A Recommendation



It has been interesting to me in my survey of various "Christian" blogs to see the diversity of opinion when it comes to the "Christian's" stance toward war. No doubt the divergence of opinion would exist if the topic were greed, sex, or any of the other areas dealing with the seven deadly sins. Perhaps it is just a matter of how seriously we really take Our Lord Jesus Christ and how much we really believe in God.



When I was reviewing a book on the Algerian Trappist monks who were killed, I was struck by one incident in the early life of the abbot of the monastery. His name was "Christian" and he was serving as a soldier in the French military in North Africa. During his service he befriended a local man who was a devout moslem. At some point during their friendship they discussed prayer and the moslem friend commented to Christian that he was amazed at how "Christians" found it so difficult to pray. "Didn't they believe in God?" the man wondered. Later when Christian came under attack his moslem friend defended him and later was killed for having done so. The experience never left Christian who later became a Trappist monk and in the end gave his life for the love of the Algerians.



The question bears repeating, "Do we believe in God?"



Do we believe that He is all powerful or do we think that it all really depends upon us? Let me recommend a book to anyone who reads this blog. My guess it will upset the majority of people but being upset is not always a bad thing. The book deals with the forces of evil and how they seek to "dominate" in this world both us and others. As much as we seek to dominate others rather accept the dominion of God in our lives we participate in these evil powers. Anyway for those interested the book is by a Walter Wink (he's actually written a series of books on this topic). He is not Catholic but is a Christian and where you might not agree with everything he says I think you will find that it will put the demands of the gospel into focus for you and why we must pray always that "thy kingdom come, thy will be done."