Apropos of Yesterdays' Post

“I was regretting the past and fearing the future.

Suddenly God was speaking: 

“My name is I Am.”

I waited and God continued:

“When you live in the past, with its mistakes and regrets, 

it is hard. I am not there.

My name is not I was.

When you live in the future, with its problems and fears, 

it is hard. I am not there.

My name is not I will be.

When you live in this moment, it is not hard. I am here.

My name is I Am.”

— Helen Mellincost



Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

Waiting For Godot

I think the theme of my life lately has been finding contentment. Contentment in what I have, in who I am, in where I find myself at various and sundry times. Too often lately I have found that I am not content and this leads to all sorts of difficulties. I do the wrong thing or don't do the right thing (which are not the same). I depend on the wrong person or mistrust someone I should place my trust in and just generally end up making huge mistakes to my own detriment.

I'm not quite sure what it is I should do but I seem to be waiting for something to happen that will be a big blinking sign that says "DO THIS RIGHT NOW" The problem with that sort of thing is that it never happens.

~sigh~ I know what I am trying to say but it isn't coming out quite right tonight.

I know God said, "Be content" and "Wait on me" but I swear neither of those commands are my forte. Then again, that might be the issue right there.

Vladimir and Estragon are still standing under that tree. They have no idea who Godot is or when he is coming, but they have stayed under the tree (at least for the duration of the play). They however, wait in vain. Godot never comes. Christ, however, has never left me. Perhaps I can take a lesson from Vladimir and Estragon and just wait until I notice He is right here with me.

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

Relevant Reading
Waiting for Godot
Interview with Elder Thaddeus of Vitovnica

Signposts

Sometimes we see a signpost for the direction God wishes us to take and it is scary.

Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

Relevant Reading
Ruth 2
Isaiah 54

Come to the Dark Side! We have Cookies!

I had this conversation a little while ago that stuck in my head. A good friend of mine said, "No offense but your church is boring." I laughed it off at the time but it stayed with me. I mean, I love my church and have a very hard time seeing the pageantry and beauty of the liturgy as boring.

Another good friend told me, "Your church is rooted in Greek paganism. All the icons, just imitations of Egyptian art. Especially the ones of Mary. They are just like the paintings of Isis and Horus." I found this laughable too since I've done the research and those accusations are simply not true.

I ran into the spouse of a friend in the mall who said, "If we had known you were going to leave the church we would have come to see you to help you through that crisis." What crisis? Leave the church? Really?


I wonder how they would feel if I told them my thoughts about their church, one I went to and consider myself well out of?  If I told them I do consider myself blessed to finally be in a Church that worships God without thought of how entertaining it might be to someone who is not part of the Church. The Church was never meant to be "seeker sensitive" after all. Originally, it took three years to become a Christian because people had to know they might die, and die painfully, for their faith. Services weren't looking for folks. Folks were looking for the services! Why should I go somewhere that looks and sounds exactly the same as the place I left to look for God?

I don't feel the need to remove them from their chosen church and I try my level best not to poke fun at it (although it is difficult when the sillier doctrines are discussed). I try to just let it be. I do not need to be saved out of the Church which was founded by Christ through the original Apostles (and there were only 12 of them and ALL of them came from Israel and ALL of them lived and died 2000 years ago. Just sayin'.) I do not need the Nicene Creed explained to me although I do wish someone would use sola scriptura to explain sola scriptura (can't be done). I follow the faith of the Fathers. I do not need anymore than that.

I believe, in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things, visible and invisible.

And in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light; true God of true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father; by Whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man. And He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried. And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead; whose Kingdom shall have no end.

And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets.

In one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins. I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

This is our God, Who took thought for and established His beloved inheritance, the holy Church, setting her foundation in Paradise, comforting with His true word our forefathers who fell through disobedience. This is our God, Who, directing us to His promise of salvation, left Himself not without witness, but foretold the coming salvation, first through the forefathers and prophets, and by many images gave a lively description of it. This is our God, Who by the prophets of old often spoke to the fathers, and in these latter days spoke to us by His Son, by Whom time was created; Who declared the goodwill of the Father towards us, disclosed the mysteries of heaven, confirmed the truth of the Gospel through the power of the Holy Spirit, sent His apostles through the whole world to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom, and confirmed it by various powers and miracles.
This is the faith of the Apostles! This is the faith of the Fathers! This is the Orthodox faith! This faith has established the universe!

I usually put quotes from the Fathers in italics but I did not here because I. Say. This. Too.

