WE DO NOT SEE CHRIST BUT BELIEVE IN HIM

WE DO NOT SEE CHRIST 

BUT BELIEVE IN HIM

“Whom having not seen, you love, though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable” (1Pet. 1:8).

We have not seen Him, yet believing we rejoice!

     Peter the Apostle beheld Christ with His eyes and loved Him and in this passage he is praising those who love Him but have not seen Him with their own eyes. We may think that seeing Christ with our eyes make it easier to love Him. But love without physical sight is special, beautiful and sublime. For whether we see Him or not has no affect on our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who formed us in our mother’s womb, suffered and went to the Cross for us and is the  nourisher of our entire lives. 

     We died with Christ  to the old man in triune  baptism, and coming up from the water with the risen Christ into His glorious Resurrection!  We receive Him into our being by communicating with His body and blood. We keep Him in our minds and hearts with the fervent longing to be with Him to the close of the age, and for eve    !  We can frequently communicate with  Him, study and  absorb His words in the Holy Scriptures.

We also intensify our love for Christ by praying to Him together in the church and also in our homes. We love him by beholding His eternal presence with the Father and are enlightened by His light which illumines our souls. Christ is the life and light of Orthodox Christ filling our minds with light and warming our hearts with His infinite love.

     Although we have not physically seen Christ, we can certainly have Him dwelling within us just as we can always dwell in Him. Christ is seen not only with our eyes but with all our being for He is our God and Creator and the source of our being.

     Our relationship with Christ depends mostly on the intensity of our love for Him, and we can check our love in the following way. Each day during our prayers we can examine our love, by how well we keep His commandments during our daily lives. For He says to us all:  “If you love me keep my commandments.”   By conducting our lives according to His teaching we show our great respect and deep love for Him, for He is our kind and merciful Teacher.

     We can do as did the woman who is betrothed to a wonderful husband, and while he is away she remains completely faithful and yearns for his return. When we conduct our lives a according to Christ by knowing and keeping all His commandments we show the love in our hearts for Him who  we do not see with our physical eyes, yet His great love continuously fills our minds and hearts. 

     Knowing Christ to be the eternal Son of God born eternally from the Father and in time as the Son of man born in time of the Holy Virgin Mary and we glorify Him, the only Godman..

     Loving Christ fills our souls with great comfort and consolation for there can be no greater love in our entire lives than the love of Christ, our King and our God. We rejoice  seeing His image in the Holy Icons, on the Cross, or in His Mother’s arms. We partake of Him in His precious flesh and blood. Experiencing His great love us, we are overcome with His gladness which nourishes our hearts and enlightens our minds.

     On the great and holy Feast of Pascha we joyfully join everyone in singing: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death; and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.”  “Pascha! Great and Holy Pascha!” This Feast of feasts continues for a whole week, and we sing the Paschal “Christ is risen . . .” m hymn for forty days after Pascha,

     We praise the Holy Virgin and we sing: “Magnify my soul Christ the Lifegiver, who rose from the tomb on the third day.  Shine, shine, O New Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Dance for joy and be glad, O Sion. And you pure Theotokos rejoice in the rising of your Son.”

WE DO NOT SEE CHRIST BUT BELIEVE HIM

WE DO NOT SEE CHRIST 

BUT BELIEVE HIM

“Whom having not seen, you love, though now you do not see Him, 

yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable” (1Pet. 1:8).

We have not seen Him, yet believing we rejoice!

     Peter the Apostle beheld Christ with His eyes and loved Him and in this passage he is praising those who love Him but have not seen Him with their own eyes. We may think that seeing Christ with our eyes make it easier to love Him. But love without physical sight is beautiful and sublime. For whether we see Him or not has no affect on our love for Christ. He is the one who formed us in our mother’s womb, and who nourishes our entire lives. 

     We died to the old man in triune  baptism, and coming up from the water with the risen Christ into His glorious Resurrection!  We repeatedly receive Him into our being by communicating with His body and blood. We keep Him in our minds and hearts with the fervent longing to be with Him to the close of the age.  We frequently pray to Him and we study and  absorb His words in the Holy Scriptures.

     We also show our love for Christ by praying to Him together in the church and also in our homes. We love him by beholding His eternal presence with the Father and are enlightened by His light which illumines our souls. Christ is the life and light of Orthodox Christians, enlightening our minds and warming our hearts with His limitless love.

     Although we have not physically seen Christ, we can certainly have Him dwelling within us just as we can always dwell in Him. Christ is seen not only with our eyes but with all our being for He is our God and Creator and the source of our being.

     Our relationship with Christ depends on the intensity of our love, and we can test our love in the following way. Each day during our prayers we can test our love, by how well we keep Christ’s commandments during our daily lives. For He says to us all:  “If you love me keep my commandments.”   By conducting our lives as He teaches we show our great respect and deep love for Him, our kind and merciful Teacher.

