Behold, I am coming soon!

Day 40 (15 Sept 2017, Friday)

Have you ever queued up for an hour to get a seat at a restaurant?  You heard that the food was really the best and worth to wait.  After you finally get seated and ordered, you wait yet another 45 minutes before the ‘most delicious’ food comes.  By this time, I am not sure if you are still all excited about the food you were hoping for.  Some may storm out instead of waiting.

Others can go on a tirade a complains.  And yet others, fill their stomachs with peanuts and drinks until they lose their appetite.  Ultimately, you determine your own reaction to the situation.  Likewise, you determine you own reaction as you await the blessed hope of Jesus Christ.

Unlike physical food which can disappoint, the blessed hope will not disappoint because it is not about what mansion you will be getting, what rewards you will have, etc.  The blessed hope is “our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13) Himself.  It is the Giver and not he gift that we seek.  Jesus proclaimed, “Behold, I am coming soon!” (Revelation 22:7,12).  As you come to the end of the 40 day fast and pray, I hope you will never stop expecting the blessed hope.  “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17).

Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.

Declaration of the Lordship of Jesus Christ over our land

We decree an increase of Your Kingdom’s rule and reign over our nation and the nation of the world!
We declare a new generation of leaders who will answer the call to govern with the fear of God in their lives.
We decree, “Your Kingdom come” in every sphere of society: political, economic, social, religious, judicial, military, education, media and the arts.  Position, therefore, godly and righteous men and women in every high place to serve Your purposes and to align our nation to Your heavenly blueprint.

Let every tongue and tribe praise You, O God; may all the peoples praise You.  Then the land will yield its harvest, and God, our God, will bless us.  Nothing is impossible with You!
We shall enter a new season of signs, wonders and miracles!  The Church of Jesus Christ in Malaysia is blessed and we will be a blessing to our land!

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make His face shine upon us, that Yours ways may be known in our land, Your Salvation among all peoples!




 Necf Malaysia

Download 2017 NECF Malaysia  40Days Fast & Prayer (Prayer Booklet)

Prayer Requests

Today's Prayer Requests

Akeem Womble | I would like prayer for a friend of mine. My friend is going through a bitter divorce and his wife has gotten a restraining order against him and will not allow him to see or talk to his children and he really wants to see them and talk to them. My friend has told me that his wife has gone to our church and told everyone lies about him and he is very upset about it and everyone is taking her side and that they do not know the full story. So please pray for my friend that God will help him through all of this and so his mind and heart will be at restored.


Breyonda Pierce | This is my prayer requests I wish my son gets a full college grants to stay in college and be able to graduate from Norfolk state college and we can get a big place too down Norfolk Virginia. I hope God loans me enough money to help my son

VERA BANKSTON-JONES | FATHER GOD, ONCE AGAIN YOUR GRACE BESTOWED UPON ME WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO FUTHER MY EDUCATION AND OPEN FINANCIAL DOORS AS WELL! I AM NOT WORTHY, YET YOU GUIDE ME UNTO A PLACE WHERE I CAN LEAVE A LEGACY FOR MY LOVED ONES! FATHER , I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH STEPPING TO THE FAMILY HOME SITUATION, SURVIVOR OF VETERANS, BANKING ISSUES, NELNET, AND INDULGENCES, WHERE I CALL ON YOU FROM THE TOP OF MY LUNGS, "ABBA HELP ME!".......SELAH

Ariel Xx | Please pray for Noadia

vijay aggarwal | Plz pray for money in abundance for a comfortable life

Only in heaven

Day 39 (14 Sept 2017, Thursday)

As you come towards the end of your 40-day fast and pray, take some time to reflect on how you have changed - in spirit, mind, and body.  The change in your body is probably more obvious as you may have lost a few pounds.  But time spent with God, particularly in fasting and praying, also results in a molding or our spirit and mind by the Master Potter.

However, if you are like me, no matter how much the molding, there always seems to be attitudes, thoughts and situations that are far from the godly ideal.  You may still struggle with ill feelings towards someone, plagued with unholy thoughts, and that particular family member still has not accepted Christ.  Even on a national level, things may not seem to have improved despite your most fervent prayers.  The blessed hope serves as a reminder that perfection will never be attained here, but only in heaven.


