All In! Living the Mission of God

I want you to hear a story that started many years ago, which really reached it's climax on November 21, 2011, when I received a Facebook message from Athena.

This is a story of toxic leadership and spiritual abuse, manipulation, and loss. You'll hear Athena's story of falling prey to a cult that took everything from her. You will also hear how God brought this story full circle. This is also a story of redemption, healing, and hope.

You can find Athena's book Full Circle: Coming Home to the Faithfulness of God through Redemption Press or on Amazon.

You can connect with Athena at Redemption Press or her personal website.

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the eleven Area Missionaries supported by Foursquare Missions International. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Post may contain affiliate links. All proceeds are used to support the missions work. Thanks for listening!

I got to know Tim over the last few years while we were doing our master's degree. He gave me his book The Backside of Hope and I was seriously blown away. I thought he was either Mike Warnke or the most transformed person I've met. His book is about how God transformed his life and gave him hope. Woven into his journey is forgiveness, restoration, and receiving the love of the Heavenly Father. It's this remarkable love that ultimately surpasses anything one could ever imagine or hope for.

You can get in touch with Tim and Dhana through their Facebook page or emailing [email protected]. Tim's book The Backside of Hope is for sale on Amazon.

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe in Apple Podcasts or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the eleven Area Missionaries supported by Foursquare Missions International. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Post may contain affiliate links. All proceeds are used to support the missions work. Thanks for listening!

Hey everybody! Welcome back to the podcast. Can God be trusted? If you spend your whole life serving God, can He really be trusted? What about when the unthinkable happens?

Today we're going to explore what happens to a man, to a family, to a person, when the unthinkable happens and try to learn to follow God in the dark.

Steve Mickel had it all. And on Thursday, June 16th, 2016 the unthinkable happened. You'll hear Steve's story about growing in faith as he walked through the dark.

You can order Steve's book, and find other resources like the Trust Assessment at walkinginthedark.org.

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on iTunes. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Post may contain affiliate links. All proceeds are used to support the missions work. Thanks for listening!

Hey everybody! This week I am coming to you from Pasadena, CA. This is a message I gave to the members of Pasadena Foursquare Church, I hope you enjoy!

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on iTunes. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Post may contain affiliate links. All proceeds are used to support the missions work. Thanks for listening!

Hey everybody! I am excited for you to listen to today's episode. It was a real joy to interview Yaseer Handall, missionary to the Native Americans. Yaseer grew up in Mexico City, where he became addicted to drugs at a very young age. God intervened in this young man's life and placed an amazing call on him. Yaseer and his family are doing great things for the Kingdom, and he is the real deal!

If you would like to partner with Yaseer, you can visit his website for more info. You can also check out Arise Coffee, where the proceeds go towards the vision of reaching the native people.

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on iTunes. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Post may contain affiliate links. All proceeds are used to support the missions work. Thanks for listening!

Hey everybody! We are coming to the climax of our Lenten Journey: Easter is on its way. This week, Holy Week, as you contemplate the joys and mysteries of our salvation in Christ, let your heart be filled with bright faith and overflowing joy.

Great is the Mystery We Confess:

Christ has Died

Christ is Risen

Christ will come again.

Lent is a season of joy! Because we are drawing near to God.

Lent is a season of joy! Because Christ is Risen!

When Hope Breaks Through

John 20:1-9

• Easter Sunday is the Promise of New Life
• Resurrection Power is available to all for personal transformation

Three Big Problems facing people today:

1. Meaninglessness

"You Don't Have to Be Neurotic to Feel Insecure: Finding the Courage to Deal With Guilt, Meaninglessness and Despair" by Reginald Stackhouse, Ph.D

• Empty
• Senseless
• Useless
• Worthless
• Pointless
• Inconsequential
• Purposeless
• Hollow
• Trivial
• Futile
• This was my condition before Christ.