Just a thought.

Lord have mercy on me a sinner.

Relevant Reading
Sunday of Orthodoxy
Triumph of Orthodoxy
Anathemas of the Sunday of Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy: the Podcast
For the Life of the World: the Podcast

Holy St. George, Pray for Our Troops!

St George pray for our troops!

Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend the souls of thy departed servants, the soldiers of the United States military, and beseech thee to grant them rest in the place of thy rest, where all thy blessed Saints repose, and where the light of thy countenance shineth forever. And I beseech thee also to grant that our present lives may be godly, sober, and blameless, that, we too may be made worthy to enter into thy heavenly Kingdom with those we love but see no longer: for thou art the Resurrection, and the Life, and the Repose of thy departed servants, O Christ our God, and unto thee we ascribe glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner

Relevant Reading

St George Orthodox Military Association

On the Church's Prayer for the Dead

It's The End of The World As We Know It

But...isn't it always? I mean, every day ends and the world changes. Earth is a little farther around the sun, the solar system is a little farther around the center of the galaxy. Several billion cells inside us have died and been replaced. Someone died, someone was born. It happens all the time. Why the fuss?

As someone said to me,"Well, if that be the case, then let us all have a clear conscience, keep our minds focused on God, and be doing what we are supposed to be doing when the time comes." OH WAIT... that is what we are supposed to be doing ANYWAY!! D'oh!

In all seriousness though, one of the main reasons I began to question the evangelical Protestant (ev-Prot) tradition was the rapture theory. I had read the Left Behind books by Tim LaHaye and listened to the radio preachers and pulpit preachers (Southern Baptist and Charismatic) and the Pit Preachers at UNC-CH and the Amway speakers at Amway meetings (yes, Amway. Let's just move on please). So, of course, being the wonderfully curious person I am, I went looking for where the idea of the rapture came from. I mean, it's not specifically mentioned in Scripture, but then again, neither is the Trinity specifically mentioned in Scripture, so that was okay with me. If there was a historical path I could deal with it.

As I read and researched though, I couldn't find mention of it prior to the early 1800s. In fact, the only time I read anything about something similar (specifically the Thousand Year Reign or Millenialism ) was the denunciation of chiliastic (Millenialist) teaching by the Early Church councils as heretical. The Early Church Fathers wrote that "one thousand year reign" referred to in the book of Revelation signifies an infinite number of years, i.e. a kingdom that shall have no end, not a finite and literal 1,000 years. The Second Ecumenical Council in 381 AD., in their condemnation of the heretic Apollinarius, also condemned his teaching about the thousand-year Kingdom of Christ. To put a stop to further attempts at introducing this teaching, the Fathers of the Council inserted into the Niceane Creed the words about Christ: "His Kingdom shall have no end." 

"In Holy Scripture it is clearly indicated that the Kingdom of Heaven is also the Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Christ, in so much as both Saint John the Forerunner and Christ Himself called it so. This Kingdom of Christ will be spiritual and will reign over the internal world of man, while externally being revealed in the righteousness, peace and joy of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). Christ Himself established this kingdom and explained in His parables how it will appear, who it will include and what power it will possess. His reign will not endure for a thousand years, but eternally (Lk. 1:33)." (Elder Cleopa)

Also, if you read the Book of Revelation through the assumption of such a theory, you get Christ returning more than once! According to rapture theory, He comes once in the air to pull His people from the Great Tribulation to come, then a third time for the battle of Armageddon when Satan is defeated and tossed into the Lake of Fire and then a fourth time for the Judgement. Seriously? How can that be when He said He was only coming back once again?

The logic goes kablooie. It gets even kablooier when you realize how many of these so-called rapture prophets have picked some arbitrary day based on random, esoteric, what-passes-for-math-in-their-own-minds and gotten it completely WRONG. And why do they get it wrong? Because Christ Himself said only the Father knows the day and the hour (Matthew 24:36) and He isn't telling. All He is saying is, "Be prepared."

And that's what this former scout is doing. I am preparing myself. God knows I fail at it on a regular basis, but thank you Lord for Your mercy and grace, I have been saved, I am being saved and I pray that I shall be saved by His grace and mercy.

This does not mean that I cannot find humor in this: "My hope is built/On nothing less/Than Scofield's Notes/And Moody Press!" HA!! (For those who don't know, Scofield and Moody are publishing companies named for two 19th century prime movers behind the rapture theory.)

