The Vine & Crossroads

of Faith

Newsletter

For: December 21, 2008

The Icons to the left and right, when clicked on will take you to interesting information

The American Orthodox Church

The Orthodox Church is not a denomination, it is the living body of Christ.
The Word of God is not a book, It is a Person; Jesus the Christ.
The Prophets of the old and new covenant are those who have seen, heard
and touched the Word of Life (
He who was from the beginning, the one whom we have
heard, and have seen with our eyes, have touched with our hands, we declare to you is
the Word of Life,)
I John 1:1

I am Rev. Father Gary Sweet, I write articles and run a website under the pseudonym of Monk Michael. I hope that
these articles aid you in your search for truth and salvation. Monk Michael.

 
We are what you once were.
We believe what you once believed.     
We worship as you once worshiped.
If you were right then, we are right now.
If we are wrong now, you were wrong then.
A Canonical Orthodox Church of World Wide Orthodox

A Monk's Wisdom!


Just a few Christmas wishes and blessings for you from me.

May you have
walls for the wind
a roof for the rain
drinks bedside the fire
laughter to cheer you
those you love near you
all that your heart may desire

May you always have work for your hands to do.
May your pockets hold always a coin or two.
May you allways have sun shine on your window pane.
May your rainbows be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near you.
And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

May you be poor in misfortune, rich in blessings,
slow to make enemies, quick to make friends.
And may you know nothing but happiness.

May you have all the happiness and luck that life can hold,
And at the end of all your rainbows may you find a pot of gold!


My personal Blessing to you!

May God in His infinite love and mercy, rain down upon you compassion so that your heart is filled with the mercy of God within you.

May you in turn bestow this mercy of God that He has bestowed upon you, upon every person that you meet in this life. May you never forget to smile from your heart so that your smile may warm the heart of another.

In this mercy may you develop compassion and love for everyone that you meet so that you may never in your lifetime leave anyone sorry to have met you, but that all who meet you in this life also meet Jesus Christ who is Himself the life emanating from your heart to theirs.

Rev. Father Gary Sweet
(Monk Michael).


More from Monk Michael;

You ask what in the world makes us think that we know everything, I tell you that we/I do not know everything. But there is a resource that has the earliest church writings for you to study.

It's your soul and your eternity, do with it what you like but the excuse that you just simply did not know will not be accepted on that dreaded day of judgement. Don't be one who neglects his own communion with the Father through the blood of Jesus Christ because of the subtle pride that has you trapped.

Study to show thyself approved, get rid of your pride and just do it. Knock and the door shall be opened, seek and ye shall find. Ask and it will be given unto you.

Who said these words? The person that you claim to follow, are you doing as He said? Or does your pride keep you where you are because you are the Pastor, the music director, the assistant Pastor, the youth director, the Deacon, the head of the women's committee?

Here is a resource for your re-course for a better understanding..

Early Church Fathers  


I will give you another one here, the seven Oecumenical councils that established and shaped the church. Agreed on by the whole church before schism and reformation. These two links; one above and one below will show the true church to you, it is up to you to believe the truth or to believe a lie. You'll find that the scriptures that you claim to follow will be found here in these two links, in living color.

The Seven Oecumenical Councils.

Important Links:

Daily Scripture Reading

 

Some personal thoughts from the heart of Monk Michael.

Well, this is the last letter you will be receiving from me before the day that many Christians celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on December 25, 2008. Actually there wil be no more until after the new year of 2009.

The question is asked: why do I make these newsletters seem personal to the reader instead of writing in general terms? Why does it sound as if I am attacking people when I write? The answer is simple, salvation is a personal decision, no one can make it for you nor can you make that decision for someone else. It is you and you alone that are capable of making this decision, so who should I be addressing this letter to? The third person general so as not to offend someone or the first person singular as much as I can in order to make the realization of the decision that it is a personal choice?

Some of you who are reading this I have known for my entire life and you have known me for my entire life, some of you I have not known for my entire life but I have known you for your entire life and you have known me for your entire life. Some of you I have only known in person for a few years and some I have only met with briefly, many of you I have never met with in a face to face meeting.

You are Orthodox or Roman Catholic: Bishops, Priests, Deacons and laymen. You are Protestant: Pastors, Deacons, music minister directors and laymen of many different Protestant denominations. You have been angry with what I have said, you have been overjoyed with what I have said and you have been indifferent to what I have said, but, never in the years that I have been writing has anyone ever been able to disprove what I have said.

Why is this, I am not a brilliantly gifted writer in whom God Himself sits beside and dictates to when I write. So, why is this? I'll tell you, I write the words that were taught by Jesus the Christ and handed down to the Apostles and to me through the church just as Jesus the Christ set it up to be. I do not harbor any ill towards anyone when I write in the first person singular as you who know me personally can attest to.

I tell you the truth because it is your soul that I want to see saved not to attack you but to attack the false doctrine that has been handed down through Protestantism and so many are born into it and with all sincerety of heart fight with me regarding to what I write without ever taking the time to investigate what I say. This is the great deception, this is the snare of the intellect, this is the ever so cunning and quiet deception of PRIDE that has sneaked into the minds of the intelligent so that they will not listen to anyone except what their own mind tells them. The great deceiver is embedded so deep or as Christ Himself said, be wary of the light that is in you that it is not darkness.

