John 2:9-10

When the master of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from (but the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said to him, Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!

Encouraging words…

One of the things that I love about Eastern Orthodoxy is how we see many of the things of God as mysteries. God is God and we are not. He does not need to reveal how He does what He does, or why, to His creation. Another thing I love is knowing that the scriptures are filled with symbology. How is it that so many Christians can believe that Jesus did indeed start His ministry in Cana by turning water into wine, but do not believe that He transforms the bread and wine of Holy Communion into His Body and Blood? The early Fathers, those who walked with Christ, saw this miracle as a prefiguring, or symbol, of what happens every time we take the Eucharist in Holy Communion. Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

Matthew 28:19-20

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Personal Challenge…

Once again I am reminded that I am not called to an easy chair life as a Christian. Look at all of the verbs in this short passage, “go”, “make”, “baptizing”, “teaching”. God wants me to be an active worker in the building of His kingdom and not just on Sunday mornings. Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

Matthew 5:16

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Personal Challenge…

I am not being told here to let my light shine so that others can see my good works and congratulate me for what a good Christina I am. The purpose is so that they can see God through the works that I do. I should disappear in the process. This also implies that I am doing God’s good works and not just mine. It is His kingdom that I have been adopted into and the works that I should be doing need to be of that kingdom.

Philippians 2:5-7

2 Timothy 1:8-9

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.

Personal Challenge…

Am I living my life as a prisoner of Christ? Am I living it so that I am not ashamed of Him or His message? Am I living it as one who has been saved from death and given a holy calling? Eternity is now and I am called to live eternally now.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

Personal Challenge…

If Christianity could be boiled down to one word, if the manifestation of my life could be exhibited and summed up in one word, what would that word be? LOVE! Am I living my life in Christ in such a way that everyone sees God’s love through my love? Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy! Lord, have mercy!

Psalm 116:1-2 (114:1-2 LXX)

I have loved, because the Lord Shall hear the voice of my supplication;For He inclined His ear to me,
And in my days I shall call upon Him.

Encouraging Words…

God the Almighty, the Lord of all creation, inclines His ear to me. He hears my supplications and responds to me. What an amazing thing this is that God loves me and the rest of His creation so much that He would send His Son to be born so that He could die. It was this death that allowed Jesus to arise victorious over death. And what does He ask of me? To die to myself for Him. It is through this personal death, and His power and grace, that I too can arise victorious over death. Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!

John 20:25

The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

Personal Challenge…

The human will is a strong thing. Here we see Thomas, one who knew Christ well, walked with Him, saw Him perform His miracles, choosing to doubt His ability to defeat the hold of death. Our Lord loved us so much that He created us with the ability to believe and the ability to doubt.

I love how Olivier Clement puts it…

UNITING DIVINE AND HUMAN WILLS

“As we read in the Prologue of John, there is light, but there is also darkness. God’s omnipotence is in love. And since love cannot be imposed without thereby denying it, this omnipotence—capable of creating beings that can reject it! – is also ultimate weakness. It can act only through human hearts that freely allow its light to shine through them. God respects human freedom as he respected that of the angels. But in order to keep that freedom from succumbing to the darkness, He becomes incarnate and descends into death, into hell, so that there could be a place where the will of man might unite itself to the divine will. That place is Christ. In Christ, the human will became painfully and joyously united to that of the Father. In the Risen One, seated at the right hand of the Father, the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Olivier Clement, Three Prayers: The Lord’s Prayer, O Heavenly King, Prayers of St. Ephrem, pg. 24) (Thanks to Fr. Ted Bobosh and this entry in our parish bulletin.)

John 1:12-13

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Encouraging Words…

Christ has offered to each and every person His light, His truth, and we have the choice to receive it as a gift from God or reject it. For those who choose to receive this precious gift we are given the right (not an inalienable right) or authority to become children of God through His adoption. This comes from believing in Him and trusting in Him. This receiving is an active ongoing relationship with Him. Our adoption does not come through our ethnic decent as with the Jews of old, nor by natural birth through our parents, nor by our own will, but by God’s grace, through faith, and in the Holy Spirit. This adoption is manifested in the sacrament of Holy Baptism.