One of the famous sayings to come from the tragedy of the Russian Revolution was that "religion" was the opiate of the people. The Communist revolutionaries were convinced that the religion of the Russian people were keeping them slaves to the "ruling class" and they wanted to destroy everything...
I failed my first driving test when I went to get my driver's license as a 16 year old. One of the last remaining "rites of passage" into the world as an adult male, and I failed! Talk about embarrassing, the person who had gone with me had passed...
"γνωθι σεαυτον" Know Yourself: with these two words ancient philosophers and Christian theologians have wrestled with a fundamental reality - We humans spend a lot of time either hiding from ourselves or narcissistically focused on a false self. But truly knowing who we really are is fundamental to being who...
"You must be born again." Hey, where I'm from, that scripture is as well worn as John 3:16. In the '70's fad of the "Jesus Movement" (anybody who was paying attention at all to the culture of the early '70's knows this) being "born again" was all the rage....
"Do as I say, not as I do!" I remember thinking "Well, that's not very convincing." How can someone who refuses to follow their own advice have any credibility at all? My mom drove that point home to me as I watched her follow her convictions when it would...
For those who missed the program last night of why we Orthodox venerate the saints, here's the recorded program. Thanks to Fr. Panayiotis Papageorgiou of Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church for his wonderful insights into this vital spiritual discipline for our spiritual maturity! Just click the Banner. Our daily devotionals...
While our daily devotional is on hiatus while we do some improvements to our web presence, please share this news about our upcoming Faith Encouraged LIVE program for this Sunday. Fr. Barnabas' special guest will be Fr. Panayiotis Papageorgiou of Holy Transfiguration parish in Marietta, GA and they will...
Truth has a way of upsetting things, especially those ways in us that are threatened by truth. And yet, we are promised that truth will set us free! On the surface, that sounds wonderful, but reality is quite different. My first "career" was in law enforcement. One memory I will...
He simply stared at me wondering how to respond. We were marching in a parade of Christian believers supporting the presence of our faith in the public square. He was a very dynamic and animated member of one of the local mega-churches that was a charismatic church with thousands...
