Tag: jesus christ

Take heart ye heavy laden

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in.” Matthew 11:28-29

The struggle of addiction is becoming more commonplace than it was in our granddaddies day. We all do things we wish he hadn’t. Most of us get off with a slap on the wrist or an awkward/embarrassing moment and then we either correct our actions or fumble right back into our sins.  Some can’t kick the habit of gossiping, lying, pride, boasting, stirring up mischief (all of which are things God hates Proverbs 6:16-19), and we should be in terror that these passions are commonplace in most near all of us! Either way we’re all bound by some kind of wickedness in our lives that we either struggle against in repentance and confession or we simply continue headlong into our own damnation. Just look around and see the greed, sexual immorality, unrestrained and encouraged vice of every sort, and glorification of all manner of evil accepted in our media and billboards. We tolerate all manner of wickedness, even when we know it’s evil, and don’t even attempt to struggle against it in our own lives.  

Now I don’t want to make light of illegal narcotics, but they are just one of many forms of evil plaguing our communities. I do want to commend, however, the people that are truly struggling against chemical addiction. Christ said, “the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.” Anyone that knows an addict knows the act of violence they undertake anytime they turn down or go more than a few days in sobriety. These folks struggle against their passions unlike any other person I’ve met. They wake up in the middle of the night sweating in constant want. They dream about sticking the needle in their vein or inhaling the toxic fumes into their lungs. Even in their sleep the evil one comes for them and moves his forces to surround and seize their soul. The only people who truly understand them are others who share in this particular pleasure, yet some of them have no desire at all to ever attempt the violent struggle to stop using. Their families sometimes shun them and their friends will shun them even quicker. The friends that don’t use won’t want them around, yet the friends that do use will treat them like a discarded cigarette butt if they ever stop using. 

Christ gives us all a cross to bear. This cross is necessary for the threshing out of our sins and our salvation. Some are heavier than others, but they all must be bore if we ever hope to seize the Kingdom of Heaven. A lot of us, I feel, have very light crosses and do not know the sheer weight of a chemical dependency. We can’t even keep a simple fast or diet, we can’t shut our mouths for one day and dam up that torrent of sin that pours forth from our mouths, people avoid the truth like it is a hornet’s nest, and yet, since these are “acceptable” sins in our society we expect to go on without interruption. Sure we can get a divorce, sleep around, do whatever, and still be invited to Christmas dinner. Not so easy for someone burdened with the cross of addiction, however. 

I think we could all learn a lesson of perseverance and true Godly struggle from our neighbors battling with these particular sins. Just imagine if we could put forth the same effort to stop gossiping that the heroin user puts forth in staying clean just one week! What could someone accomplish if they put the exact same level of violence into controlling their pride or sexual lusts that a meth user does every time he turns down the needle? If we could all imitate this same struggle our towns would look like Mayberry by tomorrow! No doubt!

I don’t envy a meth/coke/heroin/alcoholics cross. I know it has a different pull on different people and our real enemy has been studying humans for over six thousand years. He knows when and what temptations to employ, and on who, to attempt to steal our souls. This is the real warfare with eternal consequences. If we read history we sometimes hear about those who stood to the end in the face of insurmountable odds. Some like King Leonidas or the 189 Swiss Guards fought to the bitter end and were completely obliterated. Others like Count Von Stahlberg at Vienna were prepared to be destroyed, but were saved at the last moment. These are all stories worth retelling. People who fight to the bitter end, and never accept defeat, are always remembered. Those who give up, give in and/or surrender are forgotten. Let us not be like the coward who gives himself up in order to escape the battle and heartache before us. Do not be over judgmental of the people around who are fighting much harder than most of us against vices. If a soldier in a battlefield sees his fellow warrior wounded and pinned down he goes to his aide suppressing the enemy and helping his fallen comrade. When we see someone in agony and suffering and being brought to their knees we should go and help them lift their cross. Especially we should not laugh at them or mock them for that is literally what the demons do. Christ warns us, ”For with what judgement ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Matthew 7:2-3)

All of our sins are conquerable if we abide in Christ. Attempting to overcome any passion or evil without Christ is like taking up a wooden stick and assaulting an iron clad warrior. The great enemy of mankind is a formidable opponent. Victory may not come overnight and we may literally fight to the death against our sins, but God rewards those finish strong even to the very end. 

There is a true story about a drunk monk. He was always stumbling, always reeked of alcohol, a very mockery to other monastics who lived in complete sobriety. After his death the Abbot (the head of the Monastery), informed the other brothers that he saw an angel come and whisk away the soul of the drunken monk straight through the clouds. The other monks were in disbelief. How could this be? The Abbot then informed them that when his monk came to the monastery he was consuming multiple bottles of liquor every day. The Abbot told him to stop, but he simply couldn’t kick the addiction; so the Abbot then told him to cut down his consumption to one bottle a day. This the drunken monk did after some time with a great struggle. After this the Abbot told him to cut down his drinking to just half a bottle a day. This the monk eventually succeeded in achieving. After years and years the monk was down to just drinking a few glasses a day when he died. He struggled hard and intensely. He always got back up after each fall and in the end the Good Lord, who sees the true heart of man, rewarded him for his perseverance. 

