Tag: Episcopal

The book of Judges

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ 2 Comments

“Then the Lord raised up judges who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.” –Judges 2:16

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Judges is one of my favorite books of the Old Testament. In this book, God raises up 12 judges over the course of 325 years to help keep the Israelites on the right path. I enjoyed this book because it helped me realize that I too had judges raised up for me in my life to help guide me. When my great grandpa (my grandmother’s father) died, I went 12 years before another person ‘passed through’ my life to lead me further to God. And I was lucky to have the perpetual guidance of my mother and grandmother. My other grandpa (my mother’s father) was a born again Christian and had a very aggressive approach to evangelism, but his wrong way guided me also, because I didn’t want to be like that. Since, I have thought much of my judges, and I give thanks to/for them and pray for them—which, to me, is basically any time I think of them with pure love and gratitude and meditate on their well-being with the knowledge of God’s presence(in this way many of us have ‘prayed’ without realizing it was prayer). Let us all give thanks to those who may have been our guides in the dark.

Bible Book Reviews! EXODUS today!

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ Leave a comment

I have no authority to teach you about any of these wonderful books, so if you read on, please take what I say lightly. As a writer I find the Bible an interesting home for allegory, I could decipher every line for a lifetime of endless fun for me, but for you, I can only communicate what I learned. Perhaps you disagree and that’s OK!

Exodus is the story of Moses trying to convince the Pharaoh to release the Israelites so they can worship in the wilderness for three days. The word ‘wilderness’ to me is very significant, but I won’t talk about that today. My first notes on this book are below… “Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.” -Exodus 5:2 *First, you should understand my thinking that there are two lives we live. One life we live in the world (as a consumer for ourselves), one life we live in the spirit (a giver to others). We can choose to live in one life more than the other.* “To me Pharaoh represents the ‘world’ which constantly distracts us & pulls us away from God (life in the spirit) in every news report, in every advertisement, in every new ‘this’ and new ‘that’. We are perpetually distracted by a world that asks with blatant indifference, ‘who is the Lord?’. Moses here wants to ‘free’ the people who wish to live in the spirit, today we might think of this freedom as a freedom from addiction, freedom from selfishness, freedom from guilt, from arrogance, from pride and cynicism. The world perpetuates all of these qualities by making us blind to what is TRUTH & LOVE. 💕💕💕

Today I review the Bible

~ Brianne Turczynski ~ 2 Comments

A couple weeks ago I finished the Bible. I read it in a year, taking an hour every morning to read three chapters. I filled three notebooks of my thoughts—arguments and extensions—of what I thought everything meant.

There are 4,200 religions in the world. That is almost as many as there are languages spoken. Proof that God speaks to us all differently, in the ways only we can hear Him. Of the four most popular religions, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism—the very center of all of their teachings is love. It is important that we understand each other through love, because that is TRULY what these religions teach us whether you’re black, white, brown, red, or blue, whether you are gay, straight, trans, etc., love should be EVERYTHING! 💕

It has been said in my family that my beloved great Grandpa—even in passing he is still my hero—saw a vision of the Blessed Mother twice. She spoke to him in Italian, and he never told anyone what she said. He prayed to her every night and had this small painting (pictured)of her praying by his bedside. It came with him from Italy and is over 100 years old. I have it now and remember him always.

The Book Wisdom of Solomon is considered an apocryphal book meaning it did not make the cut into some Bibles, but I think it’s beautiful so, there you go. .