Scripture Passages

New American Bible - Full Text

Catechism of the Catholic Church - Full Text

Two Greatest Commandments

• You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind, and with all your strength.
• You shall love your neighbor as yourself for love of God.

The Ten Commandments

• I am the Lord your God; you shall not have strange gods before me.
• You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain.
• Remember to keep holy the Lord's Day.
• Honor your father and mother.
• You shall not kill.
• You shall not commit adultery.
• You shall not steal.
• You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
• You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
• You shall not covet your neighbor's goods.

Beatitudes

• Blessed are the poor in spirit, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
• Blessed are they who mourn, they will be comforted.
• Blessed are the meed, they will inherit the earth.
• Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they will be satisfied.
• Blessed are the merciful, they will be shown mercy.
• Blessed are the clean of heart, they will see God.
• Blessed are the peacemakers, they will be called children of God.
• Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, the kingdom of heaven is theirs.

Scripture Passages

Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
-1 Corinthians 13:4-8

"The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for."
-CCC 27

"Then each went to his own house, while Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. But early in the morning he arrived again in the temple area, and all the people started coming to him, and he sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle. They said to him, 'Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. Wo what do you say?' They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with his finger. But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, 'Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.' Again he bent down and wrote on the ground. And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him. Then Jesus straightened up and said to her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She replied, 'No one sir.' Then Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin anymore.'"
-John 7:53-8:11

"When Christ Jesus comes as king, He will be the judge of everyone, whether they are living or dead.
So with God and Christ as witnesses, I command you to preach God's message. Do it willingly, even if it is not the popular thing to do.
You must correct people and point out their sins.
But also cheer them up, and when you instruct them, always be patient."
-From the Second Letter of Paul to Timothy

"When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow."
-Matthew 5:39-42

"The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me; you restore my strength. You guide me along the way of righteousness for the sake of your name. Even when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage. You set a table before me as my enemies watch; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and love will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come."
-Psalm 23

"A kind mouth multiplies friends, and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings. Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant. When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him. For one sort of friend is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress. Another is a friend who becomes your enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame. Another is a friend, a boon companion, who will not be with you when sorrow comes. When things go well, he is your other self, and lords it over your servants; But if you are brought low, he turns against you and avoids meeting you. Keep away from your enemies; be on your guard with your friends. A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds; For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself."
-Sirach 6:5-17

"For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, says the Lord. Return and live!"
-Ezekial 18:32

"Have no anxiety at all, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
-Philippians 4:10

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom do I fear? The Lord is my life's refuge; of whom am I afraid? When evil doers come at me to devour my flesh, these my enemies and foes themselves stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart does not fear; though war be waged against me, even then do I trust."
-Psalm 27:1-3

"He who has compassion on the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his good deed."
-Proverbs 19:17

"And it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord."
-Acts 2:21

"For whatever is not from faith is sin."
-Romans 14:23

"We accept good things from God; and should we not accept evil?"
-Job 2:10

"... All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose."
-Romans 8:28

"One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, "Which is the first of all the commandments?" Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
-Mark 12:28-32

"To overcome evil with good is good, to resist evil by evil is evil."
-Prophet Mohammed

"The greatest gift you can give to your child is another sibling."
-Pope John Paul II

"... for it is better to marry than to be on fire." [true and funny]
-1 Corinthians 7:9

Judging Others

Judging Others
http://www.eternallifeskills.com/judging_others.htm

While waiting at a traffic light...

• You are waiting at a traffic light and you see a woman in a new Lexus stopped next to you on the street.
• You might think to yourself, “Isn’t that great. She seems to have her life together and is experiencing the pleasurable things of this world. She is living the abundant life that God has for us all.”
• Or, you might think to yourself, “Some people have all the luck. She has such an easy life, everything she wants, while I have to struggle and suffer. I could never afford anything life that. She probably cheated or did something else ungodly to get that car.”

It's hard to be happy for others

• It’s probably easier for most of us to think the second way rather than the first. Unless things are going great for you, it’s hard to be happy for others when it seems like they have it ‘all together.’

No one in this world escapes struggles, trials and difficulties

• Let me assure you that no one in this world escapes struggles, trials and difficulties. No one! That woman in the Lexus has difficulties in her life just like you and I have difficulties in our lives. The only difference may be her attitude about all that she has gone through and her will to continue on and not give up; her decision to rise above negative situations, or let them take her down.

