Your Soul will Thank You

Today’s Gospel Reading: Luke 21:28-33 - The Lord said to his disciples, "Look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." And he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree, and all the trees; as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away."

When Jesus shared this parable He was speaking of His Own presence in the midst of the people. The Kingdom of God is found in Jesus Christ. His call then for people to raise up their heads and take notice of what was going on around them, is as true today as it was then. We MUST raise up our heads and take notice of the signs of our times. Christ also said,

 Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened. (Matthew 24.15-22)

Only the Lord knows if we are in the “end times” but we must nonetheless be prepared and watch for His return. The Kingdom of God is near as Saint Paul warned us,

“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” (Romans 13.11)

Don’t let another day go by without searching your heart, calling upon the Lord and repenting to Live A New Life In Christ. Call your priest today and schedule Holy Confession for Christmas. Your soul will thank you.

Holy and Great Tuesday – Are you wise or foolish?

On Holy and Great Tuesday, the Church calls our minds to the parable of the Ten Virgins, half are wise while the other half are foolish. We are challenged by the Church to contemplate with which group of virgins that we can relate? BOTH the wise and foolish were waiting attentively for God. BOTH the wise and the foolish were sitting in the darkness, a dangerous and frightening place, anticipating greeting the Bridegroom. Only the wise, though, were prepared to greet Him, while the foolish did not fully anticipate what was needed for them to be prepared. They didn’t have enough oil for the lamps, and while they went to buy more oil, the Bridegroom came and they missed Him. They were locked out of the banquet, never to be allowed in.

The Bridegroom is Christ, and the banquet is Heaven. We are the virgins waiting for Christ in the dark and dangerous world. Are you prepared to greet Him, or have you left matters undone? Are there sins for which you have not repented or confessed? Are there relationships in which you are not “on speaking terms”? Are there matters of your soul for which you are waiting for “some unknown future moment” when you have more time to address them? Are you “living life now” because you have plenty of time later when you get older to prepare to die? THESE matters represent the oil for your candles. When you leave matters undone, for later attention, you will find yourself “without oil” when Christ returns. You will be left out simply because you left for later that which you should have done NOW.

Holy Week is about preparing your soul to encounter God. He is returning someday, “as a thief in the night” and we do not know when to expect Him. At that moment, it will immediately be too late to attend to any unfinished matters for your soul. At that moment, you will either be welcomed into the Banquet or be locked out for ever.

The ancient Church took this issue seriously, and truly believed Jesus would return while they were still alive.  We, on the other hand I fear, have become lazy in our waiting since He hasn’t returned in some 2000 years. However, this might be the year He returns. This might be the year the Bridegroom comes to claim His Bridge, the Church. OR.....this might be year you go to Him. Why risk not being ready? Why risk being one of the foolish virgins, locked out of the Banquet. No wonder they are known as foolish...

Courting Jesus

Each year for 48 days every Orthodox Christian experiences Great Lent and Holy Week, but most do not know what it is, let alone how to make the most of it. For many Orthodox Christians, Great Lent and Holy Week is nothing more than several weeks of longer (and more) Church services and a special diet. In fact, for most Orthodox Christians, other than Divine Liturgy being longer on Sundays and the Priest constantly droning on and on about Great Lent in his sermons and the announcements after Church, we would hardly ever notice a difference between Great Lent and the rest of the year. But I am convinced that much of this would change if we had a better understanding of what Great Lent and Holy Week actually was all about, so I wanted to take a few moments to answer this very important question, “What is Great Lent and Holy Week”?

Historically, Great Lent and Holy Week developed in the early centuries of the Church for two main purposes; a few days to prepare for the celebration of Holy and Great Pascha with intense prayer and fasting, and 40 days to prepare for baptism with intense prayer, fasting, and learning. Eventually the two merged together to form a longer period of 48 days we now know as Great Lent and Holy Week. But almost everyone in the Church is already baptized, so why does the Church continue this practice of such a long period of intense fasting and prayer? What are WE preparing for?

