Archives for February 2017

The verb “see” is related to the gaze, meaning the visible communication with something in front of me.

We all understand that seeing is crucial in the daily function of our lives, because anyone who does not see has a great responsibility, if they want to move. A basic condition for any person who wants to change place, go somewhere else, is to see themselves or be led by someone who can see and can judge whether they are heading for their goal or have lost their course. We can be allowed not to see when we are not moving.

But if we want to change place, if we want to conquer unknown worlds, then the basic prerequisite is to see. The concept of overlooking (παραβλέπω) is related to “see” (βλέπω), but it states that while I see the reality I pretend that I do not see something, so as a result I know the correct route to my goal, but I ignore the truth and go on the wrong path. Ignoring is the tragic fate that drives us away from our goal, while we could get to the goal we started for, if we had our gaze fixed on the truth.

Sponsorships are called the famous big donations to improve the quality of life of citizens. Grants are called new donations on existing donations.

In other words, sponsorships and grants are gifts for specific good and positive purposes that aim to raise the standard of living of people.

This concept, well known by Hellenic Antiquity, is an element that the New Testament introduces when it comes to describing the increase in the wealth and living standards of the people of faith.

There are bases and conditions, there are developments, and there are constantly added gifts, which over time become the great capital of faith for every person who wants a living relationship with a living god.

A small seedling becomes a tree, when there is daily sponsorship, when there is addition, when there is new blood that enters the living organism of any natural life. The capital of faith increases in a similar way.

We start with a small capital, on which new sponsorships and new donations are added daily on an endless horizon.

Desert is called an area, a place where no man can live. And this is because, for man to live, there must be the necessary conditions.

Without water and without the ability to produce products of survival, food, etc., man cannot live and the area becomes deserted from human life and presence. This understanding helps us explain why there are no people in many parts of the world, and at the same time it explains the phenomenon why while there were people in some places, today there are none.

The image is similar when we want to describe desolation in the issues of living faith. Why are there within us or around us, near or far from us, deserted areas, areas without water, without the production of survival goods? Why in regions of the world where formerly lived people who practiced faith now there’s poverty, no goods, lack of living water and total desolation?

Our answer is given by the Bible itself, which not only teaches goodness and prosperity but also explains what happens when people of faith lose their orientation, when livelihood and wealth replace the interest in the issues of living faith.

Inadequacy is the opposite of proficiency and states the lack of the necessary elements, goods and supplies that are necessary to achieve our purpose.

For everyday practice, we are all planning our moves precisely by avoiding the inadequacy precisely because we know that this will result in our goal not being achieved. But in the field of living and effective faith the concept of inadequacy is totally connected with life or death.

While on a journey by car the fuel shortage can be covered in an indirect way at the time of need, in the case of living faith, the Grand Master has clarified that the deficiency leads to death. I may think that my good intention and love for life is sufficient evidence for my safe journey to life, but the Master himself has left no room for any other interpretation.

Anyone who does not have the necessary supplies, such as the parade of the ten virgins, does not achieve the goal regardless of the authenticity of his love for God and his perseverance of beating the closed door afterwards.

The concept of adequacy accompanies every practical aspect of our lives and states the existence of the necessary supplies and goods to achieve my goal; the sufficiency of goods and the sufficiency of all kinds of supplies to satisfy my future needs so that I do not find myself in deprivation and sin, that is, failure.

With this term of adequacy, Christ himself characterizes the parable of the ten virgins, that portion of the women who succeeded in entering the marriage simply because they had a sufficient supply of oil in their lamps.

The young virgins, not only have been struggling through the night to look for a store to buy oil, obviously at a higher price, but also have been ruled out in the most categorical manner of entering the fest. So when the ten started together, in the end, only those who had ensured the sufficiency and the excess of oil accomplished their goal.

The sin of the foolish was not moral but bad or non-existent calculation of the necessary supplies. The elements of indisputable love and the genuine interest they had for the bridegroom were not enough to open the entrance door of the new life.