Barnabas Powell's Blog, page 164
December 28, 2017
Count The Cost
Christ is born! This is the time of year when we normally spend some moments reflecting on the previous year and looking forward to the next. Some will make some New Year’s Resolutions. Others will systematically set goals and specific benchmarks for the coming year. Me? Well, I do a little bit of both. But an idea that keeps coming back to me is how to do this while, at the same…
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December 27, 2017
Marvel
Christ is born! Glorify Him! I always wonder at those who constantly insist “You can’t judge me.” Of course I can’t. Besides, I don’t need to judge you. We always judge ourselves. Our words, our actions, and our thoughts all contain all that is needed to “judge” rightly the true state of our souls. It is also why the Last Judgement and our constant Orthodox prayer “For a Christian end to our…
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December 26, 2017
We NEED Awe
Christ is Born! Glorify Him! The Christian Church has been around a long time! And the place it’s existed the longest is the place where it first sprang up. The Church is, at it’s heart, a Semitic Faith, an Eastern Faith. And that’s because the Christian Church is the fulfillment of the promises made by God to Abraham, the father of the Faithful. So there are a lot of Jewish elements in…
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December 25, 2017
The Christ IS Born!
Christ is Born! “Where did she go?” As a father, that question sent chills up my spine! Our youngest had wandered off and I couldn’t see her. It was a crowded area and all my police training had me imagining the worst. Not knowing where she was was a terror I don’t think I had ever felt. And I have been shot at! By God’s grace, she was found just moments later…
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December 22, 2017
A Better Hope
In 1977, as a young 17 year old, I sat in the dark theater waiting for this new science fiction movie to start. As the crawl started I read “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far, away…” Then, the Imperial Battle cruiser began to make it’s way across the screen and I was mesmerized. It was the first Star Wars movie and the subtitle was “A New Hope.” Of course,…
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December 21, 2017
Resembling the Son of God
“She looks just like you.” I confess, I love hearing this from folks when they see a picture of my little girls. Of course, when they see a picture of my wife, they say that the girls look like her! So, which is it? Well, it’s both. After all, the girls are our children so it makes perfect sense that they favor us both! It’s hard to hide a family resemblance, especially…
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December 20, 2017
Develop Endurance
Platitudes can be absolutely infuriating when you’re suffering. And, usually, a person in pain hears things like “Oh, just trust God” or “into each life a little rain must fall” as uncaring dismissals of their very real heartache. To be sure, most folks mean well, but deep in their own hearts they are afraid of getting too close to pain lest it capture them. Let’s face it, folks avoid pain. And for…
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December 19, 2017
It’s Not The News, It’s How You Receive It!
The news struck me as wonderful, but my friend looked at m with surprise when I reacted with a smile and “congratulations” at him telling me that the company he worked for was letting him go. He seemed to be genuinely amazed that I was actually happy for him. You see, the company he worked for for some time was now notorious as a dysfunctional corporate culture with swirling rumors of misappropriation…
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December 18, 2017
We ARE His House
“Home is where the heart is.” “There’s no place like home.” “I’ll be home for Christmas.” OK, this could go on all day. It seems we humans have an attachment to “home.” Even the word itself conjures up images, feelings, and nostalgia. But what is “home?” Why all this human focus on such a notion? I’m convinced it’s because we were made for a true home and our human heart automatically desires…
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December 15, 2017
The Easy Way Out!
As a former police officer, I remember well having to memorize the rules of the road so that I could ENFORCE the rules. Of course all these laws were on the books for people’s safety, but I can’t tell you how tempting it was to reduce that central purpose to the mere enforcing the rules as a purpose unto itself. You can always tell the difference between an officer who gets the…
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