Calling All Christians

This is an interruption of the regular scheme of things, and is an outward call to EACH and EVERY single Christian in the world who comes across this. 

Do you ever think about your eternity? If yes, why are we so rebellious? If no, why are we Christians?

I’m going to paint this picture, which is highly familiar to each and every Christian, and is jaded and obsolete by now. However this time, it’s a call from God for us to wake up, realize our history, realize who we are, and come back under the wing of our Father.

Agape. Divine, true, pure, strong, sacrificial, brotherly love. My words can’t even encompass the whole notion of Agape. But your heart can imagine it, by meditating and pondering on this story. God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit- who existed before the ages was always a loving, humble, and just God. Each person of the Trinity interacted with the Other in pure love and humility, co-existing in harmony with Each Other, being one, as stated in John 17:11. Our Master, in His loving and beautiful caring nature, created us that we may also become one with each other, and one with Him. He placed us in the paradise of joy, and gave us the blessing of hearing His divine voice and living with Him in the same harmony of the Hypostasis. However, being in the presence of such honor and glory, and being created in the holy image of God, we were given a free will. Why, one may ask, if God knows we are just going to use it to sin? That’s exactly why- because a master receives no enjoyment if his slaves are all chained up and doing his will- but he lives in harmony when they are freely doing his will and there is an established communion of love. When given this test, we sinned anyway. We tore up God’s image of how He wanted things to be- we failed Him. However, by throwing us out of the paradise of joy, He gave us an opportunity to become fixed, to become whole again, for He knows that we cannot enter into Life unless we are perfected. Therefore by chastening us, and apparently “punishing” us, He’s only really doing us a favor. So far, the story has progressed from the beginning of time, until the presence of man on earth.

Here is where the story becomes exponentially bad, and this is where we come into play. Before this point, we may say it was all Adam’s fault and we didn’t do anything– but don’t flatter yourself, we are thousands of orders worse than Adam ever could have imagined, and actually Adam did us a favor. We could not have continued in paradise if we were not complete and whole. Eternal life is only for those who want it. Being in eternal life is being so consumed in God that nothing else matters. Adam was so consumed in looking upon God’s glory that there was never a need for clothes– it was only after he diverted his gaze that he sought after clothes. We therefore needed to be righted and corrected, that at the end of time on this earth those who live with God eternally are those who have really sought after it with their free will, and have loved God. Thank you Adam, because now during the second time around, Heaven will be completely free of Satan and all his followers, and only full of pure light, untainted.

God throughout the ages has loved us. This is no cliche Christian talk and Bible story. This is the difference between eternal life and eternal death, and it’s real; we need to embrace it. After placing us on earth and punishing us as a loving father punishes a son for correction, He sent us prophets to sustain us and assure us that He’s caring for us. He who has NO need for us, is caring for us after we diverted our attention from Him. Well, we killed His prophets. We ignored their warnings. You would think that decreases His love? You would think that after He has given us all the tools necessary, we would turn back to him. However, we were determined to continue along our own path of self reliance. We, who were created as upright creatures with the ability to gaze into the heavens, were determined to act like our animal counterparts, who were created as four legged creatures whose eyes gaze at their bellies, which is all we desire to satiate. How did God respond? He came Himself. He came, that He may be killed by the very souls whom He has created and loved. What love! What humility! Do I call it love and humility when I do a favor for someone, because I was so humble to have heard and helped that person? Foolishness! THIS is love and humility, what our God has shown us. 

His Holy, precious, and pure Blood was spilled for us. He was led to the slaughter, as the Lamb of God. This is such moving love it is incriminating. Yet, we are still continuing along our path leading to destruction. WHY? My brothers and sisters, I urge you, with every fiber in my heart, to wake from sleeping and laziness. Enough time has passed. This world is transient and meaningless, our world is waiting for us in the heavens, that the world may be restored to the beautiful state it was created in. God desires to correct us here, that we may become blameless and made worthy to see Him over there. Don’t give that up for a quick passion which is fading away. Don’t blame God for evils and for seemingly bad things which are not pleasing to your senses, as the atheists do. They blame God for evil and use that as the means for extinguishing the work of His Holy Spirit, and walking in sins. They make that their excuse to sin, that they may feel good about it. Let us not do so, but stand up strongly, knowing what He has prepared for us. Every thing along our path- good, bad, neutral, pleasant, hurtful, angering, emotional- has been placed there for a reason, that we may return to our original state. Yes, He STILL loves us, even at this point of the story. He still loves us enough to guide us and continually call for us, when we shut the door in His face. 

