Today is a wondrous feast day commemorating the elevation of the cross; the finding of Christ's true cross.

My question is a peculiar one I haven't really seen addressed: how should Orthodox feast?

Is it 'mandatory' to feast, or, if you don't feel like eating much, should you not? If you don't, are you failing to get into the spirit of the day and thus displeasing God?

It's a question I don't think I've ever seen addressed, instruction from spiritual fathers greatly appreciated as are quotes & other material from the Saints, Elders & monks in general.

Another question: On feast days, did Saints mostly feast or did they keep to their own strict fast regardless?

Pray that Jesus Christ sends forth The Holy Spirit to give the persecuted Rohingya ethnic people group a place of refuge & safety

Timeline of America's political violence dating back to 2011​

From here: MSN

If you think that ALL political violence is wrong, whichever side of the political fence you are, then just say so. Don't pick and choose. Don't comment on individual examples. Don't rate them or excuse them. Don't blame any one person or group. Just say that it's wrong. Please let's all get on the same page.

Jan. 8, 2011-- 6 killed, 13 others including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wounded in Tucson shooting​

Six people were killed and 13 others wounded, including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, during a constituent meeting outside a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona. Giffords, a Democrat, was shot in the head at point-blank range, critically injuring her, before the shooter unleashed a spray of bullets. Giffords survived the shooting.

June 14, 2017 -- Rep. Steve Scalise shot during congressional baseball game practice​

Four people were shot -- including then-House majority whip and Louisiana Republican Rep. Steve Scalise -- when a gunman opened fire on Republicans practicing for a congressional baseball game at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia.

Oct. 8, 2020 -- 13 men arrested for plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer​

Thirteen members of a militia group were arrested and charged for planning to storm the Michigan statehouse, kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and start a civil war.

Jan. 6, 2021 -- January 6 attack on the US Capitol, pipe bombs at RNC and DNC​

A mob of pro-Trump protestors stormed the U.S. Capitol as lawmakers met to ratify the results of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

Feb. 14, 2022 -- Kentucky mayoral candidate targeted in attempted shooting​

While running for office, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg was the target of an attempted shooting at his campaign headquarters. No one was injured in the incident.

Oct. 28, 2022 -- Paul Pelosi attacked with hammer in his home​

Former Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, was attacked with a hammer in their San Francisco home. David DePape was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in a state trial over the attack. He had broken into the Pelosi home seeking to hold the then-speaker hostage.

Dec. 4, 2023 to Jan. 3, 2024 -- New Mexico state legislature candidate orchestrates shootings, murder for hire​

A New Mexico man who ran for the state legislature as a Republican and lost his bid is serving an 80 year prison sentence for allegedly orchestrating attacks at the homes of four Democratic lawmakers. No one was injured in his attempts.

June 13, 2024 -- 1st attempted assassination of Donald Trump​

Then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump was shot in the ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a gunman opened fire from the roof of a nearby building.

Sept. 15, 2024 -- 2nd attempted assassination of Donald Trump​

Trump faced a second assassination attempt at the Trump International Gold Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. Prosecutors said suspect Ryan Wesley Routh allegedly put together a plan, including purchasing a military-grade weapon, researching Trump's movements and using a dozen burner phones in an alleged attempt to kill Trump based on political grievances.

Oct. 6, 2024 -- Kamala Harris campaign office in Arizona shot at 3 times in a month​

An office shared by then-Vice President Kamala Harris' presidential campaign and the Democratic Party in Tempe, Arizona, was damaged by gunfire three times in less than a month, according to police.

Dec. 4, 2024 -- Murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson​

UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson died after being shot multiple times at point-blank range by a gunman outside a Manhattan hotel, according to police. The shooter appeared to have been lying in wait at the hotel where he shot Thompson, authorities said.

April 13, 2025 -- Arson at Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's residence​

A mechanic who has expressed disdain for Democrats on social media was arrested for starting a fire at Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's residence.

May 21, 2025 -- Killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C.​

Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed while exiting an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

June 1, 2025 -- 13 people injured in Colorado firebombing attack, 1 later dies​

A man threw Molotov cocktails during a pro-Israel demonstration in Boulder, Colorado, injuring 13, authorities said. One person later died of their injuries.

