Orthodox Christian Topics
Orthodox Christian Ideas XXXIV
Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com


  1. Only Lord Jesus can save us from sin. (See John 8:36).
  2. Accept the Light of Lord Jesus and you will become a son or daughter of light. (See John 12:36).
  3. Do not seek to teach about the light of grace, the light of virtue, the light of knowledge, or the light of spiritual gifts, unless you first possess them.
  4. Remember: “Wisdom is humility.”
  5. If you have humility the Lord will give you virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.
  6. A true community is a community of the humble and meek.
  7. Recall the four major psychological illnesses: Unbelief, pride, lawlessness, and despair.
  8. If someone does to you material loss, dishonor, or physical hardship, do not have rancor or return the same to them. Rather forgive them and return to them charity, honor, and physical comfort. This is New Testament Law. This is spiritual justice.
  9. The New Testament person is he who loves all and does good to all, to friend, enemy, and neutral.

10.  Reject rancor against people. Ascribe all malice, cunning, and injustice to the enemy, not to people. Remember that people feel guilt for these, and do not hold it against them.

11.  The person who benoughts himself accepts material loss, dishonor, and physical hardship as his due. Such a person has self-blame, non-rancor, non-enmity, forgiveness, good-doing, and love for friends, enemies, and neutrals.

12.  The temptation of irritation is a common temptation. We must use logic, patience, and time, to make it go away.

13.  Remember natural justice, which is symmetry: Good for good, bad for bad, neutrality for neutrality. Remember spiritual justice, which is one-sided symmetry: Good for good, good and forgiveness for bad, good for neutrality.

14.  A missionary calls people to return to Lord Jesus. Only a remnant heeds the call. (See Is. 10:21).

15.  Let your meditation be on virtue, on goodness, on positivity, on truth.

16.  Remember the three essentials in the Orthodox Christian life: Chastity, Charity, and Obedience.

17.  The final war will be a war of Antichrist against Christ, the Antichristians against the Christians.

18.  Lord Jesus is the defeater and slayer of the three giants: Pride, lust, and love of wealth.

19.  Nothing is ours. Neither wealth, nor glory, nor comforts, nor virtue, nor knowledge, nor spiritual gifts. All belong to the Lord. We are just stewards of the gifts of the Lord.

20.  Anything you need: Ask, seek, knock. The Lord will give in this manner everything you need. O Kyrios Oikonomisi!

21.  To reach perfection in any field, you must work both smart and hard.

22.  May we all reach perfection in logic and love.

23.  Be humble in mind, humble in heart, humble in tongue, humble in eyes, humble in ears, humble in body. This is the true Orthodox Christian.

24.  If you think that virtue, knowledge, and spiritual gifts are yours, you will lose them. If you acknowledge them as gifts of the Lord and seek no praise for them, you will be able to retain them and increase them.

25.  If you walk the path of chastity, charity, and obedience, you will be happy and blessed in this life, and will have hope of eternal life in the other life.

26.  The unresurrected live a life of love of wealth, pride, and lust. The resurrected live a life of charity, humility, and chastity.

27.  The kingdom of the enemy has three pillars: Pride, Lust, and Love of Wealth. The kingdom of Lord Jesus has the three pillars of Humility, Chastity, and Charity.

28.  Think only positive. Speak only positive. Practice only positive. Meditate and concentrate only on the positive. This is how the negative diminishes.

29.  Remember the three sources of perdition: Love of Wealth, Love of Glory, and Love of Pleasure. Remember the three sources of blessedness and salvation: Charity, Humility, and Continence.

30.  A missionary is sent to call people to the Kingdom of Lord Jesus, and to deliver from the Kingdom of Darkness. Whoever rejects the call remains in the Kingdom of Darkness, a slave to pride, lust, and love of wealth.

31.  In the New Testament there are two sacrifices: The Cross of Lord Jesus, and the contrite spirit of every true Orthodox Christian believer.

32.  New Testament scripture and New Testament writings are sealed from unbelievers. To understand New Testament scripture and New Testament writings the blindness of the mind and heart must be cured. Once the blindness of the mind and heart is cured you can come to understand the mysteries of the Lord. The Holy Spirit, the Shekinah, enlightens and cures every believer and leads them to the New Testament life of grace, chastity, charity, and obedience.

