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Psalms 51:1-4 (50:2-6 LXX)

Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy;
And according to the abundance of Your compassion, blot out my transgression.
Wash me thoroughly from my lawlessness
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my lawlessness,
And my sin is always before me.
Against You only have I sinned
And done evil in Your sight;
That You may be justified in Your words,
And overcome when You are judged.

Personal Challenge

This is probably one of the most powerful passages in the Old Testament. David has recently committed his grievous sin of adultery and murder. Nathan, the prophet, has confronted him and pointed out the errors of his ways. This entire Psalm is David’s confession and repentance for these sins. Isn’t it fitting that every one of our liturgies starts out with this Psalm being read by the priest or the deacon as the sanctuary is being censed? Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner!!

Ezra 2:2 (1 Esdras 2:2 LXX)

“Thus says Cyrus the king of the Persians: Israel’s Lord, the Most High, revealed and indicated to me, the king of the inhabited world, that I should build a house for Him at Jerusalem in Judea.”

Encouraging Words

This is an interesting turn of events. Here we have Cyrus who is the king of the Persians. These are the same Persians that have captured the nation of Israel. And here we have God, Israel’s Lord, the Lord Most High moving him to build a temple for Him. Many would consider Cyrus a pagan and yet God worked through him to do His work. So, God not only works through those who follow Him, but also those who oppose Him. Glory be to God?

Mark 10:43-45

Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant. And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Personal Challenge

Jesus always seems to challenge the norms of our society. If I want to be great I must become a servant. And if I want to be first then I must become a slave to all. And even deeper than this, if I desire to be like Christ and follow in His footsteps, then I shouldn’t even want to be great or try to be first. Wow! What it all boils down to is that my desire should always be to be last, to be humble before my Lord and my fellow man, and to love my neighbor above myself. Again, Wow! Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, THE sinner and help me to be transformed into Your child.

Psalms 46:11 (45:12 LXX)

The Lord of hosts is with us,
The God of Jacob is our protector.

Personal Challenge

Our God is so awesome! His love for us, His creation, has no limits. His patience with us has no bounds. As the psalmist points out here, He is with us and is our protector. Knowing this and believing it deeply, I often get so frustrated with the vendor-style approach that I so often see exhibited in our World, especially in the social media world. “Post this prayer and God will reward you?” “Like this picture of Jesus and you will have something good happen to you in 30 minutes!” Really!! Is God a vending machine where we put in a coin and He pops out a miracle? And yet, because He loves His creation so much, He remains with us and is our protector. God is with us all the time and He desires that we be in communion with Him all the time. I doubt if any one of us would walk up to a total stranger and share with them our crisis of the moment and ask them to help us out. However, we so often go through on entire life totally ignoring God until we have a crisis and then expect Him to step up. I can never be so bold as to judge the state of another person’s heart. but I can judge my own. And in doing this I must recognize that all too often I do this as well. My prayer life gets drowned out by the busyness of life and then I find that my thoughts about Him are few and far between. Then a crisis happens and I am expecting Him to fix it. He has become that stranger that I am expecting something from. God, please forgive me.

2 Chronicles 33:12-13

Now when he was in affliction, he sought the face of the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him. And the Lord received his entreaty, heard his cry, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

Encouraging Words

So many times throughout the scriptures we see the story of redemption. As a matter of fact, the story of redemption is so deeply woven into our fabric of existence by our Father the Creator that virtually every book written, every movie filmed, and every song sung has buried in it a fragment or the complete story of redemption. Why is this? Because our God is a redeeming God. From Adam and Eve’s first sin, all through the history of mankind, up to our Lord Jesus dying on the cross, and up through today, God is striving to redeem us all and put us back into the Garden of Eden, Here we have Manasseh, the King of Judah, who had departed from his relationship with God. He had committed many horrible atrocities against mankind. And God, in His loving, merciful way, brought Manasseh into captivity under his enemies. While there Manasseh recognized his sins and humbled himself before the God of his fathers. And what did God do? He recognized the sincerity of Manasseh’s plea for forgiveness and restored him to his role as king. In this season of Great Lent, this is such a great reminder that our God loves us. He loves us so much that He became one of us, lived a pure and sinless life and then submitted to our angry cries to crucify Him. Through this love, He destroyed the hold that death had on us since the day of Adam and opened the gates to heaven. But like Manasseh, if he had never humbled himself before his God he would have never received redemption, then we too must humble ourselves before our God, confess our sins, and flee from repeating them so that He can redeem us. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner!

