by them which are called gospels, handed on that it was commanded to them in this manner: Jesus, having taken bread and given thanks said, ``Do this in memory of me, this is my body.'' Likewise, having taken the cup and given thanks, he said, ``This is my blood'', and he gave it to them alone.

Tertullian's The Resurrection of the Dead [8,2] A.D. 208-212:The flesh, then, is washed, so that the soul may be made clean. The flesh is anointed, so that the soul may be dedicated to holiness. The flesh is signed, so that the soul too may be fortified. The flesh is shaded with the imposition of hands, so that the soul too may be illuminated by the Spirit. The flesh feeds on the Body and Blood of Christ, so that the soul too may fatten on God. They cannot, then, be separated in their reward, when they are united in their works.

There are many other writings to back up the belief that Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist.  Pay particular attention to the dates.  I always gave more credence to the earliest writings, because in my mind these had the highest probability of being true since they were the closest to the date of when Christ lived (and therefore had the lowest probability of being tainted by false doctrines).

And once I had settled it in my mind that the evidence proved what the Catholic Church taught about the Eucharist, I let my guard down and let my heart soak it in.  Then I, too, began to long for the Eucharist.  It became a longing that I couldn't escape.  I loved Jesus, and I wanted all that He had to offer. 

kristy

The Pope declares now even atheists can go to heaven!

Did you hear that Pope Francis said that atheists can go to heaven?  He didn't.  But that's how some of the news reports frame the pope's comments yesterday from his residence.

The fastest growing religion in American now in the "none"s.  He's reaching out to them.  How wonderful!  Except people everywhere are trying to spin his words.  The secular media is reporting that he's declaring that atheists are good enough to get to heaven.  Not that the atheists care, because they don't believe in heaven.  But if a pope were to declare that anyone who does good can get into heaven, wouldn't that make the message of redemption through Christ null and void?  Oooooh - the secular world would LOVE to hear the message of Christ made null and void.

Then there are Protestants who are shaking their heads (I know because I used to be one of them), thinking, "Those poor Catholics.  Don't they know good works will never get anyone into heaven?"  To which I now want to scream from the rooftop - YES!  Yes, we know good works will never get a single person into heaven!

Pope Francis is gently trying to communicate to atheists.  His incredible humility and love can help win could for Jesus!  Love will bring them in!  How does one win the soul of an atheist?  He has to convince the atheist that he needs Jesus.  You can shout and shout and shout all you want to an atheist and tell him he needs Jesus or he will go to hell, and the atheist will just shrug his shoulders and laugh as he walks away.  Instead, Pope Francis is extending his hand to atheists and gently leading them to Christ.  Yelling at them that they are going to hell will not win their souls.  But extending a friendly hand, meeting them where they are, and loving them as Christ loves then will break down the walls that keep their minds and hearts closed to the message of the Gospel.

Pope Francis is NOT saying that atheists can work their way to heaven or that they are "OK" where they are.  That is not what the Bible says and it's not what the Church has taught for 2,000 years.  And a pope CANNOT contradict what the Bible says and what sacred Tradition has has handed down to us. It just cannot be done.  

Jesus' redemption is available for atheists.  They have to accept it to receive it, but it is always available to them.  Pope Francis is acknowledging that, as they are made in God's imagine, they are inherently designed to do good and have a will to do good.  It's in the way they are designed (whether or not the atheist wants to acknowledge that about themselves or not.)  

I am very excited about our new Pope.  There is something special about him, and the whole world sees it.  I believe his humble spirit and love will win souls for Christ.  I believe he will change the Church in a big (big and humble, that is) way.  All for the glory of God.

kristy

The Apostles' Creed

The fact that no one really knows when the Apostles' Creed was created or who created it means that it goes WAY back in history.  Legend has it that the 12 Apostles composed it on the day of Pentecost.  Based on historical evidence, it's very possible this is true.  But no one really knows for sure.  Either way, it is an important confession we pray at Mass every Sunday.  It is oh so easy to just recite it like a robot, making it void of any meaning in our lives.  But it is something special when you let it penetrate your heart.  Make it mean something this Sunday.

kristy

can't turn back

I won't lie - it's been very difficult being Catholic in a sea of Protestants.  I can count on one hand the Catholics I am close to.  I lived in the Protestant world for 17 years, so I had the opportunity to surround myself with Protestants, almost all of whom are anti-Catholic.  (Actually, I can't think of anyone who isn't anti-Catholic.)  

I've let the thought enter my mind at least dozens of times, "Why not quit?  I could quit and go back to Protestant life and everything would be easy again.  Imagine, no more arguing.  That would be soooooo nice, so easy..."  

St. Peter's words respond in my head, "But Lord, to whom shall I go?"

Once you've sought the fullness of the faith, you can't turn back.  Plain and simple.  If I imagine walking away from the Eucharist, my body literally feels slight trembling.

And so I stay.  I carry on.


The words of Pope Francis have touched me so much already, and he's only been pope for what, like 6 weeks?   He said to young people at St. Peter's Basilica at the 50th World Day of Prayer for Vacations on April 21st, “Listen for the voice of Jesus and bravely ask him what he wants of you.” 


This encourages me to the core.  I know the Catholic Church is where Jesus wants me to be.  It certainly takes bravery to be willing to go wherever he asks me to go, including when I asked him to show me what he wanted his church to be, and he lead me to the Catholic Church.  I didn't have any idea I would end up here.  But I asked, and here is where he wants me to be.

So by the grace of God go I....

kristy