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Episode 62: Asking the right questions

Double Edged Sword ♱ Assyrian Church Podcast

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

  2. Spirit forever. Amen.

  3. Glory be to the everlasting mercies which sent you to us, O

  4. Christ, the Light of the world and the life of all.

  5. Give us wisdom by your law and enlighten our impulses by your

  6. knowledge. Sanctify our souls by your

  7. truth, and grant that we may be obedient to your words and may

  8. fulfill your commandments at every hour.

  9. O you who enlightens the rational with the knowledge of

  10. your greatness, do enlight, O my Lord, our thoughts that we may

  11. meditate upon your holy and divine scriptures at all times,

  12. O Lord of all, Father and Son and Holy Spirit forever.

  13. Amen. A man asked Jesus in Luke

    Luke 13 chapter mention

  14. chapter 13 if there are a few who have life or are sharing in

  15. God's life through Jesus Christ. Jesus's reply was strive to

  16. enter the narrow gate. It's amazing how he never

  17. directed his answers directly and and you know, in relation,

  18. directly in relation to the question And some people think,

  19. oh, he's trying to avoid the question.

  20. No, it's Jesus saying that's not none of your business.

  21. Basically, very politely worry about yourself.

  22. You take the plunk out of your own eye.

  23. Take care of your own burdens first Matthew 11 and then worry

  24. about the burdens of your brothers and sisters.

  25. I received many questions, as well as pertaining to things and

  26. issues that really don't affect our life with Christ, which will

  27. determine our salvation on the day of salvation when Christ

  28. returns. One very common question or that

  29. should be asked one question that I seldom hear and have been

  30. posed with is what is the correct way of repentance and

  31. absolution from deaths on sins. That's a very, very crucial,

  32. very important question we need to ask how do I repent from my

  33. sins? How am I absolved from my sins?

  34. Let me put it reword that how do I repent from my life that is

  35. contrary to the commandments of God, that is not appeasing God.

  36. And then when I repent, how can I be absolved from the deaths of

  37. sins? From the blemishes of sins, Some

  38. will say just pray to Jesus. True.

  39. However, Jesus himself gave the keys to binding and loosening to

  40. his disciples and apostles. Let's read that in Matthew

    Matthew 18:18

  41. chapter 18 verse 18 Jesus replies to Simon Saint Simon the

  42. rock when he gave that rock built upon rock foundation

  43. proclamation, which we also confess and recite when we sing

  44. the La Humara. I sing it last episode, I'll

  45. sing it again la Humara hula mo then and la he show she come

  46. shapin and that too mahmana. By the way, it's not Mahmana

  47. that too that Tumrah that tum nahmana Pala rain.

  48. What to Paro got no Shanton unto you, Lord Ovo we confess.

  49. And you, Jesus Christ, we glorify.

  50. For you are the quickener of our bodies, and you are the savior

  51. of our souls. When we sing that, when we

  52. recite that, when we chant that praise that him during the

  53. Eucharistic service, we are joining Simon with that

  54. proclamation. And this was Jesus's reply,

  55. Truly, I say to you, whatever you ask, well, let's continue.

  56. Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound

  57. in heaven, and whatever you loosen or release on earth will

  58. be released or loosened in heaven.

  59. What about that actually to Saint Peter the rock?

  60. He actually gave the keys not to Jerusalem, not to Bethlehem, not

  61. to Nazareth or Galilee or Jordan.

  62. No, He gave the keys to the Kingdom of heaven for which we

  63. await when the Lord returns. Now, apart from binding and

  64. loosening spiritual canons, laws by which Christians should live

  65. while sharing the life of Christ on earth, apart from that that

  66. they bound and loosed cannons and laws, there is also the

  67. loosening and the binding of the sins of man, which is the gift

  68. of God through Jesus Christ. I'm sorry, I should add the

  69. gracious gift of God through Jesus Christ to the apostles

  70. within the church. That's a great equation.

  71. The provisions of God, the gracious provisions, gifts of

  72. God are through Jesus Christ his Son to the apostles within the

  73. church for all the faithful. John chapter 20, verses 19 to

    John 20:19–23

  74. 23. Now again pull over to one side.

  75. Forget the stirring of the pot and making the tea and buttering

  76. the the the toast, washing the dishes, vacuuming or folding the

  77. clothes. Listen intently, beloved John.

