https://tasbeha.org/community/categories/faith-issues/p40/feed.rss Mon, 22 Jun 2026 13:21:58 +0000 Faith Issues - Tasbeha.org Community en-CA https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9324/why-christianity-as-well-as-its-confusing-parts-and-its-best-parts Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:09:11 +0000 jfarag92 9324@/community/discussions
In addition, i want to know all the questions/paradoxes you have whether about the bible or the faith, so that they can be sorted out and corrected.  in addition, many non-christians and those with weak faith will have similar problems with the faith and knowing the answers will help guide them on the right path. 
also post questions or problems that you know some other christians/non-christians have, so we can sort all them out.

so this thread should help us to strengthen our own faith as well as planting the seed in others.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9246/personality-disorders-demonic-possessions Tue, 18 May 2010 14:18:29 +0000 Sheba 9246@/community/discussions
Share your thoughts!

Sheba]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9348/before-holy-communion Thu, 10 Jun 2010 09:42:58 +0000 Tzegemariam 9348@/community/discussions
I was wondering what do between the period after confessing and before Holy Communion?

What kind of things should we be doing BEFORE recieving it?

Thanks and May God Bless you all and help you to answer this question.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9364/optional-room Tue, 15 Jun 2010 13:09:22 +0000 sheba1 9364@/community/discussions
Some misconceptions I observed:-

1. Am I protestant?

No! I am Ethiopian. A person cannot be a protestant and Ethiopian at the same time. An Ethiopian stretches his hands to God; but, I seriously doubt it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that a protestant stretches his hands to.

2. Am I saying the Sacrament of Confession is not necessary?

No! How can a person live without confession? But, what I am saying the role of the priests is misconceived in the implementation of this particular Sacrament; and this misconception most likely originated from the Roman Catholic Church (even recently, they used to tell their bishops to institute strong practice of confession in their colonies so that surveillance becomes easy on the population… that is well documented).

3. Am I saying a person doesn’t need the help of priests because I observed some “small achievements” in my spiritual life and felt a bit arrogant, as Father Peterfarrington suspected?

No! Rather the opposite happened when I realized that I am supposed to confess without any postponing since the Holy Spirit is in the hearts and minds of me, just like every other Christian. I opened my eye to see how arrogant I was formerly by assuming that from the hundreds of sins I commit especially by thinking and speaking, I just tell my priest those that stood out for me and stuck to my memory for one reason or another and I assume that I am “good to go” and my priest comforts me and “confirms” that I can go…. How arrogant was I? In fact, that was all I could do since that was as realistic as it can get. But that seriously blocked my speed to discern and spit out every bad thought I had, and regret and ask for God’s mercy for every good thing I didn’t do (that is a sin, isn’t it?), every bad emotion I didn’t understand the cause of, and so on. No one can list all the hundreds of “seemingly little” things (perhaps by putting them under big category) everyday and tell those to the priest without forgetting some; the solution is confessing to the Lord as soon as the person realizes they are happening. In that case, we will be saved from all the paradoxical suggestions we give to other people such as “after confession and before holy communion, you can confess your sins directly to the Lord if you are in the church or on your way to the church or it is a matter of couple of hours of difference;” and “unless a person tells his sins to the abuna, he will go to hell” or “he is arrogant” and the like. Can the two go together? Aren’t we complicating things and making it hard to develop the habit of directly seeing the Lord in spirit whenever we notice our sins? Aren’t we trivializing the sacrament? Aren’t we pushing ourselves into tearless and shameless “reporting” of sins because of human inconveniences? Isn’t that self-imprisoning? Of course it is. We will only be liars if we say “it isn’t.” There is no evidence better than this very problem raised by Thanks be to God Always when she was asking for an advice on what to do about the sins she commits before communion and after confession.

4. When I say I tell those situations that I feel I need advice on, do I mean I “keep some sins to myself” and confess selectively?

No! I have nothing to keep to myself in the first place, because I confess them to the Holy Spirit whenever I notice them. It is only if I “save” them to tell to a priest that I will actually be “keeping them to myself.” But I don’t keep them. I spit them out! I ask advice on them if they are recurrent, emotionally very hearting, confusing, or not clear with what their implications would be and I feel like I need someone to talk to. That is what priests are ordained for, isn’t it? After all, my priest is concerned to my overall wellbeing, and he just cannot dismiss the discussion of spiritual life. But the heart knows the way with regard to when to ask the priest (or even others) for a piece of advice. We even ask for advice on forums, don’t we?

5. Is “abesku geberku” the same us “muttering”?

Yes-only for those who mutter it for the sake of muttering. There are billions today who mutter “God!” “Jeez,” “Holy Mother Mary!” “O Lord!” simply for the sake of exaggeration of a situation or because of some habit of “muttering.”  That doesn’t dismiss, for example, Thomas’s use of the word “My God!” “My Lord!” which was genuine and was a creed to acknowledge that Jesus is God. After all, there is no term intentionally created to be meaninglessly muttered or screamed.

