Category: Salvation

Being Found by God

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 86 Leave a Comment on %s
I was flying into Denver a year or so back to speak at a conference. Seated next to me on the plane was a very well-dressed Muslim woman, who looked quite professional in her outfit and her demeanor. About 45 minutes away from landing, she turned to me and spoke: “Are you a Christian priest?” I was wearing my cassock. “Yes,” I responded. “I have never met a Christian before,” she said.…

Echoes of a Fresh Start

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 52 Leave a Comment on %s
Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise, Because of Your enemies, That You may silence the enemy and the avenger. (Psalm 8:2) There are many things about the “elder” years of my life that I prefer to my youth. Had I known then what I know now, perhaps the statement would not be true. Nonetheless, the providence of God has preserved me and brought me to…

Preaching the Gospel to the Poor

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 81 Leave a Comment on %s
A conversation on social media gave rise to this post.  ________ And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”  Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed…

Guilt and Shame – What’s The Difference?

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 39 Leave a Comment on %s
There is a very handy saying that differentiates between guilt and shame. Guilt is about what I have done – shame is about who I am. They are not unrelated, particularly in a culture in which what we do is often given as an answer to the question, “Who are you?” Traditional American culture has often been described as “guilt-based,” in that Protestant religious thoughts centered on goodness as responsibility for our…

What To Do With What You Know

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 77 Leave a Comment on %s
In a world driven by information, it is more than a little easy to mistake knowing something as important and good in and of itself. As such, the acquisition of spiritual information is something of a going industry. In a Russian novel written back in the 90’s, a woman intellectual encounters a monk who is restoring an ancient monastery in Georgia. During a conversation, she brings up a quote from St. Maximus.…

Doing the Good You Can Do

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 34 Leave a Comment on %s
St. John the Baptist confronted a difficult question. Soldiers came to him (it’s not clear what kind of soldiers these were). We are told: Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.” Luke 3:14 The implication of his answer is that extortion and brutality were a common…

Messiness in the Modern World

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 42 Leave a Comment on %s
Salvation can be messy. I believe this with all my heart and so I state it at the outset of this article. As such, it marks me as a heretic in Modernity. I not only believe that salvation is messy – I believe that messiness is pretty much inherent to salvation. And along with that, I believe that our aversion to messiness (in all things) is a peculiar affliction of the modern…

The Sins of A Nation

· Fr. Stephen Freeman
This is a reposting of an article from several years back. Its thoughts seem appropriate for our present time as a nation. I pray it is of some help. Can a nation ever sin? If so, how can it be forgiven? The stories and prophetic writings of the Old Testament are replete with examples of national sin. There are certainly stories of God dealing with individuals, but, on the whole, His attention…

Let’s Get Out of This Place

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 28 Leave a Comment on %s
The Saturday before Palm Sunday is known as Lazarus Saturday among the Orthodox, and they celebrate Christ raising him from the dead just prior to His entrance into Jerusalem (gospel of John). It is a feast that offers something of a preview of Christ’s resurrection, and a foretaste of the General Resurrection at the End of the Age. Some years back I sat in a cave that is purported to be the grave of…

“That Which is Lacking” – Is Jesus Enough?

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The average Christian, reading his Bible in happy devotion, stumbles across this passage: Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church… (Col 1:24) The passage is particularly disturbing for a certain strain of Protestant thought that emphasizes Christ’s sufficiency for all things. Christ has accomplished all things…