    We can do as did a woman who is betrothed to a wonderful husband, and while he is away she remains faithful and thinks and yearns for him most of the time. When we conduct our lives a according to Christ by knowing and keeping all His commandments we show the love in our hearts for Him who  we do not see with our physical eyes, yet His great love continuously fills our minds and hearts. 

     Knowing Christ to be the eternal Son of God born eternally from the Father and in time as Jesus Christ of the Holy Virgin Mary and we glorify Him, the only Godman who is begotten of the Father before the ages.

     Loving Christ brings great comfort and consolation to our souls for there can be no greater love in our entire lives than the love of Christ, our King and our God. We see His image in the Holy Icons and we partake of Him in His flesh and blood. Experiencing His great love, we are overcome with His gladness which fills our hearts and lightens our minds.

     On the great Feast of Pascha we joyfully sing out: “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death; and upon those in the tombs bestowing life.”  “Pascha! Great and Holy Pascha!” This Feast of feast continues for a whole week, and we sing the Paschal “Christ is risen . . .”hymn for forty days after Pascha,

     We praise the Holy Virgin with the following hymn: “Magnify my soul Christ the Lifegiver, who rose from the tomb on the third day.  Shine, shine, O New Jerusalem, for the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Dance for joy and be glad, O Sion. And you pure Theotokos rejoice in the rising of your Son.”

CREATION OF THE WORLD

CREATION OF THE WORLD

“In the beginning God created heaven and earth” (Gen. 1:1)

   These historical words were recorded by the Great Moses through whom God revealed His actions of creation, that everyone would know that they were God’s words. Moses is recognized by much of the human race as being the man who recorded the history of creation as God revealed it to him. The greatest error of unbelievers is that they fail to recognize that God  alone is uncreated and is therefore the Creator of everything that exists. Before, during, and after creation God exists. Time has both a beginning and an end, hence all creation has a past, present and future.

     Some men raise the unreasonable question: Who created God? The question is invalid because God is not created, but He is the all wise and all knowing Creator of all that exists. He creates matter and from it forms  beings, and many of which are dominated by man. Although man rules over much of  creation yet he cannot live without the sun, moon and stars, the rivers and streams, oceans and lakes, trees and forests, birds and bees, earth and plants. Man must gulp down air continuously needing created things to survive all through his life. He needs continuous supplies of water and food and without any of these he cannot survive. It was the will of the Creator who for His reasons made man superior in many ways, yet rendered him completely dependent for air, food and water. More than just being superior to other beings, man is created in the image of God, and his destination as God’s image is to also become His likeness, thereby becoming the image and likeness of God.

     In the past many people who were seeking a god to worship, ended up in idolatry worshiping various false gods or idols, and some ended up with a plurality of gods. Permissiveness abounded everywhere, for behind the false gods were demons who led men astray into countless sins and iniquities, such as murder, theft, adultery and drunkenness. The nations did not learn of the Creator because this was special revealed knowledge from God and taught to the Jews by Moses.  Man can be made known by His works in buildings, architecture, art, etc, and so the existence of an all-wise God can be seen in His works and creation which is filled with wonders and with the infinite wisdom of the Creator, and all of creation bears this out.

     It is not  possible for human beings to observe much of creation,  especially the human race, and fail to believe that there is a Creator who communicates with us and brought all things into existence out of nothing. To deny that there is a Creator is not only faithless but it is also illogical. For there is no other way to answer the question, where did matter and beings come from?  Man and matter cannot be self-created nor can they come from nothing. Even more difficult is it to admitting that there is a God, when the spirit of God is in men giving them their mental powers, and the freedom to think and do wonderful things. This is something to rejoice over for God is good to us giving us such wonderful gifts. From where does the spirit in men come if not from God? How can man who is the image of God, deny God’s existence?

     One man, in the history of the human race, spoke decisively about God and His creation, and that man was Moses. He wrote as God instructed him not having this knowledge in himself. He wrote: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”  All that has a beginning does not have a past. Moses gives his account of creation which is recorded in Holy Scripture.  This knowledge is as  necessary to man as is the world into which he is born and grows up. That is why Christ says: “Search the Scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life.” Knowledge of the created world is gained from the world itself and the Holy Bible. The world nourishes the body and the Scriptures nourishes the soul. Man observes the world and knows that it is not God, and it has a beginning and an eventual end. These truths are important to understand: God is not subject to time but is eternal, while the world being subject to time is not eternal. Time and eternity are opposing ideas time being born from eternity.

     The perfection in detail of the created world testifies to the wisdom and skills of the Creator who made heaven and earth. This fundamental knowledge is a beginning of much more knowledge. The philosophical schools of the West that fail to recognize the Bible cannot discern by investigation and study of the book that there is a God who is the Creator of heaven and earth. They either deny or ignore the God who created in the beginning the heaven and the earth.