July 27, 2021

RIVERS OF LIVING WATER

John 7:37-38

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Personal Challenge

What does it mean to have rivers of living water flowing out of our hearts? Does this mean that we can continue to gossip about our neighbor? How about be mean to them or talk bad about them? Can we continue to be prejudiced, racist, sexist, derisive, or in any other way derogatory to our neighbor? Absolutely not! If we truly belong to Jesus and He has taken over our lives, then our hearts will only be able to pour out love for Him and our neighbor. It is time that we all take stock of our relationship with Him and abandon the things of this world-for the things of His world. We are no longer citizens in this world if we have come to Him and drunk from His well of life. Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

July 26, 2021

TO WHOM SHALL WE GO?

John 6:68-69

But Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Personal Challenge

Sometimes we need to evaluate our lives and determine what is driving us day by day. What is behind our decisions? What is behind our desires? When confronted with the opportunity to leave Jesus as others had begun to, Peter responded that there is nowhere else to go and no one else to follow but Jesus. This is the question that we must answer. Is Jesus so important to us, so much the center of our lives, that we have no where else to go? If not, then it is time to rework our priorities. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

July 25, 2021

BREAD OF LIFE

John 6:35

And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.”

Encouraging Words

Our every need in life can be met by our Lord. He is able to provide for those needs exactly in the way that will best take care of us. When we focus on our "wants", our desires, then we lose our satisfaction with the things that He gives us to meet our needs. This goes down to the very bread and water that He gives us to sustain physical life as well as eternal life. Glory be to God!

July 24, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. Paisios of Mount Athos

July 22, 2021

SEEING AND BELIEVING?

John 6:14

Then those men, when they had seen the sign that Jesus did, said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

Personal Challenge

These men had the opportunity to see Jesus perform spectacular miracles, over and over again. And yet, many who observed these miracles and proclaimed Him as the great Prophet, later called out for Him to be crucified. Seeing is not always believing. Jesus later called out Thomas for his doubting and proclaimed how blessed many of us will be for believing without seeing. Our belief must come from deep within us and change us permanently. If it doesn't then it can be shaken. If we truly believe in Jesus then our eyes will be opened and we will begin to see Him. Glory be to God!

July 20, 2021

LOOKING IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES

John 5:39-40

You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me. But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.

Personal Challenge

In the days that Jesus walked on this earth, the chosen people, His early church, were all wrapped up in searching their scriptures and observing their traditions in search of the coming Messiah. All the while, their Messiah was standing there before them and being ignored by them. He did not fit their preconceptions of who He would be and therefore, they missed Him. We are seeing the same thing happening today in our churches. People are so focused on searching for Jesus in their teachings, their traditions, and their trappings of piety, that they do not see Him standing right there in our midst. He promised that He would be with us always. He proclaimed the Kingdom of God is amongst us. And yet, just like our ancestors of old, we ignore Him and look for Him in places where He is not. Is it no wonder that our churches are dying and being devoured from within by petty arguments and politics. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

July 19, 2021

SUBMISSION

John 5:30

I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.

Personal Challenge

Jesus is fully God. He is an integral part of the Trinity, the God-head. And yet, here He makes it clear that He submits to the Father for everything. He seeks the will of the Father in everything that He does. This is complete submission for the purpose of unity. It is this example that we are to follow as we submit our will to God! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

July 18, 2021

ASSURANCE

John 5:24

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

Encouraging Words

Jesus, our Lord and Savior assures us that if we hear His word and believe in the Father that sent Him, we will have everlasting life. How can we trust this assurance? By faith. Also by knowing that Jesus was the only one that fulfilled every prophecy about the coming Messiah, the Son of God. He is the only human, because He was fully God and fully man, that never sinned, that died a physical death, and rose again to later ascend into heaven before a crowd of witnesses. He truly was sent by the Father and could give us this assurance. Glory be to God!

July 17, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. Nikolai Velimirovich

July 16, 2021

LIVING WATER

John 4:13-14

Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Encouraging Words

Water is so important to life. We are comprised of mostly water. We cannot live for very long without water. We are carried in the womb encased by water. We are baptized into the church in water. Does it not make sense for Jesus to proclaim that we must drink in of His life-giving water in order to receive eternal life? It is also a blessing to know that through Him, through the ingestion of His living water, that we too can become fountains of living water pouring out His blessings on those around us. Glory be to God!

July 15, 2021

BELIEVING

John 3:36

He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

Encouraging Words

We have seen in the verses leading up to this one that God has offered us the free gift of eternal life. It is a gift that cannot be earned and that we don't deserve. What we do with that gift is very important. If we believe in the Son, that gift, then we will receive it and have everlasting life. If we reject it then we will see separation from God. Either way the gift remains real and given to all of us. Glory be to God!

July 14, 2021

PERSPECTIVE

John 3:30

He must increase, but I must decrease.

