PRIEST WENT TO HELL DURING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE

Saturday, April 8, 2023 

CHRISTIANITY / NDE / HELL

"Priest who 'died' during heart attack claims he went to Hell and saw demons singing Rihanna's Umbrella and Bobby McFerrin's Don't Worry Be Happy to torture people: 'I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy'

  • Gerald Johnson said demonic renditions of Rihanna's hit song 'Umbrella' and Bobby McFerrin's 'Don't Worry Be Happy' were used to torture him in Hell.
  • The Michigan pastor experienced his brush with Satan in 2016 when he briefly died after suffering a heart attack.
  • Johnson said his musical encounter in Hell is proof that popular music is the Devil's attempt to control people on Earth.

Read the full article here: Priest who 'died' during heart attack claims he went to Hell 

Do this and Life will fall into place - Purpose /w Fr Josiah Trenham

Tuesday, April 4, 2023 

CHRISTIANITY / PURPOSE

This is an absolutely outstanding conversation between two orthodox Christians: Paul Robson interviews Fr Josiah Trenham.   They discuss what is the true purpose of man, and how to achieve it.  

What makes this conversation so interesting is how Fr Josiah speaks with such incredible bluntness about Christianity and living a life of faith.  It is incredibly rare to find a man of this level of wisdom!   

I don't want to say very much about this conversation in my description, because it's such a joy to listen to.   So listen to it!   I give this video my highest recommendation.   You will be greatly blessed listening to it.  

SPIRITUAL AND MATERIAL POVERTY

Sunday, April 2, 2023 

CHRISTIANITY / SALVATION

Is taking care of the poor an important part of our salvation?  Charles J. Chaput argues that it is.  

From the book "Strangers in a Strange Land" by Charles J. Chaput:

In our own time we tend to distinguish between spiritual and material poverty.  But in the Bible, these concepts are tightly linked!  The rich have wealth, but they become overly proud and ignore or oppress others.  They use their money to buy influence and exploit the needy.  They forget their dependence on God.  The poor man, by contrast, is always reminded of his dependence.  He will be humble and trust in the Lord.  

We see this clearly in Jesus' parable of Lazarus and the rich man.  The rich man had elegant clothes and ate sumptuously.  But he ignored Lazarus, who sat right at this gate, covered in sores that the dogs licked.  Every time he entered or left his house the rich man would pass Lazarus, yet he did nothing to ease his needs.  When the rich man died, he ended up in Hades.  Now he suffered, while Lazarus sat in the bosom of Abraham.  

The story underscores a simple fact: If we don't love the poor, we will go to hell.  If we let our possessions blind us to our dependence on God, we will go to hell.   If we let food and clothes and all the other distractions of modern life keep us from seeing the needs of our neighbors, we will go to hell.  

We might assume that Scripture condemns the wealthy.  But that's not the case.  As the early Church Fathers noted, the Lazarus parable is really a tale of two rich men: an unnamed callous one, and the patriarch Abraham.  Abraham was a rich man who never forgot his dependence on God.  Whereas the wealthy sinner let Lazarus wallow in squalor, Abraham welcome the three strangers with rich food.  Abraham was generous and shared his abundance, always remembering that everything he owned was a gift from God.  The lesson is obvious: Possession is really about service.  When it's not, we become slaves to our goods instead of living in a culture of interior freedom."

Strangers in a Strange Land
by Charles J. Chaput
published by St. Martin's Griffin
ISBN: 978-1-250-15962-5 (trade paperback)
pg 170-171

THE CAR OF PEACE

Saturday, April 1, 2023 

CHRISTIANITY / POETRY / JOSIAH'S FIRE

My favorite living poet, Josiah Cullen, just posted this on his Facebook page.   I'm copying it in full and posting it here for your enjoyment.  

It seems he and his mother got into a car accident!  They are OK, but Josiah felt the need to write a quick essay in his poetic style to share with us what he learned. 

Please realize that Josiah is a non-verbal autistic teenage boy.   He can only communicate by typing out his thoughts.  

Honestly, I was afraid for prepping this. But, look, I feel I owe it to our Lord, for Mom and I were in an openly strong car accident two days ago.

Lips strangely praised as we opened our worry up to the Lord—and we were okay! I powerfully was really primed to fire off our trials out there. Pity—I ripped it up! So I directly lifted it up to my God.

Voices of pressure prepare us for proof that strength is treated with positive wisdom. Do I stay in the car that wrecked or do I go in another car? I wanted to stay in the protection of the car that I felt right at home riding in. Proof I HAD to go was a lot of police officers!

Police officers do it for safety for everyone.

Driving is progress for me, for I like riding in our car, listening to educational documentaries. Hire ideal steering out on roads in the softness of the woods, and I just love it! Going out is so fun for us.

Returning home was loudly tiresome for me after the accident. Timid and pressed, I felt so dire in my worry. So I listened to safety words from my dad and mom, but I replayed the strong impact in my memory. Really I was so worried until I started settling that I was okay and I saw my mom was okay after she came back from the doctor with only an arm splint.

Trials do always hurry us to the truth if we will allow it. Jesus directed ideal truth to slow down my worry. He turned worry directly to a weapon of strength. That is to say it is worry sorted out into the double trust in God for His righteous fighting for us.

Life is props of things like doors and proud cars and fire engines and the lights of life-preserving vehicles. Spirit is doors too. And transportation and life-protection. Frown if you will when a present worry tries your spirit. Help is right there when you ask for it to come!

Listening to the reality of our policemen directing me to go to the other car, I was so powerfully determined that I would stay with the car that I knew.

Worry is trust in a wrecked car.

