Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
Observe that the world practices overeating, stealing and overpossessing, vanity, lying, reviling, disobedience, and unchastity. Observe that the Orthodox Christian practices fasting, charity, humility, truth speaking, blessing, obedience, and chastity.
Observe that the world practices overeating, stealing and overpossessing, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity. Observe that the world is unfaithful, proud, wrathful, sorrowful, lethargic, envious, phobic, (nearing to despair and suicide), malicious, cunning, enmitous, and hating.
Always ask counsel of your elders in Christ. This way you avoid deceit, delusion, and illusion. Asking counsel of your elders in Christ is the way of humility, obedience, progress, self-denial, and success.
Practice self-denial, obedience, and humility, and you will reach the heights of grace, virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts.
Self-denial, obedience, and humility are to willfully die to self, to let go of self, to be free of self. When you die to self you advance in grace, virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts.
The Way of Life is humility, meekness, mercy, and love. The Way of Death is pride, wrath, non-mercy, envy, and hatred.
The aim of the demons is to make us sin and not repent, to separate us from God, and to achieve our assignment to hell-fire.
All evil is born from unbelief, self-love, disobedience, and pride. These four evils beget wrath, tyranny, hatred, enmity, and envy.
You cannot receive credit for your knowledge, your knowledge belongs to Lord Jesus. You cannot receive credit for your virtue, your virtue belongs to Lord Jesus. You cannot receive credit for your spiritual gifts, your spiritual gifts belong to Lord Jesus. You cannot receive credit for your skills and talents, your skills and talents belong to Lord Jesus. You cannot receive credit for any good of soul or body, all good of soul or body belongs to Lord Jesus. Nothing good is ours, ours are only our sins and passions.
Everything is holy. The Shekinah, the Holy Spirit, resides in all things.
A true Orthodox Christian is king or queen of the whole earth. What can the world give more to us? What can we receive when we reign over all? Without possessing we possess all things.
(Luke 6:31): “And as you wish persons to do to you, you also do to them likewise.” Do you want to be greeted? Then greet. Do you want to be given to you? Then give. Do you want to be served? Then serve. Do you want to be loved? Then love.
The world is in constant competition: competition over food, competition over possessions (including knowledge), competition over glory, competition over romance. The Orthodox Christian lives the life of humility and transcends these competitions. To the world humility seems a loss and folly, but the humble are true conquerors, conquering self, food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Honor and glory to humility! Honor and glory to humility the conqueror!
The world competes, has self-love, wrath, sorrow, lethargy, pride, envy, hatred, enmity, rancor, (despair and suicide). The world only competes for food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. The Orthodox Christian strives for humility, fasting, charity, non-glory, and non-romance. Do you see that the Orthodox Christian is alien to the world? Do you see that the Orthodox Christian rejects self-love, pride, and vain competition over food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance? Do you see that the life of humility is alien to the competing world? Do you see that competition and humility are opposed to each other? Do you see why Orthodox Christian are seen as defeated, backward, and foolish?
We are all passers-by on the earth. Everything we obtain here will pass. Food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance will pass. What will remain are goodness and wisdom, fasting, charity, prayer, humility, obedience, and chastity.
Do not live a sinful life. Live a holy life of gospel ethics, gospel wisdom, and spiritual gifts. Reject the sinful life and associate with holy persons.
For every sin we commit we must seek repentance, atonement, and forgiveness. Lord Jesus has made the sacrifice which atones and forgives all sin. (See Luke 24:47).
Which kingdom do you want to be a member of? The kingdom of Lord Jesus, or the kingdom of the false Messiah?
The Orthodox Christian practices fasting, charity, prayer, study, humility, obedience, love, chastity. The world persecutes those who practice these. The world opposes those who practice these. The world dislikes fasting, dislikes charity, dislikes prayer, dislikes study, dislikes humility, dislikes obedience, dislikes love, dislikes chastity.
The key to progress in the Orthodox Christian life is humility. Faith gives birth to obedience, obedience gives birth to humility, humility gives birth to all virtue, humility gives birth to love, humility gives birth to spiritual gifts.
Practice justice always. Practice good always. Never practice injustice. Never practice non-good.
