Why Life is So Brutal

[@tylersmith2854]

I think that’s why God made sure we got The Book of Job. Regardless of where we are in life, we are going to suffer. We have to make sure not to blame God and keep the Covenant. We are going to be tempted and fall and deal with suffering but regardless we follow Christ’s example. Be open to repentance and strive forward. That’s how we truly live.

[@nathanielkleber1443]

I’ve been yelling at God bro it’s been tough I don’t understand what he’s doing. I feel breathless and tbh it sucks. Please pray for me

[@saulgoodman5837]

@@nathanielkleber1443you aren’t always supposed to know what God is doing. that’s why you have faith, whether you know or not

[@thelostcosmonaut5555]

Except that G-d is literally at fault for everything that befall Job. Job was devout and a loyal servant of G-d but had his entire family killed because of a bet G-d made with the devil.

[@AmosLiberal-pq1sr]

dude. i love you man this is so good

[@ryanralston1466]

​@thelostcosmonaut5555 but Job's family were unrepentant sinners. That's why they were killed. Job was rewarded with double of what he had lost because of his faithfulness. The morale to the story is worship the Lord in good times and the bad. What do we say in our wedding vows.

[@actorjay]

"Lead me not to temptation, but deliver me from evil." Amen.

[@LoftOfTheUniverse]

I'm in pain daily. Nobody knows why, people are tired of me mentioning my aliments and my limited ability to do things. My marriage is struggling, I'm in no man's land just starting into Orthodoxy. It's been months and I feel like I can't take it much more. Nothing is changing and on top of that I'm living paycheck to paycheck. I'm afraid I won't make it to heaven on top of all my suffering. I'm trying to hope but despair encompasses me daily. Please pray for me.

[@nathanielkleber1443]

I’m in the same boat expect I’m in college and I’m 19. I feel breathless sometimes, and it sucks bro.

[@nathanielkleber1443]

I will pray for you brother

[@Fern_Thaddeus]

My heart feels for you… please don’t give up, thank you for reaching out!!! My best friend suffers from chronic pain, and I understand how it’s the same “merry-go-round” , unrelenting pain and venting. (I listen to her because she listens to me and my own struggles too. We are to carry one another’s burdens). Thankfully God never gets tired of hearing us vent. He loves you. I’m sorry I don’t have words of healing, but I know God does. May your spirit be encouraged 🙏🏻💞 Ask if anyone at the local church knows others with similar situations or pains? To have another family member IN Christ be there for you, y’all can relate. I say this, because, I go to AA meetings and it’s amazing how others who understand don’t hurt others as much when sharing in fellowship, because they understand! If that makes any sense. A Christian support group though. We “relate, don’t compare”, “it’s not a competition (on who has it worse/better)”, “Just for today”… Praise be to our one and real Holy Triune God!

[@tbarnes2624]

I’m sorry for your pain and struggles. Some of the same. May I say there can be relief from chronic pains when one forgives and releases ought against all people who have hurt you. Also important to forgive yourself and receive God’s love. I know of many who’ve been healed when they’ve done this. Sounds too simple but it is actually part of the spiritual battle we’re in. 🙏

[@tbarnes2624]

I’m sorry for your pain and struggles. Some of the same for me. May I say there can be relief from chronic pains when one forgives and releases ought against all people who have hurt you. Also important to forgive yourself and receive God’s love. I know of many who’ve been healed when they’ve done this. Sounds too simple but it is actually part of the spiritual battle we’re in. I’m working through this myself and have experienced some relief from these torments. 🙏

[@elainapoochie2734]

May God protect you and your parishioners father!

[@michaelewnetu1590]

Thank you father, for the encouragement you offer us.

[@arianab.99]

Thank you soo much last year I read book called Your Life Your Game by Keezano. This book truly changed my life..lt beautifully shows how connecting with God and building meaningful relationships can lead to spiritual growth and success in both your personal and professional life. A must-read, hallelujah🙌🏼

[@The.Rockyy007]

a must-read

[@theotherkangaroo]

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy.✝️

[@MrRickkramer]

The existence of suffering is the most potent argument against belief in God, good that this subject is addressed.

[@DM100]

The Problem of Pain- CS Lewis

[@nalveyna]

Thus the Bible says ✝️The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God. Because it is foolishness to him. But the Righteous shall understand🙏

[@Arock1984]

Also one of the most potent for the truth of Genesis 3.

