A Life of Responding to God Communion with God is the very heartbeat of our creation and, thus, is the very core of our salvation. In this communion, God faithfully and lovingly reveals Himself and His ways to us. Mankind responds to what has been shared. In this series, Fr. James uses the writings of Fr. Zacharias, a monastic at St. John the Baptist Monastery in the United Kingdom, to help us delve more deeply into how our hearts may be opened to this precious communion and how our lives may most appropriately respond to the God Who has shared Himself with us.
A Life of Responding to God
Session 1: Personhood According to our Faith
Session 2: Man, the Target of God God, in all His saving power and wonder is always moving toward each individual soul He has created. In this way, we are each the target of God. The question is never God's disposition toward each one of us. The question is will we open, even in the smallest way, an avenue to our soul for God to flood in and show the wonder of His salvation within us as He shares all He is and all He has with us? In this session, we look at ways we can live that attract God. In other words, God is always looking for an opening. When He finds it, out of His great love, He moves immediately in to help us and save us.
Session 3: Knowing our Measure It is important to know ourselves and our current spiritual limitations. If we do not know these limitations, we fail to understand our clear starting place. Not knowing our measure, in this way, can cause us to either strive to do too much spiritually which results in perceived failures; or, it leads us to never make attempts at spiritual growth and healing. When we know precisely our limitations, we can be encouraged that we truly have a starting place. The spiritual journey is step by step rather than great leap by great leap. When we know our measure, we can begin a journey with Christ that will avail to true spiritual growth and healing by the experience of our Lord.
Session 4: The Charismatic Gifts of Repentance, Despair, and Humility Charismata is a word that means gift. It is easier to see repentance and humility as as gifts from God when seen correctly. But despair, a gift from God? Yes! Anyone who follows Christ will go through a season or seasons in their lives when it feels like God is no longer present or anywhere near to us. But where can God go if He is in all things at all times? This despair is better understood as our awareness of the presence of God diminishing. But it is in those times, as a gift from God, that our faith can most grow very strong. Today we look at this gift of despair and how we should walk with God in those times.
Session 6: Psychological vs. Ontological The word ontological, when used regarding theology, has everything to do with the nature of God Himself. For us, that word encapsulates all that has been revealed by God to His Church regarding Who He is and how we understand Him. Since we are created in His image to grow in His likeness, we also use the word ontological to understand the truly created human person by God; in other words, how we see our most true selves. Today we consider the truth revealed to us that the only way that we become ontologically our more true person is to receive the very revelation of God. For it is that revelation that transforms us entirely healing our lives.
Session 7: A Review of Texts Today Father James shares with us several texts: The Lament of Adam, Lamentation chapter 1, St. Nicolai Velimirovich "Prayers by the Lake" (prayers that aid us to love and pray for our enemies, and the Litany of Humility. As he goes through each, we discover meaningful ways in which we can experience a true change of personhood within ourselves to, by the help of God's grace, become more like our God.
Lent, the Psalter, & Voicing Our Lament to God If Adam's lament is the lament of every soul, we need help in discovering the powerful lament within us for God. We also need the help of God to redirect that lament to Him so that our souls may finally come to rest and enjoy His peace. Today we look at how the spiritual disciplines given to us by Christ in Lent help us to uncover our true lament. We also are exhorted to pray the Psalms. 65 of the Psalms are considered Psalms of lament. As we pray the Psalter, we receive help in redirecting and voicing our lament to God alone.
Giving Answers to Our Faith Giving Answers to Our Faith
Session 1: Giving Answers to our Faith Just because we are in the Apostolic Church does not mean that we have the mind of Christ on the great theology, the revelation Christ has given of Himself and His salvation, that is kept therein. Today is an overview of the series "Giving Answers to Our Faith." As we look in this series at many topics in our Faith for which we are asked questions, the goal is that we grow deeper in an understanding of how our core beliefs and practices bring us into the experience of Christ that brings healing and salvation to our souls.
Session 2: What on Earth is the Orthodox Church? Living in America, particularly in middle America, the Orthodox Church seems to be a small portion of all who call themselves Christian. In reality, it is the second-largest body of Christians in the world. It is pre-denominational. What does that mean and what is the basis of this claim? Today Fr. James Rooney shares with us historical realities and understandings of our Faith that will help us all to answer the question, "What is the Orthodox Church?"
