“Love thy neighbour”:

Loving thy neighbour is the second most important thing required after loving God.

But make no mistake, Jesus tells us in the Bible to do both of those things in our lives. If we focus only on God and not love those around us, then we only love ourselves. We completely eliminate others when we focus too much on the bible, this happens because we tend to follow the scriptures to the letter and we start to compare that with the people’s deeds around us and then we slowly isolate ourselves from everyone. This can turn quite dangerous cause it hurts human relationships and can even lead to religious extremism.

I assure you thats not what the Lord wants. He wants a relationship with us and love others as well.

Let me refer you though back to “loving thy neighbour”.

What’s the best way to love others?

Giving value to others, recognize the people around us as human beings, be polite, smile at them, be kind to them, not judging them, show them mercy, pray for them, bless them, love them, listen to their concerns, and give advise when we clearly can understand their problem. The best way to approach that is to put our selves in someone’s shoes in order to understand their concerns, their pain, their sorrow, or whatever is in their heart or mind.

Off course we have to be weary of others that are not a positive influence in our lives, therefore we need to “be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” as the Bible says, meaning be perceptive and see through people but don’t turn any evil against them cause thats the Lord’s job, He says: “vengeance is mine, I will repay”. We can only pray to the Lord to give us discernment but we must not react against anything evil done to us, I assure you that when we ask the Lord to resolve the problem He will act! The best thing we can do as people to help these lost souls who are in the wrong, is to pray for them to come into repentance but also pray to God to fight our battles against the evil spirits that are making others do evil on us.

So we keep our distance (with a smile and kindness) from people that don’t do us any good but we still need to try to understand where they come from and keep them in our prayers so that the Lord can guide them and help them. Now whether these people are friends, flatmates, relatives or family, it depends on what the situation is and you need to seek advise from experts or people you really trust on what to do.

God though listens to our prayers, He fights our battles and solves our problems! And trust me He will do a much better job that you and I could ever do…The only thing He longs for us is to talk to Him, and He never says no when we ask Him to come into our lives, to forgive us, help us, or make others to come to repentance! His will is to recreate the Universe and make it better! Holier! And closer to Him.

I would also like to share with you a little secret, that the author/pastor John C. Maxwell said in one of his lectures:

“Giving value to others is the number one characteristic of leadership!”

From the moment you start to develop your christian values and your self knowledge, you are becoming a leader in your circle or people.

Alexander the Great knew who he was and his destiny, he knew all the names of his soldiers, he gave them the spoils of each battle and left nothing for him, he lead his army by standing in front of them riding a big and tall horse named Bucephalus in order to be seen by his troops standing at the back. He lead his soldiers from Greece all the way to India by being a great example! And his legacy lives on till this very day! Wherever he set foot the locals still remember him as a kind and true leader.

Another historical example is the Byzantium (Eastern Roman Empire).

If you check the movie registry Imbd, there are 72 medieval movies registered. They all show about the dark ages in Medieval Europe. Not a single movie in this number mentions the Eastern Roman Empire. No, I am not talking about any conspiracy theories or agendas. The answer is pretty clear: There were no dark ages in the ERE. Byzantium was the most educated and spiritual kingdom in Europe. The emperor Theodosius the 2nd gave the order to all the linguists and literature writers to gather all the ancient greek writings (philosophy, Homeric epics, social and natural sciences, history, etc) that were preserved in the monasteries throughout the empire. He founded the first university in Europe called the “The Imperial University of Constantinople”. This university lasted from 425 AD till the fall of Constantinople in the year of 1453 AD. All people in governmental positions were required to finish their education there so that they know how to run the empire. So there was a combination of greek education and deep religion coexisting in the empire. There were some conflicts here and there but everyone accepted that the sciences lead to the book of God.

Education was valued by every byzantine, every citizen of the empire idealized of going to school, kids would start learning reading and writing ancient greek at the age of 6 by studying if they could afford it the Homeric Epics. People who remained uneducated regardless of their social standing were frowned upon.

Greek education and Christianity are the founding basis of the western world and we gradually have removed them from our society over the last few decades. The older generations (our grandparents) used to learn about the ancient Greeks in high school, they would go to church and participate in the word of God, they built a solid education which made them strong and responsible citizens. In the medieval times the christian monks all over Europe studied the Ancient Greeks relentlessly and maintained the wisdom that helped us reach new heights today. The reason of our decline its simply because of these values are now slowly deleted from being our prime guides in life and society.

Now we also need to mention that the western world has made historical mistakes (oppressing the Native Americans, black slavery, world wars, ethnic cleansing, imperial colonialism, human exploitation, etc). And again all these mistakes will only be rectified by personal and national self knowledge (passion for curiosity, history books without any form of agendas, philosophy in a more simplified english, mathematics as a philosophy of life, learning ancient greek) in order to learn from our mistakes as individuals and as countries and we must not let ourselves ever forget our mistakes or else we will keep repeating them.

So in order to change our western society, we need to make a decision in our lives and change our selves through self searching (greek education) and giving value to others humbly (christianity). Self ignorance and Ego has really made our life decadent and meaningless.

But don’t expect any authority to change things for you, if they wanted to they would have changed many things a long time ago. We need to be that change, we need to be leaders within of ourselves and by putting God as the authority in our lives. Once we change our selves, our inner world will start changing our outer reality, negative things, situations and people who are holding us back will start changing or even be removed. Don’t fret or worry by your detachment, embrace it, mourn over it, and let it go, but stay focused on the Lord cause He is seeing you and He is starting to elevate you and train you for better things.

Keeping you in Prayer!

John Kakalas

© John Kakalas

The post The Decadence and Rebirth of the Western Civilization (Part 2) appeared first on John Kakalas.

