But the Lord does not take away from us the freedom to determine good or evil, for this is the meaning of our temporal life.

The temptations of evil are conducted in the realm of our freedom. All of us can endure, but not all of us strive to endure in truth and purity. And the bodiless enemy fights us not even daily, but every minute. It is possible to resist evil only if one binds oneself, like a thin twig, to the unshakable trunk of eternal truth and the highest fullness of life, to Christ. To trust wholly in Him in Whose mouth there has been no falsehood from eternity, to believe in the Saviour and to love Him more than one's own life, to place Him above the reasoning of one's mind – this is what it will mean to love God "more than one's life"...

The forerunners of the false Christ, taking advantage of the difficulty of the struggle in the world against evil for their own purposes, shout about the "lifelessness" of Christ's teaching. The "requirements of nature" are the requirements of sin. Thousands and millions of people give up their hearts without resistance to unbridled and shameless sin, beginning their fall through the bite of the heart with disbelief in the future righteous retribution.

An unbelieving heart is weak and unfounded in the face of sin. That is why the whirlwinds of world evil dispel faith.

But no matter how and by whom faith in the future world of Christ is dispelled, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Everyone who has called, believed, flowed with a dying soul to the pure source of Christ, receives from God the power to take snakes and crush them, to drink deadly things and remain healthy. Satan does not touch the one who guards himself with his deadly breath — he rages around, goes into the very chest, squeezes the heart — but he does not dare, cannot enter the holy heart of man, and man is saved by his faith. A believing enlightened mind, like fire, burns up all the tricks of evil. The grace of the Spirit, which reveals to him the highest knowledge, shines in him, transforming his entire composition.

True faith is not blind, it does not brush aside tempting questions and whispers, it looks directly into the eyes of all evil, sees through it and denounces it. Because of this, true believers have heavenly peace in their hearts, blissful and unshakable silence in their souls. For they have risen above the serpents crawling in the dust, and the springs of dead water flowing in the dust. There are no more dead waters for the one who has foretasted the joy of the resurrection.

What is culture?

"Culture", "cultural relations", "cultural values"...

What is culture? The shortest definition of this word is love for a person.

When we say about a person: "he is cultured," we want to express the integrity and harmony of his spiritual image.

Of course, we sometimes make mistakes, we apply the word "culture" to life, to this or that person, quite incorrectly; We take only its likeness or even illusion for harmony. Our assessments and criteria are not always deep. But the world is designed as love, and harmony is achieved only through love. And every person is given the opportunity to express love in the world. Its realization is the goal of life and history...

Each of us is given a talent of love, and from the many of our individual lives the general image of this or that people and all mankind is formed. Each person is primarily responsible for his or her own life. He must cultivate himself, his soul, like a garden.

An engineer, a doctor, a farmer, a scientist, a politician, a public figure, a worker laying bricks, a gardener grafting a fruit tree, a poet consoling a person, a musician looking for a new harmony — all these are bees working in one huge hive-world; they fly in different colors, but the sweetness of their achievements goes to the common home. We, people, are called to fill the world with a fragrant garden of good creative thoughts and feelings, sweet for everyone, and not with the corrosive smoke of selfishness, hatred and evil. In this lies the highest realization of the purpose of life for all of us, the Kingdom of God...