Whitewashed Souls

You already know how it feels. You spend the day working. It could be in the garden or in the fields at work. You know how it feels to ‘get dirty’ after a long day’s work. You also know the feeling of the dirty washing off and stepping out of the shower, clean and ready…

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Common Life

In every Divine Liturgy we proclaim our common life in Christ when we pray, “Let us commend ourselves and one another and our whole life to Christ our God.” We do not commend our unison lives to Christ. We commend our life, singular, to Christ. That should mean something. Brethren, let any one who thinks…

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Don’t Allow Yourself to be Tripped Up

I was once taught the first step to any sin is to believe I would always be able to ‘say no’ to temptation. Instead of counting on my willpower, I was taught to do whatever I could to set up protections against temptation. That way I would increase my chances of avoiding sin. Brethren, God…

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Remain or Repent; Which is it?

It has become popular to use the expression, “God made me who I am,” as an excuse toward all sorts of behaviors the Church teaches against. “God doesn’t make mistakes,” is another excuse. I say excuse, because we never want to remain how we are if we don’t like who we are. Brethren, in whatever…

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Mind Your Business

We all like to think we are successful Christians. We all like to think we ‘know what we’re doing’ when it comes to how to live our Orthodox Christian Faith. If that weren’t bad enough, we all also like to think we ‘know better’ than other people how to be ‘good’ Orthodox Christians. The sad…

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The Forces of Evil

I can’t tell you how often I hear people admit they do not believe in demons. Many do not believe there are ‘forces out there’ constantly trying to trip us up. The forces of evil are real. They exist, and they have been fighting against the Church since Adam and Eve. Brethren, we know that…

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Beware of Judgment

As Christians we know we are not supposed to judge others. We quote to each other all the time. “Judge not, lest you be judged,” (Matthew 7.1) but judgment does much deeper. When we judge others, not only will we be judged, we are already judging ourselves. Brethren, since the ungodly did not see fit…

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Inspired by God

People often talk about ‘God’s plan’ for their lives. We sometimes think God ‘placed’ someone in our life as ‘a sign’ from God. With this in mind, many believe that if we submit our life to God He will make everything better. He does make everything better, but rarely in the way we think. About…

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Run to the Light

A man approaching a cross during sunrise

There was a study of the healing power of light in which it was discovered that patients who were positioned near windows healed faster than patients away from natural sources of light. What is true about light in our physical health is also true in our spiritual health. The Lord said to his disciples: “God…

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