Synaxis of the Church

‭Zephaniah‬ ‭3:17‬ ‭NKJV‬
          [17] The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.”
          
          
          There are times when we experience the storm, and it seems like it will never end, like the battle is always ongoing and prolonged and once it is finally gone, another one arises as you celebrate the rainbow after the storm.
          As children of the Most High, we are not free from the burden and pain of living on this Earth but instead, we just seem to be the ones who face more pain than the other people. And we ask the Lord, "Why? Why me, Lord? What have I done to deserve such insurmountable pain? Have I not served you with all I knew? Have I not submitted it all to you, not leaning on my own understanding? Why does it seem like the more faith I put in you, my problems just keep on increasing? Why?"
          
          These are questions we ask ourselves and truly we might never know the true answers to these questions but the Lord does not wish for His daughters and sons to suffer, He only wishes for their peace and all He asks of you is just a little more faith that any situation can turn around if you can hand it to the Lord. There is nothing that the Lord cannot do for you.
          
          Encourage yourself and gain strength in knowing that the God of Job will restore you ten-fold
          
          Remember to praise the Lord even when in the valley and not only when you are on the mountaintop because that's where things seem scary and painful but that's where true faith is built. Trust Him, I promise, He won't disappoint you. For He knows the plans He has for you, to make you prosper and not to perish. Much love!
          - Goodness 

‭Luke‬ ‭6:36‬ ‭KJV
          
          [36] Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. 
          
          
          What does the word, "mercy" mean? Mercy in short is forgiving and showing compassion (loving) to those who hurt and harm you.
          
          It isn't easy to give the person who hurt you the other cheek, it isn't easy to forget the pain they put you through, and it isn't easy praying for your enemies, knowing that they only harbour hate for you. You are seen as a fool, as a coward among people when you love your enemy. When you refuse to fight back when provoked. It isn't easy.
          
          But each day, our strength is renewed and each day we become more like Jesus and Jesus was the epitome of mercy. He forgave us former sinners and offered Himself as a living sacrifice so that we could receive eternal life, but did we deserve the mercy?
          
          No, we did not deserve it but the Lord still offered us mercy because of His love for us.
          
          Being merciful to those who hurt you does not make you weak, or fickle, or someone without a backbone, who cannot stand up for themselves. It makes you more like Jesus, it helps the person see the image of Christ in you.
          
          So, if there is anyone who you have not forgiven or offered mercy to, do so today, not because they deserve it but because it might just change them and you.
          
          - Goodness 

 #1 
          What's the difference of the Bible between Orthodox, catholic and Protestant church?
          The Protestant Church has 66 books
          Orthodox and Catholic have 73 books
          At the beginning, I make it clear that there is no disagreement between these churches over the books of the New Testament: 27
          The Old Testament has 10 more books than the Protestant edition I will name now:
          1. The book of Tobit (Both orthodox and catholics have)
          2. The book of Judith (same as above)
          3. The book of Esther + a continuation (same as above)
          4. Book of Psalms +Psalm 151 (same as above)
          5. The book of Wisdom (same as above)
          6. The book of Joshua Son of Sirach (same as above)
          7. The book of Baruch (+the letter of Jeremiah (same as above)
          8. The First book of Meccabees (same as above)
          9. The second book of Meccabees (same as above)
          10. The third book of Meccabees (canon for Orthodox, Apocrypha for Catholics.
          11. The fourth book of Ezra (Canon for Catholics, Apocrypha for Orthodox)
          12.The first book of Ezra (canon for Catholics and Orthodox)
          The protestants think all the new books and the continuations are Apocrypha. 
          Why is that? The protestants follow the Ezra edition but in short, everything that wasn't written in Hebrew (and more reasons, do your research)
          The Holy Bible that was used in the First churches was the Orthodox one, though it is open to discussion, while after the separation of the catholic and orthodox church at 1054, the catholic church did a little edit, deleting 3 Mecca and adding 4 Ezra to the Canon, thought they do read the Apocrypha for common knowledge. 
          
