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Ponderings on Prayer

Ponderings on Prayer

Original post by Fr Antonios Kaldas blog site

Among the most direct ways to experience a loving unity with God is the practice of prayer. Put simply, prayer is dialogue with God, the very food of an intimate relationship with one’s Creator and Saviour. Consider St Paul’s quote to the Greeks at the Areopagus:

 He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being…

Acts 17:28

 The reality is that God is everywhere, and there is no place we can go where we are away from Him. Prayer is the bringing to conscious awareness that presence of God. Most of our lives, we are so distracted by other things that we lose that awareness, we forget that “God is here!” In prayer, we focus on restoring that awareness, on opening the “eyes of our heart” to see Him, and therefore on communicating with Him, with all the love and blessing that entails.

What is the right time for prayer? It is always the right time for prayer. If the understanding of prayer is correct, then when would one possibly not want to be united with God? So, in fulfilment of St Paul’s exhortation to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), the Orthodox Christian seeks to be in communication with God – aware of the presence of God with her – at every moment of the day. In this way, prayer does not become an activity that is separate from the rest of life’s activities. It is not that I leave my work to go to pray, and then I leave prayer to go back to work. Rather, I pray at all times, but it is just that at some times I leave everything else and focus on nothing but prayer.

Continual prayer may be practiced by reciting memorised prayers or Biblical verses, or it may just be a spontaneous ‘chatting’ with God in one’s mind, a sharing of one’s thoughts with God. Brief prayers are sometimes called Arrow Prayers, for they are ‘shot’ up to God whenever one feels the urge. Many would also consider contemplating the beauty of nature a kind of prayer, for in doing so we are contemplating indirectly the beauty of the master Artist who created it. Even acts of kindness towards others may be considered a kind of prayer, for when I help you, it is as though I am helping Christ Himself, and so I touch Christ in the person I help.

But it is important also to point out that there are some things that prayer is not, or at least, should not be. Understanding these will help us to understand what prayer is for the Coptic Orthodox Christian. For example, prayer is not a mere duty to be performed. It seems unlikely that God merely counts how many prayers a person prays, or for how long a person prays, and that is what impresses Him. What if those prayers are merely uttered with the lips while the mind and the heart are far from God? Surely such prayers do not fit the definition of prayer we have outlined? We cannot score ‘brownie points’ with God by praying more. He knows all that is in our thoughts and hearts, so how can we possibly fool Him by pretending to be ‘holier’ than we really are? Worse still, when a person prays for the wrong reasons, they will usually gravitate to a state where prayer becomes dry and routine. She prays only because she feels she should pray, but the love has gone out of the exercise. This is an indication that there is something seriously wrong with either that person’s practice of prayer, or with their whole relationship with God, and spiritual guidance is needed to heal this illness of the spirit.

Nor is prayer like a magic spell. It is not like some incantation, where if I can only say it right, or with the right feeling in my heart, then God will give me whatever I ask for. In fact, Jesus reminded us that God already knows all that we need, and that He is more than capable of granting us our needs, even before we ask, for He loves us. We cannot ‘twist God’s arm’ and in some way force Him to do something against His will. Nor should we want to, for we believe that God is far wiser than we are, and we pray, as Jesus taught us to pray, for God’s will to be done, not ours. Rather, when we request something of God in prayer, it is not to tell Him something He doesn’t already know, but rather to share with Him our needs and desires, as one might share one’s deepest needs with a best friend.

That is not to say that we should only pray when we ‘feel like it’. There are times when one is tempted to forget God, to put Him out of one’s thoughts. At such times a certain level of self-coercion or self-control is needed, just as self-control is needed to resist other types of temptations. Within the human being are different desires at work, and often those desires conflict with each other. Our free will allows us to choose which of the desires to encourage, but sometimes the opposite desires can be so strong that even that choice is not enough to overcome them. That is when we need to struggle and strive against our human weakness, our fallen nature that would drag us away from our continual and beautiful relationship of love with God.

Original blog found at- http://www.frantonios.org.au/2013/06/14/ponderings-on-prayer/#more-751

Two Processions

Two Processions

Guest post by Becoming fully alive blog site

Well, He’s dead.

In the end, they took Him and nailed him to a cross, watched Him suffocate under the weight of His own body, and then stabbed Him to make sure He was dead. Then everything seemed to go mad; the Veil of the Temple split down the middle, blasphemously revealing the Holy of Holies. The earth started shaking and the ancient dead burst from their tombs, as though strolling around Jerusalem was the most natural thing in the world after a thousand years of bodily decay. They say that if you put your ear to the ground, you can hear the whole netherworld beginning to creak and shudder; the dead are waking up, and the Devil is screaming.

