Logic and the mystical

Over the centuries, logic has earned a bad reputation and negative labels,  such as "cold", "rigid" or "impersonal". But like any tool, these kinds of labels only apply when the tool is misused.  Do we condemn knives because they can be used to kill people?  Do we ban automobiles because thousands die, each year, due to negligence in their use?  Or even more extreme, should we make water illegal because many die in its embrace?  To all three, we answer,  "no".
So too with logic.  Just because people try to use it to justify crime,  immorality and manipulation, does not make the tool immoral.  As a former private high school teacher,  one of the biggest mistakes I have seen made is that of teaching logic to high school students.  First of all, from my experience, until someone learns how to love and live self sacrificially, they will never use logic properly.  High school students are far too proud, irrational and self centered to be able to handle a tool like logic, properly.
The other problem is that a contrast is often made between logic and the mystical, as if they are polar opposites. These two ought not be held against each other, as if they only work against one another.  They are complimentary and in fact, build one another up, when used properly.
In the historic Christian faith, the spiritual/mystical is a very real portion of our beliefs.  There is much in life that is simply beyond the rational /irrational dichotomy.  Mysticism is outside of this categorization.  But it is not illogical.  Often times, someone will say, "well that simply doesn't make sense.  It's illogical." When what they actually mean is that it is not part of their belief system.  It is something that does not fit into their worldview.  Big difference.
To be able to say that something is illogical, one must understand the standard that is being used to judge that particular.  While belief in seven day creation may seem ridiculous and illogical to someone who denies the existence of God,  this doctrine is perfectly reasonable to a Christian.  But one would expect nothing else.  To label the virgin birth as nonsense only exposes ones lack of understanding of Christianity.  The virgin birth is perfectly logical, and in fact, expected, in the Christian worldview.  If one believes in the Triune God and understands how that God has acted throughout history,  one would expect a virgin birth, when reading the gospels.
So the mystical details of the Christian faith;  the Eucharist, the regenerative nature of baptism, and the expectation of sanctification in the life of the Christian by the right use of the sacraments and confession/repentance, are understood within the Christian worldview, they are all perfectly logical.
What this really comes down to is the necessity of our being able to think clearly and the willingness to work through the details of our faith.  If we feel the need to defend our faith.

Gates of hell

A fairly well known passage in Scripture (Matt 16:18) speaks of Jesus establishing his church and the gates of hell not prevailing against it.  There has been a large amount of discussion about this passage over the centuries, most of it in defense of the Roman Catholic church.  But I have been thinking, as of late, about the straightforward meaning of this passage.  Regardless of ones opinion of the church of Rome, Jesus makes an incredible promise here.  The church will never fall.
It really is that simple.  All of the modern day hoo-ha about end times, the mark of the beast and the rapture is nonsense, in light of this passage.  Satan is not going to gain the upper hand,  the church is not going to be driven off the face of the earth.  Satan is not going to rule, for any length of time.  Hell will not prevail.
Aside from the fact that dispensational premillenialism has no support from Scripture or the history of the church,  this passage destroys such pessimistic nonsense.  God has promised to give, has given and continues to give the Holy Spirit, for the direction of his church.  He is never going to leave us or betray us.
Simply stated, the church will always stand and she will always be filled by and led by, the Holy Spirit.

Responsibility

Everyone has some form of responsibility in their life.  Some more than others,  but no one is exempt, even those on the extremes,  monks and convicts.
Primarily,  we have responsibility for ourselves.  If one listens to American culture, we should be responsible for our health, for our retirement plan and for the financial future's of our offspring.  While these things may be all good and right, they are far from primary.
I would like to use a metaphor to make my point.  If one is training for a marathon,  should he be concerned that his clothes color coordinate?  Or that his fingernails are well trimmed? Definitely not the first point and only the second point, if it is far down the list of things to address.
The one training ought to be concerned with caloric intake, with adequate sleep, and ultimately with proper training, shortly said, getting out there and running, alot. But this responsibility of determining which things are important to address and how to address then will be controlled by our final goal.  If our goal in running in a marathon is to have our name on a list and possibility our picture in the paper as "a marathon runner", then we likely will be concerned about color coordination.
If our goal in life is to live as long as possible in order to obtain as many possessions as possible, then yes, we will be concerned about our retirement plan and our savings account. But if we call ourselves Christian,  we really should have a different perspective.
What are doing to prepare our souls for eternity?  When we die (at what time we do not know), we will step into the immediate presence of absolute holiness. Are we ready for this? Have we been working toward the love of God and the despising of evil? Or have we spent our time distracted by entertainment?
And I have only addressed ourselves at this point.  What about those others in our circle of responsibility?  Our spouses, our children,  our loved ones,  our neighbors? What are we doing to help direct others toward holiness?
God has given us the church, his Word, the sacraments and one another to prepare for eternity.  We have our own sinful inclinations, the temptations of the world and and attacks of evil ones fighting against us. It will be hard work, a battle, an uphill climb.
Let us make use of the tools that God has given us and not be distracted by the easy life of modern America.
Far too much is at stake.

