Episode 149: Fasting tips

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the everlasting

mercies which sent you to us, O Christ, the Light of the world

and the life of all. Give us wisdom by your law and

enlighten our impulses by Your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by Your truth, and grant that we may be

obedient to Your words and may fulfil Your commandments at

every hour. O You who enlightens the

rational with the knowledge of Your greatness, do enlight, O my

Lord, our thoughts, that we may meditate upon Your holy and

divine Scriptures at all times. O Lord of all, Father and Son

and Holy Spirit, forever. Amen.

We now previous two episodes.

We discussed and ascertained biblical fasting and the food

aspect of fasting and the the verses that we quote or the the

verses that we supported these, you know, understandings were

Genesis chapter 2, verse 17 and from the tree of knowledge of

Genesis 2:17

good and of evil. God said to Adam and Eve, you

shall not eat. Actually, God said to Adam, you

shall not eat. Eating entails food.

Jesus himself prays between his name.

Matthew 41, we are told, fasted 40 days and 40 nights and

afterwards he was hungry. When you're hungry, it means you

haven't eaten any food. You're hungry for food.

What I'd like to do this episode, by the grace of God and

the guidance of the Holy Spirit is discuss some tips on fasting

to help you fast. Now, some of you may be fasting

for the first time. Some of you may be contemplating

fasting. The church Canon is that a

Christian, a faithful of the church, the body of Christ must

fast the first week, the middle week, and the last week of Lent.

So if you're contemplating and and you need another push and I

hope that this episode will help you to enter your wilderness and

offer your fast to the Lord again, according to the

scriptures and the traditions of the church.

Now before we huff and puff and cringe at the word traditions,

which unfortunately some still do, even though there is

evidence from the scriptures, they claim solar scriptura.

But when you when you solar Scripture it it's then another

story. 2nd Thessalonians, St. Paul's letter to the Church in

to the church to the Thessalonians, chapter 2, second

letter, chapter 2, verse 15, be established and hold the

traditions. Now in the pshita versions also

sets commandments. Hold the traditions fast.

Hold on to the traditions fast that you have learned, whether

by discourse writing or by epistle.

Sorry, this course is by word or by mouth or by epistle.

So there's the word tradition. I mean, I mean, if I would have

said Second Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 15 traditions,

2 Thessalonians 2:15

that's it. That would have been sufficient.

It's in the Bible. What I'd like to do today is

define, define fasting and some hints for those who would like

to enter their wilderness or those who have and they're still

not sure as to how the Church actually has set for her

children to fast. Now, the word fasting in English

is fasting, but it it's basically abstaining soma.

In the Aramaic language soma is abstinence.

So when someone says Siam and semen now many times they don't.

It doesn't pertain to I'm ABS abstaining from food.

It just means I'm not eating dairy products and what have

you, the poultry and what have you.

But soma means abstain. God said to Adam do not eat,

Jesus did not eat. Meaning abstain from food and

drink. Jesus did not eat or drink.

Moses did not eat nor drink when he was on the mountain receiving

the 10 commandments. So how do we do this?

First and most popular and most encouraged way of fasting by the

church is that we wake up in the morning.

We prepare ourselves hygienically.

We enter the room, our room. We offer our prayer, we read the

Holy Scriptures. Now if on your way to work,

there is a church, for example, the Mara Day church, the door,

the side door is always open. So if you're driving past Mara

Day to go to work in place of just doing the sign of the cross

when you're which is great, why don't you stop for 5 minutes

going to the church and offer your prayer and read your

scripture and abstain from food. No food, no drink.

From the time you wake up there is no food and no drinking.

So you abstain from food and drink till evening prayers.

Vespers There is sundown yo. You mean all day?

Yes, all day. No fate, no eating, no drinking.

Jesus didn't eat and he didn't drink.

Moses didn't eat and he didn't drink.

So you abstain from food and drink until vespers, which is

around 5:36 PM. But during this time, you're

constantly praying, constantly reading the scriptures when you

have an opportunity at work, wherever you are, and asking

God, contemplating, meditating, Oh Lord, help me, Oh Lord,

forgive my sins. Lord, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of

God, have mercy on me as Sina. Oh Lord, have mercy on me.

Lord, bring me to my knees. Lord, help me to repent.

Speak to your heavenly Father. You have that confidence through

Jesus Christ to go Father, my Father, our Father.

You have that. You know why?

Because you've believed in Jesus Christ and you've been baptized.

You've been baptized in his death.

So those who say no, you can't call father, of course, if

you're not, if you haven't accepted Jesus Christ and you

haven't been baptized, you're not permitted to call the Father

your father. You'll call him Father.

So abstaining from food until Vespas, after Vespas.

Now, if you can make it to the church, great.

