Thursday, October 20, 2005

 

The Holy Orthodox Christian Faith has been given to the world by The Father thru the incarnation of The Word that is The Son, and thru which The Holy Spirit has moved, is moving now, and will move thru on into infinity...

thru which the teachings of the Apostles themselves was handed down unaltered by their Successors...

confirmed thru The Holy Scriptures which was given to us by The Lord God thru His Holy Church...

cemented by Holy Tradition of The Holy Gospel Of Our Christian Faith...

defended by The Seven Holy Ecumenical Councils...

of which the Holy Fathers proclaimed the Only Truth which defeated anti-Christ herersies...

...The Faith, that thru the power of The Lord has endured the Enemy, May God Rebuke Him...

attacks, persecutions, and martyrdom of Believers from pagan worldly powers and governments in its early days,

heresies and false teachers in the early days and onwards thru today, the intrigue of Christian temporal rulers,

the onslaught of Islam and the wars between it and Christendom, from its birth in the mid-600's to the taking of the Holy Land soon afterwards, the invasion of Western Europe in the mid-700's, the wars with The Christian Byzantine Empire in the East to the wars with Western Christians during the Crusades, the invasion of the Christian nations of the Balkans after the Crusades to the saking of Christian Constastaninople in 1453 by the Turks, the wars with Christian Russia in the Caucaus and Black Sea Region, and on to the battles to control the Mediterranean between Christian Europe and the Ottoman Muslim Turks, the Turkish persecutions of the Christians in Asia Minor, Greece, Kosovo, Serbia, Ruomania, Bulgaria, Wallachia, and Armenia from Medievial times till the expulsion of the Ottoman Turks from the Balkans in the early 19th Century,

battles with the Western Christian World (a sadness that Christian would kill Christian),

the invasion of the Mongol Hordes from the east up through Caucaus Mountains into Armenia and Georgia, and out of the Siberian Steppes into and thru Holy Russia to the edges of Poland, Hungary, Austria, and down into the Balkans to the shores of the Adriatic Sea, it is said that all of Christendom asked of The Lord in the Litanies and Petitional Prayers..."from the fury of the Tartars (Mongols) deliver us Oh Lord"...for all Christians feared these "Horsemen from the East",

the continued struggle with temporal governments both in the East and from the West, in theological, political, economic, and sometimes military matters,

the contiued fierce wars, persecutions, and Martrydoms of recent history and today with Islam, primarily from the Turks in Greece and its Isles, Kosovo (the historical Heart of Christian Serbia) where Kosovar Muslim Albanians kill Serbs with pleasure and destroy ancient Churches (Houses of God) and Monastaries, in Cyprus (Christian since Apostolic times) where the desecration of ancient early Christian Churches and Monastaries in the northern half of the island which has been under Muslim control since the 1972 invasion by Turkish forces has been encouraged by the Ankara government, and the world MUST NEVER forget the genocide by the Turks from the late 1880's till the early 1920's when they slaughtered with much relish over 1.5 million Armenian, Greek, and Arab Christians...and this GENOCIDE was accomplished by firing squads, hangings, beheadings, mass rape of women, horrific tortures resulting in death, forced exoduses hundreds of miles across the arid Syrian Desert with neither water, food, nor shelter, the abduction of Christian children and their sufferings of beatings and torture in order to convert them to Islam...and this took place within the lifetime of our grandparents...all because they were Christians, and the ferocious and bloody battles in Soutern Russia, Georgia, and Armenia between these Christian Lands and their militant Muslim inhabitants...a frontline between Christendom and Islam...and it must be said that not all Muslims in these lands are militant and haters of Christians,

battles from within Our Lords Church by fellow Christians who had forsaken The Holy Truths that which was handed down to them with a great weight of responsibility (of which we all must handle),