Three voices

As of late, I have been watching instructional videos on interpersonal communication.  One particularly interesting concept introduced is that of the three voices with which we speak: the parent voice,  the child voice and the adult voice.
The child voice is, as one would expect, the voice/approach to communication, that we used when we were children. The parent voice is the voice we use when we are instructing or leading someone.  We are speaking from a position of authority. The adult voice is one we use when we are speaking with an equal,  dialoging to achieve an agreed upon goal.
Each of these voices has its place and it is our responsibility as adults to use the appropriate voice. Upon becoming an adult, the child voice is one that is supposed to go silent.  The child voice is that one that whines, complains and points fingers.  Unfortunately,  far too many adults still use the child voice.
Learning to recognize these voices and put them under conscious control is our responsibility.  And it will certainly be to our advantage to do so.
But as interesting as all of this is, the really interesting part of this appears when we apply this to our faith.
From the initial call of God to Abram, out of Chaldea, up to the time of Christ,  God dealt with the Jews in a parent/child manner.  God spoke in the parent voice and the Jews responded as children, thus, the children of Israel, which is all good and fine, as they were children. One very important point to see here is that of external law.  When God dealt with the Jews, it was all in an external, legalistic,  "follow these rules", fashion. It was very straightforward and clear.  God gave the instruction,  his children were to obey.
But with the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus, this all changed.  The law (the old covenant) was fulfilled and would very soon pass away.  By AD 70, it was all over. Jerusalem was destroyed,  the Jews were scattered and the church was flourishing. And how was God dealing with his people, the church, now?   He had given them the Holy Spirit, in their hearts, no longer written on slabs of stone.  God became man, so that man could become God, i.e. God restored us to our place WITH him,  not under him or groveling at his feet.  Sons not servant,  in one sense, equals.
God now speaks to us, no longer as children,  a firm parent speaking to an immature child,  but as grown sons, dialoging as we strive toward holiness,  a synergistic work,  God and man working together to achieve a desired goal.
Let us learn to respond to God's voice to us, as adults, not children.

Christianity in Russia

People will argue that the Orthodox Christianity in Russia really is not a legitimate religious practice, but simply a cultural one.  That people there are not really Christians because the religion with which they identify is identified with only because it is the culture of their country, not their personal faith.  But to argue as such really misses some important points.
Yes, it is true that the Christian Orthodox faith is the culture of the nation of Russia.  And I cannot overemphasize just how valuable that is.  Those in the US cannot conceive of or understand what this means.  The USA was founded on rugged individualism and religious freedom.  But both of these things are contrary to the Christian faith, but in different ways.  We are not rugged individuals.  The Christian is part of the body of Christ and should be involved in a very regular basis in the life of the church.  This means weekly communion (at least), and living the calendar of the church.
The situation in Russia has that as its lifeblood.  While it may be true that many there do not practically live out the Orthodox life, what is true is that that life of community and church as center is.  I have heard that the common, everyday Russian, when walking by a church, will cross himself, religious or not.  This is amazing.  This means that even the non religious, regular guy on the street, has reverence to the church in his blood.
The very positive end to this is in the massive power of influence the church will have on the lives of people.  The church is not viewed as a small sliver of ones existence, that is given a cursory nod, maybe once a week, or maybe even just on Christmas or Pascha (Easter).  For many Americans, religion is relegated to a personal relationship with Jesus, that may or may not involve church attendance, but is definitely something that is kept to ones self. 
In Russia, the church is the ebb and flow of life.  In smaller towns, this is seen even in the architecture of the city.  The church is actually the center of town.
It really comes down to what is central, what is foundational, what is the basis of society, even at the subconscious level.  Russia has retained that foundation of church, even through the horrors of the Soviet era.  Unfortunately, America, if it had it at one time, has walked far away from that kind of foundation.

2 Timothy 3:1-5

For some reason, this passage came to mind this morning, and I have been thinking about it all day,  especially verse 4, where we are told that men will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. So I thought I would share some thoughts on the passage.
The apostle Paul, the author here, is writing to Timothy, a young pastor of a first generation church.  Timothy is of Jewish heritage and his church is a mix of former Jews and Gentiles.
As the chapter starts, Paul is explicit,  "in the last days men will be....." First things first.  We must not stumble on the meaning here.  We must not miss the Jewish elements so prevalent here.  As Jesus had fulfilled all the requirements of the old covenant,  it is passing away and will soon (in the original readers context) disappear.  And this has happened with every single other instance of covenantal judgment for covenantal unfaithfulness, so too now with the Jews rejection and crucifixion of Jesus.  God's ultimate act of love for his covenant people only resulted in their final rejection of him.  So now, the covenantal judgment will fall, death will come upon those who have rejected the new covenant head,  Jesus.
These are the last days of which Paul speaks.  The time of the old covenant and the Jews is coming to an end.
Paul gives a list of what the lifestyle of these people will look like: lovers of themselves, lovers of money,  proud, blasphemous, etc., etc. I want you to notice a couple of things here.  First,  these are men guilty of blasphemy.  Blasphemy only makes sense in a religious context.  As verse five says, these men have a form of godliness but deny it's power.
These are the Jews of whom Paul speaks.  These perilous times are referring to those people who claim a very religious life, yet live a life of selfish debauchery.
Two things must then be asked.  One,  what is meant by "lovers of pleasure"?  On one hand,  who alive is not a lover of pleasure?  Which one of us does not look forward to sleeping on a comfortable bed, in a warm house,  driving to work in a climate controlled car to work in a climate controlled office?  We choose from a myriad of culinary possibilities, the possibilities unparalleled at any time in history.  We wear comfortable clothes,  are meticulously clean, healthy and well rested.
Is this what Paul is talking about? Not specifically. It is important to recognize that we cannot compare our lifestyle with that of previous centuries.  What is normal and balanced for us today, would be sheer opulence  200 years ago.  We must look at comparative context.  Paul here is talking about a heart issue.  Paul is talking about the loves that direct our lives.  Do we live for pleasure?  What is on our mind, when we are not preoccupied with the necessities of life? Are we focused on scrumptious meals,  luxurious vacations,  mindless entertainment,  the opposite sex? Is our life and the money we earn focused on the pleasure and entertainment of the this temporal life?  This is what Paul is talking about.
Second,  what do we do about it? We need to wake up.  We need to step back and look at what WE are doing and spending.  Don't look at anyone else, don't compare yourself to anyone else. Where is your heart?
Paul tells us to turn away from such people.  If you are one of those people, Paul is telling you to change.
Perilous times were coming for people such as these in Paul's day.  The same will only be true for men in our day, or any day.  While temporal judgment is no longer hanging over us, we do still have the final judgment ahead.  This is not a judgment for sin,  Jesus already took that upon himself.  This is a judgment of responsibility.  What have we done with the life, love and power that God has given us in Jesus Christ?  Have we squandered it all on trinkets and empty entertainments?  Have we spent all of our time distracting and pleasuring ourselves?
The responsibility of the gospel is right in front of us. Don't miss it.

