Star Wars Rosary

"And a great sign appeared in heaven; a woman clothed with the

sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child; and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth . . . And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne; And the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God, so that there she might be nourished for one thousand two hundred and sixty days". (Revelation 12: 1-6)

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"Now he (Joseph) had still another dream, and related it to his brothers, and said, 'Lo, I have had still another dream; and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me', And he related it to his father, and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, 'What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?'" (Gen. 37: 9-10)

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Above is an example as to how scripture should be used to interpret scripture. The Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to His dearest disciple John is full of language and symbols that John would have understood because of his Jewish background. Perhaps John did not grasp the ultimate fulfillment or timing of the visions, but he would have had a good idea as how to interpret the symbolism. The identity of the woman described in Revelation is clearly laid out for us in Genesis. God made some promises to the Jewish people, beginning with Abraham, and flowing through to his descendants. From Abraham came Isaac, and from Isaac came Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons from whom would become the 12 tribes of the Jewish nation. In the Genesis dream, Jacob interprets himself as the sun, his wife as the moon, and his 12 sons as the stars. John would not have interpreted the woman in his vision as being Mary, a person he knew well. Instead he would have seen the woman in his vision as being the woman described in Genesis; the nation of Israel, whose foundation was in Jacob and his 12 sons. And John would also have understood that it will be the Jewish people who one day would have to flee into the wilderness, in a place prepared for them by God, for 1260 days.

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And yet, in order to find ways to elevate Mary, the Catholic church interprets her as the woman in Revelation, often pictured as Queen of Heaven, wearing a crown of 12 stars. The reasoning is that if Jesus is King of Kings, then His mother must be a queen mother; queen of angels, co-redemtrix, intermediator between man and her Son, bestower of graces, mother to all Christians, mother of all nations, queen of heaven. And to enable the theology to work she is described as being conceived without original sin, ever sinless, ever virgin, and assumed into heaven at the end of her earthly life, before her body could undergo any decay. Well, except for Mary being a virgin at the time of her conception with Christ, made special because God the Father chose her as the human vessel needed so that the Word could be made flesh, all of those titles and attributes are man made, conflicting with, or without mention in, holy scripture. Despite claims of the Catholic church otherwise, veneration sure looks to a one time Catholic like me to be worship. I have discussed how the ideas of praying to Mary and the saints began in the early church in my post of April 15, 2007 And they have continued to develop, even up to today.

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One of the forms of adoration to Mary is the rosary. The roots of the practice began in the 10th and 11th centuries. In certain monasteries, monks would pray the psalms every day. There are 150 psalms, and these were divided into 3 groups of 50. Later on the common people wanted to adopt this practice, but because most were illiterate, they would substitute memorized prayers, such as the early forms of the Hail Mary, in place of the psalms. Catholic legend says that Mary appeared to St. Dominic (founder of the Dominicans) in 1214 and gave him the first rosary. The rosary is a set of beads, 50 of which are for the Hail Mary prayer. There are also beads for the Our Father and Glory Be prayers, the Apostles Creed, and places to contemplate events in the life of Jesus, called the Mysteries. Although there are 4 sets of these, one set to be used for each saying of the rosary, I think originally there were 3 sets (a total of 150 Hail Marys, equal to the 150 psalms). Many of the mysteries do not include Mary, but there some that only include Mary, such as the glorious mystery; "Coronation of Mary as Queen of Heaven and Earth". In 1858, Mary appears to Bernadette at Lourdes, and the apparition is wearing a rosary. In 1917, Mary appears to 3 children at Lourdes, and tells them that for the conversion of the world, everyone must do penance and pray the rosary daily. Pope John Paul II was very devoted to Mary and especially to the apparition of Mary at Fatima. Mary appears again to some children in the Croatian village of Medjugory in 1981. Ever since then she has given at least one of them a monthly message, which are all available at the Medjugory website, and which will include from time to time a request to do penance and to pray the rosary daily. The fact that tens of millions of people, some whom we know, go to these places even now, should remind us that Mary veneration is not just a part only found in past Catholic history.

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My mother grew up in the Reformed tradition. Her family went to church faithfully, and I remember that anytime I would stay with my grandparents, before dinner my grandpa would read aloud from a big Bible that sat next to the table. This was a unique experience for me because I never saw my Catholic dad or my mom read the Bible, either aloud or by themselves. My Catholic grandparents, also regular church goers, always had a Bible sitting out on a lamp table, but there wasn't any evidence that those stiff, shinny, gold edged pages had ever actually been opened. Later on, my parents had a purely Catholic translation of the Bible, called the Douay Bible. This was born as a Catholic response to the use of the King James translation by the early reformers. I tried reading from it and believe me, it's more difficult to understand than the King James. Around the time I was in 5th grade my mother was going through a crisis of faith. During this time she went to her minister for answers, and as it was related to me years later, "He only told me to read my Bible". She then went to see my dad's priest, who must have been able to give her answers that made sense to her. She decided to go through the process of becoming a Catholic, and I suspect that it was at this time that my mother made a decision that opened up her heart, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus in for salvation.

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The 5 kids in our family had been raised Catholic from birth, part of the deal that a non-Catholic must make when marrying a Catholic serious about their faith. So of course I was very pleased when my mother became Catholic. The down side was that she initially wanted to be a very fervent Catholic. And so for awhile that summer before 6th grade, she gathered her little innocent children into our hallway, in front of the crucifix hanging on the wall, with palm branches stuck behind it, and ignoring the sounds of other children outside, happily enjoying the forbidden pleasures of freedom, my mother would lead her little clan in saying the rosary, using the same boring tones as the ladies from the rosary guild, who would sometimes lead the school children in the saying of the rosary before the mass that began each academic day, a monotone "halemaryfullofgracethelordiswiththeeblessedartthoughamongwomen . . .", over and over.

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My mother really didn't understand anything about my asking Jesus into my life when I was 22. In her mind I had become "religious", and a little overboard at that. After a couple of years, although still Catholic, I had immersed myself in scripture and had read many books written by non-Catholic authors. It had already become obvious to me that scripture contradicted many Catholic practices. One day my mother stopped by to visit Jackie and me at our little house in Kalamazoo. She and my dad had just come back from Europe and she said that she brought back a present for me. Out of her purse came an ordinary little rosary. She proudly gave it to me and said; "The Pope blessed it". Now I must tell you that in my mind I pictured the Pope walking through a warehouse somewhere in Rome, full of holy cards, rosaries, and other religious objects, waving his hand in one great swoop, and saying in Latin; "Bless this stuff". I realized that my mother was trying to express a spiritual connection in terms that she understood, but I soon became really distraught at the thought that maybe my parents were actually missing a saving relationship with Jesus. A day or two later, I was kneeling by my bed, pouring out my heart with as much emotion as I ever had, praying for the salvation of my parents. In the midst of that the Spirit of the Lord settled upon me, and unspoken, gave me the assurance that they were right with God. Even though we couldn't talk the same talk, and even though our theologies were quite different, God had given me a life long peace about them.

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Jackie and I sent our oldest 3 children to a Catholic school for a few years. When Ben was in 2nd grade, he came home with a black plastic rosary that the school gave each of the kids. Jackie went into his room, decorated with sports and Star Wars items, and noticed his new rosary hanging from his top bunk (Ben slept on the bottom, the top was for when his friends might visit). Curious, she asked Ben why he had it hanging like that. Now the rosary has a medallion , which usually has a picture of Mary on it. But in Ben's 2nd grade mind, the image of Our Lady of Fatima on the black plastic medallion looked just like Darth Vadar from the Star Wars movie. And so he proudly displayed it. We thought this was quite humorous, and we were actually relieved at the limits of Catholic indoctrination. As it turns out, Ben's interpretation might have some merit. Prayer beads have been around for thousands of years. Jesus could have partially been addressing those types of prayer in Matthew 6 when He said; "And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the gentiles do; for they suppose they will be heard for their many words". Jesus then provides a pattern for prayer which is now called the Our Father. Well, guess what? Repeating the pattern as a prayer with endless repetitions was exactly what Jesus was telling us not to do. And saying 10 Hail Marys to each Our Father is not exactly addressing our prayers to the Father either.

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Our heavenly Father wants to change our lives and draw us closer to Him. And He speaks to us through His Holy Spirit in many ways. It is the Holy Spirit, and not Mary, that always works to reveal Jesus to us, because we can go to the Father through Jesus. To hear God we need to have a heart that seeks Him and is willing to respond to what He says. When I cry out to God from the depths of my heart, and worship Him with made up songs and unknown tongues, and weep in response to a verse of scripture that I've reflected upon, moving me to repentance, that is better than ten thousand rote prayers or even hours of reading the Bible. The veil has been torn in two. And neither priest, or minister, or saint, or Mary, should be an intermediary between us and the Father.

Prayer And Fasting

This will be the 11th straight year that Jackie and I have observed a 40 day period of prayer and fasting which we begin on the first of October. I actually started doing this 2 Timothy 2:1-2 Blog a week after last year's fast, having felt from my time of prayer during the fast that it was something that the Lord wanted me to do.

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Our fasting is relatively minor. We abstain from carbonated beverages, deserts, and from eating anything between meals. This has been a good way for us to fast because it is difficult, it takes a commitment to achieve, and we know we can see it through to the end. In the weeks before we start we each ask the Lord to show us what we should be praying for, and then right before we begin we talk together about the burdens that God has laid on our hearts. Doing this we end up with a common prayer focus. And prayer seems to be more effective when two or more are in agreement.

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About 48 hours into the fast we always get a headache which lasts for a couple of days, apparently cause by the lack of sugar to our systems. After the pain fades we get the dreams. It is the same type of dream every year. I eat a candy bar or piece of pie (my daughter Ceci who also fasts and prays with her husband during this time has numerious M&M dreams), before it occurs to me that - Whoops! - I've messed things up. It's not that there is anything legalistic about not eating what we are fasting from, or even that circumstances might require an exception. But we feel that our annual fast is an important thing for us to do, and we really don't want to compromise it. We praise God, not just for the answers to prayer and for the spiritual growth that comes every year, but also for the goodness of our Lord and Savior, whom we appreciate more because of this time we have spent, unified in prayer and in denying the cravings of our bodies. The results of this time have been much more than seeing God move in the areas that we were praying for. They have shown us that although we may begin and end on a certain day, pre-determined by us, the God who loves us and who knows our needs is outside time.

