Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
The aim of our life on earth is to return to grace, virtue, spiritual wisdom, and spiritual gifts. Since we have fallen from the life of grace our goal now is to return to the life of grace.
Seek therapy of your passions. The therapy is achieved through the sacraments and the whole Orthodox Christian life.
Be always humble. Be always simple. Be always practicing your spiritual work. Have always the judgment of Lord Jesus in mind in every event you encounter. Always seek the will of God in all your matters. Be always obedient to your elders. Be always fasting. Be always abstaining. Always seek the glory of God and non-glory for yourself. Be always guarding your mind and heart. Be always praying and chanting. Be always chaste, rejecting lust and lustful thoughts.
Humility resolves all problems. Humility resolves all disputes.
If we realized the stricter judgment of leaders no one would seek so easily to be a leader. Being a leader is something we should not easily desire. (See Wisdom of Sirach 7:4).
What we sow we reap. If we sow good thoughts, good feelings, good words, and good works, we reap good thoughts, good feelings, good words, and good works. (See Gal. 6:7).
Fast for your salvation. Give charity for your salvation. Pray for your salvation. Study for your salvation. Be humble for your salvation. Be obedient for your salvation. Control lust for your salvation.
Live in the world of good thoughts, good feelings, good words, and good works. If you live in such a world you will be free, happy, and blessed.
Reform yourself. Practice fasting, charity, humility, obedience, chastity, and love. Always think good, have good feelings, speak good, and practice good.
No king or queen should reign over another king or queen. That is, no person should reign over another person. Reign belongs only to God.
We are logical vessels of God having free will. If we devote our free will to God we are filled with grace, virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts. If we devote our free will to sin, we are filled with passions, ignorance, demons, and darkness.
Live in your own world of good thoughts, virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts. Keep away from persons who live in the world of bad thoughts, passions, ignorance, and darkness.
Do you understand the spiritual language? Or do you only speak the carnal language, the psychical language, or the natural language?
You cannot be cured of your passions unless you believe in Lord Jesus. It is the power and grace of Lord Jesus that cures the passions. With faith and hope in Lord Jesus we can be cured of the passions. After the cure we must remain humble, simple, and contrite, to preserve our cure.
Which group do you belong to? The unbelievers who bear no fruit? The cowardly who bear no fruit? The lovers of possessions who bear no fruit? The thirty-fold believers who bear thirty-fold fruit? The sixty-fold believers who bear sixty-fold fruit? Or the hundred-fold believers who bear a hundred-fold fruit? (See Matt. 13: 19-23).
Blessed are the humble. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the loving. But woe to the proud. Woe to the wrathful. Woe to the unmerciful. Woe to the envying and hating.
Always give positive advice. Never lead a brother to discouragement and despair.
What is the solution to conflict over food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance? The solution is one: humility. Humility resolves all conflicts and disputes.
Faith, humility, keeping the commandments, and the sacramental life of the Orthodox Christian Church, bring perfection, dispassion, deification, and salvation.
Profess humility, non-glory, non-wealth, and non-pleasure, and you will be free of disputes and conflicts, free and happy!
All psychological problems are cured by turning to your Creator. By the grace of your Creator you are cured of psychological problems, passions of soul and body, and bodily dysfunctions.
In all your psychological problems, in all your bodily problems, in all your economic problems, in all your social problems, seek the help of your Creator. Your Creator can solve all your problems.
Practice the commandments for your salvation. (See Matt. 19:17). Do not practice the commandments to be seen by men and to receive glory, honor, and praise from them.
Keep diligently the daily cycle of your rule and daily routine. With diligence you increase in grace, virtue, and wisdom.
In the Old Testament you could hate those who did you injustice in food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, or romance. In the New Testament you must forgive and love those who do you injustice in food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, or romance.
It does not matter if you are rich or poor. What matters is to live a quality life. The quality life is the life of gospel virtue and gospel wisdom.
You must partake of the atonement of Lord Jesus through the sacrament of Holy Confession. The sacrifice of the Cross of Lord Jesus is the atonement which judges and acquits us of all sin.
You must identify the six groups according to the Parable of the Sower. (See Matt. 13:3-23). The first group are the ungodly. The second group are the cowardly. The third group are the lovers of possessions. The fourth group are the thirty-yielders. The fifth group are the sixty-yielders. And the sixth group are the hundred-yielders.
Each group professes the corresponding way of life. The ungodly group practice and teach ungodliness. The cowardly group practice and teach cowardice. The lovers of possessions practice and teach love of possessions. The thirty-yielders practice and teach thirty-yielding. The sixty-yielders practice and teach sixty-yielding. The hundred-yielders practice and teach hundred-yielding.
Three groups don’t care about their salvation, and three groups care about their salvation. The ungodly don’t care about their salvation. The cowardly don’t care about their salvation. The lovers of possessions don’t care about their salvation. The thirty-yielders care about their salvation. The sixty-yielders care about their salvation. The hundred-yielders care about their salvation.