Balance

An interesting point was made the other day that really set some things in order. It was the idea of not glorying in our successes. That phrase should sound odd. Of course, I am not suggesting that we glory in failure. The idea that I want to suggest is that of balance.
Much of how we handle our successes or failures has to do with our view of sanctification.  Our natural response to a successful endeavor is usually happiness.  So far, so good.  But another fruit of success can often be pride.  Especially in the realm of temptation.  If we successfully ward off some form of temptation,  we may immediately be tempted to think highly of ourselves and our spiritual maturity.  Which will immediately lead to a fall into some other sin. Usually because we are nowhere near as holy as we think we are.
But on the other hand,  when we fail, we may be tempted to give up and consider ourselves beyond forgiveness. So where is the balance?
When we successfully avoid any particular temptation,  yes, we should be pleased that we resisted sin.  But we should immediately respond with thankfulness for God's continued intervention and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We only succeeded because of the grace of God. We need to make it an automatic response of caution and attention.  We need to learn to know ourselves,  where we are weak.
And on the flip side of this, when we fall into sin, the only thing God wants from us is repentance and confession.  We fall down and we immediately get up again and keep working at holiness. Instead of beating ourselves up, we need to recognize why we fell and not make that same mistake again.
Repentance, confession and humility.

Interpreting circumstances

Interpreting circumstances is a dangerous endeavor, especially when they are our own.  It is a fairly common practice in Christendom to try to interpret those things taking place around us.  We hear things about God doing this or that or not doing such and such, for some reason.  But the problem is our own extreme limitations, and our tendency to be selfish.  The human life is such short period of time, our own experiences and understanding of history is so incredibly limited and our overall vision of the current state of all things puts us in a position where we really cannot speak with any authority or understanding, when interpreting how circumstances appear or ought to be.

In most situations, we simply do not have enough wisdom or understanding to be able to say, “X is best” or “Y should have gone like such and such.”  But this is not about being fatalistic.  Because the very foundation of who we are is built on love of God and love of neighbor, we must strive to live out that command to love, in the best way that can.  Our understanding may be limited, but we must still act according to principle and conscience.  And when things don’t go the way that we think they should, we must have faith in the love and direction of God.  We are never assured of understanding any particular circumstance. 

We are required to have faith.

Covenants identity and details

One of the arguments that modern evangelicals post against covenant theology is that of identity.  They say,  "God called the Israelites his people. He would not leave them just in order to embrace a different bunch of sinners."
But then it occurred to me. God didn't leave the Israelites, they left him.  There is a  regular pattern in covenant theology.  Each time the current leader of the covenant dies, the rest of the people fall into horrible sin.  Judgment them upon falls, God raises up a new leader,  leads  some of the people through that judgment, and gives more details of his covenant.
This is exactly what has happened with Jesus Christ.  Jesus took the identity of Israel upon himself,  suffered the judgment for Israel's horrible sin,  but God raised him up and lead the few faithful Israelites through that judgment.
He has now given them/us the New Covenant.  God didn't turn his back on the Jews.  He provided a way for them to pass through the judgment against the Old Covenant unfaithful.  Those that listened and followed the new covenant head came into new life and the New Covenant.  Those that didn't turned away from his offer of salvation.

Consideration of worldview

I would like to try to combine a few thoughts that have been plaguing me as of late, of which I have written here.  Some groups within the Christian fold claim that no one can be genuinely happy unless they are a Christian.  And that if someone claims otherwise, they are simply lying because they do not want anything to do with God.
But I have a hard time with that.  I know a pretty wide range of people, many of whom are not Christians, and they seem to project an image of happiness or contentedness.  Maybe it is all a facade, but it would impossible to prove.  Here are my thoughts.
When a child is growing up, his parents communicate to him, both consciously and unconsciously, that things are important, what things are to be sought after and what things are not important.  The child then begins to think on his own, and in most cases, will follow in the path that his parents have started for him.  If he grows and is successful, according to the standards that have been set for him, by his parents and his culture, he will have a sense of accomplishment and contentedness.  Sometimes, upon achieving that goal, or at least hovering around that goal, if some level of spirituality is not included, the child will realize a sense of something missing and will seek out that missing spirituality.
But here is the hard part.  When a child achieves the success that parents and culture have set for him and there is included a sliver of morality/spirituality, there is a fuller sense of accomplishment and therefore no need to seek anything further.  They have achieved what they were raised to achieve.
But this level of temporal accomplishment is far from what the historic church has always held as valuable. Being comfortable, wealthy, healthy and distracted is possibly the greatest foe to achieving holiness.  But if that goal of holiness has never been communicated, but something else, with a sheen or morality is in its place, that holiness will not be pursued or understood as valuable.
This is why the modern form of American Evangelicalism is failing in America.  No need is seen for pursuing holiness, when happiness is already present, when the pre defined goal has already been achieved and the shallow, relatively ignorant and short sighted religiosity is incapable of answering the attacks of critics.
It is easy to stay distracted when the world is at our fingertips, when we are comfortable and when the goal that has been fed to us our entire lives is already in hand.  The church needs to respond.