[@normallywe1rd]

Thank you, Father. You've helped me in my search for God. I've recently returned to God's path for me after two decades of living wrongly, in such dark sin. I was raised casually Christian for a few years as a child but I never felt a connection... but now I know it's always been there, I just looked away. I'm so grateful for your channel. Thank you, God bless, and prayers for you, your family, parishioners, California, and all of humanity. 🙏 God is great.

[@tiaharrison2802]

It feels like death is mercy, and it has been what I have been praying for my entire life.

[@nalveyna]

The war began for me as soon as I made the decision to start reading the Bible for myself, beginning with Genesis. 5 years later, I'm in Matthew and reading God's word has completely changed my life for the better. It was and still is non-stop war daily. You must have on the Full Armor of God to stand a chance. I quit smoking and drinking and recently quit the hardest sin ever. Lust. 🙏All thanks and praise to Jesus ✨️

[@Fern_Thaddeus]

Hallelujah!!!!

[@jeremyj427]

How did you quit lust?

[@nalveyna]

@jeremyj427 I've been batting for years . When I quit smoking thc disposables recently, it made a difference and constantly seeking knowledge of God ✨️something just changed and the temptation has been lifted because I made the right choice instead of continuing in sin when I knew it was wrong for so long

[@jeremyj427]

@@nalveyna thanks for the answer.

[@Mark_Collins_Age_45]

We must all walk through the fire, some of us literally.

[@theamericanpovpodcast]

If we are not in the midst of a storm, we are about to enter into one. May we behold our Savior during the trials and temptations that we faint not in our hope of the Lord's salvation.

[@WORKOUTSOLUTIONS]

❤‍🔥😇✝GOD HAVE MERCY ON US SINNERS 🙏🕊💪

[@Chris-ge7pt]

Thank you Father, This I needed to hear. So much we don’t know but we get to graciously learn.

[@KittehNow]

FACTS. TRUTH. WISDOM....here it is, folks. Lord Jesus Christ, Have mercy on us☦️

[@yankaufmann9715]

Thank you father

[@anarcho_icon]

For real ones to thrive, putting God first.

[@melaniehardy8734]

Thank you Father Josiah, very helpful and encouraging.

[@robertbordevik5072]

I love this and accept it. This is the way.

[@ReginaldCollins-s2q]

This was very eye opening. Thank you

[@ibelieve3111]

Thanks

[@bwithgod6374]

May God bring love, strength and the faith to bring the people of California through these extreme pain and sorrow. I pray with you father that you are able to help many people in need of your wisdom and your dedication to the lord.

[@ThereISnoH]

Thank you for your content Father Josiah, and God bless you

[@Gaizaz]

One thing I'm struggling with is this - Sin separates us from the love of God, but WHERE is the love of God? My heart has become cold and distant after a life of rejection, and humiliation, the love of God seems no where to be found, but the sin, the sin gives me comfort, a fleeting refuge tho its warm for only a moment. I'm hurting, and I'm lost.

[@yankaufmann9715]

Just repent. "The kingdom of God is within us"

[@edblain7474]

Thank you for this reflection. It brings us great strength and encouragement by giving us the proper orientation in the midst of life’s crises. We do well to heed the wise counsel of St Anthony, viz., to accept our own sins and expect temptations until our last dying breath. Too often we forget that the Christian life is a spiritual battle from beginning to the very end. The devastating fires in southern California highlight the importance of applying these truths to our everyday circumstances. Having established this foundation, is there room for assessing our leaders’ mismanagement? For calling our leaders to accept responsibility and if necessary to demand their repentance? Is there room to ask the question about the relationship between the leadership principles that govern our resources and this devastating fire that brought such destruction? Did we not just go through a global crisis of an even greater magnitude where the same principles could be applied? But where was the accountability on the part of our leaders then? Where was the repentance then? To my knowledge there has been no repentance, and especially no repentance from our hierarchs. And when our leaders, even our spiritual leaders, aren’t held to account for their mismanagement and we don’t see their repentance, is there any wonder that we would continue to see a wasteland of destruction left in the aftermath? How long are we tolerate seeing our businesses, schools, churches, indeed our entire lives destroyed through mismanagement? Without repentance for what we did during Covid, I am afraid we will see even more devastation and destruction like we see in southern California.

[@AugustasKunc]

Exactly what I was praying for.

