We
are not a living body that contains a soul
We are
a living soul that dwells within a body!
Saturday, September 1, 2007
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Orthodoxy and God! |
In order to understand the church and its history,
we must first know God to the best of our human ability. Now, because of the
nature of God and our own ignorance, there is really not much we can know.
We work with what God has allowed us to work with
and so here is how we receive knowledge;
Man receives his knowledge of God from His divine Revelation in the
universe and especially in Jesus Christ. Even so, man realizes that this
knowledge is far from complete in his mind. We (mankind) know God indirectly, “For our knowledge is imperfect”, (1
Cor. 13:9), “in a mirror dimly”, (1 Cor.
13:12), this is because our knowledge is taken indirectly from God’s
revelation in the universe and in Christ. The essence of God is unknown to man
and untaught by man. We can only know that which is about God, but cannot
understand God Himself.
So what do we
know? We know that God is a spiritual Being without matter, and He cannot be
contained in space or time. There is no place in the universe where God is not
present; His energy is witnessed in every part of the universe. This is the ‘Ever-Presence
of God’.
The Eternity of God means that God is above
time, thus Ever-Present, without end.
Time is humanly understood as the moving of things which have a beginning and
an end and are changeable. But God is above and beyond time. There is no
duration of time as far as God is concerned, for “with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as a
day”, 2 Peter 3:8. This is the ‘Eternity of God’.
The divine
power can do “all things”, and God can do whatever he wills; not what He can
do, but rather what He WILLS to do. God’s WILL is God’s power, and God
wills whatever He wants to do. “God can do whatever He wills, but He does NOT
do whatever He can do; for He can destroy the universe but He does not will to
do so” (Damascene Orthodox Faith, Vol. 1,
13). In God’s Person, His power and will are indispensable to one another.
As such, God’s attribute as absolute prevails. This is the ‘Almightiness of
God’.
These are the
natural attributes of God – His Ever-presence,
Eternity and Almightiness – they
derive from the central characteristic of God’s ABSOLUTENESS.
Through the
fall (the sin) of Adam and Eve, mankind and all of creation have become corrupt
and separated from God. No longer could we walk with God in the cool of the
evening as did Adam in the Garden of Eden. But God so loved the world that He
sent His only Begotten Son that we may have eternal life. In other words, God
became a man that man may become as God.
It is through
the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son
of God, the LOGOS (Word of God) that brought the Church into being. The source
of our Salvation is through Jesus Christ and His Church.
I humbly hope and
pray that you will accept this news with love and understanding. Reflect on its
truth. Research it with an open mind in order to see the truth and if in fact
any part of these letters that touches on any teaching that you are currently
receiving and is shown to you to be true,
Then you will give
up yourself, your pride, and your ego in this area and give it to the truth of
Jesus Christ and change your life accordingly.
This is sent with
the love of Christ for you from me.
As always, all
comments and questions are welcome, send them to me at;
monkmichael@newwarriorministries.com.
Monk Michael
A humble servant of
Jesus Christ
On the Web at: http://www.newwarriorministries.com
Email: monkmichael@newwarriorministries.com
Phone: (803)
377-1244
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