Posts Tagged ‘Faith’
Jealousy is Unbecoming
We want what we do not have. We don’t want others to have what we have. We want more of what we have. We want others to have less than we have. These simply expressions of jealousy are common to every person I have ever met. At some level, we all struggle with jealousy, even…
Read MoreFancy Words
As a college student during the first Gulf War in 1990 I recall all my friends and I being ‘glued’ to the TV watching CNN reporting nonstop from across the globe. Every time we had the chance, we would watch the reports and speeches about the war. I remember that we had to watch the…
Read MoreAncient Faith
Living in most cities in America, the oldest building we are likely to encounter is between 100 and 150 years old. Sure, there are a few rare buildings that have survived here and there, but for the most part we live in a very ‘new and young’ society. The vast majority of buildings we see…
Read MoreKnowledge Requires Trust
We all grow up learning to trust our teachers. We trust that George Washington was the first president of the United States. We trust that Ben Franklin was the first Postmaster General. Go back even further. We trust there was a Pharaoh named Tutankhamen. We learned to trust this information because we weren’t there to…
Read MoreBe Strong
Among the many struggles of being a Christian in 21st Century America is the reality that we are not living among fellow believers. Either we are among Christians who are not Orthodox, or we are among non-Christians. Worse than both is to be among Orthodox Christians who do not live nor believe as Orthodox Christians.…
Read MoreCheating Death
With the war in Israel on everyone’s minds these past few days, many are wondering why God allows such violence. If God is all powerful, He could (and should) stop such horrific events from taking place. Since God doesn’t stop all violence, then we must accept there is a different perspective through which we should…
Read MoreBeing Inspiring
We often wonder what we must do to inspire others to be faithful to Christ. Do we argue with them? Do we debate them with facts and figures? Maybe we sit with them and use logic to convince them that Christ is worthy of our devotion. None of these ultimately will inspire anyone to follow…
Read MorePro Life Church
The Orthodox Church was pro life before there was such a term. Long before Roe v Wade, and long before so-called reproductive rights, the Church honored the conception of children as a blessing from God. There are references to conception in the Scriptures and even the daily calendar honors conception as a thing to be celebrated, not destroyed.
Read MoreWorks follow Faith
We’ve heard it before. “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2.20) As Orthodox Christians we are challenged all the time by our friends that works will not save us. Of course, what they mean is that fasting and prostrations won’t save us. They’re right, but not because they’re right. Fasting and prostrations are not works…
Read MoreEpisode 404 – The Power and Promise of God
Christ made a promise that everyone who believes in Christ will have eternal life. Just as He promised in the Old Testament when Moses was leading the People of God in the wilderness, God promises us that if we look at Christ on the Cross with faith, we will have eternal life. Even if we…
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