This week, we have spoken a bit about the prophecy of the Messiah's coming. You may wonder why this is important. He already came here! We aren't in need of a Savior like the Israelites were! Our world isn't needing someone to save us from eternal damnation; Jesus is here!
While that may be true, make sure you, yourself, are not turning away from Him like they did thousands of years ago without even knowing it. Check out Tamara's Lowe's message. It's a rap. You may need to view it 2-3 times to soak it all in.
Repond to this post with your favorite line(s) AND give me some thoughts, interpretations, or insights to that message.
 Happy New Year, once again, Seventh Grade! I hope your holiday season was a memorable one! As mentioned in class today, we often ask each other, "What did you GET for Christmas? What did you GET? What gifts did you GET?" Hmm, I know we GOT a lot of things that made us happy, but what did you DO that made you happier? What could you have done? (These do not need to be answered through the comments. There is no post due for today). We began the infancy narratives section of the New Testament, beginning right before Jesus' birth. We read about the Annunciation of John's birth to Zechariah. This first story in Luke is to show how special and significant the birth of John the Baptist is. But it also has lessons for us as Jesus' disciples. Zechariah certainly lives his life to follow the God he loved, but his faith falters. He doubts God. What can we learn from his faith that we can apply to our own faith? Your responses will not count for a grade, but I welcome them. P.S.- Here is some interesting information that I came across in regards to the reason Zechariah was "chosen by lot" to burn the incense. It comes from the Jesus Walk website. At that thime, the priests were divided into 24 groups or divisions (1 Chronicles 10:7-18), of which Zechariah's "division of Abijah" is eighth in the rotation. Priests and their families would live in Jerusalem or in various nearby villages, but when their division was called up for duty for a week, twice each year, the priests would come to Jerusalem to work in the Temple. Each day about 50 priests would have been on duty, with perhaps 300 on duty during a given week.[4] "This day, Zechariah is "chosen by lot" [meaning they drew numbers, or in our day, picked a name out of a hat] to go inside the temple and burn incense on the Altar of Incense in the Holy Place. It is considered a great honor [ and a once in a lifetime opportunity]. Since there were a large number of priests, no priest was allowed to serve as the officiating priest more than once in his lifetime.
 Another FAN-TABULOUS class today! Boy, you are all making me smarter and smarter by the minute. The more we chat, the stronger my FAITH gets! Today, we learned that God actually gave us that gift of faith when He made us. He stuck it within our souls, but only WE can open up the gift and decide to use it or not. We also learned that God doesn't control us or program us like a computer to force us to be good or force us to believe. We have to choose it ourselves. This answers why God "allows" bad things to happen in this world. They don't happen because He allows them, but because mankind was given free will (another gift!) and chooses how to react to situations.
I know that if I were God, and if I chose to control my people and FORCE them to believe and worship me, it wouldn't be very rewarding to have even created my people since their actions are not genuinely coming from the heart, but merely out of control!
But, boy, how meaningful it must be when His children come to Him on their own! That's what he wants! He created us to KNOW Him! That's it!
Faith enables us to do three things:
1. To believe in God (Duh, without faith, we can't believe in Him).
2. To accept all he has revealed to us (even the things He's revealed that we truly can't understand. Instead of breaking our brains trying to figure out these divine concepts, we accept these truths with faith).
3. To respond with God's love to others. You cannot have this awesome gift from God and then treat people (including yourself) like dirt.
Lastly, faith is not just something we say when we believe in God. It extends beyond that. Faith is a way of life. The way we have relationships involves faith, the way we serve others involves faith, and the way act when even no one is watching involves faith. It's not a switch you can turn on or off.
I have FAITH that you will all do amazingly on tomorrow's test!
Homework: Study your text, your notes, and the worksheets. Complete the Chapter One Assessment worksheet handed out today.
Today in class, we completed our group posters representing each of the five proofs. Great job!!! We also took our quiz on the five proofs.
Homework- Watch the videos below to further understand the five proofs. They sound boring at the beginning, but they are super short and totally cool! They are only on Motion, Causation, and Contingency (Possibility).
Select a proof video and discuss an element about it that helped you to understand the proof just a bit more! Due Wednesday at midnight.
God rocks!
 Alright! We finally finished our second lesson! We had some GREAT discussions and new ways of understand God's existence. Thank you for enlightening me! I love learning from my students, too!
Today we completed all five proofs of God's existence. We learned:
Proof 3- Motion- The world is full of motion (tides, planet's orbit, etc.) Obviously, nothing can just move by itself! Therefore, there must be a Mover.... God needed to exist in order for anything to move at all!
Proof 4- Possibility- Ahhhh, the hard one to understand. Let's make it simple: Every thing that exists in this world has contingent existence, meaning it either could or could not have existed prior to it actually coming into existence (are you still with me, people?). Without God (who has necessary contingency- meaning it is necessary for Him to exist before other things are created) NOTHING could exist! There is no way to explain how anything was here, unless something was already in existence prior to it.
Proof 5- Forms or Degrees of Goodness- God is the highest degree of perfection, truth, morality, beauty, and goodness of all things and qualities. How do we know how to rate things as evil or good; right or wrong; true or false? There must be a standard by which we measure all these things. Therefore, there has to be an ULTIMATE right, truth, beauty, etc. Without having a perfect God, we would not know the difference among all these elements. God is that measuring tool.
Today's classwork involved heavy notes and discussion. I introduced your poster project. I have uploaded it here for your downloading enjoyment in case you lost your copy. See the download link below. If you are going to be absent on Friday or Monday, please do this assignment on your own on computer paper. Your group needs you BOTH days!
We will present each one.
HW- Study for Monday's quiz on the five proofs. Know definitions, titles, and examples of each. Breathe, it'll be easy to grasp. It's 10 questions.
 | proofs_of_god_poster_project.docx | | File Size: | 12 kb | | File Type: | docx |
Download File
 During today's awesome class, we discussed the many ways we feel God is present in our lives (by taking the questionnaire on page 13). This conversation kicked off our first chapter for the year- Our God The Source of All Life. Some of you sense God's presence through nature, through family and friends, or simply by being in Church. We also learned that science and the belief in God can co-exist! Science answers how, when, and why things came to be, but when science can't answer all our questions (which it can't), we know to turn to our faith to answer the rest.
Homework: After discussing Pascal's quote about God, create a long quote of your own that compares Him to a thing we all use in our everyday lives. For example, you can draw a bottle of glue and creatively writing your quote within it, you state: "God is like Elmer's glue- He holds everything together strongly and safely". You may cut out your shape. Neatness in your drawing and writing counts! You know how picky I am! Please color. You cannot use the glue or a gluestick as your example.
***Note- Do not respond to this blog unless you have a question. This is physical homework.
 One of my FAVORITE songs is called "Dive" by Steven Curtis Chapman, who is a Christian artist. I heard the song in high school, forgot about it for a few years while I was so busy in college, and like a lost puppy, the song found its way back home to me! I chose this song to kick off our new school year because I hope each and every single one of you will DIVE DEEPLY into your faith, get drenched, and soak in all this year has to offer. The lyrics and the pop beat are so catchy, I'm sure you'll listen to it more than once. Please watch the music video below and read the lyrics. This is the ultimate "feel-good" song of faith!
What does this song and DIVING have to do with our Catholicism, especially in your teen years? Your response should include at least three sentences, with no misspellings or mis-capitalizations. Also include one phrase from the song that reaches out to you (the phrase can be as short as three words).
|
RSS Feed