The Greatest Heresy of Our Time

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God lives in the heart. And so to find God, we must live in the heart. And not according to dead legalisms and transactional theology.

27th Sunday after Pentecost (Dec 14/1, 2025) Luke 18:18–27

The story of the ruler, or rich young man, and Jesus. The young man in today’s Gospel reading recognized Jesus as “good”, but not as God. He thought of salvation merely as something that you do, and not as something that you are, or are becoming. And so he missed out on his chance for communion. Most of the world is caught up in this same error.

0:00 Salvation as becoming like God, not “belief-only”
1:37 God is good, and salvation is becoming good
2:36 Salvation is not what you do, but who you become
3:46 The “practical heresy”: salvation without labor or ascetic struggle
5:30 “Imputed righteousness” vs actually becoming righteous
6:41 The commandments: we can’t keep them without an admixture of darkness
7:30 The rich ruler: almsgiving, letting go, and following Christ
8:45 Theosis: why Christ became man—to make us good like Him
10:24 The disciples’ distress: “with men impossible, with God possible”
10:55 Living in the heart: prayer because the task is beyond us
12:07 Matthew 7 theme preview: don’t judge; remove the beam; then help others
13:22 Ask, seek, knock: prayer because the calling is impossible without God
14:19 Inner prayer tools: Jesus Prayer, Psalter, Gospel
15:22 Urgency: you don’t know how much time you have
17:05 Image and likeness; St Seraphim: acquiring the Holy Spirit
18:31 Most people don’t understand this—Orthodox must live it, not just talk
19:54 How you actually learn: Gospel, Psalter, knees, prostrations, forgiveness
20:53 Grace is experiential: “taste of honey” analogy
21:51 Reject “junk food” spirituality; fight laziness and cultivate fire for God
22:36 Living in the heart is the only life; cultivate prayer of the heart
23:22 Pastoral repetition: the “parish secret” joke and telling it again
23:52 Closing exhortation: God teaches; we pursue theosis; “we’ll become good”

Keywords: Orthodox, Orthodoxy, St. Nicholas, Father Seraphim Holland, homily, Texas, McKinney, Christ, Christianity, Traditional Christian, Traditional Christianity, Tradition, Jesus prayer