But that’s only at this point of the story. The end of the story is coming soon- very soon. And it is what we do now which will determine whether or not we can begin another story at the end of this one- one which will never end.

Eating From the Bread of Life vs. The Bread of Gluttony

“Look, I can’t help it. I’m only eating this pasta alfredo because I’m not eating steak or chicken, so it’s ok.” “So what if this pasta with vodka sauce is “cheating”, the only reason I’m even looking at pasta with vodka sauce is because I’m not eating a gyro or wings.”

Oh, I didn’t know that you’re the one who’s doing God the favor. God should be content with the fact that you’re “cheating” because you’re already doing Him the huge favor of not eating chicken, so He better not complain… right?

We are an eating people, a gluttonous people. In the words of St. John Chrysostom, “For we were not born, we do not live, in order to eat and drink; but we eat in order to live.” We forget that sometimes, and our stomachs rule us. When we “cheat” during Lent the only person we are “cheating” is ourselves, because we found a middle ground between what the Church wants us to do and what will keep our stomachs happy, and that middle ground is enough to sutain us until the end of the fasting period, and then we can convene our happy gluttony again. What kind of benefit is this at the end of Lent? Does God become glad at the fact that now we will eat beans instead of meat, or is it something else that makes Him glad? How does this prepare us for the Holy Passion week our Saviour endured  for us, and for the glory of His Resurrection? Is there a point to our fasting if we stuff ourselves with pasta and whatever non fasting food comes our way? This makes us just as gluttonous as before the Lent, just using different means. So contrary to popular belief, this type of “fasting” does not make me a follower of Christ who has trained my body and my soul to hunger for Him, but it makes me a “Christian” who can now check off on my religion list that I fasted the Great Lent and feel good about myself that I can diet very well for 2/3 of the year. (The latter type of Christian is exactly what Marx means when he says religion is an ‘opium’ for people, this was the only side he saw, he never saw the former type of Christian- if you have no idea what I’m talking about don’t worry about it!)

We can use this idea of gluttony which we are familiar with as a stepping stone for understanding the Bread of Life which came down from Heaven, the Bread of Life which gives Life to the world, in John 6:32. Our Saviour Jesus Christ says in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” What does this mean? Put yourself at the dinner table, at the fast food restaurant, and at the gyro stand when you are obeying your stomach. You are physically feeding your stomach, because it is screaming at you to do so. The aftermath of feeding your stomach is to enjoy fullness, and a state of being content. If you fed your stomach beyond its capacity, you become so relaxed that you may desire to sleep. This is the same thing Christ desires to give us! He is telling us that He is the Bread of Life, the Food for our spirits. He will give our spirits fullness and allow us to be content. When we eat, our stomachs hunger again, but when Christ is present in our spirits we shall never hunger! No longer shall we pursue vain things to fill the gaping desire of our spirits, but we have That which fills us permanently! Father Matta el Miskeen says “Whenever physical hunger turned cruel against me, I found my gratification in prayer. Whenever the biting cold of winter was unkind to me, I found my warmth in prayer. Whenever people were harsh to me (and their harshness was severe indeed) I found my comfort in prayer. In short, prayer became my food and my drink, my outfit and my armor, whether by night or by day.” This father has found the True Bread of Life, and Christ feeds him continually. Praying out of yearning and earnest desire, reading the Bible eagerly to learn the Word of God more deeply, singing hymns and songs in our hearts to God, enjoying His presence and never forgetting Him for a fleeting moment, doing His will and loving others as much as ourselves, preaching His Holy gospel, rejoicing in His name and most importantly partaking of His Holy Body which He gave up for us all on the Cross; this is our food which feeds us continually. This is our spiritual food, and without it the spirit will choke. We must nourish our spirits daily with the Bread of Life and as He promised us in John 15, He will abide in us if we abide in Him.