If not, I pray go into your room or you're driving back and

you're going to miss vespers in your car.

Pray to the Lord and say, Lord, here I am now I'm about to break

my abstinence. Now it's, it's a blessing to

when you're at church on Sunday to receive the Bokhra, the

blessed bread to take, even if it's a small piece, but every

time you break your abstinence to break it with the Bokhra,

with the blessed bread that you receive after Purabana, that's

not the body and blood of Christ.

OK, So take one and leave it with you.

And every day until the following Sunday, take a little

portion of it and say your prayer, read your scripture and

break your abstinence, not your fast.

Doesn't mean I'm not telling you to pray and eat the Bohra and

hit in and out. No, no, no.

Your abstinence, You're still fasting.

You're still having the fast food.

Not. I should have said that.

You're still having the, you know, the food, you know, minus

dairy products and poultry, what have you.

Honey is permitted. Yes.

Some ask you if they can have honey during this time.

Yeah. And we're going to talk about

this food aspect a little bit more later on.

Honey is permitted. So that's the first and most

encouraged process of fasting by the church.

The second type you can also. And remember, every time I say

fast soma, it means abstinence. I don't have to repeat myself.

Abstain. No.

No food, No drink. Oh, can I still have?

No. You know, you, you tell some

people no food. No.

So I can't have water. What is drink?

No. No liquids, No solids, Nothing.

No nada na la na, no, no food, no drink, no solids, no liquids.

Second process or the second way you can fast is you wake up in

the morning. Again hygiene and quickly

prepare yourself. Go into your room, pray, read

your scriptures, and again you can pray in the church if it's

on the way, and offer your abstinence again, but this time

until lunchtime, until you leave work for lunch or you're ready

to have your meal for lunch. And again, before you have that

lunch, wherever you are, have a little portion of the Bohra, the

blessed bread. Pray and ask the Lord to accept

and receive and to your your fasting and your petition and to

forgive your sins and to strengthen you to overcome all

temptations and then break your abstinence and then have soma

food again, not breaking, not after you.

You have your buchra at 12 PMI have to be specific because it's

some people still listen and hear hear it as they want to

hear. It is selective listening and

hearing. So you don't at 12:00 have your

buchra and pray and hit in and out.

No, you don't do that. You continue with the fasting

food until lunchtime and then you can still attend vespers and

after vespers you can have your your dinner as well.

And after dinner, pray and thank the Lord who has provided you

with a bounty. And again, honey is permitted.

The third method or the third way you can offer your soma is

now this time there's no abstinence.

Some people cannot, you know, and I I don't, I don't credit I

cannot. It's hard for me to accept it's

I won't or I don't want to. I choose not to because we can

do everything through Christ to strengthen this praise be to his

name, but you don't want to. That's why you know between you

and your Lord. Wake up in the morning, prepare

yourself hygienically, go into your room or go to the church,

pray, read the scriptures and continue with soma food.

So your breakfast is not bacon and eggs.

Your breakfast is what's Bahan in English, Stephen Tiny that's

Arabic is you know, your, your jams, your marmalades, your

honey, your your Halawa and your Marjanos.

You know, mashed potatoes, whatever it is.

Oh, mashed potatoes for the morning.

I don't have people can do that. So you continue with that with

with fasting food all day. You can have your breakfast, you

can have your lunch, but continue to pray and read your

scriptures. That must be always accompanying

your fasting. Attend the Vespas if you can and

continue to pray after after that you have eaten your meal.

But the challenge is now and you know what you can, maybe you

don't want, you can't, you don't want to you choose not to

abstain till 12:00 PM or lunchtime.

You want to abstain 2 for two hours after you have woken up.

God bless you Alan. Have a lemon look.

May the Lord be appeased by that.

But we need to also focus now. Now the food aspect, the food

aspect. Now some people pick up a

whatever it is, they're they're shopping and they look at the

food products and they're scrutinizing the ingredients.

Oh, you know, there's a trace of milk.

Oh, I had this yesterday. God's not going to accept my

face. No, that my fasting.

That's that's human mentality. Don't, don't adhere to that.

In place of scrutinizing the ingredients of your food factor

for fasting, why don't you scrutinize the ingredients of

your sins during the time of Lent?

Scrutinize and really scrutinize.

There is a hindrance of hatred and gossip and pride and

immorality and, you know, puffing up and, and idolatry.

There is a, a, a, a minute dot of sin or a, a spot of sinning.

That's how you scrutinize during during Lent.

Now, I'm not saying be careless with what you eat.

No, Continue standing fast to the traditions of the church.

Fast food, no dairy, no products, no seafood.

By the way, can I have prawns? Can I?

No. You know, people who ask, can I,

can I do? Can I have this?

