The Morning Offering

Reaping What we Sow

God is in Control of the Forces of Nature

The massively destructive and deadly hurricane that has plowed into the east coast of the United States should not have been a surprise to any of us. How could we expect there should not be consequences for a nation that has such a high number of our babies being aborted, has misused the resources given to us by God, advancing wars for the sake of financial gain, and oil, and given ourselves over in pride for our scientific and technological advances. We have become a people who have turned away from the worship of God for the worship of material goods, sports, entertainment, and self.

Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco often expressed belief that absolutely nothing happens by chance, and that human behavior leads to inevitable consequences, either good or bad. The horrible tsunami that hit Southeast Asia a few years ago, killing thousands of people, devastated a country that had grown comfortable with a tourist trade made up of thousands of her children enslaved to a foreign sex trade, serving the perverted needs of pedophiles from all parts of the world. God does not cause these devastating natural disasters, we do. God is in control of the forces of nature, but we are responsible for the results of the devastation that takes place. God does not send it upon us, it is we who bring it upon ourselves.

 

^"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Galatians 6:7)." Let us use these natural disasters as a reminder to turn back to God, live our lives in repentance, and turn away from our arrogance and contempt for the laws of God.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

 

Next Saturday: The Planting of a Monastery (chapter 12)

Tuesday October 30, 2012 / October 17, 2012
22^nd Week after Pentecost. Tone four.
 

Prophet Hosea (Osee) (820 B.C.).
Monk-martyr Andrew of Crete (767).
New Hieromartyr Neophit priest, Martyrs Hyacinth and Callistus (1918).
New Hieromartyr Archbishop Alexander (Shchukin) of Semipalatinsk (1937).
Venerable Anthony, abbot, of Leokhonov (Novgorod) (1611).
Holy Martyrs and Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian in Cilicia (4th c.), and their brothers Leontius, Anthimus, and Eutropius.
Translation of the relics (898) of St. Lazarus "Of the Four Days" (in the tomb), bishop of Kition on Cyprus.
"Before Birth and After Birth the Virgin" (1827) and "Deliverer" (1889) Icons of the Mother of God.
Martyr Queen Shushaniki (Susanna) of Georgia (475) (Georgia).
St. Joseph the Wonderworker, Catholicos of Georgia (1770) (Georgia).
Holy Martyr Kozman (Georgia).
Martyrs Ethelred and Ethelbert, princes of Kent (England) (ca. 640) (Celtic & British).
Translation of the relics of St. Ethelreda, abbes of Ely. (Celtic & British).

You can read the life of the saint in green, by click on the name.

For those who would like to be kept informed about the persecution that is taking place against Christians throughout the Middle East, I recommend you subscribe to: http://www.jihadwatch.org/

THANK YOU, to all of you who have been able to contribute towards the support of the monastery. These difficult times of economic hardship have impacted the monastery, and those of you who have been able to donate, have been our lifeline. May God bless you for your generosity, and kindness.

With love in Christ,  
Abbot Tryphon

Donations can be made directly to the monastery through PayPal, or you may send donations to:

All-Merciful Saviour Monastery
PO Box 2420
Vashon Island, WA 98070-2420 USA

Colossians 2:20-3:3

²⁰ Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations— ²¹ “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” ²² which all concern things which perish with the using—according to the commandments and doctrines of men? ²³ These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Not Carnality but Christ

3 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. ² Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. ³ For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Luke 9:23-27

Take Up the Cross and Follow Him

²³ Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. ²⁴ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. ²⁵ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and is himself destroyed or lost? ²⁶ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in His Father’s, and of the holy angels. ²⁷ But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God.”

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