St Peters Orthodox Church

Most of us are unaware of many deceptions that have crept into our souls regarding how we see, understand, and treat the precious little time we are given here on earth. Our enemy conditions us to see time incorrectly. At the root of every one of his deceptions is to diminish our awareness of the presence of God in every moment of our lives. When God is removed from the moments of our lives, time becomes wasteful at best and harmful at its worst. The truth of the Christian view of time is wonderfully stated in the Akathist Prayer Service of Thanksgiving: "Glory to Thee; Who cures affliction and emptiness with the healing flow of time." Today we just begin to examine this truth-filled perspective on time; the way God sees and intends to use time.

In Psalm 84 the Psalmist writes, "How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God." Where does our soul make its home? The answer to that question will greatly impact the human experience in the moments of our lives. Today we look at what results for a soul that longs after God.

There is one absolute constant in our lives; that is, our thoughts continuously being painted on the canvas of our minds. Today we look at the importance of taking our thoughts captive in order to discern whether they are truths that leads us to the experience of God in that moment; or, whether they are thoughts intended to deny us the blessed fellowship with God throughout the day. Our enemy is always at work trying to remove us from being truly present in the moments of our lives which denies God the opportunity that He so desires; to manifest His presence for us in those very moments.

Many would say that one should not question God. The truth of that statement depends on the posture of the one questioning. God wants us to question him because in doing so we discover his greater revelation of Himself to us. Are we questioning God because we want Him to conform to our image? Or, are we questioning God to be conformed to His image?

Spiritual despondency, simply stated, is the spiritual slumber of the soul that disconnects us from the beautiful and eternal value of the experience of God in the precious moments of our lives. When we are in a state of spiritual slumber, we can never recognize for ourselves just how asleep we really are or why we are in that spiritual slumber. We need the illumination of Christ to both reveal our spiritual slumber as well as to wake us up again so that we can truly live. It is time to regain the gift of moments with God in the little time we have.

We have the healing of the deaf-mute man in the Gospel of St. Luke 7. In the beginning we were created to hear, to receive the words of God directly from the Word of God. We were also created to proclaim through the voice that is our very life all that we have received. The deaf and mute man could do neither. Christ's compassion healed Him; restoring him to his originally created state. Today we find that the healing of the deaf and mute man is the healing of us all.

In the Gospel of St. Luke 18, we are given two parables and a lesson Christ gives by the example of children. All of these tell us something so very important about the nature of our God. They also tell us how to come to Christ by His consistent invitation. The Parable of the Persistent Widow, the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, and Christ teaching us to come to Him as little children all demonstrate the blessed life of repentance that leads to our healing and restoration if we will but come to Him; and never cease coming to Him with our authentic pain and brokenness.

When St. John Chrysostom describes the continuing ministry of Christ through the Apostles as seen in Acts chapter 5, he says that "Earth was becoming like heaven". The same ministries Jesus did while on earth continued through Christ's Holy Church and they continue today. In 1 Corinthians 12, St. Paul describes the continuing ministry of Christ through the Church as He discusses the spiritual gifts that are ordered and distributed by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of all. Christ's desire has always been to continue, through every living stone in His Church, His ministry of bringing the souls of mankind to Himself so that He can grant them salvation and the experience of every benefit of His Kingdom.

Christians should consider themselves servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. This is who we are; this is our identity. What does it mean to be a servant and steward in our relationship both to God and to man? The life that lends itself to becoming that very identity is a life of relational obedience to our Heavenly Father as modeled in Jesus Christ Himself. Then, the world can see Christ and His Kingdom in us.

Every soul since the Fall of man is crying out with the question, "Who am I? What is my true identity?" Underneath every thought, action, and pattern in our lives is the constant search for an answer to this question. And our lives experience either restlessness, agitation, and anxiety in the search for our most true self; or in this lifelong search, our souls will grow in greater peace and contentment throughout this life. What makes the difference in this experience? The answer is what we choose to make the source of the revelation and definition of our identity. Today we look at the possible sources and the impact they will have on our lives.