Mark 10:27

But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.”

Encouraging Words

How wonderful it is to be able to go through life knowing that I can put all of my trust and hope in my God. When Jesus told His disciples that God can make all things possible He was also telling us today this as well. The challenge for many is being able to put their trust into something or someone that they cannot see, touch, feel, or hear. However, one of the things that I have learned in my life is that God is in everything. He is often most recognizable in the little things. The beat of the heart, the chirp of the birds as spring weather comes out, the laugh of a baby, the warmth in my heart when I hold hands with my wife. If all that I ever look at to see God are the big things, the miracles, or the spectacular, then I will most likely go my whole life missing Him. Maybe this is what Jesus meant when He told us to have the faith of a mustard seed. We need to start small and we will see God in bigger and bigger ways over time. This is how He turns our impossibilities into possibilities. Glory be to God?

Psalms 46:10 (45:11 LXX)

Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations;
I will be exalted in the earth.

Encouraging Words

God is God and I am not. Neither is my leadership at work, at my church, in my community, or in my country. It is the living, eternal God, the Creator and Benefactor of all, that I will be still before so that I may know Him. He will be exalted above all, so, therefore, I will fear no man or institution, for they too are subject to Him. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have Mercy! Lord, have mercy? Glory be to our God.

2 Chronicles 32:7-8

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid of the king of Assyria, nor before all the nation with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him are arms of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to save us and to fight our battles.” And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.

Encouraging Words

There is so much more going on around us than what we can see, hear, taste, or feel. We are finite creatures and we live in a finite, physical world. But there is so much more to it than that. We also are spiritual creatures because God created us in His image and that image includes or soul. God’s realm is both the physical and the spiritual. Therefore we also are living in the midst of this spiritual world. It is all around us all of the time and there are armies waging war in that realm. These wars are spiritual and are of good fighting against evil. That it why Hezekiah confidently proclaims that he has the spiritual armies of God aiding in his physical battle here on earth. In the Eastern Orthodox church, we venerate the Saints that have gone before Us. We do not worship them. We do not treat them as gods. But we do believe that they are in the presence of our God and can serve as intercessors for us just as we would ask a friend to intercede for us here on earth.

O Lord and Master of my life, do not give to me the spirit of laziness, faintheartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.

But give to me Your servant the spirit of purity, humility, patience, and love.

O Lord and King, grant me to see my own faults and not to judge my brother, for blessed are You unto ages of ages. Amen.

O God, cleanse me, the sinner. O God, cleanse me, the sinner.
O God, cleanse me, the sinner. O God, cleanse me, the sinner.
O God, cleanse me, the sinner. O God, cleanse me, the sinner.
O God, cleanse me, the sinner. O God, cleanse me, the sinner.
O God, cleanse me, the sinner. O God, cleanse me, the sinner.
O God, cleanse me, the sinner. O God, cleanse me, the sinner.

Encouraging Words

Today we continued our journey into the season of Great Lent with the Canon of Saint Andrew. I must admit that this has become one of my favorite services of the liturgical year and the Lenten prayer of St Ephraim is one of my favorite prayers. This Canon and prayer force me to prostate myself before my Lord because I am the worst of sinners and that the only proper place for me in the presence of my God is flat on my face begging for His mercy. I do not deserve the love that He has for me. I do not deserve His mercy. And yet He lavishly pours both out upon me! Glory be to God!