Session 3: Why Does the Orthodox Church Have a Different Bible? Many outside of Orthodoxy wonder why the Orthodox Bible has more books than Bibles used by protestant Christians. Today, Fr. James Rooney takes us on a historical journey of the development of Holy Scripture beginning with the development of the Old Testament and ending with the New Testament. From that journey, we grow in understanding why the Church has always had the particular Canon of Holy Scripture through which God reveals Himself to the faithful.
Session 4: Tradition in the Church Tradition in the Church is the deposit of faith. It is the revelation of Christ our God and His Kingdom to man for the salvation of souls. Tradition is the pure and perfect lens through which we understand the Nature of God and God's perspective on all things. Holy Scripture, for example, is an integral part of the Tradition of the Church but can only be understood correctly and clearly through the lens of this deposit of faith given to us from and kept by God the Holy Spirit. Today we seek to grow in our understanding of the miracle and blessedness of the Tradition of the Church.
Session 5: Is it Biblical? Is this the Right Question? Many outside of the Orthodox Faith test various theologies using Scripture alone believing that Scripture is the highest authority for Christianity. While the Orthodox Faith holds Scripture in the highest esteem and it is infinitely important to our growth in knowing God and drawing near to Him, Scripture alone is not the absolute measurement. We do not ask, "Is it Biblical?" Rather, we ask the question, "Is it Apostolic?" Today we discover what that question means and how Scripture does indeed fit into that most important question.
Session 6: Mariology is Biblical Today we examine the revelations given to the Church about our Lord's Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Everything we understand about her points to and glorifies her Son, Christ our God. And, all that we see in her reveals to us our most true identity as those who are being re-created by her Son our Lord. In this session, we see how Holy Scripture reveals these truths that have been handed down to us.
Session 7: Why does the Orthodox Church use Icons & Images when the Bible Seems to Forbid Them? When God gave the Law to Moses, He said "You shall have no graven images." So, why does the Orthodox Faith make use of Iconography in both worship and the experience of the faithful in their homes? In this session, Fr. James helps us understand what "graven images" were and we will clearly see that Iconography is not a disobedience to the Law. We also delve into the spirituality of Iconography and how it is such a gift to our experience of and growth in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Session 8: Why Do Christians Worship on Sunday When the Old Testament Prescribes the Worship of God? An easy answer to this question would be that Sunday is the Sunday of the Resurrection. But there is a great deal more in the answer to this question. Today Fr. James Rooney teaches us the reasons behind Sunday worship and the rhythm and pattern of this worship. As much as it has to do with the Resurrection, the answer to this question also has to do with Creation & Recreation, the redemption of all things in and through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Session 9: "Why is Orthodox Worship Liturgical?" Why is the worship of the Orthodox Church liturgical, fixed, and repetitive? This is a common question asked about our faith. Today we examine the historical worship of God's people reaching back to Judaism. It is God Who instructs His people as to how He is to be worshipped, for He is worshipped eternally. The worship of the Church manifests the eternal worship of God here on the earth. And the way in which God's people worship Him on earth is the created role and purpose of the priesthood of all believers.
Session 10: Why do Orthodox Christians confess to a priest? In this session, Fr. James Rooney teaches the history and development of the Sacrament of Confession & Absolution, a practice that has always existed in the Church. This Sacrament that is a gift from Christ to His people is for the easing of their conscience and the healing of their souls. There is a great deal of misunderstanding about this Sacrament and this teaching is offered in hopes of helping all understand the heart and wisdom of Christ in giving to us the opportunity to encounter is mercy and salvation.
Session 11: Why Do Orthodox Christians Sing Prayers & Services? What is with all the singing? The Scriptures are sung, the prayers are sung, the Psalms are sung...why? As long as God has had a people so much was sung in the prayers and worship within the Tabernacle, Temple, and Synagogues. Today we hear the wisdom of our Lord as to why singing has been such a critical piece to prayer and the worship of God.
