Mark 10:24-25

And the disciples were astonished at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, “Children, how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Personal Challenge

This passage is not really about how hard it is for a rich person to enter into Heaven. What it is talking about is how those who trust in riches will have a hard time entering into the kingdom of God. When we put our trust in riches we take our trust off of God. So, what kind of riches is Jesus talking about? Is it just financial stuff? No! It could be the finances that we put our trust in, but it is also those things that our finances can buy for us that get in our way of trusting God. As we start our 40-day journey of Great Lent toward Pascha, this becomes a great time for me to search my heart and my mind to better identify those things that are standing between me and God, especially those things that turn out to be my passions in this life. Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Psalms 46:1 (45:2 LXX)

God is our refuge and power;
A help in afflictions that severely befall us.

Encouraging Words

This seems to be a much-needed theme lately. Life in this fallen world does not always go as smoothly as we would like. There are always ups and downs, challenges and difficulties, and just plain resistance to our attempts to live godly lives. But we are not alone on our journey through this temporal life. Our God is there as our refuge, our power, and our help. He also has placed our loved ones in our lives to make it through each day. He has given us His Church to surround us, even though sometimes we mess that up a bit. But our God is both consistent and persistent at loving us and being there for us. If we look at the rest of eternity as the timeline of our lives, then the challenge of the day become minuscule compared to the magnitude of our God. Glory be to God!

2 Chronicles 30:18-20

Most of the people from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun had not cleansed themselves, but they ate the Passover contrary to what was written.

But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the good Lord provide atonement for everyone who prepares his heart to seek God, the Lord God of his fathers, even though he is not cleansed according to the purification of the sanctuary.” And the Lord listened to Hezekiah and healed the people.

Encouraging Words

So, what is more important, keeping a bunch of rules or having a heart that is prepared for God? Throughout our Holy Scriptures and the teachings of our church fathers, the answer is always a resounding claim that God desires our heart more than our actions. Then one might ask why we were given the laws, to begin with. The laws are there to point us to God, to remind us how inadequate our works are before the awesome and Holy God, and to lead us to the fulfillment of the Law, Jesus Christ because it is only His works that can bring us back into communion with God. Jesus is our intermediary and our intercessor. He is our salvation, our refuge, and our hope. What more can we ask for than this? Glory be to God!

Mark 9:49-50

“For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another.”

Personal Challenge

Oh my God! Do I really need to go through that fire one more time? Do I really need to be buried under that pile of salt again so that I can be seasoned to Your taste? In our Eastern Orthodox faith, we call this theosis or growing in the image of God. If we do not have challenges in our likes that are forcing us to exercise our faith and to sluff off the ways of this world then we become stagnant in our relationship with our God. Is it fun? No, it never is. Is it something that we look forward to? No, not really. However, if we want to grow in the image of our Lord then we must look at every entry into the furnace, whether at work or at home, whether with a loved one or someone that we don’t even know, as an opportunity to submit to the Master Forger who has an image in mind that He wants us to become. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me the sinner and please give me what I need to make it through the fire.

Psalms 42:11 (41:12 LXX)

Why are you so sad, O my soul? And why do you trouble me?
Hope in God, for I will give thanks to Him.
My God is the salvation of my countenance.

Encouraging Words

It is so easy nowadays to get down or depressed. The world appears to be rapidly circling the drain. People are becoming more and more self-centered and hostile towards each other. Our society is becoming more godless every day as we kill each other with our sarcastic words and so called humor. And the list goes on and on. And then we encounter this cry for help from the Psalmist of old. Our souls have become sad and troubled. But we do have a way out. That way is hope in the Lord. He is our rock. He is our refuge. He is our salvation. It is not always easy to do this, but it only takes one step at a time to start moving away from the pit of despair. Our Lord, our Living God, and Creator is there to help us along the way. As those of us who practice Eastern Orthodoxy are beginning our journey into Great Lent we know that we will have days of despair before us, but we will focus our eyes on the Paschal Lamb and the bright light of His resurrection. Glory be to God!

2 Chronicles 16:9

For the eyes of the Lord look over the whole earth and strengthen every heart that is loyal to Him. In this you did foolishly, and from now on you shall have wars.”

Personal Challenge

It appears to me that loyalty is a concept that has fallen by the wayside. We live in the age of “self”. Our culture teaches us that the World revolves around ourselves and that all exists for our satisfaction. Even our Western Christianity believes that I alone can interpret the scriptures of God as long as I am reading them. This way of thinking generates in people an attitude that there is only one person that we are loyal to, “ourselves. This makes it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to live our lives the way that Jesus expects us to. Love God! Love my neighbor! Put others before me? Take up my cross and follow Him! No way! I cannot do that and be loyal to me. well, it doesn’t matter what the culture is telling us to do. God is looking for those of us who desire to live our lives loyal to Him, centered on Him, and not focused on ourselves. This is indeed countercultural and is becoming harder every day. But we must press on? Lord, have Mercy! Lord, have Mercy! Lord, have Mercy!

Mark 9:33-35

Then He came to Capernaum. And when He was in the house He asked them, “What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?” But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest. And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”

Personal Challenge

Don’t we all like to be first? First in line. The first one to be served. The first one to be recognized. In our fallen state, this is our “natural” desire. But Jesus tells us that this is not the way that God wants it to be. His expectation is that we put others before ourselves and actually be servants to them. Isn’t this what Jesus did? He was with God in all of His glory. He had been here on earth multiple times in His pre-incarnate body. He knew the limitations and frailties of humanness. And yet, He chose to become human, He chose to be born of a woman like every other human being. He chose to go through the growth pains and challenges of infancy, the toddler years, being a pre-teen, a teen, and then a man holding down the job of a carpenter. He chose to suffer and die for those who hated Him. And He chose to rise again, victorious over death. And to top this all off, He did this for people like me. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner and teach me to be last!

Psalms 40:4-5 (39:5-6 LXX)

Blessed is the man whose hope is the name of the Lord,
And who did not look into vanities and false frenzies.
Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You performed,
And in Your thoughts there is no one who shall be likened to You;
I declared and said, “They are multiplied beyond number.

Encouraging Words

I have been blessed to have been able to spend the past 52 years of my life attempting to walk in the footsteps of the Carpenter of Galilee. In those years I have learned that there is no value to life to pursuing vanities and false frenzies, those things that so many people chase after, looking for the spectacular or extraordinary and claiming it to be a sign from God. What I have seen are many small, yet significant, miracles that always prove to me that not only does my God exist, but that He is active in my life and in the lives of all who desire to know Him. All that I need to remember is that God is God, and I am not! And that is okay with me.