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Fasting: A spiritual and physical discipline

...bible.org/seriespage/chapter-3-fasting-through-patristic-era  Lent Reading/Devotional Plan: My Book series: 40 Days with the Fathers  http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html http://www.churchyear.net/lentfatherslite.html Full texts: http://www.churchyear.net/lentfatherscomplete.pdf    ...

Creedal Christians: The Nicene Creed

...s in this series and leave any thoughts in the comments below! Further Reading and Sources: Letter of Eusebius on the Council of Nicaea (eyewitness account) Athanasius, Letter to Bishops of Africa Athanasius, Defense of the Nicene Definition (eyewitness account) First Council of Nicæa (A.D. 325) - 20 Canons First Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381) Epistles on Arianism and the Deposition of Arius Definition: Anathema https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/ryan-reeves/who-was-athanasius-and-why-was-he-important/ https://www.christianitytoday.com/history/people/scholarsandscientists/eusebius-of-caesarea.html https://www.cs.mcgill.ca/~rwest/wiki...

Lent: Day 6 - Ignatius to the Magnesians

...Day Six: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Magnesians (full text) Who: Ignatius converted at a young age and later became Bishop of Antioch. A friend of Polycarp and fellow disciple of John, there is a long standing tradition that Ignatius was the child that Jesus held in his arms and blessed in Mark 10:13-16 What: Ignatius urges the church to continue in unity, to honour their leadership and to avoid Judaizers who may try to bring false teaching. This letter also gives some valuable insight to early church hierarchy. Why: Ignatius wrote a series of letters to the churches in Asia Minor whilst en route to Rome to face martyrdom by wild beasts in the Col...

Spiritual Disciplines of the Early Church: Ancient Practices for the 21st Century

...two book series that will take you through some of the prominent texts from the first 400 years of the Church over a 40 day reading plan. Read the Early Church in her own words and be inspired! View and order my books on Amazon: 40 Days with the Fathers....

Power Cuts and the Fear of God

...The other week we had a series of power cuts in our town. It doesn’t happen very often here where I am, but there was particularly bad weather recently which damaged some cables; but sitting in the dark winter evening, my phone low on battery power, it made me realise just how much we rely on electricity for nearly everything these days. We don’t even have a gas supply so we were completely cut off from doing anything! Now it might sound obvious, but it’s easy to forget how dependent we are on modern conveniences until it’s suddenly taken away and you’re sat in the cold surrounded by tiny little tea-light candles. The following Sunday, the sermon at c...

An Examination of Conditional Immortality (Part One)

...I know that "Conditional Immortality" is quite a divisive topic, and one you may have come across before (sometimes referred to as “Annihilationism”); and have been told outright that it’s “heresy” or false, or that it’s an emotional argument people want to believe because it ‘sounds nicer’ than the doctrine of Eternal Conscious Torment (ECT). Or maybe you’ve never even heard of this before and you didn’t realise there were alternative interpretations and views on hell. If you are new to this, in brief it means that “the wicked” will be removed from existence after judgement and finite torment, rather than living forever in torment. Any...