IC XC NIKA

Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God have mercy on us and save us!

[Father Christopher @FChristopher77]

THE NEIGHBOR’S DIRTY LAUNDRY

A girl looked out the window every morning.

The neighbor across the way was hanging out her laundry.

And every time, the girl said the same thing:

“Mom, look how dirty those clothes are! She doesn’t even know how to wash… what a shame!”

The mother stayed silent.

Days passed.

The same laundry.

The same judgment.

The same heart filling with superiority.

Until one morning when the girl looked again… and was left speechless.

The laundry was white, clean, almost shining.

“Mom! She finally learned! Who taught her?”

The mother smiled gently and answered:

“I woke up before you and washed our windows.”

That’s all.

One single sentence that can change you forever.

Because in Orthodoxy, that window is not just glass.

It is the heart.

The Fathers of the Church tell us clearly:

we see the world exactly as our heart is.

If the heart is full of pride, jealousy, malice, and discontent, everything we look at comes out dirty.

Even the purest person will appear stained to us.

That is why Christ did not merely say “do not judge.”

He said something far harsher:

“Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the beam in your own eye?” (Matthew 7:3)

The beam is the dirty window.

The speck is the neighbor’s laundry.

And we too often forget that judgment is the first sign that we have lost grace.

When you begin to criticize, to gossip, to look down on others, the Holy Spirit withdraws.

You are left with an empty heart and eyes full of mud.

Elder Paisios of Mount Athos used to say:

“If you see the fault of another, it means you have that same fault in yourself.

If you have a pure heart, you see only the image of God in the other.”

That is why the Church gives us the true weapons:

•  confession (cleaning the window from within)

•  Holy Communion (the light that makes the glass transparent)

•  the Jesus Prayer (the continuous wiping away of the dust)

•  humility (the only detergent that actually works)

It is not enough to say “I won’t judge anymore.”

You must wake up every morning and wash the window.

Otherwise you will spend your whole life criticizing laundry that was clean from the beginning.

And when you die, you will not be judged for the laundry of others.

You will be judged for the window you left dirty.

May the Lord grant us pure eyes and a humble heart.

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@actingliketommy @SStricklandMMA

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@C2Antiquity Happy birthday!

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@Mr_BereaN @Alex_Ortodoxie @wingedpenn @Joseph_Spurgeon @ModernDayDebate Your presuppositions are showing, and they're making an embarrassment of you.

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@KalaDeeDee @OnlyTheRealTom @sola_chad Our parish is very large, and we only have one priest - an Archimandrite. He is the hardest working clergyman I've ever known. He generally catechizes once a year in large batches, though it becomes individual after the initial six months of classes.

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@KalaDeeDee @OnlyTheRealTom @sola_chad Somehow, I felt I knew you were cradle! You are a big encouragement to me, as all cradle orthodox who love the theology. We have 31 catechumens coming in this year so far at my parish! Glory to God!

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@OnlyTheRealTom @KalaDeeDee @sola_chad ... but we know He established a Church that is the ark of salvation for the world. I invite you to take the next step in your pursuit of Truth. You can't imagine how beautiful the Divine Liturgy is within the Orthodox Christian church. 😊☦️

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@OnlyTheRealTom @KalaDeeDee @sola_chad I know you've been debating in good faith, sir. That's obvious, emotions aside. DeeDee is much more educated than I am, but we believe that Christ established a single Church which is His mystical body. We don't claim to know how Christ will judge individuals...

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@KalaDeeDee @OnlyTheRealTom @sola_chad So you know, I was in a Southern Baptist church all my life until a couple of years ago. My entire family are still Baptist.

My paradigm completely changed when I started reading about the history of our beautiful Christian faith, and I'm forever thankful to God for it.

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@KalaDeeDee @OnlyTheRealTom @sola_chad Tom, I appreciate your engagement with us. I think you are totally speaking in good faith here, even though your theology is off from what the church fathers gave us.

Would you consider visiting an Orthodox Church one time, just to see?

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@ThyPaddyDaddy Check this out:

https://t.co/6ah4gYMbNk

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@ThyPaddyDaddy Reform theology is often known by the Reformed as Covenant Theology. They believe there are a number of covenants between God and specific men over the arc of history. Let me see if I can find a chart lol

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@OrthoKokkinos @ThyPaddyDaddy Yes. Even just believing with your heart and confessing with your lips are works.

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@OnlyTheRealTom @KalaDeeDee @sola_chad Christ was never separated out of communion with the Father and Spirit. The Trinity is inseparable in essence.

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@OnlyTheRealTom @KalaDeeDee @sola_chad His soul was separated from His Body, but He was never separated from the Father or the Spirit. The Trinity is one in essence and inseparable.

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@Fr_RonPG @Thatbrian Irresistible humor

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@VasiliasChristo @Tsar_Martyr @naeem_oba I'm realizing lately that Protestants don't understand blasphemy at all

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@KalaDeeDee @OnlyTheRealTom @sola_chad Bingo

Individualism is not in the gospel.

[IC XC NIKA @JK2222__]

@OnlyTheRealTom @KalaDeeDee @sola_chad Why are you contradicting Jesus' own teaching?

“Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?”
John 11:25-26