Well, I hope y’all survived Black Friday.
Seriously, does anyone think that God won’t visit judgment upon our nation because of crap like this?
America used to be more than fist-fights the day after Thanksgiving. More than clerks getting trampled to death simply because the sales are spectacular. I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would get up at four in the morning and camp out in front of the Wal-Mart on a cold and dreary day.
Lord have mercy.
It is not a mystery, that a culture that does not Love and serve God ALONE, and lives for bread alone, ignoring the Royal Law, and the Word of God, can ignore the Sacred in Life, and engage in unseemly competition for goods of the earth. It is the way of the world. The Vision, the Word of God, spoken in His responses to 3 temptations is the Way of Peace. Good will towards men in Honest hearts reaps Peace, even the Peace that passes understanding.A Spiritual Peace, which I can speak of with authority, because I have experienced it myself.
The Vision given by the Christ is given by Him, His Words entirely, not Fundamentalist, Catholic or even Orthodox, although it has always been taught in the authentic Christian Church. It is called a Vision, because it should be taught as the Vision, and focused upon as intently and frequently as the Beatitudes are..
The 3 spiritual relationship which contain spiritual life are God to man, man to man, and man’s physical body to his spiritual nature. The Vision addresses each relationship precisely. The acts of obedience to God during temptation, bring forth fruit, some 30 fold, some 60 fold and some 100 fold.
The Revelation given directly to St John by the Victorious Lord Jesus Christ has essential spiritual direction, such as not serving 2 masters, not serving mammon, and are guidance to remain outside of the great whore. Living by the Word of God and not by bread alone, keeps authentic Christianity from building the beast, which is what most Americans are doing this Christmas season, in part. This is the reason we shall be sorrowful, because most follow the beast and serve mammon. The Ancient of Days will come, and the Kingdom will be given to the Saints, everyone else is a loser. A contrite and humble heart ,God will not despise, I say this so none will lose hope, and also, I know it is God’s Good Pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Most people don’t consider themselves Saints, as the the Good Thief did. This is Good, we have the same chance the good thief did.Peace of Earth , Good Will towards men, especially, men of Good Will.
‘Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’
— Jesus Christ
‘Lord, You created us to tend toward You….and our hearts are restless until they come to rest in you.’
— Augustine of Hippo
Why? Because of death. Instead of gazing on the eternal, death forces our myopic eyes to focus on the toys available to us in this fallen environment. Death seduces us with greed for those things we can acquire, however briefly, in this world. More money, more things, more pleasures… You can’t take it with you, so you better play with it all here. And the more, the faster, and the harder the better, We are addicts. And the merchants are our pushers.
Isn’t this why the monastics flee to the desert, to break their addiction to the things of this world?
Old saying “early bird gets the worm.” One shopper got his things, 149$ big screen Thursday in time to bring it home and watch football with Thanksgiving dinner. Next year some stores might try opening Wednesday night and
this might be like the ‘old calendar’ going in reverse. Makes sense. Its all pretty Darwinian actually, survival of fitness ..
and I wanted to add the “0% off” on the coupon of blog title picture is funny. I think you can
tweak that and say 0% off means “free” because there is nothing to discount in the first place.
You buy liability. Last years stuff that didn’t sell, Obamanomics, Obamacare, 0% off, keep your plan.
Cy, you must be a gremlin.
He won’t visit judgement because of this. As a nation we have done far worse.
The reason it happens is that our society has attempted to teach all of its members to covet certain things. And for some members who are of a lower economic means, these Black Friday Walmart trample fests are their only hope of being able to obtain some of those items. In a country where our then President’s exhortation in the wake of 911 was to tell the citizenry to go shopping, and where his successor has the self-centered myopia to believe that my SUV is a greater threat to national security than is radical Islam, why would we be surprised?
I don’t know if God will “visit judgment” upon America.
All I know is we can only change our own behavior, and be a good example to others. When you talk to others about Black Friday, say “my family thought that doing __ would be fun.” Next Black Friday, invite people you know who are compulsive shoppers to instead do some wholesome activities. Play a game, watch a movie together, transform leftovers into different dishes, etc.