Interpretive Framework

Protestants handle the Bible just like Muslims handle the Qoran, like Buddhists handle the Book of the Dead and Hindus handle the Bhagavad Gita.  As if all we have is a collection of letters from a now practically absent God, who will return at some unknown future time, to judge us all for what was written.

The Orthodox Church handles the Bible as one aspect of how God communicates to us.  We now serve a living, present, active God, who leads his objective church, by his Holy Spirit.  The Church recognized, canonized, and interprets the Bible.  It is handled and understood properly only within the framework of the church. 

This is why the Protestant world is fragmented.  There is no final authority to whom appeal is made in understanding Scripture.  It has all been reduced to private interpretation.

Learning to Balance

1) information in the world around us

2) acting on that information from a Christian foundation

3) offering prayers on that information

4) understanding that most things are beyond our control

5) understanding that all things are ours to pray about

Religious Freedom

I have been reading about the large scale resurgence of Orthodoxy in Russia.  Technically, Russia has been an officially Christian Orthodox nation since AD 988, when the government embraced Orthodoxy as the national religion.  With the exception of the small blip of soviet atheism beginning around 1920, Russia has been Christian.  Since the fall of communism, there has been a massive building process currently taking place.  In Moscow, currently, there is an official plan to build 200 Orthodox churches.

But some people are complaining.  The claim is that the government is showing favoritism to the Orthodox, at the expense to the religious minorities in the country.  But I have to ask, “would you expect anything different?”  The country is historically Orthodox.  There are currently no laws in place that forbid any citizen from believing and practicing a different faith.  But there are laws that limit the activity by those practicing other faiths.  Why would it be otherwise?

One important thing to remember in this regard is that Russia is not the US.  Russia was not built upon the supposed religious freedom of Protestantism.  We cannot judge the Russian nation by Protestant standards or ideas.  The nation of Russia is Christian Orthodox.  The depth of that religious practice in its people is not a discussion topic at this point.  I am talking about the official religious status and the structure of the culture.

Should not a nation be free to choose its own religious path and/or be free to practice that faith without interference from other foreign religious influence? No one seems to complain that Saudi Arabia is officially Muslim, or that India is officially Hindu or that Thailand is officially Buddhist, or even China’s official atheism.  All of these places have official positions of religious tolerance, but practically speaking, differing religious practice is difficult.  But it is a situation that one would expect, especially in a nation that takes its religious faith seriously.  Perceived truth ought to be embraced and practiced truth.

I would suggest that “political correctedness” has taken control.  We need to strive to be Orthodox, not culturally PC.  There may be a difference.

Instruction

In the Protestant world, particularly within Calvinism, the standard approach is to learn as much as you can.  It is a very academic world, built around knowledge and understanding.
But the historic Orthodox world is quite different.  This is not to say that Orthodoxy is anti-intellectual, far from it.  The historic church contains some very brilliant minds.  In Orthodoxy, the emphasis/goal is theosis. In short, we are to become a much like God as is humanly possible. So this means we must strive after purity and holiness.
With that in mind, the idea of obedience comes to mind.  Two things here: The Orthodox faith is very organic and we do not lose our individuality when we become part of the church.
Very high on our list of things to seek, is a spiritual father.  This is someone who has been a faithful, mature Christian for a long time and has much wisdom.  When we find that spiritual father, his wisdom and instruction is for us. We cannot, safely, take the specific instruction from another father and apply it to ourselves, indiscriminately.  Specific wisdom is for specific people at specific times.
In short, we no longer live under law, by which we follow a set of rules.  We are now under grace, filled with the Holy Spirit. God has given us godly examples we are to emulate and learn from.
Find a spiritual father and learn to obey.

Seeing but not believing

In my multiple interactions with atheists,  I often become frustrated at their varied responses, which really summarize down to one thing,  "give me some verifiable proof, so that then I will believe."
But it just occurred to me (literally). When we read in the gospel accounts of Jesus' resurrection, in three different responses we see a common theme.  When Mary saw Jesus at the tomb,  when the disciples saw Jesus on the road to Emmaus, and when Thomas was told of first hand accounts of Jesus' resurrection,  none of them believed upon "seeing" Jesus.  It wasn't until they interacted with him, that they recognized him.
It will be the same with atheists.  No matter how strong or passionate our explanations and arguments, they will not believe.  Atheists need to interact.  The atheist needs to seek out and interact with God before they will believe.
Let us pray that they have that opportunity before they pass into eternity.

What Jesus accomplished

There exists a wide variety of thoughts concerning what exactly it was that Jesus actually accomplished in his death and resurrection.  None of the answers or explanations of the Protestant world ever really sufficiently answered it for me though.
And then I became Orthodox. It's funny how different things appear when looked upon from a different angle.  Stranger still, in becoming Orthodox, I became much more covenantal in my thinking, moreso than I ever was as a Calvinist.
We see it like this.  Jesus died for the world.  This means that Jesus' death was exhaustive and complete. His blood was shed for all mankind,  for every single human that ever lived or ever will live.  Does this then mean that all men will go to heaven?  Am I arguing for universalism?
No.
We can look back through the Old Testament and observe how God had always dealt with his people.  When we look at the Jews, coming out of slavery in Egypt,  they were, all of them, the people of God.  They were in covenant with him.  But in Old Covenant typological fashion, those who were unfaithful to their covenantal responsibilities did not enter the Promised Land.
Another example is seen in the "once a year Levitical sacrifice.  Once a year, the high priest would enter the holy of holies and offer up a bloody sacrifice for every single Jew.  Every single one of them had his sins covered.  Does this mean that every single Jew enjoyed the covenantal blessings? No, but only those who were faithful to their covenantal responsibilities.
I hope by this point you see where this is going.  Even though Jesus died for every single human being,  we still have responsibilities.  We are called to purify ourselves, to love God and to love neighbor.  If we spend all our time building our portfolio to ensure a comfortable retirement,  we have our priorities wrong.
Jesus died and rose again, not so we could be comfortably well off, but so that we could pursue holiness and love.