Our bodies and spirits are connected and they come together to comprise our whole being. Let us avoid gluttony because it fills the outer body beyond necessity and makes it lazy, and full of transient food which strips the inner spirit of its hunger to seek its spiritual food. Let us not “cheat” just so we can make it past another Lenten season and fulfill our carnal desires, but let us take this gift of fasting the Church has granted to us as an opportunity to feel physical hunger, learn self control, fast from the passions and desires of the body and stomach, and channel this hunger into a desire to nourish the Spirit, and renew ourselves. Let us put aside our carnal hunger, in an effort to satisfy our spiritual hunger. Let us bring back to life and nourish our spirits which we have kept famished for so long.

Where is the power in prayer?

Do you have an exam tomorrow? You’ll be ok just pray about it. Are you sick? Just pray you’ll be ok. Are you confused about a decision to make? Pray about it, don’t underestimate the power of prayer.

This last one is a very highly cliched line which we don’t really grasp the full meaning of. What is the power of prayer? Well, what is prayer? Is it like when we throw a penny into a fountain and make a wish and then it’s a 50/50 chance, either we get what we’re asking for or don’t? What’s the point of praying for something that won’t happen? 

“When they had pasture, they were filled. They were filled and their heart was exalted. Therefore they forgot Me. So I will be to them like a lion, like a leopard by the road I will lurk. I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs, I will tear open their rib cage. And there I will devour them like a lion.” (Hosea 13:6-8) Woah. So basically God is addressing those who pray and yearn for Him when they need something, and turn away from Him when they don’t because then they “have” everything they need. They’re filled, their hearts are ‘exalted’. Is there a POWER in this prayer? If this is your attitude, and you pray for something and get it, is that really POWER? Is that what they mean by don’t underestimate the power of prayer? Where is the power then?

The type of prayer we pursue is produced as a RESULT of our need for God, and as a result of His Fatherhood. Due to these, we must communicate with Him, and this is via prayer. Prayer is when we meet God and His Will is revealed to us, and our human wills are conformed to His Will. This prayer hardly mentions material things or goals, but yearns for the release of the spirit, and the acquirement of virtue. This is the type of prayer which produces power, however the power of this prayer is not manifested outwardly, it is not manifested as an “answer” to what it is you were praying for. It’s manifested as a transfer of POWER from God to YOU. We’ve communicated with Our Father. We’ve gotten so close in intimate prayer that we can almost touch or feel Him- is it possible to end this prayer without leaving with a gift from Him? It’s a step of getting closer to Him, getting closer to seeing Him. Each prayer is a journey which takes you along your path towards God, therefore each prayer must be a progressive journey. Should you end a prayer without acquiring the Holy Spirit (power), then it is meaningless. You have embarked on a journey that went nowhere. Acts 1:8 says, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Well, weren’t the disciples gathered in an upper room, PRAYING, when the Holy Spirit descended upon them like tongues of fire? This is the Power with which we walk out of prayer with, this is how we know we have prayed, we have taken a journey closer to Our Maker. This Power is what we take and worship God with, it’s the means we use to offer ourselves to Him, and it’s the foundation for building a strong faith. Power.  There is a sharp contrast between this everlasting and lifegiving Power, and the “power” of prayer where if you want to ask for something to happen, it will happen. One is where you are praying and are very concerned with the material result and its probability of ‘coming true’, and the other is where you are not mindful of the result and its probability, but mindful of the beautiful dialogue you yearn to have with Your Savior. Your request is secondary to the dialogue, and you trust its result in His Hand. No matter what happens, you know your prayer ‘came true’, because you’ve experienced the real Power of prayer.

Part-Time Job

 

So I’ve got this part time job, it’s called Christianity. It’s great, I can do whatever I want. Monday through Saturday I can do whatever I want, wherever I want, whenever I want, and Sunday I go to church for a little bit in the morning. I get to hang out with a new crowd at church and sometimes go out after church. I get to go to this Friday meeting and go out after the meeting too. I can find fellow Christians at College Fellowships and all over to hang out with and its great, it’s like a nationwide cult. Then I can go back to my own daily life whenever I’m not at any of these church functions, I usually spend my own personal days lying, smoking cheating, drinking , stealing etc. – not too much, not enough to hurt anyone, but just enough to do what I want to do. It’s a great job you should check it out- I’ll send you an application.