We only see each other's outside presentation

• We only see each other’s outside presentation. Our true inner worlds are unseen. We see the wrapping that each person’s spirit is in and the small portion they want us to see.

We don't know all there is to know about someone

• No matter how well we think we know someone, we still don’t know all there is to know about him or her. Their inner struggles, fears, hurts, joys. Even our spouses or our children – we think we know them, but we really don’t know everything that there is to know about them.

Only God sees each person's true inner heart

• Only God sees each person’s true inner heart. He sees all the events of a person’s life and how that person has handled them. He sees the scars as well as the victories. He judges each person according to the whole picture. Something we will never be able to do.

We can only judge people by the partial picture that we see

• We can only judge people by the partial picture that we see. We see a woman driving a Lexus at one moment in her life and think “What did she do to deserve this?” “Why don’t I have this too?”

You can't see all of the ups and downs

• What you can’t see is all of the ups and downs that she experienced in her life that got her to the moment you saw her.

You didn't see the women when...

• You didn’t see the woman when she was a child; how she ached for the love of her father who struggled with alcoholism and didn’t spend enough time with her. How she longed for the love of a father, of a man.
• You didn’t see the futile way that she tried to find that love.
• You weren’t there when she was searching for that love in every man that she met, only to find loneliness at the end of the evening.
• You didn’t see when she was strangled and raped by a complete stranger hiding in her apartment late one night, and the scars that it left.
• You weren’t there when she got married too early in her life to the wrong man. Or the divorce that followed.

You weren't there when...

• You weren’t there when she tried to balance her needs with the needs of her young child as a single parent, and the guilt that went along with it. How she was torn between the love for her daughter and the need to find love for herself.
• You didn’t see the years of drug abuse that hid the loneliness and insecurities in her life, and how it nearly cost her her life.
• You weren’t there when her father committed suicide. And the hurt she felt seeing her mother in so much pain – so distraught and all alone.
• You weren’t there when she herself contemplated suicide. When she was depressed about her drug problem, her sad mother, and her bad job – when everything in her life was at its lowest point.

You weren't there when...

• You weren’t there when she turned to Jesus Christ in her darkest hour. How He comforted her and gave her a new life. You weren’t there when she accepted Him as her Savior and He lifted all of her burdens and set her free from drugs and alcohol and gave her a new vision and purpose for her life.
• You weren’t there when she finally met the man of her dreams. A man who truly loved her and gave her the love that she had been searching for all of her life. The joy and completeness that he brought to her life.
• You weren’t there to experience the miscarriage of the child she and her husband tried so hard to have together.
• You weren’t there at the joyous occasion when her second child was finally born.
• You weren’t there when she suffered her second, third, and fourth miscarriage, or how her heart broke when she learned that she would not be able to have another child.
• You weren’t there when she was in so much financial trouble that she didn’t know how she would pay each month’s rent payment. The stress that blinded her to everything else around her except the debt.

You didn't see her when...

• You didn’t see her reading the Bible every day and absorbing God’s principles into her life and how she strived to change the way she thought and acted.
• You weren’t there when she kept on following God’s principles no matter how the situation looked. How she and her husband worked and worked. How they sowed the seeds of prosperity by giving even though their needs were great.
• You weren’t there when the seeds finally sprouted and the Lord blessed their hard work by increasing her husband’s salary to a level they could only imagine before.
• You weren’t there during the years of special treatment that her husband’s job afforded them. The special trips that she experienced because of the business that her husband was in - ski trips, golf outings and private planes.
• You weren’t there when her husband’s company closed and all of the special treatment abruptly ended. The disappointment she experienced when she realized that people treated them specially only because of the position her husband was in, not because of who they were.
• You weren’t there when she supported her husband through a job search that lasted for two long years. The discouragement they both faced. And the faith that they clung to for strength that got them through.
• You weren’t there when her husband finally got a job again and their lives were finally taken off ‘hold.’

You weren't there when...

• You weren’t there when she had physical problems that took over her life. When she was housebound, couch bound, for years and was unable to experience much of her life except for pain.
• You didn’t see her sadness and frustration when all she could do was watch everyone around her live their lives.
• You weren’t there when she finally got cured. When her husband bought her the Lexus as a ‘get well gift’ and she was able to start rebuilding the life that was lost.