1. Guilt: This universal human condition. God has hardwired us to know right and wrong

• Shame
• Self-reproach
• Disgraced
• Alienation

1. Anger (caused by disappointed expectations)

• Road Rage
• Domestic Violence
• Pew Rage
• Low grade disgusted with people and life in general because of your disappointed expectations.

I. The People:

A. Mary Magdalene - Meaninglessness

• Luke 8:2, doesn't tell us much but that she was demon possessed
• Possession was looked upon as disease, this victim of an alien and evil power, not an accomplice of it. (ISBE)
• Whatever we may know of her can be summed up as:
  • A great sufferer relieved
  • A great sinner purified.
• She came into the circle of believers, marked out from the rest by an exceptional experience of the Lord's healing power.

B. Peter – Guilt

• Jesus' first words to Peter, "Follow me…"
• When Jesus entered Peter's life, this plain fisherman became a new person with new goals and new priorities.
• He had found Christ to be the Messiah.
• He knew the Son of God.
• He boasted in his devotion.
• And when under pressure, denied even knowing Christ.

C. John – Anger

• Mark 3:17, "sons of thunder"
• Rebuking one who cast out devils in the Lord's name because he was not one of their company (Luke 9:49);
• Wants to call down fire from heaven upon a village of the Samaritans (Luke 9:54);
• Joined with his mother and James in asking for the highest places in the kingdom of the Master (Matt 20:20-28; Mark 10:35-45);
• John was the only disciple present at the crucifixion and was appointed by Jesus to care for Mary (19:26-27).

II. The Problem

• Hope had died
  • Mary's Meaning in Life was dead
  • Peter's last words about His Master were words of denial.
  • John, this son of thunder, who would lean on Jesus like a dear friend or even a little child, appears to have his expectations disappointed again.

III. When Hope Breaks Through

The Silence of Heaven

• There were no angels, no songs, no flashes of lightening.
  • Only silence.
• It is so non-descript.
• There is no poetic beauty to it.
• There are no bold descriptions.
• No Angels singing in festive choir.
  • Only Silence
• Hope had broken through.
• Death had lost its grip.

It is all so silent. So alone.

• How else could it be? When something this grand, this magnificent, this glorious took place only the deafening silence of heaven and earth could declare the grandeur of this moment.
• There was no chorus worthy.
• There were no words adequate.
• There was only silence.
• There were no choruses of angels.
• There were no shepherds in rapturous wonder.
• There were no wise men poised with gifts.

What else but silence would do for this event?

Then the silence was broken with a simple declaration: He is not here. He is risen!

Hope Breaks Through!

Hope Breaks Through the Tyranny of Death

Hope Breaks Through the Meaninglessness of Life with God

Hope Breaks Through the Torment of Guilt

Hope Breaks Through the Bondage of Anger

Empty promises, empty dreams, empty lives, empty days, empty pleasures; none of these satisfy.

• But the empty tomb, now that satisfies.

The Easter Sermon of John Chrysostom

Is there anyone who is a devout lover of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Is there anyone who is a grateful servant? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord!

Let us all enter into the joy of the Lord! First and last alike receive your reward; rich and poor, rejoice together! Sober and slothful, celebrate the day!

You that have kept the fast, and you that have not, rejoice today for the Table is richly laden! Feast royally on it, the calf is a fatted one. Let no one go away hungry. Partake, all, of the cup of faith. Enjoy all the riches of His goodness!

Let no one grieve at his poverty, for the kingdom has been revealed. Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

• Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
• He has destroyed it by enduring it.
• He destroyed Hades when He descended into it.
• He put it into an uproar even as it tasted of His flesh.
• Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with.
• It was in an uproar because it is mocked.
• It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed.
• It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated.
• It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
• Hell took a body, and discovered God.
• It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
• It took what it saw, and was overcome by what it did not see.

O death, where is thy sting?

O Hades, where is thy victory?

• Christ is Risen, and you, o death, are annihilated!
• Christ is Risen, and the evil ones are cast down!
• Christ is Risen, and the angels rejoice!
• Christ is Risen, and life is liberated!
• Christ is Risen, and the tomb is emptied of its dead; for Christ having risen from the dead, is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be Glory and Power forever and ever. Amen!

