August 30, 2016

SHINING LIGHT

Matthew 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Personal Challenge

I have often heard how important it is for me as a Christian to let my light shine so that others might glorify God, This can be challenging on several fronts. First, we are told to do this so that people may see our good works being done for God and then glorify Hm. Am I doing good works for God? Is it obvious that they are for Him and not so that I look good? Second, what about the works that I am doing that are not glorifying to God? What do people think about God when they see me doing these? Third, what about this light that I am shining before men? Is it a good light, a bright light, an encouraging light? Or is it a light that shows the glory of my God dimly? Fourth, what about my propensity to pride. Do I seek to let my light shine before my fellow man, pretending that it is pointing to God so that I look good? This is perhaps the worst of the cases from this list, God gives me the ability to do good works for Him. He creates the opportunities and then gives me what I need to do them. He is the one who should be at the center of these activities and not me. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

August 28, 2016

IN THE MORNING...

Psalms 5:3 (5:4 LXX)

In the morning You shall hear my voice;
In the morning I will stand before You,
And I will watch.

Personal Challenge

The psalmist has come to a place in his life where he clearly begins each day, each morning, calling out to his Lord and awaiting His response. My life is so full, so busy, so demanding, that it takes everything that I can do to muster up that extra half hour in the morning to squeeze in my prayer rule and a little bit of scripture or early church fathers study. I am sure that this is not how my Lord intended for our lives to be. I also know that He did not intend for me to sit around and do nothing, letting everyone else around me do all the work that needs to be done. Part of the journey of life, the pursuit of theosis, is learning how to balance life. I must learn, first and foremost, how to be in constant prayer and communion with my Lord. This can be done by embedding the Jesus Prayer, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner!" into my every thought and action. Then with that as my foundation, I can begin to learn how to balance that which is going on in my life without it taking control of me. We live in busy times, but I can learn to navigate them with a calm and focused pace. Lord, help me!

August 27, 2016

Saint of the Week

St. Mark the Ascetic

August 26, 2016

REDEMPTION

Genesis 4:25

Again Adam knew his wife Eve, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Seth, saying, “God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.”

Encouraging Words

No matter how much I mess up in this life, no matter how much I Sin, God is there for me. Not only is He there for me, but He is ready for me to be reconciled to Him. This does not mean that the consequences of my sin will immediately go away. I will always have to accept the consequences as I pay my dues. Many times, if not most of the times that I go through this process of confession, repentance, and acceptance of the consequences, I will come away farther along in my journey of becoming like Christ. This is God's redemptive power working in my life. Glory be to God!

August 25, 2016

TRUE BLESSINGS

Matthew 5:3-12

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
For they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
For they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
For they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Encouraging Words

What a powerful view into the economy of our God. If I want to be viewed as a blessed person in this temporal world I would not pursue any of the following:

• being poor in spirit
• mourning
• meekness
• hunger and thirst for righteousness
• mercifulness applied to others
• persecution

But here, in the Beatitudes, our Lord clearly describes for us how we should love our lives in our day to day temporal world if we would like to receive the following rewards in our spiritual world, both today and when we enter into heaven:

• having the kingdom of heaven
• inheritance of the earth
• mercy
• seeing God
• becoming a child of God

According to how the world would have us live our lives, this is all backwards. The economy of the world tells me to put myself first, to make everything and everyone revolve around me, and then I will receive all of these rewards. And to top it off if I do live my life the way the world wants me to, I may have many things, but just in this world and not the world to come.

I am so thankful that every one of our liturgies in the Orthodox church includes the reading I singing of these verses because I always need to be reminded to live my life God's way and not the world's way. To live my life with God as the center and with every other person around me as more important than me. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

August 24, 2016

HOPE!

Psalms 4:8 (4:9 LXX)

I will both sleep and rest in peace,
For You alone, O Lord, cause me to dwell in hope.

Encouraging Words

Hope! What a wonderful and powerful thing hope is. Unfortunately, the world wants us to not have our God as the object of our hope. We are so often told that our only hope for joy, health, and posterity can be found in our government, so vote for the candidate that fulfills that hope the most. Or our only hope is in our wealth, the job that requires me to put others down or cheat my customer so that I can get paid more as my employer's coffers grow. Or I should put my hope in my health, or the stuff that I own, or the knowledge that I have amassed. In the end, all of these things that are of this world that tries to entice me to put my hope into themselves will someday be gone. The only thing that will last through eternity, the only thing that is constant and True, the only thing worth putting my trust and my hope in, is my God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy spirit. Only in Him can I find rest, peace, and joy. Glory be to God for He is my fortress and foundation.

August 23, 2016

THE DEVIL (OR SOMEONE ELSE) MADE ME DO IT

Genesis 3:11-13

Thus He said, “Who said you were naked? Have you eaten from the one tree from which I commanded you not to eat?” Then Adam said, “The woman You gave me, gave me of the tree, and I ate.” So the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Personal Challenge

Another response to sin (in addition to hiding from God) is that we immediately start pointing our fingers at everyone else and blame them for our transgression. God loves us so much that He does come to us in the midst of our sin to judge us and to chastise us, but to give us an opportunity to confess our sm, repent of it, and seek His comfort and acceptance. Deflecting to everyone and everything else just delays our opportunity to reconcile with God and our fellow human beings. God wants us in this state of reconciliation. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner.