THE RIGHTEOUS CERTAINLY SHALL NOT DIE!

“I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” 

(Ps. 117:17).

     We see that apparently everyone dies so who can say: I shall not die? There are among men those who cleave to the living God during this present life who can positively say: I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord, also some see the living Lord before them. Scriptures tells us that Enoch and Elias did not die but were taken alive up to heaven and immortal life, which confirms the truth that there is life that never ends.

     Jesus Christ’s all important work during His incarnation is in His death and resurrection, part of His perfect plan for victory. Throughout the Church for two-thousand years we joyously celebrate Pascha, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead! Christ is proof of the resurrection of all mankind either  into eternal life or eternal death according to what they choose in the present life, The apostles and many Saints died but many of them appeared to men from the other world proving further that there is life after death. The whole goal of Christian life is to become worthy of everlasting life in the heavenly kingdom. Both those who were taken up and those who died are alive with Christ in the immortal kingdom.

     Each of us Christians must fully realize and proclaim to others that we possess  eternal life which we received by our faith and trust in Jesus /Christ, the Life of the world.  The Devil was the instigator who deceived man causing death to enter the world. Christ destroyed death’s power and through faith in Christ we are granted eternal life in place of eternal death and punishment.  King David with great certainty proclaimed: “I shall not die but live and proclaim the works of the Lord.”  We too, like David must be able to say with conviction: I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord.  The risen Lord is the foundation of our Faith and our eyes have seen and our ears have heard more than the eyes and ears of King David.

     The devil is the enemy of both God and man and Christ victoriously took away his authority among men whom he had previously tyrannized. The devil found that he had become similar to smoke following the resurrection of Christ, and death has became like a fog through which we pass into the beautiful sunny fields of immortality.

Death to unbelievers appears to be the end of everything but among all men there exists the concern about what happens after death, there is concern but little genuine interest. For they know in their consciences and too a degree realize that they should somehow prepare for the life which most certainly follows the present life.

     Knowing that there is life after this life, and that we have knowledge of good and evil it follows that we must realize that we are free to think and choose as we will, and will have to answer. With this freedom which God has given us there came a great responsibility, and scriptures speaks of this in many places.  For we will be judged by our works and be rewarded or punished accordingly. He sent His apostles to establish the Church and bring the many people into it. God desires the salvation of all men and all men should desire their own salvation if they desire life. 

Let us rally under this banner: “I shall not die but live . . . ”, for this is the truth which we received from the Lord, who victoriously put death to death and granted us eternal life and the great mercy.  Jesus sent His apostles in this manner:  “and when He had said this: Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you remit are remitted unto them,  whose sins you retain are retained to them” (John 20:22-23). The preaching of the Gospel and forgiveness of sins are now about two-thousand years old and are still maintained in the whole Orthodox Church, used both at the  preparation for Baptism and during the mystery of Repentance. 

     If we live the good life in the Church, dedicate our entire lives to Christ, partaking of His honorable mysteries, we may be ranked among the righteous and be enabled to joyously declare: “I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord.”  Christ is risen from the dead having destroyed death’s authority for He trampled down death by death and gave life to all that had previously died in faith and hope.

CHRIST SAYS: “SON, GIVE ME YOUR HEART!”

“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;that you may be rooted and grounded in love, and that you may be able 

to comprehend \with all the Saints, what is the breadth, and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ

 which beyond knowledge.

(Eph. 3:17-19).

     Christ chooses to dwell with love in any human heart, but only if He is welcomed by the impotant virtue of faith of each individual. You cannot bring Christ into your heart just by reading His words or keeping some of His sayings  for Christ must be invited by genuine faith. 

Christ enters the heart when faith calls and with Christ love accompanies Him. Thus man is established and grounded in love.

      First faith followed by love filling the soul with inexpressibly good things. Man is not fully man without faith in Christ so what shall we do  if faith is weak? We must turn to Christ and realize that He is the Lord, the only good one and is totally worthy of the trust place in Him. This will increase our faith and by strengthening our faith we overcome more and more the estrangement between ourselves and Christ the Lord, for it is our firm belief and faith which draws us to Christ, who comes quickly to those who approach Him in faith 

     When the heart is filled with Christ it cannot be separated from Him, just as a lung cannot be separated from air. When the connection of faith is accomplished, tears begin to flow and in the soul  of such a man the prayer ascends: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me a sinner.” The change taking place in the soul is magnificent and because the heart becomes filled with light while embraced in His divine love.

 

   The words of Christ are powerful, especially when he says: “Son, give me your heart.”  It is a demand and not a plea for the most important thing we can ever do is respond and give our hearts to Jesus Christ, who will reward us with everlasting life. 

     “That you may be rooted and grounded in love . . .” The love of Christ does not isolate itself by remaining with certain individuals, but is meant for each member of the human race. Christ excludes no one for His love includes all men and His invitation to come to Him in faith addresses all those who receive the love of Christ, seek to increase that love by spreading it among as many men as possible, for love always begets more love.

     The love of Christ is described as being “beyond knowledge” for it is not possible to describe it adequately. No matter how much we attempt to describe His love it remains beyond all knowledge and is far beyond our ability. Scripture speak of its dimensions ,such as height and width but cannot  describe it adequately. 

     The beginning of man’s journey begins with his birth, then later He develops faith in Christ and His  Orthodox Church leading to perfection which his love for Christ. He continues his journey and soon  he increases his love for Christ and is peaceful, and lives a life that is beautiful, as is filled with Christ and his love.  

     Our life on earth is short and passes by very quickly and so there is a very limited time for our faith to be to be changed from faith to the love of Christ. The love of Christ is great and is filled with joy and happiness and love is the only  reason and purpose for our living this short and temporary  present life. There is so much more and much to do to be established in firm and lasting faith in Jesus Christ, and we will soon be filled with His love. This will put us on the path to life everlasting life.

