Otts On Mission
Reflections on ministry, mission, and the Church
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Watchful In The Dark
A Cloud of Evil Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 There is a strange cloud that seems to hang over the world. Everyone seems to feel it, though no one is able to clearly define it. It’s increasingly hard to see what is really…
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The Madness of Pride
“The beginning of pride is the consummation of vainglory; the middle is the humiliation of our neighbor, the shameless parade of our labors, complacency in the heart, hatred of exposure; and the end is denial of God’s help, the extolling of own’s own exertions, fiendish character.” – Saint John Climacus Pride Points To Me I…
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Thoughts, Passions, and Sin
Sin as Sickness A kid was recently shot fairly close to where we live. In the middle of the woods, surrounded by other teens, he was shot and killed. Humanity is sick. We see the brokenness of our world just about everywhere these days. All of us feel it. We experience it in just about…
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The Stories We Tell
We want the action! Every Friday night at our house is movie night. It is one of the most sacred nights of our week. If we miss a movie night for some unforeseen reason our kids will undoubtedly plead for a makeup night. We’ve watched a variety of different movies ranging from animated comedies to…
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Hopeful Crumbling
Crumbling Institutions The church as we’ve known it is dying. The institution is crumbling. The systems that we’ve held so dear for so long are falling apart, bit by bit. For many this is a terrifying reality we’d rather not look at. The world we’ve known for so long is disappearing before our very eyes.…
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Harmony And The Role of The Prophet
A Contemplative Life I have often heard contemplation simply described as gratitude. Perhaps this is because as we cultivate contemplative lives, we begin to see more clearly. When we see clearly, we begin to understand God’s rich interaction with us rightly. There is a simple truth to this definition because it is in contemplative prayer…
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To Guard Your Heart – Think About Your Thoughts
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” Proverbs 4:23 The Importance of Heart The “heart” within the western worldview most often refers to emotions and affections. The “heart” in Scripture and throughout the history of the Church however, referred to something much more. Throughout Church history the heart refers…
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Don’t Give Up.
“By standing firm, you will save yourself.” – Evagrius of Ponticus The hours pass slowly and painfully. The day as though it were 50 hours long. All the while a deep longing persists, crying out for something to make you feel alive. The thoughts arise, “I wish I was somewhere else, doing something else.” “My…
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Gluttony and The Spiritual Warfare of Our Minds
The Starting Point For Spiritual Warfare Throughout history the spiritual fathers and mothers wrote extensively on the topic of spiritual warfare and the battleground of the mind. It is the plane on which the spiritual battle takes place. The enemy dispatches a variety of carefully crafted and pointed attacks on our mind, attempting to change…
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Resting in Goodness
As I was praying today I was reminded of something I heard Dallas Willard say a while back: “none of the fruit of the Spirit are a feeling, they are a condition.” Over the past few years the consistent and pervasive lack of peace in the world around us has been on full display. Peace,…