Almost there. Tonight is the last night of the Akathist services for the Orthodox churches around the world. I am home solo tonight with the kids so there was no chance for me to make it. This has been my experience throughout Lent this year. I’ve only attended a single Lenten service besides Sundays. Kind…
I happened across an odd blog article this week. It was an argument meant to refute the existence of God using the fact that moral sins are not punished physically the way that, say, walking into the street during heavy traffic is punished, or putting your hand on a hot stove, or the like. His…
I’ve recently been enmeshed in reading mythology and folklore, a genre that has never interested me. I got the sudden urge to do so after a long period of reading the old classics of psychology: Freud, Jung, Rank, Frankl, Fromm, and others. Nearly all these guys were seriously versed in mythology which seemed to make…
Two distinct schools of theology developed in the ancient capital cities of Alexandria and Antioch. Both schools reflected their unique cultural influences in their approach to the Christian faith. Some differences were fairly benign in terms of doctrinal cohesion and overall good relations between the two sees; however, there were some differences that became so…
When one reads through the Bible and leaps from the last page of Malachi into the Gospel of Matthew, a stark change is noticed concerning the Jewish religion. One gets the feeling that a huge segment of the story has been left out – the part between the last Jewish prophet and the birth of…
Many people today are made to pass by a dry-erase board at work, hanging prominently where everyone is bound to see it many times a day, tracking their job performance month-to-month and keeping all employees in a constant game of mutual comparison. Unfortunately, this method of employee motivation works, works very well. And it cost…
I was recently asked if I could write an article giving the distinctive elements of the Eastern Orthodox Church which cause it to stand out when compared with Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and the various Protestant faiths. This is a tall order and no doubt difficult to cover even in a multiple volume work. That said,…
The purpose of this article is to explore in greater depth the Orthodox view of Christ’s atoning work. As a convert from Protestantism I find this topic vital for a proper understanding of the primary differences between the Orthodox faith and its Western counterparts, i.e., Roman Catholicism and the various Protestant faiths. Due to the…
“Are you Spirit filled?” This was the number one question on everyone’s mind in the charismatic, independent, evangelical churches I grew up in. This was also the question we projected on other groups or people who claimed to be Christian: “are they Spirit filled.” If they weren’t it did not mean they weren’t Christians, it…
Boys are strange. Get two little boys together, whether good friends or not, and in no time flat they’ll be wrestling. I remember me and my cousin Ryan would wrestle for literally hours at a time. It’s amazing that we ever learned the English language because the only phrase we ever heard from our parents…
The trouble with writing my reflections on the Orthodox Church liturgy is that so much of it is taught through experience. If one has not been absorbed in the Orthodox liturgy for quite some time it’s difficult to really say anything about it. Don’t misunderstand, I have plenty of books on the Orthodox Diving Liturgy,…
Recently, I was asked by a good friend who has been faithfully reading these long-winded articles to define ‘liturgy.’ Indeed, liturgy is one of those great forgotten words in many church circles today. Sad to say, even with two degrees in theology, I did not have a working knowledge of it prior to my encounter…
(Continuation from part one) “Eucharistic,” a word that meant basically nothing to me a year ago has become the all embracing concept for understanding the depth of the salvation that Christ provided. Indeed, it has become my means of understanding almost everything about the Christian life, and will probably serve as the basis for most…
How on earth does a middle-American, charismatic, Evangelical, non-denominational church-going, ex-Mormon like me find himself drawn to Eastern Orthodoxy? Prior to a couple of years ago I had never so much as met an Orthodox Christian and I certainly could not have given a commentary on Eastern Orthodoxy, except to say that I saw “My…
I have desired to write about my recent journey towards the Orthodox Christian faith for some time. Having been in the process of converting, for something like a year now, I am just now at the point where I think I can begin to comment on it (it often takes time to process significant moments…
"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced" -Kierkegaard
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