Recommended Resources:

• Book of Common Prayer App
• The Lenten Spring by Thomas Hopko
• Great Lent by Alexander Schmemann

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on iTunes. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Hey everybody! We are still in the time of Lent, a Spiritual spring cleaning. If you have missed any of the series, you can go back and listen to parts 1-5). As we explore the Prayer of Saint Ephrem today, I want to focus on the final phrase of the prayer: "Grant me to see my own error and not to judge my brother".

The Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephrem

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant.

Yes, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For You are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

• 1 John 1:5-2:11
• When I turn from the path of love, I embark upon a journey into darkness.

1. When I betray the law of love I enter a world of self-deception.
2. When I betray the law of love, I begin to see the world in a way that justifies
3. When I see a self-justifying world, my view of reality becomes distorted.
4. When I betray the law of love, I start walking in darkness. When I do something that is contrary to the law of love darkness and deception cloud my heart, mind, emotions, thinking, etc
5. Over time, certain dark places become characteristic of me and I carry it with me wherever I go.
6. By being in the darkness, I provoke others to be in the darkness (reverse of this is Heb. 10:24-25)
7. While in the darkness, I invite mutual resentment and obtain mutual justification for my own self-deception.

• Love says: You should …
• Choice to Make "Honor or Betray the Law of Love"
• In the darkness the only thing you are aware of is yourself.

PRAYER: May God, by the Holy Spirit, give us this kind of love, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Recommended Resources:

• Book of Common Prayer App
• The Lenten Spring by Thomas Hopko
• Great Lent by Alexander Schmemann

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on iTunes. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Hey everybody! We are continuing our Lent series, exploring the prayer of St. Ephrem. In the previous episodes (Part One, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four) we explored the "take from me" segments of this prayer. The next few episodes are the ones I have been dreading, because frankly, I do not know anything about these virtues. So, I am coming today not as a teacher, but as a fellow pilgrim. And these are some of the things I am seeing on this journey. Last week, we look at chastity and humility. This week we will look at patience and love.

The Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephrem

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant.

Yes, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For You are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

Patience (Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible). Ability to take a great deal of punishment from evil people or circumstances without losing one's temper, without becoming irritated and angry, or without taking vengeance. It includes the capacity to bear pain or trials without complaint, the ability to forbear under severe provocation, and the self control which keeps one from acting rashly even though suffering opposition or adversity.

I am asking God for patience: Help me stop wishing everyone else would hurry up.

Love: Thomas Hopkins, Lenten Spring

Matthew 25:31-46

• I was hungry
• I was thirsty
• I was a stranger
• I was naked
• I was sick
• I was in prison

"And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'" (Matthew 25:40, ESV)

• Learning to embrace God in the delays.
• Learning to embrace God in the weakness and brokeness all around us
• Learning to embrace the God who comes to me in difficult times and in difficult people.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." (1 John 4:7–21, ESV)

PRAYER: May God, by the Holy Spirit, give us this kind of love, through Jesus Christ.

Amen.

Recommended Resources

• Book of Common Prayer App
• The Lenten Spring by Thomas Hopko
• Great Lent by Alexander Schmemann

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on iTunes. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Post may contain affiliate links. All proceeds are used to support the missions work. Thanks for listening!

Hey everybody! We are continuing in our Lent series. In the previous three episodes (part one, part two, and part three) we explored the "take from me" segments of this prayer. The next few episodes are the ones I have been dreading, because frankly, I do not know anything about these virtues. So, I am coming today not as a teacher, but as a fellow pilgrim. Today we will focus on chastity and humility.

The Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephrem

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant.

Yes, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For You are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

Chastity:

In 2015 I wrote this article on Chastity

"Religion has too often been an agent of anti-life, a negation of the goodness of God's creation.