But, you were there that moment when you saw her in the Lexus

• BUT, you were there for the moment you saw her in her Lexus waiting at the traffic light next to you on the street that day.

Are you qualified to judge her?

• Are you qualified to judge her? To determine if she should be driving a car like that? If she looks worthy enough, friendly enough, good enough?

We never see the whole picture

• You see, we never see the whole picture. We just see a momentary glimpse of a person’s life. Our lives are composed of so much more than what others can see. We all have hundreds of experiences that bring us joy and hurt, victories and defeats that no one will ever know about.
• And they affect us all in different ways. The real test is - do we keep on going? Do we keep on striving, planting seeds for the next harvest - the seeds that no one but God can see?

The next time you see a women in a Lexus, say a little prayer

• So, the next time you see a woman in a Lexus, instead of judging her, say a little prayer for her, because she is going through struggles of her own.

You see, no one gets through this life totally pain free

• You are both in this journey called “LIFE” together. No one gets through totally pain free – no matter what type of car you are driving.

Prayers

The Our Father / The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
-Amen.

Prayer to One's Guardian Angel
Angel of God,
My guardian dear,
Through whom God's love,
Commits me here,
Ever this day,
Be at my side,
To light and guard,
To rule and guide.
-Amen.

Act of Contrition
Oh my God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart, and I detest them. In choosing to do wrong and in failing to do good I have sinned against You, whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered and died for us; in His name, my God, have mercy.
-Amen.

Act of Faith
My God, I firmly believe that You are one God in three Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I believe that your Divine Son became man and died for our sins, and that He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe these and all the truths which the holy Catholic Church teaches, because You have revealed them, who can neither deceive nor be deceived.
-Amen.

Act of Hope
My God, relying on your infinite goodness and promises, I hope to obtain pardon of my sins, help of your grace, and life everlasting through the merits of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Redeemer.
-Amen.

Act of Love
My God, I love You above all things, with my whole heart and soul, because You are all-good and worthy of all love. I love my neighbor as myself for love of You. I forgive all who have offended me, and I ask pardon for those I have offended.
-Amen.

Confiteor
I confess to Almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts, and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; and I ask blessed Mary ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God. May Almighty God have mercy on us, forgive us our sins, and bring us to everlasting life.
-Amen.

Prayer Before a Decision
Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns. See if my way is crooked, then lead me in the ancient paths.
-Amen.
-Psalm 139, 23-24

Prayer for Forgiveness
Have mercy on me, God, in your goodness; in your abundant compassion blot out my offense. Wash away all my guilt; from my sin cleanse me. For I know my offense; my sin is always before me. Against you alone have I sinned; I have done such evil in your sight that you are just in your sentence, blameless when you condemn. True, I was born guilty, a sinner, even as my mother conceived me. Still, you insist on sincerity of heart; in my inmost being teach me wisdom. Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow. Let me hear sounds of joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. Turn away your face from my sins; blot out all my guilt. A clean heart create for me, God; renew in me a steadfast spirit. Restore my joy in your salvation; sustain in me a willing spirit.
-Amen. (Psalm 51:3-14)

Act of Adoration
Almighty, eternal God, I acknowledge You as my first beginning and my last end, my creator and redeemer, my sanctification and my consummation, my God and my all. I thank you for your lavish gifts to me, to the whole human race, and to all creation.
-Amen.

The Gift of Life
Lord, teach me not to hold on to life too tightly. Teach me to take it as a gift. To enjoy it, to cherish it while I have it, but to let go gracefully and thankfully when the time comes. The gift is great but the giver is greater still. You are the giver and in You is a life that never ends.
-Amen.

Prayer Before a Journey
May the Almighty and merciful Lord direct us on the road of peace and prosperity, and may the Angel Raphael be our companion on our journey; so that we may return to our home and loved ones with peace, refreshment, and all joy.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Christ, have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy on us.
Let us pray: O God, Who led the children of Israel safely through the Red Sea, and guided the Wise Men by a star to the Saviour; grant us, we beseech Thee, safe journey and favorable weather; so that, under the guidance of Thy Holy Angels, we may safely reach our destination and, in due time, the gate of eternal salvation. Through the same Christ Our Lord.
St. Christopher, patron of traveler, pray for us, and protect us from evil.
-Amen.

