Written by Greg Pantelidis BSc(Hons)
gregpantelidis@gmail.com
Be excellent not only in words, but also in thoughts, feelings, and works.
The stages of sin are: provocation through the thoughts, joining, assent, desire, action, and passion. (See “A night in the desert of the Holy Mountain” p. 190).
Separate from your faults thru repentance.
The secular life will come to an end, but the religious life will continue for all eternity.
Blessing comes from humility, respect, obedience, reverence.
Have your conscience as witness in your religious life.
“With what judgment you judge, you will be judged”. (Matt. 7:2). “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy”. (James 2:13).
You must keep both religious law and secular law.
When secular law agrees with religious law all things are well. When secular law opposes religious law it must be rejected. For example, fornication is legal according to secular law but illegal according to religious law.
Give food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance (if married).
The practicer of virtue must live in non-glory, non-wealth, and non-pleasure.
Mourn unceasingly for your sins.
Study and practice religious and scientific psychology and psychiatry.
Do not love God and neighbor only in words but also in works.
Be faithful not only in tongue, but also in mind, heart and body.
Keep the spiritual law in mind, reason, tongue, heart, and body.
Be humble in mind, reason, tongue, heart, and body.
Be virtuous in mind, reason, tongue, heart, and body.
Lord Jesus was humble but I am full of pride. Lord Jesus was poor, but I want many possessions. Lord Jesus lived in hardship and toil, but I want a life of comfort and pleasure.
Test your thoughts and ideas. “Test all things”. (2 Thess. 5:21).
Practice prudence, self-restraint, justice, Godly courage, love, humility, patience, self-control.
As long as you have self-chosen malice you are not kin to God, for God is non-malice.
Repent of you malice and return to God. Reject your self-chosen malice and become kin to God.
Wisdom is not only to understand natural cause and effect, but also spiritual cause and effect.
Wisdom is not only to understand natural law but also spiritual law.
An Orthodox Christian can choose either monastic non-marriage, worldly non-marriage, or marriage.
Natural gain is to receive. Spiritual gain is to give.
Live a life of frugal food, frugal possessions, non-glory, and non-romance.
Only Orthodox Christians are Trinitarian monotheists. All other monotheists are Unitarian.
A life of frugal food, frugal possessions, non-glory, and non-romance brings happiness.
Be selfless and you will always be happy.
If you live a life of overeating, stealing and overpossessing, vanity, and unchastity, you will be unhappy. But if you live a life of frugal food, frugal possessions, non-glory, and non-romance, you will be happy.
In the secular church there is pride of opinion and pride of will. In the Orthodox church there is humility of opinion and humility of will.
In the secular church there is pride of opinion, pride of will, wrath, hatred, envy, and enmity. In the Orthodox church there is humility of opinion, humility of will, meekness, love, charity, and peace.
Justice consists of the joyful giving of food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Injustice consists of the non-giving or the sorrowful giving of food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance.
Be selfless and not selfish. Selflessness makes you kin to the Lord Jesus.
Love good. Hate evil.
We must love the person, but hate the faults of the person.
God is Goodness. The dragon is non-Goodness.
God is Good. The dragon is anti-Good.
In order to change your life you must be willing to change.
Change of life is granted to those who turn to God.
Without the grace of God we cannot change.
Bear the yoke of Lord Jesus, and not the yoke of the world. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light”. (Matt. 11:30).
The passions are a perversion of a natural gift of God.
The dragon seeks to make us practice the overmeasure or the undermeasure of our natural gifts.
God calls us to repent and keep natural law and spiritual law.
Separate from your faults.
The natural law says return good for good, evil for evil, and neutrality for neutrality. The spiritual law says return good for good, good for evil, and good for neutrality.
True wealth is a clean conscience. True glory is the witness of a clean conscience.
Which church do you want to belong to? The secular church or the Orthodox Christian Church?
Separate from sin.
Each person must cultivate their talents.
Wisdom is humility. (James 4:6). Greatness is serving. (Matt. 20:26). First place is being last of all and servant of all. (Mark 9:35).
When guests visit us we must rejoice with them. When they leave we can again resume our mourning.
The aim of the Divine Economy of Lord Jesus was to give the Holy Spirit to those who believe. For a believer in Lord Jesus receives in this life the betrothal of the Spirit and in the other life the marriage of the Spirit.
Lord Jesus is God in the flesh. (1 Tim. 3:16).
