May 28, 2021

OUR HEART

Luke 6:45

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

Personal Challenge

Who we are, what we think, what we say, and what we do all comes from the state of our heart. We can put a facade in front of the heart and pretend to be something, or someone else, but sooner or later that facade crumbles and the true heart is revealed. Out of our heart can come kindness or meanness, uplifting or putting down, truth or lies, love or hate. It is up to us to relinquish all the depths of our hearts to Jesus so that He can fill it with Himself and therefore create in us a new and righteous heart. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

May 27, 2021

SELF-CARE

Luke 6:41-42

And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye.

Personal Challenge

It is so easy to point out someone else's faults and problems all the while ignoring our own. Just because we can-easily do that does not mean that our issues go away. In actuality, they just get magnified. Jesus instructs us to take care of our own issues before we point out someone else's. If we can master this then our relationship with others will improve significantly and God will be able to help us clean up our lives. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

May 26, 2021

GIVE

Luke 6:38

“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”

Command with a Promise

Who would not like to receive things like wealth and time? Everyone wants more of a good thing. Jesus points out that in Gods economy, we get more of anything and everything by first giving it away, letting go of its value in our lives. And then when He fills us up with more than we had before, we have more that we can give away. It is a principle that truly works. Glory be to God!

May 25, 2021

BALANCE

Luke 6:37

“Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

Command with a Promise

God's economy, His way of doing things, is always balanced. He is perfection and therefore everything that He instructs us to do is balanced and perfect. Here we are given three things to do in our lives, each with an associated promise. We are to not judge our fellow human, that is God's job. By doing this, we will not be judged. We are not to condemn others in order to not be condemned ourselves. And we are to forgive others so that we can reap the full benefits of God's forgiveness for our sins. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

May 24, 2021

NOTHING IN RETURN

Luke 6:32-36

“But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”

Personal Challenge

Loving our enemies, doing good to them, and lending to them expecting no reciprocation sets us apart as followers of Christ from all others. God has done, and continues to do, so much for us expecting nothing from us. Does it not make sense that He asks us to do the same in order to Amore like Him? Glory be to God!

May 23, 2021

LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

Luke 6:27-31

“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.”

Personal Challenge

Once again, Jesus gives us a rule to live our lives by that is so contradictory to what the world around us tells us to do. Love our enemies. Why would we want to do that? Treat those who treat us badly with kindness? Why? How? Isn't this what God does every moment of every day when so many reject Him? In my recent readings of Tertullian, an early church father, he deals with this passage in his book against Marcionism (look it up). He teaches that the Old Testament teaching of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, was the establishment of a law to create fear in us. A fear that drives us to do good in order to avoid the consequences. He teaches that Jesus, by fulfilling the law, gives us the rule to lover our enemies so that we can transcend this fear and choose to treat our fellow human nicely, no matter how they treat us. This is lively a godly life. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

May 22, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. Isaac the Syrian

May 21, 2021

BLESSED

Luke 6:20-23

Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said:
“Blessed are you poor,
For yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now,
For you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
For you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you,
And when they exclude you,
And revile you, and cast out your name as evil,
For the Son of Man's sake.
Rejoice in that day and leap for joy!
For indeed your reward is great in heaven,
For in like manner their fathers did to the prophets.”

Personal Challenge

God operates from a much different perspective than we humans do. I would guess that this would most likely be related to the fall of mankind. Our world, His creation, was turned upside down when the forbidden fruit was eaten. And we have been in conflict with God and His ways ever since. If we look at all the things that this world holds as blessed, wealth, abundance of food and other pleasantries, laughter, inclusion by those around us, we can see that they are fleeting and easily lost. God's blessings are based on those things that are permanent and eternal. Glory be to God!

May 20, 2021

WHO NEEDS JESUS?

Luke 5:31-36

Jesus answered and said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

Then they said to Him, “Why do the disciples of John fast often and make prayers, and likewise those of the Pharisees, but Yours eat and drink?”

And He said to them, “Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them; then they will fast in those days.”

Then He spoke a parable to them: “No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.”

Personal Challenge

We are in an age where everyone is so self-sufficient and self-focused. You may even hear it said, "Who needs God?" or "Who needs Jesus?" There is only one answer to all questions like these, which is, "We all need God and Jesus!" We are all sick from being a part of this fallen world. We are all broken as sinners. We all need Jesus to be our physician. We are all old wineskins that need our God to make us new so that the Holy Spirit can be poured into us. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

May 19, 2021

HE LEFT ALL

Luke 5:27-28

After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.

