Seasons of the Christian Year

I come from an Evangelical background so I have never celebrated the Seasons in the same way as the Church of England does. 

However, it is interesting to know the Liturgical Calendar of the Church of England, because all the celebrations refer to the Bible as we can see below.

This information is from the site below and you can access it if you want to know more about the Bible Basics of the Church of England.

http://www.bible-basics-layers-of-understanding.com/Liturgical-Calendar.html

What does the Liturgical Calendar mean?

The Liturgical Calendar is the calendar of the Christian year, the Seasons of the Church starting with Advent the beginning of the Church year to Christmas, the Birth of Jesus, to the journey of the Magi, the Wisemen following the star of Bethlehem to find a small defenseless child, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, our Lord and Savior.

We continue on to celebrations before Lent: Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, and Mardi Gras. 

The Lenten Bible Study takes you through the forty days of Lent, Preparing the Way of the Lord. The Lenten lessons take you to the garden at Gethsemane with Jesus, the arrest, trial, and scourging, and crucifixion of Jesus; the Passion of Christ.

At Easter we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and we study how the Holy Spirit descends on the Disciples at Pentecost.

ADVENT

Advent marks the beginning of the church new year.

Advent is a period of reflection, penitence, and joy when Christians prepare for both the birth of the Baby Jesus, The (First Advent) the Son of God. in Bethlehem and for the second coming of Jesus (Second Advent) as the risen Christ to rule triumphantly over life in heaven and on earth. 

The traditional color is Purple (violet), blue is gaining popularity to differentiate Advent from Lent. 

CHRISTMAS

Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah, our Lord and Savior.

The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David
a Savior has been born to you;
he is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:10-11
Jesus is the "Light of the World" that comes into our darkness.

Jesus came into the world not to condemn the world but to save the world through him. John 3:17

EPIPHANY

Epiphany sometimes is called Three Kings Day commemorating the coming of the wise men to worship the infant Jesus. Some traditions celebrate Epiphany as Jesus’ baptism in the river Jordan by John the Baptist where the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, and proclaims Jesus the Son of God, and Jesus’ first recorded miracle, at Cana turning water into wine at a wedding banquet.

Epiphany begins the first Sunday in January and varies in length depending on the date set for Easter. The first and last Sundays, the liturgical color is white.

What are the meanings and the significance of the Star of Bethlehem?

BAPTISM OF THE LORD SUNDAY

The Baptism of the Lord (or the Baptism of Christ) is the feast day commemorating and celebrating the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. In most parts of the Church, the feast is now observed on the first Sunday after Epiphany (6 January).

Baptism of the Lord Sunday is the Sunday we remember to whom do we belong? We belong to God. We are the adopted children of God.

Baptism of the Lord Sunday is the Sunday we Affirm, Renew, and we are Reminded of our Baptism.

LENT

Celebrations before Lent: Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, and Mardi Gras.

Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays, which begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on the Saturday before Easter. Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means (to lengthen) or “spring.” 

The season is a preparation for celebrating Easter.

The liturgical color is purple (violet). On Good Friday, black is substituted.

TENEBRAE

“Tenebrae” is from the Latin word meaning “darkness” or “shadows.” 

Tenebrae is a solemn service on Good Friday or Maundy Thursday. 

The purpose of the service is to recreate the betrayal, abandonment, and agony of the arrest, trial, persecution, scourging, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ. 

At the end of the service the people leave in silence. 

EASTER

Easter is the main celebration of the Christian year despite the popularity and commercialization of Christmas. In the Gospel of John, Mary Magdalene came to where Jesus had been buried and found the tomb empty. 

An angel of the Lord told her that Jesus had Risen. Easter is the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ conquering death and the hope given of everlasting life to those who believe in Him.

After Easter Day comes the fifty-day season of Sundays of Easter, followed by Pentecost, which marks the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The liturgical color is white.

