Communion Thought Vulcan Church of Christ. October 2. 9th, 2. Allen Webber“Transformation. In 2 Corinthians 3: 1. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” and in Romans 1. And do not be fashioned to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, well pleasing and perfect.”When you look up transformation in the dictionary, a basic description is a “complete or major change in someone or something’s appearance or form.”  And when you look in original Greek, the word transformation is metamorphosis.

· Cardinal Raymond Burke has recently laid some of the blame for the precipitous decline in priestly vocations upon the feminization of the liturgy. His.

Consider for a moment the butterfly.  It undergoes a profound change from caterpillar to pupa and from pupa to mature butterfly.  Although an outward change in appearance takes place, the change comes from within the life of that organism.  A caterpillar is born with a life that cause it to become a butterfly.  It doesn’t put on a butterfly costume or strive to act like a butterfly.  As long as it eats, its metabolism takes the nutrients in and causes it to grow so that eventually the caterpillar changes and becomes a real genuine butterfly. This butterfly transformation is a good metaphor for the Christian life.  When we become Christians, we are reborn or transformed with the divine life of God within.  This life transforms us into the image of Christ.  But like the butterfly, we have to stay in the process of transformation by eating.  Some caterpillars eat only one kind of leaf for their whole lives.  In the same way, as believers, we also are meant to eat only one kind of spiritual food throughout our entire lives – Jesus Christ.  In John 6: 3. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger and he who believes in Me shall no longer thirst.”When we partake of communion, we are reminded of the sacrifice of Jesus, so that we might be transformed into a new creation.”October 1.

Allen Webber“Rejection. Have you ever stopped to consider, as you are reading Scripture, and especially in the Old Testament, how the Jews missed the message of the gospel; how they missed the Messiah?  After all, the scribes and scholars who were studying and meditating on their Scriptures were brilliant minds.  They had studied and learned the same Scriptures for multiple generations, for thousands of years.  The documents they were using were God- inspired so there was not an issue there.  Accuracy was critically important to them.  These prophecies were studied so often and so well, they even knew where Jesus was going to be born.  As well, over the final two thousand years, from the time of Moses to His birth, God was in regular contact with (and disciplining) these same Jews.  He was constantly trying to hammer into their heads what kind of God He is.  Even the Old Testament worship practices were forerunners of things to come.  Consider the animal sacrifices, especially the Passover, and we can see the picture of Christ.  Even then, they still rejected the Messiah.  Even the rejection was prophesied.  But why? I think it was part of the plan.  It was necessary that the Messiah be rejected so that the good news of the gospel could then be spread beyond the boundaries of Israel.  Up until now, the faith, as it was, was limited to a race of people in a relatively small part of the world.  But, with the Messiah, the good news was to be for all the world.  It was necessary that Jesus experience what He did and how He did it so that He might have full sympathy with all.  To be the perfect sacrifice He must be fully human.  To be perfect, He must be fully God. So, to bring this into a communion celebration for the Christian church today, we can contemplate the rejection of Christ on our behalf.  The nation of Israel, the official leadership, rejected Him and are still waiting and watching for Him.  Even His closest friends and followers – men He had taught and lived with for three years – abandoned Him as soon as the official oppression began. But on the cross itself, we hear the cry of the greatest rejection of all, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 2. He, who knew no sin, became sin for us, and, rejected as sin, must be rejected by a holy God.  So, these two emblems are to remind us that our Lord was rejected by heaven and earth – for us.”October 8th, 2.

Murray Markert“Lynne and I had the opportunity to get away for a few days and the farthest east we got was the National Historic Site at Fort Louisbourg on Cape Breton.  Fort Louisbourg was built by the king of France to protect his very lucrative fishing business and it held 6. It operated in the early 1. British.  Throughout the museum, it had people dressed and acting parts of people who would have lived and worked at the fort during its years of operation.  We booked a tour to walk us through the life of a soldier.  That part of the tour was only short lived and then we were taken by the soldier to a large kitchen where we were hosted by a man playing the part of the priest of the day.  He very much looked liked Friar Tuck and he played his part to perfection staying in character of the time.  A lady on the tour asked him what he would have done.  He responded immediately and with great enthusiasm and he went slightly out of character in his response.  He responded, “To comfort the lonely, to assure those who are fearful and afraid, the same as I would to people today.  I would talk to them to give them the assurance that the Lord cares for them and loves them.  I would comfort them to help them overcome their fears.”As this was played out before me, I could not help but realize the human condition has not changed.  No matter what the backdrop, our needs have been, are, and will be always the same.  As we come to the communion table and remember Jesus’ life and celebrate the fact that Jesus died and shed His blood for the assurance of our salvation, let us remember to give thanks to Him for that.”October 1st, 2. Allen Webber“The Cornerstone. From Acts 4: 8- 1. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all of Israel, that the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead – by this name this man stands before you in good health.  He is the stone rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief cornerstone, and there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”When I was young, we used to put up hay using small square bales.  And until we got mechanical means that would make the job easier, sometimes that bale could be handled six or seven times before it was fed to a cow.  Nonetheless, when the bales were brought back to the farm, and put into a stack, you needed to pay attention to how that stack was built.  Quite a few times we would start plopping bales down without due care, only to have part of the stack sluff off because it was not tied together with the other bales.  We always started a stack in the corners and followed the same principle of brick laying – overlaying the bale on two previous bales.  But when you came to the corners you had an opportunity to overlap, going two different directions, hence the term – cornerstone.  Using basic physics, a structure will collapse generally north, south, east or west.  By adding the cornerstone, you strengthen the entire building again, in those four directions.

