Theological Reflection

I am very good at working under pressure and meeting deadlines. This is because my very favorite thing to do is to procrastinate which obviously is not the best thing. Despite this, the ability to thrive under pressure is a very sought-after skill. This gives me the ability to stay calm and handle things one step at a time in situations in which many others would be very overwhelmed. One example of this would be this past week. I had a TRP (four paged theological reflection paper) due in Old Testament, my first Old Testament exam and my first Chemistry exam. The day before my TRP was due my computer crashed on me and I lost my completed paper. Instead of panicking about the paper I had just lost, that had taken me two days to complete, and

Harvesters Community Food Network is an organization that “provides food and related household products to more than 620 not-for-profit agencies” around the Kansas City metropolitan area (“Harvesters”). It is such a wonderful organization in that it really focuses on making a change in our surrounding cities. I am

“Feeding America is a non-profit organization created by John Van Hengel in the 1960’s” ("U.S. Hunger Relief Charity | Feeding America®," 2015). He was a retired business man who would volunteer at a local soup kitchen to feed the hungry| (Feeding America®," 2015). “He came upon the idea after a women was desperately looking for food to feed her children”, “she suggested to him there should be a place to store unwanted food instead of throwing it out for trash so the hungry can go and pick up the unwanted food”| (Feeding America®," 2015). Feeding America does not sell products it provides services. It’s an organization which provides the less fortunate and low-income families with free food through nationwide food banks across America| (Feeding America®," 2015). Van Hengel created his first establishment in Phoenix Arizona, and named it Saint Mary’s Food Bank| (Feeding America®," 2015). After several years Van Hengel along with his team the organization “distributed over 275,000 pounds of food to those in need”| (Feeding America®," 2015). In “1977, 18 cities began establishing food banks to serve those in need”| (Feeding America®," 2015). In “1979, the Second Harvest was created, which was later called America’s Second Harvest the Nation’s Food Bank Network” | (Feeding America®," 2015). In “2008. it became known as Feeding America, now our nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization” | (Feeding America®," 2015). “There are over 200 regional food banks located across

The book also focuses on Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Jesus discusses those that are blessed and why they are blessed and also the kingdom of heaven. Jesus discusses faith-community and what is required of disciples including reconciliation with others. The book discusses Jesus and his righteousness. Jesus gives instructions in dealing with those who cause harm to is folowers and believers. The book addresses the question as to whether to literally or figuratively take the commands of Jesus.

Founded in 1985, Second Harvest is the largest food rescue organization in Canada. With their vision “No Waste. No Hunger”, this organization aims at rescuing and delivering fresh, surplus food to people experiencing hunger (Second Harvest, n.d). Second Harvest rescues food from 600 food donors, including restaurants, supermarkets, food warehouses, hotels and other small organizations. Each morning, 10 refrigerated trucks leave the warehouse and deliver food to over 253 social service agencies around the GTA and 15 food hubs across Ontario, such as kitchens, shelters, food banks, community centers and drop-in centers. These agencies cater to marginalized populations who are unable to buy their own food, including homeless people, young

Theology 104 has changed my personal view of theology. Right away after week one when I open my Bible and start to read there was more clarification in the way I understood the scripture that was being read. There was a more comfortable and confident feeling in the way I regard God and redemption. In turn, I feel more knowledge of what I have learned and able to share the word of God more effectively. Finding factual proof to substantiate my theory of Christianity and the existence of God has become less challenging from the knowledge I have obtained from this division. Passing on my view of Christianity and God has been less challenging for me.

After analysis the mission of the Second Harvest Heartland I could say that this Nonprofit organization has a clear statement of who they are and what they want to do to fight hunger and provide a healthier lifestyle to families along with educating them on nutrition issues. They know there is hunger everywhere around us. Working families, children, senior or even youths recently graduated are living with hunger every day of their life due to the insufficiency of money.