[@alexandersiskos7176]

God bless you Father ☦️⛪️🙏💪

[@SidneyActs]

Great message, great timing, thank you

[@4747nexus]

Glory to God

[@thattimestampguy]

0:01 Catastrophy and Despair. 0:30 St Anthony The Great ☦️ *Temptation* 1:16 About Temptation ☦️ 1:38 Own your own sins ☦️ 2:03 Expect Temptation. ☦️ 3:07 Until the last Breathe 😤😮‍💨 *Temptation* 3:42 Without Temptation, no one can be saved ☦️ 4:44 Humility ☦️ 5:14 6:39 On The Providence of God. ☦️ 7:12 Fear and The Emperor. *Temptations* 8:26 There are many dangers, snares, temptations. 9:02 The present life is a wrestling school, a training ground, a furnace. 10:18 Gold tried in the fire 🏅🔥 12:20 To appear more worthy. *God Bless You.* 🙏🏼❤️‍🔥 13:03 Trust in God ☦️ 13:23 God Be With You ☦️

[@brittaj68]

The themes for me this week have been surrender and mercy.

[@brittanymwancientlight]

Bless u all!☀️Brittany 🔥

[@svainofficial]

Please pray for me. My soul is consumed by lust and I'm trapped. I've prayed my heart out, and would fall in to sin the very next day. I've worn out my conviction. It feels like a stain I can't remove and although I tell myself that God has infinite Forgiveness, I feel undeserving and trapped in guilt. A vicio😂us cycle. At this point I need a miracle cure because I'm weak and have no restraint. Praying for Forgiveness is harder than praying for help yet I still subject myself to it. I typically don't believe in posting things like this but at this point, Im broken. Please pray for me...

[@joshevans4322]

Saint Anthony pray for us 🙏 ☦️

[@DM100]

I understand how suffering can be salvific, but what about the children in Gaza, the children with cancer. On one level, suffering must remain a mystery. There is no answer sometimes and we are left with the need to just trust God and that all is working together for good! For love.

[@ryanralston1466]

Yes there is. The answer is Sin through sin comes suffering.

[@evska2012]

Exactly. There is only hard in some lifes and there is just no answer sometimes

[@DM100]

@@ryanralston1466 too simplistic.

[@ryanralston1466]

@DM100 ??? What happened in the Garden of Eden?

[@ioioi_prx4639]

@@DM100 I'd assume it's to teach you that this world is cruel and unforgiving since the current mortal world is filled with vices

[@evanbrooks8737]

I struggle with this bcuz it’s like, we do all this work but then God gets all the glory. I’m a believer but sometimes I struggle with this pride.

[@THEREALAKRINIM]

God provides the strength to do the work

[@satanslayer9320]

"Suffering is an indication of a Kingdom which we look to. If being a Christian means being 'happy' in this life, we wouldn't need the Kingdom of Heaven" + Fr. Seraphim Rose

[@acn82F]

Father, please insert in the episode description the name of this book you hold on the 8th minute. ❤ Sounds amazing

[@Life-xg9pf]

Some places in Southern California are know as some of the most sinful places on earth.

[@pg618]

I'm 72 and I must live outside the United States on my social security of $800 a month. I have lost all, family, business, house everything and I asked bishops and priests how they might help me to live where I can hear liturgy in my own language in America and find me some place to live and the answer is always the same "we'll pray for you" as they pass by but I'm still naked and bruised on the side of the road of life and accused of being bitter and told to self-blame.

[@4everlearning]

Bitterness is not something of which others accuse you; it is a torture you inflict upon yourself, making you increasingly unhappy. Others simply observe and possibly tell you what they observe. Gratitude is the key to happiness, and it is a choice; I can thank God for what I have, or I can pine for what I don't have. And MY CHOICE in this matter is what I am responsible for. Self-blame, as you put it, or self-responsibility, as I put it, is concerning your own sins, not what life has doled out to you. But you are in control of how you react to what life hands you. Have you eaten today? Thank God for the food in your stomach. Do you have a place to live? Thank Him for the roof over your head. Think of the poor people in Ukraine, Syria and Gaza, and Thank Him that you live in a country that is not ravaged by war. Start learning the language of the country you're in, so that you can understand the Liturgy, and thank Him for giving you a way to exercise your brain so as to avoid old age fogginess. I'm 66, I live in Italy, and the Orthodox Church here is moldavian emigrants; I'm learning romanian, at least as much as is contained in the Liturgy, in order to participate with awareness. Thank God for these dear moldavians (and some russians and some romanians as well), for if it weren't for them, there would be no Orthodox Church here! Every day I ask God for the willingness to change my attitude, whenever I start in with self-pity or despondency or pining for what I wish I had, because it's my choice, whether I'm going to respond with gratitude or with protestations, for whatever life throws my way. And in this way, you participate in the spiritual growth God wants to cultivate in you. God bless you and help you to see things differently ❤

[@soryn66]

LIfe is not brutal....reality is !