It all seems a lot of fuss for one dead man. You can see Him there, moving down the path toward His tomb. He’s the bleeding bundle of cloth at the front of the group. The man holding His feet is Nicodemus; one of the wealthiest men in Jerusalem. The man holding His shoulders is Joseph of Arimathea. That woman behind them, the one who can’t seem to stop crying, is called Mary. She comes from Magdala, and unlike Joseph and Nicodemus, she is not the religious type. We don’t know much about her, but we do know that when she first met her Teacher, her body was home to no less than seven spiritual parasites.

They were old, terrible creatures who fed off her misery and desperation. Back then, she had  plentiful stores of both, though we don’t know precisely why. Perhaps she had done terrible things or terrible things had been done to her. At any rate, she was not what anyone would call a “pillar of respectability,” and it hadn’t helped her Teacher’s reputation to have her hanging around. But He was the one who freed her. All seven of her demonic tormentors had screamed and fled when He came along, and they never came back. Since then, she has followed Him; and she follows even now, when all that’s left to follow is a bleeding corpse.

There are others walking with them, following the blood-soaked bundle that was their Teacher.

Surprisingly, you are present too.

You’re part of your own procession, a larger one, invisibly leading Joseph, Nicodemus and their bloody bundle of linen towards the tomb. Your procession is headed by golden crosses on poles and at the very back, just in front of Joseph and Nicodemus, men are carrying icons of Jesus’ burial and crucifixion, being censed by bearded priests wearing golden cloaks. Although there are more people in your procession than in the ancient one behind you, yours is a good deal less serious. Where Joseph and the Mary’s are burying a brutally murdered Friend, you are attending a religious festival. The atmosphere is solemn enough, with the icons and the incense and gold crosses on poles, but in your procession people are distracted, occasionally chatting to one another, making quick remarks about Uncle So-and-So’s chanting voice and what they’re going to eat once the service is over. They’re tired because they’ve been in Church for nine hours. Mary, Joseph and Nicodemus are tired because they’ve just spent nine hours watching their Friend asphyxiate and bleed to death.

And so, the two processions make their way slowly to a new tomb in a garden; one decked in white and gold, the other wet with tears and blood. You seem to be in two places at once. On the one hand, you’re walking around your local Coptic Church holding a candle, singing “Lord have mercy” in a tune which seems deeply sad and deeply joyful at the same time. On the other hand, in some mysterious way, you are also walking towards a garden in Jerusalem to put a blood-soaked corpse into a new tomb. Some would say you’re not really in the same place as Joseph and Mary and the bloody bundle; you are in a Coptic Church on Good Friday. You might imagine that you’re following a group of first-century Jews to a new tomb outside Jerusalem, but imagining doesn’t make it true. That’s what some people would say. Perhaps they’re right. But those people have probably never been to a Coptic Church on Good Friday, and so we might wonder how they can be so sure.

As you walk around the Church in procession, you notice some of the tired faces around you. A few places ahead of you in the procession is the man who taught you to be a Sunday School teacher. Like Joseph and Nicodemus, he’s the religious type. He’s attended every Holy Week service so far, morning and night, and he knows more about the Church and its history than anyone you’ve ever met. He loves this kind of service. His eyes are always closed during the long hymns, not because he’s sleeping but because he’s contemplating the deep nuances of the ancient hymns. He’s also one of the kindest and most self-sacrificing people you’ve ever known. You can only see his back from where you are, but you’re sure that his eyes are closed now too.

The procession takes you up the back of the church, where a woman called Selena is leaning against a pillar. Selena still comes to Church for the big occasions, but she’s not really the religious type. She has a complicated history, which she doesn’t like to talk about. A combination of things she’s done and things that have been done to her have convinced her that she isn’t pious or holy enough to be a good, church-going Coptic girl. So Selena only comes on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, because the services are crowded and she can slip in the back without really being noticed. She doesn’t understand the long hymns, but she likes the processions. In the processions, Christ comes to her at the back of the Church, meaning she doesn’t need to wade through an ocean of harsh eyes and perfect people to get to Him. The priests and deacons carry Him around the whole Church, and she can even reach out and touch Him, like the bleeding woman in the Gospels. You meet her gaze as you pass her, but she looks away.

