There is a powerful word in the wisdom of the Orthodox Faith that acts as a real warning to you and me. It is the word “prelest.” It literally means “the state of spiritual delusion or deception.” This is a great spiritual illness in the teaching of the Church and is to be recognized and…
Fr. Barnabas Powell
The Holy Spirit is a subject that I thought I knew a lot about in my early days as a Pentecostal preacher. I would preach sermons on the Holy Spirit and the power He was to give believers to be “holy” or to “do His work” or to “heal” sicknesses.” And all of this was…
“Salt makes people thirsty. People are thirsting for more of God’s word. We are the salt, the salt of the earth!” I remember hearing that song as a teenager and thinking “so THAT’S what that means!”
Jesus did call we Christians the “salt of the earth” and in His days on earth, salt wasn’t just something…
“MINE!” The toddler was adamant that that toy belonged ONLY to her! She had no intentions of allowing anyone else to play with her toy! Now that’s a familiar situation of any parent of small children or any teacher in kindergarten!
But that’s also sometimes the unspoken attitude of too many of us when it comes…
Everybody knows that whoever possesses the Spear of Destiny, has ultimate power! Their armies can never be defeated and power will be theirs forever, as long as they have the Spear! You know the Spear I’m talking about, don’t you? This is the Spear that pierced the Lord’s side at His crucifixion! Great Hollywood script material!
Of course,…
Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” album was one of my favorites years ago. And my favorite song on that album was “You Learn.” The chorus is going through my mind today: “You live you learn, you love you learn. You cry you learn, you lose you learn. You bleed you learn, you scream you learn.”…
“You simply HAVE to get active! I mean it, father. If you value your health AND your ministry. You HAVE to start moving more!” How I HATE these annual physicals! But seriously, the older I get the more my metabolism slows down and the more I have to work hard to stay active. The truth…
OK, so I have a hard time asking for directions. But, hey, since the invention of the GPS, I don’t have to! My man’s ego is protected by technology once again! Seriously, I do admit to not being crazy about asking for help. It feels like weakness to me and that plugs into my own…
“The best-laid plans of mice and men…” Most of us at least try to achieve a “planned life.” We plan for college. We plan our careers. We plan our relationships. We are forever warned against haphazard living, and rightly so because a haphazard life tends toward chaos and misery. Even our faith has all the earmarks…
So, why is it so easy to take advice from a stranger, but not your own family? Alright, I’ll confess to being a bit frustrated. Here’s the story: I had a dear family member bend my ear for several hours about a problem. At the end of this marathon, I gave what I thought was…