Dialogue with a Catholic, Part 1

Beth came across my post on being a Recovering Catholic recently and emailed me. She has been kind enough to allow me to post our conversation here:

Beth Said:

I was interested to read your recovering Catholic thread. I was saddened to see your conclusion that a Catholic can't possibly know Jesus Christ. In my travels I have found that there are as many nominal born again Christians as there are nominal Catholics.

I personally have found a depth and wisdom in the Catholic Church that I find no where else. It challenges me and leads me always to Jesus Christ. I am intrigued in recent years by hearing more and more testimonies of born again Christians who have embraced the Catholic Church. The "Surprised by Truth" book series documents many of these.

I have to admit though I hear plenty of Catholics who feel the need to place judgment on other Christian and their relationship with God. I get tired of hearing it from both sides. Let us recognize Jesus Christ where He is present.


Here was my reply to Beth:

Thank you for your comment. I had to go back and read my post to see what sentence you were referring to and maybe I could have stated my opinion better. It's not so much that I don't think a Catholic can know Jesus, but I have a difficult time believing that someone who knows the Word of God could be a part of the Catholic church. Maybe that is just semantics but I think that expresses how I feel just a bit better.

I have met a few Catholics since I've been blogging and am glad that there are at least a few who know biblical truths and understand their faith. My experience in general with Catholics (including my own family) is the type of attitude that going to church each Sunday is "good enough" to get you into heaven. That is the type of attitude that bothers me.

It breaks my heart that there may be people faithfully attending church each Sunday and yet never get to know God. I think it is abhorrent that people could be attending any church and not understand the Gospel message and that they will spend eternity in hell if they don't put their faith in Jesus (and that isn't just lip service, it's a total transformation). I see alot of that in the Catholic church but there are also some Protestant denominations that I am just as unhappy with.

You are right, we should be careful as Christians not to judge other people's relationship with God. But I would be neglecting my duties as a child of God if I did not try to correct others who I feel may not have a true relationship with Jesus and therefore are not saved. Besides, isn't part of the Catholic doctrine that no one can be saved outside of the Catholic church? Do you believe that? If so, that seems a more condemning statement against personal faith than anything I have said.

I will post Beth's followup reply and mine in my next post.

New Blogroll

I decided to join some blogrolls for fun. Some of the blogging ladies out there make such cute graphics (like the one above).

I have zero artistic talent. My four year old already draws better than I can. Before she could draw she would ask me to draw pictures for her of certain people or animals. Stick people and unidentifiable blobs was about as good as it got.

I'm glad Proverbs 31 didn't mention some sort of artistic talent or I'd never be able to feel good about myself.

Okay, I'm not funny...

Well I am afraid the humor in my last post was a flop. I tried to make a few jokes about my house and use some levity with regards to God’s will but it seems I came off badly. It was never my intention to say that the Lord has ever given me anything less than the best and far better than I ever deserve. Now I feel like a big whiny baby with an inappropriate sense of humor and an inability to communicate well in writing. Sorry!

I had alluded in a previous post that my humor was a tough blend with my faith and I think I have proven my point. Here is what I said:

“What am I trying to get at here? I don’t know! I feel like my funny side is struggling to get out but my humor is tough to blend with my faith. Humor is a big part of who I am, but it was cultivated before I knew Christ and is of the cynical - goof on other people - take-no prisoners kind of humor. I’m not sure I can find any middle ground.”

At least I get a few points for predicting the bad outcome.

Oh well, back to serious and opinionated.

Divine Renovation

I took last week off from work to get some work done around the house. We bought our house about 10 months ago and I’m convinced that God pulled a fast one on us, somehow blinding us to the borderline dilapidation that we call a house. Okay, I’m exaggerating. It’s not dilapidated but it does need a lot of work.

Why would God have done this? I’m not sure but I think he wanted us in that house for some reason and as long as it was his will, I’m okay with it. I’d be better with it if he would miraculously part the wallpaper off my walls but so far no luck.

If I didn’t have two small kids, I think I could enjoy renovating our house. But I do have two small kids, so I’m not feeling the love. If having hatred in your heart is as good as murder, then I am guilty of murdering my kitchen. And my bathroom. And I’ve at least maimed by dining room.

There isn’t much I can do but just keep plugging along. But the chaos is making me a bit crazy. And with home renovation there is a lot of decision-making and money-spending, two things that aren’t even in the running for my top ten list of things I enjoy.

And to top it all off, my Dad is coming to visit for the weekend and nothing makes me more aware of the mess I live in then the presence of another person. But hey, why shouldn’t my Dad get to enjoy staring at the holes in the walls of my kitchen, or the partially-wallpapered/partially-bare-walled dining room, or the boxes of roman shades in the corner of the room that by the grace of God will someday be hung on the window? Who am I to deny him that pleasure?

So that is a little slice of my life today. Through the power of Christ living through me I am able to keep from pulling my hair out. Can I get an Amen?

Questions in Heaven

We meet weekly with a smaller group from our church to fellowship and there is usually a topic for discussion led by someone in the group. Last night the icebreaker-type question was “What person from the Bible (other than Jesus) would you like to meet in heaven and what question would you ask them?"

Most of us could probably come up with a long list of questions for various people, so it was an interesting exercise. In fact, I like the question so much I think I may post some of my questions here from time to time when I’m low on content.

The question/person I thought of last night was Peter. I’ve written about Peter before and how I was touched that Paul records (1Cor 15:5) that Jesus visited Peter after his resurrection and prior to his appearance to the other disciples. This is just a few days after Peter’s denial of Jesus and the condemning call of the rooster.

So my question to Peter would be: “What did Jesus say to you in that private meeting after his resurrection?” After a major failure on Peter’s part and after so many failures in my own life, I’d love to know what Jesus had to say to Peter.

I'm Back (I Think)

Well, I think I have decided to keep this blog going. I must admit though, it was nice to take a break. I had become too entrenched in the blogworld and was spending WAY too much time writing, reading, thinking about and commenting on blogs. It becomes a bit addictive and I’m glad I broke the cycle.

I haven’t decided what my format will be going forward as I really haven’t put much thought into it. I simply decided that I enjoy writing so I would like to continue. My posts will likely be more random and less frequent and be about whatever happens to be on my mind at the moment.

I feel like a heel now because I was contacted by Ciao My Bella (see my sidebar) for a free blog design, but I turned it down b/c I wasn’t sure at the time that I would continue this blog and didn’t want to waste the designer’s time. Oops. Perhaps I can still get something worked out. I'd love to have a design made up for my website for Christian women also.

During my absence I’ve been busy working around the house. We have a lot of fixing up to do around our place and at times it seems overwhelming, but I guess we’re slowly making progress. I’m taking a week off from work soon to get some more stuff done and can’t wait.

I’m sad to say that my walk with the Lord has not been the same for the past month or two. I seem to have stumbled at some point and now he seems somewhat distant. Perhaps there is some sin in my life that I need to uncover? I don’t know. I’m working on getting that figured out.

Glad to be back.