Over there in the corner is the kid you kicked out of your Sunday School class last week. You probably shouldn’t have lost your temper, but in your defence, he was being an arrogant little punk. He hit another kid hard across the back of the head, and when you yelled at him, he acted like he couldn’t even hear you. But you remember now that he’s Selena’s younger brother, and you don’t really know what his family is like. The one time you visited his house you noticed that his mother was limping. The father was in the house but he didn’t come out to say hello. In the car on the way back, your mentor said, “Pray for them. Especially for the father.” You didn’t ask for details. You hadn’t been thinking of that when you kicked him out. You should probably talk to him later.

As the procession takes you through the church pews, you see the faces of your friends, your teachers, your relatives, even one of your old crushes. Mostly you don’t acknowledge them; sometimes, you exchange a quick smile or nod. You have seen these faces nearly every week for years; at liturgies and fundraisers and functions, at fantastically failed church plays, at homeless drives and hospital visits, soccer competitions and youth camps. But it strikes you all of sudden, how strange it is to be here with all these people. I mean, in one sense, it’s no surprise that the usual people would turn up to Church on Good Friday, as they have done for years. But in another sense, it all seems like a strange coincidence that these people, with whom you’ve spent so much time doing such boring, normal things, should be present with you at something so important. This is no parish camp or trivia night; you’ve all come here to bury God. That bloody bundle of linen behind you contains the Firstborn over All Creation, the Word of God, the Father’s Wisdom and Power. Now that He is dead, the whole Kingdom of Death is being overthrown; angels are pouring down into Hades to join the coup. You’d expect burying God and the overthrow of Hades to be a unique and monumental occasion; something that removes the mundane existence you carry out day by day. And yet, there is your old mentor, your punk Sunday School kid, your old crush, your friends, the woman who leads the Sunday School service, the man who runs the bookshop, the lady who makes sandwiches on Sunday mornings.

You reach the end. Joseph and Nicodemus lay down their load and let the women pour a last libation of myrrh and spices on Him. Your parish priest is with them, sprinkling rose petals as red as the blood seeping through the linen. You remember that those hands, sprinkling rose petals, are the hands with which he played volleyball at your last camp. Now, he is using them to anoint the body of God for its burial. You look around at the tired, familiar faces, watching Abouna wrapping the tiny icon in white cloth. No-one is joking now. They are either singing, “Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal” or saying nothing. And again, you are surprised that you should all be together here, at this place where the whole world turned upside down.

When all is done, Joseph and Nicodemus seal up the tomb, locking their Teacher in Hades to do battle with its dark prince. Abouna kisses the door of the tomb and begins to read Psalms while the ancient mourners go home to weep and ponder the spectacular disaster that had become of all their hopes and dreams. Selena slips quietly out the back. Your old Sunday School mentor stands in the sanctuary, eyes closed and arms folded. When the chanting stops, your class punk is unusually quiet in his corner seat; he is praying that God will teach his parents how to love each other. You realise that you’re glad they were all here with you, to see God die and come to rest in the earth.

It’s only as you leave that you realise who had been walking next to you in the procession. He never said a word, but He had directed your attention as you walked; He had pointed wordlessly to Selena, to your old mentor, to your Sunday School child. And He had looked back at you from inside each of them; from the peace that hung around your old mentor, from Selena’s downcast eyes, especially from your little punk Sunday School kid. When you reached the end of the procession, you watched Him wrapped in linen and sealed behind the black curtains of the sanctuary. But even then, somehow, He hadn’t left your side. He was walking beside you while He was borne behind you in burial clothes; just as He was still in the bosom of His Father, even when He went to the depths of Hades. You realise now that it is no coincidence that you were all here together. You have things to do.

And He’s not dead.

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal 3:2)

Original blog post found at- https://becomingfullyalive.com/two-processions/

How Great is your Faith?

How Great is your Faith

Adapted from a sermon by Fr David Shehata

Passage Luke 5:17-26

The Paralytic Man is read in the gospel of Luke 5, but also in Matthew 9 and Mark 2. It is very commonly confused with the miracle recorded in the gospel of John which recounts a paralytic man that was 38 years old and sat by the pool of Bathsaida. This is usually because Jesus says to both, “rise, take up your bed and walk.”

There are key differences between the two. They are definitely not the same person and when we look at the differences, there are a multitude of benefits that reveal how Christ treated them according to the depth of their faith.

Jesus was in a house in the gospel of Luke and the man was brought to Him, while in John, Jesus sought out the paralytic man. The man in Luke had friends around him while the man by the pool of Bethsaida had no one.

It can come across as insensitive that the Lord – who is all-loving, all-powerful, all compassionate – would allow this man and his friends to go through so much trouble to reach Him. St Mark recounts the extent of the difficulty they had when he writes, “many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door” (Mark 2:2).

