This past Sunday may have been one of the most powerful and inspired messages I’ve ever preached. I honestly felt like it was God speaking and not me. It was a Spirit-led and Spirit-inspired message if I’ve ever had one, and that I think everyone NEEDS to hear it.
So the natural result of that was that the A/V system decided to go haywire during the talk and we were only able to capture the last 18 minutes of the message on video (sorry sorry sorry).
Read MoreI don’t know about you, but I LOVE the fact that we’re seeing so many movies about faith and Christianity these days. It seems like every month, there’s a new movie that not only entertains but also inspires. And I LOVE IT!!!
The latest Christian movie to hit the big screen is called GOD’S NOT DEAD 2 – which opened up at #4 on weekend box office charts (followed by another Christian movie, Miracles from Heaven, at #5).
On Monday night, the STSA church family rented out a theater and watched the movie together. And it was GREAT! Two thumbs up if you ask me! What I loved about it was that it really made you think – not think to try to figure out the plot line or “whodunit” – but think about much greater issues in life and society.
Today, I want to share two questions that I walked away with and give you a chance to ask any questions you might have as well – either via the comments section below or on my weekly Periscope at 12:30 pm EST
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“We must be certain that just as God is merciful – and there is no limit to His mercy – He is also just, and there is no limit to His justice. Just as He is compassionate and forgives, He is also holy and hates sin.”
I’m continuing my discussion of A LIFE OF REPENTANCE AND PURITY by the late Pope Shenouda III and today I’m talking about Part 2, Chapter 4: If You Knew the Punishment for Sin, You Will Be Afraid
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“True repentance is a human longing for the origin from which we were taken.” ~ Pope Shenouda III
As I mentioned last week, the STSA church family is reading a great book together for Lent: The Life of Repentance and Purity, by the late Pope Shenouda III. This book was originally written back in the 1980's but was republished by SVS Press just last week and the new edition is FABULOUS!
The content of Pope Shenouda’s books have always been great, but the translation has been the problem. But this edition is written beautifully and is super easy to read. I sat down for 30 minutes one night and read almost 1/5 of the book. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT
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“Lent is here! Lent is here! What do I do now? Gotta get rid of all the meat in the house… gotta buy LOTS of veggie burgers instead… and tofu… and anything that tastes like plastic. What do I do next? How much should I fast? How much should I pray? How much should I read? And WHAT should I read? SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT TO DO!!!!”
Never fear my brothers and sisters, Fr. Anthony’s Wednesday blog post and Periscope are here.
Today I’ll share what I am “doing" for Lent (even though I don’t like that expression and you’ll see why in a minute) and I’ll be answering your questions about anything Lent-related in today’s scope at 12:30 pm EST
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“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit AND truth.” (John 4:23-24)
What does it mean to worship in spirit AND truth? What's the difference between the two? And how do I properly address each?
Read MoreWhat do you do when God says NO?
We've all been there. We've all been in a situation (and probably many are there currently as well) where we've prayed about a certain situation and gotten a NO from God. Whether that's a broken relationship, a sick family member, a lost friend or anything else that has brought us to our knees in prayer.
What do you do when God says NO?
That was the topic of the finale of INTO THE WAR ROOM. We learned that our trust needs to be in the GIVER, not in the gift.
"Surrender isn't about WHAT; it's about WHOM."
Surrender. What does it mean? What does it look like? Is it just something that we talk about, and read about, and sing about? Or is it something that we actually do? And how do we know if we've done it or not? Is it possible to kinda surrender some things but not really surrender everything?
That was our topic in Part 4 of INTO THE WAR ROOM. We focused on the issue of surrender and saw how it might be the most important part of our prayer strategy.
As Miss Clara taught us in the War Room movie, "If you wanna win, you're gonna have to first learn to surrender."
Part 3 of INTO THE WAR ROOM gave me chance to talk about one of my favorite subjects and one of foundational principles of my spiritual progress: PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE.
You can't get far in any series on prayer without discussing the relationship between prayer and Scripture. They are two sides of the same coin and I believe you can't really do one (properly) without the other.
So check out the video above as I share why I believe that praying with Scripture can change your prayer life. I also share how I specifically use Scripture in my prayer routine and how that might help you get started in yours.
What’s the secret behind answered prayer? Why do some people get their prayers answered and others seem to get nothing? How come in the movie, The War Room, that lady prayed for 15 minutes (in movie time) and her whole life got fixed, while others pray for years and get absolutely no where?
Is there some secret that we're missing?
If we’re honest, we’ve all wondered about that at some point in our lives. It’s great to talk about the power of prayer and what prayer can do in our lives, but every one of us could tell at least one story of a prayer that never got answered… one that we prayed and prayed and prayed, yet every prayer only seemed to take us further and further from our desired result.
