My Personal Experience of "The New World Order"

Nancy and Thomas writing about the turmoil in Ukraine. (Do you know what Ukraine means? "On the Border".
On Tuesday, March 4, 2014 10:11 PM, Nancy and Thomas Luichinger <toltwo1@aceweb.com> wrote:

Father, Bless!

Fr.Symeon, we have not heard from you a long, long time.  Welcome, and welcome again.

**

Just one question, I wonder why the acting president Oleksandr Turchynov did not make THE LIST today on this particular [Huffington Post UK] review of leaders.  And, *especially since the Goal of the article is to show:

"the political and ideological make-up of Ukraine's opposition-turned-government is far more complex and nuanced...."



"Ukraine's New Leaders: From Neo-Nazis To A Muslim, A Jew And A Heavyweight Boxer"

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/03/03/ukraine-government_n_4889063.html?view=print
  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Nancy and Thomas Greetings in this Lenten season. May Jesus Christ be honored, may we all return to HIM none other.

In my first comment on this topic I said something to the effect that I had always been a keen observer of Political Science.  And not just the surface politics of the meme makers, which is the endless imagery of the propagandists,  but rather coming to understand the underbelly of the competing world powers, the incessant parade of those trying to recreate the Tower of Babel.

Decades ago, when I was a young man,  I was invited into this crowd because of my exceptional talents and intellect. (This is not pride speaking, but explaining a narrative that will not be comprehensible without this statement.)  Because I was talented, (like Vitali Klitschko) I became a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. Yet unknown to them, through God's mercy, I was personal friends with Congressman Larry MacDonald (a martyr to TRUTH) and then, the second to the head of the John Birch Society.  Congressman Larry MacDonald taught me the underlying goals of the C.F.R. and other "internationalist organizations."  He exposed me to the genocidal foundation of the United Nations, and the hellish heritage of UNESCO. From the inside I witnessed the function of the C.F.R.

My spiritual mentor, Great Schema Archimandrite Damian, wrote in the mid-1990s, “In addition to patience, we must learn not to judge. People are seldom as good at that as they think, and not always anxious to learn better. But the Lord may have something worldly He wants us to do, and we should always be ready to learn that or to tolerate it in others. These things cannot be explained; we must just take them as He sends them. Life is not meaningless just because we do not understand it. And our Orthodox Faith is not confused just because our reason cannot hold it together for us."  Those words were salve to my soul, because my trek had been "worldly." From early on, I knew that my experience was not contrary to God's will for me, that it had meaning and purpose, but it was worldly.  This life was not easy and had many costs, which I payed in honor of my parents who were both very insightful and aware of  the forces destroying the American Constitutional Republic (1950s, 60s and early 70s).  In my life's experience I came to understand "the new world order" decades before George Bush (the first) announced it.  What is it, but one more Tower of Babel?

George Bush annoucing opently THE NEW WORLD ORDER
  http://youtu.be/byxeOG_pZ1o
http://youtu.be/hHFKtdE6mCU

OUR PRESENT AMERICAN TOTALITARIAN STATE.
http://lettersfromthegulag.blogspot.com/2013/12/our-american-totalitarian-state.html

While I was a member of the C.F.R. everything I touched turned to gold.  And in my secular life I quickly reached the pinnacle of my profession.  A kid whose grandfather owned a tiny grocery store in (Atlanta) Cabbage Town, became close friends with the massive money that created Cabbage Town in the 1880s. (People pictured in the Book/Movie - "A Man Called Peter" - whose author also became my friend.)  On my short list of powerful friends was the Atlanta diplomatic corps, the charge d'affaires of United Kingdom of Great Britain, Germany, France, Mexico, the billionaire Charles Smithgall, the multi-millionaire Frank Sheffield, the close friend of Charles Lindbergh (soloed in the same plane the same day in Americus, Georgia in the 1930s)  and a who's who list of concert artists and visual artists, and composers, (the list would take a page) the president of Emory University,  the youngest lawyer in the Nuremberg Trials and head of the de-nazification program in the S.E., U.S., and some in his care like visual and concert artists and rocket scientists, Fob James, the governor of Alabama, Richard Farbolin, who owned the Honey Baked Ham Company, and because I am a pianist/composer I also played concerts for university presidents, five ex-U.S. presidents and the Queen Mother and two American generals. - private events.  