  78. This is from the scriptures. Erdata John, Chapter 20, verses

    John 20:19–23

  79. 19 to 23. But when it was evening of the

  80. first day of the week had shabba.

  81. Sunday doesn't do its service. Hard Shabba.

  82. There's no justice in Sunday. But the word hard Shabba hard

  83. One Shabba week, first day of the week, we say Hoshiba.

  84. But if we read it as it is written, it's hard shabba.

  85. The doors were barred closed lock where the disciples were

  86. staying because of fear for the Judeans.

  87. They were fearing the Jews, the disciples.

  88. Jesus came and stood in their midst, and he said to them,

  89. peace be with you, which is the peace we give during the

  90. liturgical service. Towards the end of the service,

  91. before the communion, peace be with you.

  92. He said this and to prove and to put them at ease.

  93. Because they were alert, they were startled.

  94. He said this, and he showed them his hands and his side.

  95. So it was Jesus wasn't just the Spirit.

  96. And his disciples rejoiced, because they saw our Lord, Lord

  97. Maria, Lord God. But Jesus said to them again,

  98. peace be with you, Just listen to this.

  99. Just as my Father has sent me, I also am sending you.

  100. When he said this thing, these things, he breathed upon them

  101. and he said to them, receive the spirit of holiness or the Holy

  102. Spirit if you will forgive, loosen, release a man's sins.

  103. He's talking to the apostles, beloved, not to a large

  104. congregation, not to us individually.

  105. The scriptures don't say that. Jesus said that if we in

  106. division, oh, he's talking to his apostles.

  107. He gave this authority to his apostles.

  108. If you forgive, loosen a man's sins, they will be forgiven him.

  109. And if you hold bound a man's sins or bind them, they will be

  110. healed. Them's our authoritative words

  111. beloved both for Christ proving to our beloved Jehovah

  112. witnesses, friends and Mormons and the non Christians that

  113. Jesus is God. He is God, just as the Father,

  114. so I because by nature he is equal to the Father.

  115. He is God praising glory to his name, and also his apostles

  116. authority to his apostles, who in turn set an order.

  117. Apasa. We say there was an order by

  118. which the faithful who believed in Jesus Christ would be

  119. benefactors of the gracious gift of the forgiveness of sins and

  120. the cleansing of sins, not only to the faithful, but also to the

  121. non believers. Let me quote from Dr. Martin

  122. Luther, the Father of Reform in his handbook of Christian

  123. Doctrine, Small Catechism, and this is on confession and

  124. absolution. And I quote and why am I reading

  125. this? Because we posed the question

  126. right How do I repent? And how am I cleansed from my

  127. sins? How do I repent from my sins and

  128. transgressions? And how can I be cleansed from

  129. my sins and transgressions? Because let me give you an

  130. example. I remember back in Iran we had

  131. the Hammam, the public baths because, you know, water wasn't

  132. readily available in the homes. So we would go to the public

  133. baths. And I remember my late mother,

  134. God rest the soul and the rest, the soul of all those who've

  135. departed, would give us a bath and then would tell me to go

  136. straight home. Do not pass, Go.

  137. What is it? Go straight to jail.

  138. Do not pass. Go straight home and wait for

  139. me. So what I would do is go

  140. straight to my friends and play soccer, football.

  141. Gutet akla football, soccer. And then get dirty and sweaty.

  142. And when mom coming back from the baths and saw me sweaty and

  143. once again unclean. And when I saw the the wooden

  144. spoon or the flip flop or the belt coming towards me and I

  145. would say I'm sorry, sorry, sorry mom, I'm so sorry.

  146. And then she would stop. Well, rarely would she stop, you

  147. know? After one or two swings, she

  148. would then stop and accept my apology.

  149. Now, that apology doesn't clean me, does it?

  150. No. I receive forgiveness when I say

  151. I'm sorry. I will not do it again.

  152. There's my repentance. Promise of repentance.

  153. And by by promising to repent and beginning repentance and

  154. asking forgiveness. I'm still sweaty and smelly and

  155. dirty. Unclean, I should say, right?

  156. What would Mom do? Grab me by the hand, Take me

  157. inside and wash me again. Cleanse me again.

