Stephen K. Ray's Blog, page 480

Stop Eating Animals! It is Against the Plan of God!

IF YOU EAT ANIMALS YOU ARE VIOLATING THE PLAN OF GOD.

YOU SHOULD BE A VEGAN AND EAT NO ANIMAL PRODUCTS, INCLUDING FISH, EGGS, MILK, YOGURT, LOCUSTS OR MEAT.

IS THIS  **REALLY**  GOD'S PLAN?



MY RESPONSE TO A VEGAN CRITIC.

The original blog and comments

Day 8: Via Dolorosa, Mt. of Olives, Mt. Zion; Good-byes

Part 1 is our walk through the Via Dolorosa, the REAL Stations of the Cross.

Part 2 is the Mount of Olives and Mount Zion including the Upper Room.

Part 3 is the Farewell Mass, dinner, and final good-byes. Very nice.

All went perfectly well! Everyone was full of joy as they left for the airport last night. No problems through the whole trip.

Part i: Via Dolorosa, Stations of the Cross

Part II: Mount of Olives and Mount Zion

Part III Final Hours, Mass and Blessing of Religious Items and Final Good-byes, including comments from some of the pilgrims.

Day 8: Mt. of Olives, Mt. Zion; Good-byes

I will have Part 1 up in two days. It is our walk through the Via Dolorosa, the REAL Stations of the Cross.

Enjoy Part 2 and 3. Part 3 is the Farewell Mass, dinner, and final good-byes. Very nice.

All went perfectly well! Everyone was full of joy as they left for the airport last night. No problems through the whole trip.

Part III

Day 8, Part 2: Mt. of Olives, Mt. Zion

I will have Part 1 up in two days. It is our walk through the Via Dolorosa, the REAL Stations of the Cross.

Enjoy Part 2. Part 3 will be up a little later today. All is well! Everyone full of joy and no problems. After dinner tonight, all will pack and head for the airport.

Technical Problems for First Christians

Yes, the first Christians had a difficult time with the technical transistion from scrolls. You will certainly appreciate the need for the first "tech guys". Enjoy!

I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes!

Day 7: Masada, Qumran, Jericho, Dead Sea & Camels

Another great and fun day. Enjoy the videos.

Part i

Part II

Passover Lamb: a true story

Contributed by Jesse Ray 4-18-2011

I arrived on the scene with my gun and stoically loaded in some self-defense rounds (although I was clearly not in danger). I did not lavish the idea of slaughtering a lamb, but my friend and new-farmer, Pat, called and sheepishly asked for some help. I guess he thought I was qualified since I had butchered last year's deer with the help of my family.

It took a while for me to prepare the surroundings, I had never killed something so large, at such close range. During these few minutes I had time think about the gravity of what was about to happen.

Of course my mind took me back to the Jews and passover. Remember, the Bible is not just filled with stories, but with accounts of historical events. These events that we are familiar with actually happened. The Word of God prescribed, no dictated, the killing of a lamb. For the Jews, the lamb was not just dinner. The blood of the lamb was spread on the horizontal and vertical wood of the door frames (of course we recognize this as a foreshadowing of Christ's blood dripping from His wooden cross).

Exodus 12:21-22

Then Moses called all the elders of Israel, and said to them, "Select lambs for yourselves according to your families, and kill the passover lamb. Take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin, and touch the lintel and the two doorposts with the blood which is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.

We all know that the consequence of sin is death, yet today we do not always see or feel that direct connection. Before Jesus, the Lamb of God, came as our final sacrifice, a cute, woolly lamb <baaa>, had to die in expiation for sins. The Jews symbolically placed their own sins on the head of the lamb before it was killed in Leviticus 1. The male sheep was chosen from the flock for its spotlessness, just as Christ, sinless and perfect, died for our sins.

We Catholics are blessed with the sacrament of confession, a very quick and clean way of cleansing sins from our soul. Well, let me tell you there was nothing quick or clean about killing a lamb. If we had to go through this every time we sinned I would expect people would either sin less, or would carry more sins around on their hearts.

