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Intimate With Jesus "Jesus said to him, ’Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip?’" —John 14:9 These words were not spoken as a rebuke, nor even with surprise; Jesus was encouraging Philip to draw closer. Yet the last person we get intimate with is Jesus. Before Pentecost the disciples knew Jesus as the One who gave them power to conquer demons and to bring about a revival (see Luke 10:18-20). It was a wonderful intimacy, but there was a much closer intimacy to come: “. . . I have called you...

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict said on Sunday that Roman Catholic leaders must have the courage to stand up to attacks by "intolerant agnosticism" prevalent in many countries. The pope and the Church have come under increased attack because of their opposition to homosexual marriage and women priests. The pope has repeatedly denounced what he says are attempts to push religion out of public debate. The 85-year-old pontiff celebrated Mass on the day Christians in the West mark the Epiphany, and ordained four new archbishops including his personal secretary. In a homily to about 10,000 people in St Peter's Basilica in...

Psalm 7:10 My Defense is in God, Who Preserveth the Upright in Heart.

January 10, 2013   Thursday after Epiphany     Reading 1 1 Jn 4:19–5:4 Beloved, we love God becausehe first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,”but hates his brother, he is a liar;for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him:Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God,and everyone who loves the Fatherloves also the one begotten by him. In this way we know that we love the...

Last weekend, Father Gabriel Nadaf, 39, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth, challenged a boycott against him and attempted to enter the church there to recite a prayer and light a candle. He was accompanied by Israeli Border Police officers and supporters, who came to ensure his safe passage into the church. Nadaf was excommunicated by the Orthodox Church Council after he expressed his belief that Christian youth in Israel should fully integrate into Israeli society, serving in the IDF or in the National Service. Since then, he and others, like Father André Alamiya, have been the target of virulent...

January 9, 2013   Wednesday after Epiphany   Reading 1 1 Jn 4:11-18 Beloved, if God so loved us,we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,and his love is brought to perfection in us. This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us,that he has given us of his Spirit. Moreover, we have seen and testifythat the Father sent his Son as savior of the world. Whoever acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God,God remains in him and he in...

January 8, 2013   Tuesday after Epiphany   Reading 1 1 Jn 4:7-10 Beloved, let us love one another,because love is of God;everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.In this way the love of God was revealed to us:God sent his only-begotten Son into the worldso that we might have life through him.In this is love:not that we have loved God, but that he loved usand sent his Son as expiation for our sins. Responsorial Psalm Ps 72:1-2, 3-4, 7-8 R. (see 11) Lord, every nation on...

Bl. John Henry Newman said it best: “To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” History paints an overwhelming picture of St. Peter’s apostolic ministry in Rome and this is confirmed by a multitude of different sources within the Early Church. Catholic Encyclopedia states, “In opposition to this distinct and unanimous testimony of early Christendom, some few Protestant historians have attempted in recent times to set aside the residence and death of Peter at Rome as legendary. These attempts have resulted in complete failure.” Protestantism as a whole seeks to divorce Christianity from history by rending Gospel...

The Bible tells us that when Jesus returns to earth, he will physically raise all those who have died, giving them back the bodies they lost at death. These will be the same bodies people had in earthly life—but our resurrection bodies will not die and, for the righteous, they will be transformed into a glorified state, freed from suffering and pain, and enabled to do many of the amazing things Jesus could do with his glorified body (cf. 1 Cor. 15:35–44, 1 John 3:2). The resurrection of the body is an essential Christian doctrine, as the apostle Paul declares:...

Continuing a JPII tradition he was initially loath to pick up, this morning again saw the Pope mark Epiphany by ordaining a new crop of bishops, the crop of four headlined by the elevation of his longtime personal secretary, now Archbishop Georg Gänswein, who Benedict XVI has made his ultimate gatekeeper by naming the 56 year-old German as prefect of the Papal Household. Two of the other new archbishops – the Nigerian Fortunatus Nwachukwu, 52, and the Genovese Nicolas Thevenin, 54 – will respectively serve as papal nuncio in Nicaragua and Guatemala, while the Italian Angelo Vincenzo Zani, 62, will...