Never do injustice to your soul. Never do injustice to your body. Never do injustice to your soul by accepting unjust thoughts or unjust feelings. Never do injustice to your body by accepting unjust thoughts, speaking unjust words, or practicing unjust practices. It remains with you to do no injustice to your soul or body.
Beware of the temptation to overeat. Beware of the temptation to steal and overpossess. Beware of the temptation of vanity of body or vanity of soul. Beware of the temptation to lie, revile, or speak against. Beware of the temptation to disobey. Beware of the temptation of unbelief, doubt, or blasphemy. Beware of the temptation of unchastity.
Remember the five primary temptations: overeating, stealing and overpossessing, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity. Remember the five secondary temptations: pride, wrath, sorrow, lethargy, envy, (despair and suicide). Remember the tertiary temptations: blasphemy, phobia, murder, rancor, enmity, hatred, suspicion, sorcery, heresy, lying, coveting.
Do not practice injustice in food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, or romance. Be humble and just. To all in need give food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and respect their monogamous romance.
Any injustice you encounter view it as the reaping of what you sowed. (See Gal. 6:7). Never return injustice for injustice, but return forgiveness and good to every injustice.
Have before you the four pursuits: food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Be detached from these four pursuits. Have before you the five vices they generate: pride, wrath, sorrow, lethargy, envy, (despair and suicide). Overcome these five vices. Practice fasting, charity, humility, obedience, and chastity. Practice also humility, meekness, joy, diligence, love, (hope and patience).
Practice humility, obedience, meekness, mercy, compassion, and love. This is the path of truth, joy, happiness, life, light, and the presence of the Shekinah.
Practice humility and obedience always. These two give rise to all virtues. These two make us imitators of Lord Jesus.
The fire of grace requires fuel to stay alight. This fuel is prayer, reading, meditation, charity, fasting, service, good thoughts, charity, mercy, compassion. All these are fuel for the fire of grace.
Wisdom is humility, meekness, mercy, and love. Non-wisdom is pride, wrath, non-mercy, envy, and hatred.
Our guardian angel guides and teaches and protects us from the day we are born until the day we depart to eternity. Our guardian angel knows all our struggles and temptations. Our guardian angel is our closest friend, our closest kin.
What is your sin? Overeating? Stealing and overpossessing? Vanity? Lying? Disobedience? Unchastity? Identify your sin, repent of it, and confess it.
Which of the primary sins do you practice? Overeating? Stealing and overpossessing? Vanity? Lying? Disobedience? Unchastity? Which of the secondary sins do you practice? Pride? Wrath? Sorrow? Lethargy? Envy? (Despair and Suicide?) Which of the tertiary sins do you practice? Phobia? Blasphemy? Heresy? Sorcery? Murder? Accusing? Judging? Rancor? Enmity? Hatred? Coveting? Disrespecting? Non-mercy?
Identify the thoughts which attack your mind. Identify the feelings which attack your heart. Assess all the thoughts which appear in your mind. Reject all the cunning thoughts which appear in your mind. Assess all the feelings which appear in your heart. Reject all the cunning feelings which appear in your heart.
What do you practice on a daily basis? Overeating or fasting? Stealing and overpossessing or charity? Vanity or humility? Lying or truth speaking? Disobedience or obedience? Unchastity or chastity? Wrath or meekness? Non-mercy or mercy? Envy and hatred or love?
Solve your problems, that is, solve your sins and passions. As long as we have sins and passions we have not solved our problems. The Orthodox Christian Faith solves our problems.
The kin of Lord Jesus will reside in His house forever. (See John 8:35). The kin of Lord Jesus are begotten from the canonical Orthodox Christian priesthood through Holy Baptism and Holy Confession.
The aim of our life is to go from non-betrothal to betrothal, and from betrothal to marriage. These three pertain to our relation to God. We must go from non-betrothal to God to betrothal to God, and then to marriage to God.
The sons and daughters of the kingdom are characterized by humility, meekness, mercy, and love. The sons and daughters of the cunning one are characterized by pride, wrath, non-mercy, envy, and hatred. (See Matt. 13:38).
Harsh elders oppress and create psychological problems in young people. Never be a harsh elder but always practice humility, meekness, mercy, and love.
How shall we deal with the problems of tyranny, poverty, and disease? We must eliminate first tyranny by making tyranny illegal and protecting the right of the freedom of every person. Second, we must eliminate poverty by practicing charity and justice. Third, we must eliminate disease by eating canonically, healthily, and nutritionally, by maintaining canonical weight, fitness, and having a sound psychology.