We fast, we abstain, we humble ourselves, we embrace discipline, and we speak of dying to ourselves. When not seen through the prism of life these things are so morbid. No wonder Ayn Rand hated religion. If her understanding of our faith were the reality of our faith, I would join her in her hatred of Christianity.

When separated from the life and joy of God these disciplines become a mockery of the God of joy, life, goodness, and abundance.

The disciplines are intended to prune the branches on our tree of life in order that we may enjoy even more fruit.

We fast not because food is bad or our bodies are evil. We fast to prune the life-giving branch on the tree of life. Then, when we give thanks for the meal we join our voice with the ancient prayer, "Blessed are you, O Lord, who brings forth bread from the earth."

We discipline our lives not to negate the joy and goodness of living, but rather to prune the fruit bearing tree so that we can enjoy even more life and goodness.

Who better enjoys food: the gluttonous man who remains un-satiated regardless of how often he returns to the buffet line, or the disciple who has tempered his appetite through fasting and prayer so that he enjoys a proper and life-giving relationship with his food and drink?

Lent reminds me to prune the branches on the tree of life.

Lent reminds me, "Every branch that bears fruit will be pruned."

Lent reminds me, "For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness."

The beginning virtue is "chastity." The word group the New Testament uses for "chastity" is, strictly speaking, untranslatable. The best we can do is translating it, "of sound mind," "to be of sound mind," "to bring someone to their senses," "moderate, self-disciplined," "moderation, self-control," or "temperance."

"Wholeness" may be the best current translation. The idea is a spiritual health, a correct and appropriate way of reasoning, and a moderation that is expressed in inner equilibrium. It is the virtue of temperance that overcomes the passions, bringing the whole person to a place of wholeness in Christ.

This "chastity" or "temperance" was ranked along with prudence, justice, and courage as the four cardinal virtues.

By the time "chastity" has worked its way to us it has retained a limited understanding of its original content. It has been reduced to refer only to a person's sexual habits. While unfortunate, this is reduction is understandable. Where else is the broken character of our existence better revealed than here, in this most intimate of places?

Don't get me wrong. Sex is God's idea. He created it to be a sacred and satisfying union between husband and wife. It is a living icon of the soul's longing for union with God.

As God's idea it is beautiful, healing, loving, and sanctifying.

It is so powerful and dangerous it must be safely confined within the bonds of the covenant of marriage between man and woman. Anything less is missing the mark of what God has designed and what we truly desire and need. Everything else strays from the path of healing and sanctifying grace the marriage bed was intended to be.

This is why all forms of sexual immorality are called sin: It "misses the mark." It does not fulfill the purpose of what God intended. It may be pleasurable for a moment; but it leaves less of you, not more. Outside of God's perfect design it diminishes you.

Chastity is not a negation of the joys of physical love and intimacy. It is the pruning of a fruitful branch on the tree of life.

Through chastity we are no longer like animals satisfying instinctual and biological needs, but rather we are human beings made fully alive expressing the most intimate, tender, beautiful, and life affirming union between two equals.

Here we find the fullest satisfaction. The life of the body is no longer alienated from the control of the spirit. We willingly give our self to the other in the beautiful mystery of deepest exchange, the two becoming one in body as well as soul.

Intimately dangerous, capable of the deepest healing or destruction, the longing, open, and vulnerable couple meets in the secret chamber to become one in this most intimate dance of marriage. Chastity is awe's response to this glorious mystery.

Chastity-temperance-wholeness is to have its complete work in my whole being. Here, in Lent, I cry out to God, "Give me the spirit of chastity, wholeness, self-discipline, a sound mind…"

One of the most beautiful places the word for "wholeness" is used in the New Testament is the story of when Jesus delivered a man from a legion of demons. Mark says the man was "clothed, and in his right mind" (Mk 5:15). Jesus clothed his nakedness and healed his brokenness. This is what "wholeness/chastity" means. This is what I long for. This is what I pray for. This is what He does for me."

Humility.

Luke 18:9-14

Contempt for others is the fruit of self-righteousness. (self-justification)

Self-righteousness:

• I am not like those people!
• The absence of humilty leads to graceless living – Offensiveness.