He emphasises a house that would have had so many people that they were flooded out the door. There was no room, so the four men looked upon this situation and decided to enter through the roof; “And when they could not come near Him because of the crowd, they uncovered the roof where He was” – Luke 2:4.

If we pause at this verse and put ourselves in this situation. If I was one of the four men in this situation or the paralytic man himself who had come to see Jesus in faith because I have heard of what He has done for others, how do I react to the obstacles in my path?

This applies to every time we want to spend time with God, but find an obstacle along the way. I am making my way to church, I have planned ahead and booked a spot because of the current Covid restrictions. I find rain, storm, cold… what next? Do I wait for the next mass?

Or I come to pray at night at my designated prayer spot but just before I get there, I find the room is cold and I remember the warmth of my bed… what next? This is a question we ask ourselves. What would I do in this situation; when Christ is so close but there is an obstacle in my way?

Do I presume that it’s just not God’s will for me to go to church on that day? There is nothing wrong with waiting, Jesus will still be around when I eventually pray the next day, or the day after that. There are so many ways to justify turning back at the first obstacle we see.

But in Mark, the four friends saw that they could not enter through the door so they created their own entry point through the roof. It seems irrational and beyond the logic of society to enter through a closed roof instead of an open door.

It is not the faith of one alone in this situation but the combined faith of the five men. They had to carry the man to the roof, they had to uncover some of the tiles so that they could lower him into the house. The greatness and difficulty of this task was exemplary of the greatness and unwavering faith of these five men.

The understanding of Jews at the time was that in major disease or illness was the result of sin. Either their own sin or that of their parents, just like in the gospel of John when the disciples asked Christ in front of the man without any fear of whether he would hear them or not, “Who sinned, this man or his parents?” This is an insight into the culture at the time. The paralytic man was seen as a sinner, deserving of his punishment of paralysis.

The life of a paralytic would have been extremely difficult, they had no social security, were unable to work and moreover, they were blamed for the state they were in. No one had compassion on them and they were likely to grow irritable and resent society. This man showed willingness to become a public spectacle, to be judged and condemned as a sinner, for a chance to reach Christ and be healed. This was all irrelevant to him compared to what he was about to gain. His gain in this process was far greater than any criticism and social stigma. This is a lesson in faith we can all learn from.

How many times do I sacrifice time with God for momentary praise or pleasure? How many times do I, in my own life, say that I will speak to God later?

When the Lord sees the faith of the paralytic man and his friends, He says, “your sins are forgiven.” This is so powerful and gives us insight into the nature of Christ. The Lord prioritises the man’s sins over his paralysis. This was the more important of the two in the eyes of the Lord. Heavenly healing lasts for eternity, while healing of the flesh is irrelevant to the hereafter.

Perhaps we can learn to prioritise similarly; to work harder on the forgiveness of my sins, to work harder in speaking to my father of confession, to work harder in partaking of the sacraments and finding time alone with God.

God wants to approach Him similarly as Fr Yacoub Magdy points out – “the trust of the beggar, compels the giver.” We learn to approach the Lord in unworthiness, in helplessness and that compels God to come to our rescue, for He is our only hope.

We cannot say we have finished breathing for the day, so we can not say that we have finished praying for the day. Prayer is a continual and ongoing relationship with the Lord. The four men approached the Lord and encountered an obstacle but they kept striving to reach Christ by any means possible. They persevered with greater effort so that they would see the Lord and have the life changing encounter that they hoped for.

One reason why the Lord ensured on that day that He would be so far out of reach was to highlight the extent of their faith on that day to benefit those that witnessed the miracle and even to us, 2000 years later.

The question we then ask ourselves is how much effort do I make to meet the Lord? Is it beneficial to me? I need to keep asking, I need to keep seeking, I need to keep knocking, until I encounter the Lord, whatever it takes.

“Do not be foolish in the requests you make to God, otherwise you will insult God through your ignorance. Act wisely in prayer, so that you may become worthy of glorious things. Ask for things that are honorable from Him Who will not hold back, so that you may receive honor from Him as a result of the wise choice your free will had made. Solomon asked for wisdom (3 Kg 3:8-14) – and along with it he also received the earthly kingdom, for he knew how to ask wisely of the heavenly King, that is, for things that are important.”

St Isaac the Syrian

We have the King of Heaven and Earth before us and He is willing to give us all that we ask for. Ask, and ask for big things. Don’t ask for meaningless things that you would never put before a king. Even if you don’t receive immediately, keep praying for your begging will compel the Hand of God to give.

