HOW THE FAITHFUL MUST GROW

“Speaking the truth in love we may grow up into him

 in all things, which is the head, even Christ, 

from whom the whole body is fitly joined together” 

 (Eph. 4:15).

     How we must conduct our earthly journey holding to the truth as we abide in love. Truth comes from Christ and He left us His perfect example of genuine love for He is both truth and love and  originates in the Father who is the source of all, so one cannot embrace truth and love apart from Jesus Christ. He is our only true path to truth and love however there are many false paths.

    In the epistle of Paul he reminds us that we are no longer children, tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.  Only God can reveal truth, while human thoughts come like wind and were we were left only to our own thoughts we would fall into many errors for truth  is assured only in the words of God in Scripture and in the historic fathers of the Church.

     The world loves to speak if its material and scientific thought and ideas which have created great progress. None of the inventions of science could be achieved without God’s permission and cooperation. For example medicine was discovered in various plants and animals. But is this real progress in important knowledge? Men have lived the same way over the centuries, and there was a time when there were not things like autos and trucks, airplanes and parachutes, giant skyscrapers and every other type of fancy or difficult building. So they are progressive in material things, but what about becoming sick and dying, human misery and crime? For death is our inevitable destination but not the end of our existence, and men flee from both sickness and death, but fail to even look for a solution in most cases. For we are properly destined to grow in grace and love and not just living for  the temporary things of this world all of which we will leave behind when we depart from this life and enter the domains of death. “We must progress and grow as He commands in all things that are important, by following Him who came down from heaven for the specific reason of setting us on the correct path which  leads to eternal life.

     As scripture reads, Christ is the one only Head of His Body the Church, for it clearly says above: “Christ is the Head from whom the whole Body is fitly joined together.” The Church is the living Body of Christ to whom faithful Orthodox Christians are “fitly joined together”. Christ is the Head of the Church, therefore divine Orthodoxy being the one and only Body of Christ glorifies Him as their Head.  Because He is both God and man He alone can be Head of the Church, and. 

Papal claims by the popes as being heads of the church and  their being the one and only true church are in total disagreement with Holy Scripture, which firmly establishes that Christ is the only head of His only Body, the Church.

     The most important thing missing from the papacy in its false domination is that it preaches a totally different gospel than it once taught and not the gospel which was given to us. They do not fast or teach fasting as Orthodox do for 200 days of the year. They do not teach that they and the faithful must become perfect like the Father in heaven. Any one can follow their teaching with little effort.  If you Goggle “the Roman Catholic Church” and you will see.  

     The papacy changed holy communion substituting it with unleavened wafers in place of leavened bread and wine.

They changed the sacred creed of the church by adding the falsehood that the Holy Spirit “proceeds from the Father and the Son.” In doing this they contradict Christ who in the Bible wherein He says that the “Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father” the papacy added also “and from the Son” which is a falsehood. Because they have abandoned the holy Orthodox Church  to which they had once had belonged For a thousand years, also because two churches of Christ is an total impossibility. Orthodoxy to this day remains the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church which preserves all doctrines and every dogmatic teaching. Orthodoxy always has a single divine and human Head, the Godman Jesus Christ, while the papacy Christ established many heads who are ordinary sinful men and then they invented a new teaching which they   bestowed upon their popes which is the insane doctrine of papal infallibility.

GREATLY FORBEARING JOB

“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; 

blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21).

     Those who faithfully keep God’s laws have nothing to fear because everything will go well with them. God will never forsake the righteous.  The above quote is from the Book of Job, who suffered after being very well to do and bore his deprivation and physical suffering well, always remembering and offering his fervent prayers to the Lord.  

     Job had seven sons and three daughters; he had riches and honor before his friends and all people. He faithfully worshiped the true God, who gave him many possessions and He treated Job well. The messengers came one after another telling him of his sudden losses. He ended up with the loss all his possessions in a day. Instead of turning to God in complaint, he fell to the ground and offered his regular worship. And he said: “I came out of my mother’s womb naked and naked shall I return there.” Then his health failed him and his entire body became covered with boils that were very sore.  After a time Job’s wife urged him to deny God but the righteous man said to her: “If we have received good things at the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things.”

His friends spoke up and chided him, saying that he was a sinner and proud of himself and of his possessions and deeds. However Job prayed ardently to God as he patiently endured his sores and tolerated his great misfortune.

     What happened is the Lord let all these misfortunes come onto Job testing not only Job who was His servant, but also Job’s relatives and friends whom God was testing and teaching. Then God restored Job to health and he ended up with twice as much wealth as he had before, also God gave him seven further sons and three daughters. Job therefore received much more than he had lost.

Job and all the faithful give thanks to God for everything He bestows for it all comes from the Lord. Also they give thanks to God for what He does not give them or what He takes away from them. Because it is God whom they worship and not just the goods they receive from Him. The faithful receiving things from God offer Him thanks, when God takes away, they bless Him: “Blessed be the name of the Lord!”

     In this faithless world, we the faithful must never neglect giving thanks to God for all that He gives to us, and if He does take things away, we must bless Him for He alone is good and the Lover of man.

     He who has strong faith will see that God cares for him and always will, especially during his time of suffering. Gratitude should be so strong within our souls that we are continually offer Him our thanks for His infinite mercy, loving kindness and great generosity.

     God used Job as a living example to teach us to be thankful for the good which we continually received from God, and if bad times should come, we should bless Him even more for it is God whom we should love and honor.

      Loving God is not a selfish love but is real and genuine love, which give our beloved God all the good we possess. What is the highest good in our possession? It is our soul for without our soul no other possession has value. That is why we offer our souls completely to God and there is something else. When we love God our love for our brethren and other men increases proportionately and soon our whole life is about love. If men would learn and practice divine love, there would be great improvements in the human race. With love peace and warmth comes to the hearts of men causing them to return that love as they live in peace and happiness.