Barnabas Powell's Blog, page 160
March 2, 2018
Play With Fire; Get Burned!
I was a fire bug when I was younger. Fire fascinated me, that is until one day when I burned myself play with fire. It’s amazing how instructional pain can be if you let it! But why is it we keep insisting on learning life’s lessons the hard way? Why do we so consistently find ourselves ignoring wisdom for the prideful notion that “the rules don’t apply to me?” I’ll tell you…
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March 1, 2018
6 Things I Hate; Make That 7
All the sins and mistakes of all the people in the world who have ever lived all combined together and multiplied by a thousand plus ten can NEVER overpower God’s love and peace! Individually, our sins can never overpower Him. Collectively, our sins cannot exhaust Him. If that were remotely possible, He would not be God. Taking this further, if you think for one second that God “can’t” forgive you and that…
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February 28, 2018
Have You Sold Your Soul
Most of us know the German legend about Faust and his deal with the devil. Faust is a bit of a con man but he’s unhappy with his life so he sells his soul to the devil in exchange for unlimited earthly knowledge and pleasure. Of course, the story doesn’t end well and is meant to be a morality tale to warn us of the folly of trading eternal things for temporary…
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February 27, 2018
How I Hated Discipline
One of the most vivid memories of my childhood was a punishment I received for making a mess in the basement of our house when I was just a boy. But this is what made it so memorable. The truth is I was always a kid who took the rules seriously. Of course, this didn’t sit too well with my younger brother who seemed to absolutely love getting into mischief. I was…
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February 26, 2018
You Get What You Put In
A wise man once said “You only get out of life what you put into it. Don’t expect more until you do more.” Wow. That’s something to let echo in your head a bit and see what kind of insights it produces in your own life. Of course, that’s the purpose of wisdom. Not to be just a pithy phrase on a bumper sticker, but a light to illumine “dark” places in…
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February 23, 2018
God or the Snake?
“She made me do it.” This was the “excuse of my daughter when I asked her why she hit her sister! Wow, that’s a lot of power to give to someone else! It seems we humans have a particular gift for shifting the blame to someone else when we make mistakes. We also seem to be particularly good at excusing or justifying our choices even when those choices turn out badly! Look…
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February 22, 2018
You Are a Living Breath of God
Phillip James Bailey, an English poet of the late 19th century, once said: “Let each man think himself an act of God; his mind a thought; his life, a breath of God; and let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds to show the most of heaven he hath in him.” One of the amazing revelations of the Orthodox Christian Faith is the high dignity humanity has in this wondrous creation.…
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February 21, 2018
Made FOR Him to be LIKE Him
Shakespeare’s Hamlet has a character named Polonius and Shakespeare has him utter those now famous words “For the apparel oft proclaims the man.” And then, of course, there’s the famous business advice “Dress for the job you want, not the job you have!” All this focus on apparel makes one wonder if men are unaware of their true selves. And that, dear one, is seen in the fervent scramble of humanity to…
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February 20, 2018
HELLO, Are You Out There? Message Month is ALMOST OVER!
“Dear Fr. Barnabas, I just wanted to express my gratitude to you, once again, for everything that you do. For the past three years my wife, son, and I have been learning about the Orthodox Church, and this coming Sunday we will finally be received into the Church as catechumens.” “I was days away from attending The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I am 66 years old and have…
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And The Evening and the Morning…
“To everything, turn, turn, turn. There is a season, turn, turn, turn. And a time to every purpose under heaven.” The Byrds lyrics were taken, of course, from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the First Testament. It is the gift of time, granted to us by God, where our lives play out. It is also a gift of God that even our mistakes and sins have a finality, so that we do…
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