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Well how else could they have won?!!?!

Todays Lectionary teaches us about: Resistance to False Teachers


It teaches us wisdom: Wisdom: Let Us Attend!


The Muslim men in the video didn't seem evil, but very misinformed about Christianity and the Holy Scriptures.  In need of being 'pulled out of the fire'.

Dear +Marmar+

I think first u should follow the advice of Christ4Life and find out if your Muslim friend is really willing to hear the word of God, or if he is just looking for argument. Is he really sincere in his quest for knowlege.? Because when Christ Himself told the Jews, His own people, that He was God; they tried to stone Him, to degrade Him:- John 8:58-59 Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM." Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
I watched the video. They said they believe Christ is the Word of God. John 1:1 states:- In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So if they really believe Jesus is the Word of God, they should understand He is God. John 12: 40 :- "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts, Lest they should see with their eyes. Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them." These are the words of Isaiah the Prophet who lived in ancient times and worshipped Jesus as God because he (Isaiah) knew the Holy Trinity.
They say no one has seen Gods face. Deuteronomy 5:4 :- The Lord spoke to you face to face on the mountain from the midst of the fire.
There are many Holy Scriptures where God states how He spoke to His chosen people face to face in the Old Testament days.
They say Chirst is not the Son of God. Matthew 17:5 :- While he was still speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"      I would ask as a servant of God, Muslim brothers and sisters: Hear Him!
I am not a great scholar as they spoke about. And the Word of God is easy to understand if one truely desires to.
They said that Christ does not wish us to worship Him. John 9:38 :- Then he said "Lord, I believe!" And he worshipped Him.
Christ did not say to this man, stop worshipping me, indeed He (Christ) encouraged it. Many other Holy Scriptures prove this.
I mean all Holy Scriptures refute what they said in that video.

+Marmar+  I will leave it at that for now. God be with you

That is certainly true of Governmental Aid, and people in the UK are increasingly opposed to such aid. We have been sending aid to Pakistan, for instance, while it has found the funds to build a nuclear deterrent. We have been sending aid to India, while it has found the funds to build a space industry.

But most US aid is charitable donations from ordinary people and businesses and is channelled thorugh charities and agencies. That seems to me to be entirely commendable. The US often does not get credit for being so generous at a personal level.

A few years ago I walked 100km with a friend and raised a few thousand pounds to build a school in Kenya. That was commendable I think. And the charity working in Kenya was also serious and well organised. But there is a big question in my mind about why Kenya is not providing schools for its own people?

The recent political violence in Kenya led to many deaths, but also the institution of a power sharing Government in which there are now two ministers for each ministry who are competing for influence and for access to the budget allocated for each ministry. This will create even greater mismanagement of the economy, resulting in an even greater dependence on aid to keep the country going.
 
It is these sort of political problems, and tribal and cultural ones, which have in most cases caused sub-Saharan countries to fail to achieve the potential that their natural resources would support. Nigeria is a massively wealthy nation, but most ordinary people see little of the wealth, and the country is often on the edge of civil violence. Is this a failure of Western donors? Or is it a local political and social problem? Would more money being sent to Kenya solve their problems? Or do the politicians of Kenya need to take more responsibility for their people's welfare?

I think that the $260 billion in aid which the US already gives is a very significant amount and that Americans should not feel that they don't do much to help people around the world. Over the past four decades aid to Africa has quadrupled.

Here is a piece about an $800 billion secret diamond mine that Mugabe is running with the Chinese military ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1313123/Robert-Mugabes-darkest-secret-An-800bn-blood-diamond-run-Chinas-Red-Army.html

Are the vast sums of money beging generated by this mine going to help the Zimbabwean people? I don't think so. It is this sort of corruption which is impoverishing the people of Africa, not a lack of donor aid.

Oh, this is so true Father Peter!!!

Living in Ethiopia showed me how evil and corrupt the world is.  Ethiopia has too many resources to count; yet people die of starvation there!!?? I do realize some people bring things on themselves, but I know the majority of people who find themselves in poverty are innocent.
  I even heard a man say on the Ethiopian radio: "Of course we have enough, but what do you want us to do give it away". I was like well yeh! I could hardly believe he had the nerve to make that statement!
The Devil is a Liar and Deceiver and has decieved the whole world

So praying long enough will make me learn self discipline perhaps you think

Of course! Praying long prayers will definately teach u self discipline. Get in the habit now while u r young and if God spares life, u will have a glorious old age to look forward too!
Have u ever heard the story of the man who God asked to push against a rock? The man pushed and pushed against the rock without budging it! The man felt like a failure and said so God. But God told him he hadn't failed, he had done just as God commanded and even though he had not moved the rock he had become firm, fit and strong from pushing against the rock. Prayer is like pushing against the rock user157; it will make u a better person in every way.
God bless u in your endeavors

There is so much suffering in this world! It is very difficult to remember to glory in our suffering for righteous; especially when it is Elders or children.
It gives this Lenten Time even more importance. To defeat evil everywhere!

God be with Patriarch Antonius, Christ heal him and the Holy Spirit comfort him.

Fr. JC Maximilian
My Homilies & Spiritual Reflections HomeAbout Me
A Homily for the 1st Sunday of Lent (C)
Posted by frjcmaximilian on Feb 21st, 2010
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[“The Temptations in the Desert” by Michael D. O’Brien, the author of Father Elijah: An Apocalypse and numerous other books. The artist’s commentary: “In the desert, Satan offers three temptations to Christ: to misuse his gifts for physical good, spiritual presumption, and worldly power. He tempts the Lord to make bread from stones, to throw himself from the Temple to test God, and to pay homage to Satan in exchange for authority over the kingdoms of this world. Jesus rejects each offer with Scripture. He seeks only the will of his Father in heaven, the goods and the authority that are given from above.”]

