I have friends and family on here from all walks of life, in different places and different situations, with different reasons for believing what they do. Many are not Christians, and even more are not Orthodox Christians.
A lot of people are just living their day to day, either comfortable with whatever beliefs about God they've casually settled into throughout course of their life, or are just neglecting consideration of deeper, holy, eternal things entirely. Yet others are on a journey of truth seeking, but haven't become rooted in or confident with what they believe about God and the spiritual realm yet. Still even many are professing Christians, yet are estranged from (or unaware of) Christ's Holy Church and the Divine and Life-Giving Mysteries that can only be partaken of therein.
The following message is for everyone who falls into any of those aforementioned categories...
On this most blessed and Holy Pascha, we Orthodox celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords; He is the Creator of all.
He LITERALLY RAISED FROM THE DEAD, after harrowing hades and freeing all of the souls held captive there (as depicted in this icon, grabbing the hands of Adam and Eve). He walked on the earth, ALIVE, after being publicly crucified, for *forty days* before ascending into heaven. That really happened. Hundreds and hundreds of people saw him at once, and He ate and drank with the Apostles during that time.
This is not a fairy tale. All too often these things become relegated to the realm of familiar, powerless stories with no basis in reality. Yet this is not mythology; this is real. This is history. Christ, the God-man is alive, right now, sitting upon His throne in Heaven, and eventually we will all face the Dread Judgement and give an accounting for our lives.
Rejecting Him or failing to embrace Him in this life is a decision that will haunt you for eternity, but it is also a decision that is destroying you right now, little by little in your waking life. As "The Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations", a first century catechism puts it:
"There are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways."
This might sound too "black and white" for our post-modern sensibilities, but it is actually in perfect accord with the teachings of the Master Himself:
"He that is not with me is against me".
What does that all mean? It means that if you're not living for Christ, you're actually dying. Every minute a person remains unplugged from the Source of life Himself due to apathy, pride, sloth or spiritual delusion (what we call "prelest"), they are plunged further into slavery to sin. Thus--whether wittingly or unwittingly--day after day, they bind themselves with heavier shackles that, one day, upon death, will never be unlocked.
Christ is the only looser of these shackles, and only He can heal the wounds of our various sinful passions and choices that have left us scarred, jaded, anxious, depressed and devoid of hope. He has given us the key; it is faith. What faith? The only pure, undefiled Christian faith...the Holy Orthodox faith.
Awareness of various truths while remaining without or apart from Christ is ultimately futile, and will only bring you more fear, anger, anxiety and depression. This world is a very, VERY dark place underneath the surface of things. So dark, that once one starts to peel back the layers, it becomes plainly evident that there are actually spiritually evil forces, demonic entities at work.