6. Is what I am talking about against the bible?

No! There are various examples of repenting ON THE SPOT and DIRECTLY TO GOD without waiting to meet a priest or another person:

1. Peter- he confessed to Christ in spirit
2. The tax collector- isn’t he Jesus’ favorite example?
3. King David - He always confessed to God in Spirit;
6 I am worn out from groaning;
       all night long I flood my bed with weeping
       and drench my couch with tears.
7 My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
       they fail because of all my foes.
8 Away from me, all you who do evil,
       for the LORD has heard my weeping.
9 The LORD has heard my cry for mercy;
       the LORD accepts my prayer.
10 All my enemies will be ashamed and dismayed;
       they will turn back in sudden disgrace.
He was at the same time humble to consult prophet Natan whenever necessary.

This one is for sample (Psalm, 6). I don’t know what we make of the whole Psalms of David if we believe that a sin cannot be forgiven unless it is told to a priest. David wouldn’t have become God’s favorite if he believed so.

I also don’t know how we understand Jesus’ interference whenever the disciples or other people think of things wrongly even if they didn’t say it out loud or directly to Him (e.g., when the disciples debated who is the greatest among them; when the people at the house of Simon thought Jesus wouldn’t have accepted the woman’s perfume had He known she was a prostitute, and so on). He doesn’t keep on preaching this and that is bad and wait until they realize they were wrong and confess it to Him. He corrected them ON THE SPOT! He “pops” (as one participant on this forum correctly suggested) when He sees the necessity. He can do the same thing in us today if we allow Him to. He is in us, isn’t He? We eat His Flesh and drink His Blood; don’t we? After all, isn’t what Isaiah prophesized at 54:13 “All your sons will be taught by the LORD, and great will be your children's peace” reiterated by Jesus specifically when He taught about what His Flesh and Blood will do for Christians? (John 6:25-59). After all, isn’t this what priests should always teach their children about?

I have no intention of convincing anyone this way or that. But, we shouldn’t formularize the work of the Holy Spirit. We will only be hurting ourselves. We swill benefit alot by building a strong relationship with the Holy Spirit using the advices of preists or others who have well-developed apiritual life and experiences. I have no better example than my own father who was a passionate Marxist-socialist during the previous regime, but was always a good hearted person and used to go to church may be a couple of times a year to pray for his family and confess his sins exactly the way the tax collector did. He never waited even to go to church or to a priest to confess. He “mutters” it, if he has to; and none of that has formula! He was always genuine. He used to pray to St. Michael begging him to give him purity of spirit to forgive others (he told us that later). He grew out of his Gold-less beliefs and he now regularly goes to church; and he is spiritually very strong than before. He is more respectful to priests today than before; and he is interested in spiritual discussions. So, what do we make of such cases? Is he arrogant? Fool? No! He was genuine; he was taught by the Lord. That is all.

Sheba

]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9337/god-s-involvement Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:50:19 +0000 gregorytheSinner 9337@/community/discussions
Which got me wondering, do we really believe that God is involved in such trivial things; things that have nothing to do with spirituality?  I remember hearing a priest relay the story of a man, who kept asking the priest to seek God's guidance in helping him choose a car.  From the way the priest spoke, I got the feeling that God really doesn't care whether you buy the Honda Accord or the Civic.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9346/i-love-church Wed, 09 Jun 2010 22:42:45 +0000 abanoub2000 9346@/community/discussions
Advice? ]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9230/feeling-cold-when-praying Thu, 13 May 2010 04:40:46 +0000 binC 9230@/community/discussions Dear all,

I feel very cold after prayer. Sometimes shivering cold why??? any relation between prayer and cold? I always feel a cold breeze when praying.
]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9306/conversion Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:03:15 +0000 [Deleted User] 9306@/community/discussions The user and all related content has been deleted.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9303/how Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:00:55 +0000 geomike 9303@/community/discussions https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9323/the-jews Fri, 04 Jun 2010 17:31:58 +0000 gregorytheSinner 9323@/community/discussions
Granted, they were stubborn hypocrites, who refused to notice that Jesus was God, but in my opinion they refused to accept Him as a savior because they were sticking to their fathers' faith.  It's what they knew to be true.

I understand they should've known their scriptures, [and the prophesies] but putting myself in their shoes, I really doubt a person of with a 'less than normal' spiritual level would have been able to accept our Lord Christ as the Messiah .  Not to mention, that when it comes to religion, everyone is defensive of his own. 

For the sake of clarity, I'm not agreeing with the Jew's stubborness and refusal to accept the Light.  I'm just wondering if we modern-day Christians, hold them in a negative light, more than we should.

