It’s doubtful that I’ll get back to writing regularly on this blog. But, for those of you interested in an update, I’m currently attending a catechism class at my local Orthodox church, attending services multiple times a week and absolutely loving it.

I have never been so glad to worship God, never been so thankful for God’s love and leading in my life.

I agree 100% that the main difference we have is in the area of sola scriptura. While the Bible should be the ultimate authority in a person’s life, I don’t believe that each individual should read it and come up with his own interpretation. Instead a person should believe what Christians throughout the ages have always believed. There is no room in Christianity for new, innovative doctrines and teachings.Some say all a person really needs to understand the Bible is (no surprise) a Bible…and maybe a Strong’s concordance; and that the Holy Spirit would guide the person into a correct understanding. While that may be to to a certain degree, a person has no way of verifying whether the Holy Spirit is guiding him in a certain direction or if, in fact, his deceitful heart is doing the guiding.

Ultimately, we’re all proud, untrustworthy, even naive sinners, right? So if we come to a personal interpretation that differs from what Christians for centuries have believed, whom should we trust? Ourselves? Or the legions of godly people who have gone before us?

Trusting that God leads His church into a correct understand of the Bible in no way diminishes supremacy of the Bible in our lives. But it does help prevent our pride, idiosyncrasies, and background from clouding our understanding.

“But father, please…” the son began to plead.

“No,” the father said, “either you must be punished or you must pay back, through hard labor for as long as you shall live, the honor you stole from me.”

Then the elder brother spoke up. “Father, I will pay the debt that he owes and endure your just punishment for him. Let me work extra in the field on his behalf and thereby placate your wrath.” And it came to pass that the elder brother took on the garb of a servant and labored hard year after year, often long into the night, on behalf of his younger brother. And finally, when the elder brother died of exhaustion, the father’s wrath was placated against his younger son and they lived happily for the remainder of their days.
The above parable will strike many of you as a perverted version of Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. And, I believe, it should. Yet it essentially embodies the most widely accepted story of the Atonement that has been told in Western Christianity since the time of Anselm in the eleventh century, and as George Foley notes (232), has been the basis ever since the Protestant Reformation for what has been called Evangelical Theology. As we shall see, this story is actually a mixture of two theories of the Atonement–Anselm’s Debt or Satisfaction theory, and the Penal theory of the Reformers–theories which essentially say that Christ’s death satisfied the debt demanded by the moral order, or paid the penalty demanded by divine justice, for our sins. Many Christians have read and heard these ideas countless times in books and sermons, and such teachings probably have seemed perfectly acceptable, sensible, and biblical. We might ask, however: if these theories (which are closely related) are really quite unbiblical when their claims are transposed into the concrete situation of Jesus’ parable, why have they been accepted by so many Christians? And are they really the only alternatives available?

Click here for the rest of the essay. It’s really long, and I haven’t read it all yet. But I do think the parable is interesting.

I stand corrected.

I love older people like her. They aren’t afraid to tell you like it is. And usually what they tell you is worth while listening to.

I also did a double-take recently, similar to this older lady’s, when I noticed a young minister’s wife with black nail polish…not that there’s anything *bad* about black nail polish, but it struck me as odd. I guess we all have idiosyncratic ideas on what’s right and normal…

On a different note, my home internet has been nonexistent lately, so I’ve been going to the library to check email and such…hence the lack of posts lately.

I decided to do what I thought would take my mind off of life-problems, and I went to a movie instead. Which was a Very Bad Idea.

I went to see Knowing, which I honestly thought was an action movie. Turns out it’s a very scary movie, and I don’t do scary movies. So my attempt to de-stress totally back fired.

Only after spending a couple hours with tensed up muscles and an increasing sense of worry did I act on my first inclination. I went home, prayed and read about 10 chapters of Isaiah. 

Hopefully next time I’ll be smarter and listen to God instead of trying to relieve stress with entertainment.

As I understand it, an Akathist is like a really really long hymn (like, 40 minutes long). There are a bunch of different ones, and the one we sang was “Glory to God for All Things.” It was written by Gregory Petrov (who died in a prison camp in the 1940s).

Here’s a sampling:

Glory to Thee for calling me into being
Glory to Thee, showing me the beauty of the universe
Glory to Thee, spreading out before me heaven and earth
Like the pages in a book of eternal wisdom
Glory to Thee for Thine eternity in this fleeting world
Glory to Thee for Thy mercies, seen and unseen
Glory to Thee through every sigh of my sorrow
Glory to Thee for every step of my life’s journey
For every moment of glory
Glory to Thee, O God, from age to age

It is the Holy Spirit who makes us find joy in each flower, the exquisite scent, the delicate colour, the beauty of the Most High in the tiniest of things. Glory and honour to the Spirit, the Giver of Life, who covers the fields with their carpet of flowers, crowns the harvest with gold, and gives to us the joy of gazing at it with our eyes. O be joyful and sing to Him: Alleluia!

 You can find the whole text of it here. I’m not usually the type of person who sits and reads large amounts of religious poetry, but this is definitely worth your time. And if your church has a service that includes this Akathist, you should go!

Here’s just a sampling of questions related to the 1st Commandment (“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me”)

Have I loved God with all my heart, mind, soul and strength?
Have I constantly had the thought of God in my mind and the fear of God in my heart?
Have I failed to trust in God and His mercy?
Has my faith in God been shaken by skepticism or doubt?
Have I complained against God in time of adversity?
Have I been thankful for God’s blessings?
Have I asked God to strengthen my faith?
Have I despaired of God’s mercy or help?
Have I prayed to God every day, morning and evening?
Have I prayed with zeal?
Have I preferred religious books over others? Have I, in fact, read them?
Have I neglected my duties to God through fear of ridicule or persecution?

If you’re feeling like you’re pretty good, just start thinking about your answers to some of these questions. I don’t know about you, but it really makes me thankful for the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ.

Here’s a link to the full list. We covered it in week 10 of the Foundations of Faith class I attend.

from Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis

So maybe “Read your Bible, pray every day, and you’ll grow grow grow” isn’t such a silly song after all…?

from The Faith: Understanding Orthodox Christianity by Clark Carlson

Not that I’ve never tried. In fact, one time my dad’s copy of it sat on my nightstand for about a month, begging for attention. I think I read the first page…maybe.

But lack of actual reading aside, the title intrigues me. A “serious” call. Not a wimped out call, not a warm and fuzzy call. Then again, it’s not a stern, aggressive call either. Just “serious.” 

And it’s a serious call to be “devout and holy.” Pretty sure I’m neither, although I hope I’m walking in the right direction.

As I said, I haven’t read this book, and so I have only a small inkling at its contents, but the title did make me start thinking about Orthodoxy and whether Orthodoxy, in and of itself, is what this book claims to be: a serious call to a devout and holy life.

Every time I’m in at Orthodox church service, I feel the force of this call. Every time I read a book about Orthodoxy or even one by an Orthodox person, I am moved to consider the flimsiness of my life. Every time I sing the joyful and solemn words of Orthodox hymns, I wonder at my own half-heartedness. 

Just being around Orthodoxy calls me to be devout and holy.

It’s like being around a really godly person. You know that feeling? You want to spend time with them, hoping you’ll be able to follow in some of their steps. Or, maybe you don’t want to see them at all, because they make you uncomfortable. But all the same, you feel them calling you to a devout and holy life.