Morality: The Last Bastion (Part 1)

I remember Ravi Zacharias saying this in response to a man who said "There is no God because of so much evil in this world!":
"Sir, if you believe there is such a thing as evil, aren't you assuming there is such a thing as good?"
The man replied "Yes."
"If there is such a thing as good, aren't you assuming that there is such a thing as a moral law with which you can differentiate between good and evil?"
After a hesitation, the man replied "Yes..."
Oooooppssie...

I read a blog dedicated to Atheism. It was an interesting read because not only it's something I haven't read before but also because of the honesty laid  there. The sincerity of his conviction of his belief was there but something was lacking: there was no thorough examination or deep delving on how he came up to the conclusion that there is no God. And what's even more interesting is that though he claims there is no God, and he does not believe in the "supernatural views of reality", he has succumbed himself to a belief system that plays the part of the Atheism yet imparts knowledge of the so-called occultism (La Veyan Satanism). Kind of Bipolar, isn't it? A belief system teaching there's no God yet religiously following the pathway of the spiritual occultist Aleister Crowley (who was by the way a child-murderer in his time), only with a twist. Because while Crowley believed in a deified Satan, Anton LaVey claimed that man is his own god:

“

Satanists do not believe in the supernatural, in neither God nor the Devil. To the Satanist, he is his own God. Satan is a symbol of Man living as his prideful, carnal nature dictates. The reality behind Satan is simply the dark evolutionary force of entropy that permeates all of nature and provides the drive for survival and propagation inherent in all living things. Satan is not a conscious entity to be worshipped, rather a reservoir of power inside each human to be tapped at will. Thus any concept of sacrifice is rejected as a Christian aberration—in Satanism there’s no deity to which one can sacrifice.[10] "Satanism: The Feared Religion", the Church of Satan's current leader Peter H. Gilmore

Atheism literally means "no god. (How apt! In the Holy Scriptures, Lucifer/Satan has done everything he could do to take the minds of men off of God) And it seemed LaVeyan Satanism is a perfect outlet for such "me, myself, and I" sentiment. After all, to be indulgent of your personal desires is not only gratification of the being but also his being. In short the goal is to become Satan-- the prideful one. The person is not only an epitome of Satan. He is to live as Satan. He is Satan.

And this is what I really find disturbing.

LaVeyan Satanists do NOT worship Satan, or any deity, contrary to the popular belief that all satanists worship the devil. In essence, they worship their individual self. There are no "goat sacrificing" rituals or anything ridiculous of that nature attributed to Satanism. Satanism is, at its core, individualism purely and totally. It is about deviating from the conformists of humanity around you. It is finding your own way, and choosing your own way. Satanism is about exploring one's own personality and sexuality. You need not hate, nor love. You only do as YOU wish. This is the way of the LaVeyan Satanist.  http://www.wikihow.com/Become-a-LaVeyan-Satanist

This is freedom unrestrained. And even the simplest common sense tells us that any excess is destructive to oneself and to others.
But this church isn't concerned about the others.
It is a CHURCH dedicated to the individual self; to the indulgent self. To the selfish self.
And this is what I'm really worried about.

If one lives in much exploring sexuality and choosing one's way or personality, if it's all about being deviant against norms, if it's all about individualism purely and totally, I'm wondering, on what basis  could a "satanist" define what is good and evil? How would a satanist answer the woes of this world?
(To be continued)

Friendship And Fellowship: Not Just Mere Footnotes (1)

"AN INTROVERT'S STATUS"

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-friendship-20-good-scripture-quotes/#ixzz29vwChSaN

Being an introvert, I fully understand that lack of initiative of meeting new people and befriending others. That is a scary dimension for introverts like me. It's a step into another realm outside ourselves; that's something hideous for introverts like myself. And through this, while pondering this, I somehow came to understanding that God has designed man for friendship and fellowship. God has wired into us the need to socialize so that we will not implode. So that we can experience God through other people. We could look into another person's eye and say that God indeed has a marvelous creation.