Son of God Movie Review & Film Summary (2. Last year, the History Channel aired a mini- series called "The Bible", executive produced by husband and wife Mark Burnett and Roma Downey (who also played Mary, Jesus' mother). The mini- series was nominated for 2 Primetime Emmys and received high audience ratings. Son of God" is the Jesus section of that mini- series, brought to large screens in the hopes of finding an even wider audience. There has been very little traditional advertising for the film. Burnett and Downey have chosen instead to reach out to church groups for screenings, relying on a grass- roots awareness campaign to get the word out.

There has also been a concerted effort to reach out to Jewish groups, in the hopes of avoiding the charges of anti- Semitism Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" faced. The Jews in power still don't come off great in "Son of God". They seem petty, fearful and small- minded. Son of God" is explicitly for Christian audiences (I saw it with a church group, who applauded mightily as the credits started to roll), opening with a dreamy voiceover from the Apostle John telling us how God has always been there, as we see images of fighting dinosaurs, Noah's Ark crashing through the waves, and a "Blue Lagoon"- style glimpse of Adam and Eve in the Garden. It's heavy- handed and melodramatic, openly sentimental, and extremely earnest. Son of God"'s earnest- ness is not necessarily a strike against it; it was made by earnest people who want to spread the word.

But it's a tough draught to swallow if you're not in the mood for a sermon. Advertisement. Unlike Gibson's film, which focused on Jesus' arrest, torture, and death, "Son of God" takes us through Jesus' life from its humble beginnings in the barn, to the gathering of his followers, his march to Jerusalem, and all of the miracles he performed along the way. It's a Greatest Hits montage. Watch Jesus multiply the loaves and fishes and walk on water and raise Lazarus from the dead. When Jesus (played by Portuguese actor Diogo Morgado), first approaches the fisherman Peter (Darwin Shaw), loading up his boat in the dead- calm Sea of Galilee, Jesus smiles knowingly at Peter like he's got a secret.

The Laughing Gnostic — David Bowie and the Occult by Peter–R. Koenig First publication: 1996, recent update: 2017.

• 2 PETER RESOURCES Commentaries, Sermons, Illustrations, Devotionals. 2 Peter: True and False Prophecy Click chart to enlarge Chart from Jensen's Survey of the NT.
• PART ONE: Salvation History. What do we mean by saying, "Salvation history? We mean the story of Our Father's dealing with the human race.

Peter tells him there are no fish out there, and Jesus, smirking, runs his hands through the water and Presto! Peter's net is filled with fish. Jesus' miracles come off as party tricks throughout the film, with the watching crowd breathing "Oooh!" as something incredible happens. His followers multiply, and so do his critics. He threatens those in power, not only the Jewish high priests (led by Caiaphas, played by Adrian Schiller), but the Romans occupying Jerusalem. Filmed like a blockbuster epic, with quick cuts, hi- definition photography, a moody insistent score by Lorne Balfe, and some awkward repetitive CGI shots of what is clearly a model of the Temple in Jerusalem, "Son of God" features a pretty bad script, especially when all of the Apostles are talking amongst themselves about Jesus' message and what it all will lead to. Watch Miss Sloane Online Fandango.

We have to take his message straight to the heart of power," one Apostle helpfully exclaims. Or Pilate, looking on as Jesus is dragged out to be tortured, murmuring, "It's as if he knows that this must happen." There are a couple of weird details I liked, mostly having to do with casting. Greg Hicks plays Pontius Pilate as a macho guy nervous about his new position as governor, wanting to please his overlords and keep the Jews in line at the same time. We see him strolling around in a see- through nightie, getting massages, fighting gladiators for exercise, and lolling about on chaise longues with his hottie wife, eating grapes. My favorite Pontius Pilate is still David Bowie from Martin Scorsese's "The Last Temptation of Christ," but this Pilate is pretty entertaining.

It is refreshing to see Mary Magdalene (Amber Rose Revah) as an accepted part of the Apostle group (although not invited to the Last Supper); her sex not even commented on. Now that's revolutionary! And Fraser Ayres plays Barabbas, the rabble- rouser chosen by the crowd to go free in exchange for Jesus' death, as a scarred and furious precursor of the present- day rugby thug. Advertisement The film is most interesting when it focuses on the political machinations of the Roman occupation, and what it meant for the Jews being occupied. The overall problem with "Son of God" (besides the fact that it was already seen, in full, in mini- series form) is that Jesus, smirking throughout, comes off as a cipher. It is the blonde gentle Jesus from the stained glass windows and Sunday School books.

It is not a visceral portrayal of a man who spoke about the beauty of the humble and about compassion for the weak and the despised, who stood up for the little guy—all of those humanistic messages that were so revolutionary at the time (and remain so today). His Sermon on the Mount isn't rousing or mind- blowing in "Son of God". It's delivered too casually, too off- handedly for that. It is difficult to believe that that pretty- man in a white dress strolling around smirking ever threatened anyone.