Running in Circles

A friend made the comment to me today that he needed to modify his Google+ account to divide his online aquaintences into a "profane circle" and a "non-profane circle".

I avoided facebook for a while for reasons similar to this. People from work would friend me, as would folks from church. These people may be unprepared for the fact that I associate with individuals who use foul language, see fornication and drunkeness as a recreation, and in on particular case, are evangelical athiests.

Is it better to avoid these people? Or is a mature christian filling the role of "salt and light" by associating with them and giving good example of himself?

The key is not who we associate with, but how we act. If we are uncompromising in our morals and manners, in what we say and what we do, we can be a friend to "publicans and sinners" like Jesus.

What we must avoid is a personal double-standard where we become a different person for each group. Actors, or "hypocrites" as Jesus referred to them in the Greek are condemned over and over again.

Peter even fell victim to this as we are told in Galatians 2:12. We can avoid this by remembering that the God we serve is One. He pours out his love on all, but changes for no one.

Storming the Gates

Matthew 16:18 KJV
And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
--

Reading some pieces on the internet that I can't find now, I was shown a facet of this verse that I've not seen until now.

Gates are not usually in the habit of attacking. So we are not the passive defenders being attacked in this saying.

We are the assaulting army. This is a call for the Church Militant to storm hell and bring the lost back out. And the gates will not prevail against us.

Limits

12.9 Miles with well over a mile worth of elevation changes.
5 hours, 45 minutes.

I'm not saying it wasn't hard. But I used to get winded using the stairs at work. Our only limitations are the ones we set ourselves.

We know this because we have saints (and saints in the making) to show us that the impossible is, in fact, possible.

I offered up the suffering of my hike for a couple of causes in my life.

This guy wins forever, however.

Scars

I'm paraphrasing here, but it's early and I can't find the actual quote.

Watched a Archbishop Fulton Sheen collection from Netflix on Sunday, and one thing he said has stuck with me.

He said that Our Lord ascended with wounds, but would return with scars. And by our scars he would judge us.

"Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?"

Currently reading: Man's Search For Meaning - Viktor Frankl

Behold, The Destroyer of Blogs!

Posting should resume a regular pattern soon, with the format revolving around some recent epiphanies concerning my own spirituality.

Personal Goals

I've set a goal of completing the Tough Mudder competition next February. This is going to require quite a bit of preperation between now and then, as it is a physically and mentally demanding course.

This is a step in a recent attempt to define my spirituality. I'm working on a manifesto of sorts that I intend to post pieces of on this blog. The main gist will be exploring prayer and mortification through physicallity, and manliness as central to masculine spiritual development.

The Essence of Scripture

Not following the Family Radio / Rapture situation, but Shameless Popery has live-blog coverage.

He also has this great quote.

“And let them not flatter themselves if they think they have Scripture authority for their assertions, since the devil himself quoted Scripture, and the essence of the Scriptures is not the letter, but the meaning.” St. Jerome