Layers - in the knowledge of God and the path to holiness
Learning about God is like unwrapping a head of lettuce, pealing back one leaf at a time. Always there is another leaf below. We will eventually reach the center of the head of lettuce; but we will never unwrap everthing there is to know about God.
The path to holiness is like pealing an onion. God shows us what is sinful and convicts us that we have sinned. No matter how sweet the onion, there are always tears in the peeling. No matter how sweet the grace of repentence, there are always the pain of letting go of the sin. As the peeling of the onion reveals another layer, so God shows us what we lack in holiness, drawing us ever closer to "be(ing) perfect even just as your heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5:48
What I Believe
Why I am and always will be a Catholic. "So Jesus said to them, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. Tthe living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live forever." John 6:53-58 The words and actions of man cannot sanctify. Only the priest, empowered by his ordination, can invoke the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into Jesus so we can receive Him - Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into our bodies and souls. This is the core of the Catholic Church; without this there is no purpose or meaning to the Catholic Church. There are other ways to holiness, to grow in grace; there is no better way than union with Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.
Abortion and the Christian
Abortion and the Christian, by John Jefferson Davis, is a thoughtful, well-written analysis written in 1984. The arguments -pro and con- are still being debated today; so almost 30 years later, it is still relevant. Pro-abortion? This is a chance to look at the issues without the layers of rhetoric of the past decades. It is a book just over 100 pages on The Evangelical Christian Library. Even though it is addressed to Christians with a chapter on the Scripture, non-Christians still find value in reading the other chapters.
From the back cover:
Abortion is a topic of immense
importance. Not only is it a burning controversy in its own right, but it is
also symptomatic of a larger crisis in contemporary values. At stake is the very
meaning of human life.
In spite of 1.5 million abortions
annually in America, there is much the public does not know about what has
become the nation's most common surgical procedure on adults. The Christian
public, in particular, needs a more thorough understanding of the questions
surrounding abortion -- questions like, What does the Bible say about prenatal
life? When, if ever, is abortion justified? What are the medical risks of
abortion? Are the unborn individual persons, biologically, spiritually,
legally?
Building on a broad base of biblical
data, John Jefferson Davis answers these and many other questions related to the
ethics of abortion. In so doing, he equips readers to challenge current
assumptions in the areas of law, medicine, and social concern, and to affirm the
value of human life both in and out of the womb.
Dr. John Jefferson Davis is Professor of
Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
in Hamilton, Massachusetts. He was a Danforth Graduate Fellow and Phi Beta Kappa
graduate of Duke University, where he earned the Ph.D. degree in systematic
theology.
http://www.ccel.us/AbortionandtheXian.toc.html
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