the coming of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Mass Persecutions and Martyrdoms of The Faithful in Russia and Eastern Europe (30 million Christians killed from 1917 to 1991), and this militant-athiest persecutions took place thru means of firing squads, hangings, unspeakable tortures, imprisonment in psychiatric hospital and the expierments of mind-altering drugs, forced exile to the gulags-labor camps in Siberia where prisoners expierenced harsh bitter cold, starvation, forced hard labor, torture, beatings, and ultimately death, the organized raping of nuns at monastaries, the organized destruction of Churches and Monastaries, the torture and execution of Orthodox Christian Priests, Catholic Christian Priests, and Protestant Christian Ministers for proclaiming the Gospels, and for the Orthodox, performing the Holy and Life Giving Sacrements of The Holy Mysteries (a.k.a. Communion, a.k.a. The Lords Supper), Baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, of hearing and witnessing the Confession of Sins to The Lord by Believers and offering them the prayers of absolution and assurance of The Forgiveness and Love and Mercy of Jesus Christ thru The Father and by the Power of The Holy Spirit, by performing the Sacrement of Holy Matrimony, by offering Holy Unction thru the annointing with Holy and Blessed Oil to the sick and dying, by continuing the Succession of the Apostles by the laying on of hands thru Holy Ordination, and the Chrismation (annointing with oil) of Christians from other traditions who have already been Baptized in the Name of The Holy Trinity who are coming into the Holy Orthodox Christian Faith...it was these Christian Duties that these Christian Shepherds were sought out, and the Communist made attempts to infiltrate the Church, and was somewhat successful, but failed to fully hurt and corrupt it...for Gods' Church is Victorious!...Rising as The Phoenix (an early Christian symbol) from the ashes of a Militant-Anti-Christ-System...now what will happen and be said of the Church in the West under the secular-humanist-materialist Democracies where anti-Christ thinking, anti-Christ political-correctness, and anti-Christ laws is now gaining momentum?

and the old and new struggles with Islam, atheism, political intrigue, the occult (old and new paganism and satanism), concocted isolationism from the West, secular humanism, materialism (capitalism gone astray and unbounded), the proteslyitizing from Protestant Christian Missionaries who are sincere and loving but poorly educated on historical Christian and cultural aspects of the Peoples they hope to convert (how do you turn a Believer into a Believer...can you turn water into water?), and The Roman Catholic Christian Church seeking to reastablish its influence and power in Eastern Europe, The Ukraine, and the Middle East, and just the plain hateful hate from the Enemy...May God Rebuke Him!

...this Endurance and Truth has been given by The Ruler Of All, The Author Of The Holy Christian Faith Thru The Gospel Of Jesus Christ, The Most Holy Trinity, The Three-In-One and The One-In-Three, As The Three-Leafed-Yet-One-Leaf-Shamrock That Saint Patrick Taught With To The Irish, Father-Son-Holy Spirit...Unto The Ages Of Ages...AMEN

posted by Gary 11:54 AM (1) comments

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

 

A Thought On The First Americans...The American Indian.

As a young boy, into my teenage years, and into young adulthood, I have an interest in the Native Americans. It is said, thru oral tradition and some documention that on both sides of my family there are Indian bloodlines. It has been determined that my siblings and I are one-sixteenth Native. And there is a very strong possiblity that there is Melungeon blood as well. Both of these influences would explain the dark features in Our Family. It must be said as well that most people here in The Southern Appalachian Highlands do have both Native and Melungeon in their ancestory.

