eternal life – Page 2

For This Beginning

The Winding Sheet on Great and Holy Friday

…To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth… ~ Jesus Christ (St. John 18:37)

On account of God’s great Love for us, and as any sin (small or great) is a spiritual sickness that separates us from God… our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, willingly took the sins (of everyone in the world who has ever been born) – onto Himself.

When Jesus died and was buried, all our sins and spiritual pain died and were buried too. We’re forgiven, and keenly remember this at our Baptism and through Repentance.

Because He is the Son of God – Christ arose victorious from the dead bearing witness to the truth! “Trampling down death, by death!”

We are forgiven because of what Jesus did for us on the cross! He Loves us so much! Nothing can keep us from the Love of God. Nothing. This is why we no longer fear death.

Death is a new beginning.

Death is Life… a New and Eternal Life with God.

For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him. ~ St. Luke 20:38

Christ is Risen! Truly He is Risen!

High Hopes

Image by congerdesign from Pixabay

December 30/17

Today we celebrate the Old Testament Prophet Daniel and the Three Holy Youths, who put their faith, hope, and love in God. The youths, refusing to worship a golden idol, were thrown as punishment into the midst of a fiery furnace. (Daniel 3: 1-30) Miraculously remaining unscathed, they sang hymns of praise from within the flames.

…for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies. ~ Daniel 9:18

Don’t let anything deprive you of hope. ~ St. Nektarios of Aegina

Prayer should be our first response, not the last hope. ~Archpriest Andrei Tkachev

Here are two versions of an ancient hymn, rejoicing in hope and glory – For God is with us!

God is With Us (One of the Traditional Melodies)

God is With Us (Appalachian-Style Melody)

We who are given the fullness of true Christianity are obliged to be working on ourselves, to be watching the signs of the times, and to be extremely joyful, as St. Paul is constantly saying: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say: Rejoice!’ (Phil. 4:4). We rejoice because we have something which all the death and corruption of this world cannot take away, that is, the eternal Kingdom of Jesus Christ. ~ Fr. Seraphim Rose

Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. ~ Romans 5:1-5

Wellspring of Wisdom

Hawaiian stream flowing to ocean – 2014

Christ is Risen!

My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God? ~ Psalm 42:2

Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation. ~ Isaiah 12:3

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit. ~ Jeremiah 17:7-8

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life. ~ St. John 4:13-14

Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. ~ St. John 7:37

Truly He is Risen!

River of Life

Mountain River and Jungle, Hawaii 2016

Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the well of salvation. ~ Isaiah 12:3

“…but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” ~ St. John 4:14

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'” Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. ~St. John 7:37-39

A fish that is alive swims against the flow of water. One that is dead floats down with the water. A true Christian goes against the current of this sinful age. A false one is swept away by its swiftness. ~ St. Philaret of Moscow

We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of trees, all pass by. Christian! So does our life… I was an infant, and that time has gone. I was an adolescent, and that too has passed. I was a young man, and that too is far behind me. The strong and mature man that I was is no more. My hair turns white, I succumb to age, but that too passes; I approach the end and will go the way of all flesh. I was born in order to die. I die that I may live. Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom! ~ St. Tikhon of Voronezh