Remain in the kingdom of Lord Jesus, that is, remain a member of the Orthodox Christian Church.
Which cross do you have? The cross of tyranny? The cross of physical illness? The cross of psychological illness? The cross of poverty?
Why do you cling to sin? Why don’t you let go of sin? Let go and be free! Let go and be happy! Let go and be true! Let go and be joyous!
Are you suffering from tyranny? Are you suffering from poverty? Are you suffering from physical illness? Are you suffering from psychological illness? Tyranny, poverty, physical illness, and psychological illness, all cause suffering.
Do you seek glory, praise, and honor from men? Never seek such things. Live in humility and let all glory, praise, and honor be to God.
Orthodox Christians work and pay taxes like all others. They are required though to abstain from overeating and overdrinking, stealing and overpossessing, vanity, lying, disobedience, and unchastity.
Food passes, possessions pass, glory passes, romance passes. What remains is fasting, charity, humility, obedience, and chastity.
We will soon depart to eternity, leaving behind food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Be therefore detached from food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Seek first the kingdom of God, and virtue, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual gifts. (See Matt. 6:33).
We will leave food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance behind. What will remain are virtue, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual gifts.
All other persons belong to one of three categories: friends, enemies, and neutrals. In this life not all can be our friends. Some are our friends, some our enemies, and some neutrals. Always remember that these three groups exist. In the Old Testament you loved your friends, hated your enemies, and were neutral to your neutrals. In the New Testament you must love your friends, love your enemies even though they hate you, and love your neutrals even though they are neutral towards you.
Consider the economy of your thoughts, feelings, words, and works. On Judgment Day we will have to give and account for this economy covering all our life, from the day we are born to the day we die.
Always reproach yourself. When you encounter material loss, dishonor, or bodily suffering consider yourself worthy of such things, as the reaping of what you sowed.
Be reconciled to your Creator through repentance. Be reconciled to your brethren through repentance.
You must become perfect. (See Matt. 5:48, Deut. 18:13). You must become holy. (See Peter 1:16, Lev. 11:44, 45, 19:2, 20:7, 26).
Consider the five primary poisons: overeating, stealing and overpossessing, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity. Consider the five secondary poisons: pride, wrath, sorrow, lethargy, envy, (despair and suicide). Consider the tertiary poisons: blasphemy, heresy, sorcery, murder, greed, lying, phobia, rancor, enmity, hatred, evil speaking, evil judging.
Reject the primary poisons. Reject the secondary poisons. Reject the tertiary poisons.
Take responsibility for the poisons you have, that is your passions, and seek to be delivered from them.
Are you a member of Lord Jesus? Are you a member of His Orthodox Christian Church? Only the members of Lord Jesus abide in Him. Only the members of Lord Jesus reign with Him.
Do not practice mental non-virtue. Do not practice heart non-virtue. Do not practice verbal non-virtue. Do not practice bodily non-virtue.
Reject the primary non-virtues: unbelief, ignorance, overeating, stealing and overpossessing, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity. Reject the secondary non-virtues: pride, wrath, sorrow, lethargy, envy, (despair and suicide). Reject the tertiary non-virtues: blasphemy, heresy, sorcery, murder, greed, lying, phobia, rancor, enmity, hatred, evil speaking, evil judging, cunning, malice, reviling.
Consider yourself unworthy of food, possessions, glory, and romance, and you will be free, happy, and content.
Always have eternity in mind and be detached from food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance.
All Orthodox Christians are members of Lord Jesus. When one member progresses, all rejoice. When one member falls, all sorrow.
The Orthodox Christian Church is a communion of the holy. Every apostate (ethics apostate, dogma apostate, or tradition apostate) is excommunicated from the communion of the holy. How can there be communion between the holy and the unholy?
Always seek the help of God. Without the help of God you can do nothing. (See John 15:5). With the help of God you can do all things. (See Phil. 4:13).
Orthodox Christian life contains: precepts, natural contemplation, dogmas, theology, sacraments, traditions, spiritual gifts, mysteries.
Think and speak the language of spirituality: holy thoughts; holy feelings; good and holy words; holy sights; holy sounds, words, and songs; good and holy dress; good and holy practices.