Uphill battle

I may have written about this before, but it is in the forefront of my mind, so I'll bring it up again.  Forgive me if I am repeating myself.
I'll start by saying that I believe my present lamentation "is the way it is supposed to be." In other words,  the longer we are Christians and really trying to progress in our sanctification,  the worse things around us will seem/be.
There are many analogies that could be used to describe this.  For example,  a bank teller handling cash,  an art expert assessing fine art, the symphony conductor criticising his musicians.  All of these situations share at least one thing, exposure. The more one is exposed to "the real thing", the more glaring and repugnant the imitations become.
For the Christian,  the longer we focus upon, strive after and long for an ever deepening relationship with God,  the uglier and detestable the things of the world become.  The really difficult part in all of this is our sinful nature.  Our stupid, fallen flesh constantly drags us down and lies to us. And far too often, we believe it.
The other hard part is our lifetime here among it all.  We are here in fallen America, with all of its comfort and ease,  having to struggle against the "normalcy" of our culture.  It it's a difficult, uphill battle.
If I would only keep my passions at bay, follow my heart instead of my passions and flesh,  I might actually make some real progress.
But alas, stupid me,  wallowing in the ease of modern day America. Pray for me, a sinner.

New President

I believe that this election is possibly unprecedented in US history.  I have never seen such an extreme difference in candidates, to the point that the followers of one candidate despise the other.  Be that as it may, the reality is that Donald Trump is our new president.  Love him or hate him, he is the man, so we better get used to the idea.
This leads me to the protesting and rioting that is taking place in highly Democratic areas.  I really have to wonder, do these people actually believe that rioting, violence and vandalism is an appropriate response to their dislike for Mr. Trump?  How does spray painting “F*ck Trump“ on someone elses vehicle constitute a reasonable protest?
Trump is our new president, but will not take office until January 20, 2017.  Why don’t we simply wait and see what kind of president he will be?  Instead of responding to what we think he might do/be, why don’t we wait and then respond to what he is actually doing?
We have been using the electoral vote process for over 200 years and everyone has been pretty much happy with the process.  If you don’t like it, then pursue legal (and effective) methods for changing it.  Breaking the front window of a local business is hardly a reasonable response to the success of the presidential candidate that you don’t like.

Setting the Bar

I’ve spoken before about judging others and judging ourselves. The first is very easy, the second is very easy to get wrong.  A different aspect of this came to mind, and that is the idea of where we set our bar.  In other words, the goals/standards that we set in any/every area of life will determine how our life plays out.  The thing that really stimulated this line of thinking is that of raising children.  So often we hear about so-and-so’s kids are “such good kids”.  This is all fine but by what standard are those child being judged?  If we as parents set a standard or a “bar” that we expect our children to attain, we ought to be aware of how it is that we are actually determining that standard.

If we set the standard very low or set it according to worldly standards, it would be pretty easy for a child to be labeled as “good”.  Whereas if we look to those in the past, or those within a markedly Christian culture, we will find that the label “good” will be much more difficult to attain.  I suppose determining our expectations requires some real wisdom.

One very difficult aspect of this is the responsibility of helping our children attain these goals.  As is typical of goal setting, we choose a goal that we would like to attain, but have not yet done so.  In other words, we may be choosing goals for our children that we ourselves have not attained, which introduces a real difficulty in leadership.  Especially when we can only provide a bad example.  Children will follow our actual example far more than our verbal instruction.

The end result of this thought process should be two fold. One, we must deliberately think through and establish a realistic but yet worldview appropriate standard for ourselves and our children. And don’t be afraid to seek out help in this regard.  Two, it will be of no value to us to judge, critique or analyze other people in this regard, for their standard may be way out of alignment with what we regard as “good“.  This even goes as far as seeing others children and lamenting why their kids seem so “good” when our own seem rebellious.  It may be that their standard would not be acceptable to us.

This is not about “the ends justify the means” but instead, “x” is our goal, we should not compromise to successfully attain a lower standard.

The media

I personally don't put much value on our political system.  I think it has strayed far from its original form.  I think too that much of it is controlled by special interest groups.  But, be that as it is,  they are still in power.
The other side of it is the media.  They too have strayed from honest journalism and also are directed by special interest groups. 
So, with those two points in mind, we can consider what is happening in Syria.  One cannot believe what the media is telling us, nor can we believe what our government is telling us.
I'll just offer one warning. Always question what you are told, in this regard,  for much goes on that we don't hear about,  for reasons we don't know.

The point

"God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life." Anyone who has been around for long enough must realize that the way these words are defined are probably not done so in the way the recipients of these words initially expect.
What I am saying is this. While these words are very true and exactly right,  the Christian path is hard work.  We are to strive after holiness while we live in a culture that doesn't.  We are the odd ones.
Life with God is wonderful,  but it is a lifetime of fighting against sin and our own passions.  Life is bootcamp.