Orthodox Christians are asked many questions by those outside of the Orthodox Faith. It is important for us to be able to know how to answers grounded in truth and humility to the questions they ask us. This series has two purposes. One is to equip the faithful in the Orthodox Church to be able to express truth in answering these questions. But this series also is designed to help us take on the mind of Christ regarding our Faith so that we grow deeper with the most clear sight of our Lord and all that He has given us to encounter Him for our salvation.
From the Harrowing of Hades to the Ascension In this series, we will look at Christ's ministry from the moment He gave up His spirit and descended into Hades to His glorious Ascension. We will begin with and in-depth look at His profound work of salvation known as the "Harrowing of Hades" and then make our way through Christ's post-Resurrection ministry. We will find along the way that what Christ accomplished in Hades, He continues to do in and for each and every beloved soul He has brought into Himself.
From the Harrowing of Hades to the Ascen...
The Harrowing of Hades One of the great themes of the Paschal Vigil is the harrowing of Hades by our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we look at this violent act of love by our Lord Jesus Christ. The harrowing of Hades was violent to Satan, the demonic, and death itself. His love and mercy were granted to all those imprisoned there from Adam and Eve to that present moment. The Icon of the Resurrection is our guide to the ministry of Christ is the demolishing of Hades and the deceiving of the deceiver. We will also utilize Scripture from the Old and New Testaments as well as excerpts from the book "Christ the Conqueror of Hell: the Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective" written by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev to deepen our understanding of Christ's plundering of Hades; His binding of the strong man, Satan, and releasing those souls in captivity within that dark prison until that moment.
The Harrowing of the Hades of our Soul Just as Christ our God descended into Hades, destroyed that prison, bound Satan, and freed those held there in captivity; so Christ is doing in the very soul of all of His beloved. Today we look at the harrowing of the Hades of our own soul. Looking at the Icon of Christ's Baptism as well as the prayers prayed over the ones to be Baptized into Christ, we see even our Baptism as a harrowing of Hades. We also look today at the disciples who encounter Christ on the Road to Emmaus. There Christ descends into their darkness and captivity to their confusion, fears, and deep sadness. As He makes Himself present to those disciples they, by their encounter with Him, are raised up out of that captivity and granted peace and joy. There are so many ways that our salvation is a continuous descent of Christ into our Hades where He binds our oppressor, releases us, and raises us up to where He is granting us Paradise.
The Tomb Becomes a Tabernacle Today we continue our reflections on our Lord's ministry after His Resurrection. The particular focus of today's teaching is on the experience of St. Mary Magdalene with her Risen Lord as recorded in the Gospel of St. John chapter 20. She was present when the Angel descended upon the tomb and rolled the stone away. And, she was given quite a revelation as she encountered the two angels, one seated and the head and the other at the foot where the body of Christ was placed. This is where we see how the tomb became a tabernacle and granted her the experience of the Resurrected Jesus Christ.
The Resurrected Body & the Commissioning of the Disciples As the Resurrected Christ would appear to the disciples in St. John chapter 20, the disciples saw the eternal future of all of those in Christ. When they saw the Resurrected Jesus Christ, they saw their own resurrected bodies. And in the same visit, our Lord would commission them to be sent to the world to continue His ministry. The words of their commissioning are astounding. Today we consider the authority, power, and grace they were given toward the calling He placed on their lives.
The Undoing of the Deceiver in Our Lives St. Paul has described Christian discipleship as being akin to the rigors of military life, athletic discipline, and compulsory servanthood. He has also made it clear to us that our contention in the Christian life, that for which we prepare and train ourselves, is against what the Church calls “the world, the flesh, and the devil.” According to Tradition, the real contention is against the temptations of the devil, who uses the world and the flesh to bait us to abandon our Christian discipleship.
An aspect of our “training” in the Christian life is discerning the devil’s machinations and learning how to respond to them. The Roman Catholic theologian and professor, Peter Kreeft, has written an excellent book, The Snakebite Letters, as a means to reveal how the devil conspires to tempt us, how we are apt to succumb to such temptations, and, by implication, how we should respond.