Think, speak, and practice the spiritual language: virtue, spiritual wisdom, spiritual gifts. Do not think, speak, or practice the non-spiritual language: non-virtue, ignorance, psychological dysfunctions.
Live in the world of virtue. Think of virtue, speak of virtue, practice virtue. Reject the world of non-virtue. Do not think of non-virtue, do not speak of non-virtue, do not practice non-virtue.
The call of Orthodox Christianity is a call to repentance, self-denial, spiritual law, betrothal to Lord Jesus, and eternal life.
Practice self-denial always. Practice obedience always. Practice humility always. Practice spiritual law always. Practice love always.
What do you love more? God, or food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance?
All religions seem to be good in theory. The truth though of a religion is if it can deliver from sin, passions, and demons. The power to deliver from sin, passions, and demons is the practical side of a religion.
We go for refuge to Orthodox Christianity to deliver us from sin, passions, and demons. If Orthodox Christianity cannot deliver us, why go to it for refuge?
Consider your continuity of thoughts, feelings, words, and works. Remember that you will be judged for this continuity. Repent for every single wrong you accept: wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, wrong words, or wrong works.
Seek your deliverance from sins, passions, and demons.
Be detached from food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. You will then not suffer when you experience loss or injustice because of them.
Remember that we reap what we sow. (See Gal. 6:7). This is natural law: good for good, bad for bad, neutrality for neutrality. Our continuity means that we reap good thoughts for good thoughts, good feelings for good feelings, good words for good words, and good works for good works.
When death comes and we enter into eternity we will reap the reward for what we sowed. Did we sow fasting, charity, prayer, humility, obedience, truth speaking, and chastity? Or did we sow overeating, stealing and overpossessing, non-prayer, vanity, disobedience, lying, and unchastity?
Each person has the responsibility over their salvation. Each person must turn to Lord Jesus in faith and repentance. No one can turn to Lord Jesus for another, each person turns to Lord Jesus for themselves.
What can be gained by judging another person? Do we deliver them from their continuity of wrong thoughts, wrong feelings, wrong words, or wrong works? Correct therefore your continuity and do not judge others.
Each fellow person is to us either a friend, an enemy, or a neutral. We love our friends, but do we love our enemies and neutrals? Spiritual law is to love friends, love enemies, and love neutrals. Natural law is to love friends, hate enemies, and be neutral to the neutrals. Which law do you practice, spiritual law or natural law?
Orthodox Christians are not of this world. (See John 17:14). They have transcended the things the world seeks: food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance.
Consider your mental continuity. Consider your heart continuity. Consider your tongue continuity. Consider your bodily continuity. Consider all these continuities and keep them good and holy.
We must repent and confess every single wrong thought, wrong feeling, wrong word, and wrong practice. Remember that all our wrong thoughts will be judged, all our wrong feelings will be judged, all our wrong words will be judged, all our wrong practices will be judged.
Practice right thoughts, rights feelings, right words, and right practices.
Stop your wrong thoughts. Stop your wrong feelings. Stop your wrong words. Stop your wrong practices.
Where is the error? Is the error in your thoughts? Is the error is your feelings? Is the error in your words? Is the error in your practices?
When there is division between you and an enemy or neutral see if you are at fault, see if your conscience is clear. A clear conscience is an indicator that the division is caused by your enemy or neutral, not by you.
From attachment to food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance, arises suffering. Primary suffering is overeating, stealing and overpossessing, vanity, disobedience, and unchastity. Secondary suffering is pride, wrath, sorrow, lethargy, envy, (despair and suicide).
Which wrong thought are you suffering from? Identify it and confess it. Which wrong feeling are you suffering from? Identify it and confess it. Which wrong words are you suffering from? Identify them and confess them. Which wrong practices are you suffering from? Identify them and confess them.
Are you a zealot for food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance? Or are you a zealot for virtue, spiritual wisdom, and spiritual gifts?
When the mind is faithful, simple, and humble, it becomes enlightened.
The continuity of our thoughts and feelings determine our words and practices. Therefore always think good and have good feelings.
Guard your mind always. Accept only good and holy thoughts.
Each person’s progress in virtue depends on the thoughts and feelings they accept.
Accept only good thoughts and good feelings. Repent and confess all your non-good thoughts and non-good feelings.