June 14, 2025
-- Minnesota lawmaker shootings​

A masked gunman disguised as a police officer shot and killed Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark in their home, Gov. Tim Walz said.

Aug. 8, 2025 -- Shooting at CDC headquarters​

A police officer was killed when a gunman opened fire near the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters and the Emory University campus in Atlanta, authorities said. Suspect Patrick Joseph White had blamed the COVID-19 vaccine for making him sick and depressed, according to law enforcement. He had increasingly focused on the vaccine as a source of his grievances, they noted. He was found dead after the shooting, officials said.

Sept. 10, 2025 -- Shooting of Charlie Kirk​

Charlie Kirk, the founder of the conservative youth activist organization Turning Point USA, was fatally shot during an event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. President Donald Trump confirmed Kirk’s death on social media.

Some churches have disagreements over matters of consequence — doctrine, governance, or leadership. This article is not about such cases.

We’ve encountered some strange reasons for church conflict.

• There was the time a church fought over the appropriate length of the pastor’s beard.
• Or the case of a church fighting over whether to build a children’s playground or to use the land for a cemetery.
• We witnessed a conflict over people leading worship with their eyes closed during a portion of the song.
• One church held two business meetings to determine which weed-eater to purchase.
• Lastly, a church had a 70% affirmative vote to excommunicate a deacon who threatened to kill the pastor. The running joke was, “30% of this congregation wants the pastor dead.”

Some of these examples may seem petty. Well, they are. And all of them could have been avoided. Just about every church has multiple examples of fights over inconsequential matters. What leads to this point? The problem is too pervasive to ignore.

Continued below.

We all say we are here to follow Jesus Christ to the reward of eternal life. Many have varying opinions on how to reach that goal, but I believe that is the goal of all of us.
Good news is that God loves us all, as He wants all men to be saved. Bad news is that we are still human and our flesh is at war with our spirit. We say we want to follow Jesus, but what do we do?
We all think we know the right way, but do we really? How do we find out? As fallen humans, we tend to believe what makes us feel good and helps us feel exalted.
If we follow that way, we become as sheep that go astray and each follows his own way. We go back to the original scriptures to try and avoid that, but the evidence is that way is incomplete. The original scriptures are subject to human interpretation, and their intended message becomes unclear.
Another way is to look at the Apostles and what they taught, but their records are incomplete from original manuscripts.
Some light can be shed by looking at the writings of those directly taught by the Apostles and see how the Gospel was being transmitted to future generations. Some say those generations apostacized and are not scripture so therefore unreliable. Did God really abandon His Church so quickly as to have it become publicly unstable in the second and third generations? I think that is a bit of a stretch in reason. I can perhaps see when secular authorities influenced the Church that argument can be made, although not necessarily true, but those taught directly by the Apostles and the generation that followed them?
What happened to the promise of the gates of hell shall not prevail?
Polycarp was taught directly by John the Apostle. He has one surviving writing in his letter to the Philippians, although not scripture, it gives us insight as to how the scripture was being taught.
Then we have Iraneus, who was taught by Polycarp. We have one of his writings intact called Demonstration of the Apostolic preaching.
Iraneus was also famous for a work called against heresies, which was written as a rebuke against the gnostics.
When we read the Demonstration of the Apostolic preaching, we get an idea of what was preached by those very close in time to Apostolic teaching. It is worth the read to see if what is taught today lines up with original Christian thought. Reading Agaisnt Heresies would give us an idea of what was taught by heretics contemporary to the Apostles.

I believe these works are worth reviewing and would be interested in others opinions on them, whether agree or disagree and why?

Peace be with you all. May Christ bless you and keep you and bring you to everlasting life

Texas A&M University (TAMU) has fired a senior lecturer and two administrators after a Republican lawmaker shared a video of a classroom discussion on gender identity in violation of state law.

The controversy erupted after state Rep. Brian Harrison shared a hidden-camera video online on Sept. 8 showing English lecturer Melissa McCoul dismissing a student who objected to the lesson, which was discussed as part of a children’s literature course.

In one of the undated videos, an unidentified female student is engaged in a discussion with McCoul over content related to gender identity. “This also very much goes against not only myself but a lot of people’s religious beliefs. And so, I am not going to participate in this because it’s not legal and I don’t want to promote something that is against our president’s laws as well as against my religious beliefs,” the student says in the video.

