Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
The good life is the spiritual life, the life of chastity, charity, and obedience.
The pain of physical illness we must treat with medication and by thinking and speaking of other things. The torment of psychological illness we must treat with good thoughts, positivity, and gratitude towards the Lord.
Are you a person of faith and piety, or a person of non-faith and impiety?
An Orthodox Christian missionary gives the Light of Lord Jesus to the nations. The missionary does not dispute with those who reject this Light. The missionary simply moves on, giving the Light of Lord Jesus to all who accept it.
The Lord wants you to rank yourself below all, and to ascribe your virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts to Him. The Lord does not want you to exalt yourself above others, nor to be proud for your gifts, ascribing them to yourself.
Malice is to not greet, to not give, to not serve, to not love.
Do you have guilt for a thought, a feeling, a word, or a practice? Repent and confess it. Make a firm decision to never repeat it again.
Each day is a sequence of moments. You must use these moments to practice chastity, charity, and obedience. Do not waste any moment.
Harsh words, harsh expressions of countenance, harsh behaviors, hurt others. You must repent of these, and seek to practice soft words, soft expressions of countenance, and soft behaviors.
Be gracious in words, gracious in countenance, gracious in behavior.
The Lord allows the world to be problematic for our salvation. Solving problems allows us to increase in virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts. Do you see what blessedness comes from a problematic world?
A problematic world is necessary for the sake of virtue. Virtue is cultivated in the face of problems.
Do not practice altru-reproach, the accusing of others, but rather self-reproach. Be self-responsible, acknowledge your guilt, repent and confess, and correct yourself.
Remember: Soft and gracious words, soft and gracious countenance, soft and gracious behavior.
A missionary does not dispute with unbelievers. His mission is to give the Light of Lord Jesus. Those who reject this light remain in the secular darkness. Those who accept this light come out of the secular darkness and enter a new life.
A psychological problem is not resolved by being passive. To resolve a psychological problem you must aggressively practice the opposite. You must not dwell on the problem, but positively embrace its solution with faith, hope, and zeal. For example: Fast aggressively instead of overeating, practice charity aggressively instead of gathering wealth, pray aggressively instead of negligently, seek the last place and in everything give thanks instead of being vain, practice obedience with perfection instead of disobedience, work hard instead of being idle, practice perfect chastity instead of lust.
Orthodox Christian philosophy and theology is the philosophy and theology of humility. Without humility, there is no philosophy, no theology.
Practice chastity, charity, and obedience and they will lead you to humility. Marry humility and you will have every virtue, all wisdom, and every spiritual gift.
The proud are characterized by harsh words, harsh countenance, and harsh behavior. The humble are characterized by soft words, soft countenance, and soft behavior.
The humble are spiritual physicians, healing themselves and others.
From humility you will receive the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit will give you every virtue, every wisdom, and every spiritual gift.
Do you wish to be a member of Lord Jesus? Do you wish to reign with Lord Jesus for all eternity? Do you wish to partake of the land of the living?
Have constant care to practice chastity, charity, obedience, and humility. Carelessness is also a transgression, as is negligence.
To perfection you must go! (See Matt. 5:48) Be aggressive! Be zealous! Move forward to perfection!
Deprivation teaches us respect and thanksgiving for the things we are given. Deprivation teaches us the value of things.
The Lord loves all men and women with the same measure. He feels pain for the proud and lawless, and joy for the humble and lawful. The Lord wishes all His sons and daughters to be saved. The Lord wishes that all return to Him.
The fallen angels bring unbelief, lethargy, sorrow, and fear. Turn away from these to faith, diligence, joy, and courage.
No good can be achieved without the Lord co-working. But also no good can be achieved without a person making efforts.
Sow chastity, charity, and obedience, to reap eternal life. Always sow these three and you will reap every blessing and the salvation of your soul and body.
The passions will be subtracted if we add the virtues opposite to them. We must add virtues in order to subtract the passions.
A missionary gives the message of salvation. A person who rejects this message remains in the torment of sins, passions, and demons. In order to subtract these he must accept the light of salvation and the deliverance of Lord Jesus. (See John 8:36).
The Lord cannot help us change if we do not put in the will and the effort to change. Remember that the Lord co-works with us. We add will and effort, and the Lord adds grace and power.
Wealth, glory, and comforts have no value unless we also have virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
Remember that wealth, glory, and comforts are secondary. What is primary is faith, virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
Good persons are characterized by humility, meekness, mercy, and love. Harsh persons are characterized by pride, wrath, non-mercy, and hatred.