Fasting

The very unAmerican and foreign practice of fasting is actually a regular practice in the historic Christian church.  Christians have, from the beginning, consistently and regularly practiced fasting. But what does that mean?  In Scripture, we see a few examples of people doing a fast.  But these are the extreme, total fasts, like Moses and Jesus, both, on a mountain, eating nothing for forty days.  This is not what they church encourages us to do.  Not to say that the church discourages us from doing these, but the regular practice of fasting in the church is different.
The Orthodox church has, in its yearly calendar, a regular cycle of fasting.  You can look here to see the calendar for our current month: calendar.
What is the point of fasting?  For the Orthodox church, fasting is a tool to help us learn self control.  We practice a regular cycle (weekly) of fasting from certain foods, at certain times, to learn to be able to say no to our flesh/passions/desires and focus on prayer and things spiritual.  The church gives very general directions about how to fast and from what food and one can receive specifics on fasting from their priest or spiritual father, if something in the general instructions is unclear, or if you think you see yourself as an exception from these, for some reason (medical or otherwise).
The simple fact is, fasting is very valuable.  So much of our lives, especially in modern day America, is about instant gratification and having a multitude of choices, instantaneously.  At this point in time, we can pretty much have whatever we want, whenever we want it.  This mentality is very bad for our souls.  This sort of thinking/practice totally gratifies our flesh and our passions, which is the exact opposite of how we grow and mature in holiness.
We can really see the wisdom of God, in the church, for fasting really does work.  It is far more difficult to do than it sounds.  To have a refrigerator full of food and only allow one self to eat what is directed by the church is a struggle.
When we combine this sort of fasting with extra prayer, reading and church attendance, the long term results are amazing.  Just like someone who has committed to jogging everyday, one does not necessarily see immediate results, but in the long term, one will eventually be able to run a marathon.  Fasting is one of the tools the church has given us to help us grow in holiness.  We learn to turn away from our passions, we learn to fight against sin, we learn how to love God and love neighbor and we learn how to see into our hearts and repent of the sin we find there.
Here is a link to some good books on the practice of fasting: here.

Our children

How do we train up our children to love the pursuit of holiness? For one, to love holy things, they need to know what these are.  To love holy things means to love those things that will purify our souls and draw us to God.  Meaning also they need to learn to not love unholy things.  This is tough to do in modern America, with the constant barrage of godless media and instant gratification.
What is best way to teach them to love the pursuit is holiness? It's definitely not by lecturing them. They need to see us loving this, first and foremost. The details of how to pursue this needs to be put before them. Fortunately, the church has the tools to do so, and the church is eager to move us this way.
Of course, one of the most difficult aspects of all this is their maturity level.  The pursuit of holiness is very hard work and a serious matter of self denial and an attention to things not material.  Children are immature and "play" focused.  This is a big obstacle to overcome.
Probably the best place to start in all of this is to pray for them.  St Seraphim of Sarov has a great love for children. We should ask for his intercession.

Unseen

Kind of like seeing your own eyeball, seeing and critiquing one's own worldview is rather difficult.  One of the best tools for accomplishing this difficult task is the spiritual father.  The church has established for us this wonderful blessing.  We need to take the responsibility of using the tool.
The spiritual father is one who has spent many years and effort in cleansing his soul from sin and learning to listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  This is so incredibly foreign to our modern American thinking that it almost sounds ridiculous.
The spiritual father is one who can see our hearts and our weaknesses and guide us toward holiness.  He can see things that we cannot see.  He is familiar with the lies that we tell ourselves and that the demons tell us.  He knows how to avoid certain sins, how to work past certain sins and how to repent.
The hard part is finding one, for as Paul tells us in 1 Cor 4, there are not many fathers.
The place to start is your local Eastern Orthodox church.

Refusal

It's been awhile since I have academically interacted with atheists, so this recent activity has been interesting. One thing that atheists repeatedly miss and misunderstand is that of categories.  Whenever the subject of God comes up, the atheist always demands some sort of proof, something empirically verifiable.  But as I point out, over and over again, they are confusing categories.  You don't ask what blue sounds like, you don't ask about the texture of yellow, you don't mine diamonds with qtips.  In the same way, you don't understand the things of God by scientific study.
And a recent revelation has moved me to the point of not even engaging atheists any longer.  One atheist actually said, you Christians can offer no proof.  Even if you managed to show something, we wouldn't believe because it might be a hallucination.
In other words, atheists refuse to believe.

Hell as algebra

It is both sad and maddening.  If you listen to atheists and even many Christians, God is a homicidal tyrant, ever waiting to damn us to hell, if we don't behave exactly right.
I have been interacting with some atheists as of late and have been trying to clarify the Orthodox position.  And I came up with an analogy.
Imagine you are in high school algebra class.  You are one of those students who sleeps through most classes, never studies and rarely does homework.  Your teacher warns you over and over but you don't listen.  The semester comes to an end, you miserably fall the final exam and you receive a failing grade. Whose fault is it?
So too our earthly life.  We have been born into life, free of charge and we receive instruction, daily. If we choose to pay attention, do what is required to learn and God examines us and finds that we have worked out our salvation, we can come into the glorious presence of God.  If we fail, it's not God's fault.  If we have not prepared our souls for eternity, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
Jesus did his work of freeing us from the power of sin and death, we need to work out our salvation and sanctify our lives, purifying our souls.

An experiment in music

As some of you may know, I am a huge lover of music.  My appreciation of music covers a very wide range of styles, with the exception of county and marching band.  Other than that, I can see the skill, or lack thereof, in many didn't genres.
As of late, something has popped into mind.  I have noticed that my appreciation of Orthodox church music is in a completely different category than my appreciation of any other music style.  Initially, my thought was simply that, because church music is music for church, ones like or dislike would need based on one's view of church. In other words, I appreciate Orthodox church music simply because I am Orthodox.
But I think there is more to it than that.  I am starting to think that 99% of music is made from a very worldly, temporal perspective.  It seems that music is created out of one's passions.  This would explain why the "best" music (or even just art in general) is made by people who have done sort of issues, whether due to really bad childhoods or did sin/perversions in their life.
If this assessment is correct, then the conclusion we must draw is something painful.  If all music, with the exception of actual religious music (and I'm not talking about contemporary Protestant music, that's just bad all together), is based upon and created out of the passions, then listening to it would only move us into passion instead of into things godly and eternal.
I don't think I like where this is going...
Any thoughts?