 

I’ve got news- the part time job doesn’t get rewarded. It’s all or nothing. Do you burn with passion for your Christian life? Do you work on it every second of each day? Or do you sometimes put aside your Christian notions or beliefs for a little bit, or sometimes ignore what is Christian because it is not the convenient thing to think about at the moment? If the latter, then we are following along the same path as the short story mentioned above. Christianity becomes a part time job. The essence of the word “Christianity” itself is to bear Christ, to be one who bears Christ- not only His Name. You can’t bear Christ on Sunday then put Him down Monday-Saturday. It’s a full time job. Why is it that sometimes we can wholeheartedly know the right thing to do and do it, yet at other times ignore the right thing? This is not what we are called to do.

In John 4:24 Jesus tells us, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” He didn’t say those who worship Him must go to church on Sunday and go to the Friday meeting, and go to Applebee’s afterwards, or did He? He said those who worship Him must do so in SPIRIT and TRUTH. These are two elements of worship which cannot be separated from each other, and which cannot be separated from one’s life. To worship God in TRUTH, we must truly give Him EVERYTHING we have, at ALL times. To give Him only half (or anything less than all) of our time, or resources, is to worship Him FAKELY… NOT in truth. There is no such thing as a half truth, to worship God in truth is to lift up our lives to Him, as a sacrifice of worship. Since our spirits and bodies are intertwined, and one affects the other, then worshipping Him in full truth begins with our spirits, and ends with our whole bodies and our whole existence. This is what He explicitly said, and to do anything otherwise is to blatantly disregard His words of life. Next time a decision faces us which involves putting off our Christian lives for a second and resuming it even ONE second later, let us remind ourselves that this is as good as nothing, and we must worship in spirit and truth. Don’t take it passively. Be vigilant, be robust and zealous.

Next time you see a person who is in any type of need (financial, spiritual, academic, etc) don’t “feel bad” and then move on with your life at the flip of a switch. Be a full-time Christian- if you can’t help them, then pray for them, and agonize over them in your prayers, don’t just recite it as if you cannot wait until prayer is over. Next time you’re faced with a decision to cheat, don’t “do it real quick” and then “feel bad because you did it” and then move on with your life at the flip of a switch. Again, be a full-time Christian, do what is right at ALL times. Next time you’re about to enter into a conversation full of gossip, don’t justify it, don’t make yourself feel like it’s ok and forget your Maker throughout the process. Next time you’re going to spend your time idly, remember who gave you the gift of time, and don’t be wasteful “just for a second”, because that’s the second where you lose your full-time job and get reduced to part-time. Don’t compromise your privilege of bearing Christ (Christianity) for any of these decisions, becomes none of them come CLOSE to being worth it. We are Christ’s full-time job, so full-time He took our form and took (and still takes) our sin, pain, and enmity away, enduring it all Himself. If Christ was really your full-time job, would you compromise Him? Does He deserve anything less than ALL of what you have?

The Sick Who Do Not Desire Healing

I’m so sick, I have a fever and a cough and a stuffy nose, my throat hurts and my head is pounding. My body is aching and I have the chills. How long should I be in such pain? God, please heal me quickly!

We have all been there, the cold or flu which has us bedridden for days. We endure so much pain, and would do anything to restore ourselves to our “normal” and healthy state. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that we are sick. We might go to the emergency room, visit a doctor, or take medicine. We pursue our health until we are restored again. We may even ask God to physically heal us. It’s good that we do that, but do we ever ask Him to spiritually heal us?