So your fasting is all about the food factor.

No, no, no. Again, I'm not saying I'm not.

I'm not doing away with the traditions of the church.

No, continue to fast as the church has, has, has, you know,

canonized. But don't overdo the food factor

and don't let that supersede the sin factor.

Beloved, scrutinize your sins. There's going to be a lot of

temptations. The addictions, the demons you

have will intensify. They will intensify the pressure

and the attacking on your desires.

The attack and the intensification is going to be

on your desires. Why desires?

James chapter one verse 14 we read.

But every man is tempted by his own lust or desires.

He covets and is enticed. Every man is tempted from his

own desire and he lusts and he is seduced because of the

desires. So the temptations will will

multiply, intensify because of the desires.

Be prepared for that. How do we overcome that?

Avoid the places that cause the the the increase in the

temptations. Avoid the places, avoid the

paths, the sights you enter to fulfill your sexual evil desire

addictions. Your demon avoided.

My beloved brothers and sisters. Grandparents.

Grandfathers. Oh, yes.

You're shocked now? What do you mean grandparents?

No, they're holy. They're angels.

No, they're not. No, they're not.

When they're, when they're blowing wolf whistles at young

girls that are walking past, right, and they're, they're

lusting because of what they're seeing, that's not being an

Angel. No, no, no, no, Trust me.

Trust me on this one. I know I have my intelligence

informants, right? So avoid the places, the paths,

the sites, the social media platforms where you click and

then you receive this picture or this this porn and then it it

crumbles. You avoid it.

You know, block, minimize, delete, block all block

platforms when you see someone, a friend, a brother, a sister, a

school mate, a church attend attendee attendee when you

you're on there and you want to just keep up with the world with

the news, especially these days. We need to pray for the Middle

East, you know, and then and then your friend, your uncle,

your auntie's picture, which is so inappropriate.

Block, block, block, block. And if you're asked why, well, I

don't want to see inappropriate pictures during my no, I don't

want to see period. This is not a Christian manner.

You know, you know why I speak these things.

Read Titus. I think it's chapter 2.

Saint Paul instructs him to speak about things that are

shameful and that no one despise you.

We need to, my brother priests, my brother priests, yes, we need

to learn the church doctrines, the Church fathers.

But you know what? I'm sorry, that's not doing

anything now because when you teach about the Church fathers

and the doctrines and the trinities and the Mary Ology,

the Christology and the Eucharist, it's not affecting.

We need to be impacting. We need to be admonishing and

telling our youth our people don't watch porn, do not engage

in sexual communications because they are an abomination to the

Lord, abomination to the Lord. We need to command deletion and

blocking of platforms that are evil and not appropriate.

Yes, you may say, Robbie, we're living and we can't avoid it.

Sometimes we can't avoid it. Well, if we can't avoid it,

that's out of our hand, right? Jesus said to the Pharisees, if

you didn't know, you would not be held accountable.

You will not be held to be accountable.

You will not be held against you.

But you know when you intentionally know,

intentionally know, and then you like and love and put food to

someone who's posted a derogative, an evil picture.

No, no, that you're a part of that sin.

You're a part of that sin. This is how we need to rebuild

our people in spirituality, especially during these time of

Lent. Yes, you have free will.

You can adhere or you can reject.

That's entirely up to you. But this is how we overcome

temptation. Are you chuckling now?

Are you cringing and you're thinking that's too extreme?

Well, for those who just switched off or, or logged out

and then you've decided to come back.

Hello, I'm still talking about that.

I haven't changed the topic, right?

If you think that's extreme, if you think I'm being an

extremist, a fanatic, well, let me present to you extremism,

beloved Matthew, chapter 18, verse 8 to 9.

Matthew 18:8–9

Jesus, praise and glory be to his name, your Lord, your

Savior, your judge, your righteous judge writes this and

speaks this. But if you, if your hand or your

foot causes you to sin, cut it off.

Oh, that's not extreme, is it? No, no, Tasha Genardi is

extreme. Cut it off and cast it from you,

for it is better for you that you enter life as lame and as a

maimed rather than having two hands.

Two hands, my beloved brothers, two hands and two feet,

Ancestors, by the way, and two feet that you would fall into

eternal fire. Eternal fire.

Don't tell me if you think you're a Sinner, then Jesus

failed. You're a fool to be preaching.

You're, you're, you're a heretic to be preaching that.

No, if your feet or your hand causes you sin, get rid of it.

Otherwise you'll be burning in eternal fire.

