Advice on #general #life #challenge
👉🏾 Question 2: What are the ways we can deal with difficult situations in our lives? Thank you
✍ Answer 2: One is Religion. Our forefathers, because of their religion, faced all the difficult issues that separate them from God, they were steadfast and strong. Even if they were told 'deny your religion, bow down to an idol', they said we will not compromise on our religion. By way of punishment for saying so, as the scriptures tell us, they were thrown into the fire, but the fire did not harm them, they were thrown to the lions and the lions did not eat them. This is because God protected them through the steadfastness of their faith. What made them so is their steadfastness in religion, which means, "It is possible for everyone who believes." It is possible for everyone who says, 'It will be possible for me.'
For example, Elijah believed and prayed to God to hold the rain for three years, because the people did not know God, they were people who worshiped idols, so he prayed to God to hold the rain so their eyes can open up and see the glory of God. Jacob described it in chapter 5 of his message: Elijah is a man like us, he gets sick just like we get sick, but he prayed to God that it wouldn't rain and the rain was prevented. Later, he asked God to make it rain again, and it rained, it was his religion that made it so.
The other is morality. Religion and morals are very important. A believer must respect God's commandments and put his faith into practice. "And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you. (Luk 17:5-6) And this was done by "Abraham the Syrian".
Therefore, a religious person should not have anything to fear or worry about, there are no difficult things for him. Abraham the Syrian destroyed the mountain with his religion. God's prophet Elijah stopped the rain, God's prophet Moses parted the Eritrean sea, God's prophet Joshua stopped the sun, our righteous father Abune Aregawi was placed on a dragon with the strength of his faith and morals, Father Samuel Zewaldba was commuting on a lion.
Therefore, the answer is morality, and religion. Morality means fasting, prayer, prostration, almsgiving, humility, love, etc. In general, it is doing all the things that God loves. In the same way, not doing things that God doesn't like is called spiritual work, it is called a manifestation of religion. If we do this, nothing difficult can happen to us.
Another thing we need to understand is that the duty of a Christian is always to live in hope, not despair. As the apostle St. Paul said, "Stand firm in the religion you have learned," we are expected to live steadfastly in faith in God. We must live in hope, believing that God, who saved us, sacrificed his only son and paid the price for us on the cross. (Col. 2:7)
People may experience a lot of suffering and pain while living in this world. Our lives will be full of trials. If we look at the story of Job, when his wealth and possessions were lost, when all his children died and his whole body was struck by disease, he trusted God and lived patiently, but did not give up hope. It is said, "Job was tested like gold in fire." God spoke to Job in the cloud. After that he cured him of all his diseases. He blessed all his wealth and made it twice as much as before and gave him blessed children, servant men and women. (Job 1:21)
A brief about #John's #Repentance spiritual service
This service is the English version of our Amharic service የዮሐንስ ንስሐ፦ https://t.me/+ReLdpifiso4Sz04q
The purpose of this service is to bridge the language barrier that many face when trying to learn about the faith and bring the success we had with the Amharic program to a whole new set of audience.
We provide 24/7 Q&A support, lessons on the major feasts, lessons on the teachings of the church, a medium where fellow Orthodox can connect, discuss and encourage one onother. Members can ask publicly on Telegram or privately on Facebook, Telegram or using our email address.
We also provide spiritual support over phone by assisting in a number of ways.
We post everyday at 11:30pm EST on Telegram and have presence in other social medias as well:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrepentancechristianorthodox
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnsrepentance.orthodox.qna/
Telegram: https://t.me/+DCbv9KRTroY0NmJh
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@orthodoxqnas?_t=8ZaNxODGqqp&_r=1
Website: yohannesneseha.org (click English for language)
The intended audience for our service is anyone age 16 and up. This is a very safe space where people ask about anything and everything which is why we have an age restriction. However we do not have a faith restriction: anyone who wants to learn about the faith is welcome. They can ask questions, read what we post, call us and use the service to help them in their spiritual journey.
Our service is not common and the best way to understand the value we offer is to experience it by asking questions, reading regularly, inviting friends, communicating with your fellow brothes and sisters, calling us for spiritual support, staying fully engaged and practicing what you learn.
You may also share hyms, icons, news and so forth that you think is super useful to your Orthodox brothers and sisters as long as it doesn't have a link.
You can search through content using this method:
Say you want to read about marriage, then you search #marriage and all the answers and lessons that have 'marriage' as their topic will show up. If you want to read a lesson, you choose the ones that has 3 hands (👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾) whereas if you want Q&A, you choose the ones thtat have 1 hand only (👉🏾).
Say you want to search all the content that have both 'repentance' and 'fornication' in the topic, then you search: #repentance #fornication and you will get all the relevant results.
Clicking the highlighted text above will also take you to those topics.
This service has the blessings of Abune Ermias (Bishop) which can be seen in some of our YouTube videos (in Amharic), is mainly lead by Like Hiruyan Tserse Abebe (Priest, church Scholar and head of the EOTC's public relations department), Aba Wolde Giorgis (Monk), Memeher Simur Getenet (priest and Church scholar)
Although the above are the major personals in the service, there are numerous others who serve day and night as volunteers.
Although the Church that has initiated this service is the EOTC, we sometimes reference and allow you to post material from any Orthodox Church, eastern and oriental.
It is the order of God that His people first be served and thus we have done for the past three years with the Amharic service. By the will of God we are now providing the service in English so everyone can learn about the true faith regardless of their background. Hence we urge you to spread awareness of this service and be a reason for the salvation of your friends, family and even coworkers. Do not hide God's talent in the ground (The Parable of the Talents Matthew 25:14-30)
May the name of the Holy God be praised forever and ever in every tongue that He has created, today and always.
May the blessings of God's mother, the virgin, and the cross be upon us.
Amen.
©John's Repentance
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