Last Sunday, we heard the gospel of Jesus healing the paralytic man. When Jesus saw the faith of the man’s friends, He proceeded to say “Son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you” (Matthew 9:2). That was the FIRST thing He said. Later on, AFTER the man’s priority was attended to by our Savior, Jesus told the man to rise, take his bed, and go to his house, healing his physical condition. The first aspect of healing Jesus attended to was the spiritual aspect. This is the priority. Our physical sickness should serve as an analogy to our spiritual condition; the pain, suffering, and aching. We allow these to inflict our souls without removing them, but when it comes to our bodies we deal with them instantaneously. Our priorities are backwards. The urgency and diligence with which we pursue our physical health should as well be analogous to the urgency with which we attend to our spiritual health. Do you plead with God to heal your soul as much as you plead with Him to heal your fever, or broken arm? More importantly, does the condition of your soul ail you and give you as much discomfort as your physical sickness would? Why is it that even when we do ask God to heal us spiritually, we do so with laziness, lack of zeal, and lack of urgency? We let the diseases enter and take over our soul without removing them, but when we get sick it becomes a full time job, and we remove them right away. Let us take charge of our spiritual health, for this is the health which will last for eternity. It doesn’t make sense for someone with a broken arm to sit at home and pretend like it never happened. It doesn’t make sense for someone with a fever to pretend like it’s not there either. Therefore, let us realize the magnitude of our spiritual infirmities, and attend to them with diligence and a sense of priority, so we may present a pure and healthy soul to God.

It’s Getting Late- And Time is Running Out

Today is going to be such a busy day. I have class from 8-4 then I have to see a professor then go to a club meeting, then study for my 3 midterms and 1 paper which are all due within a few days….

Ahh today was such a long day, I just got home its 10:00 and I think I’m just going to relax and doze off, and then repeat my routine tomorrow. I wanted to pray and read the Bible tonight but I’m just too tired, and today was a long day. God will understand. I’ll do it tomorrow. (Repeat)

Well, what about the break time you had in between classes? What about the time you spent eating, even if it was quick? Did you spend a few minutes chatting with someone? When saying that it was a long day, you’re also saying that since you had so many priorities to handle today, you weren’t able to handle the secondary things, which pertain to God. This dual life style is a trick from the devil, and all he has to do is hold out with doing this age old trick- until time runs out.

And just to defeat the notion that “God will understand”, He won’t. He says in John 12:35, “A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” He warned us. He told us to walk in the light lest darkness overtake us, so what are we waiting for? We’re waiting for when we have free time so we can give God our garbage time, the left overs, the time that we don’t have anything else to do in. That’s not exactly what He wants either. Exodus 25:2. “Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring Me an offering. From everyone who gives it willingly with his heart you shall take my offering.” When you’re tired and you offer Him your time, or if you make time out of no time, that is the sweet smelling offering He accepts with happiness. He doesn’t want it if its not done from the heart, and done willingly, not begrudgingly. No matter how busy we get there are some bare necessities that are handled. We shower, shave, eat, get dressed, gel hair or do makeup, and tend to ourselves if we are sick. Similarly, we have necessities to maintain our spiritual lives as well. If we keep saying “I’ll do it tomorrow” then there will come a day and a unique point in time when your “tomorrow” never comes. He called for you many times, you just never answered because you were busy.

Spiritual Life? Or Feeling?

More and more people are saying: I definitely believe in God. I know He’s there because there are certain points of my life where I feel His presence significantly. However, there are other times where I don’t FEEL Him as much, so during those times I don’t really worry about Him, there are enough other things to worry about and when the time comes around again (usually after a retreat or a spiritual experience) to feel God I’ll be sure to do so. That’s when I’ll pick up all my spiritual exercises where they left off.

And the cycle continues. Where exactly is this cycle going, when it keeps leading us back to square one? Why is it that after a moving experience or a good retreat or a good sermon we have just a small grace period of living with God and then it goes away? We have reduced and cheapened the treasure and fruit of the spiritual life to a mere FEELING. We don’t look deeper, instead we look for what can give us the good FEELING of being elevated and with God. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the spiritual life is much more than a mere feeling of being elated, it is much more permanent. The spiritual life is what you have chosen to BE, who you ARE currently, and the way of life that you follow. You become a new and renewed species, a new nature. Can I ask a snake to be a human being? No. Similarly, I cannot ask a Spiritual Man to be an Earthly Man.