Here is some of the music I composed and played at those concerts. 
http://pianobutchdevilmusic.blogspot.com/2012/07/symphony-hall-compositions-by-marion.html

I am NOT exposing this aspect of my life to say, "LOOK AT ME"   - it is not pride that is speaking here, but merely the wish to express that my knowledge of the New World Order mentality and apparatus,  is not some shallow conspiracy theory, but personal experience of world and cultural leaders speaking their goals to me EYE TO EYE, and personally witnessing some of the mechanism used for their purposes.  So you will understand this is not "pride of life speaking" understand that this life has not been without deep grief.  My friend Congressman MacDonald, killed by a joint C.I.A./K.G.B operation on flight KLA 007. My close friend Mitchell Werbell, (Orthodox Christian) the son of a former Czarist calvary officer, co-founder of the OSS  (the precursor of the CIA) with Allen Dulles, the younger brother of John Foster Dulles, was set up, assassinated by poison and shamed by a Larry Flint operation. My friend Jimmy Swaggart (who also cooperated with the C.I.A. in central and south america, also set up and shamed in a like operation).   My own brother-in-law (career Nato intelligence) assassinated on his front lawn in Spain in the first days of the Kosovo War, killed for information he leaked to me, exposing to me the Jihadi goals of the New World Order in Kosovo.  I was in the crowd outside of WACO documenting the opening gambit of the NWO's assault on Christianity in the U.S, the jackbooted attack on Christians.

 Nancy and Thomas, that was a long-winded way of explaining Vitali Klitschko's rise to power.  He is a useful tool of the New World Order and quite possibly through human pride, does not himself realize it.  The New World Order, (this Tower of Babel)  is Marxist/NeoCon/Muslim.   It seeks to create a Sharia Compliant "Secular West" (for the moment), and seeks to destroy any Christianity left on the planet that is not aligned with Ecumenical Heresy - which is a Unitarianism, devoid of Orthodox TRUTH and is rather, Sharia Compliant.    It arrived to us through the FreeMason Movement in Europe, which was a stealth Jihadi insurgency into every institution of Western Civilization, whose main goal has been to foster wars between Christian Nations. It has been extremely successful.  Let us face it. The Christians of Russia and the Christians of the U.S., without the propaganda of the New World Order, would be "natural allies" against the common enemy which is the Anti-Christ reality of ISLAM.

Frank Sheffield

http://www.libs.uga.edu/media/collections/homemovies/sheffield.html

Mitch Warbell
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4tx23_american-mercenaries-the-true-story_tech

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKwerbell.htm

Lent, Privation and the Eyes of the Heart

Great Lent in the Orthodox Liturgical Seasons began yesterday. Despite the great and swelling words of many of the saints about the meaning, purpose and benefit of Lent, none are any more true than the words of a modern Roman Priest who said, "In its simplest terms, Lent is the season when we refocus ourselves on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ." The exercise is not privation, for privation alone means NOTHING. The exercise is to focus the eyes of the heart. The vision and knowledge of the Cross is the Complete Gospel upon which all creation, history, wisdom, scripture, worship and LIFE rests. The fact is year after year the exercise of Lent makes it more real for us, the meaning more profound. "Things" appear deepening our Communion IN the Gospel, which though previously seen become better perceived. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner. I am the Blind Man, Lord, open the eyes of my heart that I may see.

I remember seeing a bitter ex-Christian on PBS, talking with the great Secular Humanist Writer, Joseph Campbell.  He was decrying the ignorance of his Christian upbringing, literally poking fun at his parents who thought that "Jesus Christ was the answer to everything."  He said, "I'm sorry, he just is not." I remember thinking, "You can't be talking about the Jesus I've met, who placed his Holy Angel over my cradle to defend me, who from birth to now showers his grace upon me and gives everything and every person in my life meaning."  I hope this young man learned better in time.  

It was not until years later that I realized the true blessing of my parents, flawed as all parents are, but holding clear faith in the Cross of Christ.  That blessing came into focus reading this passage about someone born to Atheists,(Valeria Alfeyeva) who spent years in a seemingly futile search for Christ, at the same time I remembered the words of that unfortunate bitter young man.
+++
A friend said to her, "Perhaps you were looking not for HIM but for something else?" 

"I was looking for something else, something that would ease my sufferings, I longed for perfect love, and couldn't quench my thirst. I read thick tomes to find the Truth that would answer the eternal questions of being, and I crossed three oceans in the pursuit of beauty.  But still I did not know that all this was You: the easing of suffering and blessing, unending Love, absolute Truth, and perfect Beauty - these are all different names for you.

"And so, without loving you - I loved you; or, without looking for you - all my life I've been looking for you alone. 'Who is to blame that he is blind, him or his parents?' the disciples asked the Savior about the man born blind.  And the Lord answered: 'Neither him nor his parents - but this has happened so that the works of God might be seen in him."'

"You predestine me to endure that lot of the generations that rejected you, and were struck down with the plagues of Egypt and with darkness - to endure the fate of the generation that has lost you and so is lost itself.  You made me drink the bitter cup to the drops, the cup prepared by the fathers, so that I'd no longer want this poisoned drink, either for myself or for my son.

"Those who have seen you - did not want to see you.

