Wouldn't you want to be blessed by Jesus Himself?

So well written, Brother Ed. God bless you this morning! And pray that I make it through this nasty schedule of classes and work that is eating all my free time over the next ten weeks. Eek!

Grant

 

We Catholics and Orthodox have this.


Now I ask you this: if you believe that our Lord can hear the prayers of MILLIONS of
Christians simultaneously, why can He not..................................

Why can He not bless Protestants, you mean ?

It's nice having Jesus among us in this way.

Amen Brother Ed; how could Protestants ever be excluded......for we pray thus:


Luke 11:13 " If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children: how much more shall [your] heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit
to them that ask him?"

Although...........Jesus said " Whosoever believes in me shall never die"

"Gimme a Break, Ed.

Singer

*** mean spirited sarcasm remved***

[ May 29, 2003, 10:30 PM: Message edited by: C.S. Murphy ]

 

How can you know for sure that the priest blessing you is not an imposter?
How many people were blessed by some priest that later on was convicted of pedophilia.

 

Yes and perhaps some of them had abandoned our Lord at the Cross or denied him three times.

Deuteronomy 21:5
"Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them.


Now perhaps even these priests doing the blessings in the OT were fornicators such as Hophni and Phineas who apparently were levitical priests and who had sex with young women in the doorway of the tent of the meeting. Does that invalidate all of the blessings they performed or could the Lord still bless the people in spite of the man? And how many people "got saved" by the preaching of a pastor who later turned out to be a pervert or who secretly has been cheating on his wife. This happened in a big mega Church here a few months back. A very prominent protestant pastor. Are those people not saved who he brought in to the "Church" or do they have to get resaved? How about all those altar calls he participated in, are they invalid? The door swings both ways gents.

How about the evil apostle Paul:

Romans 7:19
For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.


Throw those scriptures he wrote right out.

Gee Psalm, you never know. You may have had a fornicator pray over you. How do you know you didn't.


Oh, I know, you will say it is different in the Catholic Church. Ya ya.


God is the judge guys.

 

The difference is that no one in protestant land is an ICON of Jesus as is the case in Catholic land. We protestants know and understand that Jesus is not among us except in spirit. We do not need that symbology to remind us of our place in the hirearchy of true religion. Those of us who have true faith in God and Jesus are a kingdom of Priests, and we serve our Lord Jesus Christ who is at the Father's right hand to the best of our ability in the manner that Jesus Served the Father when he was among us.

 

I have already been blessed by Jesus. I was blessed by him the day He brought me to salvation by trusting on Him, and Him alone.

What more do I need? I do not need any priests or a piece of bread to stand in for him.


mozier

 

what leads you to belive that?

 

(quote)

"I am blessed to think that it is not the priest's hands really, but the Lord's"

IF I were a priest, I wouldn't want any part of my body close to a Catholic
worshipper. Thinking as they do, they might just decide to have me for lunch.

*Just being rational.

 

Yes but I am not one who would not adhere to some superstitious belief that I would recieve some majical blessing just because Peter put his hands on me. I agree with mozier who said:

have already been blessed by Jesus. I was blessed by him the day He brought me to salvation by trusting on Him, and Him alone.

 

CathlicConvert said:

I certainly agree!

And a reason I have pulled-back on posting much here lately...too much "mean-spiritedness."

Good work, CatholicConvert!

God bless,

PAX

Bill+†+


Lord, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things that I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time,
enjoying one moment at a time;
accepting hardship as a pathway to peace;
taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is,
not as I would have it;
trusting that you will make all things right
if I surrender to Your will;
so that I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.

 

Did you ever ready about the Patriarchs in the Old Testament? The one who got God's blessing? How about Jacob, often considered to be a scoundral, who came out of his mother's womb grabbing at his brother's heel because he wanted to be the first one out to get the birthright?

You should learn the important lesson that our sinfulness does not invalidate the blessing that is FROM GOD. The blessing from a priest indeed is passed to us through a sinner's hands. That doesn't invalidate it's origin.

God bless,

Grant

 

what leads you to belive that? </font>[/QUOTE]A good reading of the book of Genesis would serve you well, as well. God often uses human people to relay his blessings to others. Your doubt of that is not rational, if you believe in the inspired Word of God.

It is amazing how God can use us unworthy humans (including His priests) to do His holy work. You keep doubting; I'll keep believing.

God bless,

Grant

 

So are you not waiting in eager anticipation for Christ's return? Or why do you bother praying? Reading the Word of God? Apparently all of these things are meaningless, since you are have no more room for extra blessing.

Jesus came to us in tangible form for a reason. He promised us The Advocate (The Holy Spirit), which we believers indeed have, but He also promised that "HE" would never leave us. It is not unreasonable to believe that Jesus still presents Himself to us in physical, tangible ways.

God bless,

Grant

 

The above are the original questions that were asked. The rest was personal reflection on what the blessings meant for him. So far, none of these questions have been answered, but instead, random (in the truest sense of randomness, since none of them addressed the meat of the post) attacks on the ministerial priesthood and Catholicism have ensued. Attacks are fine, as long as they are in the context of the thread, which should be directed to the questions offered. If those questions cannot be answered in a contrary-to-Catholic view, then there is no argument.

I'm simply stating fact. This thread was a personal sharing, and asking how you would justify this as NOT the truth, in light of the questions posed.

God bless,

Grant

 

what leads you to believe i doubt God often uses human people to relay his blessings to others? stop making assumptions and go read Genesis

fyi the question was: why do you believe the priests hands are Jesus hands? did the priest tell you that?

 

In Hebrews 8 we find these words "Now if Christ were on earth today He would NOT be a priest at all".

But the question you appear to ask "If Christ could come in the form of a carpenter's son - why not today in the form of a Catholic Priest" - is an interesting one.

But Hebrews 9 (end of the chapter) tells us that Christ will not come again in that form. So now - we go directly to God "We come boldly before the throne of Grace" as Hebrews tells us - "entering within the veil" into the very presence of God - we are "seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father" (Ephesians 2) and from there we may make our petitions known as God's Word instructs.

No reason to settle for second best - we can go directly to God through Christ, no need to consult a catholic priest.

In Christ,

Bob