You think the "Cargo Climb" is a challenge now, just wait until you're married (if it happens), where it will often feel like you're passing through this obstacle about a hundred times every single day.

It isn't easy, but I try to remind myself that God didn't put me here in my family to make me happy, but to make me holy. All part of the process, I guess.

I've had a close look at many marriages in the year. It is exceedingly difficult.

I watched a YouTube video where an Orthodox priest said that through faith in Jesus, a person is saved - based on his atonement on the cross. He did say that a person must then do works in order to "stay" saved. So I'm confused if his position was in the minority of Orthodox teachings. I see some Orthodox saying they are working to be saved, while others saying they are working to stay saved. I am curious how much weight the Orthodox put on Christ's work on the cross when it comes to salvation . Any insight into this?

This issue has been brought up many times on the forum. This can help you understand what the Orthodox believe concerning faith and works:

If you have more questions, you can ask in the Inquirers subforum after search through the other threads.

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I enjoy being a guest here. I also enjoyed your live streams.

Do you worry that this forum -- by its name, organization, various mechanisms for agrandizing members and providing reinforcing feedback -- while deferred or to a lesser degree perhaps than your former live streams -- is also an arm bike?

Preparing myself for a thumbs down tsunami...

There's always a fear (and usually a reality) that any forum becomes an echo chamber, but I do think members here seek the truth. The real obstacle course is discourse outside of here where the official narrative is not allowed to be questioned. So it's like an elimination diet when you have major health problems. First you have to eliminate everything (in the spiritual case this means the legacy media, the godless material world, etc.) except what you absolutely need for survival. Only once you establish a baseline of improving health (physical or spiritual) can you start to examine things that you eliminated, and add the good (or at least unharmful) things back.

So anyone coming in here with the official godless narrative is going to get (hopefully politely) shouted down and often removed, because everyone here has already heard that nonsense and rejected it, and because in their ignorance they generally come in thinking they know everything, treating others poorly and breaking rules in the process, when they're just in their own little bubble. Having rejected that "mainstream" bubble is sort of a prerequisite for being here in the first place.

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Originally posted on RooshV.com

There is a show called American Ninja Warrior that was imported from Japan. It features athletic contestants tackling formidable obstacle courses that test their strength and agility. Many of these contestants train for months to win a grand prize. I see this show as an analogy of what I have to do in this life to win the prize of salvation for my soul.

I don’t pretend to know God’s judgments, why He created the world as He did, or why he allows the demons to tempt us so vigorously, but Saint Theophan the Recluse states that this is the most intelligent way to preserve our free will and test our souls for where we want to spend eternity. If things were any different, if there weren’t legions of demons giving us the choice to go against God’s will, our free will would be violated and we would be slaves of God, which is not fitting of His love for us. An atheist is very quick to point out the suffering, tribulations, and temptations we experience in this life, but there is no better way to do it, because if there was, God would have done it. There are innumerable challenges God allows us to face in this life. I’d like to highlight five.

The Jumping Spider​

In the Jumping Spider, the soul has to traverse over hell using two panes of vertical glass.

It’s Sunday, and I just received Communion in God’s Church. Afterward, I walk to the banquet hall to have lunch with my brethren. Before me are dozens of platters of food and sweets. I’m so hungry, and I want to eat them all, but I know that if I do, the grace I have will dissipate as my body becomes saddled with chewed matter that is placed on top of the Body and Blood already in my stomach. No, I will not eat all that I want. I will put only a modest amount of food on my plate and eat slowly, so that I will recognize the feeling of satiety and not go for seconds. Through the grace of God, I control my eating and pass the Jumping Spider.

The Salmon Ladder​

The soul has to hang from a bar over hell and use powerful bursts of energy to raise the bar to a higher level.

I’m attempting to write a new article. Unlike articles of my past, where I was a teacher of iniquity, I call upon God to speak through me, to create spiritually edifying works that won’t damage the state of the reader’s soul, but my mind is blank. I don’t have any ideas; I don’t want to proceed. I want to delete everything I have written so far. Can’t I just read Orthodox books all day and feel holy that way? It’s so hard to labor, to properly harness the gifts that God has given me. The cursor in my word processing program is blinking at me, mocking me, goading me to quit and give up. I should relax, listen to hymns, and pursue pleasant spiritual feelings instead of challenging labor. I place my hands on the keyboard, and I think and I wait, and words come to my mind and I start to type them, and I hope that the Lord my God will be pleased with how I am using my talents. Through the grace of God, I persist in my labors and pass the Salmon Ladder.

The Cargo Climb​

The soul must climb a cargo net before the buzzer or he will go to hell.

A friend calls me. He is suffering a difficult trial. He needs my aid, but I’m busy. I’m in the middle of many important work tasks and my pizza dough needs to be reformed into balls. I don’t want to disturb my arranged schedule. I only want to help people on my terms and my timeline, not in the moment they need it, and right when I am ready to tell him that I’ll be there later in the evening after my pizza dough is done fermenting, my conscience activates. It asks, “Whose will are you serving by putting your pizza dough before a child of God?” I publicly claim to serve God’s will, but by elevating my worldly pursuits over the needs of my neighbor, I am serving my own needs first. If someone calls 911 for medical help, the paramedics don’t say, “Let us first finish our lunch, and let Matt finish texting his girlfriend, and let Tom finish listening to an interesting podcast, and then we will come.” No, they stop what they’re doing, and they rush to help. God is 911, and He dispatches His servants according to His pleasure to those in need, and if we want to please Him, we must immediately go. Through the grace of God, I forget about how I’m inconvenienced, rush to the aid of my friend, and pass the Cargo Climb.

