The Spirit Behind the Crucifix

I have a friend who is a Protestant missionary in Bolivia. His Christian background is heavily Charismatic, and, with that background, he tends to suspect "spirits" behind events and circumstances. Although I appreciate his sensitivity to the spiritual world, something I think more Christians should be attuned to, it seems as if his focus is on the evil spiritual world. One day, he was telling me how people in that area worship the cross. He said he was curious "what spirit was behind that crucifix."

I was curious why he would think there was an evil spirit on a crucifix! I guess the real question for him and for all of my Charismatic friends is this: If an evil spirit can reside on an object, why can't the Holy Spirit also reside on an object? I think it is clear from the book of Acts that the Holy Spirit does "attach" Himself to physical objects, such as Paul's handkerchief. Can someone know that a person is worshipping a cross, or can an evil spirit attach itself to a cross and deceive someone who is calling out to our Savior who has conquered death through death - the crucifix being the very image of the cross where he disarmed the powers and authorities, triumphing over them (Col 2:15).

The cross is a holy thing. Holy things have the Holy Spirit on them. The Spirit does manifest Himself in the world giving great glory to God and affirming the reality of His kingdom. My missionary friend has never been to an Orthodox Church before. I wonder if he would relish in the abundant saturation of the Spirit of God seen in every corner and heard in every hymn, or wriggle at experiencing the Real Presence of God perhaps for the first time ever.

Taking It To The Streets

Orthodoxy has such a visually-rich liturgy that I think it would do well with billboard advertising. I know, spoken like a true ex-Protestant, always wanting to change things. From some of my chats with my priest, it sounds as if advertising is not something the Church does. On the other hand though, I don't think that is entirely true. Websites, for instance, are a new form of advertising. I have also seen ads in the Faith section of our local newspaper for Orthodox Churches. So, why not billboards?

One idea I had (I'm not in advertising, but it is sort of fun to think up stuff like this) is to have a billboard that shows an Orthodox altar on the right and the typical Protestant altar (pulpit, stage, etc) on the left. The caption would read, "Which church has watered down the Gospel?" I think it would be strikingly clear which one has removed worship elements from the Sunday morning service. Hopefully, it would make people pause and think.

I would be interested in hearing your ideas for Orthodox billboards. Even though I am not in advertising, I still have an evangelistic mindset in drawing people to the fullness of the faith, and in helping them realize there is so much more to their glorious heritage that is still maintained to this day in the blessed Holy Orthodox Church.

Will God Ask If I Was Orthodox On Judgement Day?

I recently told a friend of mine I had converted to Orthodoxy. After a brief conversation about Christianity, his reply was, "Well, I don't think God is going to ask you whether you were Orthodox or Lutheran or Baptist when you see Him." I agreed. I don't think He is going to ask you anything about your denomination, but instead, you will stand there with your soul bared, and everything you are, to the core of your being, exposed. It will probably be a scary and embarrassing moment for most. What church you attended may not be as important as how well did your church prepare you for the day you stand vulnerable before the radiant, glorious and all-consuming fire of the living presence of God. How well did they train you to fight the forces of evil which war against your soul? Did your church challenge you to crucify and put to death the misdeeds of the flesh and control your passions?

As I pointed out to my friend, there are coaches who train you to a level where you can enjoy a sport. There are others who are more competitive who train you to win games. Then there are those who train at the Olympic level where their athletes are the best of the best, trained to finish the race with the victor's crown, to "run in such a way as to get the prize".

I knew a guy who played football in high school. He was really good and had a lot of fun playing the game. He went to college on a football scholarship. He said at this point, football stopped being fun. They were analyzing films and plays - they were making it more of a science than a sport. The pro level was even more intense, at which point he decided to go into pharmaceutical sales.

In the same way, Orthodoxy, when practiced fully, is intense. As my priest has said before, if Orthodoxy were just one of many right ways of practicing Christianity, it is the wrong way, because so much more is demanded of you. However, if it truly is the Olympic way, the way of the victorious martyrs and crown-bearing champions, then there would never be a need for God to ask if I am Orthodox or any other denomination. I will have been fully trained, fully discipled, presented "before His presence without fault and with great joy" because I have followed the Way laid out before me, passed down from Jesus to the Apostles to the entire Church for all generations to come. If any have strayed from this Way through a "different Gospel", then they have left the original Way, and horrifically trained others in their same errors leaving weakened souls in their wake.

May God have mercy on us all.

Holy Smoke!

I apologize for my unplanned and unannounced hiatus – it is my plan to have a new blog each week from here on out.

On that note, an incense story.

Desiring to enrich my prayer life, I made my first attempt to use incense during my prayer time at home. I thought it would be so simple, so easy, so discreet. Since the rest of my household is not Orthodox, I waited until they were all sleeping soundly in their beds three and a half levels away from my prayer corner on the opposite end of the house. My prayer corner is in a place where no one likes to go anyway. It is an unfinished sub-basement often referred to as the “dirty basement” by the female members of my family.

I lit the charcoal disc and waited for it to get hot. After a short sizzle and some flying bits of tiny red sparks, I launched my first incense kernel like a mini chunk of food on a tiny little grill. It produced some smoke for what seemed like a very short time. So, I threw another one on, and then another, and then another. I continued in my prayers relishing in the added olfactory dimension of this truly blessed time of prayer.

