THE WICKED AND UNBELIEVERS

       “The wicked flee when no man is pursuing him; but the righteous are as bold as a lion”          

                                                                         (Prov. 28:1)                                                                                                                               The wicked man is afraid of his own shadow; the shadow of a tree seems to him like an army.  Whenever something rustles the wicked man thinks: “My enemy is coming!” He hears the murmuring of leaves as if it were the clashing of chains. He takes the voice of the birds for the cries of a hunter after a savage; he thinks the very grass is spying on his crime; water itself is a witness against him;  the sun is his judge; the stars are taunting him. My brethren, how many lies are born of fear!  Because fear comes from sin, sin from the devil, and the devil is the father of lies.

     Fear is the first fruit of sin.  When Adam sinned he hid from the face of God. Whn God called to him, he said: “I heard your voice and I was afraid” (Gen. 3:10). Adam did not know fear before he sinned, nor did he hide from the face of God but, on the contrary, always hastened to meet Him. But, as soon as he sinned he was afraid.

     But the righteous are as bold as a lion, for they are without sin and without fear; without sin and without weakness. The sinless are mighty in their power and bold in their courage. The righteous are filled with vigour and fortitude. But it is only the righteous who are like this, for they obey and love the Lord.

     O Lord, You who are without the blemish of sin, preserve us from empty fears, but firstly preserve us from sin, which is the father of fear. To you be glory and praise for ever. Amen.

                                                        (From Prologue #2 P-363. 364).    

     I took the foregoing, just as it was from the Prologue, for it is an important observation and is written perfectly explaining the reason for fear in men’s lives and how to rid ourselves of fears and replace them with happiness and joy.  Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master is good and filled with kindness and deep compassion, and is quick to forgive the sins of man. T\However the Devil is a vicious tyrant who entices us with sugar-coated sins so as to trap the unwary and take them as his prisoner. Man is situated between good and evil and must choose between them throughout his life, for at the end of this life victories are awarded and defeats separate the unfaithful sinners from God and His goodness, leaving us as to be tormented with the evil one.

     If we are faithful to the Lord and love Him with all our hearts and souls, fear will be non-existent in us. The stronger our faith in God the more our souls are filled with happiness and joy, but without God we become victims and prisoners, even though we may think that we are free. So  we must be aware of fears, for they come from our sins, concerning which we must sincerely repent and confess them and then partake holy communion in a worthy manner but with fear of God, faith and love.

     The author of Prologue uses the perfect example of fears in man in the person of Adam who hid from God. Why? Because he sinned and had broken his law. God merely called to him, and he said: “I heard your voice and was afraid.” Since the time of Adam all who sin and without God suffer from many fears, of enemies, of fearful of darkness, of fearful of sickness and especially fearful of death!

Sin is the cause of fear and if we rid ourselves of sin and in faith embrace and love Jesus Christ, every day of our lives will be void of fear, filled with joy and happiness will reign in our souls. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, however, and is a great virtue which helps us to wage war against all sins and with them confessed all fears are gone while fear of God remains.

     In our times, many people receive the holy Mysteries which can place them in jeopardy if they    unworthily. Because there may be some who to not understand the threat of sin within themselves, but if they cannot see their sins, they certainaly can recgonize their fears, and therefore get help if necessary to confess any sins for where there is fear there is also sin which requires our attention. 

THIS LIFE

THIS LIFE

     A young man and woman marry and later a new baby is born, a new life has come into the world. Life requires life for life cannot be manufactured. From the lives of the father and mother comes a living child. And all humans share a common life which  ends with death. This life is not an accident but is very serious and important, but the godless and unbelievers of this world claim life to be for family caring and entertaining of the body and its delights. They claim that life is short so enjoy it while you can. Bring on the good times, work to make money in order to eat, drink, party, have barbecues, vacations, etc.

     We are living in a basically godless environment where God is not only ignored or put to death, but they deny that He even exists and He is not the creator of the universe. They surmise that  though it lacks intellect it created itself! If there is no God, there is no law, if there is no law neither is their a judge or reward or punishment. If there is no God then when you die you just vanish out of existence. Satan’ deception has done his dirty work very well, for modern man believes only in himself and is become his own judge. Those who do evil all their lives are not punished and those who choose to do only good are not rewarded! What an unjust world to live in and then you die. Modern society slaughters infant babies, not like Herod the baby-killer, for today they kill their own infants. One man fornicates with another man and they call it marriage insulting God and degrading marriage and they offer them marital benefits which were formerly for the married only.

     Those who desire to learn truth must see the folly of getting rid of God by denial. If there were no God they could not deny Him, nor could the idea of God exist. If there is no God, then who created this world? If there is no God why is everything in nature so perfect and orderly? There is air to breathe, food to eat, water to drink, weather systems, lakes and streams, woods and plains, trees and flowers. All these things are for man’s enjoyment and use. Who thought of  making man with his high super intellect and with emotions of love for his fellow man and for what is good?