Preparing the Way:

is a Bible based study lesson on how Jesus Christ the Messiah in the New Testament is the fulfillment of prophesies in the Old Testament.

ASCENSION DAY

Ascension Day is forty days after Easter (always on a Thursday), but is most often celebrated on the Seventh Sunday of Easter.

Jesus tells disciples that they will receive the power of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).

And that they will spread his message throughout the world (The Great Commission). 

Then on the fortieth day Jesus took the disciples to the Mount of Olives, where they watched Jesus ascend into heaven. 

The liturgical color is white. 

PENTECOST

Pentecost is the celebration of the Holy Spirit descending on the Disciples. Remembering the gift of the Holy Spirit to the church after the Ascension of Jesus to the Father, 

Pentecost, celebrated seven weeks after Easter, is a day to celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit in the church today.

The traditional color is red (symbolizing the biblical reference to the “wind and flames” that came down from heaven at the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit.) 

Pentecost begins the “fiftieth day” after Easter and is the longest season of the church year.

It last until the first Sunday of Advent. 

Pentecost Sunday is the last day of the Season and Cycle of Easter.

TRINITY SUNDAY

Trinity Sunday is the first Sunday after Pentecost, the Festival of the Holy Trinity, when the church rejoices in the impenetrable mystery that God is the Triune God (three-in-one) – The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

Trinity Sunday the liturgical color is white. 

CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY

Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of the season of Pentecost and marks the end of the church year. Christ the King Sunday is the observance proclaiming that no earthly ruler is lord. 

The liturgical color is white. 

ALL SAINTS SUNDAY

All Saints Day is the day Christians give thanks for all the “Saints” the good people God has placed in our lives, those living and especially those who are already with God in heaven. The liturgical color is white. 

The liturgical color for all other Sundays following Pentecost Sunday is green.

ORDINARY TIME

Ordinary Time is the Season After Pentecost The Church fulfills the Great Commission. 

Ordinary time (also called Kingdomtide and Dominiontide) is the time between Epiphany and Lent and between Pentecost and Advent. 

When there is no specific liturgical season or festival emphasis. It signifies a time of spiritual growth and is the norm of time kept by the church. 

The Sundays of Ordinary Time celebrate the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection and the unfolding presence of the new creation. Ordinary Time presents us with an ongoing opportunity to witness to the living Lord who makes all things new. 

---

The public worship of the church ”Liturgy" comes from the Greek term for community service; done for the common good without pay.

Christopher Duffley blind and Autistic

Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord...

This boy's voice is amazing - millions of people have already heard him ...!

Christopher Duffley is blind and Autistic, but that does not stop him from praising the Lord!!! 

blind and Autistic

Enjoy listening to him as he sings, "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord ... 

At Prestonwood Baptist Church, when he was just 10 years old.

Christopher was 13 years on 19th May 2014.

Click on the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9jqI4svrNY

Liked it? Please, send to your friends

About Christopher Duffley:

Christopher Duffley entered this world with only a 50 percent chance of survival. Born prematurely at 26 weeks, Christopher weighed just 1 lb 12 oz. and tested positive for cocaine. 

Miraculously, he survived, but an eye condition, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a disease that affects the eyes of many premature babies, rendered him totally blind by the time he was 6 months old. 

Due to his birth parents’ inability to care for him because of their drug dependency, Christopher was discharged from the hospital into foster care.

But Christopher’s struggles were not the end of the story. When his biological aunt and her husband, Christine and Stephen Duffley, learned that Christopher was in foster care, they sought him out. 

Once they located the child, they brought him home to New Hampshire to be part of their family.

By the time he reached 5 years old, Christopher had been diagnosed with autism. 

Although he had rarely conversed until he reached the first grade, Christopher’s adopted mother, Christine, had noticed his ability to make rhythmic noises and keep beat, and he had begun to pick out songs on the piano by age 3. 

