Be Transfigured Ministries

On the fourth Sunday of Great Lent, the Church commemorates the memory of Saint John, the author of the Ladder of Divine Ascent. In his now famous treatise, Saint John helps us to see that the only we can climb to heaven is to renounce the world. It is not possible for us to climb to heaven while we cling to our worldly possessions and desires. 

This Bible Study was originally LIVE STREAM via YouTube on Wednesday, April 13, 2016, in Florence, SC.

This Bible Study was originally LIVE STREAM via YouTube on Wednesday, April 6, 2016, in Florence, SC.

Everyone tries, but we all know you can’t eliminate suffering. It is a real part of life that we have all experienced. Every person suffers, and when we take a moment to accept our own suffering rather than trying to escape from life, we grow closer to God and each other. When we are able to appreciate our suffering, we may even become more merciful and patient with others. When Christ invites us to “deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him,” (Mark 8.34) He isn’t without experience. He suffered as one of us so He knows our struggle, and He knows how we can only grow closer to Him when we stop focusing on ourselves and start to see that others are suffering around us also. Half-way through Great Lent the Church reminds us of our destination; the Cross of Christ. Great Lent is our blessed opportunity to embrace our suffering through prayer and fasting, so that we can finally learn that life isn’t about us. It is about God.

As human beings we sometimes feel paralyzed without help. We sometimes feel we can’t possibly reach Christ. At that moment it helps to always remember we have the Church to help us. Just as the paralytic whose friends lifted him over the wall so he could reach Christ (Mark 2.1-12), the members of the Church have been given to us to help us in those moments we can’t do it alone. If the paralytic had been alone, he would have remained outside the house and never reached Christ. We can’t reach Christ without the Church, as we profess in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. We believe in One Holy Catholic and Apostolic CHURCH, and just as the paralytic needed his friends, we need the Church.

This Bible Study was originally LIVE STREAM via YouTube on Wednesday, March 30, 2016, in Florence, SC.

This Bible Study was originally LIVE STREAM via YouTube on Wednesday, March 23, 2016, in Florence, SC.

It has become very popular to make up your own religion by accepting one belief and rejecting another, or following one practice but inventing a new individual custom to follow. There is a better way. For centuries holy men and women, righteous figures of the Old and New Testament, have been following a way of life established by God, and they “were well attested for their faith.” (Hebrews 11.39) The way of life Christ has given His Church, the Orthodox Way of Life, has been tried and tested, defended and perfected, for centuries, so we could receive this Holy Tradition today. This is the faith of the Orthodox that is celebrated on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. God became man, so that man could be united to God. This is the truth the Church has defended in Holy Icons and our way of life. And that belief has consequences. Do you believe? Then follow the Church. Do you want to follow Christ? Then follow the way of life He has already given to us in His Church. You don’t have to make it up.

This Bible Study was originally LIVE STREAM via YouTube on Wednesday, March 16, 2016, in Florence, SC.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, He will judge not your actions, but whether or not see God in the least of His brothers. (Matthew 25.31-46) Our Lord makes it clear that when we are able to see God in every human being including the lowest of the low will be welcomed into Heaven. Every human being in created in the Image of God, even if it has been clouded by sin. Our responsibility as faithful Christians is to be able and willing to see through sin and seek out the Image of God, and look past the sins of others. With the coming of Great Lent in just a few days, the Church offers us an opportunity to repent from our own sin through prayer and fasting, so that we can feed the lowest of the low who hunger for God. Judgment is coming, and the question God will ask is, “Do you See God?” What will your answer be?