     The godless ones teach that everything just happens. (plenty of effects but no causes at all) and came into being  of themselves, which ideas any intelligent person would dismiss as foolishness or insanity. For everything that exists is an effect with a cause and has a purpose. There is food and drink for birds and elephants as well as for men. Birds need little food and it is there for them. Elephants need large amounts of food and it is there for them. Whose idea was it for elephants and birds? Who thought of forming godlike men? Who thought of donkeys and horses and later automobiles and then airplanes?  How did the fuel for all the millions of vehicles get put in place for future use? If they say man is the cause, they are still foolish, because they reject the real God who created man and declare man to be a god and the cause!

     There can be no effect without a relative cause a very good scientific principle. The question to be answered is who is God? God is not at all like creation for He is uncreated; He is without cause for He is the eternal and original Cause. God is outside of time being eternal. He created time when He established the universe. God cannot die because He is the origin of all life.

     God created man because of love to have creatures share in His good life, a life that is  endless. Creation is a thing of magnificent beauty and was made for the sake of man, Man is God’s most noble and highest creature, destined to become like God. God made man in His own image. He gave man every good gift including the sun and moon and the stars for night live and navigation. 

     What is His reason for creation? If we look carefully we will see that there are numberless creatures, but only one who was above all the rest – that creature is man. He formed man in His image to struggle to become also His likeness. “He will come to judge the living and the dead.” says our Orthodox Creed of Faith. He sent His Son into the world. Jesus Christ is both the Son of God the Father and the Son of man from the Virgin. He came to save sinful man and bring him into His kingdom. Everything needed to know is in the New Testament and available to everyone. The Gospels narrate mostly about Christ and His works. The word Gospel in the original Greek means “the good news.”  Truly this is the only good news man needs to know for it tells him clearly about his future. Those who are disinterested will remain far from all hope in eternal life, but can look forward to eternal death. For there is no excuse, because every man has a conscience to which He should give attention.

     The unbelievers and godless ones commit man to being reduced to nothingness, while the truth is the opposite, for Christ raises man to become like God.

THE TRINITY IN MAN

THE TRINITY IN MAN

     Man is triune being composed of a body and soul and spirit. The body and soul are from the earth and the spirit breathed into him from God. The soul of man has also has three faculties, the intellect, the heart oir feelings and the will. The intellect or mind processes information, while the heart being  the affective faculty is the seat of many affections and feelings. The will being informed by the other two powers makes decisions,  based on what the intellect accepts or rejects and what the  heart  feels as being good. Usually if the intellect agrees and the heart likes something, the will acts on this information with an affirmative decision. If the intellect agrees but the heart disagrees, the soul may or may not take action.  An example of the latter is when you think or know that something is a good idea but you don’t like it, in many cases you will decide against it, but sometimes, we know through our intellect that something is good but is not to our liking, so we may decide to do what we know to be good, even if our hearts disagree and don’t like it.

     These three, the intellect, the heart and the will are also an image of the Divine Trinity. No man has seen the Father says our Lord, and no man has seen the mind of another man. The Son declares the Father and what’s in His mind, and the body and speech of a man declares what’s in the man’s mind

     The heart is the seat of our desires and needs to be carefully guarded, for sin is sugar-coated and offered to the heart. If we are offered evil and the heart accepts it, then evil will enter into our souls corrupting them and striving to lead to many sins. For this reason spiritual advisors urge us to carefully guard the heart, that it will not desire what is evil. 

BLESSINGS ARE NECESSARY

     What do we do before we sit down to eat? As Orthodox Christians, we pray in thanksgiving for our meal. We make the sign of the Cross and say a short prayer asking Jesus Christ to bless the food and drink.  Asking for blessings is a sign of spiritual life in a person or family. But blessing food and drink are but one of countless blessings. We make the sign of the Cross when we go to bed and again when we awaken from sleep. We sign the Cross and offer our morning prayer and when we depart the house we again sign  the Cross. If we drive, we should sign the Cross, remembering the many accidents and deaths on roads and highways, let us always ask the Lord for His blessing and our protection by our angel. We make the sign of the Cross when we start our cars, when we arrive at our destination and upon our return back home make the sign again. In the evening we say our evening prayers, starting with the sign of the Cross. These blessings become excellent habits, bringing us closer to God who supplies the substance of our blessings. and we will be doing them enthusiastically after a period of time.

     What if we fail to seek blessings at these various times and places? The sky will not fall down but we will lose a precious portion of our faith and hope, turning to God frequently with the ability to bless ourselves, our food and drink, our homes and cars, our going to sleep and arising etc., We can offer these blessings though we are not ordained priests. Why miss out in obtaining help from the only source of all our blessings who is God himself? His blessings are meant for us to use if we have accepted to believe in Him and to serve and obey Him. 

     Among men, if some person had a special beloved father, he would not hesitate to ask his blessing if he was to go on a long journey. But God is our much  greater Father and the Creator of everything. We should seek His  blessings for our dear departed ones, for our father and mother our wives or husbands, our children, our brothers and sisters, and our priests and bishops. We can incorporate these blessings into our regular morning and evening prayers.