Faith in the Lord
25 Tout 1727: Date of preparation: October 6, 2011
28 Tout 1727: Date of presentation: October 8,2011
Verses: John 4:50, Hebrews 11
Sources: Bible, NKJV, Gospel of John 4
http://st-takla.org/pub_Bible-Interpretations/Holy-Bible-Tafsir-02-NewTestament/Father-Tadros-Yacoub-Malaty/19-Resalet-3ebranieen/Tafseer-Resalat-AlEbranyeen__01-Chapter-11.html
Lesson to be learnt: What does believe in Jesus mean? How do you implement it?
Meditation:
My Lord Jesus Christ…believe is a word that is easy to say, hard to do, very hard to
do. I do not know how to give this lesson at all, but I hope that You, my heavenly
father can teach me, and the kids, so that the pillar of our life with you would be faith,
true faith
The Lesson:
(Start playing a game with the kids…blindfold one, and make the others say
directions to go from one point to another. One of the kids will be saying the truth,
the others aren't)
Ok folks, let's settle down. Now, did you see what happened in the game? (whoever it
is) trained himself to focus on one sound and followed it, believing in it, and
following it. Even though (whoever it is) cannot see whoever said the correct
directions, he trusted him and followed him to the end. In a way, this is faith; (read
the first few verses of Hebrews 11 and explain carefully.)
That is one of the two main pillars of our Christian Faith…see what I just called
Christianity? Christian Faith. A lot of our faith cannot be seen directly with the
naked eye; our Lord Jesus is not a friend of yours in church, or a politician, or anyone
else Glory be to His Name. But He is the Lord, we know and have faith He exists,
and like we know and feel in our daily lives, and as Uncle Maged taught us, we live
with Him every day. That is faith, or a part of it actually. The reason I am saying this
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is that our early fathers have a LOT of sayings about faith, I will give you a few
examples:
(St. Takla Hemanot’s website given here has sayings about St. John Crysystom and
St. Athanasios; I shall translate it and explain it to them.)
Let’s take example of faith from the Bible, from church readings, and then how to
apply it in our daily lives. Now from the Bible, one very obvious person comes up:
Abraham. This saint was about ready to slay his son and kill him because God asked
him to do so, and yet he had faith enough to tell the servants with him “My son and I
will give offerings to the Lord and WE will return to you.” Did anybody ever notice
this part in the Bible (read it to them). What amazing faith is this? Let’s see who
Saint Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews Chapter 11, also gives as examples (list them
and explain briefly). Let us also see examples of faith from today’s readings too
(Canaan women in Matin’s Gospel and the beautiful part Luke 7:36-50). How did the
Canaan woman, the women who poured the flask of fragrant oil on the Lord’s feet,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses’s parents, and others; how did they know who to trust,
and why should they trust Him? Because they had faith, because they truly lived with
the Lord, because they truly loved the Lord….
Ok…so where do we stand from this? How do we apply this in our daily lives?
Simple…just answer this question…do you have faith in the Lord? Actually you
cannot answer it quickly, because no one is perfect enough to say yes I do. Revise
yourselves carefully, very carefully, and see where you lost your faith in the Lord.
Did you do your best in studying, yet still be a little scared of the test? Did you do
your best taking care of your health yet when you become sick, or even a member of
your family, you lost your faith, even if a little, in the Lord? Did you wish for
something, but something else came instead, and you were not happy with the Lord?
All of these are examples when we lose our faith. On the other side, if the vice-versa
happened, thank the Lord for your faith and humbly ask for it to grow; remember
humbleness.
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