Psalms 119:105 (118:105 LXX)
Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my paths.
Encouraging Words
Why spend time reading God’s scriptures and the teachings of the Saints? Because they are provided by God to give us His uncreated light to illumine our journey through life and to help us to become more like His Son. We are not alone on this journey. Glory be to God!
Proverbs 15:1
Wrath destroys even men of discernment;
But a humble answer turns away anger,
And a grievous word stirs up wrath.
Personal Challenge
The time to practice humility and speaking humbly to others is never in the midst of an argument. If we practice living this way in the calm times, the times that we are at peace with those around us, then we develop the ability and the way of speaking and being that will come forth in the stressful situations. It never helps the situation to respond to a wrathful person with wrath for it only adds more fuel to the fire. Is this an easy characteristic to develop in our lives? It is not, but the results of doing so have great benefit. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
John 4:13-14
Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
Encouraging Words
Living Water! Jesus is our source of a water that gives us eternal life. The one core essence that every creature needs to survive is water. That is one of the reasons that water is such important part of so many of our activities in the Orthodox church. We believe that when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river He restored water to its state before the fall. Today, through Jesus, we can partake of this Living Water. Glory be to God!
Psalms 119:89 (118:89 LXX)
Forever, O Lord,
Your word continues in heaven.
Encouraging Words
Our God is not temporary or fleeting. He is not changing or changeable by the whims of this temporary world. There are great solace and comfort in this truth for it gives us, whose lives are temporary and fleeting, something, rather Someone, to hold onto as everything around us changes and passes on. Glory be to God!
Proverbs 14:30 (14:31 LXX)
A man with a gentle spirit is a healer of the heart,
But a sensual heart is the moth of the bones.
Personal Challenge
The first half of this verse is pretty clear, be nice to others, give them the treatment of a gentle spirit, and their hearts will be healed. But the second part of this translation is a little harder to understand. Let’s try a different translation…
Proverbs 14:30 (NIV)A heart at peace gives life to the body,but envy rots the bones.
A sensual heart is a heart full of passion. If that passion is envy or lust or anger or any other negative passion then it will eat us from the inside out. Once again we are being taught that what is in our hearts determines what we do with our lives. Our ongoing personal challenge in our journey of life is to protect our heart from the things of this World and to let our Lord fell it with Himself. Glory be to God!
John 3:36
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
Command with a Promise
The early church fathers (and by this, we mean first and second-century saints) taught that our salvation comes from our faith in Christ and our subsequent actions of working out that faith in our lives. We cannot just say some simple prayer and then go on living our lives the way we always have, A true faith in Christ begins to change us from the inside to the outside and our actions begin to demonstrate that faith in God. He facilitates these changes in us, but we must be willing and active participants in the change process which works out the salvation process within us. St. John Chrysostom said,
“We do not from this assert that faith alone is sufficient for salvation; the directions for living that are given in many places in the Gospels show this.”
St. John makes it clear that our salvation is a process that is managed and controlled by God. This requires us to follow and act upon His commandments, expectations, and precepts. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
Psalms 118:77
Let Your compassions come to me, and I shall live;
For Your law is my meditation.
Encouraging Words
God loves His creation so dearly. He loves us even to the point of His own death. In that love, He chooses to pour out His compassions upon us and gives us life, both an abundant temporal life and eternal life. Our part in this exchange is to receive that which He is giving us as a free, no strings attached gift and to meditate upon Him and follow Him. He gives so much more to the relationship than we can ever return. Lord, have Mercy!
Proverbs 14:17
A quick-tempered man acts with recklessness,
But a man with discernment bears many things.
Personal Challenge
There is definitely a benefit to learning to hold one’s tongue in the middle of a heated discussion or argument. Being quick-tempered can get a person into a lot of trouble and cause a lot of pain to others. It takes time, effort, and a commitment to our Lord to learn how to manage our tempers and to become people that bear many things. Discernment, the crown of the virtues is a worthy goal in life, for with it we will act supernaturally. Glory be to God!
John 3:30
He must increase, but I must decrease.
Personal challenge
John the Baptist sets the standard for how each of us who claim to be followers of Jesus should live our lives. If we desire to grow in the image of Christ, to become more like Him, then we must decrease and He must increase. This is such an indictment of the so-called prosperity gospel that is so prevalent today. Sometimes God does choose to bless His children with earthly blessings, however, these blessings are not for our own good, but for the prudent use to help build His kingdom. If we are given financial wealth, then we have more to give to our churches or other Christian ministries that need our support. If we are given talents that we use in our occupation, then we can give them to His organizations who need these talents and cannot afford the going rate. He gives us time, which we can all use to teach Sunday School, or hold a crying baby during the church service, or vacuuming the sanctuary, or whatever else needs to be done. This is all part of decreasing so that He can increase. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!
Verse of the Day 