Arm Bike​

The soul must propel a bicycle motor with his upper body across the length of hell or perish for eternity.

It’s the day to do a live stream. I aim a camera at my head and put a microphone in front of my mouth, and I talk to the crowd. People want to hear what I have to say. They want to listen to my stories, my opinions, and my judgments. What a special boy I am to garner this much attention. I enjoy the sound of my voice. I must be a somebody, and with these proud thoughts, I begin to slip before the camera and sin with my tongue. I judge others, condemn others, mock others. Perhaps the crowd doesn’t notice, but my conscience notices, and certainly God notices. I’m using the stream to feel good, to give glory to myself. I look upon the icon of Jesus Christ, and He tells me that I’m not spiritually mature enough to talk live in front of a camera, that many saints would not dare to speak off-the-cuff for five hours like I do, and that there is no shame in correcting course. Humbly and with God’s consent, I bite my tongue when it wants to speak from the flesh and from the demons and redouble my ministerial efforts offline. I find more brotherly ways to spread the Gospel and pass the Arm Bike.

Striding Steps​

Before the hot flames of hell, the soul must leap frog against eight platforms of decreasing size or else Satan will torment it endlessly.

My mother said something I didn’t like. I become furious. My mind flashes with retorts that would crush her words, demolish them, and then we’d enter a fiery argument like we have a hundred times before, but I know she would not be edified by my venom one bit to come to Church with me, to pray with me. A thought is able to enter through my anger: act with the faith you have. In my mind I pray to God: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on my mother and me!” She is on a roll now, words that jab me are flowing from her mouth. “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us!” The same spirit tempting her must also be in my mind, and I want to talk like she talks, yell as she yells. I withdraw from the room, but she follows me, eager to battle. “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!” I can’t take it anymore, I must respond. I say to her, more calmly than ever before in a situation like this, “Mother, thank you for your opinion, but I don’t want to hear it right now.” I exit the house, and walk for a long time, calming myself down while praying to God, and when I come back, the house is in peace, and we speak to each other again like nothing happened. Through the grace of God, I barely withheld my anger, and pass the Striding Steps.

Conclusion

I wish there were only five obstacle courses to enter the Kingdom of Paradise. I could attempt to master each course mechanically with the aid of my memory, but the great deceiver has not five temptations for us but five times one-thousand, and we will be hit from the right and from the left, from above and below, from the front and back, with no prior knowledge or experience of the new temptation we must overcome to not fall into hell, but thank God for our God, who gives us the grace to pass these tests, one at a time, and if we happen to slip and dip our foot into the hot flames, He lifts us out of the fire and escorts us to the Church and to the place of Confession to divulge our filthy thoughts and deeds. Our Savior, working through an Orthodox priest, then forgets our sins and we are given vigor and new life to try the obstacle course again. Only a few of us are enlisted soldiers in this existence, trained by a nation state to shoot people with guns or steer navy boats in the water, but all of us were made to be Christian soldiers, with Lord Jesus Christ as our commander, and the war doesn’t stop until we’re dead. The path to Paradise is the only obstacle course worth passing, and pass it we must, to reside with our Creator for all eternity.

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The analogy is a good one Roosh. My confession after reading this is to say I recently failed on the first challenge - The Jumping Spider. I have been allowing myself to eat 'all the platters of foods and sweets' before me as I watch the NWO walls closing in. The food must be a way to absorb the stress I feel as the powers that be keep coming closer and closer to taking away all our freedoms and locking us in a digital ID hellscape. I've binged and gained weight at other times in my life but now that I'm in my 70's my body won't tolerate it. I am now seeking help (Naturopathic doctor) to learn why I have pain above my liver that compromises my breathing and leaves me operating at half capacity. Time to fall on my knees and ask God for forgiveness for my gluttony and lack of self-control. I'm spending all my time now in reflection and meditation, going for walks, reading scripture. Like you Roosh, I intend to control my eating, and through the grace of God I will pass The Jumping Spider test.

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As a person becomes more spiritual, so much fewer rights does he has in this life. It is obligatory to be patient, to accept injustice, to accept evil words from others. A crooked stick (perverted person) who is distant from God has many rights: to strike and shout and act unrighteously. Our rights God keeps for the other life. Out of ignorance however we often seek our rights here. Let us not damage things at all. If they say anything to us, immediately we give them the right [i.e. we fight back]. And later we think we trust in God. That is a big joke. Human justice doesn’t mean anything to a spiritual person. But it is a great concern for the perverted person. —Saint Paisios

Love this. I applied this logic to disagreements with my husband. When we disagree, we both feel this sense of entitlement to fairness from the other, an irritation that the other isn't being fair enough, a very common feeling for people in disagreement. But while we both try to be as Godly as we can, of course we fall short of that, and neither of us is entitled to anything.

It reminds me that each of us has to always strive to put aside petty differences first, to apologize and make amends first, because we're not entitled to anything and we all fall short.

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