Originally Posted by eduardo89
I cling to the Ten Commandments of God; not for salvation, but for wisdom in knowing what is pleasing to God and what is not.
Believe me, no soul who practices breaking ANY of God's Moral Commands will ever see the Kingdom of God.
Period.
I deleted my previous posting here. It wasn't a very polite posting. And I'm likely changing my ways in my old age.
Last edited by Natural Citizen; 03-28-2016 at 12:27 AM.
The natural laws of God reflect the Savior, not vice versa. . .Yeah, see....wuh hah hapened wuh...the ancients observed the Sun's movement from the summer solstice till the Winter Solstice. The days became shorter as the Sun continuously moved south. With this, came the expiration of crops. To these ancients, this symbolized death. The death of the Sun. By December 22nd the Sun's "death" was fully seen from Earth after moving continuously from the north for six months to it's lowest point in the sky. Of course, then what happened was that the sun stopped moving south, at least perceivably, for three days. You see?
And so then during these three days, the sun resides in the vicinity of the Southern Cross...or crux constellation. After this period , on December 25th, the sun moves 1 degree North. Are you following me here, NANG?
Anyhoo. This movement North forshadowed longer days, warmth and spring to those ancients who observed this phenomenon. New life would follow. Crops would thrive. Life was revitalized.
And so it was said. "The son died on the cross, was dead for three days, only to be resurrected or born again."
Of course, Jesus is but one of many, many "saviors" to share the crucifiction, three day death and resurrection social concept through the ages that follow man's initial observations of the phenomenon.
Is notable, too, that the phenomenon is not celebrated until the Spring Equinox or "Easter". This is because during the Spring Equinox the Sun "overpowers the evil darkness" as daytime in duration becomes longer than the night and the revitalizing conditions of spring emerge.
So that's it. Bada bing. This is the so called witnessing of the unconditional promises of everlasting life the way it went down in the ancient world. And repeats the cycle every year.
But regardless of that, Happy Holy and Great Friday to everyone. I'll be attenting Sunrise service myself in celebration of the phenomenon celebrated by our ancient ancestors. Ought to be a hoot. There's pancakes afterward too.
actually, no. It is a PRESENT TENSE fact.
Ephesians 2:8-9-
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
Wow, don't put too much effort into backing up your claims with Scriptural evidence!!
I'll ask why this model has changed over the ages at another time, Nang. No sense in wrecking TER's thread.
◄ Acts 16:31 ►
Parallel Verses
New International Version
They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved--you and your household."
there is your proof.
Ephesians 2:8-9-
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
I guess Friday afternoon to Sunday evening equals three days and three nights. Even Einstein can't prove that mathematical formula.
sanctification is the process.
Ephesians 2:8-9-
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
gn HB
Ephesians 2:8-9-
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
How was the Holy and Great Friday Vespers, TER? I've been wanting to attend an Orthodox Good Friday service for the past few years and missed my chance this year as wellGood morning friends!
Service last night was beautiful and solemn. We have had a new priest here for the past 6 months who is straight from Greece, and he knows little English. The services all week have been completely in Greek with Koine Greek read during the Gospel readings. Our choir and chanters sounded beautiful last night. The church was packed with the faithful holding candles and singing the solemn hymns.
I humbly would add that I witnessed my own personal miracle last night. I was given the great blessing of carrying the cross in the front of the procession. I have never down this before (usually I am the one directing traffic as the large procession goes around the street). Well, earlier in the night, a man had just entered the church and the homemade lambada (candle) his child made went up in flames (that is, the ribbon and plastic decorations around the candle were on fire and this created quite a large flame). I ran to him and we tried blowing it out but it wasn't doing anything but making the flame higher. So I (absent-mindlessly!) grabbed the flame with my hand to try to put it out and out about a split second later I realized what a foolish thing that was to do. I ran to the bathroom with the candle, put it under water in the sink, and realized I just suffered pretty significant 2nd degree burns to my first three fingers of my right hand. Blisters, sever pain, the works. The skin on my pointer finger was pale white, boggy, and looked like it might slough off. I bandaged them up with bandages from inside the church office and carried on. As an emergency room doctor who has seen plenty of burns in all stages and degrees, I knew the next few days were going to be painful.
