Become Consistent and Encouraging

"Our faith is learning how to become consistent, and learning to be encouraging to those around us." - Fr. Barnabas Powell in Made to be like Christ.

If we aren't being changed, we aren't practicing the Orthodox faith. It's about steadfastness and encouragement as being the hallmark of Jesus Christ. You stick with it, you don't give up and you don't change with the times. The times confirm to Christ, not the other way around. You encourage those around you, not by being correct, but by being loving towards them. 

The purpose of Orthodoxy is to become like Jesus Christ. This is my invitation, and yours.

But what about salvation? Is it a get-out-of-jail free card? 

Salvation is about me getting to restore my relationship with Jesus Christ and God the Father. I get to have that healed (remember church is a hospital for sinners, not a court for criminals) and become what I was always meant to become - God's eternal companion who loves me and has given Himself for me. 

Its not God's problem. Salvation is God's problem. It's me that needs a champion to destroy those things that are keeping me from the Father - sin, death and Satan. Jesus Christ tramples down death by death.