Tag Archives: Adam and Eve

Ep89 Encore: The Real Christmas Story and Its True Meaning

December 14, 2022UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Book of Exodus, Book of Genesis, Catholic Church, Christmas, Incarnation, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Milton, Salvation, Satan, Sin, St Paul, St. Irenaeus, St. Pope John Paul II, the Devilwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:46 — 20.8MB)

Father Len reveals the real “reason for the season” is us.

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Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

“When I look at the world upside down, that’s when it seems right to me.” – Jeret “Speedy” Peterson
Father Len tells a story about geese to illustrate why God became a human being.
Christmas is a revelation of who we are meant to be.
To be good is to become a true human being.
Our true humanity is to live like Christ.
“Christianity is the attitude of amazement at the dignity of the human person.” – Pope John Paul II
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” – Irenaeus
“Paradise Lost” by John Milton
“Faust” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sin is the temptation to stop being a true human being.
Evil is the no to human goodness. Evil is the no to all that is good.
Satan is not one who hates God. Satan is one who believes that God can’t love him or us.
The good news of Christmas is that God became one of us to show us how to become true human beings and discover the goodness of being a true human being.
Salvation is not the story of God rescuing us from an evil universe. Salvation is the story of God coming as one like us to teach us what true goodness looks like.
Absolute love will embrace death.
Absolute love cannot be contained by the tomb.
Sin is anything that deprives us of our full humanity.
Christmas is the beginning of the journey to our true humanity to love and to be connected.

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Ep73 Encore: The Real Christmas Story and Its True Meaning

December 6, 2021UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Book of Exodus, Book of Genesis, Catholic Church, Christmas, Incarnation, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Milton, Salvation, Satan, Sin, St Paul, St. Irenaeus, St. Pope John Paul II, the Devilwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:55 — 19.1MB)

Father Len reveals the real “reason for the season” is us.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

“When I look at the world upside down, that’s when it seems right to me.” – Jeret “Speedy” Peterson
Father Len tells a story about geese to illustrate why God became a human being.
Christmas is a revelation of who we are meant to be.
To be good is to become a true human being.
Our true humanity is to live like Christ.
“Christianity is the attitude of amazement at the dignity of the human person.” – Pope John Paul II
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” – Irenaeus
“Paradise Lost” by John Milton
“Faust” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sin is the temptation to stop being a true human being.
Evil is the no to human goodness. Evil is the no to all that is good.
Satan is not one who hates God. Satan is one who believes that God can’t love him or us.
The good news of Christmas is that God became one of us to show us how to become true human beings and discover the goodness of being a true human being.
Salvation is not the story of God rescuing us from an evil universe. Salvation is the story of God coming as one like us to teach us what true goodness looks like.
Absolute love will embrace death.
Absolute love cannot be contained by the tomb.
Sin is anything that deprives us of our full humanity.
Christmas is the beginning of the journey to our true humanity to love and to be connected.

Ep60 The History of Marriage and What Makes It Work

May 5, 2021UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Book of Sirach, Catholic Church, Christ, Commitment, Covenant, Dante Alighieri, God, Heaven, Judaism, Marriage, Martin Luther, Protestants, Religion, Self-Sacrificing Love, Song of Songs, The Bible, The Old Testament, Theology of Marriagewrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:36 — 42.7MB)

Father Len explores the history of marriage, our changing attitudes and expectations about it, God’s expectations for marriage, and what makes marriage so difficult yet so worthwhile.

Highlights, Ideas and Wisdom

Ancient marriages were rarely about love and had little to do with religion. Marriages were pragmatic contracts between families about such things as wealth, political alliances, childbearing, and, for poor and working-class families, acquiring a work partner.
Christ revolutionized expectations for marriage. Declaring it to be about unity, love, and becoming a true human being, having nothing to do with legal rights.
Modern expectations for marriage revolve around happiness. Finding the one person that’s going to make me happy until they don’t. Then, it’s time to find a new partner.
Marriage is a pathway to becoming the image of God, the image of love.
Marriage involves a death, dying to ego and selfishness.
“True love doesn’t make up for all your faults. True love exposes all your faults.” – Dante Alighieri
You can’t work on your faults until they’re exposed.
True love demands constant sacrifice.
Marriage is about sacrificing your ego and learning to think as two rather than one.
Unmarried people often have difficulty thinking about other people because they don’t have to.
Marriage is a way to holiness because it is about the way of self-sacrificing love.
God can save you, but your spouse gets you in the best shape to be saved.
Marriage gets you ready for heaven.
Marriage is about sacrificing everything for the sake of love.