The world views those who seek non-glory, non-wealth, and non-pleasure as defeated. They do not realize that what has value, eternal value, is virtue, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual gifts.
When death comes glory disappears, wealth disappears, pleasure disappears. What remains is virtue or vice, spiritual knowledge or ignorance, spiritual gifts or exclusion from spiritual gifts.
Beware of the three opposers: the world, the body, and the dragon. These opposers resist our salvation and any discussion on salvation.
The aim of our life on earth is to live a gospel life in the hope of our salvation and eternal life.
The body wants rest, the body wants comfort.You must give it only the essential rest and the essential comfort.
By the power of our God, Lord Jesus, are we saved, and are able to be freed from evil and ignorance, and practice gospel virtue and gospel wisdom.
As a doctor is considered a true doctor if he can heal disease, so Orthodox Christianity is considered a true faith if by its power it can cure passions and ignorance, and save a believer.
Every God is considered true if he can deliver from sin, passions, ignorance, bodily disease and psychological problems. The God who can do these things is the true God. In the history of the world it has been only the Orthodox Christian God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who has done these things.
Lord Jesus is the true Messiah because it is by His power that we are delivered from passions and ignorance, and practice virtue and wisdom.
The Gods of the nations cannot cure passions, ignorance, or psychological problems. It is only the God of the Orthodox Christians: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who can do these things.
The aim of our life isn’t the increasing in wealth, glory, and pleasure. The aim of our life is for the sake of our salvation to increase in virtue, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual gifts.
The test of the Orthodox Christian Faith is if it can cure sin, passions, ignorance, psychological problems, bodily disease, cast out demons, and deliver from enemies, death, and Hades. All these are a test of the truth of the Orthodox Christian Faith.
Do not speak against any person. Rebuke them with humility, meekness, mercy, and love. Do not judge or condemn them. Remember that with faith in Lord Jesus they can be cured of all their faults.
Becoming betrothed to Lord Jesus is the call of every Orthodox Christian teacher. By faith and repentance a believer receives the betrothal of the Holy Spirit (See 2 Cor. 5:5). The believers who become betrothed must preserve their betrothal through obedience to the Holy Spirit. In the other life they hope to receive the marriage to Lord Jesus, the marriage of the Holy Spirit.
The betrothed to the Holy Spirit are characterized by humility, meekness, mercy, and love. The unbetrothed to the Holy Spirit are characterized by pride, wrath, non-mercy, envy, and hatred.
If we don’t repent and seek the atonement of our sins we will die in our sins. (See John 8:24).
Those who have willfully rejected Lord Jesus and His atonement have died in their sins. Without repentance, atonement, and forgiveness of sins, there is no salvation.
A gospel community can only be voluntary. That is why every gospel teacher only calls to the gospel life. To practice the gospel life stands in the faith and will of each person who is called.
Every gospel practitioner will be persecuted by the ungodly, by the cowardly, and by the lovers of possessions. These are the three groups which constitute the world, the unbetrothed to the Holy Spirit.
Protection is to have God on your side. Then the demons and cunning persons cannot harm you.
Lord Jesus is the Great Warrior, God, King, Priest, Prophet, Bridegroom, Sage. Lord Jesus is the defeater of sin, death, Hades, and the dragon.
What has happened to the wealthy, the glory-lovers, and the pleasure-lovers? Are not they long forgotten? But the non-wealthy, non-glory-loving, and the non-pleasure-loving are eternally remembered as good, wise, and virtuous. Do you see that true wealth and true glory are virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts?
To attain salvation is the aim of our life. To attain wealth, glory, and pleasure, is not the aim of our life. To live a life of gospel virtue and gospel wisdom leads to salvation.
In the New Testament you must forgive and love an enemy. Those who forgive and love their enemies are true Orthodox Christians.
Speak the spiritual language. Live the spiritual culture. Live the spiritual life in a material and secular culture.
Make the place where you are a spiritual abode, an abode of philosophers, theologians, spiritual practitioners, and saints. Day and night speak the spiritual language, talking constantly about virtue and salvation, spiritual wisdom and eternal life.
Wealth, glory, and pleasure, will be lost. What will remain are virtue, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual gifts.
Guard your heart from an evil feeling. Guard your mind from an evil thought. Guard your tongue from an evil word. Guard your eyes from an evil sight. Guard your ears from an evil word. Guard your body from an evil work.
The world only seeks food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. The Orthodox Christian seeks fasting, charity, non-glory, and non-romance.
The Orthodox Christian renounces food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance, and vows to live a life of fasting, charity, spiritual wisdom, humility, obedience, and chastity.
An Orthodox Christian must renounce overeating, stealing and overpossessing, worldly knowledge, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity. An Orthodox Christian must practice fasting, charity, spiritual wisdom, humility, obedience, and chastity.
You can fast in three ways: 1) By abstinence 2) By substitution or 3) By reducing the measure. These three do not pertain only to food but also to many other things we encounter in earthly life.
