The borne blind

Posted on Apr 14, 2019 in Post of the Week |

 
We arrived today for the seventh Sunday of the Great Fast and The Gospel for today is about the man who was borne blind, the Gospel of St John.
The story is well known. A man who was borne blind and when the LORD JESUS put some mud over his eyes and asked him to go and wash in the lake of Siloam, he did and came back fully sighted.
He came back fully sighted means that he could see.
In the book of Revelation “Rev 3:18 And anoint your eyes with eye salve, so that you may see.”
If you want to see then anoint your eyes with eye salve, means use the eye drops. Anyone who is blind uses eye drops to be cured and can see again, the Gospel (the word of GOD) is the eye salve.
For this HE taught us and said “Mat & Luke 4:4 “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”God
Every Word can do miracles, one single verse can change the life of a man, and the borne blind became sighted by the Word of GOD.
But the LORD JESUS gave him a task that needs some effort “go and wash”, HE was able to cure him there and then, but HE wanted him to have a part, to do something.
Our lives can be much better than what it is now, our problems can be all salved very easily, if the Bible grows more in our life’s, so our role is to treasure the Word of GOD, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, psalm by psalm our life changes. The saints became sanctified by the Word of GOD.
Of course the Word of GOD can make changes, the borne blind man was able to see by the Word of GOD, but, the matter needs (go—-wash), you have to do something, when the borne blind man obeyed the advice he became sighted. Good News

The Samaritan woman

Posted on Mar 31, 2019 in Post of the Week |


Today’s Gospel is about the Samaritan woman, or we may say about the meeting of the LORD JESUS with the Samaritan woman.  I don’t think that any Christian does not know the story of the Samaritan woman mentioned in the Gospel of St john chapter 4.
The Church cares about this chapter and read it three times throughout the year, in the Holy Great Lent, during the Holy Fifty days after the Easter and in the evening of the feast of the Pentecost.
The Church also insists that during the Great Holy Lent there should be a Sunday known as the Sunday of the Samaritan, this is in the middle of the Lent, the 4th Sunday.  
The meeting of the LORD JESUS with the Samaritan woman proofs a very important point, and that is the LORD GOD loves all of mankind.  There was a great enmity between the Jews and the Samaritans. but, the LORD JESUS is not just a simple Jew, HE is the Saviour of the whole World, HE was the one about WHOM it was said “John 3:15 so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” HE loved the whole world, Samaritans, and Egyptians…….70 nations mentioned in the book of Genesis all of them were loved by the LORD JESUS.
1- The choice of the LORD JESUS to deal with the Samaritan woman was a proof that our LORD JESUS CHRIST has no enmity with no one of the mankind, if this person was a Jew HE would have dealt with him to lead him to Heave, if he was a Gentile HE would have dealt with him to lead him to heaven, if he was an atheist HE would have dealt with him to lead him to Heaven, if this person was a Samaritan desecrating the true belief with idolatries beliefs HE would have dealt with him to lead him to Heave, HE cares about everyone and was ready to even die for him, the LORD JESUS “1Ti 2:4  who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
2- In the Great Lent the Church is giving us a great hope that no matter my sins were or my weaknesses the LORD JESUS is seeking me to save me, if HE has walked for more than 6 hours to meet with this Samaritan woman and to sit talking to her for a long time, doesn’t this teach us not to belittle or disgrace the sinners?
It is very important that we know that the meeting of the LORD JESUS with the Samaritan woman ended with:
1- The Samaritan woman was changed to a preacher for the LORD JESUS when she went back into Samaria and said “John 4:29 Come see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Is this One not the Christ?”
2- John 4:39-40  And many of the Samaritans of that city believed upon Him, they begged Him that He would stay with them. And He stayed there two days.
3- The LORD JESUS stayed in Samaria for two more days, isn’t this strange, HE is a Jew and yet stayed with the Samaritans talking, eating and sleeping with them and they even said “John 4:42
4- The LORD JESUS made one’s peace between the Jews and the Samaritan when HE has said to HIS disciples “Act 1:8 But you shall receive power, the Holy Spirit coming upon you. And you shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Good News


