I Am The Messenger

Violence plays a big role, starting with the bank robbery. Ed will and did face a lot of violence from Edgar street, the rose brothers, the sledge match, Daryl and Keith, an as readers we are quite aware that all of these obstacles have shaped and changed Ed’s life mostly for the better. This is usually shown with Ed’s ease with violence, even when confronted by a

“Stories about architecture are stories about people,” said David Macaulay, author of Cathedral (4). The intention of cathedrals was to draw people, and in turn inspire those who came to pray, learn, and worship (Macaulay, Cathedral 4). Cathedrals remain inspirational in their enormous scale and overpowering beauty, and that these places of worship are still standing after many centuries show a level of determination and integrity in those that built the edifices (Macaulay, Cathedral 4). Architect Vitruvius wrote, “All the buildings have two components: The building itself and an idea that its architecture tried to express” (McNamara 6). People build churches because they believed in something (McNamara 6). In David Macaulay’s book, Built to Last, he says the mindset behind building cathedrals was that of honor and dedication. Macaulay’s research noted that, “The new cathedral would be built to the glory of God, and it mattered little that it might take more than one hundred years to construct it” (Macaulay, Built to Last 98). However, there is more to cathedrals than just building something grand and beautiful to honor God. Churches and cathedrals were built to be packed with meaning (Taylor 1), and were used to illustrate key points of Christian teaching through the use of imagery (Taylor 5). Cathedrals were a place to immerse individuals in worship. Religious parents encourage their children to pray, take them to church and to religious events (Newberg and

In 1971 at the start of Nixon’s war on drugs, before the 0000s crack epidemic; before the advent of political tactics used to demonstrify ghetto neighborhoods succeeded in bastardizing its urban youth, Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five recorded what is considered one of the greatest urban narratives of his time. In his rap “The Message Pt. 2” Flash described the daily occurrences and harsh realities of his ghetto life in vivid detail. Now 45 years later in the midst of black lives matter, at a place in America where black lives must be affirmed through hashtags and protest, many are upset that the American art people have come to rely on, to tell the stories and narrate the experiences of being poor and black, only exist to valorize the crime, money, drugs and sex that come from being poor.

In the book “I am the messenger” by Markus Zusak, It is all best categorized as a coming of age book. Ed Kennedy starts to realize his worth and he also began to believe in himself at the end. He learned how to fight for his dreams and for himself. It surprised him that he can also succeed just like his siblings if he only put his mind onto his dreams. Ed transforms from a self-absorbed Taxi driver into a genuine hero, reaching out in a interesting, unsentimental way to the others he's bound to find on the cards he receives. Sometimes his successes are sweet and simple but others are sickeningly painful and incomplete.

Today’s world presents instances of wealth beyond one’s dreams, and on the other side, poverty where each day is solely about the survival in this harsh environment. However no story is better appreciated than those that combines these two different “worlds”, also known as Rags to Riches. Underdog stories including Henry Ford, Walt Disney, and J.K Rowling, all take a huge leap forward from where they were, and now media even make these seem commonplace. Except, these stories still give the impression to the common man, woman, or child that the secrets of how to become a part of this elite group to be as hidden as, the secret of how headphones can always get tangled in the confines of a pocket. Markus Zusak employs his book I Am the Messenger, as a messenger quite literally, to help deliver these elusive secrets through his theme, the “wealth” of the lessons taught by Ed, and the creative, and the innovative plans of Ed to overcome varied conflicts. Through his simple message, Zusak helps show that underdogs are not these divine, angelic beings who have conquered obstacles insurmountable by anyone else, they are just a simple achievable goal.

The gathering of family and friends was profound. She didn’t want anything religious, just a celebration of life. If anyone was to live life to it’s fullest potential, it was her. As he stood outside, with hands in his pockets, he tried to recollect everything that

