Posts by Be Transfigured Ministries
You Cannot Make Yourself Great
Try as we might, we cannot change our status in society. We cannot change how others view us. We cannot change if others honor us or slander us. We can only change how we respond to what God has called us. God has called us to greatness, but by His doing, not ours. BRETHREN, since…
Read MoreStruggling Against Passions
I hear it all the time. Christians are accused of being hypocrites because we don’t live sinless lives. Some of us even struggle against the Church. In my experience, the Church isn’t filled with hypocrites. The Church is filled with Christians struggling against their passions. Seen from the outside of the Church, I understand the…
Read MoreEpisode 471 – God is Waiting for Us
When we hear the Parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.11-32, we hear about a man who decided to return to his father after wasting his inheritance. Rather than interrogate his son, the loving Father opened His arms, kissed him and welcomed him home with a huge celebration. That is what awaits us when…
Read MoreHolding Jesus
I love blessing babies. Holding their tiny bodies as they often stare into the dome of the Church during the blessing brings great joy. It seems we all ‘get into the game’ when a baby is around. We all want to hold the baby. Babies remind us of God’s love and promise. Today is the…
Read MoreDo Unmercenaries Still Exist?
The other day I blogged about rewards. The only true reward we receive from God is to live with Him eternally. How do we balance between waiting for God’s rewards and accepting rewards now while we do the work of Christ? Today the Church commemorates two saints known as unmercenaries. Saints Cyrus and John used…
Read MoreRewards
From childhood we are taught to expect a reward for our ‘good’ behavior. We clean our room, eat our dinner, and finish our homework, and we get rewarded. Do all those things without complaining and our reward is greater. Sound familiar? Brethren, recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard…
Read MoreInward Beauty
Morning routines are a part of everyone’s day. We awake with ‘just enough time’ to be ready for our day. We bathe and feed our bodies before spending time making ourselves presentable for our coworkers and friends. If we have time, we may even say our prayers. No surprise. The way we present ourselves is…
Read MoreA Different Kingdom
Many non-believers accuse the Church of wanting to control our lives. They believe our ‘rules and traditions’ are designed to keep us down in the world. It would be much easier if we just gave in to the world and ‘blended in’ more to those around us. Then we would succeed. This logic is lacking…
Read MoreIn my Prayers
I blog about prayer often. It is, after all, a central part of our Orthodox life. It is also one of the most underutilized spiritual tools in our Orthodox tool kit. Even when we pray, we rarely give our prayers the attention they deserve. Worse, we rarely give others the attention of our prayers. One…
Read MoreAdvance the Gospel
If someone were to ask you how your life advances the Gospel of Christ, what would you say? Does your career advancement bring the truth of the Gospel to new believers? Does your summer cottage or beach house inspire believers to live for Christ? Here’s what is strange about my question. For many Christians, a…
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