Orthodixie

It was a dark and gloomy morning, 5:10 AM, before the light of day, the branches of live oaks arching over the streets of Southwest Houston …

Off in the distance … a Van, with only one living headlight shining cock-eyed; the 1980’s vehicle is swerving from side to side scrambling down the street, tires squealing — slowing, stopping, starting — darting, all the while humming projectiles from open windows.

As it lumbers closer (wait. lumbers is not quite right) as it CAREENS CLOSER, I push the wife up onto the sidewalk and yell:

“Watch out! It’s Stephen King!”

The mind goes mad.

Yup, it’s Jack Nicholson, cigarette dangling from a maniacal face as he drives the gas guzzling beat up ol’ van:

“Here’s Johnny!”

And of course, at the end of the road, illumined by the Van’s one living headlight are those two creepy twin girls …

Listen to:

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How did you come together to write this book?

What do you mean by perpetual conversion?

What sorts of topics do you cover in the book?

What happens if we die on a downward trajectory?

What is it like writing a book in tandem? How does that process work?

How do the cartoons function and what is their purpose?

You write in the book that perpetual conversion is not about a “works salvation”? How so?

You write that sometimes standing in place is progress. What do you mean?

Why did you construct the book the way that you did?

What is the most important thing that you hope readers take away from your book?

On the Ex Libris podcast, Bobby Maddex interviews Fr Joseph Huneycutt and Steve Robinson, authors of the new Ancient Faith Publishing book Fire from Ashes: The Reality of Perpetual Conversion.
The captions above are the Questions … for the Answers – listen to the interview HERE.

The Orthodox Clergy Association of Southeast Texas is sponsoring a gathering at St George/Houston tomorrow evening, Friday – September 5th, concerning the situation in the Middle East:

“The Silent Holocaust – The Persecution of Christians in the Middle East”

Fr George Dahdouh and I were interviewed by a local public radio station yesterday as a way of getting the word out.

Your prayers!

You can skip ahead 7 minutes or so … to bypass the Assyrian woman’s speech at a rally (if you wish) — but it is timely and moving.

To listen to the INTERVIEW … click HERE.

Back when I was young, summers were free — Alice Cooper sang about school being out FOREVER — and the warm days of class-less youth were spent in the sun, at the beach, on family vacation, perhaps the mountains, with more TV than normal and, of course, general boredom disguised as perfect freedom.

These days, not so much. The public schools assign HOMEWORK over the summer!

My son, now a junior in high school, had to read three books — but he had June, July, and most of August to do it!

When, o parents of teens, do you think he read those three books?

Well, he planned it. He dedicated a week to each tome – the last three weeks of the summer break!

Not just the boy, my two girls can get SO much done when they have homework.  Why, did you know that that is the best time to re-arrange your room?

Go through old pictures?

Kids ain’t the only ones … [click the link for the full story]

The Orthodixie Podcast on Ancient Faith Radio!

Ever wonder where sermons come from?

The answer is, of course, a good hot shower … but more on that later.

Currently, I’ve got a homelitical dilemma playing out …

You see, I’m the Candy Man.

I got this idea years ago from an old priest up at Holy Trinity Monastery, Jordanville – NY. Fr Vasiliy was kinda scary looking – yet, all the children came running up to him to get a blessing. Odd. I found him a bit intimidating! But there were all the kids bringing a smile to his face as he blessed them, ruffled their hair, etc.

I later found out his secret. Candy. Fr Vasiliy kept a pocket full of candy and as each kid received a blessing, they also received a piece of candy.

So I keep candy in my office. Werthers on the desk, Twizzlers in a drawer. On Sundays, sometimes there’s a line of very short people at my office door.

But it was a Saturday night that recently spawned my preaching dilemma.

My friend Tommy, aged 10, came into my office after Great Vespers and as he was getting some candy said, “What are you doing tonight?”

I said, “It’s Saturday … I gotta work on a sermon.” As I pulled the Twizzler bag from the lower drawer and offered Tommy a stick, I said: “Hebbin – Yes; Debbil – No.”

Tommy said, “What?”

I repeated: “Hebbin, Yes; Debbil, No … think that’ll preach?”

“You should really do that,” he said.

We laughed, he took a Twizzler … and that was that.

I forgot all about it – until the next morning when Tommy came in the altar to serve and walked by me saying, “Remember – Hebbin, Yes; Debbil, No.”

Uh oh.

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