Atheists

At a foundational level, the atheist denies the existence of deity based on the idea that because proof cannot be given for the existence of deity, they cannot exist.  But they are confusing categories.  They want a tangible, physical, logical proof for something that is not in those categories.  To use an illustration, they want to know the color of sound.  As a side note, it seems that many of them don't want answers, they just want to argue.

Part two

As i began in my last post, I'll try up finish here.  Having our priorities in proper place can only happen when we understand what is actually important.  We all have very many little things that are important for the moment.  This happens because of so many decisions we must make.  If we are not monks, then we live in the world and thus have wants, needs and responsibilities.
But not being monastic does not mean that we cannot be godly.  We all must strive after a path of godliness, regardless of how full our plate is.  The challenge is in discerning the plates contents.
Especially living in America, it is far too easy to get distracted with all that takes place, far too much of it is mere frivolity.  Not being a monk doesn't mean we can waste our time on foolishness.
In short, assess where you are, don't get distracted by frivolity and give up what keeps you from the pursuit of holiness.  Temporal life is very short.  Out eternal life will be determined by this short time here. What are you doing to form your soul into one that is pleasing to God?

The money trail

If I told you that if walked down a certain road, you would be able to find $20 bills for every ten feet you walked, I can guarantee you would be there immediately and would walk a long ways, probably to the point of exhaustion.
I'm sure you can guess where I am going with this. The illustration is a metaphor of the Christian life. And like it or not, it's a very small picture.  That which we will gain by walking the path of sanctification of far, far greater than a handful of cash. Personally, I think the metaphor is somewhat childish, but still true.  My point in bringing it up is that the truthfulness of the metaphor exposes just how little we actually believe it to be true.  If we truly believed it, our lives would look different.  We would not be drawn away by every shiny bauble the world throws at us.  We wouldn't be wasting so much of our time on such foolishness and distraction.
The fact that we waste so much time shows us where our heart is at.

Football, again

Despite appearances, I honestly have absolutely no interest in American football, or any football for that matter.  But another illustration came to mind, in this regard.
Every since the NFL began, no one could simply throw together a couple of dozen guys in football uniforms and call themselves an NFL team. And even more so, imagine if there was a team in that league and they decided that they should be in charge and be allowed to make the rules.  Upon being ousted from the league, then began calling themselves alone the NFL.  No one would believe them and they would be ignored.
Why is the church any different?
From the apostolic time forward, those who followed and submitted to the apostolic teaching and authority were part of the church.  Then 1000 years later (AD 1054 actually), the Roman Church decided to claim to be the sole authority over the Christian church.  Upon being rejected as such, they tried to excommunicate the other patriarchates but then were themselves excommunicated.
This has been the situation every since.  Yet somehow, they now claim to be "the" church.  Of course, the Lutherans followed suit and then the multitude of Protestant sects followed after them.  Now we have multiple thousands of separate groups not in communion with one another and not in communion with the historic church.  Why does this not seem to bother anyone?
I think a good place to start is to recognize the wretched influence of individualism from America, upon everyone's thinking. As well as the influence of politically-correct thinking as well.  We need to start thinking more like Christ and less like the world, political correctness be damned.

Thoughts on heaven

As I have, of late, been thinking through the reality of the spiritual aspect of man, it has occurred to me that we actually know so little in this regard.  This thought led me to consider how incapable we most likely are of conceiving what eternity will be like.  In other words, I find it highly likely that we do not understand (at best), or are actually incapable of (at worst) comprehending eternity in the presence of God.
The way I see it, from the day we are born, almost every aspect of our lives is centered around the temporal. We eat healthy, we exercise, we go to school, to university and to work, all in the name of earning a good living and enjoying life.  But we pretty much ignore the spiritual side.  So it should come as no surprise that we would be completely ignorant of, or even incapable of, perceiving eternity.
I think that spiritual things are so foreign to us because we have almost nothing in our lives that moves us in that direction.  Even most churches focus simply on morality.  So to think about and formulate ideas about spiritual existence is beyond us. 
Someone said to me once, "I think eternity would get boring.  It would just go on forever."  While I can understand where they are coming from, their statement only makes my point.  If we understood our own spiritual nature, I don't believe we would ever conceive of being bored with the presence of God.  You cannot speak of that of which you have no point of reference.  If we put no effort towards experiencing or living spiritually, we cannot conceive or think of such a life.
I'm afraid for a lot of people.

New website!

For those of you interested, I've started a new website, www.orthrosgnosis.wordpress.com.  It consists of a commentary on the epistle reading for each Sunday, as based on the Antiochian Orthodox Church calendar (you can see it here).  Take a look, I appreciate your support and feedback.

Deception

We read many things in the news.  I have in mind, in particular, news about Putin, the middle east and the patriarch of Russia.  Most of what we hear is negative.  But we have to ask ourselves who is relaying this news.  Who is speaking and what is their worldview?  Many, many people are guilty of deception, not just non Christians.  But it occurred to me that deception comes from a lack of faith.  We twist and manipulate our words because we don't trust that God can and will work out all things for good.  We try to mold reality into our way of thinking instead of his. 
So when we read about something in the news, we need to remember that in most cases, those who are speaking may very well be, even subconsciously, manipulating the information, to fit into their worldview.
I think this practice is unavoidable, but we can make sure that what we believe is actually true and in line with the mind of Christ.

Judicial?