Sunday of the treasures

Posted on Mar 10, 2019 in Post of the Week |

 
 
Today, Sunday, is the first Sunday of the Great Lent and the church calls it the Sunday of the treasures and some people calls as the One Choice Sunday. This is because the Lord says  “Mat 6:19-20  Do not lay up treasures on earth for yourselves, where moth and rust corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up treasures in Heaven for yourselves, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.”  The one should choose the treasure that is on the Heaven and not the one on the Earth.  HE also says “Mat 6:24 No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” you have to choose one either God or money.
In the Gospel you will find two commandments that are repeated throughout the Lent, these two commandments follows us all the time.
One is do not worry and the other is do not judge.
In the beginning of this fast, the LORD JESUS is telling us not to be worried about our food, drinks, clothes or money and HE is giving to me a very logical argument and telling me  ; and all these things shall be added to you.”  So why are you so worried? Even If you are worried about your children, the Lord consoles us when He says they are more precious to me than they are to you. “Mat 7:11  If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him?”  Then HE gives me another promise “Mat 6:32 “For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things.”  Why are you so worried then?  HE knows…..GOD knows quite well all what you need so we should not be troubled.
The commandment of do not judge does not only mean that you should not condemn others by words only, you are judging people by your eyes or by your thoughts even if you say nothing, but unfortunately we always talk.
The LORD JESUS when they brought to HIM the woman who was caught in the very act, all the people saw her as a sinner who deserves to be stoned, but our LORD JESUS did not concentrate on her sin but on how to save her and how to defend her……..all the people were there with the stones ready in their hands to stone her.  The LORD JESUS made it clear for them that if you want to stone her then you will have to stone yourselves first, HE said to them “John 8:7 He who is without sin among you.” She is a sinner and so are you, she deserves to be stoned and so are you, so let he who is without a sin stone her, and so they all went out.
. During this holy fast, we need to rid ourselves of the two great sins of worry and condemnation of others.
It is not right that I fast, attend the Holy Liturgy, have the Holy Communion and read the Bible daily and still worry (work, children, food, drinks and clothes), also it is not right to be in the Church and fasting while I am looking at all the congregation members judging them, exactly like what the Pharisee did with the tax collector, by doing this you have lost the fast and the prayer because you don’t know how to love the others around you.
So from the beginning of this holy lent fast, it is highly important to remember this two commandments of do not worry and do not judge. The person who fasts and forgets about food and drink should also forget about worry and leave matters in the Lord’s hands.
The person who fasts should know how to love people, show them mercy, accept them and defend them.
May the LORD grant us a blessed and holy fast. Good News

Prepare for Great Lent

Posted on Mar 4, 2019 in Post of the Week |

 
I have good news. Tomorrow we start the Great Lent. We are glad that the Lent is about to begin and off course you know that this Lent is the greatest of all fasts, our fathers used to consider it “The storing season. So please, don’t let the fast end without storing some spiritual stock that could benefit you far the entire year.
Why I fast?
The reason for the fast is to declare that my life is by God not by the food.as Jesus said “Man, shall not live by bread only, but by every world that comes from the mouth of God”. and when the devil fights man; he fights him through his physical needs. Thus the first test that man failed to pass was when the devil tempted him to eat from the fruit that God told him not to eat. And the devil fights people by the same way till our day today, he tempts them during the fast to eat and stop fasting but we have to win our fight with the devil and declare our obedience to Jesus Christ and our unity with him because He was the first to fast this fasting. So when we fast we share with Jesus His fast as well.
I need a very simple training in this Lent, I will call it: Dispensing all what is unnecessary.
Look for something that is unnecessary for you and spare it. It might be something that you got used to do, but if you left it you are not going to be harmed. for example: someone may have got used to watch T.V. a lot, he could stop this during the fast telling himself that it’s unnecessary.
May be others stay or 5 or 6 hours on Facebook, during fasting. I could tell myself that half an hour is quite enough, staying away from the media for a while wouldn’t harm me.
Someone else might be used to talk on the phone for long times, so during fasting he could put his phone on offline mode more and opens it for short periods to take the important calls and finishes fast then turns it. Offline again, as if the phone too is fasting. Anything I feel that it is unnecessary for my life and that I can live without it, I should dispense it. Then I will be saving more time and I will find out that I had a lot of time and I wasted it on useless stuff. Then I could benefit this time I saved; for the students, they could spend it studying, for the servants, they could more services. I could use it for reading and studying the Holy Bible or doing spiritual activities.
I could benefit from it by improving relationships with people whom I haven’t been asking about for a long times and starts communicating more and serving people. Then in this situation, the fast is not just changing the kind of food we eat or its timing but we changed some bad habits we used to do.
A blessed year to all of you, and hope this fast would be a blessing to everyone and every house. Amen. Good News