"We (their children) were born blind - so that we might see.
"And so the works of God have been revealed in every generation.
"Having forgiven me and received me into your house, as you received the prodigal son, you baptized me with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

Unexplained blindness is no shame, choosing the darkness is. So coming to sight, "we are sealed in the same Spirit, who hovered over the waters when the earth was still formless and void, and you (Jesus Christ the Word) transformed chaos into cosmos.  This is how I was called - in the mystery of baptism, which is accessible to us all." +++
Many seek "Christ" and find only some poisonous substitution for him.  But those who truly seek him in the most elementary understanding of his Cross, coming to share in the testament and covenant of His Blood, find TRUTH, the person and a complete way of life, participating in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  After all, the earliest name given to those who followed the Cross of Christ (the Christians) was not "people of the book," a title that has NEVER applied to Christians, (a mis-concept of Muslims) but rather "the people of The Way." It is NOT paper and ink, but living experience of Jesus Christ, who promised he would be with us always and indeed IS.

The Way is with Christ and him crucified, our hope, our ultimate perception of Beauty, of Truth, of Justice, of Mercy, of Meaning, of Love, and ultimately "glorification" having WALKED with Him, baptized in his suffering and blood. 

Once Blind, Now Seeing!

http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/frederica/c._s._lewis_on_the_passion

The oldest hymn to the Theotokos?

The oldest hymn to Blessed Mary, the Mother of God, outside the New Testament.
"Beneath your compassion we take refuge, Theotokos! Our prayers, do not despise in necessities, but from danger deliver us, only pure, only blessed one."

So far, the earliest known prayer to the Virgin Mary is known as “Beneath thy compassion” (Greek: Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν εὐσπλαγχνίαν). The earliest text of this hymn was found in a Christmas liturgy of the third century. It is written in Greek and dates to approximately 250 A.D.

In 1917, the John Rylands Library in Manchester acquired a large panel of Egyptian papyrus including the 18 cm by 9.4 cm fragment shown at left, containing the text of this prayer in Greek.

C.H. Roberts published this document in 1938. His colleague E. Lobel, with whom he collaborated in editing the Oxyrhynchus papyri, basing his arguments on paleographic analysis, argued that the text could not possibly be older than the third century, and most probably was written between 250 and 300. This hymn thus precedes the “Hail Mary“ in Christian prayer by several centuries.

On the papyrus:
.ΠΟ
ΕΥCΠΑ
ΚΑΤΑΦΕ
ΘΕΟΤΟΚΕΤ
ΙΚΕCΙΑCΜΗΠΑ
ΕΙΔΗCΕΜΠΕΡΙCTAC
AΛΛΕΚΚΙΝΔΥΝΟΥ
…ΡΥCΑΙΗΜΑC
MONH
…HEΥΛΟΓ

Full text:
Ὑπὸ τὴν σὴν
εὐσπλαγχνίαν
καταφεύγομεν
Θεοτὸκε· τὰς ἡμῶν
ἱκεσίας μὴ παρ-
ίδῃς ἐν περιστάσει
ἀλλ᾽ ἐκ κινδύνου
λύτρωσαι ἡμᾶς
μόνη ἁγνὴ
μόνη εὐλογημένη.

In English:
Beneath your
compassion
we take refuge,
Theotokos! Our
prayers, do not despise
in necessities,
but from danger
deliver us,
only pure,
only blessed one.

Interestingly, the hymn calls Mary Theotokos (“she who gave birth to God”) two centuries before the Nestorian heresy arose. By the fourth century, the term was already popular in the area of Alexandria (St. Alexander of Alexandria, St. Athanasius, St. Serapion of Thmuis, Didymus the Blind), and also in Arabia (Titus of Bostra), in Palestine (Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Cyril of Jerusalem), Cappadocia (St. Basil of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen, Severian of Gabala.)

More information: “The Sub Tuum Praesidium” at the Catholic site New Liturgical Movement

The term Theotokos may be encountered during the previous century as well in the work of the Alexandrian school. According to the testimony of the ecclesiastical historian Socrates (Hist. Eccl. VII, 32 – PG 67, 812 B), Origen used it in his commentary on the Epistle to the Romans. This commentary is unfortunately now lost, but Origen’s disciple, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria, also used the term Theotokos around the year 250 in an extant epistle to Paul of Samosata. It is interesting to note that the term did not remain a mere theological concept, but was actively and popularly used in public services of prayer.

Of course this hymn is familiar to Orthodox Christians, who still sing it at the end of nearly every Vespers (evening prayer) service during the fasting season of Lent. It is also found prominently in the liturgies of the Oriental churches and in Roman Catholic worship.  It can be heard in Greek at the three minute mark of the video below.

Two versions of the Hymn Still in Use - the first Roman Catholic the second Greek Orthodox Catholic

DO NOT SIGN THIS PETITION!

