Displaying 41 - 60 of 91 in total
Be Like the Teenager!
Do you remember being a teenager? Do you remember ignoring your parents when you were a teen? You were probably thinking, “Ugh, why do I have to listen to my paren...
Pentecost, The Feast of Tabernacles, and Oz Behind the Curtain
We all know that the Christian feast of Pentecost is the celebration of the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles. This story is told in the New Testament book of Ac...
Seeing Light While Blind
Have you ever said something that you wish you could take back? I bet the moment you said it—right away—you knew you shouldn’t have. You could see the shock, hurt, ...
An Institutional Church or an Evangelical Assembly?
If you read church news or online blogs, it’s easy to get disillusioned: there’s so much bad news. Combine this with a bad experience with Christians or a church a...
Shrek and the Myrrh-bearing Women
As I thought about the theme of one of the Easter Sundays, the Myrrhbearing Women, I wondered: what’s the deeper symbolic meaning that the first witnesses of the resur...
Why Can't Mary Cling to Jesus?
The Bottom Line: It isn’t the appearance of Jesus to us that saves, but our faith in what has been written by John that saves
Can't We Shut Jesus Up!
The Bottom Line: no matter how hard we try to monetize the Good News and lock it up so that only we benefit from it, it’ll break free of the sealed tomb and the locked...
The Passover Homily of John the Golden-Mouthed
In anticipation of Passover this Sunday, when we will celebrate the rising of the Anointed One from dead, here is the Passover homily read at every Orthodox Church aro...
Forgiveness as Healing (James 5:13-20)
As we read the concluding words of Jame’s letter, we hear about sickness and healing, confession of sins, the prayers of the righteous, and bringing people back to the...
Christ in the Doorway (James 5:7-12)
Life isn’t fair. We all know it—we can see the unfairness around us. But, why is it that some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth while others are bo...
What Doe James Mean by "Rich" and "Poor"? (James 5:1-6)
Translations are good in that they help us read something we wouldn’t otherwise have access to. But, unfortunately, they can sometimes be misleading. Previously, we...
To Not Walk the Way is a Breath of Vanity (James 4:11-17)
One of the tricks to hearing and understanding scripture is to be able to hear it as a unified whole. In other words, it helps to have a macro understanding of what’s ...
A Fork in the Road (James 4:1-10)
In her second Harry Potter Book—Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets—J.K. Rowling wrote, “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than ou...
Did James Plagiarize Paul? (James 3:13-18)
When it comes to Paul and James, we often believe they are at odds with each other. In one corner is Paul, who stresses salvation by faith and says that, “… all ...
A Teacher's Tongue (James 3:1-12)
Commenting on the importance of teachers, Albert Einstein once said, “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.” A...
Tonight's Match: Faith Vs. Works (James 2:14-26)
When tragedy strikes, we like to send the suffering our “thoughts and prayers.” It’s almost as if we think our prayers are magical wishes. By saying a few words, God w...
Loving Your "Poor" Neighbor (James 2:8-13)
Have you ever tried reading the original King James Version of the Bible? Let’s give it a try; It’s in English, so what could go wrong? Here’s verse 30 from Genesis...
True Religion (James 1:27-2:7)
If you had to define what it meant to be religious, what would you say? Would you talk about going to church, making the sign of the cross, or prayer? And, if you ...
Quick to Listen but Slow to Anger and Speak (James 1:17-26)
In our day and age, it’s popular to say that you’re spiritual but not religious. Often, what is meant by this phrase is that you’re against organized, institutiona...
Trials and Desires (James 1:12-16)
We all know life is unfair. Some of us suffer more than others. Some of us endure more trials than others. Sometimes these trials are temptations are so persuasive ...