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The Knights Templar (Three Minutes to Read) 

3/25/2013

 
As you can imagine there’s a lot to their story including their involvement in the Great Christian Crusades but I’m going to keep this fairly brief and give you the extraordinary highlights.

Around the year 1120 nine knights who were also monks set out on a mission of protecting Christians who were traveling to the Holy Land; many of these Christians were being killed by Muslim raids.

The Knights had a code that they’d never retreat no matter how many they had to fight. Word spread they were taking on large groups of attackers and winning. Come to find out the combination of Monk and Knight made for a motivated fighter because they thought God was on their side.

The Knights continued to hone their military skills in the equipment they used and their strategies and tactics. Even their horses were heavily armed which helped them charge into enemy lines and not have to worry about their horses getting cut down.

The Muslims had a much feared and respected military commander by the name of Saladin.  His army of 26,000 was marching to fight a Christian force that only had 420 soldiers although he didn’t know it at the time. On the way his scout saw around 80 men traveling through the desert but Saladin upon hearing this decided they weren’t worth his time so he kept his troops marching. The Knights of the Templar had grown to 80 fighters and if Saladin would’ve known who they were he would’ve attacked them because this group had been destroying his soldiers.

Figuring out what Saladin was doing they rushed to the Christian force and told them what they saw. Many of the soldiers wanted to flee because they were at a 5 to 1 disadvantage but when they found out the Templars were going to fight with them, they were willing to fight. Think about how great the Knights’ reputations must have been for these soldiers to think that 80 of them would make up for 26,000 warriors. We’ve heard of stories like this back in the Old Testament but this much of a miss-match wasn’t really known since that time.

Saladin was very pleased when he finally saw the opposing army and decided to only send his infantry in to wipe the Christian army out. As the Muslim army got closer to the Christians they saw the Knights of the Templar out front with silver armor glistening in the sun. Their reputation by far preceded them so even though the Muslims knew they had the numbers fear settled in.  

Then the Crusaders took their horses to a sprint and when they reached the enemy line they went single file and rushed straight into the soldiers. When they did this the Muslim soldiers jumped out of the way while the Crusaders were killing them easily as they galloped through the ranks.

Fear really started setting in when they found themselves with the Knights behind them and the Christian army in front of them. Whoops. The attack began and Saladin’s infantry fell. This time he wasn’t going to make the same mistake and sent his huge army in to destroy the small Christian army. At the end of the fight the Muslim army was destroyed. Only 2,600 were alive out of the 26,000…but Saladin escaped and ended up capturing the Holy Land years later. One of the major reasons the Christian army pulled off this miracle is faith. The Christian army had faith that God was with them and they had faith in the miraculous Knights Templar to lead them to victory.  

The Knights of the Templar were around for approximately 200 years and were very instrumental in the Christian Crusades. As usual their decline was due to political reasons. They had their own small army by then and they had sworn no loyalties to England or France but instead to God. If either kingdom was causing harm to their people the Knights would jump in to save those being hurt. The King of France went after them while the Knights were spread out across various countries and began killing and capturing some of them. He trumped up charges that they had done terrible things against the church and dismantled their order. Just goes to show that for thousands of years if you don’t pick sides you’re eventually an enemy of both sides.  

The Templars dealt with a lot of atrocities and questioning at times was all of this killing really God’s will or the will of someone else’s desire for more power and money.  I think the real story here is how amazing they were as Knights. Their ability to fight and never retreat mindset was phenomenal. Charging into 26,000 warriors and winning the battle is one of the most extraordinary feats ever accomplished.  
      

Through Tears (Two Minutes to Read)

3/18/2013

 
Maggie and I had to deal with a few deaths recently of friends of ours. I’m not saying all
guys are the same but many of us have a tough time expressing our feelings and I definitely believe it is society related. My dad didn’t want to see me cry because it would’ve meant I’m soft. My brother would’ve made fun of me if I cried. Then there’s peer pressure, my friends never saw me cry because I figured I’d be teased forever about it.

The first time I really cried the kind of crying where you can’t even speak, was when my
dad passed away. Both of my sisters who live in Missouri were visiting me at the time and we knew dad was taken to an emergency room on that Friday because of intense abdominal pain. Apparently his pancreas was extremely inflamed but his doctor wasn’t real worried about it so we were relieved. Then on Sunday I received a phone call from a doctor who was in the operating room with my dad; I put my phone on speaker so my sisters and I could find out what was going on. Apparently my dad had gotten much worse so they took him into the operating room and saw his gall bladder and pancreas had become septic and the infection was too far spread to do anything to help him. The surgeon said he wasn’t sure my dad was going to make it then we heard some background noises and the doctor  got back on-line with us and said he was sorry to tell us that our dad just died. Right there on the other end of the phone line our dad was gone forever.

At first we were in shock then the tears started pouring. I called by brother who lived in Las Vegas and when he answered I couldn’t speak; this never happened to me before. He knew it was me from caller I.D. so he stayed on the phone. I finally got the news out to him and of course like the rest of us he was in shock.

My sisters hurried back to Missouri while Maggie and I followed shortly. I continued crying intermittently and memories that I had forgotten all about began filling my mind, like my dad taking us fishing which we did all the time, seeing he and my mom sitting in the stands during our football games ringing a cowbell (it was a common practice of people in the stands), my dad cooking on the grill on Sunday afternoons, my dad drinking too much beer while grilling on Sunday afternoons, cutting firewood with his chainsaw which my brother and I had the pleasure of loading the wood into the truck, the way he’d sometimes pass by my mom in the kitchen and give her a loving pinch, and watching the Bugs Bunny and Road Runner show with him; he laughed as much as we did. Of course there were countless more memories that came rushing back. 
 
