Keep wanting what He wants

I see the Orthodox Church for what it is: It is the ikon of the Church of the Redeemed, but it remains a spiritual still-life for its members and any others who only want to ingest its beauty instead of entering into the Bridal Chamber, where the Bridegroom awaits each soul as His only bride.

I witness for Jesus Christ, not for the Orthodox Church or, indeed, for any church or ministry. I witness for Christ, and Christ witnesses for the Church. How? By the word of my testimony and by my life in Christ, for the Church is nothing but that: you and me, one by one, witnessing and living for Christ.

We are the Light of the world, if we follow Jesus, taking on His nature in proportion to our obedience and faith, according to His word to us in the gospels. This is the only place where and how the unsaved world meets Him, through the constant ministry of His living ikons, His Body, and the only way it can find Him and be adopted into that Body, His Church.

Standing in our midst is One whom we do not really know, as the honorable prophet and forerunner John the Baptist told the Pharisees, that is, if we do not acknowledge Him by wanting and being what He wants. The Pharisees wanted Messiah on their own terms. He came on His terms. They purchased His death on the Cross by their unbelief. Purchased, mind you, not forced. He gave up His life voluntarily. Their unbelief purchased His death, and He returned the money to their sacks, as did Joseph in Egypt, by rising again to life, so that He could show Himself to the brothers who sold Him, and to all His brothers, and reveal who He is, the Savior.

Brethren, let's keep wanting what He wants, and walking in the Light. Let Him use us as instruments of His peace, to be living testimonies of the unbreakable and unbroken bond of unity with Him in the Holy Triad, through the Spirit that lives in us.