Ep56 Bible Symbols Revealed and Explained-Part 2 Trees

April 2, 2021UncategorizedAbraham, Adam and Eve, Bible Symbols, Book of Genesis, Bread of Life, Catholic Architecture, Catholic Church, Christ, Christianity, CS Lewis, David, God, Human Beings, Idols, Jesus, JRR Tolkien, Noah, Old Testament, Pharaoh, Tree of Life, Trees, Zachariahwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:42 — 30.8MB)

Father Len reveals that trees are symbols for God and human beings and trees represent the most important choices we make in life.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

Trees are the third most common thing mentioned in the Bible.
God loves trees and gives them a ring every year on their birthdays.
Trees are places where human beings choose to worship or reject God.
There is a tree present at every major event in the Bible.
Every major character in the Bible is associated with a type of tree.
The only thing Jesus ever harmed was a tree that produced no fruit.
The Bible begins and ends with the “tree of life” and trees are present throughout the Bible.
The story of human history is choosing between two trees: the tree of life and the tree of good and selfishness.
There are two types of food. One gives us physical life. The other gives us spiritual life.
If we eat the fruit of the tree of good and selfishness we are cut off from the covenant with God and disconnected from the source of life.
The temptation to eat the fruit of the tree of good and selfishness is the promise of the power to define what is good and evil for ourselves rather than God.
We don’t have to earn the fruit from the tree of life. God gives it freely to us.
When anybody makes a commitment to God in the Bible there’s always a tree, an altar, and water present.
The tree of good and selfishness often appears in the form of an Idol in the Bible. The Idol is a false tree we create to define our own version of morality.
The Hebrews called idols “luxuriant trees” representing the pursuit of power, sex, and money for happiness. The Hebrew letters for “luxuriant tree” cleverly spell Garden of Eden backwards.
Addictions always promise happiness, but in the end leave us destroyed.
Trees in the Bible symbolize commitments and altars represent the rituals around the commitments.
The spiritual life in the Bible is pictured as a tree that must push its roots down deep to find the water of life necessary to produce good fruit in all seasons of life.
Jesus’ cross is called a tree in the Bible representing the tree of life. That’s why there is one cross next to or above the altar in every Catholic Church. It’s a reminder of the tree we should be eating from each day for eternal life.

Ep51 Why Did God Create Us?

February 25, 2021UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Angels, Baltimore Catechism, Christ, Christianity, Earthling, Exodus, Freedom, Genesis, God, Heaven, Hebrews, Hell, Human Beings, Pagans, Pantheism, Relationships, Seraphim, St. Blaise, St. Francis, Tetramorph, The Bible, Unconditional Love, worshipwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:11 — 23.1MB)

Father Len reveals three reasons God created us with some illustrative and inspiring stories and a funny Twinkies analogy.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

Father Len reviews the two creation stories in the Bible.
Everyone is born an Earthling and we only become true human beings when we can love to the point of death.
We are meant to evolve into a relationship of unconditional love with God, other people, and creation itself.
Pagan myths trace their creation to something grand and declare their superiority to other people and their origin.
In Christianity, we have this idea of a Trinity. God is a Trinity: lover, beloved, and love itself. We are created by perfect loving relationship, a Trinity for relationship.
God is pure unconditional, self-sacrificing, and self-giving love.
Baltimore Catechism question: “Why did God make you?” Answer: “God made me to know him, to love him, to serve him in this world and be happy with him forever in heaven.”
Heaven is a place of ultimate community and unconditional love. Where we’re all completely different, but united together. Hell is the opposite, to live by and for only one’s self.
In Heaven, we’ll be together as one as grapes in wine. Shedding our selfishness like grapes shedding their skins. We’ll become one without losing our uniqueness, totally united, just as grapes in wine.
Christ sums up all of his teachings this way: “love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and your neighbor as yourself.”
God is not a rule keeper handing out punishment for misbehaving. We inflict our own punishment when we choose only to think of ourselves.
We’re created for relationship and love, work and responsibility, worship and freedom.
Our sin or our holiness affects creation and how we relate to each other.
People who live in long and loving relationships live longer, are happier and healthier.
It is better for your health to eat a Twinkie with friends than a salad by yourself.
People who live life having a purpose beyond themselves live longer, happier and more satisfying lives.

Ep42 Only One Thing Will Unite Us

December 18, 2020Uncategorized10 Commandments, Adam and Eve, Bill of Rights, Catholic Church, Christianity, Christmas, Constitution, Contention, CS Lewis, Declaration of Independence, Division, Self-Sacrificing Love, The Bible, the Devil, The Good Samaritan, The Old Testament, Tower of Babel Story, Unitywrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:38 — 24.4MB)

Father Len presents the solution to contention and division in our individual lives and in the world around us.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

