Remember Him.

People seem to be in a big diddly about removing “Merry Christmas” from things, and just as much, if not more, about how we’ve got these little golden dollar pieces in the U.S. now that doesn’t have “In God We Trust” written in. I can completely understand why people get mad, sad, furious, upset… whatever strikes them, but honestly, is it all that surprising?

See, a lot of us were raised to believe that this country we live in was actually formed on Christian principles, and our forefathers were the epitome of Christendom. This is laughable, at best. When you stop to consider that this country was so wrapped up, and probably is still so wrapped up into freemasonry it’s not even funny, maybe the perspective shifts just a little. There isn’t any real Christianity in Freemasonry, there was no real Christianity when the country was formed… at least not as far as politically. And to really go out there, let’s consider that Orthodoxy hadn’t even reached America until 1794, during the time of the Alaskan Mission. St. Herman pray for us.

Then, we can stop and consider that today, America has a veneer of Christianity, yet still isn’t Christian at all. America is largely hedonistic. America subscribes to spineless, heretical ecumenism. America is politically correct. America is Zionist. America simply has no backbone today to speak of, spiritually speaking… and politically speaking it’s not much better at this point in time.

If you want to fight for your right to see Merry Christmas displayed in public places, businesses, wherever, you do have that right. If you don’t want to spend any form of currency that doesn’t have God written on it, that’s your right too. However, forgive me for being nonchalant about catch phrases or coins. I don’t see a time when this country was ever Christian, and it was only a matter of time before the government which we gave too much power stepped in and revoked those rights, and we simply let it happen.

I’m aware that it’s part of a much bigger picture. My point is, you should feel the same way. The currency itself means nothing, the phrase itself means nothing, it’s these cold facts that mean it all: America doesn’t want God, and we allow whatever the government brings around to happen. That’s how it is. The people were always supposed to run the government, not vice versa.

Post a picture of Mohammed and get blown to pieces, Muslims get a pat on the back for their religious zeal. Christians pray in public and get looked at as uncaring tyrants who are trapped in the stone age, waving their rights around in people’s faces. We welcome in immigrants, give them the money they need to go spend a few months in their homeland so they don’t have to pay taxes, and send them to college for free, while American-born citizens get the short end of the stick and go in debt for years to get their ride. Ecumenists wail on about how we all worship the same God, the Church is invisible and we are all a part of the body of Christ[doesn’t matter if that body consists of nearly 30,000 parts today], and Apostolic Christians are looked upon as uncaring hateful people because we care enough about the Church of the Seven Councils than to compromise the beliefs of the Saints and Martyrs than to make someone feel good about heresy. The spirit of the age has filled our heads with noise, there is no silence. We deal with the hustle and bustle at work and at home, secularism and godlessness poured into us through the mediums of television, internet and radio. To spend an hour in solitude is to waste an hour of ‘productivity’. To live outside of the “American Dream” is to give up on the only life deemed normal anymore. Where is prayer? Where is Church? Where is life?

… And even so, God is good. I’ll never cease to be amazed at how God can send us comfort from this modern day and age in such simple, true to the soul ways. The feel of the breeze on your skin in the early morning, before the sun rises and wakes nature up with you, everything coming to life. How the ethereal colors of the sky above you seem to paint it’s colors in your soul, and all of creation seems to be moving to give glory to God, the perfect artist. Just you, nature around you, the sun above you, and that otherworldly silence… that peacefulness, that glimpse of the world to come. Oh and especially at night, when the sun’s casting it’s last rays over the watchful mountaintops, the scent of pine, cedar, mild damp earth on the wind filling your nostrils as you watch it carry the embers from the campfire gently into the sky. You feel rejuvenated, as rooted as the trees around you, your spirit reaching just as high. That warm orange sky above you fades to purple, and the stars begin to twinkle into existence, affirming that all creation glorifies Him, all is within His hand, God is in His Temple and the calm of all creation is obedient to His majesty.

When we sing with the angels His praise, when we gather with faithful seen and unseen, to hymn and chant the Lord. The labor of incense becomes fruitful once it emits it’s heavenly scent, a symbol, a prophecy coming to life before our eyes where we offer it in His temple… our unworthy hands lifted as an evening sacrifice. The flicker of the flames dances across the icons, the fire standing vigilant before them, providing us a closer glimpse of the cloud of witnesses. The Priest, censing, praying, the faithful, penitent, pious, all as one in faith and with love, a confirmation of Christian unity in an uncomprehending world, expecting to consume the Lamb who is given in behalf of all, yet never negated.

Of such things we are not even worthy… but God is good. How it would help us all to remember Him in all things, leave the blind to lead the blind and the dead to bury the dead. We are but pilgrims here. We are not home… but if we take the time to truly listen, beyond the noise, and truly look, beyond what’s seen, then home isn’t far away.

Oh God be merciful to me a sinner and cleanse me… all creation glorifies You.