{"id":59125,"date":"2018-06-29T14:47:40","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T12:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/site\/?p=59125"},"modified":"2018-08-09T15:25:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T13:25:33","slug":"%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%a9-227-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%ae%d8%aa%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1-2962018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/%d8%b9%d9%86-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%ad%d9%8a%d8%a7%d8%a9-227-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%a7%d8%ae%d8%aa%d8%a8%d8%a7%d8%b1-2962018\/","title":{"rendered":"On Life 227 \u2013 The Test \u2013 June, 29, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">In the previous article, we spoke about the importance of the pursuit of universal peace by all human beings, as the future of the entire world depends on it: it represents either steps towards life, or a hastening towards the abyss of death in case it is lost! This peace starts from the life of man to others around him; it begins by people stretching their hands of goodness among each other in the journey of life. Someone asked me: \u201cWhat about the evil that pervades the world everywhere, as if nobody could escape it?!<\/span><\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Hearing his question, I remembered what I read a few days ago in an interesting book dealing with the life after death, which author is a Neurosurgeon \u201cEben Alexander\u201d, who didn\u2019t believe in the existence of soul or life after death, until he suffered a sudden coma lasted for seven days, doctors discovered that he had acute meningitis that would end only in his death, or at the best case scenario he would remain in a coma: that meant he would be \u201cthe absent present\u201d: present with his body and absent from life! But it ended up with a miracle bringing him back to life, then he record his journey in a book called \u201cProof of Heaven\u201d where he wrote: \u201cThe existence of evil on earth is necessary; without which man\u2019s free will would be a kind of impossibility. Without free will, man can neither grow nor move forward; there will be no chance for us to become what God wants us to be &#8230;\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Yes, the existence of evil is life\u2019s real test for man\u2019s will and choices: he would either do good and righteousness, or walk in the path of evil, envy and hatred; this is the most important decision a man shall make in the journey of his life as it would be the basis upon which man builds his life and other decisions. It is not an easy task, but at the same time it is not impossible.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Alexander says that man shall make the right decisions, i.e. acts of charity and love, with his own free will, in resisting evil and injustice on earth; and that will not cause him much trouble, especially when he remembers that wonderful beauty awaiting him in Heaven. Indeed, the law of Heaven is good, justice, love and honesty. However, that requires bearing a great responsibility and trust: responsibility of your path, and trusting God&#8217;s justice and love. In the journey man walks through, he needs a lot of strength, perseverance and steadfastness in the face of frustrations, pitfalls and evils, and in the midst of all this, he grows, getting increasingly mature and fulfilling the mission for which he was created.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Simply, life is a journey in which man chooses neither the dates of his birth nor his death nor his family, yet he chooses the steps he is to take, what he wishes to be, and what he rejects.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\">It is a journey towards eternity.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<span style=\"color: #800000; font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>The General Bishop<\/strong><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #800000; font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Head of Coptic Orthodox Cultural Center<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"color: #800000; font-family: 'andale mono', times; font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the previous article, we spoke about the importance of the pursuit of universal peace by all human beings, as the future of the entire world depends on it: it represents either steps towards life, or a hastening towards the abyss of death in case it is lost! This peace starts from the life of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":10623,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60271,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59125\/revisions\/60271"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/copticocc.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}