Take heart for God is with us! He wants us to overcome the evil in our lives and He will help us both in this age and the age to come to attain unto the ultimate victory! Whether you’re having trouble bridling your tongue, controlling your sexual lusts, putting down the spoon and needle, humbling your out of control ego; no sin is beyond Christ! He trampled down death, hell and the grave and has attained the ultimate victory over all evil! He showed us the way to salvation, by carrying the cross and conquering Golgotha by humiliation. Come home to the Church to be restored and renewed and armored so that we can withstand and defeat our great enemy. For it is the devil that roameth about like a hungry lion seeking whom he may devour. It is the devil that will never rest until he may swallow up and thieve away a great many souls into his deception. And it is the devil that was brought to bondage and cast down when Christ sacked the depths of hell. Satan is powerless against the blood of Christ. We must receive the blood of Christ at Eucharist and confess our sins and continue the fight that we might attain the Kingdom of Heaven! This is the path, the struggle, the only battle worth really fighting. Nothing else matters if we lose our souls.              

Rigging it

There’s a lot of areas we learn to make do for less. For instance, if you’re noticing a small leak in the plumbing, maybe you’ll just use a piece of bubble gum to plug the hole until you get the materials to replace the pipe. If you can’t get the job you want, then you take the job that you can. Even if it pays less. If your boots are talking to you but you can’t afford another pair, then perhaps you’ll find a cobbler or utilize some duct tape. There’s a lot of things we do without or stretch, pull and bend to make work. Garbage bags to cover broken windows, patches for clothing, using a chainsaw instead of skillsaw or vice versa, moving a piece of furniture in front of a hole in the wall; the examples can go on and on. I’ve often heard it called “rigging it”.

Of everything we rig to make work there is one thing we’ve rigged that we ought not to and that’s the Church. When I drive from one end of my town to the other it takes about fifteen minutes and I’ll pass by more than twice as many churches. The first is a Freewill Baptist, second is an Apostolic, then a General Baptist, a Methodist, a non-denominational, a Church of God, Christian denomination, a Missionary Baptist, an Independent Baptist, a Southern Baptist, a Presbyterian PCA, another Independent Baptist, a Lutheran, an Episcopalian, another General Baptist, a Presbyterian PCUSA, a Pentecostal, a Jehovah Witness; the list goes on and on. A lot of folks rightly point out that this is a good sign of the religious nature of the area. People are out there seeking God and to be fair this is the culture we were raised in. In modern America we pick and choose what we want. Its very individualistic, very self serving. very egocentric. Often we’ll hear folks saying, “Just go to the church that you like”, or “that feeds you”, and “find a church that’s right for you”. Following after our own likes, passions, and wants often leads to sin and we must be wary to not fall into this trap.

In absence of what was needed, the One True Holy Church, people have rigged their religion. People look at the Ancient Church and they can see the Eucharist, water baptism, Apostolic succession, seal of the Holy Spirit, vestments, incense, candles, fire, crosses, iconography, the Holy Scriptures, the presence of the Saints, the early Church Fathers, the Jesus prayer, and literature spanning back to the beginning of time. The Orthodox Church possesses the fullness of the Truth. So naturally when someone starts another church they take something from this treasure laden vault and run with it. Then stretching and rigging this one thing they make it to be a foundational block of their new church. They say to themselves, “We have baptism”, “We have the Eucharist”, or (most common in the Bible Belt) “You have to say the Jesus prayer to become a member at this church” and “We have the Holy Bible. They then proceed to build an entire denomination or body of believers. Most of these folks are in a right spirit. They have found some spiritual validity in an age of confusion and they are clinging to it. They are attempting to cling to Jesus because they know He is their only hope for salvation. This is a noble undertaking. A noble rigging.

However, the Church is the Bride of Christ and was established by Jesus Christ. All of the sacraments and treasures of the Church are helpful and necessary for our salvation or else Christ wouldn’t have instituted them. It pains me to hear someone say, “Yeah, but you don’t have to be baptized/receive communion/go to Church/confess/etc”. Then for what reason did Christ Himself, God in human flesh, institute these things and why has the Church practiced all of them since Pentecost?

Why make do with less when we all have access to all of these things in the Orthodox Church? We are blessed now to have Orthodox Churches dotting the Appalachian mountains. God is with us! We now all have access to the treasury, the full armory, the entire hardware shop. We don’t have to rig it anymore. We can experience the Kingdom of Heaven come to earth. We can see the harmonious blend of the Gospel, the incense, Baptism, Apostolic Succession, the Jesus Prayer all within the ageless Traditions of the Holy Orthodox Church. The Liturgy is so ancient that it is almost strange and even those of us who had thought we had something old timey realize this is the True “Ole Time Religion.”

The Church isn’t anything we need to rig. This isn’t a house, a tool, a pair of clothes or an automobile that moths and rust will destroy. This is an institution founded by Jesus Christ and it pertains to our eternal salvation. We should accept it in its entirety and thank God that He is stretching out His loving arms around our region.