Using The Snakebite Letters as a sort of guide through these muddy waters of the spiritual life, we will look at what Kreeft (and the demonic) describes as the peculiar temptations of American Christians, how the devil tempts Christians in general, and what we are to do about it.
The Undoing of the Deceiver in Our Lives
The Spiritual Combat Against the Demonic As an introduction to this series, today we face the reality of spiritual warfare. This is no mere ideology or intellectualized thinking. The demonic, the principalities, the powers, the rulers of this dark age, and hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places (as St. Paul says in Ephesians 6); they are all real and they all war against the Christian soul. St. Peter tells us that we must live sober and vigilant lives in our war that overcomes them all. Today the purpose of this series and our approach to learning the strategies of our enemy are revealed so that we may all the more recognize them; so that we may live in Christ's victory over them.
American Christianity & its Peculiar Temptations Today is an examination of many false teachings that Satan has managed to get into the fabric of American Christianity. These lies that have crept into our culture of spirituality makes us so very easily exploited by our enemy. Today we examine these so that we see clearly what could be weak links in our spiritual armor.
The Temptations of All Believers How does Satan bait that which is within us? What are his strategies to take the common weaknesses in all of our humanity, and use those weaknesses to separate us from God and from one another? Today we explore the most typical ways our enemy seeks to separate us from the saving experience of God in our lives.
What are We to Do to Overcome Temptations Up to this point in the series, we have been looking at the strategies our enemy commonly uses all too successfully against us all. Today, we turn the tide to focus on truths that will help us join ourselves to Christ and His victory over the enemy who constantly tempts us.
Why Satan Wants to Keep Us from the Sacrament of Confession These last four weeks we have taken a close look at the strategies Satan and the demonic use to distract and separate us from the Lord our God. In Peter Kreeft's book, The Snakebite Letters, he points out that Satan fights fiercely to keep us from experiencing Christ in two Sacraments: Eucharist & Confession. Today we look at Satan's strategies to keep us from Christ in the Sacrament of Confession. We also examine why he does not want us to experience our Savior in that blessed Sacrament. And, it has everything to do with Christ's profound ministry for our deliverance, healing, and salvation.
Why Satan Wants to Keep Us from the Liturgy and Eucharist The last thing Satan wants is for the people of God to experience the fullness of heaven and earth joining together with Christ in our midst. And this is precisely what happens every time we gather to offer ourselves to God and for God to offer Himself to us. Today we examine the ways our enemy sneaks in to keep us from this experience. And we look at the wonder of what the Lord our God is doing for us as He is present with us and we present ourselves to Him.
The Blessing of Self-Examination The last thing Satan wants is for us to cooperate with God in self-examination. Self-examination opens the soul to God. It is in self-examination that Christ reveals Himself to us which illuminates all that is within the soul that He longs to heal and mend. Without that illumination, we have no hope to be made whole again. Today we discuss how to approach this self-examination and the encouragement regarding all that Christ does for us when we cooperate with Him in this discipline.
A Healthy Self Examination Self-examination is the opening of the door of our hearts to the Holy Spirit in such a way that He might reveal to us anything that works against our experiential union with Christ our God. Today we look at a method of self-examination through which the Holy Spirit can reveal those particular vices and move us toward Christ where He can exchange those devastating vices for the beauty and peace of His virtues.
Awaking from our Spiritual Slumber 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.
Awaking from our Spiritual Slumber "The ...
Awaking from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 1 "Introduction & Defining Spiritual Despondency" 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.
Awakening from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 2 "Despondency & the Battlefield of our Thoughts" 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.
Awakening from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 3 "A Christian View of Time Part 1" 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.
Awaking from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 4 "A Christian View of Time Part 2" How does God view time? What is His perspective on it? Today we look further at what He has shared with His Church for 2,000 years as to the gift that time truly is for all of us. Time is the fabric in which the God Who is love grants us the experience of His love for us. Today we focus on the reality that, to the Christian, time should be a beautiful and wondrous gift to us from God. A gift through which God fills with Himself so that we might fellowship and experience Him in this life. In light of the wonder of this gift, today we consider what we are doing with such an offering from God.
