4th of July - the sad side

July 4th 2015, around 11:15 PM, we aspirate thanking God that the concert ended. But that is not the end of the story.

At 8:30 AM, the folks of 4th Annual Island Reggae Festival at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds started preparing and testing their drums and their mics, to wake us up with unpleasant headache. Happy 4th of July! 

But real noise kicks off couple hours later. Inside the house, with all double-pane windows shut, we can still hear the music and the singers as if we are next to the stage. And they just go on and on. Till 9 PM, when my toddler's bed-time come, and the headache totally consumed us, I decided to call the police. And here the even more-sad story begins.

In short, we have been calling the police until 10:35 when we got to talk to someone to take in my complaint. A deputy officer calls at 10:55 PM to say they will be done soon, they have a permit and there is nothing much you to do about it! Well, music lasted for 20 minutes after that conversation, and the illegal firework continued in the first few hours of the following AM (they are going on as I write). Many families complain about these illegal fireworks and how they terrify children, pets, and everybody in fact!

How come the Fairgrounds got such a permit to disturb people's enjoyment of their own homes? This sounds like typical under development society behavior. How come police does nothing and how come I got so much hard time to talk to the police? This is exactly the same behavior as the Egyptian police hotline in Egypt during the 2011 revolution, they had no one answering the hot lines!

WOW! What happened to the American society? 10 years ago, I - as an immigrant from Egypt - was super happy with the fact that in USA there is a System and everyone follows the rule, automatically. I mean, without really needing someone, some officer, to ask them to abide by the rules. To me, that was the major difference that makes USA a better place. But since I moved to CA 3 years ago, I have been encountering incidents that keeps raising this question in my heart: why then did I immigrate? In what capacity is America better?

In 4th of July, I would love to bring to American's attention that America is never a better place because of opportunity, American dream, or even nature or natural resources. America has been always a better place because of Americans, and their behavior. Let us fix it!

Beginning of The End

It is amazing to have the reedings today, 3rd Sun of Coptic month Paoni, talks about condemnation, giving Sodom and Gomora as an example, right after devil's victory of forcibly legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide last Friday (Jun 26. 2015) & the - used to be - white house lighted up in rainbow colors.  

How shall we react to this? Is it time to flee Sodom? Or is it time to fight back against evil? 

My first reaction was: it is time to flee Sodom, since - reading through the history - nations rise-up, become great and "lead" the world, then they decay. Biblical-ly, God raises nations, or allow it to rise - even un-Godly ones - to achieve His Holy purposes (condemnation, chance to repent, blessing or protection to righteous, etc.). Then when the nation relates its success to its own power, and turns away from God, or refuses God, it collapses. Examples from the Bible include Babel, Persia, Greece, and Roma. One would spend an article to write about these nations, how they fulfilled God's purposes and how they decayed. But we know that this rule continues until today, and we know from the book of revelation that this will happen at end-of-days.

America, which I love a lot and owe her a lot, was founded based on Christian values and rules, especially religious freedom. Recently, America is denying that, denying God and even trespassing God. The religious freedom has turned into No-Christianity, and even Anti-Christianity. So is USA about to collapse? Economically it started, almost nothing you buy today that is 'made in USA'. Politically, thanks to Obama, USA stepped down from being the world leader, or even a party to worry about. Socially, at least in California, it is not that safe organized society any longer. Naturally, we suffer serious drought in the west. But what is more important, and what really matters is that Spiritually, USA is turning its back to God.

Reacting to evil societies is more sensitive when you have children to raise. Many of us immigrated to USA for religious freedom and for a better quality of life. But if our stay in USA means our loss of eternal life, or putting our children in front of a stumbling rock, then what is the point of staying here? We came seeking better life, but we end up losing life!

However, today's readings, gives another dimension to the perspective. It does not necessarily change my mind of fleeing Sodom, but it definitely gives me assurance that God is in charge. The Catholic Epistle reading today was from 2nd Epistle of St. Peter, it reads: 

"For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries, 11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord." (2Peter 2:4-11)

So may be we should stay in Sodom to be their "warning prophets", their Jeremiah... or may be we should flee... that does not matter. What matters is whether we end up staying in Sodom until its turns into ashes, or if we flee for our life, we should abide in Christ, and He knows how to save us, perfectly and timely!