Ukrainians in America are trying to create another American War, under the disguise of the U.N. I wonder what they think they will be accomplishing? Are they so blind to the goals of the Marxist/NeoCon/Muslim Cabal that has control of the U.S., the E.U. and the U.N.? Do they really think that foisting the New World Order upon the Ukrainian people is a kindness?

The little Irish Church lady (not a nun but a Bible Scholar, I believe her name is Hogan) who teaches on EWTN said the other day in her very Irish brogue, talking about the Jewish disciples of Jesus wanting Jesus to rise up and conquer the Romans, "And so" she said, "if he had, all that would have accomplished is a change of government. And what has a change of any government really accomplished concerning the thing (singular) that really matters." Of course her reference to that THING was the CROSS OF CHRIST.

That statement set me back, since I have always been a keen observer of not just surface politics, but an examiner of the underlying and evil power structures that haunt the dark swamp of worldly power. My goal for 45 years has been the preservation of Real and True Constitutional Liberties in the U.S., which are now all vanished in this Emergency Powers Totalitarian Police State. This culture itself has been an attack on everything moral and Christian.

It took only seconds to reconcile with that TRUTH. Concerning THE THING THAT MATTERS, all the convolutions of worldly power are meaningless. Yes, oppressive regimes create great persecutions and create propaganda and cultural control (control of the dialectic) that creates great clouds of darkness, making the perception of The Cross nearly impossible, YET the "Christianism" in the U.S., in the 20th century, in the era of America's Greatness, in the ERA of Radical LIBERTY has created a stronger wall of thought (propaganda) blocking the view of the Cross as has Russia or Ukraine at this point in time. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's testimony "The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert" Published by Crown & Covenant tells of her indoctrination into radical feminism that happened in THIS culture, where at the time, nearly 90 percent of the population self-identified as Christian, even still 79 percent of the population self-identifies as "Christian." The book "Pilgramage to Dzhvari" written by Valeria Alfeyeva (Bell Tower) tells of an identical indoctrination in the old Soviet Union. If that isn't proof that the form of government is of little import, what could be? Identical indoctrination in supposedly totally different forms of government.

Here the petition:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/petition-prevent-war-between-russia-and-ukraine/d0qlScJ8

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield's story:
http://americaschaplain.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-train-wreck-conversion-review.html

Here is the plea coming from Ukrainians in the west, hoping to create another AMERICAN war.
+++
we petition the obama administration to:
Petition to Prevent a War between Russia and Ukraine
In the interests of preventing a humanitarian crisis and insuring the right of self-determination of the Ukrainian people, we the undersigned request the following of the President of the United States:
1. That the United States Ambassador to the U.N. Security Council undertake the task of forming an international peacekeeping force composed of nations acceptable to all parties involved in the Ukrainian Crisis. This Peacekeeping force could be deployed to the Crimea and Ukraine' s eastern border in the interests of preventing any escalation of the crisis and insuring the peace and security of all who live in the region.
2. That the United States coordinate with its allies to impose economic sanctions on any and all parties who escalate the crisis in Ukraine to the point of war.
Created: Feb 28, 2014
Issues: Foreign Policy, Human Rights

My Train Wreck Conversion - Review.

My Train Wreck Conversion

As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield/ FEBRUARY 7, 2013

This is well worth the read. Of late I've met a few ex-lesbians and their husbands, who are living lives filled with Faith in the Cross of Jesus Christ.  This article demonstrates that the "cultural battle" is a battle for the HEARTS of sinners first, their minds cannot help but follow.  

Every presupposition of feminism is a LIE. Those who have the nerve to meet Truth in Jesus Christ, discover this.  This woman's story reminds me of the book, "Pilgramage to Dzhvari - A Woman's Journey of Spiritual Awakening" by Valeria Alfeyeva, which tells the story of an Atheist Communist Party member in the darkest days of Soviet Russia, sacrificing her privileged position when she discovered the Reality of the Cross of Jesus Christ. Valeria a very well educated KGB apparatchik, and author, (propagandists) steeped in the culture of Atheistic Communism, came to Christ and explained it this way, "The most intense time of my life had been spent among books.  This is where my religious awakening began.  The Hindus say that truth will find you when you are ready for it.  It won't delay a day or an hour - it will knock at your door.  And that was certainly the case with me."  

Rosaria's discovery of the Reality of the Cross of Christ, reminds me of Valeria's because the mind-controlled culture from which their very well educated and accomplished minds were rescued are in many ways identical and have the exact same evil philosophical root.  What is amazing is that Valeria Alfeyeva was raised in a culture where choice was removed, she was born with little choice but to be an Atheist Communist and Rosaria Champagne Butterfield was raised in a culture that touted "liberty."  Yet both "cultures" produced the same deadening wall of lies, making a journey to the Cross seem a miracle at best, and impossible at worst.  

