Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Categories
- All Categories 13.8K
- General Category 10.9K
- General Announcements 184
- Faith Issues 3.4K
- Coptic Orthodox Church 2.5K
- Personal Issues 1.4K
- Prayer Requests 423
- Random Issues 1.8K
- Introductions 294
- Non-Orthodox Inquiries 232
- Youth Corner 606
- Hymns 2.5K
- Hymns Discussion 2.5K
- Technicial Difficulties 368
- Technical Topics 368
WHAT IS OUR JOB AS CHRISTIANS
WHAT IS OUR JOB AS CHRISTIANS?
Comments
do you mean responsibilities to others, to ourselves or to God or what?
James Chapter 2 is a very Good resource for how we should live our lives as Christians... (thanks Marcleno! ;))
God Bless...
“Do all things without complaining and disputing, that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world” Ephesians 2:14, 15
“Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. “ Ephesians 5: 1-4
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven” Matthew 5: 16
“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” Matthew 5:44
“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” Matthew 10:38
“Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 23: 37, 39
hard question, because we as Christians really have many hard responsibilities, and we really know what they r, but do we actually do them? We, above anything must strive to follow the road that will lead us to eternal life, by walking in the light of Christ. As we walk in His light, along our spiritual journey, our goal is to shine His light before all men, as St. Paul says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.” Romans 1:16, why hide the savior’s light? Are we ashamed of Him who died for us? Shining God’s light does not just mean preaching God’s word, as words have their effect yes, but words without actions have no meaning, if we preach God’s word while we walk in darkness, we preach in vain, preaching by being a good example and a good role model for others, is more effective then preaching by words. We have to imitate God and be like Him, He created us in His image, so we as human beings, must try to struggle to return to the first image of man, the pure image, before Adam fell in sin, even though we wont reach perfection, as no one is perfect even is their life was a single day on earth, yet we must do our best to be holy as He is holy, perfect as He is perfect, pure as He is pure, love one another as He has loved us and gave Himself up for us. We have to love God from all our hearts all our minds, all our souls, love Him true love, love Him and show this love in our actions, even though we are not of this world, and we live amongst a crooked and perverse generation, yet we have to try to be Gods children always. Even though the road will be difficult and we might have to carry a hard cross at times its all worth it.
I think our jobs as Christians can be summarized in what St. Augustin said : "Love and do whatever you want, because God is love".
We can prepare long lists of things to do and things not to do, but the most important thing is the amount of love we put in our acts. St Paul says : If I distribute all my money to the poor but I have no love or if I sacrifice my body to be burned and I have no love it will be in vain.
The love pushed the poor widow to put 2 cents in the temple and Jesus said that she put more than all people who gave lots of money from their surplus.
That's why I think as Christians, our job is to love everybody even our enemies and to act according to our love to them. I know it is not always easy, but may God help us to be according to His will : "The salt of the earth and the light of the world".
Thank you and pray for me.
KF
u helpped me alot
george
princess mary how do u come up with all of those quotes all the time... u legend!
just remember as mentioned...before (by Karfaw)...the most important thing is love "Let all what you do be done be done in love" 1 Corinthians 16:14, nothing matters more than love, fill your heart completely with His abundant love, and let this love grow, love one another as Christ has loved you, love from all your heart, love with a true meaning, let this love u have be others be reflected in your actions. Remember God created us in His image and He told us "Assurdely I say to you, in as much as you did it to one of the least of My brethren, you did it to Me" Matthew 25:40, loving your enemies is hard, easy to say, not so easy to do, but put in your mind that when u love this person, u love God and u love God's children also, and anything u do to another person as if u did it to God Himself, do good and u will be rewarded and shall receive the crown of eternal life. Along with love being a very important duty to us as christians, comes forgiveness, if we have love in our hearts, we must learn to be patient, and forgive and forget, open your hearts to others, dont let your hearts be hardened, dont always remember the bad things for others, but look at the good things in them, forgive one another, so that when u pray u may be able to say, "forgive us pur trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us", dont say it if u dont mean it ;)
God bless all of u and may He fill your hearts with His love that is beyond measure, forever :)
remember me, the sinner, in your prayers
your sister in Christ,
mary
ya right noway, very difficult road, ever considered becoming a monk :P
King Contantine appeared to abba Bishoy in a dream and told him " "If I had known all the honor bestowed on the monks, I would have left my kingdom to become a monk" Anba Bishoy answered by saying: "But you were the one that removed the worship of idols and Christianity was very prosperous during your reign, didn't Jesus give you anything ?"; Constantine answered "Yes a lot, but not the honor of the monks.
Marriage is a logical progression as many would assert but monasticism is not a deviation both are callings in the name of the Lord for the benefit of their soul and the souls of others. I don't become a monk because I am a good person or because I deserve it but because it is the way that God wants me to glorify Him and marriage is no more or less legitimate in that regard either. In the light of that we may get the impression that whole point of being a monk is just for the sake of being excessivley as if these people were assured of their salvation or something.
Just look at the life of St. Anthony, everytime he was asked to do something new by God it was a response to him asking what must I do to be saved? God's plan for St. Anthony's salvation was closely tied in with Him being the first monk and likewise the same with St. Paul when God rebuked him and told him to go to the Gentiles.
