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.