Awaking from Our Spiritual Slumber: Session 5 "Redeeming the Time" St. Paul writes in Ephesians 5 that we are to live in such a way as to redeem the time. Spiritual despondency would have us throw time away blind to the very healing and redemptive presence of God in the precious gifts of the moments of our lives that He has given us. Redeeming the time is to make wise and sacred use of time. We often think of and understand the concept of sacred space. But time itself becomes sacred again when our awareness grows of God's presence in the most minute moments of our lives and we present ourselves to Him in those moments. That is when time becomes sacred. That is when the God Who eternally loves each of us manifests that love to us in the fabric time. We are healed and redeemed by a Living God Who is absolutely present in each moment of our existence when we live in that sacredness of time.
Awaking from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 6 "Distractions from the Present Moment" Today we examine our typical thought life throughout the day. Most of us will find that we are constantly being pulled by thoughts that either direct our attention to the past or thrust our thinking into the future; both of which we have absolutely no control over. These thoughts are always at the expense of the sacred and eternal now. In considering this, we focus on recognizing the deceptive thoughts that move us toward escaping the present moment physically, mentally/emotionally, and spiritually. The important truth for us is this, neither the past nor the future grants us healing to our soul and a clear understanding of our true identity. Only by experiencing God in the present moment can we be made whole and know our most true identity.
Awaking from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 7 "The Spiritual Effort That Presses Through to Christ" Because of so many false teachings in many areas of Christianity, the term spiritual effort sometimes leaves a bad impression in the mind of many. Some may think of having to earn their salvation by spiritual effort. Some may think of other "works" oriented theologies putting the pressure of being saved in the hands of the individual. We must see spiritual effort in terms of relationship. No relationship can exist without the mutual sharing of selves between two people. Today our focus is on our relational spiritual effort towards Christ. Christ our God is always moving toward us with a desire to share all that He is with us that we might be made whole. It is when we press through by grace all of our distractions and many deceptions that we are met with Christ Who has been awaiting us. There, in that blessed fellowship, we find healing through illumination. And where the illumination of Christ is experience, darkness and despondency do not have a chance.
Awakening from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 8 "Discovering What is Missing in Us" An integral part of seeing clearly the despondency in us that is keeping us from the greatest fellowship with Christ our God in the moments of our lives is coming to an understanding of the human experience in Paradise compared to the human experience after the Fall of Man. Today we explore these human experiences asking Christ to show us the reasons for the restlessness within us and the great hope we have to regain that which has been lost.
Awakening from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 9 "Antinomies of Reality, Self, and Discipleship" An antinomy is a contradiction in our own knowledge system, within reason itself. The Christian Faith is filled with antinomies. For example, Christ is the judge of every soul with perfect justice. Christ at the same time is infinite mercy. We go into error when these two attributes of the Nature of God are not held in tension that could lead us away from the true knowledge of God. In this teaching, Fr. James Rooney explores a number of these antinomies and how keeping them in perfect tension pays great dividends in knowing God and being transformed by Him.