“If you are uncomfortable in this class, you do have the right to leave. What we are doing is not illegal,” McCoul responds.

Continued below.

“This is transcending not only the youth generation, but also the older generations. This is a hit on our country. It is a hit on our movement. It is a hit on, you know, Christianity. It is a hit on religion. It is a hit on freedom. It’s kind of you know, emphasizes the dichotomy between good and evil in this country,” Trump continued.

It's going to take plenty of outrage by the people to get their leaders to change course.

Alright is there anyone out there with some depth of knowledge b/c of this question: why does God let good people die? Meaning if you look back over the history of humankind, from the apostles to the saints, to religious preachers, to well-meaning leaders or icons, they're always gunned down. This makes it hard to poke the darkness with rays of light. It appears to me that Satan is winning. Just listened to this query on Utube given by an atheist & of course the comeback line is there is no God. We see the big loss not only that the voice is shut down & a family is left with burdens now but this was a source of hope against the evil in this world.

Let's just chat about anything here! Other places on the forum have it, we should too.

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“Search My Heart…..BEFORE”
Psalm 139:23-24 NIV
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

From the time we wake up each day to the moment we go to bed, we are all preparing in some way throughout the day. Many of us wake up early and head in to work. Kids have to wake up and get ready for the school day. When we are applying for a job, we have to fill out an application and go through an interview, possibly multiple. When we graduate high school, we have to prepare for our college experience or what the next step is if we choose not to go to college.

We spend a lot of time preparing for things in our lives. Why is that? Why do we put so much effort into preparing for things each day? Because we want to be sure we are prepared for the day to the best of our ability. Most of my, if not all, do not like surprises that come up and throw our day off. All of us have experienced this in one way or another. We’ve all been caught off guard with unexpected schedule changes.

I like to prepare for things in my life. When I don’t feel prepared, it bothers me a lot. I don’t always like sudden changes. I do my best to deal with them and adjust, but I’m not always great at that.

With us preparing every single day for so many different things, why do we not put more attention into how we prepare to respond to other people? It’s easy when others are nice to us, but when they are not, it’s definitely challenging.

This passage popped up in my morning reading time and it hit me again. I need to ask God to search my heart fully and bring up anything that is not clean and anything offensive and ask Him to lead me. In all my interactions with people each day, I need to pray “Search my heart….BEFORE”. Before I react to something that may come off negative, I need God to search me. I need to pause and think for a moment if this will encourage others or discourage them.

Sometimes, we feel like we need to get the “last word” in to a conversation. We have all been there! However, we need to ask God to search our heart BEFORE responding. We always, always, always need to do a self-check and see what gremlins are hiding deep in our heart. We always need to point inward and check our attitude before assuming others are wrong. We need to approach everything in love to the best of our ability.

My encouragement to us all is to ask God to search our heart…BEFORE we react or respond to anything.

He apologizes now but those words were all over social media. But he did apologize.

Is today's politics of Marxism, just a deception to covet what others have? So many speaking against the wealthy, and evil of Capitalism simply envying what others have. Are we being stirred up to envy, and covet?
This ends in handing it all over to big Government. to share the booty, until there is no more booty left for the masses?

Apparently Denmark did not appreciate Trump's comments and actions regarding Greenland.




But the South Koreans were here legally, despite initial claims to the otherwise. Those Koreans flew home and are not looking to going back to the factory where they were teaching Americans about the tech. If the US is going to be so nasty, why invest here?

That we all get frustrated and even angry when we exchange with people who do not share our opinions and agree with our views.

It becomes a real test of our character.. But we can do this. It is a spiritual challenge where the true adversary is one’s self.

In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus paints a very scary very real picture for Christians. “Only those who do the will of my Father will enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Well what is the will of the Father? Luckily, Jesus didn’t leave us guessing what the will of the Father is. He explains what the will of the Father is in John 6:39-40. In John 6:39-40 Jesus says:

“And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

So we learn straight from the mouth of Jesus that the unsaved in Matthew 7:21-23 are “believers” who were not given to the Father and were not regenerated and therefore were not saved. They are “believers” who did not have true saving faith, trusted in their own works to save them, were lazy hypocrites who did not have the Holy Spirit living inside of them.