As a youngster and into the present I do enjoy writings on the First Americans. My Grandmother gave me a book titled "The American Indian", and it was published by The National Geographic Society back in the 1970's, and it is a wonderful telling of the Indian story. This past weekend I started reading thru Dee Browns' "The American West", and it to is a great read, he certainly has a knack for storytelling! It is thru his writing that I have learned the complete story of Chief Joseph and The Nez Perce'. If there is a "True American Hero" (a quote from Knife Wing, a Lakota musician from South Dakota) then it is Chief Joseph and his People! A peaceful people that wanted nothing more than to be left in peace in their homes and land, a fair request that we all seek, but this wasn't to be, for PURE AND UNADULTERATED GREED by the European Americans (who claim Christianity as their faith, and come hell or high water, they would bring it to the Indians and the land!) coveted (one Commandment broken) The Land of The Nez Perce'. After a typical treaty with Washington, and the breaking of it, the Euro Americans settlers and miners protected by the U.S. Calvary would enter and take what wasn't theirs (two Commandments broken)...but not without one brilliant fight put up by Chief Joseph (a Christian Convert by the way), the Bands Leadership, and the People! From the Washington and Idaho Territories, and into the Montana Territory, the Nez Perce' out manouvered, out shot, and out witted the calvary thru Montana all the way to the Bear Paw Mountains so close to their destination, the Canadian Border. But it was in these prairie mountains of Montana that Chief Joseph realizing the dire situation of his People, did with so much Dignity, Honor, and Courage, surrendered, "...to fight no more".

And it was after reading this that I felt I should write an ideal that has been in my heart and thoughts for some time now.

Here in the United States of America, before any further government legislating at every level of government, local, county, state, and federal...the U.S. Government should beg for forgiveness from the American Indians!...apologize for the genocidal policies and tactics, for the ethnic cleansing, for the massaceres and especially the killing of children, women, and the elderly as they fled their lodges during government raids, for the biological warfare that the infamous General Sherman (who said the only good Indian is a dead Indian) used against a Reservation in Wisconsin when he issued winter blankets purposefully infected with smallpox, for the breaking of treaties, for the lies and false promises, for the forced internment onto the agencies a.k.a. reservations a.k.a. open concentration camps...Our Government should immediately apologize for all the evils that it commited against the First Americans.

Then maybe, just maybe, THE LORD GOD OF ALL CREATION AND ALL MANKIND may have MERCY and FORGIVENESS upon the American Nation. If we are to truly do that which is right, seeking TRUE JUSTICE before we supposedly dispense it overseas, then as a Nation and as a People...RED AND YELLOW AND BLACK AND WHITE...The American People...may receive Mercy if we first beg this forgiveness!...OR OUR AMERICAN NATION MAY FACE AN APOCALYPTIC DESTRUCTION UNLIKE ANY EVER SEEN OF A NATION...AND THE ALMIGHTY LORD OF HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL KNOW WHY.

posted by Gary 4:22 PM (0) comments

Friday, October 14, 2005

 

Some Additional Thoughts On What To Do About Iraq.

From the previous Blog it was mentioned that the International Community should create a Multi-National Observers and Stability Force to help secure a real peace in Iraq.

This Force of 123,100 troops would be lead by a U.S. Force of 60,000 (50,000 in Iraq and 10,000 in Theater) with an additional 2,500 service members is the European Theater as a quick reaction force, an additional 2,500 in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Regions, and 10,000 troops avaliable in the Continental U.S.

