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Lent Day 40: Leo the Great: Sermon LXXII: ON THE LORD'S RESURRECTION, II

...n have no part in this divine union nor in the Easter Festival. True Christians, accepting the Creed and the deity of Christ, “rightly exult and devoutly rejoice in this sacred season” of Lent and Easter (or Pascha), and “have no doubt about Christ's Birth according to the flesh, His Passion and Death, and the Resurrection of His body … who was truly born of a Virgin's womb, truly hung on the wood of the cross, truly laid in an earthly tomb, truly raised in glory, truly set on the right hand of the Father's majesty”! Philippians 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He...

Fasting: A spiritual and physical discipline

...The topic of fasting often comes up in online discussion groups that I'm a part of, more often in Protestant circles where the practice is more often sidelined in low churches. So let's take a look at the practice of fasting from a practical and historical view, as it seems to be a spiritual discipline which has been pushed aside in many churches today, with prayer, worship and bible reading taking more precedence in a Christian's life instead (not that those are bad things to do!). Why fast? There are many reasons to fast, and recent studies have shown a lot of health benefits that can be derived from fasting. But on the spiritual side of life, there are also...

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

...I was asked not so long ago what kinds of things Christians did in the Early Church (first to fourth century) as a form of spiritual discipline, on a personal level as well as a corporate one. Though the concept of an individual “personal spiritual life” would have been quite foreign to first century believers as faith and Church was very much a corporate venture that had personal implications, rather than the other way around as it can often appear to be thought of today. Much of what made Christianity structured, disciplined and set apart from society, has largely been lost in practice, or forgotten and relegated to the annals of history by many practicin...

Should Christians get tattoos, and is it Biblical?

...es (or as part of worship, as we see with the Baal priests who went up against Elijah in 1 Kings 18). The language used in these other passages of Scripture throughout the Old Testament is similar to that of Leviticus 19 and so we begin to see a theme here which the Law book was most likely also speaking against, rather than just being against body decoration in general. So can a Christian get a tattoo? Having said all that, and much of this restriction is from an Old Testament Law perspective, where does that leave Christians today? Since the prohibitions from the Law were in relation to pagan worship and mourning rituals, tattoos for God’s glory and worsh...

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...

Christians and the Coronavirus (COVID-19)

...We currently live in troubled times lately with a lot of uncertainty around us, both locally and globally. But even now as I write this and think on the topic of the virus, one verse in particular springs to mind: Psalm 23:4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of deathI fear no evil;for you are with me;your rod and your staff — they comfort me. It does feel a little bit like we are all walking through “the valley of the shadow of death” at the moment! But as the Psalmist says, “I fear no evil” for God is with us and comforts us. That doesn’t necessarily mean we won’t get sick (or die), but that no matter what is happening aroun...