God became man in order to give Grace to man.
Lord Jesus is the Son of God. He revealed to us that God is a Trinity consisting of one essence but three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The Lord God is a Trinitarian Lord, not a Unitarian Lord.
The four cardinal virtues of the Old Testament are: prudence, self-restraint, justice, and Godly courage. Excess and deficiency of these virtues according to Saint Gregory of Sinai are: For prudence, cunningness and ignorance. For self-restraint licence and insensitivity. For justice greed, injustice, and deficiency. For courage rashness and cowardice.
Renounce this material world and keep the spiritual law of Lord Jesus.
The organized life has four aspects. Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened to you. Go where assigned to go.
When in doubt about what to do ask Love. What does Love say to do?
The secular church lives the disorganized life of taking without asking, demanding without seeking, opening without knocking, and going without assignment. The Orthodox Christian Church lives the organized life of asking before taking, seeking, knocking, and going where assigned.
The secular church has no outer yoke but is held by the inner yoke of the passions. The Orthodox Church has an outer yoke but is free from the inner yoke of the passions.
Do not cling to the material world. Everything here decays. Food decays. Possessions decay. The body decays. This world is a training ground for eternal life in heaven. Do not cling to food, possessions, glory, or the body.
Devote your free-will to God and be selfless.
Disorderly youth make a mess with their food and overeat; break, steal, make a mess and overpossess possessions; say mindless things and embarrass their parents; disobey parents and others; practice unchastity.
Respect authorities in Christ and obey them. By obeying authorities in Christ you obey God.
There are three modes of life on earth. The carnal life, the psychical life, and the spiritual life. The carnal life is the life of love of pleasure, love of possessions, and love of glory. The psychical life is the life of love of glory and love of the body. The spiritual life is the life of non-glory, non-wealth, and non-pleasure. “My Spirit shall not remain with these people forever, for they are carnal”. (Gen. 6:3). “The psychical man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him”. (1 Cor. 2:14). “These are psychical persons who cause divisions, not having the Spirit”. (Jude 19). “He who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one”. (1 Cor. 2:15).
Reject lawless thoughts, lawless words, and lawless works.
Meditate unceasingly. Study unceasingly. Pray unceasingly.
Can anyone end conflict over food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, or romance?
Consider the four pursuits of food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance. Practice the cardinal virtues in these four pursuits. Be prudent in food, possessions, glory, and romance. Be self-restrained in food, possessions, glory, and romance. Be just in food, possessions, glory, and romance. Be Godly- courageous in food, possessions, glory, and romance. Be loving in food, possessions, glory, and romance. Be humble in food, possessions, glory, and romance. Be patient in food, possessions, glory, and romance. Be self-controlled in food, possessions, glory, and romance.
Live the excellent life. The excellent life is the life of virtue.
Each person must renounce attachment to the four pursuits of food, possessions (including knowledge), glory, and romance.
God came in the flesh to teach the spiritual law, to cure disease, to cast out demons, and to bear the sin of the world.
To attain salvation and happiness be selfless.
Knowledge is God’s. The virtues are fruits of the Spirit, therefore the virtues are also God’s. We possess knowledge and virtue by grace and not by nature.
Reject lawless thoughts.
Reject the general lawless thoughts which correspond to the three parts of the soul. Reject Blasphemous thoughts. Reject Shameful thoughts. Reject Evil thoughts.
Have faith in the Trinitarian Lord and do good works.
Practice charity towards every person.
Practice charity unceasingly.
Do not judge the pride, negligence, and vice of your neighbor.
We do not have the authority to change our neighbor. We can only seek change in ourselves.
Correct the pride, negligence, and vice in yourself. Only then can you help your neighbor to correct his pride, negligence and vice.
Confess your lawless thoughts, lawless words, and lawless works.
Never boast of your knowledge, virtue, or achievements. Ascribe all of them to God.
Guard your mind from lawless thoughts. Guard your heart from lawless feelings.
Seek the frequency which contains the will of God.
Stress over nothing. Commit yourself to the Providence of God.
Stress and worry are cured by undoubting faith in God combined with diligent effort on our behalf.
Have faith in God and keep the spiritual law.
Be still in mind. Be still in heart.
In every place practice stillness.
Wash you soul by confessing your lawless thoughts, lawless words, and lawless works.
Put on the armor of God. The armor of God is Divine Grace.