So a little later, when I held the cross in the procession, it was initially very painful on my fingers. It wasn't until near the end of the procession when I realized I had no pain in my fingers. I figured it was the endorphins and adrenaline which probably dulled the pain. I need was worried that maybe the burn may have been a third degree burn and the nerve endings affected after the initial inflammation occurred.
It wasn't until later when I got home that I noticed the miracle. I took off the bandages and my fingers where in perfect shape. No signs of any burn! Even the blue melted plastic that burned into my thumb was gone. It was as if I was never burnt!
Anyway, that was the small miracle I witnessed last night. I am sure there were many more I was not privy to. Glory to God for His loving kindness! Glory to God for His long-suffering and ever-abounding mercy!
I wish everyone a blessed Holy Saturday and Pascha! Soon we shall sing 'Christos Anesti!'
Last edited by TER; 04-19-2014 at 08:40 AM.
+'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ
PRAISE HIS HOLY NAME! Yes, I'm shouting hallelujah! The Lord knew how much you needed your hands for your work TER. A selfless act and sacrifice on your part did not go unnoticed by God. What a wonderful testimony of the miracles that most certainly do happen every single day still.
Thank you for sharing that wonderful news dear brother!
Bump for those commemorating today! May He remember all of us in His Kingdom!
Last edited by TER; 04-03-2015 at 04:51 PM.
+'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ
I am TER, but hb ruined my fast and fed me chocolates. Jesus knows my heart though. Hope you have a wonderful Good Friday brother.
The pictures in this thread look like a horror movie. Why do professing Christians focus on the death of a God? Notice that Christ rose FROM the dead. He is ALIVE.
If He was killed with a shotgun would you wear a shotgun around your neck? Strange holiday with rabbits and chocolate eggs, I don't get it.
But for those keeping God's Passover, happy Sabbath, hope that leavening is all gone. Peace to all others this weekend its a sad and happy time.
Among other reasons, His passion and death were necessary to complete his goal of conquering death by death. Be glad, for Resurrection Day is soon!
ETA: WRT the "pictures". They aren't art just for art's sake. They are stories in pictures. In fact, the process of creating an icon is called "writing" rather than "painting" because the former better describes what is being done-telling a story (only in images instead of text).
Why-why do you say things to make me cry. I thought the pictures were beautiful.
Actually Jesus was crucified on a Wednesday evening and rose on a Saturday evening.
There is no spoon.
I wish Nang was back.
Such truth...
On the Saving Passion of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ
by St. Theodore the Studite
Given on Great and Holy Friday.
Brethren and Fathers, while the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ when they are recalled are always able to pierce the soul, they do so especially in these present days, on which each of them reached its end. What then are they? The murderous council against Him, the Jewish arrest, His being led away to death, His arraignment before Pilate's tribunal, the interrogation, the scourging, the blows, the spittings, the insults, the mockeries, the ascent of the Cross, the nailing of his hands and feet, the tasting of gall, the piercing of His side and all the other things which blazed forth with them, which the world cannot contain, nor can anyone worthily proclaim, not human tongue, nor even all the tongues of angels together.
For let us consider, brethren, this great and ineffable mystery. The Lord "who reveals the counsels of hearts" [1 Cor. 4:5] and knows every human desire, is the One who is taken before a council of death; the Lord "who bears all things by the word of his power" [Hebrews 1:3]is the One who is handed over to sinners; the Lord "who binds the water in the clouds" [Job 26:8] and sows in the earth in due season and uniformly is the One who is led away prisoner; the Lord "who measures the heavens with the span of His hand and the earth in a handful and weighed all the mountains in the balance" [Isaias 40:12] is the one who is struck by the hand of a servant; the Lord who adorned the boundaries of the earth with flowers is the One who is dishonourably crowned with thorns; the Lord who planted the tree of life in Paradise is the One who is hanged upon an accursed tree.
O great and more then natural sights! The sun saw them and faded, the moon saw them and was darkened, the earth perceived them was shaken, the rocks perceived them and were rent, all creation was turned back at the outrages done to the Master. The lifeless elements which have no senses, as if endowed with life and sensation from fear of the Lord and from the spectacle of what is seen, were amazed and altered; and do we, who have been honoured with reason, for whose sake Christ died, remain untouched and unweeping in these days? How could we be less rational than things which have no reason, more unfeeling than the stones? In no way, my brothers, in no way.
