Rewired for the Journey

  Since I wrote my last blog some people have asked me about my "Protestant" tendencies. That actually was a very good question and one I wanted to address in my blog so put your Holy Ghost seat belt on! I have been Protestant my whole life having been baptized when I was four months old at Wesley United Methodist Church. Throughout my life, I have visited various Protestant churches for different lengths of time to learn about them. This helped greatly as I studied theology and taught it at various churches and at the college level. I have pastored and preached at different Protestant churches. So I have had decades of interaction with the Protestant faith. I admire their deep desire to know the Holy Bible and their love of the Bible. Secondly, the burning passion to have a personal relationship with Jesus. Third, they are not afraid to share Jesus and the liturgical churches could learn more about evangelization from them. So having spent time in the Liturgical and Protesta

  Ever since I was introduced to the Catholic Church I have been fascinated by this body of the Christian faith. One thing that has stuck with me that I admire is the unashamed strength to stand up for what they believe and back it up with The Three Pillars of the Church. Now for those who do not know The Three Pillars, they are number one, Sacred Scripture which comprises the Old Testament and New Testament in a total of seventy-three books. Next is the Apostolic Tradition which is the Living Tradition and the liturgies. Thirdly, The Living Magisterium which is the teaching authority of the Pope in Communion with the Bishops. So what brought this topic up for me is listening to a podcast by Fr. Mike Schmitz denouncing the opening in France of the Olympics when blasphemy was committed by mocking The Last Supper of Jesus Christ. I know some of you are thinking this is already old news. At the time, so many wrote and talked about it that I felt it would be overkill if I wrote about it. I

In ancient times people built huge walls around their city to keep the people safe. There would be three shifts throughout the night to keep watch for any possible enemy that would come to harm them. The men of these shifts were called the Night Watchmen. They would walk on top of the wall around the city watching to see any need to sound an alarm. They were also assigned to light street lamps throughout the city on the first watch. The first shift was from 6 pm to 10 pm then the second shift was from 10 pm to 2 am and then finally the morning shift was from 2 am to 6 am. Now at 6 am, the Watchmen would blow the horn to announce it was morning and time to get up and start your day. Now today our Night Watchmen would be considered the police who patrol at night in our towns and cities. The military scans the skies at night to detect any possible attacks on the country itself.  Now I would like to focus on who is the Night Watchmen of our spiritual lives? Usually, that is ourselves and s

  About a week ago I thought I caught a stomach virus. Four days later in pain and sleep-deprecated I went to the doctor to find out I had a gallbladder attack. After another five days in the hospital, I finally had the intense pain gone and I was able to sleep more than 30 minutes. But now I am home and my energy level is running low which is awful for a high-energy guy who likes to go and get it in life. I never saw all this coming or I would have made some decisions to try and avoid this or at least contain it. Life I believe is part of how the Good Lord helps us mature and learn about ourselves more in this mortal state before moving back into our spiritual dimension again. Now this is provided we accept the key to entrance in the Kingdom of Glory by accepting what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross to redeem us from our sin-filled condition. Now this is a belief that can be accepted as truth or denied completely to the person's peril. Just a year ago I was staring at going t

Yes, folks, it is an election year and of course, both parties believe they are going to save the world. Sorry, but Jesus Christ already did that some 2000 years ago. Now the other fun fact about this is every election year it is a Chicken Little story all over again, which is the sky is falling if the Republicans get into office, and the sky is falling if the Democrats get into office. This reminds me of how news on the weather is nowadays. There will be one inch of snow coming which is the great white death from above so stock up on everything. The exaggeration from political parties and the news is absolutely off the charts in this day and age. Gone are the Walter Cronkite and Tom Brokaw days of newscasting.   Social media can be used for good and even to spread the gospel message but also it can perpetuate lies and deceit. I hope it is used more responsibly than what I have been witnessing.  So back to politics and voting, I would say do your best to try and find reliable informati

  A few weeks back we were running late for church. My dear love of my life Roma and I pulled our truck out of the garage. Sitting in the driveway I said if we head to the church we normally attend we are going to be really late but if we go to St. Timothy's we will make it on time because it is only about five miles away. Roma said, "Let's be adventurous and try St. Timothy's since we have never been there." So off we went. We got to St. Timothy's Episcopal Church on time. I hate being late to anything it just is not in my DNA to be late. We were met with a kind and warm welcome. The church was beautiful and clean inside. We loved the High church service with all the smells and bells as we say in liturgical churches. We stayed for Coffee Hour and met many parishioners who came up to us and introduced themselves. When they learned I play percussion and have sung in choirs they were ready to sign me up! We had a marvelous time worshipping and getting to know th