 

 

DO NOT INSULT GOD!

“The fool says in his heart; there is no God. 

They are corrupt and become abominable in their doings” 

(Ps. 13:1)

    We are all aware of our own existence however we do not ignore the existence of the rest of mankind who exists together with us. It would be rude to just ignore those around us as if they didn’t exist. How much more is it an insult to God to deny that He exists! For He created everything, the earth, the sun, light and darkness, air and water and everything else, all that was needed for His most important creature – man!   He did not only casually call us into existence but formed us with His own hands and breathed into us His own wonderful spirit which gave us His eternal life, intellectual powers, our feelings, and so much more!

    However there are many who heap great insults upon God, for they recognize their own existence,  and that of all creation, but foolishly deny the existence of the Creator and God of all. Thus they consider the Creator and God of all as a non-being. How does it affect a man to deny the existence of God?  Such a man cuts himself off from everything good and the evil one who knows that God exists, convinces him to deny what is  obvious to him. After cutting himself from the spirit of God, the evil spirit becomes his mentor and so he his thoughts and actions become evil/

    Scripture refers to the denier of God as being a fool, “the fool says in his heart; there is no God.” When a man. becomes a fool, he is also mindless and cannot think properly, but as expected the fool says only foolish things, therefore what he says is to be ignored as being empty words which are worthless.   No matter what their status in life, even if men exalt them as being wise, the fools remain as fools before God and logical thinking men.

    Some men who do not believe that God exists point out that they do many good works, but he who does not believe in God is unable to distinguish between good and evil. If we look closely at the good works done by unbelievers we will see that their works of necessity are corrupt, worthless and transitory being contrary to the will of the living God.    

    Scriptures says of such unbelievers, “they are corrupt and abominable in their doings.” When they think they are doing good it can be evil but they are unable to distinguish, for God is Truth and man has need of God to distinguish good and evil.

    There are others who acknowledge God with their lips but not with their heart and so they are ranked with unbelievers for you must not only have faith in God and believe but also you must love the Lord with all your heart, and if we are right before God then our entire life is right.

Evil thoughts come from the evil spirits and evil thoughts produce evil works and deeds. Lacking faith in the true and living God causes our whole life to become filled with confusion. God formed us in His own image and bestowed upon him every good thing that he possess for everything good comes from God.   We honor the Lord our God and glorify Him, for He is good and the Lover of man.

     Concerning the existence of God, we know that he formed man from out of the earth and gave him intellect, feelings and freedom to be able to decide and act.  He formed the sun with the correct distance and brightness doing everything for the sake of  man. He formed the stars by which man could navigate and the moon  made for the lesser light of night. He put food everywhere and taught man what he should eat. God took good care of man leaving nothing undone for man is the crowning glory  of God’s wonderful creation.                                                                                                                                                                                                       

ON THE FAITHFUL AS ONE BODY AND ONE SPIRIT

“One body and one Spirit” (Eph. 4:4).

     The Holy Orthodox Church is one Body has one Spirit but one Head which is Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul calls on the faithful to be united together as one body and one spirit. The oneness and unity is found among those having pure unadulterated faith without division or heresies and who are not self-willed.

The conditions of ‘one body and one spirit’ are only possible to those who believe everything the Church taught correctly. That is why those who embrace the heresy of ecumenism cannot be one with the rest of the Church, for ecumenism does not seek to unite those outside to enter the  Church through the door of baptism by three immersions. 

     Scripture warns: “A man who is a heretic, rebuke him once or twice and then have nothing more to do with him.” We can rebuke them with love but but we must never falsely address them with names such as “churches” and Chistians, or Christian brothers. Ecumenism opens dialogues with heretics, calling them Christian churches and brothers in Christ. But this cannot be done for it is falsehood and violates Orthodoxy’s exclusiveness as the one and only true Church.

     The papacy calls itself the only true Church and many Orthodox Christians believe this falsehood,

For the Pope exalted himself and broke from the Church, then preached for these hundreds of years, that the Pope must be obeyed, that the Pope has infallibility, and that salvation of man is found in believers of these falsehoods. We could make a long list of the Papacy’s innovations, any one which would cause them to be outside the Church, which we have done before, but will publish it again.

     We will mention one thing only. One day the papal crusaders were attacking the Holy Mount Athos, and at this time an elderly monk was in a wooded area singing an akathist before the icon of the Theotokos. Suddenly She began to talk from out of her icon and said to the monk: “Mine and my Son’s enemies are coming leave from this place and go back to the monastery.” The Crusaders attacked in the name of the Pope of Rome, warming that is the Orthodox didn’t change and join up with the Pope, they would be killed. Eventually many Orthodox were killed producing many martyrs, killed by water and fire and the sword. The important ingredient in this article is that the Virgin Mary, our Theotokos, referred to the Roman Catholics as “mine and my Son’s enemies”. The Virgin’s words are honorable and are accepted by Faithful Orthodox Christians, but probably not by those who seek union instead of conversion and baptism of these heretics and then bring them into the real Church – Orthodoxy!

     The members of the Church  always constitute the one Body, but they also need to be established in one mind and one spirit The Church must be strive to always be united in love and peace, which is what one spirit accomplishes. The strength and power of genuine Orthodox spirit and love is the greatest power in the world, and brings salvation to many. The many church members become united as one man. The love and power found in our unity is the same love and power found in the Church for the last two millenia.

     So we must take a keen interest in all activity and communication in the Church striving to preserve  everything that is holy and true. It is the duty of every Orthodox Christian to take part in this preservation by rejecting innivations and heresies from creeping into the holy Church. Being one in Body, we must strive to becoming one also in spirit. 

Asa

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