Dealing with my introvert nature (I haven't been with a Psychologist EVER), words that I learned from my Psychology class, I have had to work out my weaknesses in my favor. For instance, my pondering, brooding side I could use in concentrating on reading the Holy Scriptures and on prayer. My being slow in speech meant I could listen more and process ideas in my head enabling me to be careful in voicing out judgments. Now this isn't to say that extroverts aren't good listeners, many of them are. I'm just speaking about my own way of dealing with my nature according to the gift God has given me and that is LIFE.

Surviving my uber-shyness, I started appreciating my weaknesses brought about by my nature. I had to take baby steps. Things that paid off.

I realized that to avoid being "stagnant" I had to face the fact that I need people around me with whom I could confide everything that was within me; all of who I am. This meant I have to take off that false armor of security (introvert nature may trigger insecurity) and be vulnerable to what other people might think or say of me. THIS EXPERIENCE has been more pronounced than any other experience in my teaching profession. 

The teaching profession as everyone knows is the kind of profession that requires a person to deal with other people ON A DAILY BASIS. So I had to rub it to my face and shrug off whatever fear I had within me.  

Setting aside fear while maintaining my pondering and brooding self, I learned that people would be more than willing to share their beliefs and ideas whenever needed to empower another person, to give assurance or comfort. This is really a reflection of what Bible says about relationships.

As a bearer of God's image, a man is not just a man for himself. In fact The Bible reflects that a man IS NOT FOR himself-- he is FOR THE OTHERS. And since a man is an iconography of God's image, a fellow man is his mirror of that Imago Dei. 

We are to bear each other-- whatever nature we have-- because God has imprinted on us His image, signed, sealed, delivered by His Son, so that we can sharpen one another in good will and faith.

“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” CS LEWIS

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-friendship-20-good-scripture-quotes/#ixzz2RhmkR0FL

Read more: http://www.whatchristianswanttoknow.com/bible-verses-about-friendship-20-good-scripture-quotes/#ixzz29wAhxIWL

(Note: Photos aren't mine.)

"Galatians" (Part 1: The Teacher's Character)

Jesus Christ, The Teacher

Often times as we progress in the faith we still act like sucklings and at worst we tend to be "cry-babies" so bad that what we need isn't a pat in the back but a good hard-hitting spanking.

This is what Galatians is all about.
But the Christians of Galatia were not just bickering at each other- they were on the verge of apostasy.

St. Paul's exasperation was unmistakable: 

"O senseless Galatians, who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been set forth, crucified among you?" (Gal. 3:1)  

St. John Chrysostom had this to say in his commentaries: 

"The exordium¹ is full of a vehement and lofty spirit, and not the exordium only, but also, so to speak, the whole Epistle. For always to address one's disciples with mildness, even when they need severity is not the part of a teacher but it would be the part of a corrupter and enemy."

In one breath, St. John Chrysostom tells us that sometimes in faith being "soft" doesn't work. That we aren't a teacher but rather an enemy and corrupter if we don't know how to be severe at someone (in the fold) who is erring and who obviously doesn't want to be corrected.

I think this true also of the teaching profession.
Though I'm not yet what anyone would call a "seasoned teacher" (as opposed to "aged teacher-- but that's another story), I've seen teachers who tolerated the wrong-doings of students or worse, turn a blind eye on them. I'm not saying I'm not like that; I'm guilty as charged too. But I need to voice this one out: that we would be indeed "corrupters" if we don't at least add severity to a teacher's list of virtues. This isn't to condone the physical brutalities of some sadistic teachers, but sometimes we have to apply some strictures of law to keep our students from falling into damnation.

NOTE: commentaries are from: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf113.iii.iii.i.html
(I don't own any of the commentaries)

  

My First Music Video

The Meaninglessness of Life and the Impact of FAITH

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Life is all about beginnings-- starting all over again, taking life as it is and taking whatever it has to offer-- sorrow and joy, pain and healing, marrying and divorcing, anything under the sun.

Ecclesiastes of the Bible tells us that, yes, everything has its own time. Yet everything can become meaningless.

