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Thursday, December 30, 2010

The spirit of atheism and belief in God

God's ways are not the same as our way! This truth has many meanings deeper than what we usually think. God is too difficult to describe with words. This means that God can not be understood in the mind or described in our imagination.
This truth is one of the first stake of the Church that his understanding of God and is described as a dogma at the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 that the divinity of God is very different from the description of our knowledge. In fact, all our concepts and language about God is never enough and will not be sufficient.



Sunday, December 26, 2010

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

  1. I am the Lord your God. You shall not have strange gods before me.
  2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your god in vain.
  3. Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day.
  4. Honour your father and your Mother.
  5. You shall not kill.
  6. You shall not commit adultery.
  7. You shall not steal.
  8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
  9. You shall not cover your neighbour's wife.
  10. You shall not cover your neighbour's goods.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Monday, December 20, 2010

Jesus on Trial before Pilate

Read Mark 15:1−21
 Although the Jewish leaders had tried Jesus and convicted Him of blasphemy, they led Him to the Roman governor Pilate for yet another trial. The Jews did not have authority to carry out sentences of capital punishment that were determined by their own courts; capital crimes had to be tried by Roman officials. Thus, very early the next morning they brought Jesus to Pilate, hoping that he would concur with their decision. They accused Jesus of many things, but He remained silent. Pilate was amazed that He didn't try to defend Himself. The governor perceived that this was not really a question of criminal action, but that the Jews were jealous of Jesus. Therefore, he made several attempts to release Him. He was eager to appease the Jews, however, and was unable to persuade them that Jesus should be released. Though he did not believe Jesus was guilty, he ended up sentencing Him to death because he feared the start of a riot. Roman soldiers scourged Jesus, mocked Him, and led Him out to be crucified.




Physical suffering of Jesus: Jesus suffered intensely in his last few hours. After being up all night, subjected to the stress of six different trials (if we compare the accounts in Matthew, Luke and John also), He was scourged. Scourging was accomplished by tying bits of bone, metal and glass to a whip and then striking the victim's back. This procedure produced excruciating pain, much loss of blood and sometimes even death. The victim's back became a bloody mass. After scourging Him, they took thorns, wove them into a crown, put it on Jesus' head, and began to beat on it, causing intense pain. They put a scarlet robe on Him [see Matt. 27:28; Mark's account calls it "purple"], only to later rip it off, undoubtedly tearing open the blood−dried wounds on His back in the process. Then came the crucifixion. In an execution of this type, they would literally nail the "criminal's" hands and feet onto a piece of wood and then set it upright into a hole. To breathe, the victim had to continually raise himself so that his lung cavity could expand. Pain and fatigue would begin to diminish the effectiveness of this effort and the lungs would begin to fill with fluid. As exhaustion took hold, the victim would be slowly asphyxiated because of a lack of oxygen and finally die.