We must seek fellowship with good people, people of humility, meekness, mercy, and love. We cannot have fellowship with harsh people, people of pride, wrath, non-mercy, and hatred.
Good people have humility, meekness, mercy, and love. Good people are people of the Lord. Harsh people have pride, wrath, non-mercy, and hatred. Harsh people are called to become people of the Lord. Harsh people who do not return to the Lord remain harsh.
We will reap the revenge for every harshness we practice. (See Gal. 6:7). Harsh words, harsh countenance, and harsh behavior, will return to us in some form. This is the golden rule.
If we receive Lord Jesus we will be given grace, humility, meekness, mercy, and love. The disciples of Lord Jesus have the light of grace, the light of humility, the light of meekness, the light of mercy, and the light of love.
Submit your mind to the Lord. Submit your heart to the Lord. The Lord will grant you grace, humility, meekness, mercy, and love.
Logic and love is what we need. Wise logic and abundant love. Logic must lead and love must follow. The mind must be first and the heart second.
Have the logic of an elder and the heart of a mother. Be perfect in mind. (See 1 Cor. 14:20). Be perfect in heart. (See Matt. 5:48).
Have a burning love for the Lord and for all beings. You will then become a pillar of fire.
Use logic against wrong thoughts. Use love against malice and hatred.
Get to work warriors! Nobility! Practice nobility!
You have to have the mind of a sage and the heart of a mother.
You reap what you sow. Sow noble greeting, noble giving, noble serving, noble love, and you will reap the same.
Do not dwell on problems but rather concentrate on their solutions. For example, concentrate on faith instead of unbelief, fasting instead of overeating, charity instead of overpossessing, prayer instead of non-prayer, humility instead of vanity, obedience instead of disobedience, chastity instead of unchastity, good thoughts instead of wrong thoughts.
No one can understand the life of grace and virtue unless they also partake of it. No one can understand the life of non-grace and vice unless they also partake of it.
We must concentrate on the virtues and give no attention to the vices. How will we defeat the vices if we give them our attention? We must give our attention to the virtues. Our meditation should be on the virtues. We should aim to attain the three levels of each virtue: the beginning, or first virtue, the middle, or second virtue, and the perfect, or third virtue.
Will you submit to the Lord? (See Ps. 36:7 LXX).
In the face of injustice in greeting, giving, serving, or loving, you must forgive and return love and goodness.
The mind goes first and the heart comes second. You must have a good mind, rejecting every single wrong thought. Your mind will direct what your heart will love. Remember that your mind will manifest into your words and practices. You must always have a good mind.
Can we achieve a society of mutual respect and mutual love? Humility, respect, and love make a spiritual community blessed.
Think of the needs of others. If you practice humility, respect, and love towards others and their needs, you will rise to the heights of well-being and blessedness.
If you concentrate on the needs of others your own needs will diminish. You will reach perfection in humility, respect, and love. You will be a true disciple of the fathers, a true sage.
It is good to study the 500 plus volumes of Patrology. What is needed though, is to always consider the needs of others, to practice humility, respect, and love.
We should consider all other persons as worthy of our respect and love. In humility, we should not consider ourselves as worthy of the respect and love of others.
A missionary does not dispute with those who reject that which he is giving. He is giving Lord Jesus, the way, the truth, and the life. (See John 14:6). If someone rejects the life, Lord Jesus, they are not to be offered Lord Jesus any further. To remain in darkness and not accept the light is left to the freewill of persons. (See John 3:19).
Humility! Respect! Love! These are the three steps in every relationship. Humility towards God and neighbor. Respect towards God and neighbor. Love towards God and neighbor.
Submit to the Lord and you will be free! Submit to the Lord and you will be true! Submit to the Lord and you will be blessed! Submit to the Lord and you will be precious and useful, both to the Lord and to your neighbor!
He who submits to the Lord has no anxieties. In everything he gives thanks (See 1 Thess. 5:18), and is always patient and obedient. O, how blessed is submission to the Lord!
Do not give attention to wrong thoughts. Break your attention to wrong thoughts. Concentrate on right thoughts.
Mortal sins incur a life sentence of penance. These mortal sins include: 1) Willful killing (Ex. 21:12). 2) Adultery (Lev. 20:10). 3) Homosexuality (Lev. 20:13). 4) Bestiality (Lev. 20:15). 5) Striking father or mother (Ex. 21:15). 6) Speaking evil of father or mother (Ex. 21:17). 7) Sorcery (Lev. 20:27). For these and other mortal sins you must mourn for the rest of your life.