[@ScroogeMcWhat]

Liberty is most powerful because self esteem is often mistaken for wisdom and humility is rock which is an ageless male.

[@pg618]

So I should pray "and lead us into temptation that we might be saved"?

[@vsevolodtokarev]

If one dares to pray so, he might encounter a temptation exceeding his strength; "to one He gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability". Temptation will come even without asking for them.

[@jacktracy8356]

Acts 15:1 KJV "And certain men which came down from Judæa taught the brethren and said, Except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. 6 And the Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this matter. 7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while ago GOD made choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the Word of the Gospel and believe. 8 And GOD, Who knows the hearts bare them witness giving them the HOLY GHOST even as HE did unto us; 9 and put no difference between us and them purifying their hearts by FAITH. 10 Now therefore why tempt GOD to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 11 But we believe that through the GRACE of the LORD JESUS CHRIST we shall be saved, even as they." Note: The Apostles and Elders of the Church in Jerusalem all agreed that no works not even one work was to be added to being saved by GOD'S GRACE through FAITH (Ephesians 2:8-9 KJV).

[@mik569]

Father, my family was recently received into the Romanian Orthodox Christian Church of American Episcopate by Baptism, Chrismation and now receive Communion. Can you please bless my family with a discount coupon for an order of 2 Icons? I plan on paying for them on January 20th. One is Saint Nicholas (our Patron and Parish Saint) and the second is an Icon of the Guardian Angel. My husband has had 6 back surgeries (a birth defect in the spine) and is now on disability. So we don't have much money. Thank you so so much. I will comment this under your videos and hopefully you will answer, God willing.

[@nikolamajstorovic6077]

Slava Ocu 😇☠️⚔️☦️ Amin.

[@djz9584]

☦️

[@pg618]

Can there be an improper self-blame that leads to mental stress and sickness? My children left the faith my son takes drugs and has illegitimate children, my daughter just attempted suicide and I'm told by my father confessor to blame myself and I ask for clarification did I beat them, starve them, what did I do? I get no answer but that Orthodoxy requires that I must blame myself. If I resist this in any way I am proud and egotistic? What are the limits of self blame?

[@jeffersonisleib]

I am responsible for life’s brutality because of my own sin.

[@jessebrennan7130]

Accountability

[@prestonwade1848]

The second chord will be played when the first produces a golden splendor. A small repetition, a soft repetition… But, one that with the greatest creative effort and thought will cure the sickness of so many that a circle of angels will sing to you from the golden blush of heaven. The emulation of perfection.

[@timmiller7338]

Flesh is a bit rough, easily can get grimy. Angels cannot reproduce though, flesh is necessary. So, it compares to farming, not nice, but there are better and ideal ways. Food production, creating new beings, is procreative, active in God's Kingdom. Life management takes life knowledge. Life and death both feed on life, and that is what is so prescious, and worth a struggle. Some struggle is necessary, or we become spoiled. If it isn't unpleasant, we wouldn't seek up , sometimes it seems that enough haven't been seeking spiritual knowledge and higher love, Agape love, parental. Shalom, in Jesus's name, A.D. truth, Heritage, help us to understand and grow, Amen!

[@maruchagajowy]

The Lord CAN add more angels at ANY time, as many as a Need requires.

[@derekdavis3004]

The Orthodox believe that through their own pain and suffering they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven do they not? Part Jesus', part man's own suffering, right? Why think this? It is completely against the Bible.

[@daswasist128]

Isn't it God's fault? The revelation says he would create a perfect world, why not from the beginning? He knew that Morning Star would rebel and we humans would be deceived! He is the creator of everything and everything is the way he wants it, so his fault! or?

[@thisgirl5933]

How do you fight when you have brain damage? Then what.

[@DIOGENEShound]

Quit doing your brain continued damage.

[@stormshadowctf]

Oh boy ​@@DIOGENEShound

[@Fern_Thaddeus]

Keep surrendering it to God every second, every moment, He is patient and a Good Father. He understands and will not leave you.

[@powerandpoetics]

☦️