Because of this natural affinity, music therapy was a logical choice to help Christopher learn to communicate, which Christine says he did more often by singing than talking. 

Andrew's, the when he sang, it was in perfect pitch.

Although the circumstances have been difficult and we have had challenges, we have found much joy and so many more blessings,” says Christine Duffley:

“Family life is imperfect and messy, and it has been a journey of love, forgiveness and abandonment. 

Through it all, however, we are grateful that Christopher’s biological parents chose life and now, God is using this life to touch the world for Christ”.

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THE REALITY OF GRIEF

Bereavement describes the whole reaction to loss and includes the emotional response and our adjustment to that loss. 

Sometimes, one's thought, feeling and behaviour are so drastically affected that the condition may be viewed as an illness, hence the reason why bereavement has been associated with psychiatric and physiological illness.

Tuberculosis, ulcerative colitis, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, heart failure and even cancer can be in some cases associated with bereavement.

But grief is not confined only to the death of a loved one. 

A move from the "old family home" or from "our country"; loss of possessions; money, job; health; the death of a pet; the marriage of a member of the family; can sometimes be just as devastating as death. 

In divorce, the grief may be even worse because there is not the finality of death.

Statistics prove that in the first year of bereavement, widows and widowers have a death rate ten times as great as that of a similar segment of the population which has not been bereaved.

I miss you MOMMY!

The young are prone to attacks of grief which older people may not experience in similar situations. 

The glib advice given when a romance is broken that "there are plenty more fish in the sea", reveals an ignorance that real grief may be produced by such upset.

There are many other circumstances not listed above that can cause grief in peoples's lives.

People may have talked about their grief and supposedly faced up to the facts. 

They may have mourned and wept for many months and sometimes years. However, there often still remains unknown depths of unexpressed grief. In some cases, the emotional state will never return to what it was before.

Zara, Love...

Grief is a very real thing. The word signifies "sorrow", "pain" or a "wound". Grief tears life to shreds; it shakes one from top to bottom.

Those who grieve over death are called "bereaved". The word "reave" means to forcibly deprive or take by force. A "bereaved" person is literally one who is broken up in what is an intensely personal experience.

We often talk of grief and some of us have experienced it at a deep level. Are we able to cope with it? Are we able to help others who grieve? Do we know what to say, how to act?

We cannot face grief alone. We need the help of friends, relatives and counsellors, but we also need the help of  God to receive the strength that only He can provide, to enable us to face these experiences.

Unfortunately, we will all face grief at some stage in our lives, but with help from friends and relatives and also from God in reading the Bible, praying and going to a Church, we will not grieve without hope, because in the midst of intense sorrow, despair, pain and loneliness, we will feel the reality of Christ's presence.

This post has been made with the help of the leaflet "CHRISTIANS GRIEVE TOO" by Donald Howard 

If you want to read this post in Portuguese, please click below: 

http://religiao-filosofia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/o-luto-e-uma-coisa-muito-real.html

12 Ways to Love Your Wayward Child

By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. 

Website:  http://www.desiringgod.org/

Many parents are broken hearted and completely baffled by their unbelieving son or daughter. They have no clue why the child they raised well is making such awful, destructive decisions.

I have never been one of these parents, but I have been one  of these sons. Reflecting back on that experience, I offer these suggestions to help you reach out to your wayward child.

1. Point them to Christ.

Your rebellious child’s real problem is not drugs or sex or cigarettes or pornography or laziness or crime or cussing or slovenliness or homosexuality or being in a punk rock band. 

The real problem is that they don’t see Jesus clearly.

The best thing you can do for them and the only reason to do any of the following suggestions is to show them Christ. 

It is not a simple or immediate process, but the sins in their life that distress you and destroy them will only begin to fade away when they see Jesus more like he actually is.

2. Pray for them. 

Only God can save your son or daughter, so keep on asking that he will display himself to them in a way they can’t resist worshipping him for.