Even faith becomes meaningless.

How does it happen? How CAN it happen?

One Christian philosopher said that meaninglessness could come out of pain but often we forget that meaningless could come out of being weary of pleasure! (I am paraphrasing Ravi Zacharias)

Sitting in a lecture class today, I found simple things in life where I could draw inspiration from. 

A smile that sparked friendships.

Kindness shown to each other by each other.

Honesty here and there.

A little faith that accumulates to BIG FAITH...

I believe the reason why we tend to think everything under the sun is meaningless is because we are not grateful for the little miracles that happen in our lives. We dismiss the very reason that we exist is God. We readily exclude Jesus in our small and big thoughts; our God-inspired beliefs, we shun in favor of so-called intellectual pursuits both in secular and religious fields. We abandon the reality of our Orthodoxy: that our bodies, hearts, and souls belong to God; that no matter what we do, we must consecrate it to the Lord and ask Him constantly for guidance and light.

Our attempts to "enlarge" or to "simplify" faith without God's bidding can weaken us and ultimately bring us to the feeling of meaninglessness. When we boost our energies only to find in the end that everything is for naught, it is distressing... We undoubtedly sin that leads to "losing definition of our selves" (R. Zacharias). Because utter meaninglessness or emptiness, without God's filling, is a vacuum ready to be occupied by Satan! And as the life of the Ecclesiastes author suggests, he lived a life of intellectual, spiritual, mental, and physical ecstasy that the moral decay was so intense he had no choice but to cry out to God!

Now what do we do when we are in the throes of ecstatic energies that lead to sin when we have no God? What happens to the soul so enraptured in pleasure when there is no reality such as God? 

The soul dies a thousand Kafkaesque deaths.

So if there's no faith, everything's meaningless, if there's no God, our wanton desires would break loose that it would be impossible for us to contain it and that the end result would be the Dorian Gray moment-- we'd fall down looking at the bloodstained portraits of ourselves... 

EXCITE Experience (September 3-7 2012) BATCH 41

One week. That's what it took for moments to last forever...

Thanks for the memories!

This is how'd I feel after we part ways...

But seriously, THANKS!

New Beginnings, Desires, Battles

The Prodigal Son Icon:
Story of new beginnings, desires, and battles.

Obviously I have started a new blog.

I have closed gatsbyfaulkner-foundbychrist.blogspot.com because I was feeling that whatever I had put there was nothing more but a product of a non-spiritual life.

How come it was all for naught? Let me begin by telling that-- I am a Christian-- but not an ordinary Bible-hugging, street-chanting kind of Christian. I have embraced Eastern Orthodox Christianity as my religion. The Church whom I want to be baptized into is the Ecumenical Church, Annunciation Orthodox Church in the Philippines.

Did everything change? Have I become truly transfigured? (To use Fr. Seraphim Cardoza's--of St. innocent Church in America--words) 

To be honest, I am not yet a Cathecumen. But through the help of supplementary readings of writings of Othodox Saints, listening to Patristic Sermons, having fellowship with other Orthodox Christians through Facebook, listening/watching liturgical music, and reading the Bible, little by little, I have become "clingy" to this new-found faith. I feel that everyday I have to hear liturgy, sermons, and chats about Orthodoxy. 

Yet, I feel like the more I desire to be closer to God, the more I am being pulled back, back to my lusty, evil, debauched self... I believe that I have just entered the Arena of the battle between good and evil-- something that non-believers haven't have the privilege of entering one.

And this is what's been missing in my previous blog-- no article in there dedicated to this struggle as a babe-in-Christ. 

Bottom line: I am now proclaiming in my heart, mind and soul:

"We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible;And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, Begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, Begotten, not made; of one essence with the Father, by whom all things were made:Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made man;And was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered and was buried;And the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures;And ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of the Father;And He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, Whose kingdom shall have no end.And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, and Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, Who spoke by the Prophets;And we believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.We acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins.We look for the Resurrection of the dead,And the Life of the age to come."

Amen.