  158. Okay. Let's go back to Martin Luther,

  159. He writes on confession and absolution.

  160. And I quote what is confession here?

  161. Asks. Confession embraces 2 parts.

  162. One is that we confess our sins, the other that we receive

  163. absolution or forgiveness from the priest as from God himself.

  164. Martin Luther, the Father of Reform, Father of Protestantism,

  165. writes when the priest is giving absolution, it is as is from God

  166. himself and in no wise doubt but firmly believe that by it our

  167. sins are forgiven before God in heaven.

  168. Yes, this was while Martin Luther was a priest in the Roman

  169. Catholic Church. However, and unfortunately after

  170. he was defrocked, after he was removed from the office, he then

  171. changed his mind, revolted on this statement and began to

  172. teach that there is no need for any other person between you and

  173. God. Well, how about Jesus Christ?

  174. No one comes to the Father unless it be through me, and I'm

  175. sure that's what Martin Luther meant.

  176. But what about the apostles, who we are to receive in order to

  177. receive Jesus Christ and the sender of Jesus Christ, Matthew

  178. 104042. He who receives you receives me

  179. talking to the apostles or his disciples, whom He later called

  180. apostles. And he who receives me receives

  181. him who sent me. Keep in mind Jesus Christ sent

  182. his apostles in the world, just as the Father sent his son John.

  183. 1718 This is what Jesus prays during his high priestly prayer,

  184. just as the Father has sent me Now.

  185. If right now there are two listening together and now

  186. you're saying to one another, show me in the Bible.

  187. Give me evidence from the Bible. Only the Bible.

  188. Solar Scriptura. We'll talk about that one day

  189. from the Bible. Achimen Ekdatta, Right.

  190. On confessing our sins to one another apart from God, why

  191. should I confess? Well, the Bible.

  192. The Ekdatta, Solar Scriptura James 516.

  193. Therefore, confess your sins to one another.

  194. There it is. Confess your sins to one

  195. another. Do you stand corrected?

  196. If not, you're being stubborn. Confess your sins to one another

  197. and pray for one another so that you may be healed.

  198. The urgent request of a righteous person is very

  199. powerful in its effect. You may say yes.

  200. See, so we can confess. But not all have received the

  201. authority. As in John chapter 20.

    John 20 chapter mention

  202. Jesus said to his disciples, if you forgive, they are forgiven

  203. and if you bind, they are bound. So let's go in the order of

  204. absolution in the church. I'm sorry, Steven.

  205. You know these these programs are just very relaxed.

  206. Can you? Yes.

  207. Give me that. That's it.

  208. Yes. I forgot one of my.

  209. There you go. There you go.

  210. Thank you, Steven. Steven, my producer, and Adrian.

  211. I couldn't mate it. Make it so.

  212. What is the Order of Absolution in the Church?

  213. OK, let me read from the Order of Absolution some excerpts from

  214. the Order of Absolution. And this is what I'm going to

  215. use now. These are liturgical texts.

  216. You cannot tell me me or men just wrote these.

  217. No mere men wrote the Scriptures as well, but they were inspired

  218. by the Holy Spirit. Well, the Apostles, the Church

  219. Fathers who wrote these orders, which who which are thousands of

  220. years in age, were also inspired by the Holy Spirit.

  221. They had authority to bind and loosen.

  222. Now he they are binding. During the the liturgical

  223. service before the the partaking of the Holy Communion.

  224. The priest praise the prayer of absolution.

  225. And Martin Luther said it's as if God himself is bestowing

  226. those gifts. The first present during this

  227. time, beloved. On a side note, please get off

  228. your phones If you've been on your Snapchat and Instagram,

  229. disrespecting God, disrespecting the the House of the Lord

  230. because you don't understand, so you've been, you know, what is

  231. it? Scrolling your Instagram and and

  232. Twitter and and and Snapchats and sending messages to one

  233. another. During this prayer, please stop

  234. just for a few seconds. Please show respect to God.

  235. Not not the priest of God. A few seconds and listen.

  236. During this time we are supposed to be confessing.

  237. Lord, I'm a Sinner. Lord, these are my weaknesses.

  238. Lord, help me. Lord, you make me to be worthy

  239. to dare to partake of your holy body and blood.

  240. May they not be to me condemnation and vengeance, but

  241. forgiveness of sins. And during that time the priest

  242. who has the Apostolic authority, according to John 20, that if

  243. you bind, they are bound, if you loosen, they are loosened.

  244. The priest prays, Oh our God, good and full of mercy.

  245. What beautiful words, what beautiful words.

  246. Oh our good God, God is good always, and full of mercy, whose

  247. goodness and loving kindness or grace are abundant upon all.

  248. Pour forthro, my Lord, the compassion of the pleasantness

  249. of your love upon these your servants and handmaidens, and

  250. transform them in the hope of renewal to the life of

  251. repentance. Renew in them your Holy Spirit,

  252. by which they are sealed for the day of salvation.

  253. This is from the Scripture. Purify them in your compassion,

  254. from all the blemishes of the flesh and of the Spirit.

  255. Strengthen the hope of their belief by the help of your

  256. grace. Make straight the gate of their

  257. deeds in the paths of righteousness.

  258. Make them to rejoice with the Saints in the Kingdom, in your

  259. Kingdom, in the confirmation of the hope of their faith and the

  260. adoption of sonship from Holy Baptism, and in the joy of of

  261. your absolving mysteries the body and blood.

  262. Strengthen them by the help of your mercy, to observe your

  263. commandments and to fulfill your will, to give thanks to worship

  264. and to glorify Your holy Name or Lord of all, Father and Son and

  265. Holy Spirit forever. Amen.

  266. This is the prayer of absolution.

  267. However, beloved sin, transgressions, deaths are seen

  268. very severe and extreme by the Church, to the point that there

  269. is an order of absolution, A liturgy of absolution, And I

  270. will talk about that towards the end.

  271. And in the liturgy of absolution, the Father's right

  272. that the liturgy of absolution is to be bestowed or preyed upon

  273. a person who has left his faith, but has returned to it, and on

  274. him or her who has eaten flesh, that is meat.

  275. In the fasting season, or on Friday or Wednesday, because

  276. these are Apostolic cannons, beloved or on him who has

  277. committed any sort of offense? He who is to be absolved must be

  278. made to stand at the door of the sanctuary.

  279. What up? But we didn't know that.

  280. Will you know now? Now you know.

  281. Don't look at the past. Don't harp on the past.

  282. Don't use the past as a as a silly and unsustainable

  283. justification. You now know that if we do not

  284. fast during the Lent 50 day, Lent 49, or we eat flesh that is

  285. meat on a Wednesday or on a Friday, we need the Liturgy of

  286. Absolution. We're going to read some prayers

  287. from there. Let me share with you one of the

  288. hymns, the anti funds that the priest recites and chants during

  289. the preparation of the bread to be taken up on the altar and to

  290. be offered as the Body and blood of Christ, to be sanctified and

  291. to be mysteriously and spiritually changed to be the

  292. real Presence of the Body and blood of Jesus Christ.

  293. The Rubric. The heading says he heals those

  294. that are broken in heart and dressed, that means binds their

  295. wounds. Our Lord gave the medicine of

  296. repentance. These are 1000 year old year old

  297. liturgy, beloved, written by the Church Fathers by the Apostles.

  298. Our Lord gave the medicine of repentance to the skilled

  299. physicians who are the priests of the Church.

  300. Let him or her whom Satan has stricken with wounds, I mean

  301. sins and transgressions. When what we spoke about last

  302. episode of wickedness come and show.

  303. That means confess. Come and show.

  304. Come and confess. Show his source to this

  305. disciples of the wise physician, and they will heal him with

  306. spiritual medicine, which is the body and blood of Christ.

  307. All of this by the power and authority given by God through

  308. Jesus Christ to his disciples and apostles, and within the

  309. Church, as we stated in Matthew. Let me read some excerpts from

  310. the Order of Litany. First of all, I want to read an

  311. enter phone or need to enter phone, the rubric states.

  312. Incline your ear, oh Lord, and answer me now.

  313. The rubrics you'll see are always from the the Psalm, the

  314. offenders and publicans you did not despise.

  315. I'm sorry before I read this. Now this is the this is the the

  316. proper order of repentance. When you go to your spiritual

  317. counselor to your priest, and you show your swords, you

  318. confess your sins that you have committed.

  319. If they warrant the liturgy of absolution, your parish priest

  320. will prescribe you to fasting, and it's usually 50 days, just

  321. as a Lord, faster. During that time you abstain

  322. from the Holy Urbana, which is a disciplinary action.