33.  The Shekinah, the Holy Spirit, is given only to the humble. (See Prov. 3:34).

34.  The coming of the Shekinah, the Holy Spirit, delivers us from pride, lust, and love of wealth.

35.  To receive the Shekinah, the Holy Spirit, you must have faith in the Trinitarian Lord, humility, chastity, and charity.

36.  An Orthodox Christian must take a strong stance against unbelief, pride, lust, and love of wealth. An Orthodox Christian must be strong in faith, humility, chastity, and charity.

37.  All wrong should be rebuked. (See Lev. 19:17). No one should cling to wrong and not repent of it. Unrepented wrong will cause our perdition. (See Luke 13:3).

38.  Avoid wrong and practice right. Wrong is the transgression of the ethical precepts. Right is the keeping of the ethical precepts.

39.  Ethical practice comes from learning. All unethical practice you must repent of, and unlearn. You must learn only ethical practice.

40.  No person is responsible as being the source of blasphemous, shameful, or cunning thoughts. The source of all these is the enemy. We become responsible for these when we accept them and make them a reality in our lives. We must repent of these false thoughts, confess them, and correct ourselves, unlearning those which have made our life false.

41.  Faith in Lord Jesus and willpower are our two great strengths.

42.  Observe the four common injustices: Injustice in food, injustice in possessions, injustice in honor, and injustice in romance. You cannot be reconciled to others unless you resolve and correct these injustices.

43.  Do not overeat. Do not steal. Do not dishonor. Do not covet the romance of others.

44.  Avoid clashes over food, possessions, glory, and romance.

45.  Unbelievers just want to eat and drink, buy and sell, praise and be praised, give romance and receive romance. The life of the believer has other elements: Fasting, charity, prayer, humility, chastity.

46.  Never lose sight of your goal to reach perfection in logic and love.

47.  May you reach perfection in faith, logic, and love. Amen.

48.  Always say to yourself: “Who am I?”, “What do I know?”, “What do I have?”.

49.  Do your mind-cleaning well. Diagnose your self-limiting thoughts, confess them, and think henceforth only good and positive thoughts.

50.  The domain of your own thoughts is where your problems lie. Correct your thoughts and you will be a new and free person!

51.  Do you wish to be free of certain thoughts? If yes, then that is it! With faith and willpower you are free from them. Never accept them again.

52.  What is your sin towards your neighbor? Have you dishonored him? Have you stolen his goods and rights? Have you caused him bodily hardship? Have you coveted his wife or his goods?

53.  An Orthodox Christian missionary is sent to retrieve the lost sheep of the Orthodox Christian Church. The lost sheep are the deluded and non-practicing Orthodox Christians, as well as heretical Christians. (See Matt. 10:6 and Matt. 15:24).

54.  If you do good, it comes back to you. If you do bad, it comes back to you. (See Gal. 6:7).

55.  Reject the false paradise of wealth, glory, and pleasure. Seek the true paradise of virtue, wisdom, and spiritual gifts.

56.  All heresies have been begun by delinquent teachers. These deceivers have sought to pervert the teaching and practice of the Universal Church. It is only logical that we avoid these corrupters and the false churches they have made.

57.  Associate with the inner circle of the resurrected in the Lord. Outside this circle is nothing but falsehood, greed, vanity, and pleasure.

58.  Do sheep have friendship with goats? No. How then can believers have friendship with unbelievers?

59.  Smash unbelief, greed, vanity, and pleasure!

60.  We must repent, confess, and restitute for all our injustices. We will face justice for every single transgression.

61.  Sin is our great enemy. Sin separates us from the Lord and from others. Sin must be removed from us for us to be reconciled to the Lord and to others. We must resolve the debt of our sin with repentance, confession, restitution, correction, and penance.

62.  We should laugh at thieves because they are putting fire in their house. (See Deut. 7:26).

63.  Why do you seek communion with the impious? All that you will learn from them is unbelief, reviling, greed, vanity, and pleasure.

