Saturday, March 28, 2015

Many of our words and phrases are rooted in religion The U-T San Diego


Easter, which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion, was the earliest feast day decreed by the ancient Christian church. Many Christians consider the season leading up to Easter to be the holiest time of the year in their faith. This seems like a good time, then, to think about the influence of religion on the words we speak and hear and write and read every day.
We think of carnivals as traveling entertainments with rides, sideshows, games, cotton candy and balloons; but the first carnivals were pre-Lenten celebrations — a last fling before penitence. The Latin word parts, carne ,“meat, flesh,” andvale,“farewell,” indicate that the earliest carnivals were seasons of feasting and merrymaking, “a farewell to meat,” just before Lent.
The word religionderives from the Latinreligionem ,“respect for what is sacred.”Carnivalis one of many words and expressions that began in religion. Because our society has become somewhat secularized, we overlook the religious foundation of our daily parlance:
bonfire.Originally the bone fires that consumed the bodies of saints whom were burned during the English Reformation.
enthusiastic.From the Greekenthusiasmos ,“a god within.” The word first meant “filled with God,” as
didgiddy,from Anglo Saxon gydig ,“god-held man.”
excruciating. The Latin word for “cross,”crux,is embedded in the words crux, crucialandexcruciating,which has broadened from denoting the agony of the crucifixion to any kind of torturous pain.
fan.A clipping offanatic,“inspired by the temple.” The opposite,
profane,describes a person who is irreverent and sacrilegious, from the Latinpro,“outside,” and fanum, “the temple.”
good- bye.Our traditional farewell turns out to be a shortening of the sentence “God be with you.”
holiday.Originally a “holy day,” descending from the Old English
haligdaeg .With the change in pronunciation has come a change in meaning so that holidays, such as Independence Day and Labor Day, are not necessarily holy.
icon.In its original meaning,iconwas a small religious painting used as an aid to devotion. In its new meaning, icons are now people who achieve superstar status in the worlds of politics, sports, the arts and entertainment. Many consider this change to be a debasement of a perfectly good word.
red-letter day.So called because of the practice of calendar and almanac publishers of printing the numbers of saints’ days and religious feast days in red ink. Such daysnow describe any distinctive day in a person’s life, such as birthdays, graduations and the day the local sports team wins a championship.
short shrift.In bygone days, political offenders, military captives and heretics were executed almost out of hand. There was but a thin pretense of justice in which the prisoner could confess (shrive)his sins to a priest and prepare his soul for death. Those who kept these unfortunate souls in thrall often allotted but a short time for confession, and this hurried procedure became known asshort shrift.Nowadays, this compound means “to give scant attention, to make quick work of.”
story.Why can story mean both “a tale” and “the level of a building”? Both words come down to us from the Latinhistoria ,“to know,” and French histoire ,where it means both “a tale” and “the discipline history.” The endurance of the meanings “tale” and “floor” is architectural. Back in the Middle Ages, it was the custom in many parts of Europe to paint scenes depicting historical, legendary, biblical, or literary subjects on the outside of the various floors of buildings. Each level represented a story, and, before long, the levels themselves were called stories.
Send questions and comments to richardhlederer@ gmail.com. website: verbivore.com.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

God Facts


 I think you will find this of great interest.  God made things the rightway.  They will never change...
we need to read this more than once to be reminded what AGREAT GOD WE SERVE.    
How
Great is our God!!! Our Creator and Redeemer . . . and do we THINK about it ???   God's accuracy may be observed in the hatching of eggs...          For example: -the eggs of the potato bug hatch in 7 days;
-those of the canary in 14 days; -
those of the barnyard hen in 21 days; - 
The eggs of ducks and geese hatch in 28 days; -those of the mallard in 35 days; -  eggs of the parrot and the ostrich hatch in 42 days.
(Notice, they are all divisible by seven, thenumber of days in a week!) 
God's wisdom is seen in the making of an elephant.  The four legs of this great beast all bendforward in the same direction.  No other quadruped is so made. God planned that this animal would have a hugebody, too large to live on two legs. For this reason He gave it four fulcrums so that it can rise from the ground easily.
The horse rises from the ground on its two front legs first.
A cow rises from the ground with its two hind legs first.
How wise the Lord is in all His works of creation!
God's wisdom is revealed in His arrangement of sections and segments, as well as in the number of grains. -
Each watermelon has an even number of stripes on the rind.
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Each orange has an even number of segments.
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Each ear of corn has an even number of rows.
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Each stalk of wheat has an even number of grains.
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Every bunch of bananas has on its lowest row an even number of bananas, and each row decreases by one, so that one row has an even number and the next row an odd number.
-The waves of the sea roll in on shore twenty-six to the minute in all kinds of weather. -All grains are found in even numbers on the stalks, and the Lord specified thirty fold, sixty fold, and a hundred fold all even  numbers. God has caused the flowers to blossom at certain specified times during the day. Linnaeus, the great botanist, once said that if he had a conservatory containing the right kind of soil, moisture and temperature, he could tell the time of day or night by the flowers that were open and those that were closed!
 The lives of each of you may be ordered by the Lord in a beautiful way for His glory, if you will only entrust Him with your life.  If you try to regulate your own life, it will only be a mess and a failure. Only the One Who made the brain and the heart can successfully  guide them to a profitable end.
I
HOPE YOU FIND THIS AS FASCINATING AS I DID.
May God Bless You in Ways You Never Even Dreamed. I didn't think twice about forwarding this one. 
The Bible When you carry "the Bible," Satan has a headache, when you open it, he collapses, when he sees you reading it, he loses his strength, AND when you stand on the Word of God, Satan can't hurt you!
And did you also know...When you are about to share this others, the devil will probably try to discourage you, but do it anyway. "Life without God is like an unsharpened pencil - it has no point. "  
"AMEN”