Personal Challenge

Every time I read this account of Levi, I ask myself if I would be willing to do this. Levi was in a very lucrative position. As a tax collector, he was hated be the Jews, but he would have been a very wealthy person. Jesus said, "Follow Me.", and Levi left everything behind and followed Him. Would I do that if Jesus called me to follow Him like this? Has my life, and the stuff that I have filled it with, become more important than Him? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner, and prepare me to hear Your voice and answer Your call.

May 18, 2021

UPON HIM

Luke 4:18-19

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me

To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.”

Encouraging Words

Many years before Jesus was born, Isaiah, a great prophet, proclaimed that the Messiah was coming and that He would do great things. This list that Jesus proclaims in this passage to launch His ministry comes from the prophesy of Isaiah. As we look at the life of Jesus and His ministry, we see Him doing all of these things. He not only proclaims who He is, but demonstrates it in a way that no one ever had before Him or has done since He was here. This is the Son of Man, the Son of God, that we put our hope in. Glory be to God!

May 17, 2021

INTO THE WILDERNESS

Luke 4:1

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

Personal Challenge

As soon as John finished baptizing Jesus, Jesus went into the wilderness to be with His Father. It is in the wilderness where He is tempted and tested by the enemy of God. This is an image of what happens to every one of us after we are baptized into the family of God. This fallen world is our wilderness that we go into. It is in this wilderness that we are tempted and tested. And it is in this wilderness that we draw closer to our God because we need Him to survive. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

May 15, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. Theophan the Recluse

May 14, 2021

WELL PLEASED

Luke 3:21-22

When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”

Encouraging Words

God blessed Jesus, His beloved son, in His human state. He did not need to bless Him in His God state. Did God do this because Jesus needed God's blessing? Or was if for our sake the God proclaimed Jesus, in His fully human state, as His beloved son in whom He was well pleased? Jesus led the way for us into the waters of baptism and into lives that can be united with God. Glory be to Him!

May 13, 2021

GROWING UP

Luke 2:52

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

Encouraging Words

It is so important for us to remember that Jesus was fully human. He was born as every other infant was born. He was loved and coddled by His parents as all of who have been parents did for our children. He went through all of the stages of life that each of us has gone through to reach adulthood. He was tempted as every other human being has been tempted. He, however, never gave into those Temptations. By His human choice, His human will, He was able to live a pure and innocent life. We can seize this as a blessing for ourselves, for we know that there is nothing in this life that we are experiencing that He does not understand. He can lead us through these challenges and difficulties as one who has been there. This is where we can put our hope, in Jesus who is fully God and fully man. Glory be to God!

May 12, 2021

HIS MERCY

Luke 1:50

And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.

Encouraging Words

This verse is taken out of Mary's proclamation of what was going on within her as she was carrying Jesus before He was born...the Magnificat. This is a repeat of what was proclaimed by prophets many years and times before. The Christ, the Son of God, our Messiah, whose birth was coming, would be the Redeemer of human­kind. He would be the glorious and merciful God of all nations. If we fear him, love Him with our all, respect Him as our God, then He will pour His blessings out upon us and the generations that will follow us. This is a promise from God. Glory be to Him!

May 11, 2021

NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE

Luke 1:37

For with God nothing will be impossible.

Encouraging Words

Why is it important for us to believe that our God can do anything? In order for us to have unlimited faith we need to have an object that is not only worthy of that faith, but fully fulfills it. We cannot believe in something or someone that falls short in any area. Our God existed before anything else. He has always been and always will be. He has no beginning or end. Everything that we can see, feel, smell, hear, or even imagine are created by Him...everything. All life is found in Him. Believing this gives us a foundation in our lives to be able to live lives that grow in Him. Believing this gives us purpose and drive. Believing this sets us free from the limitations of this world that has fallen around us. Glory be to God!

May 10, 2021

HE WEPT

Mark 14:72

A second time the rooster crowed. Then Peter called to mind the word that Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And when he thought about it, he wept.

Personal Challenge

Sin. The denial of God in our lives by choosing to do what we want to do rather than what He wants us to do. We all have it. We all do it. Peter shows us what we should do when we sin against our Lord, when we deny Him. He immediately wept and sought repentance. He fled to a place away from the sin so that he could seek his Lords' forgiveness. We must do the same, over and over again, so that we can stay close to Christ and be kept pure by Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

May 9, 2021

HIS WORDS

Mark 13:31

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.