And he said to them, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” . Luke 12:15
I find it interesting that most Black Friday shaming is directed at stereotypically working-class people, judging from the videos and articles that focus on events at Walmart and other big box stores. Don’t get me wrong, it deserves to be shamed. But far worse consumerism by the wealthy – the private jets, the huge homes, the outrageously expensive homes, etc – happens every day and is often glamorized by the same media that bashes Black Friday.
It’s funny how so many people can line up in the wee hours of the morning for Black Friday, but can’t bother to come to Church. If you look at the latest PEW Research info, we Orthodox are at the TOP of the list when it comes to the percentage of people who attend services once a month or less. I can think of several reasons why that might be, but I don’t care to speculate here. But I do firmly believe that more proactive action needs to be taken, and it needs to begin with the clergy and the more active and talented members of parishes who have something they can offer to the church community. And it begins with education. I’m often appalled at how little many adults really know about the faith, and in these days of the Internet and information available instantaneously, there is no longer an excuse. I also run into people who, when presented with information or theology about things like our hymns, for example, that are disinterested. There is no desire to learn more, and what is sad is, I find that true among cradle Orthodox than I do with converts to the faith.
I hope some of the clergy here can comment on this. What can we do to increase the interest to learn among our adults and teens? How do we present or adjust church school programs to do this? We all have God-given talents that we need to give back to Him, for the purpose of His Glory.
The basic problem is – and it is becoming clearer to me every day – is that our life in America is 100% incompatible with a traditional Orthodox Christian lifestyle. If lived correctly, every aspect of our modern life would be overturned, from what we do to what we believe in our secular life. Every aspect of our modern, consumerist, secular life has been engineered in intricate detail over time to be in this opposition by the evil one. This is difficult for most Orthodox to grasp, as they are mostly culturally Orthodox who came here in search of a better life and never even considered there would be snares. Would any of them that came decide to have come if they knew 90% of their grandchildren would abandon the faith or Christianity altogether? Is this what all the immigrants came for, for their grandchildren to be secularized, largely divorced and probably atheist? What the communists didn’t do to them we did – but perhaps more effectively and only a generation later. I am in my 40s. I sense those older than me don’t get it. They are purchased by the luxuries and comfort the establishment provided them. Their allegiance is to our state and the founding fathers – except that none of them were Christian, they were Masons, devoted in spirit to the enlightenment and the abolishment of all traditional Christian religion. We have been tricked – can’t you see this? – but the true spirit is revealing itself. To go this far in understanding is too much for most people to bear. Most want a simple life, to live and love in their families and to have a decent job to provide, and they want to believe in and love their country. It’s a sad time, but the trouble for us Christians is only just beginning.
People don’t go to Church because it’s uncomfortable to be constantly confronted with this reality, and the Orthodox don’t shy away from this. You have to make a real commitment to be Orthodox. In the old country, it wasn’t uncomfortable to go to Church. It’s what you did.
Reader:
Church tends to be boring. Especially when the priest drones on and on in the sermon. Somebody poke me awake, please!
Reader:
Is knowing information really that important? I didn’t read that in the Gospels…
Reader:
Theology is mostly speculation with little or no relevance to people’s lives.
Reader:
Start by eliminating the condescending attitude that everybody else doesn’t come to church often enough, everybody else doesn’t know enough about the faith, yada yada yada.
So, OOM, What’s YOUR solution? I’d like to read it. And I firmly believe that knowing about the faith is EXTREMELY important in this day and age of false religions and false Christs. We need to know what we believe in order to arm ourselves against those people and things that would steer us away from it. So I ask again, what’s your solution? Offer something concrete, please.
Quick question for those that know. Ancient Faith Publications is issuing The Orthodox Study Bible leather soft edition. My question is does this edition fix the “Slop” mistake in Luke And has the text been revised to correct some of its other mistakes (i.e. bringing the text into more of a conformity with the Septuagint in the OT and more of a conformity with the Patriarchal text for the NT) ? And body with any knowledge of this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Peter A. Papoutsis