Lord have mercy on me a sinner!

Relevant Reading
The Inconsistency of Chiliasm
Rapture Theology's Ominous Origins
What is the Rapture (Part 1)
What is the Rapture (Part 2)
Historical Account of the Pre-Trib Rapture' Origin
The Rapture - Indisputable Christian Heresy

Have Some Cheese With That Whine?

And now, my daughter, do not be afraid; I will do for you all that you ask, for all the assembly of my people know that you are a worthy woman.

Ruth 3:11

Today, I realized I was whining.  The past year and a half has been especially difficult in some areas and today I indulged in some whining about it. The I realized I have been whining for quite some time. I don't know when I began to whine at God. I haven't done that in quite some time I don't think. Today, however, I think He and I both had had quite enough of it.

It came to my mind that I never let Gabriel whine at me about stuff, even stuff he actually needs. I can't stand it! Folks who whine and  play the victim just scrape my nerves raw. It simply makes me want to scream when I hear that high-pitched wheedling tone. I hate it! Well, today, the Lord let me know (in His very gentle way) that He was quite done listening to me whine, thank you very much and I needed to quit. Now.

After all, He has done, and more than done, what He promised me He would do. My whine-fest was nothing but an irritant and an indication of faithlessness. The Lord has done me nothing but good for me the past few years and I would do well to remember that. He has often called His people to remember what He has done. When you do not deliberately remember, you end up whining instead of standing in faith upon what He has said.

This past weekend (48 hours) my son and I had a great 2,880 minutes (48 x 60min) with close friends. Within that 2,880, there were about 20 minutes that were really sucky. We were n the periphery of the suck-fest, but even on the periphery it was pretty bad. Gabriel was convinced that tiny bit of time had ruined the entire weekend! I had to show him, using a calculator, just how little time had really been taken up by that incident. His whole perspective changed just knowing that such a little bit of time had passed compared to the entire amount of time we had to spend with our friends.

Deliberately recalling that only the smallest bit of my recent life has been, well, less than ideal...brings things into perspective. I know my Father has a plan for me, a plan to do me good and and not evil. I just have to remember to be obedient (hear and do) to the path He has me walking. That is all. He will take care of the rest.

He said He would. Why would He stop doing as He said now?

My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
   and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed,
   and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
   and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
   your right hand upholds me. 

Psalm 63:5-8

Lord have mercy on me, a sinner.

Relevant Reading,
Ruth 3
Psalm 63:5-8
A New Perspective
Just Live Your Life!
He Speaks, I Listen
From Homily 36 of St. Isaac the Syrian

And Now for Something Completely Different

Hehehehehe! God knows I hope I have done better.

Lord have mercy on us all!

My Degree: A Short Explanation

[The degree of Reader in Invisible Writings] involves the large-scale use of Hex, the thinking machine in the High Energy Magic Building. It is tasked with casting large numbers of Search spells (such as Weezencake's Unreliable Algorithm) vitually simultaneously (impossible for human wizards), trawling through L(ibrary)-space looking for fragments of written material. This way Hex can read any book ever written, any book that will be written at some point and books that were planned for writing that were not, as well as any book that could possibly be written.

"The thaumic mathematics are complex, but boil down to the fact that all books, everywhere, affect all other books." From there the nature of bi-directionalism is revealed to demonstrate that any book ever to be written can be found in any book not yet written. In mathematical terms, as noted in The Science of Discworld, L-Space represents a form of phase space. This made possible the study of invisible writings (also based on a similar theory to do with the infinite nature of Pi, and the ways in which, if one was to transcribe alphabetical values to the numbers of Pi, one could hypothetically find the contents of every book ever written).

One of the first books to come through as a complete entity was How to Dynamically Manage People for Dynamic Results in a Caring Empowering Way in Quite a Short Time Dynamically. Fragments of this turn up so often that we are forced to believe that either it was either going to be an amazingly popular book or - possibly - that it was actually different books written almost identically.

(Lifted and edited shamelessly from The Discworld & Terry Pratchett Wiki)

Lord have mercy upon me, a sinner.

Relevant Reading

L-Space

Library - Unseen University

The Librarian

.303 Bookworm

Wow...

Regarding Bin Laden's death one friend posted this verse: 

"When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices, and when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness." 

Proverbs 11:10. 

Another posted this: 

“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.” 

Proverbs 24:17

Lord have mercy on all of us.

Relevant Reading
What is the Orthodox Response to the Death of Osama bin Laden?