Posts Tagged ‘Gospel of Matthew’
Hypocrites or Sinners?
It comes up all the time in conversations. The Church is full of hypocrites. I know how those people are when they leave the Church. They pretend to be so holy on Sunday. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. The normally opens the following conversation. Me: Do you know any alcoholics?…
Read MoreEpisode 374 – Prayer and Fasting Nurtures Our Faith
When we turn to God in prayer and fasting, our hearts are changed to better understand God’s desire for us. Faith the size of mustard seed is enough to move mountains, but every seed needs to be nurtured to produce. When we pray and fast, our faith is nurtured. When we bring ourselves and others…
Read MoreQuestions of Faith
What does it mean to have faith in Jesus Christ? Most people would answer by saying they believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world to save sinners. And they would be correct, but is it enough to offer these few words about belief? The difficult answer unfortunately is, “NO!”…
Read MoreEpisode 373 – We are Safe in the Church
If we are inside the Church building, we are safe from the turmoil outside the walls of the Church. When we are baptized into the Church, we are safe with the protection and peace of God. The longer we stay outside the Church, the more we lose our focus, and we begin to sink in…
Read MoreIt is Safe in the Ark
We read the story of Noah’s Ark in the Old Testament. (Genesis 6-8). The only way for Noah and his family to be safe from the flood was to get in the Ark. For forty days and forty nights the storm raged and the floodwaters came. Everything that was not in the Ark was swept…
Read MoreThe Key is Humility
We live in a society that is constantly comparing itself to others and we are not immune. We sit at work and compare our coworkers. We compare our neighbors. We even compare our brothers in sisters in the pews on Sunday. Some say our society is the best on the planet. Some say we are…
Read MoreEpisode 372 – When God Opens Our Eyes
There comes a time when we need our own little miracle from God. The story of the healing of the two blind men in Matthew 9.27-35 is a gift from God for us today. When we allow God’s mercy and grace to work in our lives to open our eyes to our shortcomings. It is…
Read MoreWe Can Learn from Nature
I hear it a lot. Humans are part of nature. This is true, but what we do with this information is what matters. Some, those whom I might consider modern-day pagans, think that means that nature is sacred and be treated as such. For others, those of us who are Christians, understand that God created…
Read MoreGood Works for God
As Christians we are expected to do good for the glory of God. We are also told to be humble. The two ideas sometimes conflict when we are in public. If we do good in public, then people will congratulate and honor us. That is bad for our humility. If we refuse to do good…
Read MoreLook Inward
There has been a lot of talk lately in the Orthodox blogosphere about repentance and those who are presumed to live unrepentant lives. I cannot wrap my mind around how anyone in this world can know the state of repentance of anyone else. There is a reason Christ told us to look at the log…
Read More