At the burning bush in Exodus 3 - 4, God tells Moses that he is to be the one to deliver God's people out of bondage. At the feeding of the multitude in the Gospel of St. Mark 8, Jesus tells His disciples that He has compassion for the people for they had not eaten for 3 days, and He wants to feed them. Both Moses and the disciples were faced with an impossible situation. And when our humanity is faced with the impossible our inadequacies, frailties, and lack comes to the surface. In both of these Scriptures, God asks only one thing of Moses in Exodus and the disciples in the Gospel, "What do you have?" They offered only what they had to God. And, even though what they had was not near enough to overcome the impossible, God filled all that was lacking with Himself and great wonders were accomplished for His glory and the benefit of mankind. God will do the same for and through us if we will just offer Him the little that we have.

On Mt. Tabor, the disciples fell asleep in the darkness of the deep hours of the night. When Christ was transfigured, the uncreated light of the glory of God illuminated everything and the darkness was overcome. That light awakened Peter, James, and John out of their slumber. As Christ's disciples, we are always invited to the mountain to worship Christ in Spirit and Truth; to behold Him in His glory, and to be illuminated as He reveals Himself more and more to us throughout our lives. As we receive His illumination, the darkness within us fades away and we are awakened from our spiritual slumber.

In the Gospel of St. Luke and chapter 5, we hear the account of the calling of the first disciples at the miraculous catch of fish. While we tend to focus on the miracle of the catch of fish being that which gave Peter, James, and John the faith to abandon everything and follow Christ; another look at this passage shows us that there was more of a progression to their experience of Christ that granted them the gift of great faith. First, they heard the words of life spoken by the Word of God which prepared their hearts to yearn for and receive more of Jesus; a yearning Christ is always delighted to fulfill. This is a progression of experience we are all invited into daily by the Savior Who loves our soul.

Jesus teaches us in the Gospel of St. Luke 6 that we are to "be merciful just as your Father is merciful." We are called and graced to ascend and become the very mercy of our Heavenly Father. But, what is His mercy? What does the mercy of God look like? Today we look upon the mercy of God revealed to us. And we acknowledge that the only hope we have of becoming mercy is to receive and experience the Divine mercy of God in our own lives.

July 10, 2022 - Christ dined and fellowshipped with the sinners. He came to seek and save that which was lost. When questioned about this He told the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. Each of these parables reveals the nature of Christ as the God Who delights in giving mercy and restoring all things lost to mankind back to His beloved mankind.

In the Gospel of St. Luke 14, a man stood up and loudly proclaimed, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God!" Jesus then tells the Parable of the Great Banquet; the Divine and most gracious invitation to come to the table God has prepared; upon which are the benefits of healing for the soul, the forgiveness of sin, and eternal life. Today, hearing the voice of the Early Church Fathers, we see that Christ our God was speaking of the Eucharist in the context of the Divine Liturgy, the Kingdom of God realized and manifest so that we may taste and experience the joy and peace of Paradise in the eternal now.

The greatest of all virtues is set right before us on the first day of the Litrugical Season of Trinitytide; a season in which we consider how it is that we now can live as those filled with the Holy Spirit. Today, by considering both the Parable of the Rich Man & Lazarus as well as the writing of the Apostle John from 1 John 4, we see that it is only possible to become love if we have first truly experienced the outpouring of God's love into our lives daily. Living waters cannot flow out of us unless they are daily being received with in us from the Lord.

Many religions either believe in one god or multiple gods. Only Christianity holds to God being both One and Three persons at once. Today we are reminded that by gazing into this revelation God has given of Himself through prayer and fellowship with Him, can we be transformed by the brightness of the Divine Nature of God as He shares Himself with us. For we have a God Who delights in making Himself known.

Fire, wind, and water on the day of Pentecost. Three elements in God's creation utilized by God to show precisely what was fulfilled on this day for the salvation of mankind. But these elements also tell us something so very important about our new and true identity as Christians. They also tell us of our great responsibility in this world by the will and desire of God.

When Christ encountered the rich man at the Temple, Christ gave us an example of what biblical love truly looks like. More than ever, we need to ensure we are living our lives in love towards others; not with empty sentimentality nor harsh judgements but with loving actions that open up a space for others to draw closer to God.