Criticism

How often do we mutter under our breathe at the "dumb" drivers that we are stuck behind?  How often do we watch the news and shake our heads at the "foolish" criminals, who commit ridiculous crimes?  It is very, very easy to criticize and see the foolishness of others sins and shortcomings.  But are we willing, are we able to do the same with ourselves?  You can be assured that other people see our sins and shortcomings and respond in like.  Jesus talked about this, the whole log in the eye thing.  We need to learn to apply this to even the tiny little things in our daily lives and those around us, not just the "big" sins.
Criticize yourself first (and ruthlessly) and you'll probably find that you don't have time to criticize others.

Loving Ones Enemies

I just heard a homily today at church on loving ones enemies.  This has to be (as our priest pointed out) probably the most difficult action to carry out.  We so often work on the principle of self-service, instead of thinking of others first.  When someone is angry with you, it is as if they are under attack from a tiger (an illustration penned by Elder Porphyrios of Mt Athos).  If we truly loved people, we would see their anger as an attack that they are under.  Our response should be love for neighbor and prayer for them, instead of an angry response.  Of course, without the love of God and the direction of the Holy Spirit in us, this is almost impossible.
Make this your prayer this week, to love our enemies.

Pride part 2

To continue the thought on pride, an even sadder situation is when the pride that is held onto is based upon the "glory of youth."  A tragic foundation has been built upon here in America (and probably elsewhere as well) that youth is to be sought after, at almost any expense.  Everyone wants to be young looking.  Whether its in physical appearance or clothing or speech, being young is astoundingly embraced and glorified.
Even worse, the "wisdom" of the young is embraced as well.  Instead of the young being silent and learning from the older and wiser, the young tout blogs, books, and chat rooms.  Its really sad when a 25 year old man graduates from college is believes that he is wiser than all those before him.  What this comes down to is that idealism is not recognized for what it is, and instead is labeled as wisdom.
Ultimately, humility ought to be the thing we strive after.

Pride

The church fathers speak of pride as the most basic sin, the one that leads to so many others.  You can see this especially in religion.  So often we think we have such great understanding, knowledge, and wisdom when it comes to the things of God.  We see things that happen and we want to interpret them.  Unfortunately, we interpret them according to our own extremely limited perspective.  We can actually see and understand so little.  We have lived such a little tiny slice of reality: small in time, small in location, small in influence, small in everything.  Yet we think that we can look at the good and bad things that happen and rightly interpret them.
For the Catholic and Protestant, this is especially tragic, because they ultimately "must" look to their own interpretation.  For the Orthodox, we can look to and trust in the body of Christ.  Jesus is our head and the church is his body.  He has provided for, protected, and given the Holy Spirit to lead, the church.  We don't have to depend upon on own ridiculously small understanding to try to make sense of the huge picture of history.  God has given us the church as the pillar and foundation of truth.

Idiocracy is on its way!!

You have got to watch this incredible video.  Mark Dice is gathering signatures, pretending that Karl Marx is running for President in 2016, with Obama full back and support.  Amazingly, many, many people sign it.

Check it out:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0azojPPRhw&noredirect=1

Question of doctrine

Here is a quote from Tertullian:

“Where diversity of doctrine is found, there, then, must the corruption both of the Scriptures and the expositions thereof be regarded as existing….”  Tertillian (160-225AD)

This brings some thoughts to mind.  There are one of two things going on.  Either one doctrine is correct and therefore all others are wrong, or doctrine per se doesn't matter and all the doctrinal debates and arguments are not worth the effort.  How then does one decide upon the truth or error of a doctrinal position?  Too often it comes down to who is the better debater.  But this is wrong.
Would God really leave this all of this so ambiguous?  Would God really leave us without direction?  The book of John (I believe) tells us that the Holy Spirit has been given to us for guidance.  And the only way that works is if the Holy Spirit is directing the Church, as a whole, not as a bunch of individuals.
(Hint, hint: The historic Orthodox Church)

Responding to a sinful culture

In the mid 200's, when Christian monasticism first started, it was in response the the growing popularity and subsequent watering down of Christianity.  In short, those Christians who were working very hard to make every aspect of their lives be in agreement with the faith, felt forced to flee from the growing worldliness and temporality of "pop" Christianity.  Their response was to run away.
What then should we do?  It seems that while arguably, the United States was started as a Christian county, the US has become a melting pop of easy believism and ecumenism.  It is very easy to be a very passive and milquetoast Christian (if there is such a thing).  Do we follow the example of the monks of the Egyptian desert and flee from this bastardized American version of the faith?  What is the right response?

