In the time of the suffering of St. Demetrios the Myrrh-gusher, there was a young man of Thessalonica, Nestor, who learned the Christian Faith from St. Demetrios himself. At that time Christ's enemy, Emperor Maximian, organized various games and amusements for the people. The emperor's favorite in these games was a Vandal by the name of Lyaeus, a man of Goliath-like size and strength. As the emperor's gladiator, Lyaeus challenged men every day to single combat and slew them. Thus, the bloodthirsty Lyaeus amused the bloodthirsty, idolatrous Maximian. The emperor built a special stage for Lyaeus's battles, similar to a threshing floor on pillars. Spears, points upward, were planted beneath this platform. When Lyaeus defeated someone in wrestling, he would throw him from the platform onto the forest of spears. The emperor and his pagan subjects cheered as some poor wretch writhed in torment on the spears until he died. Among Lyaeus's innocent victims were many Christians: when no one volunteered to duel with Lyaeus, by the emperor's orders Christians were arrested and forced to duel with him. Seeing this horrifying amusement of the pagan world, Nestor's heart was torn with pain, and he decided to come forward for a duel with the gigantic Lyaeus. But first, he went to prison to see St. Demetrius and sought a blessing from him to do this. St. Demetrius blessed him, signed him with the sign of the Cross on the forehead and on the chest and prophesied to him: ''You will defeat Lyaeus, but you will suffer for Christ.'' Thus, young Nestor went to duel with Lyaeus. Maximian was present with a multitude of people; everyone felt pity for the young Nestor, who would surely die, and tried to dissuade him from dueling with Lyaeus. Nestor crossed himself and said: ''O God of Demetrius, help me!'' and with God's help, he overcame Lyaeus, knocked him down, and threw him onto the sharp spears, where the heavy giant soon found death. Then all the people cried out: ''Great is the God of Demetrios!'' But the emperor, shamed before the people and sorrowing for his favorite Lyaeus, was greatly angered at Nestor and Demetrios, and commanded that Nestor be beheaded and Demetrios run through with lances. Thus, the Christian hero Nestor ended his earthly life and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of his Lord in the year 306.
2:20 For ye are our glory and joy.
3 Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left at Athens alone;
2 And sent Timotheus, our brother, and minister of God, and our fellow labourer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith:
3 That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.
4 For verily, when we were with you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass, and ye know.
5 For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain.
6 But now when Timotheus came from you unto us, and brought us good tidings of your faith and charity, and that ye have good remembrance of us always, desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you:
7 Therefore, brethren, we were comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:
8 For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.
Saint Luke 10:22-24 KJV
10:22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.
23 And he turned him unto his disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see:
24 For I tell you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
O N T H E
I N C A R N A T I O N
by Saint Athanasios
You must understand, therefore, that when writers on this sacred theme (of the Incarnation) speak of Him as eating and drinking and being born, they mean that the body, as a body, was born and sustained with the food proper to its nature; while God the Word, Who was united with it, was at the same time ordering the universe and revealing Himself through His bodily acts as not man only but God.
Those acts are rightly said to be His acts, because the body which did them did indeed belong to Him and none other; moreover, it was right that they should be thus attributed to Him as Man, in order to show that His body was a real one and not merely an appearance. From such ordinary acts as being born and taking food, He was recognized as being actually present in the body; but by the extraordinary acts which He did through the body He proved Himself to be the Son of God. That is the meaning of His words to the unbelieving Jews: “If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not; but if I do, even if ye believe not Me, believe My works, that ye may know that the Father is in Me and I in the Father.”
Invisible in Himself, He is known from the works of creation; so also, when His Godhead is veiled in human nature, His bodily acts still declare Him to be not man only, but the Power and Word of God.
To speak authoritatively to evil spirits, for instance, and to drive them out, is not human but divine; and who could see Him curing all the diseases to which mankind is prone, and still deem Him mere man and not also God?
He cleansed lepers,
He made the lame to walk,
He opened the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind, there was no sickness or weakness that He did not drive away.
Even the most casual observer can see that these were acts of God.
The healing of the man born blind, for instance, who but the Father and Artificer of man, the Controller of his whole being, could thus have restored the faculty denied at birth? He Who did thus must surely be Himself the Lord of birth. This is proved also at the outset of His becoming Man.
He formed His own body from the virgin; and that is no small proof of His Godhead, since He Who made that was the Maker of all else.
And would not anyone infer from the fact of that body being begotten of a virgin only, without human father, that He Who appeared in it was also the Maker and Lord of all beside?
Again, consider the miracle at Cana. Would not anyone who saw the substance of water transmuted into wine understand that He Who did it was the Lord and Maker of the water that He changed? It was for the same reason that
He walked on the sea as on dry land—to prove to the onlookers that He had mastery over all.
And the feeding of the multitude, when He made little into much, so that from five loaves five thousand mouths were filled—did not that prove Him none other than the very Lord Whose Mind is over all?
CONSIDER: Athanasios was born in 295. The local bishop, aware of Athanasios's gifts, took him as his aide. It is said the Saint Athanasios wrote THE INCARNATION [OF THE WORD] when he was 24 years old.
And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
1.So we see, He was fully man! Doesn't what He said to Peter, sound like something we would say?
2.Who hasn't felt Joy with great excitement?
We need not simply imagine what the fullness of excited Joy is like when it's available and increases even more as we approach prayer and feel the name of our Creator within us.
If we believe the words of Christ, we know it's true. Did he not say it directly to St. Foutini at the well? Had you simply asked which required heart full of faith and love, I would have given you so that you would never have any desires again.
3. Good Enough?
If one thinks that he can know God and not be aware of him every moment at every breath and every heartbeat, he's mistaken, and as a result he serves Him with lips only. In that case, as the saints say: We have forgotten God. True?
If so, thank Him ceaselessly and be restored. You may say to remember Christ ceaselessly is impossible. You are right BUT, BUT... Our Lord said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. St. Luke 18:27 - So ASK
4. WORSHIP God Or An Idol?
Sokar, an idol god of Egypt
Sokar, like every idol/god was created by a maladjusted mind and fabricated from transient, corruptible materials. Moreover, alienated from the Holy Trinity, we become fantasize that the idol speaks, demanding worship and sacrifice.
Our God is the God of the living and has granted us the free will to worship and love Him, so in our prayers we say:
O come, let us worship and fall down before God our King.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Christ our King and God.
O come, let us worship and fall down before Him, Christ the King and our God.