Personal Challenge

John the Baptist holds a very prominent place in the church. He was the forerunner of Christ. He proclaimed the eminent coming of our Lord. He is considered the last of the old covenant prophets pointing to the coming Messiah. And yet, he was a very humble man recognizing that once Christ had arrived, it was time for Him to fade into the background so that the God-Man that He had been proclaiming could increase. Isn't this what we all should be doing? Letting Christ increase in our lives as we humbly decrease. Lord Jesus Christ, Son. of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

July 13, 2021

THROUGH HIM

John 3:16-17

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Encouraging Words

God is love! And as a loving God, the creator of all, He would not let His creation go unloved. Throughout the Old Testament and His covenant with the Jewish nation, He kept promising that His Son would come and create a new covenant with all nations. Jesus, God's only begotten son, came in that love and became man so that we would not perish but have everlasting life. He fulfilled the condemnation of the law and ushered in a new era of salvation for all. Lord, have mercy! Lord, mercy! Lord, have mercy!

July 12, 2021

HIDDEN WORKS

John 2:9-10

When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”

Personal Challenge

One of the messages in this passage is about how we should do our works for God in such a way as to bring no attention to ourselves. Jesus performed His first public miracle at this wedding and made sure that the minimal number of people knew about it. He was not interested in having the spotlight focused on Him. His mother asked Him to do something and He did it without fanfare. We are to do the same. We are called to do His work, and to do it willingly and without attracting attention to ourselves so that we become prideful. Glory be to God!

July 11, 2021

THE GIFT

John 1:12-13

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Encouraging Words

God has given the gift of salvation to all of mankind. It is a free gift for there is nothing that we can do to earn it. However, if we do not respond to this gift and believe in His name, then we are rejecting the free gift and all the benefits that go with it. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

July 10, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. Paul

July 9, 2021

HEART BURNING

Luke 24:32

And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”

Personal Challenge

Every week we have the opportunity to enter into the presence of God during the sharing of the Eucharist. Throughout the week we have the opportunity to be in the presence of God through our prayers and interactions with His creation. Does our heart burn within us during these times or has our Christian walk become so mundane, so covered over by rubrics and activities, that we fail to see God, even when we are in His presence? What can we do to become like those on the road to Emmaus and cherish the times that we see God in our lives? It is not God that has put the veil of darkness on our lives, it is us. Let us seek Him to remove it and walk with Him. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

July 8, 2021

FORGIVE THEM

Luke 23:34

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”

And they divided His garments and cast lots. And the people stood looking on.

Personal Challenge

Even to the very end, Jesus was showing love to others. He had been spit on, beaten, mocked, abused, insulted, even hated, and yet He asked the Father to forgive them. When we say that we want to be like Christ, this is part of what we must do to make it to that point. We must love our neighbor, our friends, our enemies, and those who strike us as Christ did. Lord Jesus Christ son of God have mercy on me, the sinner!

July 7, 2021

TWO MITES

Luke 21:1-4

And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”

Personal Challenge

What is a mite as mentioned here in this passage? It is a very small amount of money. It could be somewhat equivalent to a penny in today's economy. So why is this story so important to Jesus? This widow lived in abject poverty. There was no refinement, no pension, no welfare. She was poor and most likely these 2 mites were all that she had. And yet, she willingly gave them to her God while all around her were the rich people giving their pocket change, yet going home to lush places, comfortable beds, and abundance of food and drink. She gave her all. They gave their leftovers. God wants us to be like this poor widow. He wants us to give our all, whether it be of our possessions or our time or most importantly from our hearts. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

July 6, 2021

HOUSE OF PRAYER

Luke 19:45-46

Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

Personal challenge

Is it possible that part of the problem with the modern church is that we have brought so much of the world into it that it has become a "den of thieves"? We are supposed to be set apart from the world as Christians and it only makes sense that our houses of worships, our temples, should also be set apart. The more that we try to make our churches operate like everything else in the world, the further we move away from God and give up our salt and light in the world. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

July 4, 2021

WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?

Luke 18:40-41

So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?”

He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”

Personal Challenge

Doesn't it seem odd that Jesus would ask a person who is obviously blind, "What do you want Me to do for you?" Surely Jesus knew that the man would want his sight back. Jesus will often wait for us to acknowledge what our needs are and for us to ask for Him to touch our lives in those areas of needs. Often this is a process for us to work through determining the differences between what we want and what we need. There can be significant differences. The closer we are to Jesus the clearer these differences become. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

July 3, 2021

Saint of the Week

St. John Chrysostom

July 2, 2021

POSSIBLE

Luke 18:27

But He said, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

Personal Challenge

Why do we go through life saying that we believe in the almighty God and yet act as if there are things that He cannot do? If we take our eyes off of Him and start looking at everything that is going on in the world around us, we will quickly begin to believe what the world wants us to believe, which is that God has no power or meaning. It is our lack of believe that causes us to doubt that all things are possible with God. It is our unwillingness to give our lives fully over to Him that prevents His possibilities from being manifested in our lives. Glory be to God!

July 1, 2021

AS A LITTLE CHILD

Luke 18:15-17

Then they also brought infants to Him that He might touch them; but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them to Him and said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.”

Personal Challenge

Children are so awesome. They take on life with so much openness and gusto. They are clean slates that can absorb new things and address them with simplicity. They are trusting, loving, and refreshing. This is how Jesus wants us to be as we come to Him and our Father. It has nothing to do with how much I know or how many rubrics I practice. He wants us to come to Him with simple, open minds and hearts so that He can fill us with His Kingdom. We can grow in Him, yet we must maintain this childlike love for Him. Glory be to God!