I Am the Messenger is a great book that tells of a guy named Ed, who loves to play cards, but suddenly starts getting messages in the mail that are marked on playing cards.. Ed is practically a “nobody” not having much educational success, his father died some time ago and his mother hasn’t had great success in life either. The story basically starts off with a bank robbery, Ed and his friend Marv are at the bank when the gunman arrives and demands to Marv his car keys. The gunman gets the keys and jumps into the car, in which he drops his gun, Ed then takes the gun and holds down the gunman until the cops arrive. At the trial, Ed testifies against him, and as they pass each other the Gunman tells Ed, “Every time you look in the mirror, remember you are looking at a dead man”. This starts Ed’s journey. Ed lives alone in his apartment (that is owned by his boss) with his dog named the Doorman and Ed is a cab driver. He is insanely in love with his friend, Audrey and it is clear that she loves him back but they won’t embrace their feelings. Several times a week, Ed, Marv, Audrey, and a close friend named Ritchie play cards together. Soon after Ed anonymously receives his first playing card, Ace of diamonds. Written on it are three addresses (it’s always three) Edgar street, Harrison Avenue, and Macedoni Street. The first address is at an old house where a man that gets drunk every night comes home and beats his wife, leading to their daughter coming outside to cry. At the

Within the context of American society, we have strayed from the true purpose and identity of what the church was originally created to be. When we hear the word, “church,” we think of a building, a mere location where believers gather together every Sunday. The church of America might believe the essential elements of the church are an air-conditioned sanctuary, ten different ministry opportunities, and a full band to lead worship. While none of these things are necessarily bad, they do not comprise the biblical model of what the church was created to be. The church can be divided into two components: the Universal Church and the local church. Once a person becomes a believer, they are part of the Universal Church, the body of believers

Westerhoff’s fist point is that the church education model is shaking. He says that it is shaking because the foundations are changing and becoming something that is not beneficial. For Westerhoff this is, that the Sunday school is becoming a “schooling-instructional paradigm .” With this paradigm it changes the whole dynamic of Sunday school. It becomes more of a lecture based program than a form of ministry. One of the ways that Westerhoff says to change this is through adding more community to the program. One of the ways that Grace does this in the children’s Sunday school class. In this class the teachers have the students working on an activity together while they learn the lesson. For the teacher of this class it is more important that the children build relationships with one another than learn the lesson. An example of this would be, during the season of Passover the teacher taught them how to make unleavened bread just as Jesus ate during the Passover meal. By doing this she was able to help the children make connections to the story of

Which in his eyes, is to help one another in any way possible. He finishes this Sermon by stating that they can be “the shining city upon the hill” implying the puritan colony can be a great example for everyone else on how to create the perfect religious community.

passage above is a great example of how the religious characters in the story are hypocritical. The orator had just preached about charity and now he will not even give some bread to the needy, this is being a hypocrite. In the article " Enlightenment as Religion" William Rash states that Christ has " banished from the civilized, worldly realm" (Rasch 110). Even though they may seem to be a religious leader does not mean they live their life religiously.

An ignorance of God, is the second incident that Paul Washer explains. He used his past story to share an example of what he meant about the subject. Paul later went on to describe that there is a lack of the knowledge of God in the churches and that actually talking about the attributes of God is effective. He questioned the audience to make them really think, “When was the last time, as a pastor, you taught for a solid year on who God is?” The surprising point he explained to me was that he said, “Sunday morning is the greatest hour of idolatry in the entire week of America, because the great mass at least of people are not worshipping the one true God. They instead are worshipping a god formed out of their own hearts by their own flesh.”

I really enjoyed reading the novel I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak. I found that I was excited to read the next chapter and learn more about the main character, Ed Kennedy; who is nineteen-year old cab driver, who lives in the suburbs of Australia. The beginning of the book, Ed seems like a normal character who doesn’t have an exciting life, he spends his time playing card games and drinking with his friends. Until he received his first message, the ace of diamonds, did is his character became more interesting. These messages led Ed to people who were in need of his help, which created a lasting impact on many people’s lives, as well as, changing Ed’s characteristics. I also enjoyed the diversity of the issues Ed had to fix, moreso how the

First of all, she is a wonderful author. Her Keeper of the Lost Cities Series always keeps me entertained on extremely boring days. Shannon Messenger’s writing is also very funny in her own way, because she doesn’t add a lot of jokes, but uses joking words instead. This makes me look up to Shannon Messenger, because my writing isn’t very interesting, and I want to make my writing just as interesting as hers.

(This is the part where you can get excited, because that was definitely an idolatry reference.)”7 How can the gathering of Christians to receive the gifts that God gives be an idol? It is, in fact, the very definition of the Church in the Smalcald Articles, “That God, a sever-year-old child knows what the Church is, namely, the holy believers and lambs who hear the voice of their Shepherd [John