They were “believers” who were unrepentant, lived in sin, either only cared about themselves or believed in themselves to save them. Godless people. Such people will NEVER enter the kingdom of heaven and will be denied by Jesus on the last day.

And that is what Jesus meant in Matthew 7:21-23 and passages like it. It was not a passage that says you can lose your salvation or that salvation can be lost. No. When Christ died, He died for the elect once for all.

It means that if you do not have the Holy Spirit living inside of you, then you have no hope at salvation. None. Because it takes the Holy Spirit’s transformative power to save. But the hope that Christians have is that God died for them and they are eternally secure from before the foundation of the world.

“When will it end?”

That was the question a legacy media commentator asked after conservative talk show host and thought leader Charlie Kirk was shot and killed while speaking at Utah Valley University. Another lamented, “Is this how we solve our political differences in America?” From the shattered stained glass of Annunciation Catholic School to the crowded fields of Butler County, Pennsylvania, the heartbreaking answer is too often yes.

And yet evil, whether it slinks across a rooftop or slams into twin skyscrapers, is not new. Two thousand years ago, the prophet Hosea watched his own nation, awash in idolatry, turn its back on God and declared a warning from the Lord, “For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind…”

The admonition was as timely then as it is now. Lawlessness, violence, and bloodshed have become so frequent in American life that very little shocks our collective conscience. Yet the assassination of 31-year-old Charlie Kirk, as he peacefully engaged in dialogue on a university campus, is a loss that has stunned millions of Americans across the political spectrum.

As with tragedies before, the responses are predictable — calls for gun control, demands for more government programs, and appeals for prayer. I, too, call for prayer. Not because prayer is a slogan to calm emotions, but because genuine prayer positions us to hear God — and when we listen, He reveals the way forward.

Continued below.

Harmony can often be a difficult prospect. This one might challenge your spiritual dynamic, and is really meant to punch some holes in the fleshly doctrinal boats:

Jesus, directing this statement to His disciples,

Luke 17:10
So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

I can only imagine what we are called if we do less than those things we are commanded, if we do all and are still then directed by our Lord, by our Lord no less, to call ourselves "UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS."

Gotta love a good non positive confession, huh?

Now where the rub comes in is here, oh unprofitable servants:

Matthew 25:30
And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Hmmmm? And all the disciples reading these Words of His start to wonder how they are going to talk their way out of this one.

Patrick Freivald wrote Kirk was 'interrupted by a bullet to the neck' and called him 'bad garbage'​

A New York high school teacher has been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation after mocking the assassination of Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk, drawing swift backlash from parents and the community.

Patrick Freivald, a physics and robotics teacher at Naples Central School District, in Facebook posts reviewed by Fox News Digital wrote that Kirk was "interrupted by a bullet to the neck" and sneered, "Good riddance to bad garbage."

Freivald’s post mocked Kirk’s final moments in detail. "Charlie Kirk, who said that gun violence is a price worth paying for his version of the 2nd Amendment, spent his last coherent moments baselessly blaming transgender people for gun violence and arguing for stripping them of exactly those rights."

"The aspiring Goebbels was interrupted by a bullet to the neck which quickly cured him of HVLD*, and shortly thereafter he became a good Nazi**," he added. "Good riddance to bad garbage."

Continued below.

I suppose there isn't much more to add - that's the question. They never talk about Christ or share their walk with Him. They basically try to get as far away from the preacher and the front as possible. But maybe it's just 'cos they are anglo-saxon. But is the grace of God stronger than their stand-offishness? It doesn't help that preachers don't give the gospel of atonement, although our Wesley hymns teach otherwise. But even the small group that I know are Christians and have had an encounter with Him, only really get exercised when their denomination isn't promoted or the physical building isn't maintained. The people are overwhelmingly nice, and that's part of my problem. most of my life has been in manifestly evangelical churches and there have been numerous breakups, either theologically or over practice and priorities, because people actually believe things.
What do you think?

This word “encouragement” is not just about being comforted or praised, but it includes biblical exhortation, appeal, entreaty, counsel, and a holy urging to obey God and his commandments and to live holy lives, pleasing to God. It is an exhortation to one another to leave our lives of sin behind us and to follow Christ in the way that he has planned for our lives. And as the body of Christ, we are to be doing this with one another, so that we are not led astray by false teachings, and so we are not deceived by sinful desires.