Theology 104 has really changed my outlook and views regarding systematic theology. I now understand more clearly that as Christians, in order to be able to accurately share our faith that we must all be a theologian to some extent. Looking at the totality of it all, the four religion courses I have taken since January 2015 have really expanded my views and understanding of what it is to be a Christian. Between Philosophy and Contemporary Ideas (PHIL201), Contemporary Worldviews (APOL 104), Survey of Biblical Literature (BIBL 104), and Introduction to Christian Thought (THEO 104), my understanding of the Bible and Christianity in general has increased exponentially. While my overall belief system has not been impacted, I now have a better

Community Food Centres Canada is an organization that was created in July 2012 to spread The Stop Community Food Centre model more broadly. What makes the model unique and desirable is that it goes beyond using the traditional methods of charitable food provisioning and instead offers community gardens, According to the Toronto Community Knowledge Centre website, “Community Food Centres Canada builds and supports vibrant food-focused organizations in low-income communities in Toronto and across the country that bring people together to grow, cook, share, and advocate for good food for all”. On the other hand, Second Harvest is an organization that was launched in 1985 after two women, Ina Andre and Joan Clayton, saw that excessive amounts

The book of Matthew, The Sermon on the Mount is one account of what Jesus taught during his walk on earth. Many people of that time witnessed the sermon and were amazed and astonished, not from what was said, but how it was said. The multitudes of people felted as if Jesus was truly the authority of God. The purpose of this essay is to offer a critical review of the writing that was presented in class. Jesus taught that every man has some decisions to make on their journey to the land of milk and honey.

The point of this assignment is to discuss the passage chosen, as well as information regarding the historical/cultural background of the passage and applying it to my life as a human being. It is also important that I apply this information on the passage to the Christian life or church ministry. The passage I have chosen for this assignment is from Matthew chapters 5-7 and is labeled “The Sermon on the Mount”. The Sermon on the Mount is the longest and most prominent of the five discourses of Jesus in Matthew. The whole point of the Sermon on the Mount was to show people who converted to Christianity how to live. It is to show how Christians should live in their actions, words, thoughts, and others ways of life. With that being said, this way of life was preached by Jesus Christ as he “went up on the mountain” to deliver his powerful message. The information for this passage is in, of course, the bible and our textbook “Encountering the New Testament”, as well as many other resources on the web that are related to the bible and passage.

The direct teachings of Jesus give instructions of how to live as Christians and the Parables were used in the Gospel to immediately confront us with a truth and evoke a change. (Fee & Stuart,2003, p. 152). The five major discourses of Matthew’s Gospel are centred around five lengthy Sermons using parables to make a point and call the people to make a change.

This is a summary of a No Travel Seminar on a Study of the Gospel of Matthew. The seminar was lead by Dr. John Dunaway who is a professor at NTS and has served as a pastor for over 50 years. After his brief self-introduction, he began his presentation with an overview of the Gospel of Matthew, followed by a more elaborated narrative summarizing the gospel, and he finished with brief closing remarks. Throughout this enthusiastic presentation, Dr. Dunaway made reference to remarks by multiple prominent commentators, which added substance to his narrative, even though none were explicitly stated upfront.

To understand where I am now in relation to Catholic theology I feel that it is appropriate to look back on the thoughts and ideas that I had when I first started this THEO 1001 class. Honestly coming into college I have thought about my faith very little and studied the bible and what it means even less. In my mind I have always thought that theology was primarily a group of people just sitting around reading the bible repeatedly and then coming up with ways on how to interpret certain beliefs and messages in it and what they mean to us as Christians. Now I understand that theology has many more aspects to it than just the one example I gave earlier. The fact that this class was just about Catholic theology doesn’t really have a meaning to me because I haven’t studied other religions or denominations theology. Diving deeper into what I thought about how Catholic theology impacted my life will be a very shallow dive, given that I am neither Catholic or a theologian I honestly thought that this class was going to be a history of how Catholics are the greatest Christians and their way of looking at the bible. Thankfully I was very wrong about both those things and have learned about some very interesting topics throughout the class, one being the fascinating section we did about anthropology and what role it plays into theology.

Apologetics is not just about learning to defend yourself. It requires you to know the Truth about the Bible and why you believe in it. Apologetics also teaches you to set a foundation for your belief and how you could defend yourself from worldly perspectives. As stated in 1 Peter 3:15, “Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian faith, be ready to explain it.” we must be able to know how to defend ourselves. Throughout the course of the first quarter, we were educated many ideas regarding critical thinking, the Bible, and Truth.