Hence, Apostle Paul, in encouraging the Christians in Rome, asserts, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).
“Hold on to the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).  The time will come when God “will wipe every tear from (your) eyes.  There will be no more death, or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”  “…these words are trustworthy and true (Revelations 21:4-5).

A call for repentance

2 Chronicles 7:14
“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn form their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

Joel 1:13-14
“Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar.  Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.”

Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly

Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
Repent on behalf of the churches for all her sins and short-comings
Repent on behalf of the families for all sins committed in homes
Repent on behalf of the nation for all her sins so that His mercy and forgiveness will flow



 Necf Malaysia

Download 2017 NECF Malaysia  40Days Fast & Prayer (Prayer Booklet)

Hurricanes: A Prayer

We turn to our God in Prayers

As the Caribbean islands clean up from what has been named one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record, Florida now prepares for impact. The state’s governor, Rick Scott, calls Hurricane Irma, “way bigger than Andrew,” which was the devastating hurricane that hit the state 25 years ago. And with such a huge storm come huge dangers and huge uncertainties and huge fears about what will happen to the state later this weekend and into next week.

Meanwhile, the city of Houston continues to clean up from the devastation brought by Hurricane Harvey. And Hurricanes Jose and Katia are brewing at sea as we speak. In these moments, it is only right that we turn to our God in prayer. And that is exactly what John Piper was led to do today. Here now is John Piper’s prayer for hurricane victims in Texas, Florida, the Caribbean, and elsewhere.

A Prayer in the Path of Hurricanes

O Lord God, mighty and merciful, we are asking for mercy - mercy amid the manifestations of your great might. We are asking, for Jesus’s sake. Not because we deserve anything better than calamity. We know that we have sinned. We have exchanged the high treasure of your glory for trinkets. We have not loved you with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. We have sown the wind, and reaped the whirlwind. We are pleading for mercy.

We make no demands. You are God, and we are not. We are bent low in submission to your just and sovereign power. Indeed, we are prostrate before the unstoppable wind of your justice and wisdom.
We know that you, O Lord, are great. Whatever you please, you do, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. You make clouds rise at the end of the earth. You bring forth the wind from its storehouses.

You have commanded and raised the mighty wind, and it has lifted up the waves of the sea. The floods have lifted up, O Lord. You have tilted the waterskins of the heavens.
You sweep us away as with a flood. You kill and you make alive; you wound and you heal; and there is none that can deliver out of your hand. You sit enthroned over the flood - enthroned as King forever.

We are like a dream, like dust swept off the street in a torrent.

But you, O God, are mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea. It is our peril and our hope that you can do all things, and no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

O Lord, do not sleep through this storm. O Lord, let not the flood sweep over us, or the deep swallow us up. Rise up! And do what only you can do amid these winds and waves. Rebuke them, as you once did. When they have done your wise and needed work, let them not have one minute more of strength. Command them, O Christ, to cease, we pray. And make a holy calm. For you are God, all things are your servants.

And give us ears, O God. Your voice, O Lord, is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. O God, forbid that we would not give heed.

Open our ears, you who once brought Job to humble silence, announcing from the whirlwind who you are, and that, when all is lost, the story then unfolds that in it all your purpose was compassionate and kind.

Whether we sit waste deep in the water of our Texas homes, or wait, uncertain, with blankets on a church pew, or nail the plywood to our Florida shop, or sit secure and dry a thousand miles from any sea, teach us, in mercy, what we need to learn, and cannot any other way.

And woe to us who, far away from floods, would point our finger at the sufferer and wonder at his greater sin, forgetting how the voice of Jesus rings in every tragedy: “Do you think that they were worse offenders? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” The very word of God to all Americans.

And now, O Lord, unleash the common grace of kindness from a million hearts and bank accounts, and grant as great a mercy in rebuilding as you once gave verdict to destroy. Restrain, O God, the evil hearts of those who would bring sorrow upon sorrow by looting what is left behind, or exploiting loss for private gain.