3. Acknowledge that something is wrong. 

If your daughter rejects Jesus, don’t pretend everything is fine. For every unbelieving child, the details will be different. Each one will require parents to reach out in unique ways.

Never acceptable, however, is not reaching out at all. If your child is an unbeliever, don’t ignore it. Holidays might be easier, but eternity won’t be.

4. Don’t expect them to be Christ-like. 

If your son is not a Christian, he’s not going to act like one. You know that he has forsaken the faith, so expect him to live by the standards you raised him with.

For example, you might be tempted to say, “I know you’re struggling with believing in Jesus, but can’t you at I am not a superhero least admit that getting wasted every day is sin?”

If he’s struggling to believe in Jesus, then there is very little significance in admitting that drunkenness is wrong. You want to protect him, yes. But his unbelief is the most dangerous problem not partying.

No matter how your child’s unbelief exemplifies itself in his behaviour, always be sure to focus more on the heart’s sickness than its symptoms.

5. Welcome them home. 

Because the deepest concern is not your child’s actions, but his heart, don’t create too many requirements for coming home. If he has any inkling to be with you, it is God giving you a chance to love him back to Jesus. 

Obviously there are some instances in which parents must give ultimatums: “Don’t come to this house if you are...” But these will be rare.

Don’t lessen the likelihood of an opportunity to be with your child by too many rules. 

If your daughter smells like weed or an ashtray, spray her jacket with Febreze and change the sheets when she leaves, but let her come home. 

If you find out she’s pregnant, then buy her folic acid, take her to her twenty- week ultrasound, protect her from Planned Parenthood, and by all means let her come home.

If your son is broke because he spent all the money you lent him on loose women and ritzy liquor, then forgive his debt as you’ve been forgiven, don’t give him any more money, and let him come home. 

If he hasn’t been around for a week and a half because he’s been staying at his girlfriend’s or boyfriend’s apartment, plead with him not to go back, and let him come home.

6. Plead with them more than you rebuke them. 

Be gentle in your disappointment.

Plead without condemn you children ... 

What really concerns you is that your child is destroying herself, not that she’s breaking rules. Treat her in a way that makes this clear. She probably knows especially if she was raised as a Christia that what she’s doing is wrong. And she definitely knows you think it is.

So she doesn't need this pointed out. She needs to see how you are going to react to her evil. Your gentle forbearance and sorrowful hope will show her that you really do trust Jesus. Her conscience can condemn her by itself. 

Parents ought to stand kindly and firmly, always living in the hope that they want their child to return to.

7. Connect them to believers who have better access to them. 

There are two kinds of access that you may not have to your child: geographical and relational. If your wayward son lives far away, try to find a solid believer in his area and ask him to contact your son. 

This may seem nosy or stupid or embarrassing to him, but it’s worth it especially if the believer you find can also relate to your son emotionally in a way you can’t.

Relational distance will also be a side effect of your child leaving the faith, so your relationship will be tenuous  and should be protected if at all possible. But hard rebuke is still necessary. 

This is where another believer who has emotional access to your son may be very helpful. 

If there is a believer who your son trusts and perhaps even enjoys being around, then that believer has a platform to tell your son in a way he may actually pay attention to that he’s being an idiot.

This may sound harsh, but it’s a news flash we all need from time to time, and people we trust are usually the only ones who can package a painful rebuke so that it is a gift to us. 

A lot of rebellious kids would do well to hear that they’re being fool and it is rare that this can helpfully be pointed out by their parents, so try to keep other Christians in your kids lives.

8. Respect their friends. 

Honour your wayward child in the same way you’d honor any other unbeliever. 

They may run with crowds you’d never consider talking to or even looking at, but they are your child’s friends. Respect that even if the relationship is founded on sin.

They’re bad for your son, yes. But he’s bad for them, too. Nothing will be solved by making it perfectly evident that you don’t like who he’s hanging around with.