With these recent deaths I went back in my mind to when dad passed away and thought about how hard it hit me. I began thinking about the wonderful memories I had when he passed away and started wondering why I had kept them suppressed for so long. These memories were in my brain somewhere but I forgot how to access them and what a waste because these memories were amazing and reminded me how much I loved my dad. I wondered at first if it was because I got so busy with life that I stopped tapping into my memories but then it hit me, some memories can only be seen through tears.


They Will Know Us by Our Fruits (Three Minutes to Read)

3/18/2013

 
I think we often forget that a large amount of Jesus’ sermons had to do with being productive; the kind of speech any business would love to give their employees. Jesus was very direct in saying
that if we aren’t productive then we’re of little to no use? There were a few times when Jesus spoke about chopping down a tree that wasn’t producing fruit and using it for firewood; I don’t know about you but I find this very scary. 
 
The tree parable that Jesus used is awesome  because there are so many facets to it like where do we get the nutrients and water from so we can bear good and plentiful fruit? The roots of a growing tree are always in search of these resources and the more these roots reach out the easier it is for the tree to grow tall and the more grounded/stable it is when storms come along. In our lives the roots are reaching out for strength in Spirit to keep us motivated in our faith. We can do this in a variety of ways like attending church/Mass weekly, reading our Bibles daily, saying prayers
daily, joining a Bible study, spending time with other Christians to lift one another up, etc.     

These things help us create a fertile environment to produce the fruit Jesus asked of us like charity,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness,modesty, self-control, and chastity. The big question is do people see these fruits in us? 

When Jesus left he told his disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them and that until then their mission was to evangelize the earth through love of God and love of fellow man. The word evangelize is an action word and means to preach the Bible and convert to Christianity. So this is a very important area to be productive in considering it was the last thing Jesus told his
disciples to do. So how do we do it and more importantly how can we be efficient and effective at it? 

Walking up to someone and telling her how Jesus died on the cross to take away her sins sounds like a crazy story if you think about it. Almost everything we could share about the Old Testament except for the Ten Commandments, quite frankly sounds like fiction to non-believers. They’re usually shocked that we believe in things like Jonah and the whale, parting the Red Sea, and trumpets bringing down a fortress. With these things in mind how in the world can we be productive at evangelizing? People would think were nuts if we start sharing these things with them. 
 
This is one of the major reasons why St. Francis of Assisi said: “Preach Jesus and only when necessary use words.” He knew the best way for people to know Jesus is for them to see him through us. Even though we wake up each morning and get caught up into the rat race, we must
not lose sight of our primary mission and that is for us to show people what Christianity is about; let them see our fruits.  

For us to demonstrate Christianity we must be different, we must stand out from the crowd. Not only do we need people to know we’re different we also need to demonstrate that our kind of different is worth pursuing. People must want what we’ve got and in most cases people are  missing peace and joy in their lives. They must see these fruits from us. The fact is it’s often easier to evangelize to someone during those times when their world is crumbling down around them. It’s human nature that most people don’t look for change if they’re comfortable with where they are. When times get tough they’ll see the peace and joy in us that they want to experience again. So when people are going through difficult times it’s the best time to show them how great being a Christian is. We can tell them that we know as Christians that we can’t escape terrible times but we can go through those times with the peace of knowing we’ll be okay no matter what the outcome. It’s hard to have peace without also having joy; they’re connected. So when we have a sense of peace all the time it also gives us the added benefit of joy.  
 
As I mentioned earlier the word evangelize is a word of action. Jesus told the disciples to go out and evangelize not hang out in the tent. So our job is to proactively look for ways to introduce others to Faith. One way to do this is when someone is out sick for an extended period of time or lost a loved one, people will be there and support them for a short period of time then they go on with their lives. This is a perfect opportunity for us to be different and continue to see what we can do for these people and at the very least call to check in; maybe send them a card several months after the event.

One of my employees lost a 16 year-old son (Brandon) to cancer and I always checked in with him on the anniversary of his son’s death. I’m not saying everyone would like this but I can’t tell you how much it meant to Scott that someone remembered his son. We must proactively look for opportunities to be different and demonstrate love to those around us. More than likely they’ll know you’re a Catholic which sends a great message about Christianity and the Catholic Church. You’re preaching Jesus without the words. Demonstrating love is the productivity God is looking for. Love for those around us is God’s second Commandment after love for him and we show love for him by demonstrating love for others (notice the beautiful circle). We show love through living our lives through
charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, self-control, etc. 

In winding down, if we aren’t active in our faith, God doesn’t need us. How could he say: “Well done my good and faithful servant” when we hadn’t done anything to deserve it? The best thing we can do to evangelize is through our actions not our words. It’s the little things that count so you don’t have to think you need to get involved in a mission to make a difference, your opportunities to evangelize start when you get up in the morning and end when you go to sleep at night. 

Once again, it’s easy to get caught up into our everyday lives and forget our primary mission and that is to please our Father. If we don’t prioritize and make sure we are demonstrating God’s love
wherever we go, what good are we? Before I forget the most important place for people to see love demonstrated is at home. Your spouse deserves it and your children need to see it modeled not just hear about these things at church. I guess what it boils down to is would you rather have people on earth telling you well done or your Father in heaven because it’s practically impossible to do both.
  

    Author: John Mann

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