And in your church awaken this: the truth that you once gave yourself for us that we might be redeemed, not first from floods, but sin and lawlessness. That you once died, not first to put us out of peril, but to make us pure. Not first to spare us misery, but to make us zealous for good deeds. And so, O mighty Christ, unleash from us another flood: the blood-bought passion of your people not for ruin, but for rebuilding lives and homes.

O Father, awaken every soul to see where we have built our lives on sand. Show us from every storm the way to build our lives on rock. Oh, are you not our rock? Our fortress, our deliverer, our God in whom we take refuge, our shield, and the horn of our salvation, our stronghold. How great the fall of every life built on the sand of human skill!

And yet, how great the sure and solid gift held out to everyone in Christ! For you have said more wonderfully than we can ever tell:

Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword - or wind, or waves? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through your great love for us.

For you have made us say with deep assurance: Neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor hurricanes nor floods, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And all in Jesus’s name,

Amen.



This is John Piper's prayer on the path of the hurricanes, first published Desiring God

Precious hope for the lost

Day 38 (13 Sept 2017, Wednesday)

I serve as a minister among refugees.  Every refugee has one hope - to be granted residence in a host country.  That hope burns so intensely that they are willing to leave their home, pay unscrupulous agents exorbitant fees to get them here, endure the hardships that come with being an illegal, and patiently wait out the years until they are granted residence in a host country.  Most of us cannot fathom how precious this hope is to them.

Likewise, if you were bought up in a Christian family, you might not appreciate how precious the blessed hope is to the lost.  Many Chinese spend a great deal of money and effort in attempting to secure a good afterlife.  Adherents of other religions try their best to make their good deeds outweigh their bad deeds in order to go to heaven.  Neither have the guarantee of salvation and eternity in heaven like we do.

Do we look at the lost like we do at refugees?  Indifferent?  Or at best sympathetic, but lack of action?  Our lack of zeal in evangelism and missions reflects our failure to realize how precious is the blessed hope to the lost.

Jesus applied the words of Isaiah 61:1-2 on Himself, “the Spirit of the Lord is on me… to proclaim good news to the poor…. Freedom for the prisoners… sight for the blind… release the oppressed…. (and) the year of the Lord’s favour”.  May we realize that the lost are like poor prisoners, blind and oppressed.  May we proclaim the blessed hope to them.

Pray for a change of heart and character

Pray that our desire will be to be like Christ.  That Christlikeness will be our main passion and goal; and we will walk in humility considering others better than ourselves; and we will surrender to His will by taking up our cross daily, dying to our personal rights and following Him wherever He may lead us.

Pray that the Lord will give us a new heat and a new mind, and He will put a right spirit within us, and He will enable us to have perseverance in order to walk in His will and purposes, and that we shall be found faithfully serving Him to the end.

Pray for us to have a willingness to take the first step to reconcile with others, even if we have been wronged, so that the root of bitterness may find no place in our hearts.

 Necf Malaysia

Download 2017 NECF Malaysia  40Days Fast & Prayer (Prayer Booklet)

Boast Not of Tomorrow

Today's Scripture: Proverbs 27 (KJV)

Proverbs 27 (KJV)

1 Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.

2 Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.

3 A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty; but a fool's wrath is heavier than them both.

4 Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?

5 Open rebuke is better than secret love.

6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

7 The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.

8 As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.

9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man's friend by hearty counsel.

10 Thine own friend, and thy father's friend, forsake not; neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour that is near than a brother far off.

11 My son, be wise, and make my heart glad, that I may answer him that reproacheth me.

12 A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished.

13 Take his garment that is surety for a stranger, and take a pledge of him for a strange woman.

14 He that blesseth his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning, it shall be counted a curse to him.

15 A continual dropping in a very rainy day and a contentious woman are alike.

16 Whosoever hideth her hideth the wind, and the ointment of his right hand, which bewrayeth itself.

17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

18 Whoso keepeth the fig tree shall eat the fruit thereof: so he that waiteth on his master shall be honoured.

19 As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.

20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

21 As the fining pot for silver, and the furnace for gold; so is a man to his praise.

22 Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him.

