A morning with the JWs

I was cleaning the house this morning when the doorbell rang. Two ladies, both holding their bibles tightly. introduced themselves and Jehovah's Witnesses. They started out asking if I minded if they quoted scripture to me. Of course I didn't mind and I told them to go ahead. They quoted a passage from Isaiah about how there will be no more sickness when the Messiah came. They asked me a few questions about scripture and determined that I knew enough about the bible to find out my religious background. (Their words exactly: You know scripture pretty well, what religion are you?) I told them. First they tried to argue that we weren't the first Christian church. I responded that if they really wanted to get into that coversation that I had history to back me up. Then they changed tactics and they started quoted scriptures that, in their opinion, were anti-Trinity. They were set in their ways to convince me that Jesus Christ was not God. I, in turn, turned to John chapter 1. I read it aloud.

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." (By this point they tried to interrupt me, but I read on.) "In Him was life and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it."


I stopped and looked up. I asked them who they believed the Word was. They responded with a "Jesus." They were both sitting violently flipping through their bibles trying to come up with a good response. They quoted a verse about Jesus being the MESSIAH, but not actually God. I repeated, "The Word was God."
They did not respond to that but said, "Later in that scripture John said that no one has seen God at any time!" I said, "No one has directly seen the nature of God."

One of the women responded, "It takes more faith for you to believe in the Trinity than for us to believe that Jesus is not God."

I paused and said, "Thanks."

They said they needed to go and so we said goodbye.

A Dr. Laura Bit

I'm a bit of a Dr. Laura fan. I read her books, I podcast her show, I have her action figure...

Well, today while I was listening I heard a pretty interesting call, thought I'd share.

A man called in identifying himself as an Evangelical Christian who has married a Greek Orthodox woman who had a very religious family. He went on to say how offended he is when they pray in front of the icons before Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner type things. He also really didn't like the fact that they say prayers to Mary and written prayers instead of "from the heart" prayers.

Dr. Laura (laughing): You're kidding me, right? You marry a Greek Orthodox Christian...

Man: Yes.

Dr. Laura:...and you're complaining about seeing icons and them honoring Mary? That's hilarious.

Man: Well...

Dr. Laura: Isn't that a little ridiculous? What did you expect to hear about when you married into an Orthodox family?

Man: But I wonder if I could ask while I'm there that they not say those things...

Dr. Laura: It's their house, it is their style and ardent beliefs. And you MARRIED into their sphere. You didn't marry an Evangelical Christian you married a nice Orthodox girl. She has an Orthodox family. You sit there and remember you worship the same God. They worship God and my understanding is that they don't worship icons. So, view the icons as pictures from the Bible. That's not bad! And also, you have no right to be offended. No right at all. Think of it this way, if they changed their prayers and did it your way in their own house, wouldn't that be strange?

Man (Let's it sink in for a moment.): Yeah, that's true.

Dr. Laura: But if you marry into an Orthodox family don't expect them to change because youre not because you made the decision to join their family...they didn't.




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I loved that!

Anniversary Blog

Well, once again...we've come to my blogoversary. Happy three years of blogging to me!

And happy St. Nina day to all (it was yesterday, oh well)



The Troparion for St. Nina

O handmaiden of the Word of God,
who in preaching equaled the first-called Apostle Andrew,
and imitated the other Apostles,
enlightener of Iberia and reed pipe of the Holy Spirit,
holy Nina, equal of the Apostles,
pray to Christ God to save our souls.

Well, that was fun

Good party tonight at the Braun's. As most of you know, one of my closest childhood friends (Mary) got engaged a couple weeks ago. I'm sort of blown away. Ever since, I've been thinking about how we were as little kids and how it seems that we blinked and we're ADULTS now. When I reflect on it, I'm beginning to think about all the cute surprises that God had in store for me. For example, Sean and me falling for eachother. Who knew that would happen? More importantly, who knew that the seven little girls at St. Barnabas would actually grow up one day?



This is a picture of Mary and I with her fiancee Andrew and my boyfriend Sean.




and here's a picture that I took of another picture of me and Mary when we were about 11 or 12.



Lord, watch over us.