Prayer to Sleep
As I lie here seeking another good night of restful sleep, give me the peace of mind and the ability to relax. Fulfill my needs for mental, physical, and spiritual restoration so I may wake up ready for another beautiful day which I hope you will allow me to live to enjoy with praise and thanks to You and our Lord Jesus.
-Amen.

Prayer for Peace of Mind
O Lord Jesus Christ, I place all my trust in You, hoping for all things from Your goodness. You make a root flourish beneath the soil; You can make fruitful the darkness in which I find myself today. I adore You in all Your purposes even without knowing them; Your will be done, not mine. May I be patient! It is so difficult to realize these trials, heartbreaking as they are, can be turned into blessings. Lord, give me peace of mind, peace of heart, and peace of soul as I offer You my thoughts, my words, and my actions, and yes, Lord, my sufferings; may they all be for Your greater glory.
-Amen.

Prayer of Saint Francis (modified)
Lord, may You make me an instrument of Your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy;
Where there is weakness, strength;
Where there is fear, courage;
Where there is barronness, fertility;
Where there is lack, abondance;
Where there is fighting, friendship.
Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be noticed as to notice;
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
And it is in dying that we are brought to eternal life.
-Amen.

Prayer to St. Michael for Protection from Evil
Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all other evil spirits who wander through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
-Amen.

Prayer to St. Sebastian: Patron of Athletes
Dear commander at the Roman Emperor's court, you chose to be a solider of Christ and dared to spread faith in the King of Kings, for which you were condemned to die. Your body, however, proved athletically strong and the executing arrows extremely weak. So another means to kill you was chosen and you gave your life to the Lord. May athletes always be as strong in their faith as their patron saint so clearly has been.
-Amen.

Take and Receive
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will - all that I have and call my own. You have given it all to me. To You, Lord, I return it. Everything is Yours; do with it what You will. Give me only Your love and Your grace. That is enough for me.
-Amen.

Prayer for Generosity
Dear Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve You as You deserve: to give and not to count the cost; to fight and not to heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not ask for reward, except that of knowing that I am doing Your will.
-Amen.

Prayer for Trust in God
Lord Jesus Christ, you came into the world not only to save us, but also to teach us. When you encountered the paralytic man, instead of healing his body, the first thing you did was to heal his soul. Help us to see what is important in life and death so that we can learn to accept Your will and the good that it is. We ask this in Your name.
-Amen.
-Written by Robert Anthony

Prayer Written by Robert Anthony
Heavenly Father, give me strength,
To always do what's right and never ask for thanks.
Lord Jesus Christ, be my guide,
Stay with me always and walk by my side.
Great Holy Spirit, fill me with Your love,
For my neighbors on earth and God up above.
Angels and saints and the Blessed Mary,
Help me with my burdens when they're hard to carry.
Great awesome God I love You completely,
And I will always love You openly and freely.
-Amen.

God Works In Unexpected Ways

There once was a village in a valley between two mountains. The village was protected by a dam which held water back from a nearby reservoir.
One day a man living in the valley was sitting in his kitchen when he heard on the radio that the dam was breaking. The man prayed to God, "Lord, please rescue me from this imminent flood so that I may live another day." The man then went out on to his front porch and waited.
After about fifteen minutes the local sheriff drove up and said to him, "The dam's breaking! Get in the car quickly!"
"No thanks. God is coming to save me," the man replied.
Another thirty minutes passed and the flood waters rose up to the height of the porch. One of his neighbors came up in a motorboat and yelled to him, "Hop in my boat. The waters are coming up; they'll be over your head soon."
The man yelled back, "I'm waiting for God to come and save me." And the man in the boat went off.
Finally, the waters rose so much that the man had to go on to his roof to stay out of the waters. At last, a Coast Guard helicopter came overhead and dropped a rope to the man with the pilot saying over the loudspeaker, "Grab hold of the rope so that we can pull you up!"
"I'm waiting for God to come and save me. Keep going."
Thirty minutes later the waters covered his house and the man, who couldn't swim, drowned. When he died and went up to Heaven he saw God and asked, "What happened? I waited and waited and you never came to rescue me."
To which God replied, "Never came! I sent you a car, a boat, and a helicopter! What more did you want?"

