Barnabas Powell's Blog, page 146
August 29, 2018
Can You Recognize God?
I’m convinced everyone wants to know God. Everyone. Even the most radical atheist or hedonist wants to know God above everything else. In fact, I’m convinced a man is an atheist because he is so angry that the God he longs for at the very core of his being doesn’t exist and it’s this existential anger and disappointment that drives his atheism and his hostility. When I was a boy in the…
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August 28, 2018
Don’t Make Me Stop This Car!
Every parent has heard themselves say this at one time or another: “If you two don’t stop bickering, I’ll stop this car and punish you both!” I mean, surely I’m not the only one! Please tell me I’m not the only dad that has threatened this! Seriously, as parents, we really do set expectations of behavior for our children. One of the most fundamental tasks of parenting is to both model and…
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August 27, 2018
The Signs of True Apostleship
Steve Jobs said ” Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t used to an environment where excellence is expected.” So true. Most of us are far too comfortable with mediocrity or “that’s good enough.” Because of this, we get a life that never is pressed to discover its potential, the possibilities. What a waste. And yet, because we are so comfortable with mediocrity, excellence feels threatening. In the face of these…
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August 24, 2018
Listen!
“Um, sorry, what did you say?” That’s the response I get many times when I’m talking to my younger brother. His hearing took a beating years ago when he was working at a car body repair shop. The steady noise combined with his serious work ethic to damage his hearing, so now, I have to repeat myself a few times sometimes when there is a lot of ambient noise around us. And of…
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August 23, 2018
Humble AND Obedient
“We are of one mind about this.” I heard his words and I understood each word and its meaning, but I had never heard this put this way before – “of one mind.” What did he mean? But, hey, I was a kid of 22 and the situation was such that I was hoping he meant we were in agreement. Too embarrassed to ask, I assumed (dangerous, I know) we were, in…
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August 22, 2018
A Divided Heart is Defeated
Growing up as a young man in the 1970’s meant I heard some of the best music in the world! One song I remember that got the whole car singing along was the anthem “United we Stand” by the Brotherhood of Man. The chorus was “For united we stand, divided we fall. And if our backs should ever be against the wall, we’ll be together, together you and I.” Unity is a…
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August 21, 2018
Crazy!
St. Anthony the Great once said “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him, saying, ‘You are mad; you are not like us.’” Of course, that “time” St. Anthony warned us about has been with us since our mother and father believed the insanity of the snake in the garden! And this madness, this insanity, doesn’t just exists…
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August 20, 2018
Real Love Is Matched By Action
The word gets thrown around a lot today. “Love” seems to be everybody’s goal, and it seems to have been this way forever. I’m reading a great book now called “How Dante Can Save Your Life” by Rod Dreher, and in it, Dreher gives me some wonderful background on the author of the great poem “The Divine Comedy.” It seems that Dante was a poet in line with many of his day…
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August 17, 2018
The Reason for Fasting
When I was just learning about the Ancient Faith, I was struck by the wisdom of fasting from certain foods. You see, I had been raised to think that a fast was no food at all, just water. And I would hear stories of Pentecostal pastors “fasting” for a month or even 40 days and “great miracles” occurring because of their fasting. So, of course, I tried that and failed every time…
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