How do I respond when I feel people do not treat me as I deserve?

• "So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.' "" (Luke 17:10, ESV)
• "I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted."" (Luke 18:14, ESV)

Prayer: Give rather… I do not have it in me. Create in me a clean heart, O God.

Recommended Resources

• Book of Common Prayer App
• The Lenten Spring by Thomas Hopko
• Great Lent by Alexander Schmemann

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on iTunes. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Post may contain affiliate links. All proceeds are used to support the missions work. Thanks for listening!

Hey everybody! If you haven't listened to the Lent series, part one and two, go back and listen. Today I will continue talking to you about the Lenten prayer of Saint Ephrem. This prayer has proved to be very useful in this season of spring cleaning for your soul. We have already covered sloth and faint-heartedness last week. This week we will talk about the lust for power and idle talk.

The Lenten Prayer of Saint Ephrem

O Lord and Master of my life!

Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust for power, and idle talk.

But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love to Your servant.

Yes, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; For You are blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

What is Lust for Power?

1. As strange as it may seem, it is sloth and faint-heartedness that fills our hearts with a lust for power.
2. If my life is not oriented toward God, not aimed at eternal values, it will inevitably become selfish and self-centered and this means that all other beings will become means to my own self-satisfaction.
3. If God is not the Lord and Master of my life, then I become my own lord and master – the absolute center of my own world, and I begin to evaluate everything in terms of my needs, my ideas, my desires and my judgments.
4. The lust for power is a fundamental depravity in my relationship to others, a search for their subordination to me.
5. It is not necessarily expressed in the actual urge to command and to dominate others.
6. It may result in
   1. Indifference
   2. Contempt
   3. Lack of interest
   4. Lack of consideration
   5. Lack of respect
7. It is sloth and despondency directed this time at others; it completes spiritual suicide with spiritual murder

What is Idle Talk?

1. Of all creation on earth, humankind alone is endowed with the gift of speech.
2. The Fathers saw this as the "seal" of the Divine Image in man because God Himself is revealed as Word.
3. Being the supreme gift, it is also a supreme danger.
4. The power of life and death are in the tongue.
5. We may use it to fulfill and express
6. To give life and hope
7. To steal, kill and destroy
8. It is a means of making Covenant and of betrayal.
9. Words save and words kill.
10. Words inspire and words poison.
11. Words can Proclaim Truth and Spread Lies.
12. When deviated from the divine origin and purpose, the word becomes It
13. Matt 12:36-37, "And I tell you this, that you must give an account on judgment day of every idle word you speak. The words you say now reflect your fate then; either you will be justified by them or you will be condemned."

Lust of Power and Idle Talk are the objects of our repentance

• They are the obstacles to be removed
• Only God can remove them
• Hence, the first part of this Lenten Prayer – this cry from the bottom of human helplessness.
• Then this prayer moves to the positive aims of repentance:

Applications:

Psalm 19:14

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer."

Daily Practice:

1. Prayer and Devotional Reading using The Book of Common Prayer (or whatever you use)
2. The Lenten Prayer of St Ephrem
3. Journaling can be helpful
4. During prayer, a "little seed" or thought may come to the surface, follow it.

Recommended Resources

• Book of Common Prayer App
• The Lenten Spring by Thomas Hopko
• Great Lent by Alexander Schmemann

If you're enjoying this podcast, spread the word by sharing it with your friends and leaving a review on iTunes. I encourage you to send me your feedback or suggestions for an interview. Help me help you. You can email me at [email protected], or direct message me on Facebook. You can also submit any feedback or questions here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or Stitcher so you don't miss an episode.

As always, you can connect with me on Facebook or Twitter. It's your life, now go live it!

I am among the more than two dozen missionaries supported by the Foursquare Missions International Global Missions Fund. To support our global missions efforts, visit The Global Missions Fund.

Post may contain affiliate links. All proceeds are used to support the missions work. Thanks for listening!