The Spiritual Man has chosen his path and committed to it. He set his heart on the eternal prize and he is never looking back, because looking back comprises the thorns which choke spiritual progress. The Earthly Man may sometimes enjoy high levels of spirituality, and attain the “feeling” of God’s presence and of making spiritual progress. He will fast, pray, read the bible, live a Christian life and give his all to God, but this is just a phase. When the “feeling” goes away, so do his vigils and warfare. On the contrary, the Spiritual Man always lives for God, always prays and reads the bible, and enjoys living Christian virtues and the Fruits of the Spirit. He may sometimes face low levels of spirituality, where this “feeling” does not exist, similarly to how the Earthly Man faces phases of high spirituality where the “feeling” does exist. What separates them however, is that the Spiritual Man understands the meaning of his spiritual struggles, and reduces them not to a mere feeling. In the absence of the “feeling”, he continues performing his spiritual duties and exercises, walking further and further along the spiritual path, while the Earthly Man has stopped or turned around, waiting for the “feeling” to come back. This is his life. It is what he chose and it is who he is. We are waging unceasing warfare, therefore let us no longer seek the “feeling” but rather seek the “life”.

Why?

Do you work? Go to school? Raise kids? Keep the house? Hang out? Study? Play video games?

Do you desire something? A car? House? Boat? Clothes? Fame?

WHY?

Does your answer have something to do with your satisfaction? I’m sure it does, or else there might not be a motivation for doing these things. However what does our satisfaction entail? 

The more things we get, the more things we achieve, we all know that we will want more. If currently we have the goal of being successful, once we achieve that goal we will want something else. Things that look lucrative from our side of the fence are only temporarily lucrative when achieved. Deion Sanders, former NFL and MLB player said that the night he became a true Christian was the night he won the Superbowl. He realized that what he spent so much time and energy coveting meant nothing. Yet we have our heads so fully ingrained and focused on that one goal that we don’t take a second to look up towards the future, and think about where we’re headed. I’m sure you’ve all had this conversation before- the question has been posed to you “So after you get your nice car and you drive it around in circles and you sit in your nice house until you get old, then what? Was your goal achieved?” And you answer, “No, no, I know that I have to seek my spiritual life and God, I will spend my life in the church and these goals are not my only target, God is the only goal which will never leave me unsatisfied.” But what’s wrong with this answer? Here we have two sets of goals- one being earthly (wealth, fame, position) and one being spiritual (relationship with God). And we live our lives pursuing two goals that are lying parallel next to each other. Naturally, this means we can’t FULLY pursue one of them, we forget about one, as we pursue the other…

The natural response to realizing this is to say Oh ok, I’ll keep pursuing the career and job, but I’ll just set my mind on God. This works if we are honest with ourselves, we have to pick one goal and LET GO of the other completely. Ask yourself- If God were to ask you today to leave every single thing behind, namely career/wealth/whatever goal it is that you have spent your time and resources to achieve… Would you let it go without a care in the world? Would you let it go with joy?

Today you’re at a crossroads. One path is the one which pursues all the money, fame, power, and glory you can achieve and at the same time, you’ll “keep God in mind”. The other path, is where you let every worldly desire go, and re-coordinate all your desires and senses to God. If you want to become a doctor, make your love of science and medicine PROCEED from a love of God and desire to extend His love and care to others, meaning God was there first- not science. If you want to become a teacher, make your love of knowledge PROCEED from love of God’s knowledge and a desire to enrich others’ minds. Whatever it is, reestablish your thoughts and desires to serve Him alone. This way when you reach the end of your time on earth and you’ve got every dollar and possession you ever wanted, you don’t lose everything you’ve worked a lifetime for in a second, but you keep it for eternity.

Oh Seeker

We hear about the concept of seeking pretty frequently. In Matthew 7 Jesus utters the famous words saying “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened”. He goes on to say that as our Heavenly Father, He gives to His children what they ask for. But what exactly are we seeking? How can we seek Jesus in a world full of sin, poverty, famine, murder, wars and lack of justice?