Encouraging Words

The words of our Lord that will never pass away are comprised of much more than is contained between the covers of our printed Bible. These are what the early church fathers chose to canonize, but there is so much more. Jesus taught His disciples, who then taught the leaders of the early churches, who then continued to pass the teachings on down through the history of the church. there are other early church writings that capture the teachings of Christ, the teachings of the early church fathers, as well as the traditions established that have defined the church for 2,000 years. Jesus did not leave us without the tools to build His church when He ascended into heaven. Glory be to God!

May 8, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. Theophan the Recluse

May 7, 2021

THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

Mark 12:29-31

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Personal Challenge

The expectation that Jesus has for His followers can be summed up in this passage. He has given us two commandments to live our lives by. Everything that happens in our daily walk can be addressed with these commandments. If we put God first by loving Him will all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, then we are laying the foundation to live godly and righteous lives. When we follow this one by loving our neighbors as much as we love ourselves, then everything that we do will be encouraging and edifying to those around us. These are two very easy commandments to understand, and yet two very difficult commandments to live out. That is why Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us through our journey of life, hopefully learning to live these commandments better each day. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

May 6, 2021

GOD OF THE LIVING

Mark 12:27

He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. You are therefore greatly mistaken.

Encouraging Words

All of the great men who have formed religions and who still have followers today have died and are laying in the grave, except one. Jesus was executed as an innocent man and rose from the grave on the third day. He is alive as is the Father and the Holy Spirit no matter how much naysayers try to purport otherwise. Beyond this, our God is the God of the living and not the dead. Jesus, in His resurrection, destroyed the bonds that death had on us and has set us free to once again experience eternal life. Glory be to God!

May 5, 2021

GREATNESS

Mark 10:43-45

Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

Personal challenge

If we are ever given the opportunity to be in a position of authority over other people, we can easily begin to understand what Jesus is saying in this passage. Our world believes that leaders must be strong, overbearing, and expect their contingency to serve them. We often see teachings of servant leadership pop up but they often still teach that it is a practice of getting others to do what you want them to do. God's concept of leadership, as demonstrated by Jesus, is to truly become a servant to others, especially those whom you have authority over. If we serve them and do what we would want them to do, then they too will go down the path that we are willing to go. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

May 4, 2021

WITH GOD

Mark 10:27

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”

Encouraging Words

As humans we will typically resort to looking at things through our finite, human eyes and understanding and projecting that upon God. Many of the teachings of Jesus make it sound like no person will ever make it into the Kingdom of heaven. Which is true, if we try to do that on our own accord. It is only through God, His grace and mercy, that we will transition that abyss between the temporal and the heavenly. That is why Jesus was incarnate and gave His life for us. Glory be to God!

May 3, 2021

TRUSTING IN RICHES

Mark 10:24-25

And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Personal Challenge

It is so easy to take our eyes off of our Lord and put them on the riches of this world. These riches can easily become the gods in our lives and lead us away from God. Maybe this was part of the reasoning behind Jesus persistently telling us to give away our wealth. The tighter we hold on to the things of this world, the more we will be impacted when we lose them. God does not perceive wealth as bad, but what we do with it that can be bad. We need to always remember that our true wealth is in heaven and not here on earth. Glory be to God!

May 2, 2021

LOST FLAVOR

Mark 9:49-50

“For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”

Personal Challenge

A question that I should always be-asking myself is, "Am I still salty?" If we have grown stale in our Christian walk, then we will not be adding the honor of God into the lives of the people in our lives. Our relationship with God should always be changing us and causing us to grow deeper on Him. Through this, the saltiness of our lives will be refreshed and we will be flavoring the lives of those around us.

May 1, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. John Climacus

April 29, 2021

GREATEST AS SERVANT

Mark 9:33-35

Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

Personal Challenge

Once again, we have Jesus turning the wisdom of the world upside down. His disciples, as so many today, were arguing about which one of them would be the greatest in His Kingdom. I can see it now. "I answered more of His questions right than anyone else!" "I was the first one that He selected!" "He gets into my boat more than yours?" "I have..." But Jesus tells them this doesn't matter. He wants us to be willing to put others first, to be servants rather that masters. Do we willingly step aside and let others go before us? Do we take the seat in the back of the room so that others can have the better seat? Do joyfully do His work without seeking recognition and praise? If we do these things with pure hearts and motives, and not false piety, then we are serving others and Christ. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!