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Did You Know?

 


The brutal murders of two New York City police officers days before Christmas shocked the nation. One of the slain officers, Rafael Ramos, was to be certified as a lay chaplain at 4:00 the afternoon he was killed.



  If you were to bump into Officer Ramos in plain clothes while he was off duty, you would probably never think he was a police officer. New York City cops have a certain look about them, a certain aura, and you can just tell they’re cops. But Officer Ramos was different; he did not have that same feel.



  Rafael was a person who loved the Lord. He had been serving faithfully for 14 years at his local church. The Lord was at the center of his life. God played a role in everything he did.
He viewed being a New York City officer as a service to his community and he believed he was doing God’s work because he was protecting and serving his community. He felt he was a part of the solution when it came to the trouble in our communities. 



 He felt that chaplaincy was the kind of work that brought you closer to those that were suffering and he paralleled it with the work he did as a police officer. Police officers run toward the problem while others run away. This is similar to chaplaincy because we seek out those who are suffering, while others might move away from suffering.



  Do you consider your work as doing God’s work? How do you treat those around you? What do you know about their life, so you can share about Jesus with them?

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The Sign of the Cross

The Sign of the Cross

Customs can be powerful things!  And helpful!  Shaking hands as we meet someone or hugging as we greet a friend are "secular" examples.  Christians folding their hands or bowing their heads or closing their eyes when they pray are religious examples.  Sometimes our actions help us focus and express things.  This is one of the oldest and most universal of all Christian worship practices.

History of the "Sign of the Cross"

This practice has its roots in the first or second century with Baptism.  This gesture was made to express the Trinity as the person was baptized "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."  It was made twice--on the forehead and once on the heart. By the third century, it was universal and widely used in worship.  Around the year 200 in Carthage (modern Tunisia, Africa), Tertullian says: "We Christians wear out our foreheads with the Sign of the Cross".


WHY the "Sign?"  What are the Reasons?
The Sign of the Cross signifies, recalls and celebrates the following:
  
     -  Our Baptism, and that we are His children - His own, we belong to Him!
     -  God's mercy and grace!
     -  The Trinity
     -  Our thankful hearts!  It's a sign or act of thanksgiving.
     -  It sometimes has a prayer aspect; the Sign is expressing our trust in God or our prayer for 
        God's intervention (Ever see baseball players Cross themselves as they come to bat?).


HOW is the Sign done?  And WHEN?
Traditionally, it's done in this order:  head, heart, RIGHT shoulder, LEFT shoulder (often back 
to heart).  Catholics reversed the order after the time of Luther now going to left shoulder first. Anglicans/Episcopalians followed the Catholic change but Lutherans typically stick to the older, traditional way -- going to the right shoulder first.  But Lutherans (not being picky about customs) welcome either way and you'll find Lutherans doing it either way (it's perfectly okay).  Typically it's done with the thumb and two fingers touching, also indicating the Trinity.


Like nearly all Lutheran pastors, Our Pastor leads it, as leader of our congregation. Pastor leads it with what's called "the open Sign".  Examples are at the Invocation, the Benediction, and after receiving Christ in the Sacrament;  as the worship leader, I'm LEADING you in doing the Sign. It's ENTIRELY optional if you respond with it.  A century ago, ALL Lutherans did - now (especially in the USA)...not so much.  It's totally up to you. But doesn't this...well...make you...um...well....Catholic?
No more than if you sing hymns or fold your hands when you pray or proclaim the Nicene Creed or celebrate Communion or have Scripture readings - Catholics do those too!


Typically, it's done whenever the Trinity is proclaimed (such as the Invocation and Benediction) and after receiving Christ in Communion.  Again, the pastor LEADS, suggesting when it's appropriate.