Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
When a person does not cut their opinion and follow the opinion of the elders, it is only natural that they will be filled with pride and anger.
People cannot change unless they are willing to change, and turn to the Lord. A short-tempered person cannot easily become patient. A greedy person cannot easily become charitable. A vain person cannot easily become humble.
Remember the three mortal sins: Pride, lust, and love of wealth. The greatest of mortal sins is pride.
Because humans have separated from God they have lost the two loves: Love of God and Love of Neighbor. Humans have fallen into the false loves: Love of the body, Love of Wealth, Love of Glory, and Love of Pleasure.
A missionary must always be prepared to encounter aggression from the rejecters of the gospel and from the neutrals to the gospel. A missionary does not oppose aggression but simply moves on to another audience.
A missionary calls persons to practice. An Orthodox Christian missionary calls to the practice of: Repentance, Holy Baptism, Holy Confession, Holy Communion, Penance, Fasting, Charity, Prayer, Study, Humility, Obedience, Service, Work, and Chastity.
When you have a cross of tyranny, poverty, physical illness, or psychological illness, turn to the Lord and He will help you, deliver you, and comfort you.
If you submit to Lord Jesus He will grant you grace, goodness, and wisdom. The Lord wishes to make you a partaker of His nature. (See 2 Peter 1:4).
The sages teach us to take full responsibility for our sin, to repent, confess, and correct ourselves.
If we transgress the Ten Commandments we must repent, confess, and correct ourselves.
Sin is greed, vanity, and pleasure. All these are inventions of the enemy. Take full responsibility for your greed, vanity, and pleasure, repent, confess, correct yourself, and practice charity, humility, and continence.
Everything in life calls for us to have the cardinal virtue of patience. We see on a daily basis how little control we have over events. All we can do is ask, seek, knock, pray, and be patient. All events are governed by the justice of the Lord.
We must practice in order to receive our reward on Judgment Day.
We must seek to reach perfection in our virtues and spiritual gifts.
We should never seek glory, honor, or praise, for our virtues and spiritual gifts. Virtues and spiritual gifts belong to the Lord. Praise for virtue and knowledge belongs to the Lord. To us belong humility, non-glory, and non-show.
Do not be unable to be corrected. Be open to repentance and correction.
The sons and daughters of Adam cannot enter paradise. Only the sons and daughters of Lord Jesus will enter paradise. (See John 8:35).
Sin, malice, and cunning are incurable by the other religions. Only Lord Jesus can cure sin, malice, and cunning.
The person who is far from Lord Jesus becomes desolate of virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts. The person far from Lord Jesus is filled with sin, malice, and cunning.
Sin is cured by no other way, but only by repentance and confession.
A missionary comes up frequently against brick walls, that is, persons who reject to practice the gospel. The life of a missionary is not easy!
Philanthropy is essential in the practice of a monastic. Solitude is for the sake of prayer and contemplation, but when in company, monastic practice is philanthropy.
Be a practical Orthodox Christian. Be a practical philosopher. Be a practical theologian. Be a practical psychologist. Be a practical psychiatrist. Be a practical scientist. Be a practical scholar.
Practical Orthodox Christianity is philanthropy. Philanthropy is essential in the practice of Orthodox Christianity.
There is material charity and there is spiritual charity, Material charity is to give for material needs. Spiritual charity is to teach the Law of the Lord, to forgive wrongs, and to console the suffering or discouraged.
You can only defeat pride, vanity, love of wealth, and lust, with the help of the Lord.
Those who do not believe in Lord Jesus remain incurable and die in their sins. (See John 8:24).
The disabilities of the soul and body are only curable by Lord Jesus. Whoever does not go to Lord Jesus for cure, remains with the disabilities of soul and body.
Remember the two basic practices of an Orthodox Christian: Help others, Love God and others. Do not judge those who are tempted but rather cover them and help them.
A problematic world is necessary for the cultivation of virtue and for the cultivation of the economy.
Lord Jesus was not a statesman but a high priest. He did not establish a state, but a community of spiritual practitioners.
A statesman seeks to progress the state in wealth, glory, and comforts. A spiritual teacher seeks to progress the community in virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
Love the Lord, so that you make active spiritual law. Without loving the Lord you cannot practice spiritual law, nor are you permitted to teach spiritual law. To love the Lord is the first of the Great Commandments.
Be a practitioner. Practice and then teach. Seek perfection in practice.
Seek to be an Orthodox Christian of humility and diligence, not pride and negligence.
Lord Jesus grant us victory against wrong thoughts!
We offer submission to the Lord, and the Lord grants us the power to practice spiritual law, and fills us with the fruit of the Spirit.
Do you want to increase in goodness, wisdom, and spiritual gifts? Then submit to the Lord, submit to your elders.
“Submit to Lord Jesus”, is the cardinal principle of the spiritual life.
What do you seek? Wealth? Glory? Comforts? Virtue? Knowledge? Spiritual gifts? Happiness? Salvation?
Be always positive. Move forward with zeal.
Do not let the enemy curb your positivity and enthusiasm.
Have faith and obedience to Lord Jesus. Lord Jesus will give you the power to achieve.
Anger is born of pride. Pride is born of exalting your opinion or exalting your will. Humbling your opinion and humbling your will gives birth to meekness and justice.
Repentance is to change mind, to change heart, to change tongue, and to change practice.
Consider the relativity of psychology. Each person views things from their unique point of view. Positive people always see the positive. Negative people always see the negative.
