Blessed & Bearded's Biblical Blog

Watch Fuel for the Fire Psalm 13:5-6 Good morning. And thank you all for coming.  Yesterday we met with our "preaching circles" for the first time. And one of the questions that were asked by my leader was "why are you here?". I myself am here for several reasons, a few being that I want to learn, to sharpen my craft, to network.  But truth be told: I am tired. And I need to be refilled. Maybe it's senioritis, maybe I'm calloused, dishearted bc of the lack of sown seed being reaped on my mission field- I mean my college. As long as I'm being honest, I'll be preaching to the mirror just as much as I'll be preaching to y'all this morning. And I sincerely pray it's an encouragement to all of us.  So let's dive into the text (READ Psalm 13) Historians don't actually know when or why David wrote this psalm, all attempts to date it are but guesses. But whenever he wrote it, the reason why he wrote it, appe

The Screwtape Letters Lewis, C.S. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc., 1961. Print. The Screwtape Letters was originally published on February 1942 by Geoffrey Bles and written by renowned Christian author Clive Staples Lewis. The novel takes place over a series of letters from a mentor Demon named Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood, who is also a Demon. Screwtape writes 31 different letters to his nephew Wormwood in an attempt to teach him how to tempt Wormwood’s first “Client” in order to keep him from “The Enemy”, who is God, and turn him to the ways of evil or sin.   The “Client” is a British man, who lives in London, England during World War two and he is never given a name. At the beginning of Wormwood’s assignment, the Client is not a convert to Christianity. However, during the first of Hitler’s bombing raids of London the emotional ups and downs of the air raid gave the Client a renewed faith in God. This is most frustrating to Wormwood and a disappointment to Scre

Classical thinkers: -Know the allegory of the cave and why Plato wrote it The allegory of the Cave is one of the most famous teachings of Plato. The allegory is, essentially, that there exist some cave people that see shadows projected on the wall and that for them is a reality. Then someone decides to break free from the cave and discover the outside world, or rather discover the true reality. The person tries to go back and break others free from their false reality. This allegory was written to help explain those people who willingly chose to live in the cave, IE in ignorance,  after having been told a new, true reality. -Know the arguments for and against escaping from prison Crito gives to Socrates and Socrates Response Socrates argues that he cannot escape prison because it would be answering injustice with a greater injustice. Crito’s argument for escaping prison is that Socrates has done nothing wrong and therefore should not be punished; moreover that if Socrat

Christians have long since wrestled with the significance of the Old Law, of the Jews, and the New Law and, moreover, how to these Laws apply to the political realm, if at all. St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and John Locke are but a few who have tried to answer these questions. Each one argues that the Old Law is no longer needed to be obeyed by the Christian because the Christian has a new, surpassing Law, that is the New Law. The New Law being the Law given by Christ Himself which is, in short, loving God and loving neighbor. St. Augustine in his work City of God tries to explain how the Christian, a member of the Heavenly City or rather the City of God, is to interact with the City of Man, or rather the temporal and physical world particularly in light of the Old and New Law. Augustine explains the Christian's relationship with the Old and New Law by the typification of “Abraham's two sons-Ishmael, the son of Agar the Handmaid, being born according to the

Theology is no easy philosophy, it raises many different questions like how does the Christian live in a secular world, do they run for office, if so when? Likewise, the political realm has had its challenges with religion as well for example: what and how much should the gov tolerant rel? All the questions and more are very important and valid to answer. All of these questions answers could differ depending on one's view of God. This is why the study of God, theology is so important. Martin Luther in his work Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should Be Obeyed wrestles with the question of the “temporal authority and the sword it bears, [and] how to use it in a Christian manner, and to what extent men are obligated to obey it.” ( Temporal Authority 1). Luther is writing this so that the Christian if he becomes the holder of an office will be able to rule and rule well by knowing how the temporal sword is to be used. One of the first points that Luther makes it established