64.  Sin is an abomination. Do not bring an abomination into your house or into your life.

65.  Have you had enough of transgression? Then repent, confess, return to the Lord, and do penance.

66.  If you transgress you must repent, confess, restitute, and do penance. No one escapes justice!

67.  Remember to practice goodness and wisdom always.

68.  Salvation comes from receiving the grace of the Lord. To return to the life of grace you must have faith, repentance, confession, and penance.

69.  A missionary calls people to salvation. A missionary calls people to the life of faith, charity, humility, and continence.

70.  The bishop of Rome separated from the Universal Orthodox Christian Church and formed his own rogue church.

71.  Those who reject Lord Jesus will receive a harsher judgment than the Pre-Old Testament city of Sodom. (See Matt. 11:24).

72.  If you transgress just one of the Ten Commandments you must do a lifetime of penance.

73.  We must regret our every single transgression and do for it a lifetime of penance.

74.  Regret your transgressions, confess, and do penance.

75.  Associate with the sheep, not the goats. (See Matt. 25:33). Associate with the wheat, not the weeds. (See Matt. 13:38).

76.  Scientific psychologists and psychiatrists use scientific methods to motivate change in patients. Theological psychologists and psychiatrists use theological methods to motivate change in patients.

77.  The majority of secular rulers are proud and wrathful. It seems that only such people seek to rule. The humble and meek do not seek to rule, but choose rather to serve and to have last-place.

78.  Work on changing yourself. You can change yourself by faith and labors. You cannot change others, because you come against the brick-wall of their will. Seek to change yourself and then you can inspire others to change themselves.

79.  All will have to face justice. Repent now, confess, and do penance, to restore your injustice.

80.  The world is ruled by spiritual justice. Do not be perplexed when you see natural injustice in the world. Spiritual justice will at some point restore the natural injustice. No one can escape justice, no one!

81.  Our bodies show the signs of the thoughts and feelings we have. Good bodily signs come from good thoughts and good feelings.

82.  We have to break with persons who are obstructing our psychological changes. These persons do not wish to change, so we must break with them to make our changes.

83.  Why do heretics believe that all heresies can lead to salvation? Can a dogma apostate be saved? No. His dogma apostasy separates him from the Universal Church. Can an ethics apostate be saved? No. His ethics apostasy separates him from the Universal Church. Can a Holy Tradition apostate be saved? No. His Holy Tradition apostasy separates him from the Universal Church. Salvation is only in the Universal Orthodox Christian Church, not in apostate heretical churches.

84.  What is your cross? Tyranny? Poverty? Physical illness? Psychological illness? Bear your cross with gratitude and patience.

85.  The Shekinah, the Spirit of the Lord, cannot come to unbelievers. (See Gen. 6:3).

86.  Lord Jesus calls you to salvation. Will you heed the call?

87.  When a food does us harm we stop eating it. Similarly, when a thought does us harm we must stop thinking it.

88.  Always meditate on positive things: positive thoughts, positive ideas, positive feelings, positive words, positive practices.

89.  Think of salvation, not of wealth, glory, and comforts.

90.  If you live a life out of gospel ethics you are an ethics apostate. If you live a life out of gospel dogma you are a dogma apostate. If you live a life out of gospel Holy Tradition you are a Holy Tradition apostate.

91.  Eating for yourself has no merit. Feeding others has merit. Gathering wealth has no merit. Giving wealth to the needy has merit. Being praised has no merit. Praising others has merit. Receiving romance has no merit. Giving romance has merit.

92.  Pride is the greatest of mortal sins.

93.  Unbelievers are crushed by their crosses and blaspheme. Believers bear their crosses with patience, hope, and gratitude.

94.  Who is causing a cross for you? A parent? A sibling? Your spouse? Your children? Your employer?

95.  Give thanks for your cross. Others have a much heavier cross than you.

96.  Be a useful steward to your neighbor.

97.  Let your desire for wealth, glory, and pleasure be extinguished.

98.  Laugh at those who praise you for your virtue. Is virtue yours?

99.  The life of virtue is the philosophical life. The life of virtue is the theological life.

100.  Live a life of gospel virtue and gospel wisdom.


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