Awakening from our Spiritual Slumber: Session 10 "The Four Stages of Sin" Understanding the progression of our thoughts and temptations that lead us to sin (to fall short of our truly created person) is important for us to grasp. For if we can grasp the stages of sin, we can begin to reverse the process making it easier for us to overcome by the grace of God in our lives every temptation. Even the most besetting sins in our lives can be overcome in Christ. The four stages of sin are as follows: First motion (the beginning of the thoughts of temptation), Entertainment (we entertain those thoughts giving them strength), Consent (coming into agreement with those thoughts, joining ourselves to them), Action (we make the choice to depart the order of God and act on our temptations). Today Fr. James Rooney walks us through these with various common sins and how they go through each of these steps with the goal to arrest our thoughts and temptations at the First Motion stage. If we will do this, we can experience Christ's victory over sin in our lives.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests Examining the functions and responsibilities of the ancient Jewish priesthood, as well as the life and instruction of St. John of Kronstadt, patron saint of priests, we will attempt to glean the details of our roles as priests of creation, as mentioned in 1 Peter 2:5. We have all, by our Baptism, been ordained to be a Kingdom of Priests. This series will help us understand our role in this Holy Priesthood.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests: Session 1 "The Three Priesthoods" By virtue of our Baptism, we are all called and ordained to be a Kingdom of Priests by our Lord Jesus Christ. But what is our vocation as this Royal and Holy Priesthood? How do we live out faithfully that which we have been ordained to fulfill in creation? Today we look at the three priesthoods: The Priesthood of Christ our Great High Priest, the Priesthood of the Clergy in the Church, and the Priesthood of the Faithful in Christ's Holy Church.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests: Session 2 "The Old Covenant Priesthood & Our Priesthood" The Priests in the Old Covenant had a very defined role in their ministry to God and to His people. This session explores how their place under God in creation reveals to us many truths as to our vocation as the Priesthood of all believers.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priest: Session 3 "An Introduction to St. John of Kronstadt" St. John Kronstadt is an Orthodox Saint of the 19th Century. He is the Orthodox Patron Saint for all clergy in the Orthodox Church. He is so because of the way he lived out his own Priesthood while on the earth. St. John has so much wisdom that he communicated regarding fulfilling the calling of the ordained Priesthood. But the wisdom he shares shows us so much about what it means to live out the vocation of the priesthood of all believers. Today we receive an introduction to the life of St. John Kronstadt.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests: Session 4"The Action & Attitude of Prayer in the Priesthood" One of the greatest roles of the Priesthood of all believers is the role of prayer. Today we look at six aspects of the action and attitude of prayer as taught by St. John Kronstadt.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priest: Session 5 "Living Out Our Priesthood in the Divine Liturgy" St. John of Kronstadt offers wisdom for Priests who serve at the Altar during Liturgy. These same principles can be applied to the Priesthood of all Believers as they take their place as living stones in the Mass. Today we discuss these principles that will help us fulfill the ordination God has given us all in the eternal worship of Him.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests: Session 6 "The Priest & Temptation" All Christians are "priests" and the last thing Satan wants is for Christians to live out their vocation as this Holy Priesthood. When we truly walk in our priesthood our enemy considers us dangerous and we become a target. But we have been given Divine power from Christ our Great High Priest to endure and walk in the most important role He has ordained for us to walk in within His Kingdom.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests: Session 7 "Our Role as a Priesthood of Intercession" Christ our God is our Great High Priest Who intercedes for us and is our Mediator and Advocate. He stands before the Father interceding for the souls of mankind. As His Priesthood, we are ordained for and invited into a participation in Christ's ministry of this blessed intercession for the life of the world. Today we examine closely this role we have been given to stand with Christ between the Father and the souls of mankind. This is true intercession as the priesthood of all believers.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests: Session 8 "The Pattern of Prayer" There is a relational rhythm to our fellowship with Christ in prayer. A helpful acronym for this rhythm is ACTIP (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Intercession, Petition). This lesson takes us through each of these movements in the rhythm of prayer and the experience of God that can be had by this fellowship.
Our Vocation as a Kingdom of Priests: Session 9 "Representing God to the World" In our study thus far, we have been looking at the role of the Priesthood of All Believers and mainly focusing on the aspect of our Priesthood that faces God representing and interceding for the world before Him. In this last session, we now focus on representing God to this present age. We ascend the mountain to fellowship with God, receive from Him, learn of Him, and be healed and transformed by Him. We descend the mountain to represent God and manifest His Kingdom before all of those around us. In this session, we look at the life of Moses in this very role seeking to see how Moses greatly succeeded in representing God to His people. But we also have a look at how Moses failed in misrepresenting God to the people. We must see this particularly in our age. For the misrepresentation of God to man will move man further away from salvation and have implications in our own lives.
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us As we pray the Orthodox Prayer to the Holy Spirit, this truth is communicated to us, "O Heavenly King, O Comforter, the Spirit of Truth Who art in all places and fillest all things." As Christians, do we live in the truth that God is in all places and fills all things; that He permeates everything in in every aspect of our lives? Or, do we live a life that somehow compartmentalizes God; a life that believes in the experience of God when we are doing the "Christian things" such as prayer, worship, or ministry; but not so much at other times in the most mundane moments of our lives? The Incarnation brought the Kingdom of Heaven to earth for the experience of mankind unto the salvation of our souls. God is never distant and there is never a moment of our lives when we cannot fellowship and experience God and all of the benefits of His Kingdom now manifest in the earth. The purpose of this series is to assist us in living the true Christian life where the Kingdom of God is near to us.