The Church of England has decided to drop its ban on gay clergy in civil partnerships seeking to become bishops, as long as they make a promise to remain celibate. Conservative Anglicans, however, insist celibacy would be difficult to enforce, noting that the decision undermines church doctrine on marriage. "The House has confirmed that clergy in civil partnerships, and living in accordance with the teaching of the Church on human sexuality, can be considered as candidates for the episcopate. There had been a moratorium on such candidates for the past year and a half while the working party completed its...

Eminem could now be a born again Christian, according to a new rumor. A source from the rapper's hometown of Detroit claims to have witnessed Eminem's transformation firsthand through some of his recent actions, according to AllHipHop.com. He stated that Eminem has been going through many changes as of late and has removed himself "from the depths of the music industry," and has also refused to conform to what is expected from him in the business. Eminem, known for his shock value lyrics as well as his vivid storytelling and superior lyrical capabilities confessed to being a Christian on a...

When Eric Metaxas spoke last year at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., he used the opportunity to challenge his listeners. In his new book No Pressure, Mr. President: Real Faith in a Time of Crisis, he makes his remarks available to a broader audience and recounts the journey of a writer trying to be a Christian witness. KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: The e-book version of your book is titled “Jesus Hates Dead Religion.” How can you claim to know what Jesus hates? ERIC METAXAS: The Bible says that God hates what is evil. According to my sources, Jesus is...

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem A New Journey…The Names of God in The Scriptures JudgeIsaiah 33:22 For the LORD is our Judge, The LORD is our Lawgiver, The LORD is our King; He will save us.

Worship "He moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord" —Genesis 12:8 Worship is giving God the best that He has given you. Be careful what you do with the best you have. Whenever you get a blessing from God, give it back to Him as a love-gift. Take time to meditate before God and offer the blessing back to Him in a deliberate act of worship....

The world view that the final reality is only material or energy shaped by pure chance, inevitably, (that's the next word I would bring to you ) mathematically -- with mathematical certainty -- brings forth all these other results which are in our country and in our society which have led to the breakdown in the country -- in society -- and which are its present sorrows. So, if you hold this other world view, you must realize that it is inevitable that we will come to the very sorrows of relativity and all these other things that are so...

January 7, 2013   Monday after Epiphany     Reading 1 1 Jn 3:22–4:6 Beloved:We receive from him whatever we ask,because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.And his commandment is this:we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,and love one another just as he commanded us.Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them,and the way we know that he remains in usis from the Spirit whom he gave us. Beloved, do not trust every spiritbut test the spirits to see whether they belong to God,because many false prophets have gone...

January 6, 2013   Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord   Reading 1 Is 60:1-6 Rise up in splendor, Jerusalem! Your light has come,the glory of the Lord shines upon you.See, darkness covers the earth,and thick clouds cover the peoples;but upon you the LORD shines,and over you appears his glory.Nations shall walk by your light,and kings by your shining radiance.Raise your eyes and look about;they all gather and come to you:your sons come from afar,and your daughters in the arms of their nurses. Then you shall be radiant at what you see,your heart shall throb and overflow,for the riches...

The White House has started a cockamamie procedure where regular citizens can launch petitions and if they get 25,000 signatures the White House will respond. Some are serious, like the one to exempt Hobby Lobby from the HHS contraceptive mandate. Some are silly, like the one asking for Joe Biden to be in a reality show. There is a petition for the arrest of NBC’s David Gregory for showing a magazine clip on his Sunday morning show, something that is illegal in Washington DC. A new petition has gone up, on Christmas Day no less, asking for the Catholic Church...

This letter is a very sad example of what happens when our personal freedoms and liberties are taken away. America wasn’t built on this, readers, and we absolutely must share this to show people the impact the Obama administration is having on every-day Americans. When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn’t much bigger than most people’s living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God‘s word....