Men of the Morning Prayer Line

On a quiet Sunday, I revisited a passage from the Sunday Gospel. Though I've read it countless times before, this reading held a new spark, igniting a reflection on the very essence of authority. Imagine a scene of hushed reverence in a synagogue. A man possessed by an unclean spirit disrupts the sacred space, his voice echoing with a chilling question: "What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?" (Mark 1:24) The devil, cloaked in the guise of this tormented soul, dared to address the Son of God by name, not just any name, but "Jesus of Nazareth." This wasn't a mere identification; it was an attempt to diminish, to localize, to strip away the divine power that resided within. We've all experienced the sting of being called out, of having our name used as a weapon. But this was different. This was an assault on the very essence of Jesus' being, a challenge to his authority as the Messiah, the Son of God. Think of it this way: if someone called yo...

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”   It’s the start of another new year. The old has gone (goodbye, 2023!), and the new year is here – ready or not! Can you believe it? Like many this time of year, there’s a lot of dreaming, planning, and looking ahead. If we’re honest, most of us can recognize a few character traits or habits we’d like to leave in 2023. Some of us will even go so far as to attempt to modify or change things this year. And it might work – for a while. But simply changing our outward behavior is like rolling back the odometer on a car. You reduce the numbers from 200,000 to 20,000, but you still have a car with 200,000 miles on it. When it comes to experiencing true, lasting change, we need to go deep. Thankfully, there is hope for those of us who sincerely want to change, and it all starts with surrender. Now, I know this is completely counter-intuitive. After all, every motivational...