… Here endeth the lesson.
Tag: Holy Spirit
Christian Marriage as an Icon of the Holy Trinity
“It is not particularly easy to preach a sermon on the infinitely complicated nature of God’s domestic arrangements. However, how else might you describe the concept of three divine persons sharing one divine nature other than as infinitely complicated…
… It is so difficult to understand that some have even gone so far as to claim the idea of the Trinity is merely the invention of Fourth Century Christians. But that’s not true. Read your Bibles and you’ll discover the Holy Trinity there in the first three verses of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible.
Let’s take a quick look at this… ‘In the beginning God [which is the Father] created the heaven and earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God [which is the Holy Ghost] moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, [this is the Son, Jesus Christ, the divine Word, the Logos] Let there be light: and there was light.’
… Marriage is the oldest of the Biblical sacraments. The Book of Genesis tells us that in marriage, a man and a woman become, through some mystical but no less real sense, one flesh. And St. Paul tells us that marriage by the process of making us “one flesh” reflects the mystical union betwixt Christ and his Church.”
To learn more and to find out how to reconcile our earthly desires to God’s divine plan, please click the link below:
http://stalbansanglican.org/System/Media/Play.asp?id=40752&Key=9180208D-DEC4-4248-B91A-93BF0CB77707
The Refining Power of the Holy Spirit
“Loving my enemies and treating them nicely when they do me evil, doesn’t really sound like practical advice. Although we might be interested in the part about starting fires on their heads.
The only way to make sense of this is if we understand what kind of fire we’re calling down. The fire that heaps upon the heads of our enemies, when we return good for their evil, is the fire of the Holy Ghost. It’s the grace of God that sustains us through our difficulties in this world.
The fire we send is The Holy Spirit, acting through us to convert the rest of the world to the saving power of our Lord, Jesus Christ…
… However, if we are to be completely honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we want our faith to lead us to victory in our lives and dominion over our enemies…”
To learn more and to find out how to reconcile our earthly desires to God’s divine plan, please click the link below:
http://stalbansanglican.org/System/Media/Play.asp?id=40752&Key=F0A86FFD-4683-4CB7-BBB7-41B7259E681B
God’s Agenda or Yours?
Delivered by Archbishop Council Nedd II at St. Alban’s Anglican Church on the First Sunday After Ascension
“… The Comforter is how Jesus describes the Holy Ghost. And Jesus chose the word “comforter” to describe the Holy Ghost because Jesus knew precisely what was in store for the new Christians. He goes on to warn them that they are going to be expelled from the synagogues. Worse than that, people will try to kill the Christians, solid in their belief that they are doing God a favor…”
It’s all very prophetic, but it really doesn’t deal with the event we are actually commemorating, which is Jesus’ ascent to heaven, and the apostles’ reaction.
The apostles’ reactions immediately prior to the Ascension tell a significant story. They illustrate with crystal clarity the stubbornness with which we subordinate God’s agenda to our own, and we do this without actually realizing it. Today’s Gospel provides a very useful contrast between what Jesus actually said at the Last Supper, and what the apostles thought they heard. This Passover meal was Jesus’ last opportunity to prepare the Apostles for the ordeal to come…”
To hear the full sermon, click the following link:
http://stalbansanglican.org/System/Media/Play.asp?id=40752&Key=E8E347E1-876F-44FD-B31A-1727AC77552A
Council Nedd II 