I tell the following story, not for the sake of gore, but because it was a very raw and spiritual experience. You should stop here if the thought of blood makes you queezy.

I was compelled to pause, and say a prayer thanking God for this animal and for the gift of it's life. At first it all happened quite fast: The the gun popped, a red spot appeared on the lambs head, the lamb dropped. I was glad that was over with.

What happened next surprised me. All living things try to avoid death, and even after the lethal blow, the lamb was not going to die without a fight. I apologize, for the detail, but far more blood than I expected began pouring out of the sheep's mouth and nose. The famous painting "Adoration of the Lamb" by van Eyck flashed in my brain, (of course in the painting the sheep is standing, but the flow of blood is clearly key in the comparison).

My friend Pat, the instigator of this whole event, took action (and large knife) holding the sheep down with the full weight of his body and slit the throat. As more blood emerged it was clear that the bloody descriptions in the old testament will never be void of imagery for me anymore.

PETA people refuse to eat lambchops or wear sheepskin because of (I assume) the violence of slaughter. (or maybe they just need some cause to distract them from the evils of abortion and euthanasia that many support). Before any scriptural lessons, I think seeing that this tasty protein-source doesn't start out in a styrofoam package at Meijers is good to know.

But seriously, what kind of a "merciful" God would order His people to do something so violent and base? The answer points to the Eucharist, and is so deep that we need to understand God's plan of salvation is exposed in history and recorded in scripture. Now we just need to know where to look.

My dad, Steve Ray, teaches about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and its Biblical foundations; he can speak for hours about the beauty and reality. Enjoy this audio sample about the passover lamb from a talk he gave in Ohio, April 2011. The whole talk, The Eucharist: Christ Present to Us, can be found here, and is really a great listen.

Pictures of the Lamb can be found here, They are of the actual event and not the sanitized american-children's version.

Happy Passion Week everybody. I pray that you will all draw closer to our Lord and find joy in His Cross and Resurrection.

Two Great Jewish Movies

Since we are in Jerusalem over Passover, I thought I would share two of our favorite Jewish movies.

Recently watched "Everything is Illuminated" again. It is funny and profound about a young man (Elijah Wood – Frodo in "Lord of the Rings") who discovers his Jewish past after Nazi fascists occupied Ukraine. It is one of my favorite movies.

Another of our favorite movies is " Ushpizin" a modern day Abraham and Sarah story set in modern Jerusalem, a quarter mile from our favorite hotel near the New Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. I run through this area of religious Jews. i LOVE the way the movies portrays their relationship with God.

Does John 3:16 Teach "Faith Alone"?

My mother asked me, "How would you like fifty cents?" I quickly responded, "I would like it very much." What a silly question to ask an seven year old. Of course I would like fifty cents. Fifty cents was a lot of money when I was a little boy. My mother continued, "Here is a Bible verse I want you to memorize, and when you can recite it perfectly, I will give you the money."

And that is how I first learned and memorized some of the most well-known passages of the Bible. I memorized all of Psalm 23, "The Lord is My Shepherd . . . " I learned Psalm 119:105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path," which was a constant reminder of the Bible's place of preeminence in my life, the sole rule of faith and practice.

Of course the most important verse to be memorized by any Evangelical Protestant child is John 3:16. It is a verse that encapsulates the Gospel of Christ in one elegant and pregnant sentence, a sentence that reaches to the heart of God and explains the essence of history and salvation in twenty-five short words.

The key action words stand out with stark clarity: loved, gave, believe, perish, and have. We can possess (have) something because of God's act of love, and a response by man. The loving act of God in history, opened an otherwise locked and bolted door, providing man with an escape from damnation and an offer of eternal life.

For the whole article, click here.

Intrepid Pilgrim Runners around Jerusalem

Three pilgrims joined me for a run around the Old City of Jerusalem today on Palm Sunday. It was a feast for the senses along with the mind, the body and the heart. We just about killed poor Chris the seminarian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50Q7q5...