The three opposers are enemies of our salvation. The body, the world, and the dragon are enemies of our salvation. They resist our salvation and promote vice: overeating, stealing and overpossessing, worldly knowledge alone, vanity, disobedience, unchastity. We should not listen to the three opposers and seek our salvation by practicing virtue: fasting, charity, spiritual knowledge, humility, obedience, chastity.
Our true kin are our spiritual kin. Our spiritual kin understand the same spiritual language as us. Our natural kin are frequently alien to us, living and speaking an alien language, an alien existence to us.
Profess the virtuous life. Profess a life of gospel virtue and gospel wisdom.
Resolve to live a life of gospel ethics. Seek no praise or glory for your practice of gospel ethics, for we practice in part and prophesy in part. (See 1 Cor. 13:9).
The mystery of humility is the mystery of salvation. This mystery is unknown to the world. The world only knows competition and pride.
Know the mystery of faith in Lord Jesus. Know the mystery of humility, meekness, mercy, and love.
Live in obedience to your father and mother. Live in obedience to your elder in Christ.
Do every business you have to do as soon as possible. Success and blessing comes to those who act as soon as possible.
Be simple-minded. Be humble-minded. Be simple-hearted. Be humble-hearted. Be simple-tongued. Be humble-tongued. Be simply-dressed. Be humbly-dressed. Be a simple worker. Be a humble worker.
Be simple-eyed. Be humble-eyed. Be simple-eared. Be humble-eared.
Secular culture is in constant change. Orthodox Christian culture is timeless.
Are you a son or daughter of Lord Jesus? Only the sons and daughters of Lord Jesus will inherit His kingdom.
Seek to be protected by Lord Jesus. Seek the protection of God, the protection of the angels, and the protection of the saints.
Each person must seek an elder. The elder is father, guide, teacher, preceptor, mentor, psychologist, physician, leader, counselor, and friend.
Are you an Orthodox Christian in faith? Are you an Orthodox Christian in thoughts? Are you an Orthodox Christian in feelings? Are you an Orthodox Christian in words? Are you an Orthodox Christian in dress? Are you an Orthodox Christian in works?
The practitioner of virtue should never seek glory, honor, or praise for his practice. He should practice always as secretly as possible.
Live a life of gospel ethics. Never practice the unethical life. Always be ethical. Always have faith in Lord Jesus and keep gospel ethics.
Secular education is to learn names, numbers, laws, cause and effect, skills, and exercises. Religious education is to learn ethics, dogmas, traditions, rituals, and mysteries.
Happiness is to keep gospel ethical law. Sorrow is to transgress gospel ethical law.
Have an ethical mind. Have an ethical heart. Have an ethical tongue. Have ethical eyes. Have ethical ears. Have an ethical body.
Be humble and ethical. Do not be proud and unethical.
The wealth of heaven is true wealth. The glory of heaven is true glory. Wealth on earth only is vanity. Glory on earth only is vanity. Wealth on earth is easily lost. Glory on earth is easily lost. But wealth and glory in heaven remain for eternity.
The choice to live an Orthodox Christian life rests on the individual. If a person does not choose to live the Orthodox Christian life they cannot be compelled. The Orthodox Christian life is voluntary.
Avoid persons who choose to live an unethical life. If you have communion with the unethical you will become like them. (See Wisdom of Sirach 13:1).
Orthodox Christianity is an ethical Trinitarian monotheism. All other monotheisms are ethical Unitarian monotheisms.
Are you innocent of unethical practice? If you are guilty of unethical practice have you repented and confessed in order to be judged and acquitted?
Repent and Confess. Repent of your overeating, stealing and overpossessing, lying, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity.
We need food and drink, but we don’t need overeating and overdrinking. We need clothing, shoes, a house, and other possessions, but we don’t need to steal and overpossess. We need to be honest and true, but we don’t need to be liars. We need self-respect, but we don’t need vanity. We need to be useful and obedient, but we don’t need to be disobedient. We need procreation and canonical sexual relations, but we don’t need unchastity.
The Lord God is a loving and just God, desiring the salvation of all. He gives time for all to complete their repentance, and takes them at their best point, according to His mercy.
May God grant us all a good and complete repentance. May God give us all time to repent and do good works. May God grant us all salvation.
Have you been resurrected? Have you partaken of the first resurrection through repentance and baptism? Have you partaken of the first resurrection through the mystery of repentance and Holy Confession? All will partake of the second resurrection, the resurrection of the body. Only true believers though partake of the first resurrection, which is a resurrection from sin.
Are you resurrected from sin? Are you resurrected from spiritual death, that is, from separation from God?
Are you among the resurrected ones? Or are you among the unresurrected?
Do you know the mystery of the first resurrection? Are you crucified to sin? Are you betrothed to Lord Jesus?
Do you know the mystery of the Cross? Do you know the power of the atonement of the Cross?
Have you renounced overeating, stealing and overpossessing, lying, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity? Repentance requires you to renounce these things.
Have you been resurrected to a life of virtue? Have you been resurrected to a life of fasting, charity, truth speaking, humility, obedience, prayer, watchfulness, and chastity?