23 Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds.

24 For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?

25 The hay appeareth, and the tender grass sheweth itself, and herbs of the mountains are gathered.

26 The lambs are for thy clothing, and the goats are the price of the field.

27 And thou shalt have goats' milk enough for thy food, for the food of thy household, and for the maintenance for thy maidens.

Scripture Meaning

Verses
1: We know not what a day may bring forth. This does not forbid preparing for to-morrow, but presuming upon to-morrow. We must not put off the great work of conversion, that one thing needful. (2). There may be occasion for us to justify ourselves, but not to praise ourselves.
(3,4). Those who have no command of their passions, sink under the load.
(5,6). Plain and faithful rebukes are better, not only than secret hatred, but than love which compliments in sin, to the hurt of the soul.
(7). The poor have a better relish of their enjoyments, and are often more thankful for them, than the rich. In like manner the proud and self-sufficient disdain the gospel; but those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, find comfort from the meanest book or sermon that testifies of Christ Jesus.
(8). Every man has his proper place in society, where he may be safe and comfortable.
(9,10). Depend not for relief upon a kinsman, merely for kindred's sake; apply to those who are at hand, and will help in need. But there is a Friend that sticketh closer than a brother, and let us place entire confidence in him.
(11). An affectionate parent urges his son to prudent conduct that should gladden his heart. The good conduct of Christians is the best answer to all who find fault with the gospel.
(12). Where there is temptation, if we thrust ourselves into it, there will be sin, and punishment will follow.
(13). An honest man may be made a beggar, but he is not honest that makes himself one.
(14). It is folly to be fond of being praised; it is a temptation to pride.
(15,16). The contentions of a neighbour may be like a sharp shower, troublesome for a time; the contentions of a wife are like constant rain.
(17). We are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with. And directed to have in view, in conversation, to make one another wiser and better.
(18). Though a calling be laborious and despised, yet those who keep to it, will find there is something to be got by it. God is a Master who has engaged to honour those who serve him faithfully. (19). One corrupt heart is like another; so are sanctified hearts: the former bear the same image of the earthly, the latter the same image of the heavenly. Let us carefully watch our own hearts, comparing them with the word of God.
(20). Two things are here said to be never satisfied, death and sin. The appetites of the carnal mind for profit or pleasure are always desiring more. Those whose eyes are ever toward the Lord, are satisfied in him, and shall for ever be so.
(21). Silver and gold are tried by putting them into the furnace and fining-pot; so is a man tried by praising him.
(22). Some are so bad, that even severe methods do not answer the end; what remains but that they should be rejected? The new-creating power of God's grace alone is able to make a change.
(23-27). We ought to have some business to do in this world, and not to live in idleness, and not to meddle with what we do not understand. We must be diligent and take pains. Let us do what we can, still the world cannot be secured to us, therefore we must choose a more lasting portion; but by the blessing of God upon our honest labours, we may expect to enjoy as much of earthly blessings as is good for us

Scripture Application

Each day we walk through the Bible chapter by chapter making an application of our text to help us grow in the Lord. Many applications can be made from each day's text. Today we continue with the Book of Proverbs with Chapter 27. In our text today we continue with wisdom for leaders with a focus on instruction for others. What catches my eye is verse 1 that says to boast not for tomorrow for we know not what a day may hold.

In making application we see the importance in living one day at a time being 100% surrendered to the Lord. Just as today is the day of salvation, today is also the day to be obedient. When the Holy Spirit prompts we need to be do what He says, when He says because tomorrow we might not have the opportunity to follow. How about you? Are you obedient to the Lord? Let us learn from our text today that we boast not for tomorrow for we know not what a day may hold.

Running the right race

Day 37 (12 Sept 2017, Tuesday)

What is the lifestyle and actions of one who is eagerly anticipating the blessed hope? Hebrews 12:1-3 clearly tells us:
To throw off everything that hinders us (especially sin),
To run with perseverance the race marked out for us, and,
To fix our eyes on Jesus.

