"The only way to DEFEAT your enemy is to first KNOW your enemy."
We may not always realize it, but every day we wake up to a war – one that’s been going since the day we were born and will continue until the day we die. It’s not a war fought with guns and other physical weapons; this war is much more deadly and there’s much more at stake…your soul!
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary THE DEVIL walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
Adversary… devil… roaring lion… DEVOUR! YIKES!!!
Read MoreA lie believed as truth will affect your life as though it were true.
(read that one more time please)
I once did a little experiment on a Sunday morning. At the start of the sermon, I told all the people that I had secretly placed four $50 bills underneath seats in the church. I explained it as random act of kindness and I fully convinced them that this was true.
Of course it wasn’t true. It was 100% false. It was a flat out lie (which I've already repented about and confessed :) ). But the fact that it was a lie didn’t matter. What mattered is that people THOUGHT it was true. The reality of it being a lie wasn’t as important as the perception that it was true.
Read MoreI had this dream several years ago. At this point, I can’t even remember when it was. But it was so vivid that it stayed in my memory till this present moment. I thought I’ll share it with others so that we can all learn from it.
I saw in my dream a big cage where an atrocious monster was inside of it. His face was very ugly and he looked agitated. Outside his cage was another ugly creature but dressed in white. The second creature was surrounded by a fence that prevented him from going outside of it. Then I saw a person who came close to the creature who is dressed in white, and when the person came too close, the creature grabbed his arm violently and gave it to the monster.
The monster grabbed the person’s arm and shredded it with his hands and left his arm bleeding and broken in pieces. It was a very ugly picture that made me wake up from the dream.
Then I wondered what the dream meant and what does it represent. This is the interpretation that came to my mind.
Read MoreI’ve been a priest for close to 12 years now. And in those 12 years, I’ve probably preached more than 1,000 sermons. But very few of them have ever touched me in the same way as the one below.
This is the video of a sermon I gave two years ago during this same time of year – the second week of Lent. It is based on the passage from Matthew 4:1-11, the temptation of Christ in the wilderness.
I just watched it this morning and could still feel the chills in my spine as I remembered the picture of Jesus during those 40 days in the desert. The picture is not a pleasant one at all – it’s not the strong Jesus that we love to picture, or the Almighty Jesus or the Eternal Jesus. Instead we see a picture of a weak Jesus. A hungry Jesus. A Jesus in need of help from the angels. And that picture breaks my heart.
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