First, let’s be honest with ourselves. How diligently are we seeking God? Do we expect Him to come down in a cloud and say “Ok I’m here! Now tell me all the things you want and I’ll do them for you, at your command”? Do we spend more time and energy seeking a job or our education, or a future spouse? If you spend more energy seeking those things than you spend seeking God, how exactly do you expect to find Him? Proverbs 8:17 says something beautiful “I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me diligently will find me.” DILIGENTLY! That’s a promise from our God… if you seek Him diligently, you WILL find Him! Haven’t found Him yet? Either you are not seeking diligently or you are not looking properly. His Holiness Pope Shenouda III has a saying that anyone who has underwent a tribulation and has not seen God has not looked hard enough. 

So how do I seek God diligently? It must be so diligent that it becomes your primary purpose of life. Most of the time we want to kick back and make God a part time thing. I’ll seek my job now, my salary later, and my family and kids after that. During the spare time I’ll seek God. You won’t find Him there. When you are at your job, you seek God in the task at hand which you are performing, you seek God in your co-workers. You look for His image, His imprint on others’ lives. When you walk into church you seek Him and His company only, not what you will do after or what you are missing out on to be in church. You put Him in front of you in everything, You love His laws (Psalm 1- Blessed is the man…. whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night) and you ask Him for help with everything so that through everything you do you may achieve Him. You read His Word and listen for His voice. Partake in His Holy Eucharist and invite Him to share your life with you.

God is doing His part more than we can imagine or even comprehend. He is yearning for our love, and He showers us with His love, He wants us to unite with Him and enjoy this unity of love. St. Athanasius in his Paschal Letters says “the contemplation of God, and the Word which is from Him, suffice to nourish those who hear, and stand to them in place of all food. For the angels are not otherwise sutained than by beholding the face of the Father and of the Saviour who is in heaven.” Knowing and loving God alone, will leave us fully satisfied and desiring nothing more. So let’s seek Him. It’s a promise from God that if we do so, we’ll find Him, it’s a guarantee, don’t give up. He’s waiting for us, we just need to do it the right way. If we can’t rely on or trust this bona-fide promise from the Most High, what exactly can we rely on or trust in?

It’s Not a Sin

I can go as long as I don’t do anything. Going is not sinning, get off my back. Hey show me where it says in the Bible that I can’t just go without doing anything. As long as I go, and don’t do anything wrong, I’m fine. Not going is just for monks and priests. 

What an all too common dialogue held between young people today. Many of us look for the line where we can be technically doing the right thing, and do the minimal possible amount of virtue. This is not a life that we can defend at the end of our days when we come into contact with our Savior, and if we lead this life then this encounter with the Lord at the end of our days will be our FIRST such encounter with Him. How can we tell Him that we want to spend eternity with Him if we are telling Him this the first time we meet Him? We must encounter Him every second of our lives, and know Him personally. He is DYING (literally) to just meet us and sit and talk with us EVERY DAY… We kick back on the couch and turn on the TV and music real loud so we can’t hear Him… We go to church and we hover right around the “minimal line” of what we should be doing, so we can feel good about ourselves and not have our consciences bug us. If we avoid this, and get to know our Redeemer personally and intimately, then at the end of time we can tell Him that although we are sinners by nature and nothing we do is worthy of Eternal Life, that we know Him and love Him, and we can back it up.

So how to back it up? Well, knowing God personally will alone keep us away from the “minimal line”, and always keep us shooting for the stars as a way of life. Check out Psalm 1…

“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night”

It’s explicit there. We know that you shouldn’t be ungodly, a sinner, or scornful. But this passage tells us to get away from the “minimal line” of what we shouldn’t be, and look at what we SHOULD be! BLESSED, is that man! Did he say blessed is the man who isn’t a sinner? No, blessed is the man who doesn’t WALK, STAND, or SIT with sinners. The passive guy! The one who wants to go but “do nothing wrong”. The one who wants to walk, stand, or sit in a place he or she shouldn’t. Going might not be necessarily doing something wrong per se, but its running away from a blessing! It’s hanging out by the “minimal line” and avoiding shooting for the stars! Is this knowing God? Wouldn’t you so much rather tell God at the end of time that you read about the blessing He will bestow on those who do this, and out of your love for Him you yearned to achieve that blessing? God cannot lie (Titus 1:2)… If He says He’ll bless you then it’s as good as done. So what are you waiting for?