The little Irish Church lady (not a nun but a Bible Scholar) who teaches on EWTN said the other day in her very Irish brogue, talking about the Jewish disciples of Jesus wanting him to rise up and conquer the Romans, "And so . . . if he had, all that would have accomplished is a change of government. And what has a change of any government really accomplished concerning the thing (singular) that really matters."  Of course her reference to that THING was the CROSS OF CHRIST.

That statement set me back, since I have always been a keen observer of not just surface politics, but an examiner of the underlying and evil power structures that haunt the dark swamp of worldly power.  It took only seconds to reconcile with that TRUTH.  Concerning THE THING THAT MATTERS, all the convolutions of worldly power are meaningless. Yes, oppressive regimes create great persecutions and create propaganda and cultural control (control of the dialectic) that creates great clouds of darkness, making the perception of The Cross nearly impossible, YET so did "Christianism" in the U.S., in the 20th century, in the era of America's Greatness, in the ERA of Radical LIBERTY!  Rosaria's indoctrination into radical feminism happened in THAT culture, where at the time, nearly 90 percent of the population self-identified as Christian, even still 79 percent of the population self-identifies as "Christian."  If that isn't proof that the form of government is of little import, what could be?

My wish for this woman is that she allows her faith to deepen and that she never take her eyes off the Cross, or get caught in any of the diversions which limit its healing power.     

My Train Wreck Conversion

As a leftist lesbian professor, I despised Christians. Then I somehow became one.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield/ FEBRUARY 7, 2013

Mirror from Christianity Today:

The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn't hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that "knowing Jesus" meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it.

Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That's what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus, who in paintings looked as powerful as a Breck Shampoo commercial model.

As a professor of English and women's studies, on the track to becoming a tenured radical, I cared about morality, justice, and compassion. Fervent for the worldviews of Freud, Hegel, Marx, and Darwin, I strove to stand with the disempowered. I valued morality. And I probably could have stomached Jesus and his band of warriors if it weren't for how other cultural forces buttressed the Christian Right. Pat Robertson's quip from the 1992 Republican National Convention pushed me over the edge: "Feminism," he sneered, "encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians." Indeed. The surround sound of Christian dogma comingling with Republican politics demanded my attention.

After my tenure book was published, I used my post to advance the understandable allegiances of a leftist lesbian professor. My life was happy, meaningful, and full. My partner and I shared many vital interests: aids activism, children's health and literacy, Golden Retriever rescue, our Unitarian Universalist church, to name a few. Even if you believed the ghost stories promulgated by Robertson and his ilk, it was hard to argue that my partner and I were anything but good citizens and caregivers. The GLBT community values hospitality and applies it with skill, sacrifice, and integrity.

I began researching the Religious Right and their politics of hatred against queers like me. To do this, I would need to read the one book that had, in my estimation, gotten so many people off track: the Bible. While on the lookout for some Bible scholar to aid me in my research, I launched my first attack on the unholy trinity of Jesus, Republican politics, and patriarchy, in the form of an article in the local newspaper about Promise Keepers. It was 1997.

I was a broken mess. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world.

The article generated many rejoinders, so many that I kept a Xerox box on each side of my desk: one for hate mail, one for fan mail. But one letter I received defied my filing system. It was from the pastor of the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. It was a kind and inquiring letter. Ken Smith encouraged me to explore the kind of questions I admire: How did you arrive at your interpretations? How do you know you are right? Do you believe in God? Ken didn't argue with my article; rather, he asked me to defend the presuppositions that undergirded it. I didn't know how to respond to it, so I threw it away.

Later that night, I fished it out of the recycling bin and put it back on my desk, where it stared at me for a week, confronting me with the worldview divide that demanded a response. As a postmodern intellectual, I operated from a historical materialist worldview, but Christianity is a supernatural worldview. Ken's letter punctured the integrity of my research project without him knowing it.

Friends with the Enemy

With the letter, Ken initiated two years of bringing the church to me, a heathen. Oh, I had seen my share of Bible verses on placards at Gay Pride marches. That Christians who mocked me on Gay Pride Day were happy that I and everyone I loved were going to hell was clear as blue sky. That is not what Ken did. He did not mock. He engaged. So when his letter invited me to get together for dinner, I accepted. My motives at the time were straightforward: Surely this will be good for my research.

Something else happened. Ken and his wife, Floy, and I became friends. They entered my world. They met my friends. We did book exchanges. We talked openly about sexuality and politics. They did not act as if such conversations were polluting them. They did not treat me like a blank slate. When we ate together, Ken prayed in a way I had never heard before. His prayers were intimate. Vulnerable. He repented of his sin in front of me. He thanked God for all things. Ken's God was holy and firm, yet full of mercy. And because Ken and Floy did not invite me to church, I knew it was safe to be friends.

I started reading the Bible. I read the way a glutton devours. I read it many times that first year in multiple translations. At a dinner gathering my partner and I were hosting, my transgendered friend J cornered me in the kitchen. She put her large hand over mine. "This Bible reading is changing you, Rosaria," she warned.