The Roman Empire is the perfect example of how it subdued the known ancient world and eventually collapsed after a 1500 year reign.

What we see in today’s western society is something similar, the cycle is almost complete but it will give  rise to something new, a spiritual rebirth is happening right now. I talk to many people from many countries of the western world and many times they seem very concerned of how much things have changed and that in the near future there will be a complete collapse of the western world.

I understand every person’s concern on this but I will say this: People have their own plans but the Lord has His own. Any form of agendas of any sort shall not prevail!

Our world is in the midst of a spiritual battle, the battle of within! We need to reestablish the two most important pillars that built our core values in us as people and the western world.

These two pillars are:

1. “Know thyself” (Greek Education)
2. “Love thy neighbour” (Jesus Christ)

“Know thyself”:

The ancient Greeks always emphasized on a person’s education, this mindset literally changed all the ancient world in 1000 years and set the foundations of today’s society. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle emphasized that knowing yourself (by asking discreet questions about our selves) is the beginning of all wisdom in the world. But we have to understand that the ancient Greeks had a different form of education than our own today. They didn’t have tests or exams, or any kind of stress that would prohibit their intellectual growth. So what motivated them to learn?

Passion for curiosity!

Off course I need to say that the ancient Greeks were not a perfect society (they also did mistakes like every other human society), but then again was there ever a correct one in human history?

But what the ancient Greeks taught us is to ask questions, and to not accept arguments from authorities unquestionably, off course if we start asking questions we will see that there are many wrongs in our world.

So what should we do?

Should we start going out and protesting in the streets for various issues? (e.g. high crime rate, political and religious corruption, police brutality, etc). Going against the system is like going against the stream of a big river. When we are young and strong, our blood boils and we want to change the world, and thats completely understandable, but once we get older we start getting tired and wonder what is the point of all this? Will our efforts ever pay off? And soon after, we give up and compromise with the status quo…and the system has won as we drift away by the river stream, tired, old and defeated. I am not saying we should not try and make the world a better place. We definitely should! But there is a better strategy…and that is changing the system from within by changing ourselves within and through prayer, adapt in the real world and make a difference without compromising our ethical values. This way, we go with the flow of the river but slowly and steadily we change its route to the way of the Truth.

We have to understand that the outer reality reflects of how we think, our beliefs, our thinking, our emotions, so once we start changing within by getting to know ourselves as for who we are, our life will start changing in an almost metaphysical way. This starts happening once we face ourselves in the mirror and see our faults, our gifts and talents. I am not saying we shouldn’t praise ourselves or not build our confidence, but when we look ourselves in the mirror we should see the whole picture, when we get to know ourselves of who we really are, we ‘ll start accepting our selves, and when we accept our selves then we start to humbly love ourselves, and when we start loving ourselves, then we start loving the people around us, we ll start associating with them. We ‘ll start feeling their pain, their concerns, their problems, their joy and as human beings we will mourn with them, and we will celebrate with them.

Self knowledge is a never ending journey, and every time you discover something new about yourself its cathartic, it gives you peace…no more insecurities, no more uncertainty, no more of what others think of you, you are sure of your self, you know who you are and you are in touch with your feelings and what you want, yes, there will be challenges and thats part of life, but you ll know who you are and nothing or anyone can shake you out of it.

A very important part of knowing yourself is finding your self purpose!

Your self purpose or life purpose is your soul’s purpose, its the reason why God brought you into this world to do!

When you find a heartfelt goal its the one thing that makes you not sleep at night, you long for the next day to come to do what you love, and everyday doing it is a bliss!

Everyone has their mission in life! A heartfelt mission! Some of us are made to be cooks, bus drivers, farmers, teachers, musicians, ministers, businesspeople, etc. If you feel satisfied or somewhat content with your job or what you do, be prepared to come at some point in your life where you wont take it anymore due to stress, anxiety, mediocre results at your work and lack of fulfillment, and you’ll wonder….”Where am I going? What am I doing with my life?” Am I really happy?

Many of us think that the solution to fill this emptiness comes from the outside…we assume that happiness will just happen out of the blue, it will just creep out of the horizon, our true destiny will simply bump into us around the corner.

We say to our selves “I feel sad and depressed…I ll just have a drink, or eat a chocolate bar, or go and have a one night stand, or just find any kind of substitute that will make me quench my emptiness, something that will make me forget my stressful and boring life that aimlessly keeps going through circles”.

We are talking about serious existential problems here guys…! Do you really deserve that?

Self knowledge helps you realize of who you truly are! Its the key to claim your life and be a master of it.

Self Mastery is Life Mastery! In the route of your life you will meet naysayers, people who will try to take advantage of you or even put obstacles against you, because they see you as competition or even a threat.

Your enemies/competitors haven achieved mediocre results in their field (in which you excel due to your divine destiny) so they see you as a serious threat plus the fact that they are bitter and they say this to themselves: “if I cant achieve any success in my life then no one else should! Let everything burn in hell!”

But picture this:

The american eagle…look at his face…he is fearless…because he knows who he is…the true king of the birds.

The crow is the only bird that will climb on the eagle’s back and will bite his neck…but he doesn’t get frustrated, he doesn’t react, he starts flying even higher above the clouds and due to the lack of oxygen the crow passes out and falls into the void.

So when you journey through your self discovery, do not react to any evil thing turned against you by your enemies, naysayers, or competitors. Just ignore them, show kindness and stay focused on your dreams. The Lord is proud of you cause you are doing exactly what He made you for and He has already given you the victory! Just don’t give up!

To be continued….

© John Kakalas

The post The Decadence and Rebirth of The Western Civilization (Part 1) appeared first on John Kakalas.