Many who are born and raised into some Protestant group or who have walked in off of the street to find a place that is comfortable for them do not know what the true light is because they have never seen it. Some have seen it and grew to a point of satisfaction and stopped their search, content in their intellect that they are there, they are saved once and for all and there is nothing else to know. This is the great deception.

It is my deepest prayer and hope that you have actually taken the information given you and have investigated it for yourself. If not and if you have no intention of doing so, then you cannot call yourself a Christian.

You can scream at me and pray that I rot in Hell for eternity for making that statement but it will not change the truth.These are the facts:

  • God created heaven and earth and everything that is.
  • God is; Father, Son and Holy Ghost
  • The Father begat the Son, the Son is the Word of God, He is the only begotten of the Father, He is God
  • The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, He is the Holy Spirit of the Father, He is God.
  • The Son became flesh, this is why He is the Son, before this He was the Word, God the Father spoke His Word and we have creation, God said let there be light and so there was light. God's Word became flesh, born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit, He became the Son, Son-of-God/Son-of Man.
  • The flesh taught things from the Father and set the record straight as to what the law of God actually was and how we were supposed to be living. The flesh laid His hands on His disciples and started the church, He also breathed the Spirit into them.
  • Jesus the Christ, the man of flesh died a horrible death on the cross for your sake as well as mine, He became the final sacrifice for our sins. By His blood we are saved. He instituted the breaking of the bread, the Holy Eucharist, Holy Communion. He told thousands that they must eat His body and drink His blood in order to be saved, many left Him for that saying, You know that He said it and yet you ignore this truth.
  • The disciples became Apostles and traveled the world laying their hands on people and appointing Bishops of the church. You know this and yet you ignore this truth as well.
  • The church had an established form of worship centuries before it had an established Bible, before the Apostle St. John died, I showed this to you with absolute proof, you have ignored this truth as well.
  • Jesus Christ told His Apostles that whoever refuses to accept them refuses to accept Him. You know that this is true, yet, you ignore all of the above which means that you are ignoring this as well, you have chosen to ignore Christ and His teachings through the Apostles through the church. Yet you still claim to love Christ, you are a hypocrite.
  • Jesus Christ said that there would be many who say to Him in the last day, Lord, Lord, did we not cast out demons in your name? He will say to them: go away, I never knew you. What is this saying? These people were working miracles or what seemed to be miracles in the name of Christ but yet He said to go away because He never knew them. These people are those who have ignored the truths above, who have decided to worship in the way that makes them smile inside and feel important, a way that bears no resemblance to the established worship of Christ's Apostles. You know this to be true and yet you still ignore this truth.
  • You ignore all of these truths and yet you still claim to love and worship Jesus the Christ, you are a hypocrite.

I have heard this statement many times: This is the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the last days when many people will come together as Christians. My friends: how can truth become so distorted and the lie believed instead of the truth. The great outpouring of the Holy Spirit on all flesh that will bring all flesh into the true knowledge has already happened. The outpouring is the church that includes the flesh of all nations and races on the planet.

We were warned in the writings of the New Testament that there would be a turning away from the truth, people who profess different doctrine and pervert the truth would join with others and become the false church under the false Christ.

You are waiting for some person to arrive and be an antichrist, those days are here and you are participating in them. I say you meaning all who have refused to see the truth, all who refuse to even pretend to investigate what I write and yet still claim to love Christ, HYPOCRITE! Your refusal to investigate has shown where your heart is and it is not with Jeus the Christ, I fear for your soul. I cannot begin to express the fear I have for your eternal peace.

It is my deepest prayer for everyone, before you celebrate this Christmas, search your heart and soul, investigate the truth, do not be idle and content, these are the words and actions of Satan, you can never be content in your spiritual well being, ever,. St. Paul himself said these words:

26 I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: 27 But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. I Corinthians chapter 9.

Unless you are on some inside track that St. Paul himself somehow missed. Then please, in the name of all that is holy and true, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, for the sake of the shed blood of Jesus the Christ, for the sake of your soul and the soul of everyone that you hold dear, heed these words on this Christmas. Study what I am saying and seek the truth, not some mixed up doctrine that does not agree with some other doctrine but yet the two hold some ecumenical service together as a sign of the one-ship Christ prayed about. Can you not see that the different doctrine alone shows up the lie and the anti-christ?

How can you not see this? Do not take offence at anything that I have written here, this is for your eternal soul, do not forsake the truth for a lie and waste your life as well as destroy the lives of your whole family by teaching the lie. Study to show thyself approved.

I truly, from the bottom of my heart, wish you a very merry Christmas, one filled with joy and the peace of God in you. I pray that you seek the truth above all and never settle for the easy way out, it doesn't exist.

You need to look inside of yourself and see the truth of yourself and begin to become one with God through the church that Jesus Christ established. Do not let a good deed go unnoticed by Christ in the day of judgement, don't say it won't happen, you already know that Jesus Christ said to go because He never knew you. Pay attention to these words.

May God Bless you and keep you during this Christmas season!

Important Links:

Daily Scripture Reading

Write to us if you want to know more at;

monkmichael@newwarriorministries.com

or to the Metropolitan Archbishop Joseph Thaddeus who will take the time to help you for the sake of your soul, reach him at; thaddeus@apostle1.com

Your humble servant in Christ,

Monk Michael

 http://newwarriorministries.com
monkmichael@newwarriorministries.com


Daily Scripture Reading