The Road to Heaven

Happy Feast of the Resurrection of the Body (Happy Easter) :)

This is a synopsis of a conversation I had a few years ago about the steps in salvation - I ordered it thus:

1. Redemption: because, well . . . none of this discussion would be happening (in a Christian context) if it wasn't for the redemptive work of Jesus
2. Conversion: because once we encounter the living God we are convicted of our sinfulness and moved to change our lives and hearts
3. Forgiveness: because once we experience the loving embrace of our Creator we are seduced into giving and receiving forgiveness
4. Salvation: once we give and accept forgiveness we start on the road to salvation
5. Perfection: once we live in the new heaven and new earth we will live in the paradise conceived in the mind of God before the creation of the world; we will live in a perfected place as perfected people (saints)

Blessings & Peace,
Hugo

Sanctuary

Please Note: I'm working on a paper at the moment, so my Wednesday blog will be brief and has nothing whatsoever to do with theology :)

My son and I have been playing World of Warcraft for almost two years now. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a Massively-Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game, which means that when you log into the game (need to have an internet connection to play!) you're playing with hundreds of other people from all over the world. You can interact with them, chat with them, help them, or fight with them. There are over 11 million people playing, so it's a popular pastime :)

In the game you can group with different people to form a guild, a group of people who are pretty much available to you every time you log in. They can be helpful and provide a great way to learn the game and advance in the game (if it's a good guild), or they can take advantage of you and make your online time pretty miserable (if it's a not-so-good guild).

Our guild is named Sanctuary, and I think of it as a casual/social guild. We don't do hardcore end game raiding (playing the most difficult parts of the game over and over again for better equipment and bragging rights), we don't immerse ourselves into the story of the game by roleplaying (pretending you are your character and talking "in character" most of the time), and we don't focus on PvP (Player vs. Player combat - trying to defeat other players in different ways). We focus on helping new members learn the game, holding in-game events for our members (some just for fun, some to try the harder content without requiring attendance or a certain level of gear), and giving our members time to play as they'd like.

If any of you would like to try the game out, you can message me online (the toon I'm on the most is named Anarius) - and if you like it, you can join us on our adventures in Azeroth!

Blessings & Peace,

Hugo