Eid Al-Adha:What Is Eid Al-Adha? Festival Of Sacrifice Starts Monday=by Marcy Kreiter

The Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday honors Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son in submission to God’s command. Under Muslim tradition, that son was Ishmael; under the Judeo-Christian religions, that son was Isaac. Both traditions say an angel intervened to prevent the sacrifice.

The event falls on the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah on the Muslim lunar calendar and lasts four days. This year, the holiday begins Monday, one day after the 15th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Eid al-Adha is considered a solemn holiday and translates to Festival of Sacrifice.

Ibrahim (Abraham) left Hagar and Ishmael in Canaan with a limited supply of food and water. When the supplies ran out, Hagar ran up and down two hills to find water but finally collapsed. She prayed for deliverance and a spring popped up at Ishmael’s feet, and according to some accounts that happened because of the intervention by the angel Jibra’il (Gabriel). The site became known as the Zamzam Well. Other accounts have Ibrahim taking his son to Mount Moriah and preparing to cut the youth’s neck before the angel substitutes a ram, a story that more closely mirrors the account in the Bible of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac.

Prayers for the holiday are held at the mosque and the men of the community are expected to attend after bathing and dressing up. Whether women participate varies among communities. Some travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to perform the hajj.

Affluent Muslims are expected to sacrifice their best halal animals to symbolize Ibrahim’s sacrifice. A third of the animal’s meat is then distributed to the poor with the rest distributed to family and friends.



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Fear:: There Is A Far Better Way To Combat Fear Than With Yoga Or Pills: Trust - by RM

Don't let fear capture your life

Often in discussions with friends and  family the issue of fear, related to something, either from a personal problem or an outside source, will come up.
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If you come to think about it-there probably hasn't gone a day by in your life that there was not some kind of fear creeping into your mind.

We’re not talking about the "good" and instinctive kind of fears which alerts your whole body and pumps up your adrenaline. The one which indicates impending danger and moves you into action to protect the ones you love.

No, it is the other kind .  Where does this often nagging and irrational fear originate? And how do you keep those fears from taking a  permanent place in your life?

Wouldn’t our life's existence be wonderful without fear? Some even wonder why a God that loves us so much would even allow fear to infiltrate into our minds?

Maybe it is good to remember that God does not cause fear, but that society, the environment around us, causes fear and this fear is further nourished by Evil spirits. Yes, fear exists and can quickly work itself into our lives.

However, we can resist the emotionally disturbing grip of fear by fixing our minds on God.

God has made it clear in so many ways that He didn’t give us the spirit of fear, as illustrated in 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”

So where does fear come from then? Psalm 112:7 says, “He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord” . Fear is the opposite of trust. Therefore, a heart that is resolutely and faithfully trusting in God will not fear “evil tidings.” 1John 4:18 explains, ” There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love”. Torment is associated with Evil Spirits, as we see in 2 Corinthians 12:7: “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of the Evil one, to torment me”. Since fear involves torment, and the Evil Spirit utilizes torment, what should we, as believers, do with the fear that we experience?

Fear can be useful by the fact that it highlights areas in our lives we have not fully surrendered to God. For example, if we are fearful about our finances, and consequently don’t help or take care of others, with far greater need than ours, as the Word has commanded.

Fear is useful in pointing out that we should trust God to provide and also have to provide to others. By trusting God to provide for us financially, we will also be able to put trust in our faith and begin giving to others in obedience to Him.   He who sacrificed his life for us on the cross to set us free of  all fears.

So  if you are struggling with fear, pray about it and  turn to Scripture to seek what God says about it. Turn your situation of fearfulness into an opportunity to trust God more. Fearful about a relationship? Put that relationship in the hands of God. Fearful about a major career decision? Seek God’s will for your professional life, instead of your own. Fearful about providing for your family? Matthew 6:26 points out, “Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?”. God says we are not to be fearful. Remember that we are to trust and can commit every aspect of our lives to God who loves us.

Bottom-line: After recognizing fear in our lives, we must take every fearful thought captive, discover the root of the problem causing the fear, and pray to see what God’s Word says about our particular fear.

You can trust that God will use any circumstance for His glory to bring us restoration, and that includes victory over fear.

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