If I have at all erred, please do NOT refrain from correcting me.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9286/location Wed, 26 May 2010 20:35:24 +0000 [Deleted User] 9286@/community/discussions The user and all related content has been deleted.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9269/the-trinity Sun, 23 May 2010 18:57:13 +0000 [Deleted User] 9269@/community/discussions The user and all related content has been deleted.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9245/get-closer-to-god Tue, 18 May 2010 13:22:06 +0000 roubir2010 9245@/community/discussions https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9214/icoptic-library-available-on-itunes Sat, 08 May 2010 12:47:41 +0000 eattia 9214@/community/discussions http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icoptic-library/id366401751?mt=8

Also, please check the Synaxarium and Psalmody to be released shortly.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icoptic-synaxarium/id368203114?mt=8

God Bless
]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9254/sarkis Thu, 20 May 2010 19:57:43 +0000 [Deleted User] 9254@/community/discussions The user and all related content has been deleted.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9234/abba-seraphim-ascension-day-homily Fri, 14 May 2010 16:41:59 +0000 peterfarrington 9234@/community/discussions
He preached a good sermon, and I am linking it here.



I hope some others enjoy it too.

Father Peter]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9221/i-just-want-to-share-this Tue, 11 May 2010 12:46:05 +0000 roubir2010 9221@/community/discussions     part 1

                  part 2

pray for me ]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9210/samson-and-delilah Fri, 07 May 2010 15:46:25 +0000 Zoxsasi 9210@/community/discussions
WHat are your contemplations on this story. I find it so fascinating and touching. But what can you learn from this?
What do our Church fathers tell us about this remarkable and sad story.

Why was Samson's strength in his hair? Why was that? What is the spiritual significance of that?

I get the impression, that we should not flaunt or show off our talents, nor waste them foolishly, but rather use them for God's Glory. But I just feel, in fact, im 1000% sure there is more to this story than just a simple message of staying away from women.

Thanks]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9209/girl-in-my-class Fri, 07 May 2010 12:03:52 +0000 Tzegemariam 9209@/community/discussions

I had a situation today that occured where this girl was telling me that
Christianity was first a cult!!!
She was agnostic and had a lot of other false ideas, i didn't know where to start with her.
She said Christianity orginated from Paganism...

What do i tell her? I know this is false but how do i put it in words???

Thank you so much and may God help you all to answer this...

May God Bless ]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9206/arabic-bible-available-on-itunes Thu, 06 May 2010 14:01:32 +0000 eattia 9206@/community/discussions http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/arabic-bible/id370398137?mt=8

God Bless]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9187/hello-please-help Sun, 02 May 2010 20:22:23 +0000 Sevant of Jesus Christ 9187@/community/discussions https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9194/where-is-god Mon, 03 May 2010 23:03:57 +0000 jfarag92 9194@/community/discussions -so darkness is not its own entity, but rather the lack of light
-evil is defined the same way, but as the lack of good(God)
-but how is this possible if God is omnipresent?
-is it like noise-cancelling headphones where the sound exists but something is opposing it, making the sound seemingly non-existent- still there but not received

what is your take/interpretation on this?


fyi-noise cancelling headphones work by producing a sound with the opposite of the outside noise, cancelling the noise and making quiet- for the wearer 
]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9109/one-of-the-most-difficult-concepts Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:42:40 +0000 Sevant of Jesus Christ 9109@/community/discussions https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9151/coptic-orthodox-bible-commentary Fri, 23 Apr 2010 20:15:03 +0000 Zoxsasi 9151@/community/discussions
What is the recommended Orthodox Bible Commentary? Is there a commentary available that explains what the Church fathers said about EACH word in the Gospels, and the Old Testament?

I'm ok if there's just a general Orthodox version; that would be good as well.

Thanks]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9189/feeling-the-presence-of-god Mon, 03 May 2010 00:51:39 +0000 egyboy 9189@/community/discussions
with that said, does anyone have any good e-books or sermons(english or arabic) that would be beneficial to this topic?
thanks in advance and please pray for me and my weakness]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9167/abu-nofer Tue, 27 Apr 2010 18:25:46 +0000 MeeMz 9167@/community/discussions Hello Everyone :)

I was wondering if anyone knows where I can find the life story for St. Abu Nofer?]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9160/voice-importance Mon, 26 Apr 2010 21:22:02 +0000 deaconmark123 9160@/community/discussions

-Yea i know its not about the voice its about the heart and all that, but some things like this i just cant get off my mind its just wayy to much. its almost like that math problem that you know you can solve but you just take so long you give up. i just need help because im mentally ill, and i and nonetheless the worst of out of many people, and im not kidding this is one of the problems the devil makes me deal with day in and day out. So back on topic i need help anyone? someone? ]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9154/no-one-knows-the-hour-only-the-father Sun, 25 Apr 2010 19:00:52 +0000 Zoxsasi 9154@/community/discussions
But wouldn't Christ know also the hour?

Thanks]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9078/martyrs Tue, 06 Apr 2010 15:27:24 +0000 [Deleted User] 9078@/community/discussions The user and all related content has been deleted.]]> https://tasbeha.org/community/discussion/9145/slain-in-spirit-speaking-in-tongues Wed, 21 Apr 2010 23:35:30 +0000 Zoxsasi 9145@/community/discussions
I came across this video, and I HAD to post it under its own thread. Its absolutely hilarious, and at the same time, really closes the door on this nonsense called "slain in Spirit".



ENJOY!!!]]>