A Knight's Blog

  On January 14th, according to Medieval Tradition, was The Feast of the Ass or Festum Asinorum. The Feast commemorates The Flight to Egypt of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. The idea comes from apparently some donkey and animal parables, but the concept is when Jesus was only a Baby, Herod The Great sough to kill him, “   Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord *appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to kill Him.” So Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night, and left for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod;  this happened  so that what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: “Out of Egypt I called My Son. Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent  men  and killed all the boys who were in Bethlehem a...

  The Septuagint alone has recovery of the sight of the blind in Isaiah Chapter 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me; he has sent me to preach glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken in heart, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and  recovery of sight to the blind. .” (Isaiah 61:1, Septuagint).  Jesus quotes The Septuagint in the Gospel of Luke:  “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim liberty to the captives and  recovery of sight to the blind , to release the oppressed, / to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19).  Most translations use The Masoretic Text which removes the recovery of the blind’s sight: New International Version The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and ...

  There are some people who think they can blend Buddhist and Christian beliefs together. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars once quipped, “I am a Methodist-Buddhist,” feeling that he could combine Christ’s teachings about love your neighbor with the Zen of Buddhist meditation. The problem is fundamentally, Buddhism and Christianity are diametrically opposite. I would even go as far as to say that Buddhism is the direct opposite of Christianity even more so than Satanism. The reason, is that Buddhism ultimately is about self. Yes, Buddhists claim especially in more mystical and traditional schools to be concerned with creation and others, but it all comes from the prism of building yourself up; your own enlightenment, at the end of the day, its about you being on The Eight Fold Path to destroy your suffering, while in contrast Christianity embraces suffering, “ Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces cha...

  As Christians we are told to take responsibility for when we hurt another person. In specific when we sin against someone, we are to seek out forgiveness and reconciliation. Some of us agonize over if the choices we made did lasting damage to someone, and we often think of them saying, “this is all your fault!” In fact I am reminded of Burton’s Batman, “you made me and I made you,” exchange between Batman and the Joker. However, this is actually not true. Jack who became the Joker was already a vile man, and the Joker persona merely gave him gravitas to rise as kingpin. Batman made a choice, he chose to promise his parents he would fight the evil of Gotham as the Dark Knight to avenge their deaths, his parents did not do demand this of their son. At some point we have to come to the point that people own their own choices. Yes you maybe influenced by hurt from other people, and emotion, and it valid to say they share blame, much like verse, “What sorrow awaits the world, because ...

  The Judas Spirit is a betrayer spirit. It’s characteristics is that it is someone close to you, that you thought you could trust and loved, and they eventually become a traitor. This spirit is probably one of most invidious, because you as a Christian thought the person among you was a dear and close friend, and they turn out not to be. The Judas Spirit can be in Christians, because Judas who was a disciple of Jesus our Lord, he saw great miracles, and even was given powers of the Holy Spirit (Luke 9:1). A Judas cannot be spotted easily at the onset, because one of the ways it operates is that it is in a person you thought loved you, even a spouse potentially. As a result this spirit has an impact unlike others and you find yourself like our Lord saying, “Judas, you betray me with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48).  Something though that differs from how the Judas spirit operated in time of Antiquity and this modern age was that even Judas was repentant, and remorseful, “When Judas, who...

  One of the most jarring moments as child is learning at Santa Claus, the mystical and magical man who is suppose to bring you presents is not real. For each child the discovery is at a different age, some its sooner, others later. The problem, and I have said it before, is that the Santa Hoax, specifically the Santa Claus that is perpetuated by parents to their children, not St. Nicholas who did exist, has a detrimental effect on trust between parents and children. If you lie about Santa, they can extrapolate that the Savior is also a fiction, and this imperils their souls! You wanting them to be part of the Santa fun are setting them up to distrust you and by extension the truth of the Gospel later, especially when they go to schools that throw doubt at validity of our faith.  Should we not do the Santa Claus thing? Should we ban the hoax? Well there is a middle ground you could take, which explain truthfully that Santa was a real person named St. Nicholas, but he has gone ...

  There is a great Casting Crowns Song that is called “Follow Me,” in which he chorus says, “when you are at the end of yourself, follow Me, we I have lost my way, follow Me.” The song encapsulates a truth of the Christian walk, that when all our bearings go away and we feel as if everything is topsy turvey, keeping following Jesus.    While I agree with this sentiment, I would add one more level to it, “Keep Talking to Jesus.” One of the common things we do as humans is when troubles beset us we either go to human consul, or we do all this research via YouTube, and etc, to get a handle on it. And while these are noble and good things, they cannot be a substitute for talking to the Savior.  Talking to Christ really is jus prayer, prayer is talking to our Lord. It can be more formal with closed hands and eyes closed, or as you walk about under your breath, or in tongues, or recitations like the Our Father. The point is you are talking to Jesus, and that is the importa...