The U.S. would provide the overall security and stabilization force, along with certion specialized operational duties such as command-and-control, communications, and regional intelligence coordinations.
2) Responsibities such as engineering and public works and reconstruction could fall to the Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Yemeni, Qatari, Bahrainian, and United Arab Emirate troops.
3) Medical duties could fall to the Japanese, the Singaporans, the Luxembourgians, San Marinian, Andorran, Barbadosian, Bahamian, Cubans, and forces from Liechtenstein.
4) Transportation systems could be assigned to the Banglideshi, Mongolian, Malian, New Zealander, and Pakistani, Czech, and Slovak forces
5) Civil Affairs and Public Affairs would be under the Canadians, Tunisians, Bruneian, Irish and Swedes.
6) Water Resources would be under the command of the Jordanians, Spainards, Mexicans, Chileans, Trinidadian & Tobagoans, and Kenyans...the U.S. should persuade and pressure the Israelis, with their abilities to irrigate the desert, to build desalinization plants...funded by the oil-rich Persian Gulf states...to help at first to "green" the deserts of Iraq, then followed by the "greening" of the rest of the sands of the Near East...sounds better to "green" the Earths deserts and feed ourselves than to spend trillions and trillions to "green" Mars for creating and feeding microbes.
7) Securing the Iraqi border is paramount and should fall to the Iraqis themselves, then to the Americans, Russians, Ukrainians, Moroccons, Azeribijanis, Kazakh, British, South Africans, Nigerians, The Combined Korean Command (under Swiss Control), Austrian, French, Egytian, Italian, Indonesians, Argentine, Indian, and Australian forces.
8) The majority of the African Union forces could secure the oil industry infrastructure along with Vietnamese, Thai, Belarussian, Australian, Algerian, Maylasian, Filipino, Portuguese, Brazillian, Armenian, Georgian, American, Omani, Pacific Island Nations, Jamaican, Lebanese, and Polish troops.
9) The Securing of the airports and military aerodrommes would fall to the Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Finnish, Jordanian, Turkish, Palestinain Authority, Latvian, Estonian, and Lithuanian soldiers.
10) Chemical/Biological Decontamination Units would fall to the Dutch, Belgians, Saudi, and Kuwaiti troops.
11) Security of Iraqs waterways and port facilities would be in the hands of the British, Ruomanian, Serbian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Moldovian, Montenegrian, Macedonian, Albanian, Croation, Slovenian, Egyptian, Syrian, and Italian forces.
12) Protection of religious sites throughout Iraq would go to the following; Muslim Holy Sites, both Shia and Sunni would be under the security of the Turkish, Palestinian Authority, and Turkmen of Central Asia. The Christian Churches would be under the Greeks, Egyptian, and Maltese. The remaining Jewish Synagogues would be placed under the Ethiopians, Germans (think now!?...)and Moroccans (think of history!?...) Securing Iraqs holy sites is fundemental for a true Godly peace.
13) Farms, food warehouses and distribution centers (both government and commerical), livestock facilities and fields could be under the security of the French, Djiboutian, South African, Syrian, Canadian, Argentine, and Spanish troops.
14) The ground air defense units would be under the Iraqi, American, French, Spanish, Indian, Algerian, and Canadian forces.
15) The defense of Iraqi airspace would fall to air force units from Iraqi themselves, the Americans, French, Algerian, Canadian, Spanish, Argentine, British and the Indians.
16) The security of Iraqs roadway system would fall under mostly to soldiers from the Organization of American States along with American, French, Syrian, Turkmen and Pakistani.
17) The Securing of Iraqs rail system would fall to the British, Indian, Pakistani, Bangledeshi, Chinese, Egyptian, Libyan and Italian troops.

It will be asked..."how will this be paid for?"...by the International Community through the United Nations, the oil rich nations of the Middle East (in particular the Saudis and Kuwaitis), and extra finacial help from the industrialized nations. This must be done if there is to be an end to this gathering of death and destruction.

With the securing of a peace, a true peace in Iraq, we must first pray, pray the world over, then through a true coordinated effort by the International Community and the U.S., Iraq may experience a lasting peace and prove a stable keystone in the Near East.

posted by Gary 4:24 PM (0) comments

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

 

Of all the Churches in Christendom...I have found the Orthodox Church to be the Originial...the Ancient...of the Apostles...given by the Messiah, Jesus Christ...through which The Holy Spirit has moved, is moving, and will move through...of which the Father smiles upon...from which the Saints come from...from which all people can receive the Holy Saving Sacraments...from which one can receive rest and healing from daily struggles, and venture out again...from which the Origianl Christian Truth comes to all...from which prayer is unceasing...All This...from Our Lord.

posted by Gary 7:33 PM (0) comments

 

It is Autumn and the air is feeling...

...with the suns rays traveling thru the breath of clouds...

...its light is different, and life feels it...

...with a different warmth, its shine is touching...

...the air, and the breeze is finding its way...

...somewhere to be known.

posted by Gary 7:25 PM (0) comments

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

 

Been having a difficult time posting and editing entries onto the back of The High Horse.

posted by Gary 5:58 PM (0) comments