When your son shows up for a family birthday celebration with another girlfriend one you’ve never seen before and probably won’t see again—be hospitable. She’s also someone’s wayward child, and she needs Jesus, too.

9. Email them. 

Praise God for technology that lets you stay in your kids’ lives so easily! When you read something in the Bible that encourages you and helps you love Jesus more, write it up in a couple lines and send it to your child.

The best exhortation for them is positive examples of Christ’s joy in your own life. Don’t stress out when you’re composing these as if each one needs to be singularly powerful. 

Just whip them out one after another, and let the cumulative effect of your satisfaction in God gather up in your child’s inbox.

God’s word is never proclaimed in vain.

10. Take them to lunch. 

If possible, don’t let your only interaction with your child be electronic. 

Get together with him face to face if you can. 

You may think this is stressful and uncomfortable, but trust me that it’s far worse to be in the child’s  shoes, he is experiencing all the same discomfort, but compounded by guilt.

So if he is willing to get together with you for lunch, praise God, and use the opportunity. 

It will feel almost hypocritical to talk about his daily life, since what you really care about is his eternal life, but try to anyway.

He needs to know you care about all of him. 

Then, before lunch is over, pray that the Lord will give you the gumption to ask about his soul. You don’t know how he’ll respond. 

Will he roll his eyes like you’re an idiot? Will he get mad and leave? Or has God been working in him since you talked last? 

You don’t know until you risk asking. (Here’s a note to parents of younger children: Set up regular times to go out to eat with your kids.)

Not only will this be valuable for its own sake, but also, if they ever enter a season of rebellion, the tradition of meeting with them will already be in place and it won’t feel weird to ask them out to lunch. 

If a son has been eating out on Saturdays with his dad since he was a tot, it will be much harder for him later in life to say no to his father’s invitation, even as a surly nineteen-year-old.

11. Take an interest in their pursuits. 

Odds are that if your daughter is purposefully rejecting Christ, then the way she spends her time will probably disappoint you. 

Nevertheless, find the value in her interests, if possible, and encourage her. 

You went to her school plays and soccer games when she was ten; what can you do now that she’s twenty to show that you still really care about her interests?

Jesus spent time with tax collectors and prostitutes, and he wasn’t even related to them. 

Imitate Christ by being the kind of parent who will put some earplugs in your pocket and head down town to that dank little nightclub where your daughter’s CD release show is. 

Encourage her and never stop praying that she will begin to use her gifts for Jesus’ glory instead her own.

12. Point them to Christ.

This can’t be over-stressed. It is the whole point. No strategy for reaching your son or daughter will have any lasting effect if the underlying goal isn't to help them know Jesus.

Point them to Christ.

It’s not so that they will be good kids again; it’s not so that they’ll get their hair cut and start taking showers; it’s not so that they’ll like classical music instead of death core

It is not so that you can stop being embarrassed at your weekly Bible study; it’s not so that they’ll vote conservative again by the next election; it’s not even so that you can sleep at night, knowing they’re not going to hell.

The only ultimate reason to pray for them, welcome them, plead with them, email them, eat with them, or take an interest in their interests is so that their eyes will be opened to Christ. 

And not only is he the only point, he is the only hope. When they see the wonder of Jesus, satisfaction will be redefined.

He will replace the pathetic vanity of the money, or the praise of man, or the high, or the orgasm that they are staking their eternities on right now. 

Only his grace can draw them from their perilous pursuits and bind them safely to himself captive, but satisfied.

He will do this for many. Be faithful and don’t give up.

By John Piper. ©2013 Desiring God Foundation. Used by Permission. 

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The God Delusion or Desiring God?

Richard Dawkins is now seen 

as a joke figure...

I Believe Richard Dawkins has lost and is now seen by many, even many non-believers, as a joke figure, shaking his fist at sky fairies. 

So what was all that about, then?

I think it was an outpouring of his self-frustration of a personal nature.