On Anger

On Anger

By Fr Antonios Kaldas

Original post by Fr Antonios Kaldas blog site

How often do you change your mind about something? I mean, really change your mind? A few years ago I had the privilege of co-authoring a book on Orthodox Christian Marriage with Ireni Attia, and one of the things we discussed was anger. My initial attitude was that anger has no place in a truly healthy, happy relationship. But working with a professional like Ireni, helped me to realise that anger is a very normal human emotion that is neither good or bad in itself. It is how you use it that matters. The more I thought about it, the more I realised she is right: psychologically, biblically, and philosophically.

It is a basic psychological principle that suppressing or burying real feelings inside us is never good. The fact is, I get angry, and to pretend otherwise can only cause harm to my own mental health, and to my relationships. Such a denial is unsustainable in the long term. 

Biblically, I was astonished that I never picked up on this before. Our modern sensitivities tend to downplay the anger inherent in Christ’s driving moneychangers from the temple:

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” (Matthew 21:12–13).

 I simply cannot imagine Jesus gently strolling up to the moneychanging table, smiling and passing a few polite pleasantries, and then taking permission: “Would you mind terribly if I turned your table over now, sir?” This was an act of anger, and He left no one in doubt about that. Surely, then, if the Word of God Incarnate, the Perfect Man, could rightfully be angry, it must also be possible for us to be rightfully angry. What is it then, that distinguishes the good use of anger from the bad? St Paul gives this advice: “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath (Ephesians 4:26).

 Is that not odd advice from a preacher of the Gospel of divine unconditional love? Can it ever be loving to be angry with someone? It turns out that St Paul is quoting Psalm 4:4, word for word from the Septuagint Greek translation of the Old Testament most familiar to Jesus and His disciples

 The first word, orgizesthe, is a passive construction—roughly, it means to be provoked to passion or anger. So the first thing to note here is that the Psalm (and St Paul) are acknowledging that there are things in this world for which the right response is anger. I can think of a few: the poverty and hunger of millions while a tiny number of rich people keep everything for themselves; the oppression and exploitation of the weak by the strong; the injustice of thousands of innocent people dying at the hand of a state simply because they are too poor to afford expensive lawyers who can navigate a complex legal system; lies being peddled as truth for selfish purposes … the list could go on. If such things don’t get you at least a little hot under the collar, the question to ask is why not?

The last word in that quote, hamartanete, comes from the root word commonly used for the concept of sin in the Bible. Hamartia is missing the mark, failing to be what you were meant to be. Anger may be justified, but if misused, it makes you tremble so much that your aim goes astray and you miss your target. If the target is to right wrongs, unbridled or misdirected anger can make you the cause of even worse wrongs. If you are going to be angry, then, do not let your anger make you miss the mark.

How do we miss the mark? When is anger a sin?
Simply: whenever it contradicts the Gospel of love.

There is a difference between getting angry at someone who has slighted me and plotting my revenge upon him on the one hand, and getting angry at world poverty and being moved to action to do something about it. The first is motivated by self-love, the second, by love of others. The first leads to acts of violence that hurt others, the second to acts of charity that save others. The first breeds hatred, the second breeds gratitude. It is the first—this “wrath of man” untempered by divine love—that “does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20).

In brief, then, ‘good’ anger arises from ‘good’ motivations, is properly justified, and leads to ‘good’ actions and outcomes, while the reverse is true of ‘bad’ anger. Bad anger is a failure of love, but good anger is the appropriate expression of love. The proper purpose of anger is to move us to act against evil, whether in ourselves, or in our relationships with others, or in the communities we share with others. Arising from love, it is always tempered by love and by all the other virtues that come with love: wisdom, discernment, humility, truth.

 Another way to think about this is through the lens of the Stoic Greek philosophical concept of adiaphora—things that are ‘indifferent’ or neutral, neither good nor bad in themselves. The Stoics divided stuff up into three main categories. There is stuff that is intrinsically good—that’s basically the virtues, things like wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation. There is stuff that is intrinsically bad—that’s basically the vices, the opposites of the virtues, things like foolishness, injustice, cowardice, and excess. Everything else is indifferent(adiaphora)—neither good nor bad in itself, but capable of being used for good or bad.

There’s a couple of interesting things to notice here. Some of the indifferents tend towards being good, but can also be turned to bad. For example, health tends towards the good, but if I use my health break into a house and steal from a poor widow, then it has become bad, not good. Likewise, disease tends towards being bad, but can also be turned to good. For example, if my disease leads me to contemplate more deeply the meaning of life and become a wiser person, then it has become a good thing.