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us: Session 1 "An Introduction to the Series" Today is an introduction to this series. In it we discuss the secularization of our faith; that we have had a tendency to compartmentalize God in our lives rather than God and His Kingdom permeating every aspect of our lives for our salvation. Jesus Christ was incarnate specifically to bring the fullness of the Kingdom of Heaven to earth for our experience of Him; again, all for our salvation. This series, we pray, will break down any thoughts where we have been deceived to believe and live as if God and His Kingdom are distant at any moment of our lives; to the end that we might have realized in our daily lives all of the benefits Christ has bestowed upon us by His Kingdom being manifest on earth as it is in Heaven.
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us: Session 2 "Renewing Our Minds to Experience the Kingdom" St. Paul says in Romans 12 that we are not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. The patterns of this world lead us to experience a two-story reality regarding the Kingdom of God. We live on the first floor while God and His Kingdom exist on the second floor as if God is not everywhere present and filling all things. For us to experience the Kingdom of God, the very reality inaugurated on behalf of mankind by the Incarnation, we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. This session discusses the posture of the Christian that will pave the way for the renewing of our minds towards the very real experience of Christ and His Kingdom in our lives.
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us: Session 3 "Koinonia Fellowship with God" If you want to know what the Christian existence is to be like, indeed what the experience of God and His Kingdom in our lives is there to be had, then look no further than Jesus' prayer for us in the Gospel of St. John 17 just before His Passion. He prays, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." We were created for the most intimate fellowship with God. We were created that God may share all He is and has with us and for us to share ourselves with Him. This is the koinonia, the fellowship, we were created to enjoy with God. And this is what has been made available once again by the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us: Session 4 "The Antiphons of Creation" The creation and re-creation of all things by God makes manifest to us Who God is and all that He has done. In the beginning all of creation was permeated and filled with the Divine life of God. God created the material and the immaterial in His marvelous act of creation. This same God is the God Who reveals Himself to all and through all. This revelation of God is the starting point to our experience of true reality; and reality is greater than just the material. Our Christian life is a life of re-creation. Our journey is to see and experience all things as they truly exist. This comes only by the experience of God in our lives, for Paradise is not a place created in the Middle East. Paradise is God and the experience of Him which is now available to all who dwell in Him.
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us: Session 5 "In the Beginning God" In order to understand the Kingdom of God made manifest through our Lord Jesus Christ and established on the earth as it is in heaven, we must begin by look at our Lord's Creation and ordering of all things. He did so in order that He might share Himself with us and that we might experience Him both in fellowship and through all that He had created. In this session, we focus on the first words of Scripture, "In the beginning God."
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us: Session 6 "Pondering God in Our Hearts" The Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ is such an incredible indication of how close our God came to us. If we are to gain the experience of how closely God and His Kingdom are to us, we must begin with seeing the wonder of the Incarnation itself. The Blessed Virgin Mary kept the wonders God did in, through, and all around her right in front of her pondering them in her heart. This must be the disposition of us all. Today we discuss what it means that we should ponder God and the wonder of all He has done and is doing in our hearts.
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us: Session 7 "A Glimpse of Mankind's Life in Paradise" Today we look into the life of mankind before the Fall. What was their existence like in relation to God and all that He had created? To see this reality is to begin to comprehend the life we have now been offered once again in and through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paradise is not simply related to a place. Paradise is an existence in and with God.