With tremors, I whispered, "J, what if it is true? What if Jesus is a real and risen Lord? What if we are all in trouble?"

J exhaled deeply. "Rosaria," she said, "I was a Presbyterian minister for 15 years. I prayed that God would heal me, but he didn't. If you want, I will pray for you."

I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might. Then, one Sunday morning, I rose from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later sat in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church. Conspicuous with my butch haircut, I reminded myself that I came to meet God, not fit in. The image that came in like waves, of me and everyone I loved suffering in hell, vomited into my consciousness and gripped me in its teeth.

I fought with everything I had.

I did not want this.

I did not ask for this.

I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side of the equal sign.

But God's promises rolled in like sets of waves into my world. One Lord's Day, Ken preached on John 7:17: "If anyone wills to do [God's] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine" (NKJV). This verse exposed the quicksand in which my feet were stuck. I was a thinker. I was paid to read books and write about them. I expected that in all areas of life, understanding came before obedience. And I wanted God to show me, on my terms, why homosexuality was a sin. I wanted to be the judge, not one being judged.

But the verse promised understanding after obedience. I wrestled with the question: Did I really want to understand homosexuality from God's point of view, or did I just want to argue with him? I prayed that night that God would give me the willingness to obey before I understood. I prayed long into the unfolding of day. When I looked in the mirror, I looked the same. But when I looked into my heart through the lens of the Bible, I wondered, Am I a lesbian, or has this all been a case of mistaken identity? If Jesus could split the world asunder, divide marrow from soul, could he make my true identity prevail? Who am I? Who will God have me to be?

Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there. The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed. And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me "wife" and many call me "mother."

I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life.

And my former life lurks in the edges of my heart, shiny and still like a knife.

Rosaria Champagne Butterfield is the author of The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert(Crown & Covenant). She lives with her family in Durham, North Carolina, where her husband pastors the First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham.

Why does the Orthodox Church Chant the Psalms?

Why are all her hymns, songs, prayers and readings either Holy Scripture, or prose and poetry completely reflected in Holy Scripture?   

Because David and Moses spoke divine worship into creation via the power of the Holy Spirit, giving us God's pattern of worship. The "place has change" from the tabernacle to the temple, from the temple to the synagogue, from the synagogue to the hearts of those who believe, those who now gather holding the Cross of Christ ever before them.   John 4:23-24 "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. 
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." 

When they gather they do not ape the patterns of the culture of any age, which would offer to God what he has not ordained HOLY and Worthy as Divine Worship. You will hear non-orthodox comparing their worship to that "enthusiasm" given rock-stars or sports events. Sometimes their worship actually mimics these events. This is NOT the Divine Worship of the Christ's Church.  
The Church gathers WITH the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Saints of all ages who with the Holy Angels surround the Throne of God, and sings with them, "The heavenly choir sings Your praises, saying: 
"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. 
"Come to Him and be enlightened and your faces shall not be ashamed.
"The heavenly choir sings Your praises, saying, "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, Heaven and earth are full of Your glory." 
"+Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
"The choir of holy angels and archangels, with all the powers of Heaven, sings Your praises, saying "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth, Heaven and earth are full of Your glory." 
"Now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Rather they gather by the Power of the Holy Spirit Who enlightens their "NOUS" (Greek = their spiritual capacity, sometimes translated "heart," sometimes translated "mind") drawing them to this "service" (Literal translation Liturgy) so that Christ the Head of the Body, may share with them his Sacrifice, His Body and His Blood and they BECOME in that Worship the "living sacrifice" joining with the sacrifice of Jesus, Himself, that sacrifice Saint Paul described in Romans the 12th Chapter, they present themselves, prepared for the Liturgy, to be that living sacrifice, holy and acceptable which is their "reasonable service" (Literal Translation which is your "Rational Liturgizing") 2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.  

John 6:53 (KJV) Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." 



 "1 Corinthians 10:16 (KJV) This cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?" 

The Divine Liturgy

T

Love in Action vs Religious Sickness

What is the nature of Christ's love?

I've been watching Jimmy Swaggart's program "Message of the Cross" to see how close to Orthodoxy he manages to make his explications of The Cross.  His Capo Bastone (under boss) speaks in constant Evangelical slogan speak, and yesterday he made the statement that "what we do has absolutely nothing to do with our salvation, or the work of the Cross."  

I remember a childhood friend telling me that the object of being a christian "was to become a good person."  To my young Evangelical mind, that was silly and shallow. After all the object was about Evangelism, it was about missions and campaigns and being "greatly used by the Holy Spirit."  Little did I know that the crux of the Gospel, the work of Healing/Salvation and indeed the Meaning of the Cross, was perfectly stated in her simple sentence.  The object of being a Christian is to become a good person. It may be that your "vocation" is to faithfully endure the "mundane," to simply live in the moment, doing what you are doing and expressing God's love in the ordinary everyday life. But in reality there is nothing mundane about this, nor ordinary, IF we understand what THIS goodness is?  


