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Orthodox Christianity is a way of life, not a religion. Too often we relegate our belief in Christ to a mere mental exercise. Be Transfigured! And Live a New Life in Jesus Christ.
Episodes
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
Tuesday Sep 15, 2020
Arguably the most popular scripture passage quoted at a sporting event reminds us of God’s love. John 3.16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life,” isn’t just a teaching about how much God loves us, but how much He wants us to love others. Even though we do not live up to the standards God has established for, and though we are not worthy of His love, STILL God endured the Cross so that we could live. Today God is calling us to love others in the same way He loves us. He is calling us to love with true sacrifice for others, whether they love us in return, but this is the love of God. When God loves, there is life.
Monday Sep 07, 2020
Monday Sep 07, 2020
For those of us Gentiles in the Church, we are reminded that we were brought into the Church by Christ because the Jews were disobedient to God. That’s good news for us. However, Saint Paul reminds us that we are strangers, adopted into the Church, and if God removed the Jews who were native to the Church, He will not hesitate to remove us if we are disobedient and selfish with the Church. Then there is the really good news! There is still time for us. We are still able to change and live obedient lives, producing fruit for God. When produce the fruit of the Spirit, “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control,” (Galatians 5.22-23) God will grow the Church into a beacon of hope and light.
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
Tuesday Sep 01, 2020
The Commandments of God, whether they are in the Old Testament, the New Testament, or the Holy Canons of the Church, are meant for one singular purpose. We do not obey the laws of the Church just for the sake of being obedient, but to train our hearts to learn to live and to love as God wants us to live and to love. God invites us to leave everything else aside to follow Him and to love others more than we love ourselves. Keeping the Commandments of God, if we are willing, will shape us.
Monday Aug 24, 2020
Monday Aug 24, 2020
We all the know the pain of being hurt by the words and actions of others. Too often I hear “I forgive but I don’t forget.” When we refuse to forget what others have said or done to us, we truly haven’t forgiven them, but we are holding on for some future moment when we can hold it over their head. Christ has warned us, it is only when we forgive AND FORGET, just as He has done for us, can we be forgiven by God and welcomed into paradise.
Monday Aug 17, 2020
Monday Aug 17, 2020
When confronted with illness, most especially when healing does not come, we are tempted to challenge God, “Why!?” The same was true for the Disciple who were unable to heal a boy who had a demon. Christ’s response to them, and to us, “Because of your unbelief.” We must take the seed of faith planted by our parents at our baptism and nourish and cultivate the seed to become a great tree of faith strong enough to move mountains. The seed of faith requires prayer and fasting and the sacramental life of the Church. We need to stop asking why, and start praying and fasting and give the seed of faith some attention. We can no longer let the seed of faith to be ignored in our life.
Thursday Aug 13, 2020
Thursday Aug 13, 2020
When we are faced with the storms of life, it can be very tempting to focus on the storm rather than Christ. It is very easy to become crippled with fear when we take our eyes off Christ. God is present in the Church and He promises that when we need Him, we will find Him in the Church. When we turn our attention to God, and when we leave the cares of life outside the doors of the Church, we will be comforted and protected by God.
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
Tuesday Aug 04, 2020
God Wants Co-Workers
God has given to each person, whether a believer or not, certain gifts and talents to assist others. When we are faced with the needs of others, sometimes our temptation is to excuse them away to others maybe because we fear we don’t have enough resources, or maybe we think we don’t have time. In either case, it is only when we allow God to bless others through our cooperation, through our efforts, that God’s mercy and blessing is experienced by others. When we accept our role as coworkers with God, not only will there be enough time and resources, in fact there will be an excess of leftovers.
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
Tuesday Jul 28, 2020
When we are faced with spiritual and physical illness, we sometimes need to be reminded that God wants nothing more than to heal us, especially our souls. When the elites of the day witnessed God’s miracles healings, they accused Christ of partnering with the devil. Even after they witnessed God healing the blind, they remained blinded to God’s love and grace. Even after they witnessed God those who had been healed give praise to God, they insisted on using their voices to accuse God. We sometimes fall into this same habit. Sometimes we remain blind, out of sinful pride. Sometimes we don’t open our mouths to praise God. Now is out chance to let God heal us, so that we can share the Good News with everyone. God wants to heal us, and He wants us to share this news with others.
Wednesday Jul 01, 2020
Wednesday Jul 01, 2020
The Lord challenges us to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven in our lives without worrying about tomorrow, next week and next year. Just as He makes sure the birds of the air have their needs met, He promises us that we are of more worth than the birds. He promises that we will always have enough when we seek Him first without anxiety about the future. The world is a very anxious place, but we must have courage and faith in God that His promise to care for us when we put Him first.
Monday Jun 22, 2020
Monday Jun 22, 2020
When God called His first disciples to follow, they dropped their nets and left everything they knew behind to follow a new way of thinking with God. They were willing to leave their own logic behind and live as God wants, and God was able to heal the crowds from every disease they had. When we are willing to step out of our comfort zone and leave our way of thinking behind for God’s way of thinking, we too can be the agents of healing in our society. We can be the vaccine that heals the pain and suffering of our society.