And this is not a scare tactic. And he goes on to say, if your

eye causes you to sin, pull it out and throw it from you, for

it is better, better for you that you would enter life,

eternal life, eternal bliss with with Christ, praise between his

name with one eye, rather than having two eyes, that you would

fall into the Gehenna of fire. And the blessed theophilic

comments and says that your hand, your eye, your feet are

those best friends, your BFFS, your cousin, your brother, your

sister, your mother, your father, anyone who is precious

causes you to sin. Get rid of them.

Don't hate them and totally write them off, but distance

yourself from them. I'm being extreme.

No, no, no, I'm being ethical. I'm trying to be ethical.

I'm not ethical. No, no, no, I'm sorry, I'm not

being ethical. I'm not extreme.

The scriptures are ethical and extreme, however.

However, be prepared for suffering, beloved brothers and

sisters. Be prepared for ridicule, for

rejection, shame and embarrassment exposure.

Be prepared. Satan will quote you scripture

as he did with our Lord. Satan will say, and what fruit

do you have then for Oh, let me, let me repair of it.

Satan will say to you, do you think that the Lord will take

you back? You, you are so shameful.

You're so you have you have committed so many shameful acts.

What fruit did you have then? Isn't it written?

What fruit did you have then for which today you are ashamed for

it is result it for its result is death.

You reply just as Jesus did and say my Lord endured the cross

and ignore the shame that is my shame.

Hebrews 12/2 by the way has to say Satans quote or dare to

quote was Roman 621. Your quote should be a Hebrews

12 to my Lord and you the cross and ignored the shame that is my

shame. That's why he died for me.

If he whispers to you and attacks your conscience and says

you have no salvation in your God, you're such a Sinner.

You haven't fasted for the entire your entire life.

Now you want to offer fasting? Do you know who you are?

You reply to him script scripturally saying my God takes

no pleasure in my death a wicked but rather than I turn from my

ways, my wickedness and live. Ezekiel 3311.

His quote was Psalm 3/2. He will justify your sin and

your abomination. All the world is doing it.

It's OK, it's the norm. Reply scripturally saying, but

the day of the Lord God comes as a thief in which the heavens

suddenly pass away, but the elements being set on fire shall

be destroyed, and the earth and the works that are in it shall

be discovered. So don't tell me the world's

doing it. It's the norm.

Second, Peter 310 That should be your reply.

He may say, but look at the people who are prospering and

are successful. They don't obey all of God

precepts, right? They don't do that.

Look, they attend church, they're in the choir, they

attend the youth, they're a church.

But look at their social media. That must be okay.

No, no, you reply. I will not emulate or compete

with the wicked, neither envy, envy the works of evil because

they dry up quickly like straw and they wither like green

grass. Psalm 3712.

Notice it was all scriptural scripture.

Jesus was attacked with scripture and he responded with

scripture and we did the same as a role play, a social media role

play. But keep in mind, beloved, keep

in mind why Scripture? Why is it constantly Scripture?

Second Timothy 3/16/17 Every writing which is written by the

Spirit is profitable for teaching, for correction, for

direction, and for A cause in righteousness, that the man of

God will be perfect, perfect and perfected for every good work.

And who officiates the writings that are by the Spirit?

Who does it? Who say it?

I'll give you 3 seconds. Who is it?

It's the church, It's the church.

You probably said the Bible, It's the church.

Oh Jesus, it's the church. Jesus and the Bible through the

church. One Timothy 315.

The church is the pillar and foundation of truth.

So every book that the church has officiated and canonized as

being inspired by the Holy Spirit, along with the Holy

Scriptures, they're good for correcting, for admonishing, for

direction, so that you and I be trying to be a man or a woman, a

son or a daughter of God, will be perfect and will be perfect,

perfected with, oh, oh, with every good work.

So the works. There it is again.

There it is again. Faith alone.

Faith alone. Yeah.

Faith alone in the Bible pertains to salvation is not

through faith alone but also through the works or eternal

life is not through faith alone, but it's through the works, good

works. Salvation is through faith

because God has done it and we believe He has done it.

When we believe it, we receive it.

But entering the Kingdom of heaven, eternal life, we need to

continue with the good deeds, one of those being fasting.

So we know fasting is biblical. We have ascertained that there

is a food factor. It's not just what you want to

fast from. I want to fast from look,

looking at the sun during this. I want to fast from not going to

the to the beach. This is in in those countries

that the season is still summer or spring right now.

No, no, no, no fasting pertains food.

We've already ascertained that and today, today we've learned

how to offer our fast according to the church's teachings and

process and and, and cannons. And we know that what happens

during that fasting, the the temptations that that really are

intensified. But we continue, continue the

good fight because the Lord will protect us and the war Lord will

grant us victory. The Lord vindicates those whom

who fear Him and obey Him, and love Him and respect Him.

Praise and glory be to His name now, and that all times I'm for,

for. Amen.

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sword. Until next time, God bless you

all.