The above exhortation was written in the light of the blessed hope (Hebrews 11:13-16; 39-40).  The first and last are easily understood, but what is the race marked out for us?  We must know this race lest we run to the end and find that we ran the wrong race.

Thankfully, we can see the end of the race:  Revelation 7:9-17. Here, we catch a glimpse of what the realization of the blessed hope will look like - God is worshipped in heaven by the angels, the 24 elders and the four living creatures and a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language.  This multitude of people is the fulfilment of Jesus’ Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20).

Therefore, the race marked out for us is the Great Commission.  Apostle Paul affirms this in Acts 20:24, “However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the Gospel of God’s grace.”
Everything that you - your lifestyle and actions - should be in persevering obedience to the Great Commission.  Is it?  Are running the right race?

Pray for Christians to remain strong in challenging times  

Pray that Christians in Malaysia will have a heart that is steadfast in the faith even in the tough and trying times of our nation.
Pray for a resolve to face whatever challenges that may come along our way with a persevering and joyous attitude.

Pray that we may fully understand the call of our Lord Jesus Christ when He asks us take up our cross and follow Him faithfully even though if may cost us greatly at times.

Let us pray and look beyond our personal preservation and start looking towards the purposes of God and the work of His Kingdom in our land.
Pray that we will pursue this calling over and above our own needs of comfort and safety.

 Necf Malaysia

Download 2017 NECF Malaysia  40Days Fast & Prayer (Prayer Booklet)

Prayer Requests

Today's Prayer Requests

Greenhou: Please pray for Nick, young man on life support 

Christina williams |  I'm asking that the Lord save me from me with the Holy Ghost save my children feeling with the Holy Ghost continue to bless us spiritually and naturally that we will be able to pay our bills find a home that we can live peacefully in your name amen Children name:Demetterius,Christian,Isaiah,&Demiyah

Celina Drake | Please pray for my deliverance of diabtes and everything that carries with it and osteo Arthritus and all sickness in JESUS Name Please pray for my mothers unbelief and for her to stop using prfanity and for her COPD thank you in Jesus name Amen Prayer for my daughter jessica to stop using profanity and learn to be gratefull and not bitter and to stop fornicating and flee from it and to either marry this man she loves with or for God to move him out of her life thhank you i need your prayers and i appreciate all your prayers in Jesus name Please pray for all my loved ones to come to Christ and JESUS Christ for sick and shut in those in nursing homes hospitals the poor those whos hearts have been broken hurting abused those who have lost their faith in Jesus name i pray for hope to return to them all AMEN

VERA BANKSTON-JONES | FATHER GOD, 'OL FRIENDS AND NEW BRING JOY TO MY HEART, YET ARE A BURDEN WITH WHAT THEY DO! GUIDE MY HEART LORD!.......SELAH

Stephanie Winters | I'm askinasking for prayer for my daughter that's out in the streets with her new born prayer for her to return n be obedience. plz prayer for my mom, she is more sick. her name is Barna

vijay aggarwal | Plz pray for money in abundance for a comfortable life

Sunny | Pray God to open the womb of my wife. Also God to open my spiritual eyes, hears for me to have, decode messages from him.

Hurricane Irma update: Category 4 Storm With 130 MPH Winds hits Florida keys

Hurricane Irma Hits Florida Keys as Category 4 Storm With 130 MPH Winds

Hurricane Irma, a Category 4 hurricane and the strongest to hit the Florida Keys in nearly six decades, was making landfall in the Sunshine State early Sunday, threatening catastrophic damage with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles per hour. More than 6.5 million residents in Florida and over 540,000 people in the Georgia coast were told to leave their homes.

Life-threatening storm surge is likely from the South Santee River southward to the Jupiter Inlet and on the peninsula from North Miami Beach to the Ochlockonee River, including the Florida Keys and Tampa Bay, according to the National Weather Service.

The center of the storm was moving northwest at about 8 mph at 8 a.m. Sunday.

Over 300,000 people in the state were without power Sunday morning even as destructive winds, flooding rain and inundating seas are likely to occur across Florida into Monday.

After raking through the Keys, the storm is expected to strike southwest Florida with Category 4 intensity Sunday, according to The Weather Channel.

