Good News Spreads

Digital artwork for Breaking News

The nature of community is that news spreads through word of mouth. When gas prices go up, friends tell friends where the cheapest gas can be found. When baby formula could not be found on the grocery shelves, friends told friends where formula could be found. In a community we are always trying to help…

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Who Did You Bring?

A cross sign in the middle of a sunset

The other day I wrote about the difficultly we experience in sharing our faith. We prefer keeping our faith to ourselves to taking the risk in preaching about Christ in today’s society. I get it, but is it paying off like we would like? Rather than gaining favor with God, we are merely buying our…

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A Single Book is Never Enough

The Bible with praying beads on a table

As I wrote in “Our Own Church” yesterday, there are many other things that are not included in the Scriptures. We simply cannot limit our experience of God to one book, even if that book is the Bible. It doesn’t make everything true. In the same token it doesn’t make everything false. There must some…

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Our Own Church

The Pinnacle Church

One of the struggles we experience within ‘American Individualism’ is a sense that nobody has the right to tell us what to believe or how to live. In fact, this has led to more than 45,000 denominations of Christianity in the world. As the name suggests, Protestantism features an individual or group that protests the…

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Rules are Tools

The other day I was at a party and was asked, “Can you eat this today?” It was Friday and the person asking knew I would be fasting on Friday. I replied, “I CAN eat anything I want. I choose not to eat certain things.” That is the essence of fasting. If you think we…

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Today is a New Day

A girl and the sunrise

It is easy to get caught up in our daily struggles. We pretend to comfort ourselves by promising, “Tomorrow will be different!” Alas tomorrow rarely is different, so we become content to continue in our daily clouds. We begin to believe that we were meant to be where we are, stuck in the mud of…

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Spiritual Obedience

A cross sign in the middle of a sunset

If we’re being honest, the idea of obedience to another human being is contingent upon our agreement with said human being. Every day we willingly place ourselves under obedience to those around us. It is what makes society civil. In the Church, it is what makes us worthy of the kingdom. BRETHREN, when you come…

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One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church

Monastery of the Holy Apostles on the Sea of Galilee

We say in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed that we believe in “One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church” and we casually understand the idea of Apostolic Succession as the meaning behind this phrase. The Holy Apostles, through the laying on of hands, ordained bishops who ordained bishops who ordained bishops, all the way through to today. But…

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Holy and Glorious Chief Apostles

Monastery of the Holy Apostles on the Sea of Galilee

Today is the Feast of the Apostle Peter and Paul, chief apostles according to the Tradition of the Church. Some think that the ‘real’ feast is tomorrow, the Synaxis of all the Holy Apostles, but if you’re paying attention to the life of the Church, you realize today is the Feast of note. Here are…

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Holy Apostles Fast

Monastery of the Holy Apostles on the Sea of Galilee

Today we begin another fast on the Church calendar, this time in honor of the Holy Apostles. In preparation for the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul on June 29 and the Synaxis of the Holy Apostles on June 30, we are asked to pray and fast. It isn’t a strict fast like the Great…

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