Mark 10:17-18 (KJV) 
17  And when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 
18  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
Many Orthodox Theologians, saints and writers have explained the meaning of the Gospel in these short words, "God became man, that man may become God."  Not a competing god, nor holding the power of the God Head, but LITERALLY a part of God, existing IN HIM.  When Jesus looked at his disciples as he was on the way to The Cross and prayed the following. What do you think he was talking about?
" John 17:19-23 (KJV) 
19  And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 
20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 
21  That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 
22  And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 
23  I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Ecumenical heretics have told you this scripture is about "uniting (so-called) divided churches."  They teach this using the phrase, "that they may be one, Father, as you and I are one" as if Jesus was talking about some overarching umbrella of "heretical religious unity" when rather he is talking about Literal ABSORPTION into the ONENESS WHO IS GOD.  That is, sharing in both his created energies as we all do, but also "becoming to share" in his uncreated energies, which hold the power of eternal life.  


Anyone who grasps Orthodoxy SOZO (healing/salvation) theology, and understands what the Church has taught from the beginning, from the very mouth of Jesus and the Apostles,  knows that the statement by Swaggart's Capo's is only half true. He turns this process of deification into "evangelical religion" and makes it about "campaigns, missionary missions, evangelistic effort and resultant earthly prosperity."  He said, in fact that such was the ONLY witness of the Holy Spirit's presence and work. 

You see my childhood friend was right, she understood that the object of the Christian life is not mission, or ministry, or gifts of the spirit, or to wallow in some self-created spiritual and emotional experience, or to experience some sweet emotions we call "God's Love" but through God's Love, through the God who is LOVE, to become a good person. But not a good person in the broken human understanding of goodness, (though that reflects a shadow of the goodness we mean) but to be part of and absorbed into the Goodness that IS God, reflecting then that healing goodness in every aspect and relationship in our lives.  Without this FIRST, all else is wasted and turns to religious sickness. 

In English we continue this absurdity of talking about "the Kingdom of God" as if God's Kingdom is a "thing."  Even the latest Orthodox Bible did not correct this mis-translation of the Greek Word, "Baseleian tou Theou" The REIGN of God. That REIGN exists in the human heart, making it prone to GOOD actions, instead of first being prone to sin. EVERY TIME "Kingdom of God" appears in the New Testament it is actually the "Reign of God" and NOT the "Kingdom of God" that is the meaning.  THIS IS NOT A SMALL MATTER. People believe in their "religionism" that they are "creating the Kingdom of God" in their religious endeavors, in the world, outside of themselves.  And sadly, very little "Reign of God" exists in that great Chaos. See how this sentence uttered by Jesus makes more sense when it is properly translated, "Seek ye first the Reign of God, and everything of which you have need, will follow." The Reign of God in the heart produces GOODNESS, God's GOODNESS; it creates THAT GOODNESS that cannot be found anywhere else in the Universe.  The GOODNESS that cannot be faked. It is the REAL work produced in healing/salvation, healing, purifying, enlightening and becoming GOOD. Ultimately so sharing God's Goodness we become part of HIM. 

I said to a friend the other day that "religious acting" is the thing that I hate the very most of all the evils, of all the sins. In my "Pentecostal Heritage" the biggest lies I heard spoken were spoken with the faux "anointing of the Holy Spirit."  Great lies of theology, erroneous dogma, warped piety, and so-called "prophetic utterance" ending often with the blasphemy, "Thus Saith The Lord."  It dawned upon me in my teens, that God's Word is Eternal. How basic a theological concept is that? It is core! God speaks and it COMES TO BE. God's Word is Truth!  "John 17:17 (KJV) Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." And that TRUTH isn't a book, but a person. "I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE," Jesus said.

Aside from TRUTH, which is Eternal, God CANNOT SPEAK. If God said it, or says it, it has ETERNAL REALITY.  I've come to see and know, that the greatest part of the "prophecy" and preaching I heard growing up was not prophecy (truth speaking) at all, but rather the misguided emotions of some pious though religiously sick people, the unchecked egos of others, and yes, many, many times, the enslaving, confusing and cunning utterances of demons.

Also in this same Heritage I met many, many very precious people, human people, filled with real love, which is the spirit of God. People who ACTED, not with religious pride, who were not part of the "religious parade" whose quiet guidance and encouragements, spiritual and moral challenges, helped in the process of growing and coming to understanding and wisdom, a process that continues. Their words of Wisdom were so Eternal, that sometimes I did not fully appreciate their meaning until decades later.  You see, they had through the struggles of life, become good (not religious) but GOOD people.