Florida officials have asked over 6.5 million residents to evacuate, one of the largest emergency evacuations in the country's history, and Gov. Rick Scott has warned that it's "a deadly storm and our state has never seen anything like it," and that "once the storm starts, law enforcement cannot save you."

Irma was upgraded to a Category 4 hurricane at 2 a.m. The storm could expose St. Petersburg to a direct hit, according to The New York Times.

Neither St. Petersburg nor Tampa, which was earlier expected to be directly hit, has taken a head-on blow from a major hurricane in nearly a century, according to The Associated Press.

At least 25 people have died in the Caribbean due to Irma.

"Unfortunately, there is no way the United States is going to avoid another catastrophic weather event," AccuWeather President Joel N. Myers said. "There will be massive damage in Florida. [It will be] the worst single hurricane to hit Florida since Hurricane Andrew in 1992."

An extensive area of heavy rainbands had already formed well north of the center of Irma over much of the Florida Peninsula, The Weather Channel reported, and said more than 10 inches of rain had already triggered flooding that shut down a stretch of U.S. 1 in Ft. Pierce, Florida, with water reportedly into at least one home.





Cred: Christian Post

Gay Marriage Referendum in Australia

Orthodox Christian leader: ‘There is no same-sex marriage at all’

"Family equals father and mother." -Coptic Pope Tawadros II

SYDNEY, Australia, - The leader of Egyptian Christians says there is no such thing as gay “marriage.”

“According to the Holy Bible, when you read either in the Old Testament or the New Testament, there is no same-sex marriage at all,” Coptic Pope Tawadros II responded to press questions about Australia’s popular referendum on homosexual “marriage.”

Such a union “is completely refused from the Christian faith,” he flatly stated. The Patriarch is visiting the faithful in Australia for 10 days.

“God created man and woman,” Tawadros said. “The first family was made by man and woman.”

Homosexuality “is not acceptable,” the pope, who was elevated in 2012, continued. “It is considered a sin. It is sin.”

“Our constitution as Coptic Christians is the Holy Bible,” Father Angilos Antoun of St. Mina and St. Abanoub Coptic Orthodox Church in Dayton, Ohio, told LifeSiteNews.  “God said (one man and one woman) is the only way to have a marriage.”

“We love all people, any religion, but we follow Jesus Christ,” Fr. Antoun quickly added.

Tawadros said much the same thing to guide Coptic youth. He encouraged young Copts at the International Convention Centre in Sydney to “fight for what is right” regarding the national referendum on same-sex “marriage.”

“Family equals father and mother,” the patriarch told the nearly 1,000 attendees.

A coalition of more than 150 evangelical leaders signed a “Nashville Statement” affirming one man and one woman marriage, calling homosexuality and transgenderism “an essential departure from Christian faithfulness.”

Roman Catholics also stand against sodomic unions. Pope Benedict XVI characterized same-sex “marriages” “a threat to global peace.”

And although recently his appointments and actions cause concern among conservative faithful, Pope Francis reiterated last year what Christianity has always taught.

“There are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar to or even remotely analogous to God’s plans for marriage or family,” Francis wrote in “The Joy of Love.”

Tawadros is the pastor of 20 million Copts in Egypt and another 2 million worldwide.  His official title is "Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark."

The Apostle Mark, after missionary activities with Paul and Barnabas, went to Egypt in 49 A.D. When he first arrived in Alexandria, his shoe came apart and he sought a cobbler to repair it. The cobbler seriously injured himself fixing Mark's shoe. Mark made clay of his spittle and spread it on the cobbler's hand, which was instantly healed. News of the miracle spread and masses of the Alexandrians were converted to Christ.

Later, after Sts. Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome, Mark went to Egypt again. He preached the Gospel in Libya and the African interior, exorcising many.  Near Easter, Mark was arrested by angry pagans, bound, and dragged over the cobblestones, all the while giving thanks to God.  The next day, Mark was dragged again, to his martyrdom.

The Coptic Liturgy is still called the Liturgy of St. Mark.




cred: LifeSiteNews