The Parable of the Magical Monkey

The central figure of this novel is a magical monkey who founds a monkey civilization and becomes its leader by establishing a territory for the monkeys. Subsequently, the monkey king overcomes a "devil confusing the world," and steals the devil's sword.
Returning to his own land with the devil's sword, the monkey king takes up the practice of swordsmanship. He even teaches his monkey subjects to make toy weapons and regalia to play at war.
Unfortunately, though ruler of a nation, the martial monkey king is not yet ruler of himself. In eminently logical backward reasoning, the monkey reflects that if neighboring nations note the monkeys' play, they might assume the monkeys were preparing for war. In that case, they might therefore take preemptive action against the monkeys, who would then be faced with real warfare armed only with toy weapons.
Thus, the monkey king thoughtfully initiates the arms race, ordering pre-preemptive stockpiling of real weapons.

...

The monkey king in the story exercised power without wisdom, disrupting the natural order and generally raising hell until he ran into the limits of matter, where he was finally trapped. There he lost the excitement of impulsive enthusiasm, and he was eventually released to seek the science of essence, under the strict condition that his knowledge and power were to be controlled by compassion, the expression of wisdom and unity of being.
The monkey's downfall finally comes about when he meets Buddha, whom the Taoist celestial immortals summon to deal with the intractable beast. The immortals had attempted to "cook" him in the "cauldron of the eight trigrams," that is, to put him through the training of spiritual alchemy based on the Taoist I Ching, but he had jumped out still unrefined.
Buddha conquers the monkey's pride by demonstrating the insuperable law of universal relativity and has him imprisoned in "the mountain of the five elements," the world of matter and energy, where he suffers the results of his arrogant antics.
After five hundred years, at length Guanyin (Kuan Yin), the transhistorical Buddhist saint traditionally honored as the personifictation of univeral compassion, shows up at the prison of the now repentent monkey and recites this telling verse:

Too bad the magic monkey didn't serve the public
As he madly flaunted heroics in days of yore.
With a cheating heart he made havoc
In the gathering of immortals;
With grandiose fall he went for his ego
To the heaven of happiness.
Among a hundred thousand troops,
None could oppose him;
In the highest heavens above
He had a threatening presence.
But since he was stymied on meeting our Buddha,
When will he ever reach out and show his achievements again?

Now the monkey pleads with the saint for his release. The saint grants this on the condition that the monkey devote himself to the quest for higher enlightenment, not only for himself but for society at large. Finally, before letting the monkey go to set out on the long road ahead, as a precaution the saint places a ring around the monkey's head, a ring that will tighten and cause the monkey severe pain whenever a certain spell invoking compassion is said in response to any new misbehavior on the part of the monkey.

-Thomas Cleary; in Translation of Sun Tzu's The Art of War

A Parable on Religion

A Persian, a Turk, an Arab, and a Greek were traveling to a distant land when they began arguing over how to spend the single coin they possessed among themselves. All four craved food, but the Persian wanted to spend the coin on angur; the Turk, on uzum; the Arab, on inab; and the Greek, on stafil. The argument became heated as each man insisted on having what he desired.
A linguist passing by overheard their quarrel. "Give the coin to me," he said. "I undertake to satisfy the desires of all of you."
Taking the coin, the linguist went to a nearby shop and bought four small bunches of grapes. He then returned to the men and gave them each a bunch.
"This is my angur!" cried the Persian.
"But this is what I call uzum," replied the Turk.
"You have brought me my inab," the Arab said.
"No! This in my language is stafil."
All of a sudden, the men realized that what each of them had desired was in fact the same thing, only they did not know how to express themselves to each other.
The four travelers represent humanity in its search for an inner spiritual need it cannot define and which it expresses in different ways. The linguist is the Sufi [scholar], who enlightens humanity to the fact that what it seeks (its religions), though called by different names, are in reality one identical thing. However - and this is the most important aspect of the parable - the linguist can offer the travelers only the grapes and nothing more. He cannot offer them wine, which is "the essence of the fruit." In other words, human beings cannot be given the secret of ultimate reality, for such knowledge cannot be shared, but must be experienced through an arduous inner journey toward self-annihilation.

-Reza Aslan; No god but God (p. 203)

What If We Treated Our Bible Like Our Cell Phone?

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell Phones?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we flipped through it several times a day?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it as we traveled?

What if we used it in case of an emergency?

What if we upgraded it to get the latest version?

This is something to make you go…hmmm…where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don’t ever have to worry about our bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!