Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 9.
The rich young man is there before Christ as Christ tells him what he must do to enter into the kingdom. He is listening intently. He is taking in all that is being spoken. He is absorbing on a conscious and subconscious level all that which is being given him by Christ. For he has to make sense of it all. He has to understand it. He has to remember it and repeat it so that he can accepts it completely. And Christ has given these commandments to him in simple terms in order that he can accept them.
Just as he was speaking to the rich young man, he was also speaking to all that heard, to all that was in ear shot of his words, and all that would hear these words as they are passed on to others. For he has given to all the stepping stones, the building blocks, the foundation for salvation. These are the commandments that have the most meaning and these are the commandments that will open the doors to the kingdom. And Jesus said, "Honor thy father and mother."
Of all the things that we should not do: kill, steal, commit adultery, etc., this is the one thing that Christ tells us that we should do. We should give honor to those who gave us life. We should give honor to those who brought us into this world. We should pay homage to those who came before us. We should show respect and recognition to their contribution to our life.
Why was I born? Why am I here? These are two questions that each and every one of us has asked at some point in our lives. We want meaning. We want purpose. We want direction. We want understanding that we may know what is our purpose, our goal, our destination. And thus we turn back to those who gave to us the who that we are today. We turn to them for purpose, for direction, and for knowledge. Lacking that meaning, that purpose, that direction we must seek it from the world around us. And we must go in search of knowledge and wisdom that we may have purpose.
In search of that meaning and purpose we may, if we are fortunate, come full circle to those who gave us life. For the purpose is meaningless. The direction is full circle. And the question that we seek the answer to brings us back to our beginning. We have life. We have spirit. We have joy and peace and love and hope and faith and belief that our lives do have meaning and purpose. And that meaning comes from what has been give to us. That meaning comes from the life that we have. We are not talking about the physical but the spiritual life that is given to us.
For the spirit is eternal. The spirit is everlasting. The spirit is created from an image and a likeness that is eternal. And the spirit will be light or it will be dark. The spirit will know its meaning and purpose or the spirit will turn to the darkness that is within and be influenced by the evil that is in the world. We all have the choice. What do we choose? Do we know who we are or are we asleep in the world, following the norms that it gives us. The light of life is within all. This is the gift given us by Christ. For he came that we would have life again. He came that we would know. He came that we would believe in the one true God. But the choice is ours. We can believe or not believe. We can know or we can deny. We can see or we can be blind. That is our choice. But the knowledge or the ignorance that comes from the choice that we make can enlighten us to our destiny or blind us to darkness.
If we choose life then we can know the truth of who we are in Christ. We can see the light of life that is within us. We can know the love that our Father bears for us. And we can be with the spirit that will come to live with us. We give homage to those who participated in the creation. We honor those who came before us. We remember those who brought us into physical life that we would have choice. And we honor father and mother for the love and sacrifice that they made for us. For they gave what they had. They loved with what they could love. They gave direction with the direction that was given them. And they died with the spirit that will transform them to the true nature of their existence. May God be with them and may be with our Lord Christ Jesus forever.
Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.
Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 8.
The rich young man had come to Christ with a question on his mind. He wanted to know what to do to enter into the kingdom. He was serious. He had come a long way to hear the truth for he believed that Christ would tell him the truth and not falsehood. So he found Christ and asked the question of what he must do. Christ told him in simple terms what he must do. He must keep the commandments. The young man knew the commandments as anyone who was a member of Israel knew.
The commandments were the rules by which the Jews lived and thrived and believed. Some of the people kept the commandments completely, some partially, some knew them but did not keep them at all. This was what the young man saw and knew but was puzzled about. So Christ told him the commandments to keep: Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, and Thou shalt not steal. And Jesus said:"Thou shalt not bear false witness."
This is another commandment given to the young man seeking the kingdom. Why did Christ tell him this commandment? Why did Christ tell him the any of the commandments that he already knew? Why did the young man want to know what to do? Why do we want to know what to do? Do we believe in what we must do to gain the kingdom? In our day and time, it seems as if we live in a world where there is no knowledge of the kingdom, no knowledge of a God, no knowledge of the commandments he has given us to live by. We go to church on Sundays, fulfill our religious obligations, and return to the world and live by the norms of the world and not by those given us by Christ.
We are the sheep that he left behind and they are the shepherds left behind to guide us in our daily lives. Do we have guidance? Are we led in the right direction? There is the world and then there is the church. There are our jobs, our homes, our children, our rest, our play, our hopes and our dreams. Then there is our beliefs, our practices, our thoughts, our knowledge, and our beings, which define who we are. The two are separate. The two are not one. Should they be one and the same? Should we be one person, one being, one love, one knowledge, one spirit, one job, one home, one parent, one rest, one play? Or should we be true in one area and false in another?