Parable of the Farmer

Posted on Nov 13, 2018 in Post of the Week |

Today’s Gospel is about one of the parables of the LORD JESUS, it is the parable of the farmer who went out to sow his field. This parable was mentioned in the three gospels, St Mathew, Mark and Luke, it is a very simple parable but has got very deep meaning.

This parable talks about all those who hear the word of the LORD GOD. The farmer is the same farmer and the seeds are also the same seeds, but with some people it yielded fruits and with the others it did not, that is because it depends on the soil into which the seeds had been sown, this is the main aim of the parable. Read more…


Rising from death the son of the widow of Nain

Posted on Nov 9, 2018 in Post of the Week |

 
In today’s Gospel the LORD JESUS is approaching a city called Nain, and Nain means joy.  The LORD JESUS entered this city of Nain but although it means joy HE found a very sad seen.  HE found a funeral procession and the deceased was the only son for a widow in that city.  A very tough situation in a city whose name is supposed to means joy.  The LORD JESUS went into the city and approached the grieving widow and HE had compassion for her and said “Luke 7:13 And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, Do not weep. “And HE went forward and touched the bier and said to the young deceased man   “Luke 7:14-15 And He came and touched the bier. And the ones who bore him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say to you, Arise! And the one who was dead sat up and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother.”  Read more…

Jesus and the Blind Man

Posted on Oct 31, 2018 in Post of the Week |

Today’s Gospel is from the book of St Mathew chapter 12 and it is about a simple quick miracle done by the LORD JESUS, a blind man possessed by the devil and he was dumb was brought to the LORD JESUS and HE cured him.  The dumb spoke and became sighted.
We are in front of two acts here, the act of the devil and the act of GOD the LORD.
The work of the devil detaches the man from himself, the others and from GOD Almighty.  Always the work of the devil is to detach and separate, on the contrary, the work of GOD Almighty unites and gather together.
When the demon possesses someone, the first thing he does is to detach him from himself, he makes him unaware of himself so that this man will not look to himself and discover that he is living in sin, he separates him from those around him so that he will not look to the others and to know their needs and thus work to satisfy those needs. He separates him from GOD.  When a man is separated from himself and from those around him, he is actually separated from the LORD GOD.  He separates him from the LORD GOD so that he cannot communicate with GOD, dumb, unable to talk to GOD nor with those around him.  Blind, he cannot see GOD or HIS acts, and so the man who is possessed by the devil is a dead man, this is the work of the devil. Read more…

The Nayrouz Feast

Posted on Sep 17, 2018 in Post of the Week |

Today is the first Sunday of the Coptic year 1735. The Psalm for today says “Psalm 65:11 You crown the year with Your goodness” and the word goodness means good things, so we are asking the LORD GOD to bless the crown of the year with HIS goodness even if we are not worthy because even when we are not trustful HE remains trustful.

Today we must pray so that this New Year will be filled with spiritual work, the love of GOD, repentance, and close attachment with the LORD GOD. We pray so that this New Year will be filled with joy, peace, filled with our love and helping for each other. Read more…


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