As i continue to interact with people and try to explain the gospel, it is becoming more and more clear just how organic and not legal our salvation is.  Certain groups want to reduce Jesus' work of redemption to a mere legal matter, a mere paying off debt so as to free us from obligation.  Others see Jesus' work as extremely limited, merely providing a starting point for us to go on to earn our salvation, by doing enough good.
Both of these positions contains some portion of truth, but really do miss the point.
Jesus' work and our subsequent salvation are all about relationship. Adam's sin gave death power over us so that we could do nothing about our situation.  Jesus' work of atonement took away that power so that we could then come back into right relationship with God.
This is not a legal matter but a relational one.  I don't know of anyone who regularly refers to their marriage certificate as defining factor.  Instead they focus on loving their spouse.
We need to do the same.  God is a person who made a great sacrifice to restore our relationship.  When we strive after loving him, we can only look forward to a glorious eternity.  God wants to be in a loving relationship with him.  He wants to see us holy and loving.  If we allow him, he will do what it takes to make us perfect.

Look at me, I'm......

We all need to think about how this sentence applies to us by filling in the last word.  All of us have something by which we classify ourselves as noteworthy.  Whether it be our appearance, our talent, our intelligence or a skill, whether developed or natural.  It's called pride.
I really want to emphasize the point of self examination, not others examination.  It is very, very easy to see and criticize the sins of others,  but usually not so with our own sins.  So the question then is, how do we finish this sentence?  And then immediately following, what can I do to change this mentality?
Very much like exercising, we need to find and work on our weak points.  One very important point in our lives as Christians is sanctification.  We need to be finding sin in our lives and root it out.  We will never succeed at this if we spend our time judging others and ignoring our own sins. 
So where is our source of pride?

Progress and immaturity

My wife and I, as of late, have been lamenting the seeming negative ramifications of technological progress.  From simply a practical perspective, there is so much time wasted on entertainment and distraction.  There are entire industries built around creating and maintaining entertainment, such that there are people whose entire waking lives consist of some form of entertainment.
To answer the first question that may come to mind, no, I am not becoming a Luddite.  What did occur to me though, is not so much the "Protestant work ethic", but the idea of the wonder of technology being foisted upon generation after generation of people who are far too immature to responsibly handle it.  I have nothing against entertainment, as a concept, the problem is that technology has advanced so quickly and has become so inexpensive, that pretty much anyone can live a lifestyle that exceeds even the imagination of the wealthiest and most powerful men in all of history.
As I said to my son the other night, imagine meeting someone from 100 years ago and telling them about a smart phone.  It would be so far beyond their comprehension that it would only appear as magic.  Or imagine describing the food harvesting, transport and storage capabilities we have today, to someone from 500 years ago, again, it would be so far beyond their thought processes.
At a time when we are capable of so much, with so little effort, there is still so much suffering and deprivation.  If people were responsible enough to use our technology and wealth to actually help those in need, there would be no lack, anywhere.  But we, sinful and selfish as we are, can only complain when our fast food meal doesn't come fast enough.  We complain when we have to wait ten seconds for an internet page to load.
It is far beyond time that we grow up, learn to love others as much as we love ourselves and learn to use the wonderful technology we have to love our neighbor and help those in need.

Progress and conclusion

As i am being subjected to the music of the guy in the office next to me, it has occurred to me why New Age music seems so vacuous.  It doesn't go anywhere.  When you listen to the classical or baroque composers, their music travels.  It has a specific beginning, climax and conclusion, New Age music does not.  It picks up with a catchy and typically playing melody, goes for awhile and then stops.  I would compare this to walking in circles. 
I would argue that this sort of destination-less music is unchristian simply because it does not tell the truth about reality.  Our lives are never stagnant, we are either growing our diminishing.  We are moving forward toward our goal or we are sliding backward.
This is really more of a philosophical statement than a critique of music. 

Disposable

The question that came to mind was this, "Is the idea of "disposable", compatible with the Christian worldview?"  As technology has moved further and faster along, we have become a disposable society.  Everything from furniture to electronics has become disposable.  When something wears out or breaks, we throw it away.  In the past, things were built to last, to be repaired.  For example, my parents owned a chest freezer for approximately forty years and only got rid of it because it was too large for their needs. 
It seems to me that this mentality is a consumerist mentality.  It moves us away from building something in an excellent manner, to last.  Instead, it is designed to fail in the short term, only to be replaced.  It seems to feed to idea of getting the next bigger and better thing.  It seems to pull us away from being content.  It seems to move our thinking toward being distracted with "things". 
I don't really have a conclusion or answer to this, the thought has just come to mind.

Soul destroying words and deeds

This phrase really caught me this morning during the divine liturgy.  In our materialistic America, our attention is, almost exclusively, on the physical.  We are paying more and more attention upon what we eat, and drink, the quality of air, going organic and non-gmo.  These things are all good and fine but we are mistakenly focusing on only half the picture.  The concept of the spiritual being anything other than "going to heaven when you die", is almost completely foreign to the average American.  Unfortunately, much of the attention that is paid to things spiritual comes from Hindu or Buddhist thought, in the form of new age. 
The thing to think about is this.  God made man body and soul, as a complete whole.  We need to start paying attention to and addressing, our spiritual selves.  We need to avoid the mistake of even thinking of it as one part of us.  The spiritual is really the other side of the coin.  But don't listen to the world or to other religions, the church has specific teaching on tending to our souls.  We need to start recognizing soul destroying words and deeds. We need to start learning how to avoid them.  We need to learn to repent of them.
Soul destroying words and deeds are actually far more important to address than diet and exercise.  The latter only affects (for the most part) our temporal bodies, but the former affects our eternal souls.  Think about that for a while.