So where does anger fit into the Stoic system? It is an indifferent, neither good nor bad in itself, but it becomes so, depending on how you use it. Perhaps, like disease, it tends in practice more often to produce evil, but that should not discourage us from harnessing its power in the service of the good, along the lines I described above.

 One more qualification is helpful here, and it comes from St Paul again. “Do not let the sun go down on your wrath” (Ephesians 4:26). In order for anger to be good and remain good, it must be under control. Without control, anger can be more like a wild animal that rages without caring about the harm it does. So even when angry, I should continue to be sensitive to the reactions and feelings of the person in front of me. St Paul’s direction to put a time limit on anger suggests that good anger is anger that is under my control—I can tone it down or even let go of it all together when it is better to do so. And it is almost always better to do so within a relatively brief period of time. Prolonged anger is not only bad for my blood pressure (and that of those who have to bear it)—it also loses its effectiveness after a while. If it goes on too long, nobody pays attention to it anymore. It is wiser to reserve it for the things that really matter.

Anger is a very tricky beast to tame, yet it can move us to do great things. It should be approached with care, used sparingly, only when really necessary, and always practiced with self-control, unselfishness, and love. For most of us, it is not something we can completely cut out of our lives (nor perhaps, should we). But it is certainly something that can be tamed and turned to good. I’m so glad my understanding of anger has changed, but I’m a little cranky with myself that it took me so long to change it!

Original blog found at- http://www.frantonios.org.au/2020/05/08/on-anger/#more-935

The Fullness of Life

The Fullness of Life

Adapted from a sermon by Fr Mark Basily

Passage: John 15:26-16:15

We celebrate the feast of the Pentecost, 50 days after the crucifixion. The day after Pentecost, we start fasting again. On a day like this our minds consider, what are we going to eat tonight? What do we want to eat just before the fast? How much can we eat?

We get really full as though what we eat will sustain us for the next month or so of fasting. There is another kind of fullness that is taking place of this feast day, beyond eating. St Luke gives the entire passage of his description of what took place on the day of Pentecost.

He says, “When the day of Pentecost had fully come” (Acts 2:2). He mentions Pentecost as though the reader knew what is was. This was because Pentecost was a Jewish feast, celebrated 50 days after the Passover. Pentecost meant 50, like a pentagon has 5 sides, the Pentecost was celebrated 50 days after the Passover.

On the day of Pentecost, it was a celebration of the day that they received the law on Mount Sinai. It was also a time that they would bring the first fruits of the harvest. Many of the major Christian events take place on major Jewish dates. On these dates, Jews would travel to Jerusalem to partake of the feast. The Crucifixion took place on the day of Passover. This was to fulfil the law firstly. Also, there were thousands of people gathered from the surrounding villages to celebrate the Passover. When everyone is there and everyone can see, Christ is crucified.

Again, thousands of people flocking into Jerusalem for Pentecost to offer the fruit fruits of their harvest, and then, the Holy Spirit descends. Everyone is there to see, everyone can hear the message. This is why it was essential that the disciples could speak in different languages to cater for all the people that had come from surrounding villages. God uses prime time events for everyone to see and witness. St Luke says, “When the day of Pentecost had fully come. Why not just when the day had Pentecost had come? Why use the word fully?

Scholars suggest that St Luke was deliberately using this word as a running theme throughout his entire book of Acts;

  • Acts 2: 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
  • Acts 2:28. You will make me full of joy in Your presence.
  • Acts 4:8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit
  • Acts 4:31. and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
  • Acts 5:3. why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself?
  • Acts 6:5. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit
  • Acts 13:52. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.

These, among other examples, were St Luke’s way of emphasising the fullness of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit would fill them, would fill their lives, would fill their church.

This is the fullness we need to search for in our lives. To be filled with the Holy Spirit. St Seraphim of Sarov, a famous Russian monk of the 20th century, wrote a beautiful book called Acquiring the Holy Spirit.

 He says, “the aim of your Christian life is the acquisition of the Holy Spirit.”

“What do you mean by acquiring?” I asked St. Seraphim. “Somehow I don’t understand that.”

“Acquiring is the same as obtaining,” he replied. “Do you understand, what acquiring money means? Acquiring the Spirit of God is exactly the same. You know very well enough what it means to acquire in a worldly sense, your Godliness. The aim of ordinary worldly people is to acquire or make money; and for the nobility, it is in addition to receive honors, distinctions and other rewards for their services to the government. The acquisition of God’s Spirit is also capital, but grace-giving and eternal, and it is obtained in very similar ways, almost the same ways as monetary, social and temporal capital.

