MY FAITH

So far during my 12 year cancer ordeal and for the rest of my life fighting my non-Hodgkin's my faith has been an important aspect of my life, my strength, and my survival; however, I do not attend Church services on Sunday for a variety of reasons but my faith is strong in its depth and breath.

Until I graduated from High School, my parents required that I attend Sunday School and the main service every Sunday regardless of weather conditions or being sick unless it was required that I remain in bed.  That exposure to all kinds of biblical stories has remained with me all my life.

I pray for NO ONE, but when I pray, I use The Lord's Prayer only which is how Jesus said we should pray....  "...that God's Will should be done on earth as it is in Heaven..."  And, my religious journey has included me reading the entire Bible, taking notes and asking questions during that process that I keep on a CD.  Also, on that CD all of the comments made by Jesus (typically in red) have been cut and pasted for future reference.

TODAY,
my concern(s) in light of COVID-19 and Stay At Home Orders put into practice by most STATES is the following:

Does the Federal Government have the right or authority given to it by the US Constitution to DEMAND that Churches NOT HOLD "in house" services on Sundays?

This does not include staying in your car on Church grounds listening to the sermon broadcast via a radio station...

...SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE...

Easter Sunday

Easter refers to Easter Sunday which is the day the resurrection of Jesus is remembered. Good Friday commemorates the day that Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross. ... Easter is preceded by 40 days of fasting, and Good Friday and Easter Sunday are marked by church services full of meaning and importance.

There is a lot speculation as to the day of Jesus' death and the time of his death.   Religious scholars believe that the day of his death was Friday and the time of his death was sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 pm.

And...  we do not know what year Jesus died although we know that Pilate was Prefect in Judea Sumaria 26 A.D. through 36 A.D.

So, now we must look at when did Passover take place during the year of his death...   Using all the historical data of Jewish dates and Gospel passages from the Bible, we have 2 theories:

Theory 1  -  Jesus died in 30 A.D.

Theory 2  -  Jesus died in 33 A.D.

What about his resurrections?

"By our modern method of counting days, Jesus would have been in His tomb from late Friday afternoon until early Sunday morning. Even counting Friday and Sunday as full days, that would mean He was interred for three days and two nights at most. This is important because in Matthew 12 Jesus specifies that His resurrection in three days and three nights will be the only sign that He is the Messiah."    

Source:  allaboutjesuschrist.org

Why aren't these discrepancies shared with Church Congregations as part of our religious experiences, growth and development of our belief and faith?

Editorial Comment:  My faith...  My belief...  My Religious Strength is predicated upon my complete understanding of the Bible, its stories, and the credibility of those stories...  just because there are discrepancies is not an indication that these stories are not true...  but, hiding these stories from the congregation of believers is wrong and inappropriate and makes me wonder what else are they hiding...

Another Day... Another Dollar

Any day above ground is a good day, I have often told people who have asked me how's it going...  and, while that might be a clever response, it is pretty much the truth given my health situation.  With Lymphoma and Melanoma, I live under a constant threat that my Oncologist will one day tell me that there is nothing that medicine can do for me...

With that mentality, I have maintain a constant vigilance over my finances and have gotten to the point today where if I were to die tomorrow that there is enough money saved (along with selling the house and moving into a rental apartment) to pay the monthly expenses until my wife reaches the age of 97...

"Get your house in order," is what physicians tell terminal patients and knowing that I have preempted that from being told to me...  not sure why that might be important to me but it is. 

While I recognize that I am getting closer and closer to the end of my life at age 72 with two cancers, I have NEVER seen myself as dying...  and, I am not sure why other than I believe that GOD, our creator, has something planned for me of which I have yet to be informed. 

Does that mean that there is something yet for me to do?

Perhaps, I just don't know.

What I do know is that GOD is in charge of my life...  and, when it is time for me to go, I will go...  just like when it was time for me to be born, I was born...

This is my faith.

I trust my faith.

I live today and plan for tomorrow...