We must respect the right of persons to reject Lord Jesus. Everyone has the right to accept or reject Lord Jesus. Those who accept Lord Jesus have a part in His kingdom. Those who reject or are neutral to Lord Jesus, do not have a part in His kingdom.
From a person’s words we can understand their addiction. (See Matt. 12:34).
Beware of harsh words, harsh countenance, and harsh behavior. Have soft words, soft countenance, and soft behavior.
Do not advertise your virtues, talents, gifts, good works, or achievements. Do not seek any glory or praise for these. Glory and praise belongs to God. (See Matt. 5:16).
Do not wrong your neighbor in food, possessions, glory, romance, or in any other way.
We do not have the right to judge our neighbor. (See Matt. 7:1). We only have the right to rebuke our neighbor. (See Lev. 19:17).
Are you a secular churchie or an Orthodox Christian churchie?
Say: “I can.” (See Mark 9:23). Say: “I am able.” (See Phili. 4:13).
Do not assume anything about anyone. View all as saints.
When you encounter misfortune do not become bitter, but rather give thanks and move forward. (See 1 Thess. 5:18).
We must have enmity and rancor only towards the demons, and never towards our brethren.
Do not let weeds ruin your life. Weeds are wrong thoughts, wrong ideas, wrong opinions, wrong attitudes, wrong counsel, wrong words, wrong behaviors.
Humility, respect, love. From humility will come respect. From respect will come love. These three are the key to a good life, a blessed life, a happy life, a true life.
Remember that sin is an infinite error. We must cry and mourn for the sin we commit for the rest of our life.
Each person chooses to be good and wise by turning to the Lord, or chooses to be bad and foolish by turning away from the Lord. Each person makes this decision for himself. We do not have the right to make this decision for others. We choose to turn to the Lord for ourself.
A missionary calls persons to become members of Lord Jesus. Those who choose to not become members of Lord Jesus are left alone. (See Matt. 15:14).
Everyone is capable of being good. Being holy though, requires you to be a member of Lord Jesus.
Consider your guilt from harsh words, harsh countenance, and harsh behavior. Resolve this guilt by repentance, confession, and correction. Your guilt is your responsibility, and not the responsibility of others. Turn to the Lord in penance.
The members of Lord Jesus are in communion with each other. Whether on earth or in heaven they remain members of Lord Jesus. The members of Lord Jesus pray for each other and for other prospective members.
Lord Jesus gives such love to His members that they embrace the whole world in their arms. Every creation becomes dear to them. Every creation becomes sacred.
The Great Pentecost is the Pentecost of the mind. (See Matt. 6:22). The Small Pentecost is the Pentecost of the heart. (See Luke 24:32).
Submit to the Lord. (See James 4:7). Submit to your neighbor. (See 1 Peter 5:5).
When someone asks you for help, consider yourself in their position seeking help. You should therefore help everyone who asks of you.
Lord Jesus has established the everlasting covenant. All who take refuge in Lord Jesus are delivered from the curse, and are destined to reign with Lord Jesus for all eternity. Glory and honor to Almighty Lord Jesus!
As the natural weather changes from mild to rough, so also in the spiritual life we encounter calm and peace and then sorrow, warfare, and discomfort.
Always speak good words. Good words edify and inspire good works. Wrong words scandalize and inspire wrong works.
We should preserve a clear conscience. When our words, our countenance, or our behavior angers or saddens our neighbor, we should feel remorse and should seek to repair the situation. We should never allow our conscience to have a blemish.
If we anger or sadden our neighbor by our words, our countenance, or our behavior, we should feel sorry, repent, confess, and correct ourselves. We must also do penance and mourn for our offence.
The Golden Rule is to return the same to harsh words, harsh countenance, and harsh behavior. The New Testament Golden rule is to return soft words to harsh words, soft countenance to harsh countenance, and soft behavior to harsh behavior.
Have a heart that always shines with love. Never have a closed heart.
Renounce the old life of unbelief, non-grace, overeating, overpossessing, non-prayer, vanity, disobedience, lying, and unchastity. Embrace the New Testament life of faith, grace, fasting, charity, prayer, humility, obedience, truth-speaking, and chastity.
Practice chastity, charity, and obedience, and you will have no psychological problems.
A remnant of Jews and Greeks will return to the Lord. (See Is. 10:21). We must hope that we are members of the remnant.
We are economists of the Lord. The Lord gives us food, possessions, glory, romance, virtue, knowledge, spiritual gifts, so that we can use them for the common good. We should never keep the gifts of the Lord only for ourselves.
The Lord gives us gifts to use for the common good. On Judgment Day we will have to give an account for our economy.