Let us rather be amazed in a manner worthy of God, by being changed with a fair change; let us draw down tears, sacrifice the passions, changing insults for insults and exchanging wounds for wounds, the one through obedience, the other through unflinching confession. Do we not see the burning incitements of divine love? Who ever dwelt in prison for a friend? Who accepted slaughter for their beloved? But our good God not only did the one and both of them, but accepted ten thousand sufferings for the sake of us, the condemned. Fittingly then the blessed Apostle, when he thought on these things and became powerfully aware of the love of God, said: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, neither angels nor rules nor powers, neither present nor future, neither height nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" [Rom. 8:38-39].
For such was the love God had for us that "He gave His only Son, that all who believe in him might not perish," as it is written, "but have eternal life" [John 3:16]. As an exchange for this love, the saints, when they had nothing to offer, offered their own bodies and blood by asceticism and struggle, singing with blessed David the song: "What return may we make to the Lord for all that He has given to us?" [Psalm 115:3] Let us also, brethren, cry out these words each day, as we serve Him with an unceasing attitude of love, striving again and again for what is better, so that we may become heirs with the saints of the eternal blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and might with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever, and to the ages of ages.
+'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ
Bump for those commemorating today! May He remember all of us in His Kingdom!
+'These things I command you, that you love one another.' - Jesus Christ
http://www.theburningplatform.com/20...f-the-day-403/
“All the great groups that stood about the Cross represent in one way or another the great historical truth of the time; that the world could not save itself. Man could do no more. Rome and Jerusalem and Athens and everything else were going down like a sea turned into a slow cataract. Externally indeed the ancient world was still at its strongest; it is always at that moment that the inmost weakness begins. But in order to understand that weakness we must repeat what has been said more than once; that it was not the weakness of a thing originally weak. It was emphatically the strength of the world that was turned to weakness and the wisdom of the world that was turned to folly.
In this story of Good Friday it is the best things in the world that are at their worst. That is what really shows us the world at its worst. It was, for instance, the priests of a true monotheism and the soldiers of an international civilisation. Rome, the legend, founded upon fallen Troy and triumphant over fallen Carthage, had stood for a heroism which was the nearest that any pagan ever came to chivalry. Rome had defended the household gods and the human decencies against the ogres of Africa and the hermaphrodite monstrosities of Greece. But in the lightning flash of this incident, we see great Rome, the imperial republic, going downward under her Lucretian doom. Scepticism has eaten away even the confident sanity of the conquerors of the world. He who is enthroned to say what is justice can only ask:
‘What is truth?’ So in that drama which decided the whole fate of antiquity, one of the central figures is fixed in what seems the reverse of his true role. Rome was almost another name for responsibility. Yet he stands for ever as a sort of rocking statue of the irresponsible. Man could do no more. Even the practical had become the impracticable. Standing between the pillars of his own judgement-seat, a Roman had washed his hands of the world.”
--G.K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man
Have a joyous and blessed Easter, all!
Based on the idea of natural rights, government secures those rights to the individual by strictly negative intervention, making justice costless and easy of access; and beyond that it does not go. The State, on the other hand, both in its genesis and by its primary intention, is purely anti-social. It is not based on the idea of natural rights, but on the idea that the individual has no rights except those that the State may provisionally grant him. It has always made justice costly and difficult of access, and has invariably held itself above justice and common morality whenever it could advantage itself by so doing.
--Albert J. Nock
Maundy Thursday is one of my favorites. We have the usual readings and homily. Then we have the washing of feet. The church is almost always full. We sit toward the front. As we go forward, we don't know who will wash our feet, nor whose feet we will wash. But everyone comes in turn. Many are still in their business clothes. Some are on spring break and are in their casual play clothes. Old and young, they come.
Today is the Stations of the Cross. We have the stations outdoors, but can do them indoors if the weather is not favorable. Someone will carry the cross and the story is told as the entire congregation walks the path.
#NashvilleStrong
“I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi
A uplifting Good Friday to you my friends. May this time of the year refresh and enhance the clarity of your faith and cause your cup to overfill.
Bump for today being 4/22 (like the OP) and also for being Passover.
Well, Eve of Passover right now. Which some say was the day of the crucifixion, also prior to the Sabbath. Like today.
Not a lot of activity in the RPF religious threads. I think you guys are slippin'.
When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?
When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? Amos 3:6
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