I agree that generally a person may look at a monk or nun and say, wow they are so holy! But we have to realise that this is on the basis of what God had intended them to be, He called them to this state and they are realising His will for them to His glory and we all benfit from them and the gifts God has given them as a result.
To also be fair you have to look and see that married people aren't always less Spiritual than people who lead a monastic life and vice versa! Remember how St. Anthony visited the two women who decided not to become nuns and served God in married life and practiced love in such a way that he was sent to witness it! In that instance, there were 2 Spiritual people who could have potentially been nuns, not for want of desire or spirituality but according to God's plan they glorified Him by leading a very Spiritual married life!
If you look at what Anba moussa tells us regarding marriage, pray a lot, think a lot, feel a little, this is a way of checking that we are in synergy or cooperating with God and on that same basis the truth of what God calls us to will be revealed. I guess its not really for us to infer on God what He wants us to do despite how smart we may be but we orght to submit to Him and allow Him to dictate to us what He has planned for us so that we may know the most perfect will of God as St. Paul writes. In essence the decision is not made our opinions of ourselves or the difficulty of the monastic life but conformance to the will of God.
To cheer you guys up, most people when they get a calling like monasticism or any calling (myself included :-[ ) generally respond as if we are unworthy like Moses, Gideon, Jerimiah and Peter. This attitude is not strictly a good thing, while outwardly it looks like humility, its actually the exact opposite and is a negative function of a persons Ego. This is because if God calls you, you may say that your not worthy as a way of putting emphasis on how kind God is to give you such a wonderful calling will seeking to do it eagerly out of love for Him. However if you say it with pride then it means that your not saying it to put the emphasis on God but your own weakness and inability and reluctance to follow what could be God's call based on your own opinion. This again is a generalisation as some people have fled from being bishops etc to stay as monks but we need to remember a little story from St. John Chyrsostom's book on the Priesthood where his friend was called to be a priest with him and St. John fled leaving his friend to be ordained alone. He claimed that he fled on the basis of weakness and that his friend was right to be ordained because God's grace would help him and his friend responded, if thats the case then why wasn't His grace enough for you too?
There are 4 contributions made to a persons life that add holiness to the exception of all else, these are baptism, christmation, eucharist and confession. I don't care if you fast for 700 days at a time before eating, without these you are nothing!
To balance your story about King Constantine I have one to level it off and prove that marriage can be a truer vocation.
In the desert fathers a hermit was asked who is greater, the one who visits the sick or the one who fasts for 6 days in his cell. The hermit replied, the one who visits the sick. Even if one were to hang himself up by his nostrils, he is nothing compared to one who visits the sick.
Remember the stories of St. Pishoy and how he carried the Lord and washed His feet? These reveal that what God loved about St. Pishoy wasn't his fasting or prayers but his acts of love he did for others and it was through those acts of love that he got his most closest intimate times with our Lord.
Anba Moussa also told us at one convention that he would not be surprised if a married person is more loving than a monk. This is because a person doesn't learn to love by sitting in a cell but actually going out and meeting people, helping them and sharing with them. That is the fullness of Christianity.
God bless you all,
CS
To be honest there was a time I was always going to become a monk but for the wrong reasons. I used to look down on married life. I recall that once I heard about someone who was a missionary who got married. I was stunned by this because I was convinced that marriage was evil or something which really isn't the case and missionaries were supposed to be holy people.
I though holiness meant subjugation and I used humility as an excuse not to love but I was consequently proven to be very wrong.
Over a process of time God revealed to me a lot of things I basically learned as the Lord said, give alms of all things that they may be pure to you. It is through replacing evil with love that a person can interact correctly with the world, its not enough to just cut off evil, it has to be replaced. Remeber the parable of the talants, the man was condemned not for wasting or abusing the money but simply not using it.
The issue comes down to what St. Paul teaches about people with defiled conciences seeing the world and what is in it as being evil, but when God comes to correct our being we can think, see and feel correctly in love we realise that the things we once cursed are really good things meant for good reasons.
Essentially marriage is a really really sacred thing, you are acutally producing a living being, a cooperation with Gods desire for creation, what could be more amazing than that??? The desire to have children in man is God setting a natural inclination and desire to participate in this work, its just a shame that people misinterpret the movement and delude themselves into believeing this good passionate motion is nothing more than a call for some kind of lesure activity.
The way I look at it now is that I'm just open to think about these things within the framework God has set out. It has been amazing journey for me, I've even found that God creates a time when He helps you think about it and can think clearly. I've also come to the conclusion that I'm more likely to get married. I think that my personality suits being a monk because I'm not a very emotionally bound person, I'd be able to walk away from my family for 6 months and not really miss them but again its a call not a vocation.
God bless you,
CS
Last summer, Anba Angelos came to Canada and i was blessed to attend his sermon in which he spoke of our being Christian. He said that as Christians, we must act Christ-Like. We must honor God's Holy Name and always remember WWJD, because as christians we are representatives on Jesus and we should be proud. ::)
GBU
WHAT IS OUR JOB AS CHRISTIANS!!!
Saint Francis of Assisi put it succinctly when he said "Preach the Bible, and if necessary, use words".