In this study we looked at the Parable of the Talents and how Christ uses this story to reveal something essential about the Christian life. God gives every person real gifts, and these gifts are meant to be offered back to Him for His glory. The servants who received five and two talents acted with trust. They put their gifts to work. The servant with one talent hid his gift out of fear and mistrust. Christ shows us that spiritual paralysis is often rooted in a false image of God. The one who fears God wrongly never learns to love Him, and never learns to serve.

The deeper point of the parable is that every believer has a calling, and none of our gifts are too small to matter. Whether a person can teach, build, cook, fix, encourage, organize, draw, lead, or simply listen, every gift becomes holy when it is offered to others for the sake of Christ. This is how the early Church grew. Christians served without expecting anything in return, and people saw the love of God through their lives.

Christ reminds us that we cannot bury what He has given us. We live in a spiritually hungry world, and the Lord has placed us in this moment to shine with His light. When we stand before Him and He asks what we did with our gifts, may we be able to say that we used them for His kingdom, for His people, and for His glory.

This class explores the heart of Orthodox hierarchy and how it mirrors heaven’s order here on earth. Fr. Stephen walked through the ranks of clergy, the meaning of ordination, and why every Divine Liturgy assumes the bishop is mystically present. He also unpacked the complex history of overlapping jurisdictions in America and the ongoing vision of one unified Orthodox Church. His message was both hopeful and practical: unity will not start in committees or synods but in the life of local parishes. “We are already one Church,” he said. “Now we have to live like it.”

In this homily, Fr. Stephen Osburn reflects on Luke 8:41–56, where two lives intersect through desperation. Jairus pleads for his dying daughter, and a woman suffering for years reaches for the hem of Christ’s garment. Both find healing, not because they were strong, but because they were desperate for Him.

Fr. Stephen reminds us that church is not about comfort but transformation. It is where we face our sins, our pride, and our weakness so that God can heal us. Desperation, when directed toward Christ, becomes faith in motion. It turns our pain into repentance and our longing into life.

To be desperate for Christ is to truly live. Those who reach for Him in faith always find healing, always find resurrection, and always find the love of God waiting to receive them.

In this Bible study, Fr. Stephen Osburn explores The Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13–21) and the call to live with holy urgency. Comfort is the enemy of mission, and complacency is the quiet death of the soul.

Drawing from the life of Fr. Anthony Karbo of blessed memory, Fr. Stephen reminds listeners that the Christian life does not retire. The Church must never say, “We have done enough.” Our barns may be full, but our souls are still required of us.

We are called to live the Gospel with urgency, to bring others to Christ, and to remember that the measure of our faith is not comfort but conversion. Every day is a chance to build the Kingdom. Every soul is a field still waiting to be sown.

In this homily, Fr. Stephen Osburn reflects on the healing of the Gadarene demoniac from Luke 8:26-39. The man freed from a legion of demons stands as a sign of Christ’s victory over the powers of darkness—yet the townspeople, rather than rejoicing, beg Jesus to leave. Why? Because His miracle cost them their comfort. They cared more about their pigs than about the salvation in front of them. Fr. Stephen challenges us to see how often we do the same. We let the noise of the world, our worries, our busyness, and our distractions steal our focus from Christ. But to live in Christ, as St. Paul says, means to be crucified with Him—to let every part of life revolve around Him. Our salvation begins when our mindset becomes Christ-centered, when we stop measuring everything by loss and gain, and start seeing everything through the eyes of faith.

In this Bible study, Fr. Stephen reflects on the Good Samaritan as a living icon of Christ. We are the wounded traveler, and the Lord is the One who comes near, binds our wounds, and carries us to the inn of His Church. The oil and wine point to grace and healing, and the inn becomes the place where the Physician entrusts souls to our care.

The study turns from theory to practice. Real evangelism begins with mercy, not argument. People remember the neighbor who showed up, not the thread that won points. See every person as the image of God, serve without conditions, and let your life make the Gospel visible. Christ’s command is still the rule for Christian witness. Go and do likewise.

In this homily, Fr. Stephen Osburn reflects on Christ’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus. He reminds us that we live in a time of abundance, so much so that comfort has become our greatest temptation. When comfort becomes normal, awareness of God fades. We stop seeing the Lazarus at our gate, and we stop realizing how much we depend on Christ.

Fr. Stephen calls us back to the life of the Church: prayer, worship, stewardship, and love for one another. The Church is not one activity among many; it is our true home. He urges us to choose the Kingdom over convenience, Christ over comfort, and community over complacency, because only what is rooted in Christ will last forever.

In this study, Dn. Vassily Kocher walks catechumens through the Orthodox theology of icons. He explains why the Church venerates but never worships icons, how Scripture itself shows God commanding sacred images in the tabernacle and temple, and how Christ points to the bronze serpent as a sign fulfilled in the Cross. We look at the victory of Nicaea II and the Sunday of Orthodoxy, then learn to “read” an icon by its language of light, form, gesture, and color. From the ICXC blessing hand to why there are no shadows, each detail confesses the Incarnation and draws us into prayer.

You will also get practical guidance for praying with icons at home. Dn. Vassily outlines what colors mean, why the Theotokos bears three stars, and how creation in an icon leans toward Christ. The goal is simple. Let the saints teach you, let their faces calm your heart, and let these windows to heaven become part of your daily conversation with God.

In this study, Anthony Ally explores what it means to be created in the Image and Likeness of God. The discussion centers on how that divine imprint gives every person unshakable dignity and meaning, even in a fallen and fractured world. The Fall is not only the breaking of a commandment but the breaking of communion itself, something Christ came to heal by taking on our humanity and restoring the image within us.

Participants were encouraged to mark each day with the Sign of the Cross upon waking, before meals, and before any important task as a reminder that they belong to the Creator. The week’s takeaway is simple but profound: your life has eternal significance because you bear the mark of God. Live each moment with reverence, gratitude, and awareness that every person you meet is a living icon of His presence.

In this sermon, Fr. Stephen Osburn reflects on St. Paul’s pastoral wisdom to a restless city like Corinth and shows why the apostle’s personal testimony is not self focus but a doorway to Christ. Paul names the real battles of the heart and then turns the Church toward the Lord, teaching that the problem with pride is not only that it is bad, but that it replaces God with the self. The cure begins when every part of life is reoriented to the glory of God.

Fr. Stephen applies this to daily life in Savannah. Our city is busy and full of distractions, but grace can convert schedules into prayer and struggles into offerings. Choose one virtue to practice, attach your day to prayer, and return to confession often. The goal is a simple defense before God: I was weak and I fell, yet I offered my life to You and learned to love in Your name.

If your heart is noisy, take courage. St. Paul’s word to Corinth is God’s word to us. Let every moment be offered to Christ, and pride will bow to glory.