We are witnesses to our beliefs. We are spirits in our lives. We are truth in our thoughts and our beings. But are we true or are we false? Do we bear witness truly to who we are or do we bear witness falsely? To live separately bears witness to who we are. To live as two contradicts what we believe. To bear falsely in one area and truly in another shows the split in the person that we claim to be. The world drives us to be false. The world reinforces us each and every day to be separate, to not be one. The world would divide us, create conflict, lead us away from who we are. The world would have us bear false witness even to ourselves.
We are children of God our Father who created us in his image. We are spirits housed in the flesh, eternal beings given new life through the sacrifice of Christ our Lord. Live true to the nature that is within you and falsely according to the world. Be the spirit that is within you and seek to know who you are in Christ. For he came that we would know. He is that we will see. He loves that we will love with the love that is given to us. And he guides us that we will not be lost in the world. To know is to seek. To find is to understand. To understand is to see the truth of who you are. Be the truth that is within you and the Holy Spirit will come and be with you always.
Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.
Our paragraph topic is:(The rich young man speaks to Jesus
) Part 7.
The rich young man asked Christ which commandments to follow. Christ told him which ones to keep: Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery. The young man knew about the commandments but he wanted to know the truth from the one who had been proclaimed a teacher, a Rabbi, the Messiah. For the word had come to him that there was one who performed miracles like no other. The word spread that he was the one who had come to save mankind from the evil of the day. And he wanted to know what he must do to obtain the kingdom of heaven.
Christ told him simply, keep the commandments. He told him that these were the essentials to assure that he would obtain the kingdom. Even though the young man knew of the commandments he was unsure of their importance in helping him open the door to the kingdom of heaven. Christ wanted him to know all that is required so he gave him another commandment to follow. And Jesus said, "Thou shalt not steal."
To steal: to take, without permission, that which does not belong to you. It can take many forms but at its basis it means the same, to take. We see something that we want, something that we desire, and we take it. We steal. We want, we take; we desire, we steal. Christ tells us that we should not steal. He tells us that we should not take that which is not ours, without permission. Yet today we are programmed to want, we are programmed to desire that which we are not able to have. We see the things, the objects of our desires everyday, every minute of our existence. Some of those things are within our reach and some are not. Some are things that we can attain in the future and some are things that we will never be able to have, through our own efforts, unless some fortune of luck passes our way.
Why do we steal? Why do we have to have all that the world presents to us? Why are our desires, our passions fed to encourage us to seek, to find ways to have what is not within our reach? This is the way of the world. This is what we are given from birth to death, a burning passion of worldly desires that drive us to achieve, to seek success, to have that which others have. We follow the carrot on the stick, wanting to reach that goal of what has been given to us as a the measure of success. And yet we are already successful in the eyes of God. We do not have to take. We do not have to steal. We already have all that the world can offer us and more. We are already given the riches of the kingdom only to give them away for the glitz and glamor that death offers in this world.
If we only knew who we are. If we only understood the riches that is already ours. If we could only see the truth of who we are in Christ, we would know the wealth that is ours, a wealth that nothing on this earth could compare. Christ gave us new life. He gave us abundance. He gives us joy and peace, and happiness. He gives us all, simply for the asking and only for believing in him. He gives us the light of life that we may know and he gives us the consolation of the spirit to guide us. And God our Father provides for us, keeps us from harm, protects us. Yet we turn away from the Father and turn to the world for guidance, for love, for protection. We turn to the world and away from God that we may have the things that are dying in the world, the things that are of no value. We are already rich. We are already kings. We are already rulers, and priests, and ministers, and lords. This is the heritage given us from the beginning. Why throw away all that we already have so that we can steal that which is of no value? Find your treasure that is within you and you will know the truth of who you are in Christ. Then you will know that there is nothing in this world that you will want or desire that can compare to what you already have in Christ. "Thou shalt not steal."
Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.
Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 6.
Which commandments to follow, is the question the young man asked Christ. He wanted to know. He wanted to have the truth from the one who was claimed to be the Messiah. For the word had traveled throughout the land that Christ was the one. The word spread like the plague that Christ performed miracles like no other. The word spread that the time was come for the kingdom of heaven to appear. And this young man wanted to know what he must do to enter into the kingdom.
The commandments were already known. The commandments were handed to the people hundreds of years before the coming of Christ. But were they known? Were they accepted? Were they upheld by the people who professed to believe in God? Christ came that they would know. He came that they would believe. He came that they would see the truth of the words that were written in the testaments. His miracles were a testament to the power of the one true God. And his life was the sacrifice for the life of mankind. So he told the young man to keep the commandments. And Jesus said
, "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
What is adultery? Adultery is the sexual intercourse of persons when either is married to a third. So Christ is telling this young man to not have sex with a married woman. And this message carries down to each of us today. The bond of marriage is sacred and should not be disregarded. To break that bond by committing this act allows a third party to enter into the flesh of the marriage bond. For two people cling to one another, male and female, and become one flesh in marriage. To allow another to enter into that bond creates an unholy union of male, female, male union or a female, female, male union.