As we begin the season of Lent, we should ask ourselves some difficult questions: am I a better Christian now than I was a year ago? Am I holier? Am I more like Christ? Am I really becoming the saint that God created me to be?
       
These questions can make us very uncomfortable, but Lent is a time for us to be uncomfortable. Jesus loves us too much to allow us to be lazy. Like a good coach, Jesus is always encouraging us to grow and improve.
       
Unfortunately, for many of us, we are not improving in our spiritual life as much as we should. We might be progressing in our professional life, in school, perhaps even physically, but in our spiritual life we have “plateaued”. We still struggle with the same temptations, the same sins. Too many are really just “mediocre” Christians who just do the bare minimum in following the rules of the Church. For them, faith is just a set of tasks to check off on their to-do list. They lack a real, personal relationship with Jesus.
       
The reason for our lack of progress in our spiritual life, is that we often fail to get to the real roots of our selfishness. We want to follow Christ faithfully, but we do not do so intelligently. We keep trying to cut off the branches of impatience, or greed, or lust, or dishonesty, but the roots are still intact, so the branches just keep growing back. In Jesus’ temptation in the desert, the devil makes the mistake of exposing the three roots of all our sins. In each one of us, one of these roots is bigger and stronger than the others (though we all have all three). If we can identify which is our main root sin, we can direct our spiritual work more intelligently, and really start making progress as Christians.
       
At its heart, sin is a rebellion against God. God created us for happiness, which can only be found fully when we live in communion with Him. St. Augustine writes somewhere, that “sin is beautiful.” That might seem shocking, but what St. Augustine had in mind is that sin always involves trying to find happiness someplace other than in communion with God. These other places are what we mean by the word “idol,” and in today’s Gospel reading Jesus’ three temptations correspond to the three main idols which continue to tempt us. J.R.R. Tolkien, in his famous trilogy, “The Lord of the Rings,” vividly portrays what happens to people who worship these idols.
       
First there is the idol of PLEASURE. Jesus is first tempted to “command these stones to turn to bread.” For many of us, we want something more than just bread. We want fast cars, the finest clothing, the biggest house, the latest gizmo, sex, drugs, alcohol, etc. You name it, we often get trapped into wanting the greatest physical pleasure. Now most of these things are not evil in and of themselves. In fact most are good; God created them, and He does not create evil. However, in none of them will we find real, complete, eternal happiness. When we worship the idol of pleasure we are like Gollum, Tolkien’s slimy, murderous villain who only cares about satisfying his fleshly desires. In the end, Gollum does get his “Precious,” and he smiles the whole way as he falls into the lava of Mt. Doom. Jesus tells Satan, and us, that what will give us real life is listening to the Word of God.
       
The second idol is power. Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth and offers to give Him, “all this power and glory.” This week, on hearing about the death of former Secretary of State, Alexander Haig, I recalled his famous words after President Reagan was shot, “I’m in charge.” Not many of us will get the power to run a country, but how often do we give in to wanting to be in charge? Maybe it is being in charge of conversations, of our relationships, of the PTA, the Knights of Columbus, our neighbor watch. Leadership is also a very good personal quality, but we need to keep in mind that leadership is always given to us for the service and welfare of others, not for our own sake. One of the biggest temptations of power is trying to run our own life, telling God what we need and what He should do for us. Saruman was a good wizard who at first desired the ring of power so he could govern the world better. But that thirst for power enslaved him. It enslaves us too, if we look for happiness in having control over things and people. Again Jesus demonstrate how to resist the temptation of power, “You shall worship the Lord, your God, and Him alone shall you serve.” In other words, we need to be humble.
       
The final idol is that of popularity. By tempting Jesus to throw Himself off the Temple, Satan wanted Jesus to impress the crowds. We all like to be liked by others. Again, there is nothing wrong in being liked, in itself. However we become like Shelob, the gigantic spider who spins webs to trap and devour others when we make popularity our idol. Our thirst for popularity turns us into monsters, spinning webs of intrigue and lies, destroying other people to climb the social ladder. Or we fail to tell people the truth of Jesus Christ — perhaps not challenging those persisting in sin to “turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel” — because we are afraid of being disliked.
       
Which one of these three is most influential in your life? It’s important to discover our root sin. Each of us should know where we are most vulnerable to temptation. Otherwise the devil can blindside us.
       
One of the most effective ways to advance on the path of self-knowledge is by going to confession regularly. Frequent, regular confession forces us to take stock of our sins and failings, to look honestly at all the manifestations of our selfishness, not just the big ones. Together with the guidance of the confessor, this self-examination gradually allows you to get at the roots of what is holding you back.
       
Do we really want to grow in our Christian lives, to become better followers of Jesus Christ, better witnesses of his Kingdom, wiser parents, more courageous professionals, more loving spouses and friends? To do so, we must discover our root sin, and constantly hack away at it. And there’s no better way to do that than by making the commitment to come regularly to confession.

Excuse me, my question is being misunderstood. I'll try again.

I have read about orthodox christians who keep the feasts celebrating, commemorating, their patron saints on the corresponding day faithfully.  I was just wondering how they celebrate those feast days during FASTING days?