Consider the relativity of ways of doing things. Your way is not wrong, nor is the way of another wrong. Each way is different.
Pray for all that they may reach perfection in logic and love.
Do you want to change? If you answer yes, you have made the first step. The second step is to vision the change. The third step is to will the change. The next steps are to turn to the Lord with firm determination and hope in Him.
The mortal wound of sin can only be cured by repentance, confession, and vow of non-repeat. (See John 5:14).
A community educator is concerned for the literacy, numeracy, personal hygiene, social skills, vocational training, and ethics training, of the community. Without these basic areas a community cannot progress.
A mitzvah campaign is a campaign of the Ten Commandments. A campaign leader calls all to repentance and the keeping of the Ten Commandments.
Pride is what causes disputes among persons. The humble person resolves disputes.
Have as friends humble and good people. From them you will learn humility and goodness.
Do your spiritual accounting well. Forgive and reconcile to your debtors. Resolve your debts.
Lord Jesus does not want us to be sad. Lord Jesus wants us to be joyful, motivated, and zealous. (See 1 Thess. 5:16).
Orthodox Christians are kings and queens of the earth. Because they have transcended wealth, glory, and pleasure, they have become possessors of all blessings, living a life of joy and victory.
Faith in Lord Jesus and willpower will give you victory over every addiction.
“Honor your father and mother”, (Ex. 20:12), in the Old Testament, becomes “Honor all”, (1 Peter 2:17), in the New Testament.
Ethical practice gives rise to good psychology or non-good psychology. A psychologist must investigate ethical practice in order to understand good or non-good psychology.
Faith in Lord Jesus and willpower are essential for ethical practice.
When we encounter material loss, dishonor, or physical hardship, we should blame ourselves. The self-responsible person always blames himself.
Be self-responsible. Diagnose your faults and then seek with faith in Lord Jesus and willpower to correct them.
Be wise and see that the faults in people are due to the aliens, that is, the demons. Do not have rancor against people, but against the aliens.
The aim of an Orthodox Christian psychologist is to effect change in patients. With faith in Lord Jesus and willpower, an Orthodox Christian psychologist seeks to break the thoughts, feelings, words, and practices that are tormenting patients.
Change your thoughts, change your feelings, change your words, and change your practices, and your life will change!
Do you want to change? Faith in Lord Jesus and willpower are the two elements which effect change.
The ethical life requires a mentor. Always seek the counsel and blessing of your mentor in the ethical life.
The aliens invented the idea that “Only God forgives sins”. This idea separates people from the apostles of Lord Jesus who forgive sins. (See Matt. 18:18 and John 20:23).
Lord Jesus, forgive our sins through your apostles!
The life of light is the ethical life.
Recall that Lord Jesus governs all our concerns. The economy of Lord Jesus gives grace, virtue, wisdom, spiritual gifts, and material goods, to those who seek, and ask, and knock. All is from Lord Jesus. (See Col. 3:11).
Do not be aggressive for wealth but aggressive for charity. Do not be aggressive for glory but aggressive for humility. Do not be aggressive for pleasure but aggressive for continence.
We can achieve no virtue only by our willpower. We require the help of the Lord. The Lord helps us when we have faith in Lord Jesus, submission to the Lord, and willpower.
When someone asks us why we separate from the world, we should say: “To work on my faults.”
Be a New Testament person, practicing chastity, charity, humility, and obedience.
Lord Jesus loves us all. Do we love Him?
Always have love before you. Love forgives, love gives, love serves, love helps, love honors others.
Those who do not believe in Lord Jesus remain with the disabilities of the soul. Those who believe in Lord Jesus are cured of the disabilities of the soul.
Use faith in Lord Jesus and willpower to break your wrong habits. Practice good until it becomes habitual.
The noble person practices chastity, charity, and obedience.
How can we have happiness in a problematic world? Happiness is virtue. Happiness is love of God. Happiness is love of all persons.
Wisdom is chastity, charity, humility, and obedience. Foolishness is unchastity, non-charity, pride, and disobedience.
The solitary loves all. The solitary is free, honest, and full of positivity and joy.
Associate with the humble and meek.
Can we achieve a society of the humble, meek, merciful, and loving?
Wealth, glory, and pleasure aren’t what matters. What matters is virtue and wisdom.
Virtue does not require a particular place. It requires faith, humility, and willpower.
What is necessary is a life of virtue. Virtue is the true treasure, the true happiness.
Without the help of the Lord we cannot practice virtue. Seek the help of the Lord in all your pursuits.
Submit to Lord Jesus and you will become a person of virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
Do you prefer the yoke of unchastity, non-charity, and disobedience, or the Lord’s yoke of chastity, charity, and obedience?
Do you see that our salvation has three states: Separation from Lord Jesus, Engagement to Lord Jesus, and Marriage to Lord Jesus?
Bear temptation with humility, self-blame, gratitude, and non-rancor.
The duty of practicing ethical precepts is essential for all. All good and bad stem from practicing or transgressing ethical precepts. An ethical community is the goal and joy of all community leaders.
Good community psychology is born of good community ethics. Ethics teaching and practice make good community psychology.
Virtue is a gift of the Lord. To increase in virtue you must have faith, humility, effort, and hope in the Lord. The virtuous person ascribes nothing to himself, but has all his hope in the Lord.
Good people are humble, meek, merciful, and loving. Non-good people are proud, wrathful, non-merciful, and hating.
