Years ago, I gave a retreat at a wonderful church. The retreat focused on God’s amazing love for people in prison and how He touched different lives in miraculous ways drawing them to HImself. I talked about things I had personally witnessed over my many years as a prison chaplain and how those men had […]
Have you ever gone through (or presently going through) a really difficult time in your life? It could be injuries from an accident or the diagnosis of a horrible disease or a precious relationship suddenly gone from your life or… there are so many possible things that we would call “difficult!” In fact, is […]
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT By Fr. Stephen Powley “’An eye for an eye’ seems right to the point. Why should there be any further discussion on the matter of the death penalty? If they violated the law and the penalty called for is death, then that settles it. Put them to death!!” I recently heard that said […]
The previous article, “A Scriptural Defense of Cremation”, stirred many excellent comments and questions. Since many of the same questions were asked many times, it seemed like a good idea to take a close look at them in response. The following questions are a compilation of the similar type questions: Question 1 – What is […]
In the town where I live, funerals have become rather rare. I hear this is true throughout our country. People now have a “Celebration of Life” with lots of pictures of the deceased person and sometimes a cremation urn will be present. Cremation has become the norm for most Christians in our country. It has […]
The man would have easily sold his soul to the devil to get ahead in this world, to make a name for himself, to be somebody very important. Thankfully, he didn’t need to sell his soul to the devil because he had determined years ago that the devil didn’t exist. It wasn’t actually the existence […]
Blessings Beyond Bars is a Lenten Youth Project with the Orthodox Christian Prison Ministry (OCPM) to teach children and young adults about prison ministry. OCPM provides a lesson plan and do-it-yourself craft activity to involve youth with a hands-on project using shoeboxes as mock-prison cells. We offer fundraising ideas to collect donations in the boxes […]
Most Christians in our world today really have no idea where the New Testament came from or how it came to be known as Holy Scripture. Most folks don’t even ask that question, they simply refer to it as God’s Word and they loudly proclaim that they “stand on the Word of God alone.” That […]
Living in a Post Christian Era—NOT! Over the past few years the media has been asserting as “fact” that we are living in a post-Christian era. Christianity has had its day and it is over. What is so very disturbing is that some Christian clergy and laity have been saying the same thing. If something […]
WHAT IF? What if you hadn’t lost your temper last week? What if you hadn’t told that lie? What if you had taken that other job? What if you had married that other person? What if you hadn’t quit the high school football team? What if you had just gotten that one break you needed? […]