Hello, all!
I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. It's been far too long since I've posted on here. I fear I'm breaking my promise, but with getting my brother college oriented and set to go for August, well, there just hasn't been a lot of time. Perhaps the imposed structure of the coming school year will help with that. Discipline has never been a strong point of mine (don't worry, a post on that will be coming shortly).
I've been thinking about languages a lot lately. Possibly because of my impending English class in the fall, or perhaps because of the lack of French in my life the past while (oui, c'est vrai). Maybe it's because the gift of my every burning fire for the missions field.
But, in any case, I found myself pondering common Latin phrases this morning (I know, could I be more a homeschooler or what?).
We live in a culture filled with Latin. Consider the phrase "Carpe Diem." We see it everywhere, on t-shirts, bumper stickers. Or another common phrase, "Et Cetera," or, as we know it, "etc." And every Christian homeschooler knows the publishing house, "Soli Deo Gloria." Or the phrase on the seal of the United States, "E Pluribus Unum."
We live in a nation and speak a language filled with terms used by so many before us.
And, and just as we speak a language that is filled with the things of times past, so do we also live in a nation and a culture that is filled with the customs and erroneous philosophies of times past.
It seems that, over the course of the last hundred years or longer, we have been moving backwards.
In ancient Rome, it was not at all uncommon for a girl to get married at the age of 14 or 15, the groom usually being in his early twenties. In the state of Florida, you can now stay in high school until you're 21 years old. That means that 21 year old men are going to school with 14 year old girls. Homosexuality was also very prevalent, as it is today.
In ancient Rome, if a child was unwanted, it would be put out in the trash heaps. Now we "merely" abort them.
In ancient times there were many who believed in becoming one with the universe, in finding your inner light and, through that, finding happiness.
Sound familiar? That's right: the philosophy that we know today as part of "new age" religion is nothing new at all.
In many ways, our nation very much resembles the ancient world, be it in our morals, faulty philosophies, or even our, at times, crumbling government. And, just as our world resembles that of Rome, the plight of the modern church is quite like that of the early church.
It says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, that "the thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
Should not we, then, look to what they in the early church did? Should we not "Carpe Diem" (seize the day) and use these times, however great the trials and persecutions, to "et cetera" (in continuation) do all things to give "Soli Deo Gloria" (to God alone the glory)?
And should we not, as men and women of God, look not only for "Pax Lux" (peace and light), but for "Pax et Lux" (peace in light)? For it is in the light of Christ that we shall find peace in a world of chaos and it is through His light, and living in His light alone, that we shall lead others out of the darkness.
For though they were few, our brothers and sisters before us they stood tall through the strength that can come only from Him (Philippians 4:13). And so shall we, too, I pray, and that we would be "E Pluribus Unum" in Christ.
"Gratia Domini nostri Jesu Christi cum omnibus vobis" (the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all)
Amen.
In His,
I hope all is well in your neck of the woods. It's been far too long since I've posted on here. I fear I'm breaking my promise, but with getting my brother college oriented and set to go for August, well, there just hasn't been a lot of time. Perhaps the imposed structure of the coming school year will help with that. Discipline has never been a strong point of mine (don't worry, a post on that will be coming shortly).
I've been thinking about languages a lot lately. Possibly because of my impending English class in the fall, or perhaps because of the lack of French in my life the past while (oui, c'est vrai). Maybe it's because the gift of my every burning fire for the missions field.
We live in a nation and speak a language filled with terms used by so many before us.
And, and just as we speak a language that is filled with the things of times past, so do we also live in a nation and a culture that is filled with the customs and erroneous philosophies of times past.
It seems that, over the course of the last hundred years or longer, we have been moving backwards.
In ancient Rome, it was not at all uncommon for a girl to get married at the age of 14 or 15, the groom usually being in his early twenties. In the state of Florida, you can now stay in high school until you're 21 years old. That means that 21 year old men are going to school with 14 year old girls. Homosexuality was also very prevalent, as it is today.
In ancient Rome, if a child was unwanted, it would be put out in the trash heaps. Now we "merely" abort them.
In ancient times there were many who believed in becoming one with the universe, in finding your inner light and, through that, finding happiness.
Sound familiar? That's right: the philosophy that we know today as part of "new age" religion is nothing new at all.
In many ways, our nation very much resembles the ancient world, be it in our morals, faulty philosophies, or even our, at times, crumbling government. And, just as our world resembles that of Rome, the plight of the modern church is quite like that of the early church.
It says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, that "the thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."
Should not we, then, look to what they in the early church did? Should we not "Carpe Diem" (seize the day) and use these times, however great the trials and persecutions, to "et cetera" (in continuation) do all things to give "Soli Deo Gloria" (to God alone the glory)?
And should we not, as men and women of God, look not only for "Pax Lux" (peace and light), but for "Pax et Lux" (peace in light)? For it is in the light of Christ that we shall find peace in a world of chaos and it is through His light, and living in His light alone, that we shall lead others out of the darkness.
For though they were few, our brothers and sisters before us they stood tall through the strength that can come only from Him (Philippians 4:13). And so shall we, too, I pray, and that we would be "E Pluribus Unum" in Christ.
"Gratia Domini nostri Jesu Christi cum omnibus vobis" (the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all)
Amen.
In His,
