JREnsey Mid-month blog November 2023

Thanks for visiting our brief Mid-month blog!

The Word for today

“Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest” (Luke 10:2).

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Pope backslides, Tyler Bishop stands up

Pope Francis has removed Bishop Joseph Strickland, a strong advocate of traditional Catholic teachings, from his duties in the diocese of Tyler, Texas. Strickland had been speaking out on social and moral issues that Catholics had traditionally stood for.

No more.

He was booted for his lack of cooperation with Pope Francis’ recent moves and announcements regarding transgender and homosexual issues. The pope’s firing of Strickland comes this week as the Vatican announced transgender individuals could be baptized and serve as godparents. Critics say the move is not consistent with traditional Catholic teaching which sees transgender activities as a sin, making baptism allowable only after confession.

In 2022, Francis shocked Catholics by appointing a pro-abortion economist to the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life. Pope Francis has continually claimed he is open and welcomes dissent, but he has taken harsh steps against traditionalists in the hierarchy who have disagreed with him. The Pope’s synod, called the Synod on Synodality, appears to be moving to allow Catholic blessings for homosexual civil unions.

Strickland’s firing sparked an immediate outcry among conservatives and traditionalists. Michael J. Matt, editor of the traditionalist newspaper The Remnant, wrote with the firing, Francis was “actively trying to bury fidelity to the Church of Jesus Christ …This is total war,” Matt wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Francis is a clear and present danger not only to Catholics the world over but also to the whole world itself.” [End of report] – Report excerpted from Sandy Fitzgerald | https://www.newsmax.com/billdonohue/pope-francis-church-teachings/2023/11/15/id/1142394/

To Matt and Strickland: Right on! Stand your ground. Be an example to others who need one right now!

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The demise of History?

With the government (public) schools and many colleges ripping the subject of History from their curricula, they are saying that it is no longer important to us today. They could not be more wrong.

God considered history so vital that it constitutes over one fourth of our Bibles. Several entire books and hundreds of chapters are nothing but history. He launched the written Word with this statement: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). Other parts, such as the Prophets, the Gospels, Acts, and even the Poetry books are laced with history. Why did God consider history so important?

Without history, how do we know who we really are? Where did we come from? How did we get here? What or who came before us? Where are we headed?

Why should we behave and conduct ourselves in a particular way? What should we believe and hold as a religious faith? Without history how could we relate to God, our world, and each other?

Without history we would not know what why the current crisis is erupting in the Mideast. Why did the Palestinians attack Israel? Why has Israel responded as they have? Is there no background for all of this? Ignorance of the past is the guarantee of mistakes in the present.

Many filling the streets in our great cities “protesting” against certain nations or political entities seem to have no sense of history. Who are the Israelis, really? The Palestinians? Why are they at each others’ throats? Only those who know history will have the answers.

Why are youth movements into “climate change”? Is it really to save the planet from imminent collapse or is there a political factor involved, making the cause more like “nation change” than “climate change”? It is likely because they are being denied true science and history by authorities and academia. The kooky kids and teenaged oldsters who are blocking streets and highways to protest oil or capitalism—do they really know what they are doing? Or are they merely pawns in a larger international chess game?

What mean our monuments? Those statues? These gravestones and markers? This art? Bury a nation’s history and you destroy that nation.

Likewise, to be ignorant of our religious faith, its history and background, puts our personal faith at a disadvantage. Knowledge is power. “Wisdom is the principle thing; therefore, get wisdom: and with all thy getting, get understanding” (Proverbs 4:7). Should there be no sense of history, or to be left to choose only the path that feels right to us at the moment, we would likely make shipwreck of our souls.

Covet history. Read it, appreciate it, observe it, glean its knowledge, make wise decisions from its lessons.

Know the past to better understand the present and secure your future.

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