“Secretaries rule the world. Never tick off a secretary because they control everything.” – Father Len
Unity comes through Christ.
The word Catholic means universal.
Father Len shares the hope for unity found in the two creation stories in the Bible.
We are meant to live in unity with other people, even when there is great diversity.
The word devil means divider. The devil is constantly tempting us to be divided against each other and God.
Humanity is forever attempting to come up with a source of unity outside of Christ.
We end up more divided when we develop external things to bring us together.
Ego will always tear us apart.
The Bible chronicles humanity’s quest for unity.
Father Len shares the Bible story of the Good Samaritan to reveal God’s most important laws.
We cannot possibly love God without loving one another.
The Catholic Church is the most ethnically diverse movement in human history.
Father Len tells the story of what CS Lewis learned about the effect other people and community have on our personalities.
Father Len explains why private personal relationships with God are not Christian and not spiritual.
God is perfect loving community.
The one thing God desires in the Bible is family; that all of us will look at each other as brothers and sisters.
Unity is not brought about by conformity.
Our relationship with other human beings should be founded on God.
The only path to unity is the self-sacrificing love Christ came into the world to model for us.

Ep41 The Real Christmas Story and Its True Meaning

December 8, 2020UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Book of Exodus, Book of Genesis, Catholic Church, Christmas, Incarnation, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, John Milton, Salvation, Satan, Sin, St Paul, St. Irenaeus, St. Pope John Paul II, the Devilwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:51 — 20.0MB)

Father Len reveals the real “reason for the season” is us.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

“When I look at the world upside down, that’s when it seems right to me.” – Jeret “Speedy” Peterson
Father Len tells a story about geese to illustrate why God became a human being.
Christmas is a revelation of who we are meant to be.
To be good is to become a true human being.
Our true humanity is to live like Christ.
“Christianity is the attitude of amazement at the dignity of the human person.” – Pope John Paul II
“The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” – Irenaeus
“Paradise Lost” by John Milton
“Faust” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sin is the temptation to stop being a true human being.
Evil is the no to human goodness. Evil is the no to all that is good.
Satan is not one who hates God. Satan is one who believes that God can’t love him or us.
The good news of Christmas is that God became one of us to show us how to become true human beings and discover the goodness of being a true human being.
Salvation is not the story of God rescuing us from an evil universe. Salvation is the story of God coming as one like us to teach us what true goodness looks like.
Absolute love will embrace death.
Absolute love cannot be contained by the tomb.
Sin is anything that deprives us of our full humanity.
Christmas is the beginning of the journey to our true humanity to love and to be connected.

Ep37 Fear of God

November 13, 2020UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Albert Einstein, Awe, Catholic Church, Chronicles of Narnia, CS Lewis, Deuteronomy, Fear of God, Garden of Eden, God of Spinoza, Jesus, Meister Eckhart, Narcissist, Socrates, The Bible, Thomas Aquinas, wisdomwrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:42 — 23.5MB)

Father Len reveals what fear of God really means and why it’s awesome.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

Father Len uses a story about Avalon the lion from the CS Lewis Chronicles of Narnia collection of books to begin to illustrate what fear of God is and isn’t.
Fear of the Lord is one of the top seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Father Len explains the difference between terror and Fear of the Lord.
Fear of the Lord is actually about awe and respect.
Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Father Len shares a fun personal story about swimming with Dolphins to illustrate what awe feels like.
“Be not afraid” is a common greeting from Jesus because he does not take pleasure in people fearing him.
God is definitely not a tyrant.
Father Len exposes what narcissists fear to explain the difference between healthy and unhealthy fear.
Father Len reveals how awe and intrigue helped famous scientists and philosophers like Albert Einstein and Socrates discover the existence of God.
The book of Deuteronomy connects the Fear of God to the observance of morality.
The real experience of God is unnameable because there is no thing in creation that is like God.
Mystic Meister Eckhart would often pray, “God cleanse me of God,” which meant cleanse me of false notions of God.

Ep19 Why does God create us fragile and flawed?

July 20, 2020UncategorizedAdam and Eve, Apostle John, Catholic Church, Christianity, Garden of Eden, Heaven, Hebrews, Image of God, Jesus Christ, Jews, John Duns Scotus, Likeness of God, St. Irenaeus, The Biblewrestlingwithgodshow

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:22 — 13.1MB)

Father Len explains that we’re all born in the image and likeness of God with gifts, defects, and work to do to become mature human beings and find our way to Christ and each other.

Highlights, Ideas, and Wisdom

The Hebrew word for image is the same word as Idol.
There was a time when a King was perceived to be the image of God.
We’re all made in the image of God regardless of the color of our skin.
God is pure loving community so the image of God is all of humanity not a singular human being.
Jews and Catholics believe we storm the Gates of heaven together, not alone.
Father Len explains the difference between the image of God and the likeness of God.
Every human is given gifts to make the world a better place.
God created us pure with work to do to become mature.
Father Len explains how and why God created man and woman.
Once we know self-sacrificing love, we become true human beings.
God creates every human being with a fault that is not a defect in the eyes of God. The defect helps us find our way to Christ and each other.
If we were all created perfect, we’d all be the same. We’d be just like every other human.
“Revelations of Divine Love” by Julian of Norwich