[Acts 2:14-18,42-47; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20]

And this word consolation, or comfort, also means the same as the word encouragement, which includes exhortation (appeal, urging, counsel). And this word “fellowship” has to do our participation, our partnership, our contribution to our walks of faith in the Lord Jesus via obedience to our Lord’s commands, and via us putting sin to death daily in our lives. And, in the body of Christ, it involves us in community, in partnership, in joint participation with one another in walking the walk God has for us to walk.

Affections have to do with our hearts, with tender mercies, and with sympathy and empathy with others in their sufferings or in their needs, i.e. feeling with them in their difficulties and in their misfortunes in a compassionate and caring manner. But this is not for us to coddle people in their sins who are knowingly and deliberately and habitually doing what they know is evil against other people. There we need to speak the truth in love to them, and tell them that Jesus died to free them from addiction to sin.

And with regard to us within the body of Christ being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, and intent on one purpose, this is not about marketing schemes and goals and business plans. But this is about us all having the mind of Christ, maintaining the love of Christ, united by his Spirit, and intent on God’s will and purpose that he has for our lives as those who profess the name of Jesus. And there we turn to the Scriptures where we learn what those things are so that we can do them together.

Gospel:[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10; Revelation 2:1-29; Revelation 3:1-22]

And we are not to be selfish people who think only of ourselves and what we want out of life without regard for others. And we are not to perform for an audience, either, hoping to get attention and acclamations, like the Pharisees. With humility we are to regard one another as more important than ourselves and our own desires, and we are to care about others and their concerns, and their hurts, and for their welfare, i.e. for what is for their good, in the eyes of God, and for their spiritual benefit and Christian growth.

And, again, this does not mean that we make compromises in areas that are against the Scriptures and what they teach us with regard to how we are all to live as followers of Christ. We hold fast to holiness, righteousness, moral purity, honesty, and faithfulness, and to the gospel truth as taught by Jesus and by his New Testament apostles, in their biblically correct context. So we don’t make room for willful sin and for disobedience, but we lovingly correct what is evil among us so that we all live holy lives, pleasing to our Lord.

As the Deer

By Martin J. Nystrom
Based off Psalm 42:1

As the deer panteth for the water
So my soul longeth after You
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

You alone are my strength, my shield
To You alone may my spirit yield
You alone are my heart's desire
And I long to worship You

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Holy Lives, Pleasing to God
An Original Work / September 14, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

I grew up with Charlie Kirk. No, I don’t mean that we went to school together or lived on the same street as kids.

Charlie grew up in the suburbs outside Chicago, while I spent much of my life in Carroll County, roughly 20 miles west of Baltimore. Charlie was only a year my senior. He and I grew up in the same America. We were close to the same age when the cataclysmic September 11 attacks took place. We were around the same age when Barack Obama rose to sudden prominence and popularity and took the White House. We both watched the same conservative pundits, and both became involved with grassroots campaigns. We were both raised Christian, but did not really invest in our faith until early adulthood. We are both husbands and both fathers.

In some ways, I could have been Charlie, and Charlie could have been me.

I imagine that a lot of young men feel much the same way. In fact, I know that a lot of young men feel much the same way. Charlie was all of us, but he was also the best of us. Where the rest of us were prone to in-fighting and bickering, obsessed over our “original” ideas and fought to make sure that we got credit for them, lost our tempers easily and dismissed opposing viewpoints with a derisive wave of the hand, Charlie built coalitions and friendships, gladly gave credit to the great thinkers who shaped his worldview, and always invited others to sit down and talk, to have a conversation. He was all of us in the sense that each of us could see something of ourselves in him, but he was the best of us in that he could always inspire the rest of us, despite minute political disagreements, to want to be better men.

Continued below.

Peace in Christ.

Again, if we keep His daily sacrifice…..ALWAYS bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, then the life also of Jesus is to be made manifest (SHINE) in our body….in our mortal flesh. This is the manifestation of the Son of man towards the people of the outside world. The Son of man will then be revealed in this world.

This shining of His light is towards those people of the outside world who are sitting in deep darkness who will SEE it and believe.

Not all of them will…but a “great multitude” ….a “cloud”...of them will believe into Him when they will SEE His light shining through us. The Son of man comes upon a “cloud”…a cloud of eyewitnesses of His light....the LIGHT OF LIFE.

