Category: Uncategorized

Ephesians 4:26-27

“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.

Personal Challenge

God has given us all the emotion of anger for a reason. It is okay to express this emotion, but we must know who that anger needs to be addressed toward. We are not to be angry with our brothers and sisters, our fellow mankind, but at the true enemy that is trying to divide us. That true enemy is the devil and he is the one that we should express our anger at when we feel that emotion arising within us. This is the only way to be angry and to not sin. Glory be to God!

Jeremiah 38:25

For I have satiated every thirsty soul and filled every hungry soul.

Encourage Words

To receive a promise from God that our every thirst will be satiated and every hunger filled is not some kind of prosperity gospel. We are not promised anywhere in the scriptures that if we follow Jesus and obey God that we will receive everything that we desire. God’s economy is so much different than man’s economy. We are promised that following Jesus and obeying God will satiate the very thirst of our souls, a thirst for the only One that counts, and that hunger in our soul to be united with God will be filled by Him. This is the economy of God. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Ephesians 4:1-3

I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Personal challenge

What do we typically envision when we think of someone who is walking worthy? Is it someone who is proud and can hold their head up high? Is it someone who has done well in their life and moved up the ladder of success and amassed great wealth? These would be definitions that the world would apply to someone that can walk worthy. However, this is not what God deems important for someone who can walk worthy of His calling. He is looking for those who are humble and gentle toward others. He is looking for those who are longsuffering and both able and willing to bear with one another in love. His desire is for us to walk this way endeavoring to keep unity with those around us. This is how to walk worthy. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Jeremiah 38:3

The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore, I drew you in compassion.”

Encouraging Words

What does “everlasting” mean? It means that all of time is spanned, past, present, and future. It means that something has always existed and always will. Jeremiah shares with us that God told him that His love for him was everlasting and that He drew him to Himself out of that love and compassion for him. The scriptures tell us that God loves us this way too, from everlasting to everlasting. God loved us before we even existed in this temporal body and will love us throughout the entirety of eternity. He will draw us to Himself compassionately out of that great love. Glory be to God!

Ephesians 3:14-19

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Encouraging Words

What better way is there to start off a new year than this prayer by Saint Paul for all of the believers of his day and that would come after him until the return of our Lord? There is nothing more that any of us could ever hope for than to be strengthened with might through His Spirit, that we be rooted and grounded in love, and be able to comprehend with all the saints and what is the width and length and depth and height of Gods’ love for us. This love surpasses all human knowledge and understanding. Glory be to God!

Jeremiah 37:13-14

Therefore, all who devour you shall be consumed, for all your enemies shall devour themselves. Your sins multiplied because of the abundance of your wrongdoings, thus they did these things to you. But those who tore you to pieces shall be as prey, and I will give all who plundered you as plunder. For I will bring about your healing from a painful wound. I will heal you,’ says the Lord. ‘For you were called Dispersed, for they said, “She is your prey, because no one seeks her.’ ”

Personal Challenge

The Israelites of old were dispersed, multiple times, from their promised land. Each time it was a result from abandoning their part of their covenant from God. Do we not do the same with our relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ. We get caught up in the world around us and turn our heads and hearts away from Him and toward the things of the world. We become enamored with the things of this world and begin to worship them instead of our Lord. As long as we are still alive within our temporal bodies we will be confronted by temporal temptations. We must continually turn to our loving God and seek His healing and His protection so that we can be kept pure in our relationship

with Him. We must do our part because He is always ready to do His part. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Ephesians 2:8-10

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Encouraging Words

There is always a great tension between different Christian faith practices around the application of works in our Christian journey through life. There have been many times in my earlier Christian journey where is warned, sometimes vehemently, to be careful to not expect that my mission trips and other activities would get me into heaven. These conversations always struck me as odd because I knew that the only reason I was doing what I did was that I was grateful for all that Jesus had done for me. It is the grace of God and the work of Jesus that is my only source of salvation. Now that I have been practicing Orthodoxy for several years it is becoming easier to see the truth of God’s grace and His love for me. Here is how the Orthodox Study Bible explains this verse:

How can one get from the one kingdom to the other (vv. 1–7)? By the unity of grace, faith, and works (v. 9). Not that these are equal, for grace is uncreated and infinite, whereas our faith is limited and can grow; good works flow out of authentic faith. Works cannot earn us this great treasure—it is a pure gift—but those who receive this gift do good. We are not saved by good works, but for good works (v. 10).

Perhaps I had an Orthodox mindset before I started practicing Orthodoxy. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Ephesians 1:3-6

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Encouraging Words

There is so much that could be unpacked from these four verses. Because of Jesus, who He is, the incarnate Son of God, and what He has done, lived a sinless life as a human and yet was crucified and rose from the dead, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. What more can we hope for than this? But our blessings do not stop here. He chose us, all of mankind, before the foundation of the world was laid, to be adopted into His heavenly family through Christ. As we choose to not reject Him and to be received into Him then we become members of His royal family. Through Jesus, we are blessed and made acceptable to be in the presence of the Almighty and sinless God. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!