In the 1960s, on the Pentecostal Bible College Campus where I was raised, the mother of one of the most important and respected teachers became terminally ill. Her illness quickly degenerated needing total nursing care. The teacher and his brother were both unmarried, and ill equipped for the work of "nurse."  Across the street from the college was a Roman Catholic Widow, whose husband had been the neighborhood drunk. She was very sweet and never spoke an unkind word to anyone or about anyone. I watched her give herself to that dying woman in such a prayerful, yet concrete way, quickly becoming a "practical nurse" attending hours everyday. She was poor, yet the quickest to give riches. It was a lesson I took to heart, so that ultimately a great part of my life has been in ministry to the dying and those most in need.  Her service was an IKON for me.  It was many years later that I read the concept of Christ HIMSELF, standing in the shoes of such ministers of mercy.   "How near Thou art in the day of sickness. You Yourself visit the sick; You Yourself bend over the sufferer's bed. His heart speaks to You. In the throes of sorrow and suffering Thou bringest peace and unexpected consolation. Thou art the comforter. Thou art the love which watches over and heals us."   Of all the experiences of my childhood, the quiet love expressed in the work of mercy by this little Roman Catholic widow balances all the sermons I heard, theological and moral lessons I learned.

"What you do to the least of these, you do also to me," Jesus said.  What you DO, to the least of these.  NOT, what you theorize and theologize about, to  the least of these, but what you DO to and for them.  Yes, witnessing the healing/saving power of Jesus Christ is a very kind and good action, IF it is the Reign of God you are creating, which is witnessed to produce GOODNESS, and not the Kingdom of God, which is witnessed to produce Religious Sickness, human pride and greed. 

What prompted this talk about True Religion vs Religious Sickness?
This morning 2.28.2014, I received this wonderful paragraph from a friend whose father in life was cruel.  The details and means of the cruelty is not important, just to say that there was huge emotional distance between father and son created by sin. In his old age, no siblings were willing to "take in" their father, but without much discussion, to keep him from being at the mercy of strangers in a nursing home, my friend and his wife prayerfully gave themselves to this very concrete service, becoming as it were, his practical nurses. My friend spoke of his grief at his Dad's repose:

"As far as my Dad goes - you know I had many conflicted feelings regarding him and never in my wildest dreams ever thought I would do what I have done the last 2 1/2 yrs. There were many times I wished to myself and sometimes out loud (not by him) that he wasn't here. There were many times I thought of putting him in a home - any home but mine and then there were (sic) times when I grieved for him, felt sorry for him, loved him and told him so (and also times I didn't) but I think the Lord knows that I did (we did) what we needed to do for him because of Him (note - because of Jesus Christ) and we both knew it was the right thing to do. At the end (my wife's name) cleaned him (I helped hold him) cleaned him and oiled his body with olive oil. I did the prayers I felt I needed to do for him even though he had Last Rites a couple weeks earlier. We put his Cross on him, dressed him, folded his arms across his chest and entwined his Rosary around his hands. It was all rather peaceful with what we had witnessed and had to do the 2 weeks leading up to it. Yes, I never thought I would say it but I do miss him, miss his presence as hard as it was sometimes. It feels like we hit a brick (sic) wall and are kind of suspended wondering what's next. I have thought of him each day and prayed for him each night."

This paragraph touched me deeply, showing the humanity of it, the natural goodness of it, the love expressed in concrete actions when even the person is not "lovable."  This couple unwilling to allow the care of their elder to strangers, would not even allow the undertakers to clean the body upon his repose, instead, prepared it in loving action and respect. It hit me in the imagery of the women preparing Jesus' Body, for the tomb.  It shows the GOODNESS of GOD, reaching in MERCY to those in the care of HIS GOOD PEOPLE.  It shows that the struggle to act in the REIGN OF GOD is not without inner conflict, that inner conflict IS the 'field of battle.'  In fact it is through this very inner conflict that WE OURSELVES ARE HEALED.  You see, we have to in every instance CHOOSE the Good and in our ACTIONS become the Good.  Saint Paul was not speaking lie when he said, "Faith without works is DEAD." And as Jesus clearly stated, that same DEAD FAITH may move mountains, may heal the sick, may cast out demons and might even raise the dead, yet that is not the "work of salvation."  Such things are not the "REIGN of God." Because to those people, who had succeeded in "miraculous ministry" but failed to gain the RULE of GOD in their HEART, failed to, in the chaos of it all, BECOME GOOD, Jesus said the Judge would say to them on that last day, "Depart from me ye workers of iniquity.  I NEVER KNEW YOU." 


1 Peter 4:8 (KJV) 
8  And above all things have fervent love among yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins.

 James 5:19-20 (KJV) 
19  Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; 
20  Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. 

God is merciful to the sinner. We are all sinners. Those who "glory" in their evangelical works, bragging about the marvelous displays of "God in Action in their ministry" do so at their own peril.