“God the Word, the God-Man, our Lord Jesus Christ, compares our life with the market, and the work of our life on earth He calls trading. He says to us all: “Trade till I come” (Lk. 19:13), “buying up every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:16). In other words, make the most of your time getting heavenly blessings through earthly goods. Earthly goods are good works done for Christ’s sake that confer the grace of the All-Holy Spirit, on us.”

Before we can even begin to obtain or acquire, we must know – who is the Holy Spirit? Mark Sidhom once asked a group of pre-servants to describe the characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

One said, “It’s the Comforter.” To which he responded, “Wrong.”

Another said, “It is the Spirit of God that fills your heart.” Again, wrong.

Something that makes you feel peaceful? Wrong.

This continued until finally he explained that the problem was that all these answers began with, “It’s.” The Holy Spirit is a Person. He is the Comforter. He is God’s Spirit that fills your heart. He is what gives you peace. He is a Person of the Holy Trinity. He is One whom we can have a relationship with. He is the One that we can be filled with. The Holy Spirit dwells in us that we can acquire Him, obtain Him, be filled with Him and live with Him.

This coming period of the Apostles fast in the time in which we acquire the Holy Spirit. Let us consider what a church that is full of the Holy Spirit looks like. What does a home that is filled with the Holy Spirit look like? What does a father that is filled with the Holy Spirit look like? A wife, a youth, a child? What do I look like when I am filled with the Holy Spirit. Let us spend this Apostles’ fast asking these questions.

? Full sermon ?

Patience

Patience

By John

Original post by Becoming Fully Alive blog site

Patience is a virtue.

I hate clichés with a passion, but I have a particular distaste for that one, and not because it’s not true – it is true.

I don’t like it for the same reason I hate it when people say “when you pray for patience, God will teach it to you by putting you in a situation that requires you to keep a cool head and endure an unpleasant experience.” This statement is not untrue, but it is not nearly the whole truth. It is almost so watered down that the virtue of patience has come to mean nothing more than being able to stay calm sitting in traffic or being able to stand behind an exceptionally slow old lady using coupons in line at the grocery store, when you are in a rush. While these are desirable characteristics in every human being, mastering these feats does not prove that you know anything about this fruit of the Spirit.

An Introduction to Patience

Many of the parables and teachings of Jesus incorporated the theme of farming/agriculture. Some examples include the Parable of the Sower casting seed on various types of soil, the story of the workers in the vineyard, or the many verses like:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches” (Matthew 13:31-32).

He continually references this process of planting, watering, watching the seed grow and bear fruit, and pruning so that the plant would bear more fruit. This process of planting a seed and eventually reaping its fruit takes a LONG time. Living in the era of the microwave and fast-food, we often times take this for granted – we probably never even think about how long it took a seed to grow into a tree to produce that apple we are biting into.

Jesus was a carpenter by occupation, so why did He reference farming so much? I believe it was because He wanted to emphasize the way God made the world, in the sense that everything has a process, and things take time to develop. A seed doesn’t produce fruit overnight in the same way that it takes time for a boy to develop into a man. These things require patience.

“See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient” (James 5:7-8)

Patience in Tribulation

Trials and tribulations are going to come into your life if you’ve decided to man up and follow after Christ. It’s not a matter of ‘if’ it’s a matter of ‘when.’ The Bible says so:

“and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12).

The question therefore becomes, not ‘why is this happening to me’ but ‘how am I going to respond to this.’ The Book of James has this to say:

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1:2-4)

Did you get that? Count it joy. Rejoice! Throw a party. Smile on the inside.

Why?

Because your patience is developing! And what’s going to happen when that happens? You will be perfect and complete… lacking nothing. That’s how important this whole patience thing is. Furthermore, the fire of tribulations burn away our imperfections, and the longer it takes, the better off we are in the end because He will have had more time to refine us.

God is always at work in us, especially in the tough times.

“Jesus said to them, My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” (John 5:17)

I encourage you to allow Him to work on you – to mold and purify you to become the man He created you to be.

Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. (James 5:11)

Patience in Prayer

So, you’re crying out to God in prayer and holding onto the verses like:

“If you ask anything in My name, I will do it” (John 14:14)

And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? (Luke 18:7)

…and nothing is happening…

You’re confused. You’re hurt. You’re lost.

You thought God said He would come through. You thought God would answer your prayer. I’ve been there. Actually, I am there, but I want to share something God has told me time and time again- the story is not over yet.