The Kingdom of God is Near to Us: Session 8 "The Fall of Man from Paradise" Last week we looked at how man existed in Paradise with the God Who had created him. Today we examine the Fall. What caused the Fall? What was lost? And, what things entered into the world that causes stumbling blocks for the souls of all mankind to be renewed to the Paradise experience by the healing work of God.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ The story of the Exodus is the story of every Christian and the story of the Church. In Exodus, we see a people in bondage and slavery to an oppressive Pharaoh be delivered by God's chosen deliverer. We see the oppressor thrown down by the mighty deliverance of God as God calls His people to Himself. We have before us the journey of the Hebrews with God as their guide through a trying wilderness on their way to the Promised Land. And in this wilderness, we see clearly the Christian struggle in the wilderness of this life. Our approach to this study of Exodus will be from the perspective of the Early Church having only the Old Testament as their Scripture. In this series, we will glean from the Early Church Father's interpretations of Exodus and how they used it to teach about our new life in Christ and our journey with Him and in Him to Paradise.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ Part 1: "An Introduction" The story of the Exodus is the story of all Christians. Tonight we begin the journey through Exodus discussing our approach to this series and the major themes we will encounter throughout the Book of Exodus.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ Part 4 "The God Who Sees the Suffering of His People" Even as Moses, in Exodus 2, looked out among the Hebrew people he was a "type" that shows forth the Nature of God toward our fallen and oppressed condition. This session of our series focuses on God's compassionate heart for us all and how fiercely the love of God moves to overthrow our oppressor and redeem His beloved people.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ Part 5: "The Burning Bush - God's Divinity in Things Created" In the burning bush, our God Who is a consuming fire fully manifest Himself without destruction to the bush. In this session, we look at this reality of God making Himself endurable within the things of His creation in order to reveal Himself to mankind and restore that which had fallen. We see the burning bush as a "type" later to be fulfilled. And, ultimately, we see it fulfilled in and through our Lord Jesus Christ Who made it possible for God to dwell within us.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ Part 6: "The I AM & The Overcoming of Doubt" In this session we look at God revealing Himself to Moses as the I AM and what that name tells us about God. We see the experience Moses has with God in the Burning Bush move from fear and perhaps shame to fellowship and revelation. Moses presents to God all of His doubts about being the one God should send as the deliverer of the Hebrew people. One by one, God by the revelation of Himself to Moses diminishes the doubts Moses has about what He is being called to do. God will do the same for us by granting us the experienced revelation of Himself. For as God reveals Himself to us, we are made whole again.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ Part 7: "The Beginnings of Deliverance" Moses & Aaron faithfully go to Pharaoh as God commanded asking Pharaoh to let God's people go for God was beginning His deliverance ministry on behalf of His people. The response of Pharaoh was harsh and the result is that he increased their oppression and suffering. Is this not how it works so often with us. When God begins to deliver us from the depths of our brokenness, Satan (just like Pharaoh) increases our oppression because the last thing Satan wants is the people of God to experience the deliverance of God in their lives. This teaching explores this reality in our Christian life and how to press through waiting on God as He seeks to release us from our bondage.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ Part 8: "The Plagues" In Part 8 of our series, we look at the plagues God brings upon Egypt in order to free His people from their oppressors. In each plague we see God casting down the gods worshipped by the Egyptians and showing Himself to be the One true God. Also in each plague, we see God strategically weakening the enemy of His people by the plagues and by doing so enacting perfect justice for what Pharaoh had done to Israel. As we look at all of this, we see very clearly that God is our salvation. He is the One that wars victoriously over our oppressor granting us freedom to live in Him and worship Him.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ Part 9 "Passover" The Old Testament is filled with types that are fully realized in and point to the finished work of Christ our God for the salvation of the world. There is no greater type than the Passover narrative in Exodus 12. Here we see the theology of the "Sanctification of Time" by God. And, here we see the Eucharist very clearly in the instructions God gave His people so that they would escape death, have their oppressor thrown down, and be freed from their bondage to follow God and worship Him in the wilderness.
The Exodus & Our Life in Christ Part 10 "Baptism & the Crossing of the Red Sea" Egypt feeling the sting and sorrow of the final plague, the death of all of the firstborn in Egypt, finally releases God's people from their captivity. In this session we focus on the plundering of Egypt as God's people leave their slavery and oppression, God leading them in the wilderness as a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night, and we see Israel's ultimate deliverance through the waters of the Red Sea as our Lord, by those same waters, utterly destroys their enemy; their oppressors. Each of these events are types that are fulfilled in Christ our God; from the harrowing of Hades to the Sacrament of Baptism.
