SACRAMENTAL LIVING

“Throughout the Holy Scriptures, beginning in the Old Testament, the God who created the universe and everything in it, who created we human beings to dwell therein and with whom to share His Life, expresses and reveals to us His character.” (Father Stephen De Young) “Boundaries (and, thus, love) requires that we endure healthy shame – for this is the emotional experience that comes with boundaries. The virtue of enduring such healthy shame is known as humility. Love is impos

“How do we make idols in our time? Whenever organizations, behaviors, and enterprises claim the commitment and loyalty that belongs to God alone, they tempt us to idolatry. When anyone or anything demands our ultimate dedication, that is, our worship, we can be sure that the demons are hovering around us. When we join in a group, ambition, or habit whose spirit carries us away and controls us, we can be assured that the devil has recruited us…every created thing is, in its de

“…every material reality has a spiritual aspect to it, that the seen and the unseen are deeply intertwined… If we had stood at Golgotha on the day of the Crucifixion, our material eyes would have seen Roman soldiers nailing Jesus to the Cross. But our eyes of faithfulness would have seen the young Warrior, ready to do battle, about to use this Weapon of Peace, the Trophy Invincible, as His means to enter into Hades, smash down its doors, and to defeat the devil and death. If

“There is nothing worse than that man should measure and judge of divine things by human reasoning.” The great preacher says that heresies flow from attempts to apply human thinking to the divine will and works of God. We might add that when the Gospel is preached in human terms to conform to human ways of thinking, it loses its power. The casual, come-as-you-are Christianity that is so popular these days is a prime example of this powerlessness. Such preaching in human terms

“…when we are constantly giving thanks, for both small and big things, even for the things and experiences that challenge us, then God feels very near. When we are thanking God for our daily blessings, for food, for shelter, for a warm coat on a cold day, for the basic health and intelligence of our children, then we remember that it is a gift and that it could be very different. That I have a job in a stable economy is a gift, it is guaranteed to no one. That I have a roof o

“What lies hidden in the designs of God I confess I do not know—I am only a man—but this I know with full certainty, that, whatever it is, it is more just, more wise, and more solidly based on incomparable perfection than all the judgments of people….God’s will is determined by His wisdom which always perceives, and His goodness which always embraces, the intrinsically good.” (St. Augustine, C.S. Lewis) “The story of Isaac blessing his son Jacob illustrates the intense meanin

“The soul that desires to please God needs first of all patience and hope, because one of the tricks of the devil is, in time of trouble, to make us despondent and divert us from hope and trust in God. God never allows those who trust in Him to be overwhelmed by temptations so as to reach utter exhaustion; for says the Apostle, God is faithful and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation, He will also dispose the issue of it, and enable you

“Jesus assumed the existence of a spirit world—so much so that a major theme of His preaching highlighted the clash between two kingdoms: the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. The question is which worldview is the true one—the worldview of Jesus or our own contemporary worldview?” (Francis MacNutt) “Let us never allow this divisiveness to prevail among Christ’s people. When partisanship appears within the Church, we become troubled. At church, we hope to experience th

“It is a surrendering of our fleshly will (our gnomic will) to the will of God, which involves our spiritual will (our noetic will). This comes through kenosis, emptying ourselves of our theories, our carnal thoughts, our opinions, and our sins before God. When we do this, the Holy Spirit shows us who we really are: one made in His image, our true-self, a child of God in all splendor and glory.” (Father David L. Fontes, PsyD) “The Spirit wants to lead you. "For all who are le

“Acts 17:28 reads “for in Him we live and move and have our being.” Romans 11:36 reads, “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.” Christ reminded the Pharisees in Matthew 12:6 that He is greater than the temple. The first martyr Stephen (Acts 6-8) died because he dared to challenge the religious leaders on this point that God is not contained solely in the temple. God cannot be contained anywhere. God can only be expressed and experienc