Also, because scientific skeptics grow irritating when they become stubbornly unwilling to admit that science doesn't have an answer for everything.

And Dawkins doesn't like Christianity, because Christians pretend to have found an answer in the Bible about God and life after death. 

So he doesn't read the Bible to analyse if what he reads is true or not, but only to find out things that can support is stubbornness against God and Christianity. 

John Piper is Calvinistic, but many Christians from several doctrinal backgrounds Calvinistic or not, agree with Desiring God from John Piper. 

Richard Dawkins In His Book The God Delusion says: 

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant

character  in all fiction:

Am I Delusional? 

Jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomanical, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully."

John Piper's 7 Theses On Why God Is Not a Megalomaniac in Demanding to Be Worshipped:

Yes you are Delusional, man!

What I am presenting is the nub of what I have been saying over and over for about 25 years. 

This will not be new. 

I hope that your questions about it will help me do better if the Lord gives me a few more years, because this message is close to the heart of what I believe he put me on the earth to say.

Thesis 1

My all-shaping conviction is that God created the universe in order that he might be worshipped with white-hot intensity by created beings who see his glory manifested in creation and history and supremely in the saving work of Christ.

Thesis 2

I am also persuaded that people need to be confronted with how self-exalting God is in this purpose. To confront them with this, I give a quiz:

Question 1: What is the chief end of God?

Answer: The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy displaying and magnifying his glory forever.

Question 2: Who is the most God-centered person in the universe?

Answer: God.

Question 3: Who is uppermost in God’s affections?

Answer: God.

Question 4: Is God an idolater?

Answer: No. He has no other gods before him.

Question 5: What is God’s chief jealousy?

Answer: God’s chief jealousy is to be known, admired, trusted, enjoyed, and obeyed above all others.

Question 6: Do you feel most loved by God because he makes much of you, or because he frees you to enjoy making much of him forever?

Answer: Because he frees me to enjoy making much of him forever.

Thesis 3

I press on this because I believe that if we are God-centered simply because we consciously or unconsciously believe God is man-centered, then our God-centeredness is in reality man-centeredness. 

Teaching God’s God-centeredness forces this issue of whether we treasure God because of his excellence or mainly because he endorses ours.

Thesis 4

God’s eternal, radical, ultimate commitment to his own self-exaltation permeates Scripture. [Read Bible Passages in the actual article.] 

His aim to be exalted glorified, admired, magnified, praised, and reverenced is seen to be the ultimate goal of all creation, all providence, and all saving acts.

Thesis 5

This is not megalomania because, unlike our self-exaltation, God’s self-exaltation draws attention to what gives greatest and longest joy, namely, himself. 

When we exalt ourselves, we lure people away from the one thing that can satisfy their souls—the infinite beauty of God. When God exalts himself, he manifests the one thing that can satisfy our souls, namely, God.

Therefore, God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the most loving act, since love labours and suffers to enthral us with what is infinitely and eternally satisfying, namely, God. 

Therefore, when God exalts God and commands us to join him, he is pursuing our highest, deepest, longest happiness. 

This is love, not megalomania.

Thesis 6

God’s pursuit of his glory and our pursuit of our joy turn out to be the same pursuit. This is what Christ died to achieve:

1 Peter 3:18. 

Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God 

When we are brought to God as our highest treasure, he gets the glory and we get the pleasure.

Thesis 7

To see this and believe this and experience this is radically transforming to worship—whether personal or corporate, marketplace or liturgical."

JOHN PIPER

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/why-god-is-not-a-megalomaniac-in-demanding-to-be-worshiped

Richard Dawkins - God Delusion or John Piper - Desiring God?

https://viriatomartins-religionphilosophy.blogspot.com/2013/02/richard-dawkins-john-piper.html

Please see below my post about the interview the evangelist John Hawley had with Richard Dawkins:

Interview with the Archbishop of Atheism!