#Knowing_Jesus #Jesus_Words #God_Jesus

John 15:17-18
These things I command you, that ye love one another. 18. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

"One cannot help looking upon the whole modern aberration as a kind of last "fall" of man, an imitation on a worldwide scale of the sin of the first man—the desire to be as God, to know fully. And who can say why God allows this— unless it be simply that in the end, as in the beginning, we confront Him.

There was no "reason" for the fall of the prodigal son— and yet how much joy there was on his return. Perhaps after all God "allowed" the modern age for the joy over the reception of repentant sinners at the end of it."

+ Blessed Seraphim of Platina

#God_Jesus #Jesus_Words #Knowing_Jesus

John 15:19
If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

"Whether we believe or not, we belong to God. Whether we understand it or not, or feel His presence or not, or rejoice in that presence or not, He exists. He is my God. He is my Lord. Even during moments of darkness and terror, when God doesn’t exist for me, He still exists. When I feel I’m a failure, when all my efforts seem fruitless, when my life seems to have passed in vain, Christ is still my Christ. He is there for me no matter what happens. He exists irrespectively of my capabilities, capacities, and comprehension. I might imagine that God is small. But God is great. I might think that God doesn’t hear. But He does. And He has given Himself entirely to me, so that there’s only one possibility of failure: for me to break off my relationship with the “One Who Is” (Ex. 3:14)"

+ Elder Aimilianos of Simonpetra

The blow back has begun.
Self defence is allowed against evil
Make your voices heard

#Salvation #Knowing_Jesus

Philippians 3:13-14
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, 14. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.