  323. It's a it's a it's a it's a punishment.

  324. It's a loving, kind punishment. God punishes those whom he

  325. loves. Loving, kind.

  326. Punishment. During that time you attend

  327. church, you are to be permitted to remain in the church until

  328. the reading of the gospel, followed by the sermon and when

  329. the dismissal of the catacumens. He who has not received it, let

  330. him depart. He who will not partake, let him

  331. or her depart. You depart, and you go back

  332. home, and you go to your room, and you continue in prayer and

  333. supplication that the Lord will have mercy upon you.

  334. And you read your holy scriptures, and you read the

  335. life of the holy Saints and the writings of the Church Fathers.

  336. And during that time, the priest will continue to speak with you

  337. and counsel you until the time that you have come to complete

  338. remorse and ready to promise that repentance, to offer that

  339. repentance. Then the priest will bring you

  340. to the altar, and you will be kneeling in front of the

  341. sanctuary with your arms crossed on your shoulders as though you

  342. are a dead man. Because when we are in sin, we

  343. are dead, and the priest will recite, along with the Deacon.

  344. The liturgy of the absolution, not just the prayer, goes for

  345. about 15 to 20 minutes, and one of the enter funds will be sent

  346. offenders and publicans. You did not despise, oh Lord,

  347. neither did you cast them from before your face, Oh, my Lord.

  348. For you have said that the healthy are not in need of the

  349. physicians, but those who are severely afflicted, And we who

  350. have committed evil deeds before you and are stricken with

  351. illness in our souls. Request of you to have mercy

  352. upon us. Let me read another one.

  353. My souls have putrified. My my souls have putrified and

  354. stink. Who is the physician who is able

  355. to clean my hidden souls, or who is able to heal and to dress

  356. them? And who is able to deliver me

  357. from the fire the adulteress cried out.

  358. I shall loosen the knots of sins, and I will draw near to

  359. the Lord and Savior. For He did not cast out the

  360. publican from before him, and He made the Samaritan woman to

  361. return by His words. By his word he gave life, life

  362. to the 0 Phoenician woman, and by them by the hem of his

  363. garment he gave healing to the woman who had the flow of blood.

  364. By the word of his goodness he freed the adulteress from her

  365. debts, and he inscribed her in the book of life along with the

  366. wise virgins. With all of this company, my

  367. soul says at all times blessed is Christ the Savior.

  368. Let me recite a few stanzas from the diagonate Litany.

  369. Let us stand up in sorrow and in earnest.

  370. Let us besiege and say, oh Lord, have mercy upon us, and we all

  371. reply, oh Lord, have mercy upon us.

  372. Oh he who came to tell call sinners to the path of

  373. repentance, We besiege you. Oh, he who revealed to Moses the

  374. fashioning of creation at the time of his fast we repeat, see,

  375. because the the, the person that is being absolved his fasting.

  376. Oh He who by the same fast Jesus demonstrated to Him the former

  377. things and revealed Him concerning future things.

  378. Oh he who by fasting was reconciled to the offenders, and

  379. who made resplended the countenance of Moses, We beseech

  380. you, oh Christ, our Savior, Savior, Church from all harm,

  381. and make your servants to rejoice by the gladness of your

  382. churches, and lessen from your worship as the burden of deaths

  383. and sins. And have mercy upon us all these

  384. while you are kneeling before the sanctuary.

  385. So do not find unsustainable. Ridiculous.

  386. Justification, beloved. Last week we spoke about this

  387. God cannot be mocked. God is not deceived.

  388. I highly recommend as your spiritual father, as your

  389. brother, as your friend, as your podcast presenter, seek your

  390. parish priest. Seek absolution from your parish

  391. priest and demand to confess and be absolved.

  392. It is in the liturgy of the Assyrian Church of the East.

  393. And when you do, always, beloved, always pray.

  394. Lord Jesus, the Son of God, have mercy on me, a Sinner, and bring

  395. me to repentance from my sins and transgressions.

  396. Praise and glory be to His holy Name now and at all times and

  397. forever. Amen.

  398. We. Hope you enjoyed this week's

  399. message. Please don't forget to rate and

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  401. For any future topic suggestions or to give us detailed feedback,

  402. please visit our link in the show notes linktr dot EE forward

  403. slash double edged sword. Until next time, God bless you

  404. all.