Passions

The church fathers speak of the passions.  These could be thought of as "the energy that moves us to do things."  What this really comes down to is that we so often, or even usually, do things because we "feel" like it.  What we eat and how much.  What clothes we wear.  What things we say.  The entertainment we choose to take in.  In most cases, we choose these things because we feel like it.
This is a problem.  It has become such a part us and in fact, it is the way we are inclined to live and move, because of our sinful nature, that it seems "normal".  But living by the passions is anything but normal.  It is not the way we are supposed to live.  Living by the passions is like a fish that wants to live out of the water, it only leads to death.
We must learn to motivated by and live by love for God and love for man.  Doing things because it is the right thing to do, because it is the loving thing to do, or both.  As we continue forward in our path of sanctification we will continually move towards being more like Jesus Christ and less like Adam.

Static vs Dynamic

     The church fathers have commented that someone is either increasing or diminishing, in regards to their faith.  That someone is never static, or at a plateau.  Our lives as believers ought to be dynamic, we should always be growing: in our love for God, in our love for others, in our understanding of who God is and our relationship with Him.  We should be growing in our understanding of others and our relationships with them.  This is not to reduce our faith to merely an academic exercise.  I am talking about love for God and love for man.
     But there certainly is an academic side to all of this.  When you love someone else and spend time with them, you automatically come to know them better, and this includes all kinds of details, some important and others trivial.  The wonderful thing about God is that no detail about Him is ever trivial.  We ought to be striving to know him better, including in an academic sense.  Knowing the text of Scripture and knowing church history are two ways that we come to know God by seeing how He has interacted with and treated His people through time.
     One more very important point.  Learn to read Scripture and history by imitating the saints.  We can fabricate all kinds of novel and interesting ways of reading, but that is really not helpful.  Learning to read and understand in the right way makes all the difference in the world.

Update on Maaloula

Here is a really good, short video on what the Islamic rebels are doing in Maaloula and how the Syrian army is trying to protect this Christian village.

http://rt.com/news/syrian-village-maaloula-fighting-555/

It is definitely worth watching.

Just like heaven, sounds like hell

People often use these kinds of phrases, in a semi-literal sense, as if they have some sort of idea of what heaven or hell are like.  One time, upon exiting a rock concert, I overheard a parent say to a small child, "You hear that?  Its straight out of the pit of hell."  Think about what is being said.  As if there is any music, of any kind, being created in hell.  Or when people see something beautiful, they say, "Its just like heaven."  This is, at best, silly, at worst, blasphemous.  Sadly, our thoughts and ideas about heaven and hell have been formed by things like Dante's Divine Comedy, fire and brimstone preachers, and our own passions.
We must strive to have our thinking be in agreement with the Scripture and the Church.  I encourage you to do a study of Scripture and see what it actually says about heaven and hell.

Correction on Syria

After listening to a talk given by an Archbishop of the Syrian Orthodox Church, I learned that Syria is technically not a "Christian" country (contrary to what I said in a previous post), but is a secular country.  What this means is, two things, while the government led by President Assad is not pro-Christian, it is not anti-Christian either.  I have heard from numerous sources from Syria that Christians have been allowed to live and worship in peace under Assad.  Which will not be the case if the US takes Assad out of power.  If the rebel groups are empowered by the US and topple Assad, then pro-Muslim (read: anti-Christian) groups will make life and worship very difficult for Christians.  But this is no different than what has happened in every other Middle Eastern country that the US has gotten involved in and aided Muslim rebel groups in.

Please pray much for this situation and tell your Senator that the US should not strike Syria.

Update on Syria

The news on Syria only continues to get worse.  I have to ask why no one seems to have a problem with the US government supporting a rebel group comprised on militant Muslims.  See this article concerning Gen. Salim Idriss, leader of the Free Syrian Army.  As the Washington Post was speaking to Gen. Idriss, his group was preparing for an attack against the Christian mountain village of Maaloula, north of Damascus, which has remained loyal to the regime since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in 2011.  The US involvement in Syria is boggling to the mind.  Have we completely lost all sense of right and wrong?  And even common sense?