Who are we to put a timeline on God and His perfect plans? In the fullness of time He will act according to His good pleasure for our good and for His glory. We just have to keep going to Him in prayer. We cannot and should not be satisfied with an ‘unanswered prayer.’ Many people would interject at this point and argue: “Oh, if you pray for it and it doesn’t happen then it’s not His will.” This is such a cop out. It’s a phrase used to wrestle the conscience into submission so that you no longer feel the need to pray about this particular subject.

Instead of saying this, let’s wrestle like Jacob did to receive his blessing, let’s pour out our emotions before Him like King David did, and let’s not be afraid to call down fire from heaven like Elijah did. Let’s not give up … for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart (Galatians 6:9).

Our God is one that comes through – exceedingly abundantly above all we can even imagine (Ephesians 3:20). Zacharias and Elizabeth prayed for a child their entire lives, and it wasn’t until he was an ‘old man’, she was ‘well advanced in years’ that God finally blessed them with a baby boy. However, this was not any baby boy; this was John the Baptist, the one about whom Christ said “For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist” (Luke 7:28). Zacharias and Elizabeth got a pretty good deal, but would the story have been the same if they had given up praying?

God hears each and every single prayer, and there are no words prayed in vain if prayed with sincerity. In my heart I know that the longer you pray for something, the better it’ll be when He answers it. He stores up goodness for those who fear Him.

Patience with People

This is the most straightforward section there is, and probably the most difficult to practice.The first word used to describe love in the famous Corinthians passage is that it is patient. In order to have good relationships and really show our love to each other the way God intended; we need to be patient with one another. This is easier said than done, especially when it comes to our family and friends – with those we are most comfortable with.

When Jesus taught his disciples, He would sometimes express disappointment that they didn’t know something:

So, Jesus said, “Are you also still without understanding? (Matthew 15:16)

And again:

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? (John 14:9)

But the key is, He would always finish by explaining what He meant to them. He left us this example to follow: even though we might get frustrated with how slow, different, or just plain dumb we may think people are we need to bear these burdens with patience.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).

The world would be a different place if we learned to love each other as consistently and as patiently as God loves us.

Original blog found at- https://becomingfullyalive.com/patience/

The Greatest Gift of All

Prayer

Lord, please set my heart aflame with love for You. Let not my heart desire anything before You. Please grant me purity of heart that I may see You, feast upon Your beautiful countenance, and grow in love for You each day.

Lord, who can ever comprehend the height of Your love? For You loved me and died for me, even though I hurt You and continue to sin against You.

I love You, Lord, for you first loved me. To even see Your back, like Moses, would be enough for my cup to run over with the tremendous love You have for Your creation. Even when I am overwhelmed with Your love, I know it is still but a glimpse, a shadow, of Your limitless love.

Lord please grant me a heart like Yours – a heart over-flowing with love for my neighbour, even those who hurt and persecute me. Remove any trace of hatred or pride dear Lord, but rather grant me sacrificial love that seeks the comfort of others before my own, a love that would lay down its life for the sake of its friends. Amen.

The Greatest Gift of All

Focus Quote

“The Lord wants us to love one another. Here is freedom: in love for God and neighbour. In this freedom, there is equality. In earthly orders, there may not be equality, but this is not important for the soul. Not everyone can be a king, not everyone a patriarch or a boss. But in any position, it is possible to love God and to please Him, and only this is important. And whoever loves God more on this earth will be in greater glory in His Kingdom.”

St Silouan the Athonite

Love

The Greatest Gift of All

New Testament Passage

1 Corinthians 13

1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Discussion Questions

  1. Even the greatest sacrifices are worth nothing without love. It is not what we give, or how much we give, that matters, but rather the love that compels us to give what we can. How then, does that affect the way we give and receive?
  2. Love bears all things, regardless of how burdensome or grievous they may be. How does that affect our relationships and the way we interact with others?
  3. In what ways do we “show” people love rather than just saying, “I love you?”

Old Testament Passage

1 Samuel 18: 1-4

Now when he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 Saul took him that day and would not let him go home to his father’s house anymore. 3 Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armour, even to his sword and his bow and his belt.

Discussion Questions

  1. “… having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” (John 13:1). How can we love God and our neighbours every day?
  2. According to Gary Chapman, there are five ways we express and experience love. These five languages of love include: words of affirmation, acts of service, receiving gifts, quality time and physical touch. Is it necessary to demonstrate all five languages of love?
  3. How important is it to understand our partners / friends preferred language(s)?