I didn’t realize how much smoke that little censer was putting out until I turned around and saw a thick, hazy fog filling my little basement. It looked rather neat to see the light beams from my clamp-on lamps shoot through the smoke. However, I was getting concerned about how much of this was drifting upstairs. The two times my family has been to an Orthodox service, the incense nearly choked them to death – they recoiled every time they saw the priest start to swing the censer.

After I left the basement, I did a sniff test to see if I could smell it anywhere near the door. I didn’t smell anything! I checked a few more corners of the house to see if it made its way up through the vents – still nothing. I felt good about heading to bed, as I was still one level away, and the smell did not drift. That was about 10:30 P.M.

I’m lying in bed still a little concerned, because that was a heck of a cloud I left behind down there, and I knew it had to go somewhere. At around 11:15, it had wafted its way into our bedroom. My wife, who was sleeping so soundly when I came to bed that she didn’t even wake up when I plopped down on the mattress, suddenly was becoming restless. She let out a sleepy cough, and then another, but this one was a little more robust. She then sat up in bed, and I pretended to be asleep hoping she didn’t notice. Still half asleep, she said, “Something’s burning!”

So as not to worry her, I immediately confessed I used incense during my prayers before bed, at which point she pleaded that I never do that again. After listening to her cough and hack for the next fifteen minutes, I of course agreed to her request.

I guess there’ll be no smells and bells at my household for a while. It all just seems so censeless (groan!)

Woefully Short of His Glory

What a whirlwind it has been since Great Lent and Holy Week. Even though I have been attending an Orthodox church for several years now, this was my first Pascha as an Orthodox Christian, and I noticed a big difference. For me, it was the difference between watching a game from the sidelines and actually being in the game. The hymns seemed deeper; the fast seemed more intense and effective. The anticipation of the resurrection was stronger than it has ever been in my entire Christian life!

Now, it seems as if God is testing my faith (James 1). And, I am failing miserably! It hasn't been pure joy, and I have reacted, not in trust, but in a pathetically carnal way. As if I had either no hope or no trust in God at all. As if my circumstances were random acts unnoticed by our Heavenly King. As if God has been taken by surprise as well and doesn't really know what to do to help me out.

Of course, the reality is that He is fully in control. I have begged for God's forgiveness for my lack of trust in Him and for responding to my circumstances in such an unspiritual fashion. For all my blathering about my faith on this blog, I too am weak, lost, and in need of God's great mercy now and forever. As much as I would love to react to my circumstances with the peace and calm of our Lord, I fall so woefully short and need Him entirely.

Pagan Christianity

Seems like I am writing my blogs these days on the fly, and this one is no exception. I stumbled across a book at one of the major book chains titled 'Pagan Christianity'. I only had time to just peruse it, so I didn't get chance to really dig in to find out what this author is trying to accomplish. If you know more about this, please add comments, but here is what I gleened.

At first, I expected the book to be an attack on the so-called pagan practices of Roman Catholicism/Orthodoxy (rituals, symbols, praying to saints, etc.). Instead, it seemed to be attacking nearly every major tradition of orthodox (little 'o') Christianity. He did, of course, mention what I mentioned above, but he also attacked the practice of building churches with steeples and the long tradition of giving a sermon at a church service. He said sermons are a carryover from the Greek orator days when sophists spent a great deal of time perfecting their speeches.

I thought that if he is classifying the sermon as a pagan practice, that would pretty much mean all of Christianity is pagan. At this point, I turned to the back cover to see why he wrote this book. Apparently, he is trying to get back to the 'biblical roots' of church emphasizing the 'house church'. Like I said, I am writing this on the fly, and I have not really read the book, but can we really say that the entire church tradition has been wrong all these years? Of course, Orthodox Christians do not believe so, but instead, we emphasize preserving the ancient traditions.

To say they incorporated pagan practices I think misses the point entirely of God revealing Himself to mankind. Didn't pagans have human sacrifices and drink the blood of their victims? Was Jesus instituting paganism into traditional Jewish beliefs by saying we should drink His blood and eat His flesh? Didn't pagans have beliefs about virgin births and the gods becoming men? Maybe he should have said the New Testament is itself a pagan document since it has such 'pagan' things in it.

The truth of the matter is that Christianity brought to light the Truth of God in the world and revealed how pagan beliefs and practices were often a distortion of the ultimate Truth. It explains why the pagan world identified with Christianity so willingly. It was as if the pagans were in the dark, 'feeling' their way through life and someone suddenly turned the light on to reveal what they were 'feeling'. Their descriptions and understanding of what they were 'feeling' changed after the light came on and they saw things as they really were.

Is it anti-biblical to build a church over a holy place, such as where Jesus was born or where a Saint is buried as his book states? The Bible states the Israelites built things where God had done something, such as the memorial built in the Jordan river where the ark of God had been (Joshua 4). It also states in the book of Revelation that the souls of the saints are under the altar in heaven. If the Israelites patterned their worhip after the heavenly model (as God commanded), how much more so should we who have been given the fullness of the faith?

Those are my knee-jerk reactions to my scant perusal of this book. I would be interested to hear from others who may have read this book or heard other such attacks against church traditions.

Unorthodox Guitar Playing

This post has nothing to do with the faith, but being a musician, I had to post it for all to enjoy. I stumbled across this on YouTube and thought that everyone would appreciate some really good and unconventional guitar playing. As you can tell by my picture on the right, I favor the guitar - it is how I misspent my youth - trying to become a rock star. Once I lost the hair, then the whole rock star image and dream disappeared too! Hope you enjoy this little piece: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4BYMvVvMg0