2Co 4:10-11
(10) Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest (SHINE) in our body.
(11) For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest (SHINE) in our mortal flesh.

He gives His flesh (as His life manifests in our mortal flesh) for the LIFE OF THE WORLD. We manifest His life in our mortal flesh (that is, His flesh) so that they may see the light of life (His light) through us and be saved.

Joh 6:51 KJV
(51) I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.

We lift up the Son of man by the keeping of His daily sacrifice (dying to the sin) in our mortal bodies which will draw all unto Him.

They will come to Him through us as we will shine His light towards them IF we lift Him up from out of the earth.

Joh 12:32-33 KJV
(32) And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.
(33) This he said, signifying what death he should die.

This keeping of the daily sacrifice of the Lamb in our mortal bodies is the lifting up of the Son of man so that all may see Him through us.

The Son of man must be lifted up so that they (the people of the outside world who are in darkness) shall SEE His light shining through us.

When He appears to them (through us), we appear with Him in glory towards the people of the outside world who will believe after seeing. They will then see and praise God.

John 3:14-21 KJV
(14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
(15) That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

For God so love the world (in this manner) that He gave (gives His presence to us) His only begotten Son so that whoever (in the outside world) believes into Him should not perish but have an age-lasting life.

By the keeping of His daily sacrifice, we receive/manifest His presence now in this world and are instrumental in the shining of His light to the people of the world who are in darkness.

(16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That through Him the world...the people of the outside world who are in deep darkness... might be saved.

(17) For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
(18) He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

We are instrumental in shining His light into this world. As Jesus said, we are the light of the world (through Him.) We shine His light to this dark world. We become children of light.

Not all shall see it and believe. Some will hate the light. The Father will draw those among them to that light. One will be received yet another will be rejected.

(19) And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
(20) For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
(21) But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Yet, right now the world does not see His light shining as His people have no knowledge of the truth of the gospel. The earth became without form (without the form of Christ) and void (void of the knowledge of the glory of God.) We....His people...currently do not have His light shining towards them because of a lack of knowledge.

The “princes of this age”...our church rulers... are not preaching the truth of the gospel to us as they have no understanding of it. They only “serve” for their own belly (the "god of this age") and have no understanding of it as a result.

1Co 2:6-8 KJV
(6) Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
(7) But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

NONE of the “princes of this age”….our church rulers…know it…for if they had known it they would not be CRUCIFYING (this is a NOW thing) the LORD OF GLORY. Our Lord had already risen to glory so that we might have His life and glory now in this mortal body.

His glory is not being revealed to the people of this world because of their ignorance of the truth of the gospel of which they are not preaching to their congregations and so are preventing His life from being made manifest to this world . The people of this world are not being saved now as a result.

(8) Which none of the princes of this world (AGE) knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified (CRUCIFYING) the Lord of glory.

We are to change our minds about this so that the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. We shall then receive the promise of His presence now in this mortal body so that the world might be saved. God shall then send His Son to us....sending Jesus Christ to us. When He shall appear, we shall appear with Him in glory.

The unbelievers in the man-based churches will scoff when they will hear this: "Where is the promise of His coming (PRESENCE)?" They do not know that they are currently under His wrath and are perishing away to the grave without understanding. They are currently not manifesting His presence to the world.

When we receive the promise of His presence we shall shine His light and then the believing (of the light) people of the world will produce good things towards us…. “refreshing” us ....instead of bring forth “thorns and thistles” towards us.

Act 3:19-20 KJV
(19) Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
(20) And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

But right now, the Holy One and the Just is being denied. His life is not being made manifest to this dark world. The Prince of life is being “killed” from this earth as His life is not being made manifest in the mortal flesh of anyone. The Son of man is being given up into the hands of sinners who are preventing His life from ever appearing in this earth so that the world may be saved (who will then SEE Him through us and will believe.)

Act 3:14-17 KJV
(14) But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;
(15) And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.
(16) And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

But we have done this in IGNORANCE…as do our church rulers…the “princes of this age” who extinguish His life from ever appearing in this world.

(17) And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.

There is forgiveness for this because we are doing this in ignorance of the Word of Truth which has not been preached to us so that we may know.