Did it offer safety? It did for seconds only to be stripped from me if it was going to be towed away. I pouted. I listened, yet I fought it. 

Little option but to do the only thing. Get in the other car!

Lit up, I tried to hold off. I tried to go outside the circle of police. Did I positively originate stupidity if I stalled? Sure I did. It was dangerous!

Life is producing words of peace to me through this though. Lord Jesus is lighting up His peace. It is honored if we order it to our God’s ready justice.

For sort of days I did worry as it led up to this accident. Fried out, I just felt so sifted. Going for a drive is always strength to my soul. Joy is in this pocket of grace.

How is this all put in to lots of life’s worries? Distant ideas tell me that we worry about slaying dragons out there when actually we are worried about the powerful fires of worry itself!

So now I fight as a returned soldier of a war that has already been won in my Lord’s name. Worry was defined and defeated by Jesus. 

It is the peace that is offered in the other “car.” You are wise to get into that other car of peace whenever things go wrong.

Love,

Josiah


His original post can be found here: Facebook: Joshiah's Fire

How We Became Gafcon – Dr. Peter Jensen

CHRISTIANITY / GAFCON 

The LGBT false religion is infecting everything on this planet: politics, corporations, universities, entertainment, media, high-tech, and, most recently, the Christian church.   

Denominations all across the planet are being split in two thanks to LGBT.   The Church of England, also known as the Anglicans, has decided to fully accept the LGBT religion in place of Christianity.   However, the worldwide Anglican communion is not exactly in agreement with this, and so they have started their own denomination: the Global Anglican Future Conference, or GAFCON.

This is a short video about how it all started.

A EUCHARISTIC MIRACLE

CHRISTIANITY / EUCHARISTIC MIRACLES

On March 5, 2023, there was a Eucharistic miracle - multiplying of the Host - during the distribution of communion... it was reported immediately by an extraordinary minister who was a last-minute substitution for the Pastor (whose thumb was bandaged before the Mass). The Pastor is Rev. Joseph Crowley of the St Maximilian Kolbe Parish at St Thomas Catholic church in Thomaston, CT. This parish was previously known as St Thomas Parish until a merger and was the last parish served by Blessed Michael McGivney, founder of the Knights of Columbus. 

This video is the beginning of the 3/12/23 Homily where Fr Crowley reviews the details of the Miracle that he witnessed at the 3/5/23 10am Mass.

I don't really pay much attention to eucharistic miracles, because they can often times be more of a distraction than a blessing, but I think this little miracle at St Thomas Catholic Church is significant, and for real.  

As far as miracles go, this was a small one: communion hosts kept multiplying in the chalice, instead of running out as communion was being served.  And it happened to just one minister.  That's it.  That's the whole miracle.  No, it's not a big deal, but it's significant.   

Miracles like this point to "multiplication" stories reported in the gospels:

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.  When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick.  Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”  But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”  They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.”  And he said, “Bring them here to me.”  Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.  And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.  And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

- John 14:13-21 ESV

There are two very important spiritual lessons to be learned from these stories:

1. JESUS WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU, IF YOU KEEP YOUR ATTENTION ON HIM.   Five thousand men, not including woman and children, followed Jesus out in the wilderness to hear Jesus teach.  They were not concerned about food, for they were hungry for something far more important than food: spiritual truth.   But Jesus, seeing their "hunger" for the word, had compassion on them, and gave them food for their stomachs as well as food for their souls.   By following Jesus, all their needs were taken care of.  

2. JESUS HONORS THOSE WHO FOLLOW HIS COMMANDMENTS.   Jesus had a few of his own "commandments" that he issued, in addition to those made famous by Moses in regards to "The Ten Commandments".  One of those commandments was to remember his sacrifice on the cross whenever you broke bread and drank wine.   Despite all its problems and failings, the Catholic Church is really good at following and obeying that particular command of Jesus.  Hence, Jesus wasn't going to allow a Eucharistic minister to run out of hosts in his willingness to follow Jesus' command.   So the minister witness a small miracle, just to let him and the congregation know that Jesus appreciates their act of obedience.   

While some, including Father Joseph Crowley, the priest in this video, will say that "transubstantiation" is the bigger miracle of the Eucharist, we can wonder if that's really true.   Transubstantiation  is the doctrine that states that the host and wine really do become the body and blood of Jesus when the priest blesses the elements.  The problem is that doctrines and dogmas are not miracles, but teachings of facts and information.  And obeying the teachings of Jesus are not miracles either, that's just what you should be doing as a believer.  

But the multiplication of hosts, even though it's a very small miracle, is still a miracle, in that it flies in the face of nature itself, as miracles should.  By consuming a substance, you do not, under any circumstances, get more of it.   That's how you know a real miracle has taken place.  There is no doctrine or dogma that states that communion hosts must multiply during a mass.  

So what's the message of this miracle?  What's the point?   It's just Jesus way of letting his church know that he appreciates their obedience to his commands.  And that by doing so, he will certainly take care of all their needs.   It's no more complicated than that. 

We are conditioned to think that miracles only occur if they are prayed for.   But in the biblical texts, there are multiple cases of miracles occurring without anyone asking for one.   God does not need us to ask for miracles, sometimes he just sends one because he wants to bless people.   Most likely, that's what happened at St. Thomas Catholic Church.   

So, if you have a need, ask God to help out.  Maybe he will take care of you like he took care of the Eucharistic minister in Connecticut.  

As for me personally, there is a bigger message here.  St Thomas is apart of the parish of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.  St Kolbe was a Polish priest who was martyred at a concentration camp during World War II.   I think I need to pay closer attention to this saint, and learn more about his life and ministry.