Created for Good Works

Work Zone sign under blue sky.

One of my least favorite sayings is, “God has a plan for you.” It makes it sound as if we have no free will in the relationship. It makes it sound like we have ‘only one thing’ to accomplish in this life. It is true that God has a plan for us, but the plan…

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The Reward of Righteousness

Blue ribbon with "1st Place" text.

We’ve all heard it before. Good guys finish last. Watching just a few minutes of the nightly news and you might agree. Let’s face it. Our society rewards choices and priorities that we as Christians don’t follow. We choose to be righteous in the eyes of God but is that good enough. Since yesterday was…

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Remember Your Conversion

Candles lighting

Whether we were ‘born into’ the Church of became Orthodox later in life, each of us has a conversion story. We can remember that day, or season, when we realized our faith in Christ was something that we were serious about. We also can remember days or seasons when that faith waned a bit, and…

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God’s Work

Bricklayer applying mortar to red bricks.

As Christians, we are called to be coworkers with God. Practically speaking that means that the work we do is supposed to be part of the work God does. You cannot be a coworker and work on a different project. Then you are just colleagues. Coworkers have a shared vision. Brethren, we are God’s fellow…

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Hope Never Fades

Bible with flowers and "Hope" card.

Whether you have lived for one year or one hundred years, you know what it means to hope for something. When our hope is based on a promise, we remain laser focused. When the One Who makes the promise is God, our hope never fades. As Christians we have the benefit of reading the story…

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Being Faithful

Silhouette with "FAITH" at sunrise background.

When we think about being faithful to someone, we imagine loyalty and sacrifice. If we are faithful to our friends, we fight for them. So long as our friends do not abandon us and our priorities continue to be aligned with their priorities, we remain faithful and willing to fight. If just one thing changes,…

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Family Bonds

Paper cut-out family holding hands casting shadows on a sunlit surface.

Being Christian in contemporary America can be difficult enough without your family being against you. The last thing we think is possible is families not being supportive of our faith in Christ. It would be bad enough if our family didn’t believe. It is that much harder when they actively work against our journey to…

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Jealousy is Unbecoming

Jealousy" text on textured grey wall.

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…

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Fancy Words

Large crowd gathered in a spacious auditorium.

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…

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Ancient Faith

Interior of a historic church with columns.

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…

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