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For example, our fast begins on the 1st of October and ends at midnight on the 9th of November. On the first year we did our fast Jackie's dad had a major heart attack on the 10th of November. He lived for 6 more days at the critical care heart center on the fifth floor of Borgess Hospital before he went to be with his Blessed Redeemer. Harry was a man of great faith, a gifted teacher of scripture, who prayed with many for salvation, for baptism in the Holy Spirit, for healing and for deliverance. The family would usually look to him to be the leader in praying for healing or for receiving a word from the Lord. His heart attack became a time for many more in the family to learn how to search the scriptures, to cry out to the Lord, and to hear and speak forth the prophetic word.

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One of the prophetic words during that time came from a vision that God gave Ceci. She was with Jackie and some of her aunts and cousins, praying intensely for Harry. They were in a semi-secluded area in the hallway, near the visitors waiting room, on the 5th floor at Borgess. In the vision she saw angels with their swords drawn, coming into the hospital on the 1st floor, and fighting their way up to the 5th floor, and she gave the play by play to the women as the vision unfolded. To me this vision represents the power of their collective intercessory prayer. God is showing that He is in control, and that He does respond, even if the result was not the recovery they were praying for. And one of the things that show me that God is in control is that He led Jackie and I to fast and pray prior to those events, preparing us, and especially Jackie, for the emotional strain of seeing her father die, and for the intense time of prayer and spiritual warfare that the family would be involved in.

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On the next year we ended our fast as usuall at midnight on the 9th of November. Jackie had asked her mom to come and spend the night at our house because it was near the 1st anniversary of Harry's heart attack and she was worried about her mother being alone at that time. Helen wasn't able to make it, but events proved to be very interesting, as I partially shared in an earlier Blog. There was an all day steady wind of between 40-50 mph. That evening it started gusting to 60-70 mph. Occasionally we would hear a "Whomp!", which was the sound of a tree falling somewhere nearby. The power was out before we went to bed, and Jackie and I prayed for protection for ourselves, our 15 year old daughter Becky, and for our house. Shortly afterwards we heard and felt the tremendous crash a tree hitting our house, followed by the scream of our daughter. I grabbed a flashlight and bolted down the dark upstairs hallway to her room, finding her huddled in a ball on the floor. There was a jagged 2 x 4 from the roof truss sticking into the middle of her mattress. Looking up past the wood and drywall and trees I could see the sky. Becky was unhurt and did not know how she ended up on the floor, and Jackie and I both had the sense that an angel had intervened, moving Becky off her bed at the last second. Two rooms sustained quite a bit of damage. The other belonged to our daughter Missy who was away at college. And that was the room where Jackie's mom would have been sleeping if she had come. There were a couple more upsides to all of this. Tarps covered the roof for three weeks before it could be repaired, and it never rained during that time. Being in a woods, our roof was covered with moss, and insurance paid for a new moss resistant roof as well as for all the other repairs. The missing trees opened up a nice large sunny area out back, which Jackie had wanted for a long time. Even though our house got hit, our time of prayer and fasting had prepared us. God protected us physically and gave us more besides.

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Living our lives as Christians is not about religion or religious acts. It is not about if or how we fast or the fervency of our prayers, or the volume of scripture we read. It all has to do with a living Lord, who loves us and who wants to share a loving relationship with us. He desires to be in every part of our lives, and He desires that we share with Him the things that He finds pleasure in. Prayer and fasting help in bringing down the barriers of the world and the flesh that come between us and the relationship that He wants to have with us. I recently read the 8th chapter of Ezekiel during my morning prayer time. In it the Lord gave Ezekiel a series of visions showing the people of Jerusalem engaged in idol worship, spirit worship, Tammuz worship and sun worship. In one of those, Ezekiel digs a hole through a wall to uncover a secret place where seventy elders of the House of Israel were standing, each with a censer filled with incense before walls that had "every form of creeping things and beasts and detestable things, with all the idols of the House of Israel, were carved on the wall around it". Upon reading this my stomach felt nauseous. I became sad because I realized that God loved this people and wanted so much for them, and in return they rejected Him. But of course, this isn't to point a finger at a particular people. I realized that I too can think that I have a secret place where God cannot see. And those things that are kept in a secret place are just as much idols, and just as creepy and detestable to God as were the things worshipped by the elders of the House of Israel. Although I know these things will affect my relationship with Him, the solution is not to bring everything into the light just because things will be better for me. These should also be brought into the light because I understand that my sin hurts the One who loves me.

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The real benefit of a time of prayer and fasting is not just in what we are seeking from Him. The practice declares that He is the Lord of the Universe and that we believe that He is in control of our lives and that we are putting our trust in Him for all things. That trust will help soften our hearts, and a soft heart will bring a closer relationship, and the love of God will give us the strength to conform our lives to the pattern that He, in His love and wisdom, has established for us.