In Genesis, God brings Adam all the animals of His creation to name. Can you imagine? That’s so cute! Imagine God walking up with a rabbit under His arm like, “what’s this one called?”
Was in a meeting today and one of my colleagues said that Christian faith isn't just about personal holiness, but about social holiness. It's about creating holiness in the way we treat each other.
I think an essential part of living a Christian life is realizing that the two are not separate.
Trying to achieve personal holiness without concern for your fellow man just leads to myopic self-obsession and self-righteousness, which of course lead to blindness, hard-heartedness and sin. Trying to achieve the wellbeing of your fellow man without concern for the hard lines of personal holiness to which we're all called leads to a wishy-washy consequentialism, which is liable to leaving us justifying any means so long as they serve a "good" end.
To observe both properly, we have see them as a unified whole. And to do that we have to ask ourselves what holiness is—namely, to know Christ and to live more and more in His life and His will. And that can be frightening, but I also think we can do so with great trust, since all of Christ's life and will was love.
Thinking... someone who loves you would take anything you give them, even if it's worth nothing. And because they would take anything, it is only right to give them anything.
Something that I have noticed is I know almost nobody my age that goes to a food pantry. I know people who regularly run out of money for food and in general have to eat an unsuitable diet because that’s what they can afford and they still don’t go to a food bank, im not sure if it’s because they’re embarrassed or maybe if you didn’t grow up going you don’t know much about it but if you’re financially struggling I really recommend it. And look into other options for food assistance too like community fridges and gardens and other programs that can assist you, where I live Salvation Army pays for an allotted amount of grocery delivery for low income people every month, in the summer farmers take excess produce to the library to be taken by anyone who needs it, etc. There are a LOT of resources for free food that you can look into especially if you are literally not eating because of your financial situation
I looked this up because I had to know the context behind painting Christ with a nineteenth century Ukrainian-Russian novelist sharing spaghetti...I did not find any context, but I did learn Andrei Bodko has painted many such images of Christ hanging out with everyday people and I think I'm in love with some of them
Christ visiting a rehabilitation center:
Christ feeding construction workers:
Christ reading bedtime stories:
Christ visiting the artist:
Andrei Bodko's on Instagram @andrei_bodko.
And here's a website article that describes some of his paintings and explains that before Andrei was a professional iconographer,
"he was a street artist. In March 2024, he decided to diversify his iconography and draw a series of non-canonical religious pictures he called ‘Always Near’. He believes that his works are reminiscent of pre-revolutionary ‘lubki’ (Russian naive pics of church themes).
'These are not icons, but religious paintings on Christian themes,' the artist says. 'How do we believe in Christ in the 21st century? Is he around, helping us? We believe that God is omnipresent, he hears every beat of our heart, sees all our thoughts. God is always near, but we don't see him.'
" Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” "
At this point in time, the disciples had already seen Jesus heal the sick, drive out demons, and make clean the dirty; so why did the disciples fear the water? How could people who live with him still doubt his power?
In the same way, we can find ourselves doubting. We'll be in a difficult spot, and suddenly we're not so sure anymore. Can he do it? Will he do it? Is he really there?
Jesus has already died on the cross for us. What more do we ask of him to satisfy our doubts? If your faith depends on whether you see miracles everyday, or if you're expecting a "sign", are you sure that you understand what faith is? Faith is believing that he's there without needing to see visual conformation. Faith is knowing that you'll be able to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and make it to the other side. Faith is trusting that you are in God's hands; forever and always.
If you do not feel the connection with God, change that. Talk to him, and read the Word (the bible). God is there and ready to have a relationship with you - you only need to reach out.
"For we walk by faith, not by sight."
- 2 Corinthians 5:7
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Other helpful Bible verses:
Hebrews 11:1
Matthew 17:20
Proverbs 3:5-6
1 John 5:4
Romans 4:20-21
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If you have any questions regarding the Christian faith, please ask me in my ask box. I am not a perfect person, but I will try and answer your questions as best as I can. We all have much more to learn, myself included. So please, do not be shy.
There’s nothing between you and God anymore. No mistake, sin, or shame could ever possibly cause God to reject you. Come as you are; He will welcome you into His arms. He sees you as you are and loves you there. He will mend your wounds and guide you on a path that leads ever-increasingly to the peace found in Him.
Wanna know how to defeat doubt? Open up your Bible. Grab a sparkly gel pen and a journal. Break out your prayer beads or your rosary. Spending time with God is the ultimate antidote to feeling far from His presence.
(No, seriously. Even if you're at the point of rolling your eyes at the thought of God's goodness and mercy. Seek His face. Always.)
God does not hang back as a mere spectator when power is utilized to oppress the weak and crush the poor. God does not keep sovereign distance in the face of human crimes. God's angry voice echoes through the centuries: "Cain, where is your brother?"
appalachia is devastated. towns i loved, towns i visited all the time, are gone. not damaged, GONE. they are leveled to the ground. there is nothing left but rubble and ruin. people are dead. appalachia is poor to begin with and relies on tourism for a lot of its income, and multiple of those tourist locations are just...gone.
my town is okay, but it's flooded and wrecked. trees are blocking all but one way out of our neighborhood. power lines are hanging limp in the roads. we've been without power for over 24 hours and will continue to be without power for likely another 24+. disabled people and poor people are GOING to die from this. gods save appalachia.
it's always a hit or miss with appalachian charities. a lot are just evangelism with no action behind what they do. i suggest looking into them before donating.
adding some additional photos from the other side of the mountains here in northeast tennessee. there has been genuinely catastrophic flooding in many areas and billions of dollars of damage across NETN and WNC. we are not built to withstand this. 33 people are currently missing in unicoi county alone
to those of you reblogging this, thank you. i have not seen one negative comment about appalachia and i cannot put into words what that means as someone who has lived here for their entire life. we are used to being mocked, scorned, and dismissed, to being the butt of classist jokes, and y'all aren't doing that. thank you. so much.
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