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...
Ever heard the saying "It's all or nothing!" This perspective says you have to choose in life to be all in oir get all out! But I wonder how far we can really push this insight. I think there's something better for those of us who follow Jesus Christ. I...
What is it about close relationships that either blind you or enlighten you? What I mean is, I've known folks who were so close to someone else that they were absolutely blind to that other person's faults. I've seen it get so bad that the two people were so...
"OK, so what's the catch?" The guy had just given me his best pitch for a timeshare vacation package at the resort we were enjoying in the Dominican Republic. (Beautiful place, by the way). They told us that if we would go to this presentation that we could get...
"Endurance is nobler than strength, and patience than beauty." So says the 19th century writer and art critic John Ruskin. But is he right? Well, I think so, as long as all those important words are defined properly! But what if there was a way to understand WHY we should...
I've always been fascinated by philosophy and logical argument constructs. It seems to me that the ability to use one's intellect to worship God through excellence and discipline is a very great accomplishment, one I've always lacked the patience and strength to fully embrace. One particular part of philosophical...
It almost sounds like the beginning of a joke: "A Soldier, an Athlete, and a Farmer..." But what it really is is a prescription for living a wise life. All too often we fall into the trap of reducing life to being "right" or "wrong." We want to be correct....
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"...
"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...
"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...