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For those of you who have been waiting for the video of this past Sunday’s message – Part 2 of INTO THE WAR ROOM – I’m sorry to let you know that unfortunately, it didn’t record. Sunday was just one of those days where anything that can go wrong did go wrong and the end result – I’m sorry to say – was that the message didn’t record at all.
That’s the bad news…
But fear not! There’s good news too!
Read More"Why is there SO MUCH that we believe about prayer, but SO LITTLE that we do about it?"
The long-awaited INTO THE WAR ROOM series kicked off yesterday and it started with a bang! The goal of this series is to INSPIRE you to stronger and more vibrant prayer life, and also to EQUIP you with the tools you need to make it happen.
We got the ball rolling by talking about the importance of having a plan when it comes to prayer (as we do with just about every other area of our lives) and three essential characteristics that your plan must entail. I shared a little about my personal prayer plan and hopefully that encourages you to come up with your own.
Check out the video above and see for yourself. And then it's time to get working on your battle plan!
I’ve been waiting for this weekend for more than 6 months. Ever since I saw the movie, THE WAR ROOM, I’ve been telling everyone how great it is and the changes it brought into my life and how excited I am to see the impact it can make in our church and in our community.
And finally, the time has come for me to tell you why.
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The STSA month of prayer continues and each week, we’re focusing on a different aspect of prayer. The first week, we focused on “prayerless praying” – praying with one’s mouth but not with one’s heart. The second week we focused on “powerful praying” – reminding ourselves that the same God who parted the Red Sea and healed so many is the same God to whom we are praying today.
This week our focus is on “PRAYER AND CHARACTER.”
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“One of the first necessities of prayer is to get rid of “prayerless praying”. Prayerless praying is often beautiful in words and in execution; it has the drapery of prayer in rich and costly form, but it lacks the soul of praying. It has been said that prayerless praying is a heartless performance, a senseless routine, a dead habit, a hasty, careless performance. It has no life, gives no life, is dead, and breathes out death... Prayerless praying is insincere. It has no honesty in heart. We name in words what we do not want in heart.” On Prayer, E.M. Bounds
Have you ever heard of prayerless praying? Sounds like a contradiction in terms – something that shouldn’t exist...like foodless eating, or waterless showering. PrayING requires prayER; so how can there be prayerLESS praying?
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While most of the country prepares to celebrate Easter this weekend, we in the Orthodox Church appear a little behind once again. Our calendar has Easter falling on April 12 this year. That means that this coming weekend is the weekend of Palm Sunday and the kickoff of Holy Week, or Pascha week as it is more properly known.
Therefore, I thought it would be fun to start off with some Holy Week trivia for you.
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“We don’t choose where or when to be born. We don’t choose where or when to die. But we can choose either to help others or turn away. We can choose to do nothing or be a hero. If you want to be a hero, do what God wants you to do. He will let you know what that is, as long as you are open to finding out.” ~ Mama Maggie
Last night I met a hero. A real life hero! Someone who does real hero stuff – like saving lives and giving her own life to fight for people who can’t fight for themselves. Things that most people wouldn’t consider doing even once in their lives, she does them on a day to day basis.
That hero’s name is Mama Maggie – the modern day “Mother Teresa of Egypt” as she is often referred to. And I got to meet her last night!
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“Lent is here, we can’t eat meat. Lent is here, we have to put soy milk in our coffee. Lent is here, don’t tell anyone that that’s milk chocolate, not dark chocolate. Lent is here, we can’t eat Cool Ranch Doritos, we have to eat Sun Chips instead.”
For too many people, Lent is all about food. "Don’t eat this and don’t eat that. Stay away from this and don’t even think about that." Food food food. For a season that is supposed to simplify our lives and our eating habits, it sure seems like we spend a lot of time talking (and thinking) about food.
But is Lent supposed to about food? Is that what this is all about? Or do we maybe have this thing backwards?
Read MoreDISCLAIMER: this might be the most important message I've ever preached in my life.
What does it mean to be a Christian, or a follower of Christ? Is it just doing good deeds? Saying a few prayers? Going through some Christian motions? Or is it more than that?
Jesus said “If anyone desires to come after Me (aka, be my follower), let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matthew 16:24-25
What does it mean to deny oneself and to lose my life for His sake? That's the topic of the final message in the THE GREAT HUNT: The Quest for God’sWill and it's something we all need to examine ourselves on
Week 2 of the THE GREAT HUNT: The Quest for God’s Will, and in this week's message we looked at the four phases that God usually takes us through when revealing His will to us. The four phases are four road markers that help us know we're on the right path in discovering God's will.
What are the four markers? Check out the video above and find out for yourself.