The answer rests in the prayers of the services for this period. In the ancient Church, Christians believed that Christ would return immediately, so the few days before Pascha, is a period to prepare to welcome Him back, and therefore prepare for the final judgment and paradise. You will notice in the hymns especially during Holy Week, this idea of being vigilant waiting for the return of Christ is written throughout the services. So Great Lent and Holy Week is a period during which time we prepare ourselves to greet Christ and be forever in paradise with Him.

I might compare it to a courting relationship. We spend several weeks getting to know more about Jesus Christ by praying, fasting, and helping the poor (all things He commanded us to do in life), so that when He returns for us, we will be ready for our marriage to Him. We will know Him, and we will be comfortable in His presence. Can you imagine marrying a person you have never met? Even in past centuries when arranged marriages were common, a bride and groom would spend time courting, to learn about each other.

So this year, during our Great Lent and Holy Week experience, I invite you to spend time “courting Jesus” and getting to know more about Him. You can learn “everything there is to know” about Jesus in His Church – reading His Word, fasting, serving others, attending Church services – otherwise spending time with Him, lest we forget that He has promised to be present in the Church for us to encounter Him.

You may have already been baptized, but do you know everything there is to know about Jesus? Are you prepared to spend all eternity married to Him? Great Lent and Holy Week are for you to get to know Jesus; don’t waste another opportunity!

Judgment is Coming; Do You Know the Criteria?

On the Third Sunday of the Triodion, the Church commemorates “Judgment Sunday” during which we hear the Last Judgment as found in Matthew 25.31-46. We all know the story, “I was hungry and you fed me….” But do we know WHY the Church offers us THIS story on THIS particular Sunday?

Many people believe that God is going to judge using a scale with “sins” on one side, and “good deeds” on the other. So long as the “good deeds” outweigh the “sins”, many believe, we will be saved. THIS IS FALSE, and the based upon an incorrect interpretation of the story. First, we must realize that Jesus Christ is not just telling us a story. He begins with the words, “When the Son of Man comes in His glory…”indicating that these are events THAT WILL take place, and we should be fully aware of them.

Second, and the main point of Judgment Sunday, is that God will judge every person based upon how much they love the Lord. If we love the Lord enough to “see Him” in the poor and destitute, we will be saved. Christ identifies Himself with the poor and destitute. In the Gospel, we understand that “the sheep” (those who were saved) expressed their love for God in how they treated the lowest of society. It would be easy to love God, but because they could love others who were outcasts, they inherited the Kingdom of God.

As we draw closer to the Great Fast, the Church is urging us to search deep within our hearts. Do we love God enough to love the homeless strangers in prison? Great Lent isn’t “just about” fasting. It is about purifying our hearts, using the spiritual tools of the Church, so that we “see Him” in all people. THEN, and ONLY THEN will we inherit the Kingdom of God.

2013 New Testament Challenge – Day 32 (Reflections on Luke 17-24)

Every year I participate in a special effort called the New Testament Challenge sponsored by a priest of the Orthodox Church in America. He encourages Christians to spend the Christmas Fast, also known as Advent) reading the entire New Testament as a preparation for Christmas. Each year I have done this, it has been blessing to me and I pray this year will be no different. As part of the New Testament Challenge, I endeavor to blog a bit about the reading for that particular day. I may miss a few, but I pray for those who follow this blog (NOW ALSO ON FACEBOOK) it will be a blessing.

“Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” (Luke 21.36)

When you hear of Biblical Signs, the temptation can be to read them as future telling, but a Biblical Sign is much deeper than just reading the future. When Jesus outlines the many things to look for so they can understand the “end times” and His return, He is planting an image for us, so that when we witness them happening, we will remember His promise. And why does He do this? Because we are weak. He knows we will grow impatient and begin to doubt His return. He knows we will fall to temptation and become lazy, comforting ourselves by believing He is delayed. He also knows that sometimes we need a firm reminder about the things that really matter.

Many believe we are currently living in the “end times” based upon the decline of morality. I’m not sure I disagree based upon what Jesus said.