Today we are given examples and reasons to create such unholy unions, fed by what we see in our entertainment, what we read, and what happens in our society. The passion and pleasure of sex is like an addiction. It will drive our every behavior and our every thought to find and to create the next high. It has no limits. It demands satisfaction. It is a demon unto itself. Once it is awaken with the first hit, the excitement and pleasure of an unholy union will seek to repeat itself. And at the root of the passion is lust, the demon that draws us into its web of entanglement. "Thou shalt not commit adultery."
Our Father has given us the pleasure of union with our partners in marriage. Close the door of entrapment that is fed by unholy unions. Close the door to what we see, read, and know from the world that is given to us on a daily basis. Laugh not at the trespass of others who cross the line of passion and seek to entice us to cross over. See not the acts of others through the entertainment of the media, for it seeks to lead us down the road of destruction through the enticements of lust and passion. Pay not the price of disillusionment that comes from ignoring the warning signs of trespass that we see along the road of seduction.
God is our Father. He is our passion. He is the pleasure beyond any pleasure that we can seek or know in the flesh. For the knowledge of Him will fulfill all passion, overcome all lust, and transform us into the light of the spirit that is within us. For the knowledge of who we are in Christ will open our eyes to the spirit that is within us. And the wisdom of the spirit will enlighten us to the true path that is before us. And the God of all creation will provide us with the love that is like no other love we have ever known. Seek the truth of who you are! Know the light of life within you! Be the spirit that is within you and lust and passion and pleasure will have no hold over you! For your passion will be in Christ and your love will be from the Father. And your knowledge will come from the Holy Spirit that will guide you all the days of your life here on earth.
Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.
Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 5.
The young rich man sought Christ for direction, for truth, for honesty. He had heard the word. He was touched by the miracles. He felt that there was something in this man that was not in any other man. So he traveled, he asked directions, he followed the signs until he came to the place where he was in the presence of Jesus Christ. Looking back, how wonderful must that moment have been. Looking back, how exciting must that time have been. Looking back how joyous and enlightening must that moment have been to be in the presence of the Son of God.
Christ came down from heaven to be with us. He came down from heaven to walk with us, to talk with us, to see us in the flesh. He gave up his majesty, his glory, his crown, to take on a lowly position in the form of a man. He came down from heaven to teach us, to show us, to give to us, to die for us that we might regain the life that was given to us from the beginning. And the rich young man asked him what must he do to attain heaven. Christ told him to keep the commandments. But this was not the answer that the young man wanted to hear. He asked which ones to keep. And Jesus said, "Thou shalt not kill."
Which ones shall we keep today? Shall we kill or shall we keep the commandment? Shall we walk down that path that will lead us to kill? Shall we face the anger and the rage that swells up within us when we feel wronged. Shall we allow this anger and rage to lead us down this path? Shall we face the anger and resentment that may cause us to consider this action? Or shall we, in the fit of rage and passion, act without thought to commit such a deed? We live in a world of passion. We breathe the desires and wants of what the world has to offer and it is with those passions and desires and wants that we are guided. Are we beings of passion, beings without thought or direction, beings without a soul? Or are we led by the spirit of the one who created us, the one who gave us life. Shall we follow the commandments he has given us?
What would lead us to kill? What would guide us down the road of allowing ourselves to consider the thoughts of committing such an act? Are we open to the suggestions of ourselves or are we influenced by other means. Passions are strong. Passions will lead, pull, drag us in a direction that we may not want to go, or they may speed us in the direction that we want. It depends on the influence. Do we have an influence of darkness or do we have an influence of the light of life given us by the sacrifice of Christ through God our Father. Death is but a door. The door swings in two directions. One direction leads us to the glory of God our Father. The other direction leads us to the death and destruction of the life that is within us and away from the joy of the Father. Which path will you take? Keep the commandments. "Thou shalt not kill."
Read the sign of the times! Read the Highlighted New Testament Bible and lift the scales from your eyes that you may see, that you may know, that you may find the truth of who you are in Christ. Read it as though you would read a good book, from cover to cover, and see for yourself. Do not study it in parts reading one passage and then skipping to another, but read it for understanding. Read it for knowledge. Read it for faith. Read it that your eyes may be opened, that your ears may hear, that your heart may be filled with the light of Christ. The Holy Spirit awaits you. Christ seeks to know you. Open the door and let him in.