Blessed Week!

Marriage Prayer - John Waller

Verse 1:
Father, I said till Death do us part, 
I want to mean it, With all of my heart!
Help me to love you, More than I love her! 
Then I know I can Love her more...Than anyone else!
And bring her inYour presence today, 
Make her what You want her to be

Chorus:I pray to hear her heart! 
              I pray she'll love you more
              I pray to cherish and serve her
                      And we'll bring you glory today, 
              I pray


Verse 2: 
Father, I said till Death do us part, 
I want to mean it, With all of my heart!
Help me to love you, More than I love him, 
Then I know I can Love him more... Than anyone else
And bring him in Your presence today,
Make him whatYou want him to be

Chorus:I pray to hear her heart! 
              I pray she'll love you more
              I pray to cherish and serve her
                      And we'll bring you glory today, 
              I pray

Lord, help me love her, As you love the church, your bride!

Help me submit to him, As I submit to you, my life


Chorus:I pray to hear her heart! 
              I pray she'll love you more
              I pray to cherish and serve her
                      And we'll bring you glory today, 
              I pray

Chorus:I pray to hear her heart! 
              I pray she'll love you more
              I pray to cherish and serve her
                      And we'll bring you glory today, 

              I pray

This is my prayer Amen 

Ananias and Sapphira

When Ananias and Sapphira kept for themselves part of the money with which they sold their, their punishment was death! One always pause here and wonder: isn't it too hard of a punishment? why didn't God give them a second chance? why this seems contradictory to the mercy of God in both Old and New Testaments? Contradictory to the hope the Holy Gospel gives, and the love of God?, etc.

More often, the answers we get are not satisfying because they typically claim one or both of reasons that confirm the concerns of our wonder: God did so to teach us a lesson, and/or they rejected chance to repent. We don't like these answers because we don't see evidence of a chance of repentance, nor do we see God's love or mercy in using people's life, and salvation, as a lesson to others. And honestly, today's people of church lie on daily basis and they don't die, Did God fail on his purpose of teaching us a lesson?!

Well, the holy book didn't really state that God killed them so that the church receives a warning, rather, it said that s great fear was upon everyone when they heard what happened. It was a result, natural, but not a purpose. Let us bring to our attention the facts that (1) there is no small sin and big sin, and (2) the sin of Ananias and Sapphira was not only lying, it was mostly of betrayal!

Following the first church in the book of ACTS, one sees that God The Holy Spirit was leading the church through the oneness of spirit. All Christians - back then - used to do everything together. Through this unity, the oneness of spirit, God's grace and power manifested in the believers' lives as in changed lives. God power was also demonstrated to non-believers through miracles. In Ananias and Sapphira's act of keeping something for the SELF instead of sharing with the whole - an act that would otherwise be not wrong - thy committed a clear breach to this unity. In other words, they withdrawn themselves from the church, the body of Christ. And if one withdraw from source of life, one is dead.

To elaborate in this more, imagine the whole people of the world are sinking in a lake of mud, slowly. There is no one on the solid ground to pull anyone out, except for Jesus Christ. Only Him, can save those sinking. Jesus is stretching out His Holy hands to save. So should anyone hold His hands, they are saved, i.e., they are alive. If anyone lets go with Jesus hands, they are sinking again, i.e., they are dead. Whenever we sin, sin separate us from God and we are dead again. Whenever we repent, we hold Jesus' hands again and we are alive.

Therefore, when Ananias and Sapphira sinned, they  became dead already. So, no cruelty if they fall bodily-dead in front of St. Peter. The question then is whether they their fair chance of repentance or not. And for that, we know that God is the Just, we - by faith - are certain that God does not end anyone's life unless they receive all their fair-share of chances to repent. At least, they had one visible chance to repent when St. Peter asked them if that was the real price the got for their land. But definitely there were other chances as well.

Humility Nuggets - 4

For silence in presence of the wise, is wisdom.

"Who sold Joseph? Abba John said, 'Who sold Joseph?' They replied saying, 'It was his brethren.' The old man said, 'No, it was his humility which sold him, because he could have said, "I am their brother" and have objected, but, because he kept silence, he sold himself by his humility. It is also his humility which set him up as chief in Egypt.' " (Abba John The Dwarf) 

St. Makarius (or St. Anthony the great in other versions of this story) in one of his contemplations said that he saw demon's lures scattered all over the earth and asked, "Lord, who can escape it?" And following this question, St. Makarius/Anthony heard a voice answering, "The humble will."

"Be humble so that God guards and strengthens you, because God looks to the humble. Be humble so that God fills you with wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, because it is written that He guides the humble and teaches His ways to the meek. Be humble in order to be joyful, because joy goes hand in hand with humility." (St. Pachomius)

"For demons can defeat the strong, but they cannot defeat the weak" (Pope Shenouda III)

Humility Nuggets - 3

In Humility Nuggets -1 post, we argued that the human role of attaining the virtue of humility is to become an Icon of Christ. One crucial step towards being humble enough that we may no longer live, but Christ may live  in us, is a process of reordering of our priorities.

Simply, but very hard to do, is to place everyone else, and their wishes or plans, on a higher rank priority than that of mine. This is exactly what the Bible commands us: "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." (Philippians 2:3 NKJV). In fact, the Arabic translation of this verse suggests that each one should esteem the other better than how the other esteems himself! It goes that far.

In order to practically esteem others better than ourselves we simply need to continuously, and with joy, to think of the other, and their needs and/or plans, before we consider ourselves and our own needs or plans. Every single time I start planning something to do, I should pause, take a step back, and consider "the other" needs and check if what I am about to do would help the other's plan or not. "The other" here is mainly everyone I serve. By serve, I mean spiritual service; let it be organized ministry in a church, a hidden private service, an open breaching service, or an everyday service. And we are called to spiritually serve each person we meet, every day, all the time, by being salt and light.

That was my role, the labor. The Lord grace will then do take care of enabling me to do so esteem others better than myself, until it feels effortless and by default. Also, it is God's grace that I do so in joy!

Humility Nuggets - 2

"Permit it to be so now" (Matthew 3:15)

Blessed Theophany feast! The verse above shows the meekness of our Lord Jesus Christ as he respects the will of St. John the Baptist. Respecting other's will and freedom is at the core of meekness, which is the apparent fruit of the inner humility of the heart. It is so true that we are called to respect other's will even if their will and freedom is against our own will as when our Lord Jesus accepted jews' rejection. For yet He was crucified to save those who did not accept His will [Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34]. Even if the other's will is at conflict with our own goals, we still need to respect it. "If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also." (Matthew 5:40) Further, we need to respect other's will even if it is in conflict with their well-being from our perspective, as when our Lord Jesus respected the will of people of Gergesenes who asked Him to depart after He healed the demon-possessed man [Matthew 8:28-33]

In order to be able to accept and respect other's will, we need to first learn to accept and respect our own will! In other words, we realize our, and others, limits and respect it. Like when Jesus healed the people of Capernaum and then He left them while they were seeking Him. Our benevolent Lord did not ignored their will, for He did respond to them, but He have had set a limit beforehand, and when the limit was reached, it was time to serve His own spirituality to be able to continue serving, and it was also time to move on to preach other cities:  "Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed. And Simon and those who were with Him searched for Him. When they found Him, they said to Him, 'Everyone is looking for You.' But He said to them, 'Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also, because for this purpose I have come forth.' " (Mark 1:35-38) Fr. Anthony Messeh comments on this very verse in his talk about dealing with overly needy people (here) that it is like when w e ride an airplane and we are instructed that in case of emergency we should put oxygen masks on us first, only then we are able to help others who need help.

It should make perfect sense that if our own privacy is continuously prevailed, we have no concept of respecting others privacy. Similarly, if our own freedom and will are not respect, we end up having no concept of respecting others freedom and will. And if we don't respect others freedom and will, then we are not yet quite humble nor meek.

"Not driving chariots, like the rest of the kings, not demanding tributes, not thrusting men off, and leading about guards, but displaying His great meekness even hereby."  (St. John Chrysostom)