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. (Luke 17.26-30)

There is little doubt our society is experiencing a moral decline. We human beings seem to have a pattern of decline. Noah, Lot, the Jews at the time of Christ….and as Saint Paul teaches in Romans. “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the hosts of their hearts.” (Romans 1.24) Really only one question remains. If God has rescued His people just in time to save us from total destruction, beginning in the Garden, just how much further must we decline this last time before He returns? I’m not sure I want to find out.

Until tomorrow…..I suppose I’ll settle for trying to be as ready as I can, just in case it happens tonight.

Is Jesus Returning Soon or not?

2013 New Testament Challenge – Day 20 (Reflections on 1 & 2 Thessalonians)

Every year I participate in a special effort called the New Testament Challenge sponsored by a priest of the Orthodox Church in America. He encourages Christians to spend the Christmas Fast, also known as Advent) reading the entire New Testament as a preparation for Christmas. Each year I have done this, it has been blessing to me and I pray this year will be no different. As part of the New Testament Challenge, I endeavor to blog a bit about the reading for that particular day. I may miss a few, but I pray for those who follow this blog (NOW ALSO ON FACEBOOK) it will be a blessing.

Two things, though interrelated, struck me as worthy of today’s blog while I was reading for the New Testament Challenge. The first, though not very profound, is that it seems Christians have ALWAYS struggled to live free of sin.

Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God  for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in passion of lust, like the Gentiles who do not know God; that no one should take advantage of and defraud his brother in this matter, because the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also forewarned you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 4.1-8)

But while it may be true that Christians seem to have ALWAYS struggled with sins, especially sexual immorality, that does not mean that the early Church, and especially Saint Paul, did not consider these sins to worthy of stopping. In other words, just because everyone did it, didn’t mean the Church accepted it as “ok” or acceptable for the Christian life. To make this point extremely clear, Saint Paul said,

But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good. And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. (2 Thessalonians 3.13-15)

If the early Church had considered certain behaviors, such as sexual immorality and greed, as acceptable “just because” everyone struggled with those sins, There wouldn’t be as bold a warning against those who “didn’t obey” Saint Paul’s teaching. Of course we can’t ignore that the overall teaching of Saint Paul didn’t include perfection. He knew well that many would fall short. Rather, he emphasized the importance of the EFFORT and acknowledgment that certain behaviors were not appropriate for Christians.

This practice extended into the later centuries of the Church when Holy Canons were written to forbid Christians from pursuing certain professions because, by association, certain professions (acting for example) exalted a lifestyle not keeping true to Christian morals. We could, and I might suggest we will again soon, begin enforcing such prohibitions in the near future. How difficult is it to maintain Orthodox Christian morals WHILE being a Hollywood actor or Nashville, singer. There have always been, and will most likely be, professions in which Christians shouldn’t participate.

I find many contemporary Christians “endorsing” certain behaviors as non-sinful just because they have always existed. For a Christian to embrace sin because there has always been sin, would be suggesting that Christ did not call us to a higher moral standard, albeit when we fall along the climb.

The second thing that struck me today was the emphasis on the end times. It would seem that the Thessalonians were a bit preoccupied with the return of Christ, to the point of anxiety.

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. (2 Thessalonians 2.1-4)

We know the early Church believed Christ would return within their lifetime, but here Saint Paul is reminding them that certain things must occur first. For me the most disturbing element is the, “falling away” that must come before Christ returns. The Church spends much energy in growing the Church, both personal spiritual growth as well as corporate Church growth. And yet, there is growing evidence that many Churches, and Orthodox Church are not exempt from this either, are declining in attendance and participation. Does that mean we are “in the falling away” and that Christ will return soon?

If it does mean that Jesus is coming quickly, at least maybe we will once again, as the early Church, live as if we will witness His return. Then, maybe, just maybe, we will take seriously our need for repentance and FINALLY get ready for Him.

Until tomorrow…..take an inventory of your moral compass and ask yourself, “Is my life what Saint Paul would approve?” If it isn’t, consider what you might put into action to correct it before it’s too late.