          What you should read? The Saints of the first centuries qoute ALOT of the books that the Protestants removed and acknowledged then as canon in the Holy Bible, they did not question them at all, so make sure your Bible have these inspired by God- books.
          
          It's really sad that no one answered the question, which meant no one knew this, hopefully it is all clear now.

"This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer and fasting."
          This Sunday we read The Gospel According to Mark 9:17-31.
          We will study this verse together. 
          Our Lord is talking about devils here, devils today may not be able to live and conquer our bodies like old days (because we are baptized and had the Holy Spirit by the Holy Confirmation) 
          but devils are still able to test us and try to make us sin, how? By playing with our thoughts. 
          Who does the sin? I do, who makes the evil? I do, when we sin we do it with a total free will, no one not even the devils force us to sin, but their job is give us the bad ideas and thoughts that if we didn't fight them well we will lose.
          Our church always speak about the importance of both prayers and fasting together (they also add giving the poor) these two as our Lord said are our weapons against the devils, and when the church put fasting this way because the saints knew it's the most fruitful and beneficial for us, not to mention that they had the Holy Spirit too so it was not them talking but God.
          Some may say I fast when I feel like I need to on the things I decide to, our church is not against that if :
          1. You put the Church fast as a priority 
          2. You take a bless from your spiritual father/ the priest of your church.
          

I'm bringing back a question and answer every week! Every week I will post a question and see your opinions then answer it after 2-3 days (depends on the discussion).
          And we'll start from today with a simple question!
           #1
          Why the Orthodox and catholic Bible has more book than the protestant Bible? And what do you think about the extra books they have? (Aka inspired by God or meh?)

Baptism: a quick study. 
          Some people say that we should baptize only after being grown enough and understanding what we believe in and they base that on many reasons we will take a quick look at:
          
          1. They claim that we should evangelize and teach the Gospel then baptize.
          The thing is even AFTER you baptize you have to keep learning and growing in faith, even priests still to go study meetings to learn more, learning about God is an infinite experience that will last till you die, there's always something new to learn.
          While for kids, they are not a part of Christ's body if they aren't baptized, they don't have a spiritual life no matter of they pray of read the Bible or go to church (they aren't allowed to have the Eucharist cuz they aren't baptized)
          Read John 3: 1-8
          And as babies can't understand what the Gospel is, we baptize them then teach them, you tell me you wanna leave them a choice... a choice to what? Go to Hell? They can still leave Christianity after they grow up even if they are baptized? But it will be very not common then.
          Also, YOU CAN'T BE SAVED IF YOU WEREN'T BAPTIZED, idc what you think or say, that's what Jesus said and that's what we must believe in.
          
          2. We should baptize like Jesus, after being enough grown.
          The Jewish baptizm was something more of the inside cleansing, a spiritual cleansing, not a born again baptism, here are 3 most important differences between the two:
          1. The Jewish one isn't a born again and is not related to salvation.
          The Christian one is.
          2. The Jews can or can not baptize, 
          Jesus said you can't be saved without baptism. 
          3. The Jewish baptism is done with water usually after confessing sins -not always-
          Our baptism is done with the Holy Spirit and fire as our Lord say, yes we use water but it is what's seen, we call it a "secret" because the Holy Spirit works in it in unseenable way.
          
          In next posts, mostly On Monday, I will talk about kids' baptism in the Bible, and the rules of baptism.

Amos 7:14-15 (NET)
          
          14 Amos replied to Amaziah, “I was not a prophet by profession. No, I was a herdsman who also took care of sycamore fig trees.
          
          15 Then the Lord took me from tending flocks and gave me this commission, ‘Go! Prophesy to my people Israel!’
          
          
          
          Ever heard about about how God doesn't call the qualified but qualifies the called?
          
          Well, that's very true. Today, when I was reading the Bible, I realised that oftentimes we want to be prophets before we are called by the Lord. We want to be healers before we lay our hands on the sick. We want to be pastor's before we can preach the good news. We want to be PERFECT before we accept the Lord's calling upon our lives but that's not what the Lord wants from you.
          
          Moses stuttered when God called him to save the Israelites. David was smaller and less equipped to fight with Goliath but still won the fight. Paul persecuted Christians before he was called by the Lord. Jonah ran from the Lord. Abraham was old. Thomas was a doubter. 
          
          His power is perfected in your weaknesses, remember that!
          
          - Goodness

"All Christians must celebrate the Easter on the same day"
          "Is the western Easter right or the eastern Easter?"
          "When did even Jesus die according to the Bible?"
          So many questions people ask about the Easter's date, this years we will see Catholics or the west celebrating Easter more than a month before Orthodox or the east, what causes this HUGE differences and with which shall we celebrate?
          The Easter date determined by three conditions:
          
           That it comes on a Sunday, because the Resurrection of the Lord of Glory was on a Sunday
          
          That it be after the first full moon after the vernal equinox ( the Spring Festival)
          
           It is stated in the Book of the Didascalia Chapter Thirty-One A - in the introduction to the chapter : ( And it is our duty, Christians, to inquire about the day of Easter so that we do not celebrate it in a week other than the week in which the fourteenth day of the new moon falls and corresponds to the month of Nisan.) The rule established at Nicea was to observe Pascha on the first Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox. 
           Jesus Christ came after the Jewish Passover, according to what was stated in the four Gospels . Hence, Easter for Westerners sometimes comes on the same day as Easterners celebrate it, and sometimes it comes earlier ( from one week to five weeks at the maximum ) , and it never comes later than Easterners celebrate the holiday .
          
          The Eastern Church continued with the old calculation, which takes into account the three basic points that were stated in the Didascalia.
          The problem of the Julian Calender and Gregorian calendar made the issue a little more bigger.
          Good news: on 2025 that marks the 1700s anniversary of the Nicea, both Orthodox and Catholic church will set on the same table to discuss many topics including the Easter date, and we might have a third calender that is followed by all churches this time.
          
          This year, we will follow the Eastern Orthodox Calender and we won't celebrate Easter until 5/5.
          

ARE YOU READY FOR THE EASTER WEEKEND?
          
          We are days of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and I'm excited so my question is, are you ready and what are some of the activites you will be doing?
          
          Here are a few activites to do to celebrate these momentus days:
          
          * Read the Bible 
          * Pray unceasingly 
          * Tell your friends and family about this day and why it's so important to you.
          * Write a book about why you love this day.
          * Cook food that you would normally not cook for this big occasion
          * Have a conversation with your Lord and Saviour.
          
          If you have any other plans, please comment below!❤️

Blessed are You O Lord, teach me Your statues.
          
          Today, we celebrate and commemorate the true opinion and the right doctrines that we were given by the first apostles, the doctrines that martyrs and saints and the fathers died for so we can be taught the right true facts about our Lord Jesus Christ as he taught His apostles by the Holy Spirit He sent upon them.
          We greatly mention and appreciate today the Icons, a living memory to what happened at the seventh and last Ecumenical Council that upheld the iconodules' postion in AD 787. 
           I will not talk much, i will just answer two popular questions about icons... 
          
          1. Do we worship icons?
          
          At the last Ecumenical Council they proclaimed: Icons... are to be kept in churches and honored with the same relative veneration as is shown to other material symbols, such as the 'precious and life-giving Cross' and the Book of the Gospels. The 'doctrine of icons' is tied to the Orthodox teaching that all of God's creation is to be redeemed and glorified, both spiritual and material. 
          "I do not worship matter, but the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation..." —St. John of Damascus
          
          2. Can we draw God?
          If we believe God became a human then yes we can draw the human nature, because we saw Him and touched Him and talked to Him; we can't and we don't draw God the Father because no one ever saw Him, and so the Holy Spirit.
          
          I recommend reading Three Treatises on the Divine Images
          by St. John of Damascus if you want to know more informations about icons.