Sunday evening Gaspar took us to a pueblo in Galicia in order to show us some new terrain and escape the heat. We were pretty amazed by what we saw!
Ponferrada is on the bottom right and the pueblo is the red pin on the left.
Other villages and cities around Spain: Peñalba; Acebo; Molinaseca; Plasencia, Castrillo de los Polvazares.
A few weeks back I posted, “Never, and I repeat, never, take a swig of something that a farmer in the market says is ‘homemade.’ There is a story there that I am not yet fit to recount.”
Here is the story from my journal…
I have this bad habit of taking whatever is given to me and putting it in my mouth.
Playing on that weakness, I was just bamboozled into drinking a swig of grape vinegar.
We were walking through the market on Saturday morning as is our normal habit. Crystal began a conversation with another vendor, a kind lady who has a garden outside the city. While they were engaged in a conversation the wind blew down part of the canopy covering her produce. I began a juggling act of replacing the fallen canopy and keeping our daughter from taking bites of the various fruits and vegetables. In this shuffle I hear Crystal comment on an interesting product and see the lady reach out a bottle cap of liquid toward me. With one hand holding up the plastic and the other gripping a fallen aluminum rod, I bend over and slurp the liquid from the bottle cap.
*Commence gagging and spluttering
I drop what is in my hand and spit all over the pavement. I am gagging so hard I am almost crying. Crystal is crying because she is laughing so hard.
The dear lady offers me some cherries to eat in order to get the grape vinegar taste out of my mouth. It didn’t help.
Later that evening I licked my lips, again reliving that little bit of “excitement” in my normal life. I need to stop.
“Jesus not only died the death we should have died in order to take the law’s curse for us, he also lived the great life of love and fidelity we should have lived in order to earn God’s blessing for us.”
Tim Keller, Encounters with Jesus
Book: Keller, Timothy. Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God. Dutton, 2014.
For a full review click on the link above
Point: Prayer is a privilege and power beyond what we could ever imagine. 
Path: Keller does what he always does, he gives an excellent background, thorough treatment, and clear application of an important topic. The book has five main parts: Desiring Prayer; Understanding Prayer; Learning Prayer; Deepening Prayer; Doing Prayer.
Agreement: Probably the top book on prayer I have read.
Favorite Quote: “In short, God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knew.”
About 45 minutes from us, as you leave our valley, there is a small village that is worth visiting. Maybe after a few photos from Castrillo de los Polvazares you will agree with me.
Other villages and cities around Spain: Peñalba; Acebo; Molinaseca; Plasencia.
Here are links for a background of what is “WikiTheology” and another question.
Your question is an excellent one given the amount of harm we have done to the world over the years. The problem stems from the fact that we have thought incorrectly about the question, not that we haven’t asked the question. We have not asked what the Creator wants.
The answer depends completely on what you think about the origins of the universe. If you believe that everything came from nothing, over a long period of time, and with a little luck, how are we different from any other animal? We would be considered the product of the same evolutionary process. And that evolutionary process teaches us that the strong survive and the weak die. So, if we say, “We believe, as humans, we are intelligent animals and for this reason we should protect other not-as-intelligent animals,” where is the logic in your answer? Don’t you think that we are going against the current which has brought us to be the strongest? If you believe that we have been created by evolution, the purpose of life is to survive. Nothing more. And in surviving, if there is an animal that makes it more difficult, or makes it more uncomfortable, why would you want to save it?
Perhaps a person could say that their life is better if we allow a certain species to exist, like the bee for example, but only for a single person, and not for everyone. All of humanity could never decide what is correct for everyone, because the strong have the right to survive, and not the others.
But those who think that there is a Creator have other reasons to protect animals. Before we look at two of those reasons, I would like to clarify what it means “to protect.” A believer in God does not protect animals in the same way as a Buddhist might protect animals. We do not believe that we are equal with animals, nor that animals house the souls of other individuals. The Bible tells us that as humans we are the only creatures to be created in the image of God. Animals do not have souls, and cannot have a personal relationship with God, but as humans we can. For this reason God commanded that we are not to murder other humans. There is a difference in value between animals and humans, and it is a value which God has placed on us and which we cannot change. Those who confuse animals for humans do harm to both the animal and other humans. If we think that the creation is god, we have lost the ability to live according to reason.
