From: dynamispublications.org, antiochan.org, rongolini.com and biblegateway.com:
Daily Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: Great Lent, Memory of the holy Martyr Agapios and his seven companions (+304)
Scriptural Readings:
Isaiah 5:7-16
Isaiah 5:7-16 (King James Version)
7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
8Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
9In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
10Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
11Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
12And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
13Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
15And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
16But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
Genesis 4:8-15 (3/15-3/28) Tuesday of the Second Week of Great Lent
Beyond Eden-II ~ Sin Exposed: Genesis 4:8-15, especially vs. 10: “Thus God said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.” We incline to grade sin by degrees and to view the transgressions of Adam and Eve as relatively harmless, a mere yielding to a minor and understandable temptation. But God does not grade sin. All disobedience separates us from Him, which is why, at its depth, sin is death-dealing. Behold! “Sin entered the world” with Adam and Eve (Rom. 5:12), and it should not be perceived as relatively harmless, but as the prime source of “capital crime.” Sin’s dread potential is revealed along with its irreversible consequences, bondage, and resistance to self-examination.
The tragedy of Cain’s fratricide reveals all this about sin. The voice of Abel’s blood cried out to God (Gn. 4:10), and along with it, all the blood of history’s countless slaughtered victims. Despite grief, the dead are not restored to life. And sin of every sort brings irrevocable consequences. King Saul's disregard of the Lord's commandment cost him his kingdom and his life (1 Kg. 13 and 31). King David's crime against Uriah the Hittite haunted his reign, despite repentance and gifts of psalmody and prophecy. The stain of adultery remained. Whispered lies return with ghastly results. Retraction cannot undo wrongs, neither infractions nor great crimes.
Still, the consequences of sins may turn out beneficially, if one understands and does not whine like Cain: “My guilt is too great to be forgiven” (vs. 13). As Christians, Beloved, we know that there is another way following upon our sins. The sinner and Prophet, David, teaches us that “...a heart that is broken and humbled, God will not despise” (Ps. 50:17).
The truth is, our response to our sin is crucial. By the grace of God, consequences may provoke contrition and the breaking and humbling we need for healing. Denial is a demon with a thousand forms. Cain’s denial produced a terrible, downward spiral into a hardened, personal resistance. The rejection of his offering brought no reflection but sorrowfulness (Gn. 4:5). Presented with the alternative of offering “rightly” (vs. 7), Cain transferred his anger to Abel and murder resulted (vs. 8). Asked where his brother was, he evaded with a question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (vs. 9). Faced with his crime and its consequences, he whined (vss. 13-14).
Sin regularly enslaves, blinds and binds, and bedevils: “But each man is bound by the chains of his own sins” (Pr. 5:22). How simple is the path to freedom, and how often it is resisted! Admission is the doorway out of the bondage of sin. Beloved, the Lord speaks clearly: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).
By God’s grace, let us confess our sins. Open the door to those convoluted, dark passageways that sin burrows in the heart! Cain would not examine his anger, nor what was morally twisted within him, nor the enormity of his crime, nor the shattering of the bond of fraternal love and trust that he severed. Yet, Beloved, see how God encourages us. With no repentance nor any sign even of remorse, our patient and loving God did not abandon Cain. Rather, He marked him and continued as a covering over Cain to his life's end (vss. 15,16).
God usually leaves time and space for us to change our hearts, admit our sin, examine our souls, and confess. The thief on the cross found sufficient time. Let us remember, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:8,9).
Cleanse us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and may our soul, our body and our spirit be enlightened by the light of Thy divine knowledge, that we may be saved by Thy mercy.
Proverbs 5:1-15
Proverbs 5:1-15 (King James Version)
Proverbs 5
1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
The Synaxarion:
March 15
Memory of the holy Martyr Agapios and his seven companions (+304)
These holy martyrs lived under Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Agapios' native land in unknown. Timolaos was from Pontus, and Dionysius was from Tripolis, Phoenicia. Romylos was a subdeacon of the Church of Diospolis. Two others, Paesis and Alexander, were Egyptians. As for the seventh, named Alexander, he was a native of Gaza. Chaining their souls to Christ's love, they spontaneously bound their hands with chains and presented themselves to Urban, the Governor of Palestine, publicly declaring themselves as Christians. After having tried in vain by all sorts of threats and promises to make them give up the Christian faith, the governor ordered that they be beheaded on March 24, 304.
Fifth Class Feast.
Daily Readings:
Saints/Martyrs/Feasts/Fasts to be observed/commemmorated/celebrated: Great Lent, Memory of the holy Martyr Agapios and his seven companions (+304)
Scriptural Readings:
Isaiah 5:7-16
Isaiah 5:7-16 (King James Version)
7For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.
8Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!
9In mine ears said the LORD of hosts, Of a truth many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair, without inhabitant.
10Yea, ten acres of vineyard shall yield one bath, and the seed of an homer shall yield an ephah.
11Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue until night, till wine inflame them!
12And the harp, and the viol, the tabret, and pipe, and wine, are in their feasts: but they regard not the work of the LORD, neither consider the operation of his hands.
13Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.
14Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
15And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
16But the LORD of hosts shall be exalted in judgment, and God that is holy shall be sanctified in righteousness.
Genesis 4:8-15 (3/15-3/28) Tuesday of the Second Week of Great Lent
Beyond Eden-II ~ Sin Exposed: Genesis 4:8-15, especially vs. 10: “Thus God said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.” We incline to grade sin by degrees and to view the transgressions of Adam and Eve as relatively harmless, a mere yielding to a minor and understandable temptation. But God does not grade sin. All disobedience separates us from Him, which is why, at its depth, sin is death-dealing. Behold! “Sin entered the world” with Adam and Eve (Rom. 5:12), and it should not be perceived as relatively harmless, but as the prime source of “capital crime.” Sin’s dread potential is revealed along with its irreversible consequences, bondage, and resistance to self-examination.
The tragedy of Cain’s fratricide reveals all this about sin. The voice of Abel’s blood cried out to God (Gn. 4:10), and along with it, all the blood of history’s countless slaughtered victims. Despite grief, the dead are not restored to life. And sin of every sort brings irrevocable consequences. King Saul's disregard of the Lord's commandment cost him his kingdom and his life (1 Kg. 13 and 31). King David's crime against Uriah the Hittite haunted his reign, despite repentance and gifts of psalmody and prophecy. The stain of adultery remained. Whispered lies return with ghastly results. Retraction cannot undo wrongs, neither infractions nor great crimes.
Still, the consequences of sins may turn out beneficially, if one understands and does not whine like Cain: “My guilt is too great to be forgiven” (vs. 13). As Christians, Beloved, we know that there is another way following upon our sins. The sinner and Prophet, David, teaches us that “...a heart that is broken and humbled, God will not despise” (Ps. 50:17).
The truth is, our response to our sin is crucial. By the grace of God, consequences may provoke contrition and the breaking and humbling we need for healing. Denial is a demon with a thousand forms. Cain’s denial produced a terrible, downward spiral into a hardened, personal resistance. The rejection of his offering brought no reflection but sorrowfulness (Gn. 4:5). Presented with the alternative of offering “rightly” (vs. 7), Cain transferred his anger to Abel and murder resulted (vs. 8). Asked where his brother was, he evaded with a question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (vs. 9). Faced with his crime and its consequences, he whined (vss. 13-14).
Sin regularly enslaves, blinds and binds, and bedevils: “But each man is bound by the chains of his own sins” (Pr. 5:22). How simple is the path to freedom, and how often it is resisted! Admission is the doorway out of the bondage of sin. Beloved, the Lord speaks clearly: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Rev. 3:20).
By God’s grace, let us confess our sins. Open the door to those convoluted, dark passageways that sin burrows in the heart! Cain would not examine his anger, nor what was morally twisted within him, nor the enormity of his crime, nor the shattering of the bond of fraternal love and trust that he severed. Yet, Beloved, see how God encourages us. With no repentance nor any sign even of remorse, our patient and loving God did not abandon Cain. Rather, He marked him and continued as a covering over Cain to his life's end (vss. 15,16).
God usually leaves time and space for us to change our hearts, admit our sin, examine our souls, and confess. The thief on the cross found sufficient time. Let us remember, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:8,9).
Cleanse us from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, and may our soul, our body and our spirit be enlightened by the light of Thy divine knowledge, that we may be saved by Thy mercy.
Proverbs 5:1-15
Proverbs 5:1-15 (King James Version)
Proverbs 5
1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
The Synaxarion:
March 15
Memory of the holy Martyr Agapios and his seven companions (+304)
These holy martyrs lived under Emperors Diocletian and Maximian. Agapios' native land in unknown. Timolaos was from Pontus, and Dionysius was from Tripolis, Phoenicia. Romylos was a subdeacon of the Church of Diospolis. Two others, Paesis and Alexander, were Egyptians. As for the seventh, named Alexander, he was a native of Gaza. Chaining their souls to Christ's love, they spontaneously bound their hands with chains and presented themselves to Urban, the Governor of Palestine, publicly declaring themselves as Christians. After having tried in vain by all sorts of threats and promises to make them give up the Christian faith, the governor ordered that they be beheaded on March 24, 304.
Fifth Class Feast.
No comments:
Post a Comment