And now for two of the reasons why we ought to protect animal species:
Those who believe in the God of the Bible have a responsibility to protect the various species of animals because as humans we are different. God has created us with the ability and the wisdom to do so for his glory. I thank God for those who are working to protect the various species of animals in our world.
La pregunta es una pregunta importante, porque en los últimos años hemos visto el daño que hemos hecho en el mundo durante los siglos que no nos hacíamos esta pregunta. Eso no es decir que nadie ha pensado en lo que debemos hacer con los animales, pero que no hemos pensado tanto en lo que el Creador quiere.
La respuesta acerca de los animales en peligro depende completamente de lo que piensas de los orígenes del universo. Si piensas que todo lo que es vino de la nada, durante mucho tiempo, y un poco de suerte, ¿cómo somos diferentes de los animales? ¿No somos el producto de la misma evolución? ¿Y que nos enseña la evolución? Nos enseña que los fuertes sobreviven y los débiles mueren. Entonces, si decimos “Creemos que nosotros, como humanos, somos los animales mas inteligentes y por esta razón debemos proteger a los animales no tan inteligente como nosotros” ¿de dónde viene la razón de tu respuesta? ¿No piensas que estamos yendo contra la corriente que nos ha llevado a ser los más poderosos? Si crees que la evolución nos ha creado, el propósito de la vida es sobrevivir. Nada más. Y si necesitas sobrevivir, y hay un animal que lo hace más difícil, o te hace incómodo, ¿por qué los querrías salvar?
Quizá una persona pudiera decir que su vida sería mejor si dejara vivir una especie de animal, como la abeja por ejemplo, pero solamente para una persona, y no a otra. Toda la humanidad nunca podría decir que fuera correcto para todos, porque los fuertes tienen el derecho de vivir, y no los otros.
Pero los que piensan que hay un creador tienen otras razones para cuidar a los animales. Antes de hablar de dos de estas razones, me gustaría clarificar que significa “proteger.” Un creyente en Dios no protege a los animales de la misma manera que los Budistas. No creemos que somos iguales que los animales, ni que los animales tienen las almas de otras personas. La Biblia nos dice que los humanos son los únicos que fueron creados en la imagen de Dios. Los animales no tienen almas, y no pueden tener una relación personal con Dios, pero los humanos sí. Por eso Dios mandó que no matemos a los otros humanos. Hay un valor diferente entre los animales y los humanos, y es un valor que Dios ha puesto y que no podemos cambiar. Los que confunden los animales con los humanos le hacen daño al animal y a los otros humanos. Si pensamos que la creación es Dios, perdemos la habilidad a vivir razonadamente.
Ahora, dos de las razones porque debemos proteger a los animales:
Los que creen en el Dios de la Biblia tienen la responsabilidad de proteger a las especies de animales porque como humanos somos diferentes. Dios nos ha creado con la habilidad y la sabiduría para hacerlo por su gloria. Doy gracias a Dios por los que están trabajando para cuidar a las especies de animales en nuestro mundo.
The last bus for hours leaves as you stop to get a quick drink.
May I value things in relation to eternity.- Valley of Vision, 195
We have been trying to visit the different pueblos around the El Bierzo region (for others, see Molina Seca, San Esteban de Valdueza, and Toral De Merayo.
We were recently able to visit Peñalba de Santiago, named as one of the most beautiful pueblos in Spain. It lived up to its designation!
Book: Anderson, James N. What’s Your Worldview?: An Interactive Approach to Life’s Big Questions. Crossway Books, 2014.
(For the full review, click the link above)
Point: Your worldview is the lens through which you see and interpret everything, and that is a big enough reason to question whether you have the correct worldview or not.
Path: Anderson takes his readers through a “Choose your own adventure” evaluation of truth, questions, and worldviews. In this journey he asks questions, and points out difficulties and advantages to each way of viewing life, death, and the purpose of existence. At the end of the book he gives an evaluation of each worldview and an appendix which takes the reader to the “what’s next” questions.
Agreement: I enjoyed this book. Its simple, yet worldview-rattling, message was something that greatly appealed to me. There are many people who I plan on recommending this book to.
Stars: 4.5 out of 5
It would be worth another read and I would recommend it to someone who: