St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 21b, The commandments: If thou wilt be perfect, give to the poor.

Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 13. 

Christ continues to instruct the rich young man in the things of heaven and of the kingdom.  The young man wanted to know what to do just as we today want to know.  He, however had a burning desire to know.  He came to the one person that he heard would give him the truth.  Jesus spoke the word.  He spoke the word that would reach many ears far and wide.  He spoke the word that would reach the hearts of his people, those who belonged to the Father.  For they came in search of what they had heard.  They sought out the truth of what had come to them via word of mouth and they wanted to know if what they heard was true.  They wanted to see this person themselves with their own eyes.  And they came just as this young man had come.

For the word called them.  The word spoke to them.  The word entered their hearts, their minds, and spoke to the spirit within them.  Christ came to teach.  He came to instruct.  He came that all who would believe would have a reference to the truth of his words, his life, and his sacrifice.  And just as he spoke to the rich young man, he speaks to us today.  Jesus said to him, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.

Christ had already told the young man that he should sell what he had.  He told him that he should divorce himself of that which holds him, that which binds him to the physical.  For the physical is dead.  The physical is imperfect and temporary, but the spiritual is perfect, and everlasting.  So Christ was telling this young man to let go of the physical.  And in this statement he was telling him to give that which he had to those that are in need.  By giving to those that are in need he would in turn gain for himself permanent treasure that is in heaven. 

How difficult is this concept to grasp?  We know of the physical.  We know of that which we can see and feel and touch and taste and smell.  We do not know of that which is beyond our physical senses.  Yet we have something that is much more than the physical.  We have the spirit that is within us.  How can we see the spirit?  How can we feel the spirit?  How can we touch and taste and hear that which is spiritual that is within us?  How can we know that which is proclaimed as part of us and yet have no physical proof?  The simple truth is belief.  To open the door to the spirit within, you must first believe that you are spirit.  You must open the mind and open the heart in order that the spiritual eye within may see. 

You see all science starts with a belief.  We believed that the earth was not flat and set out to prove it.  We believed that the earth is not the center of the universe and use that which we have to prove it.  If we believe that we are physical beings wrought by millions of years of evolution then that is what we will seek to prove and to find.  However, if we search the world around us and see the majesty of its construction and know that this complex and beautiful world did not just evolve from an amoeba, then we allow ourselves to come to believe that there is something that is far greater than ourselves that created the grandeur and majesty before us.  And with that open mind we can begin to see the truth of what we seek.

And if we seek the knowledge and wisdom of God who created us,  we can find the key to the truth of who we are in his instructions, in his words.  Christ came that we would have the word.  He came that through the oneness with the Father we could find the instructions we need to ourselves.  We are spiritual beings.  We belong to the spirit and not to the physical.  The mind cannot see, the ear cannot hear, but the heart can know the truth of who we are.  For through the mind of the heart we open the door to that which is ourselves.  We can see the light of life that is within us.  Through the mind of the heart we can feel the presence of the spirit that will abide within us.  Through the mind of the heart we can know the wisdom that is given us on a daily basis that will be our guide in life. 

Christ tells the young man to give to the poor and he will have treasure in heaven.  Give to the poor and you will find your treasure.  For heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field and once you find it you will sell all that you have to have your treasure, what heaven offers.  For nothing on this earth can compare to the riches that await in heaven.  Nothing on this earth is everlasting as what awaits you in heaven.  Nothing on this earth can fulfill as what awaits you in the presence of the Father in the kingdom of heaven.  And once you taste that, you will long for nothing else 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.

St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 21a, The commandments: If thou wilt be perfect.

Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 12.

What is wanting, what is missing in my life, were the questions that lingered in the mind of the rich young man who sought Christ.  He sought something.  He hungered for something that nothing up to now had satisfied.  He was young.  He was mindful of all that transpired in his lifetime and he wanted to understand all.  The word had come to him and stirred a longing within him.  He had heard of the new teachings of Christ and felt that this was what he wanted.  So he sought the teacher, he sought Christ to get answers to the longing that was calling deep within him.

What he found were things that he already knew.  What he heard were commandments that he most likely already practiced.  But these were not enough to satisfy the hunger within.  These did not touch the surface when it came to the desire to be more, to do more, to feel complete within.  Christ gave him the basics.  He gave him the foundation upon which to build an entrance into the kingdom.  But the young man wanted more.  So Christ gave him more tasks to do, more to accomplish, he gave him an assignment that would open the heart, unburden the mind, and release the longing spirit within.  Jesus said to him, "If thou wilt be perfect, go, sell what thou hast." 

If thou wilt be perfect, if thou wilt fill thy soul, if thou wilt desire to have more, then do this is what Christ told him, sell what thou hast.  Get rid of all that possesses thee.  Unburden thy body so that you can free the spirit within you.  Did he have the will to be perfect?  Did the young have the desire to fulfill the passion that was burning within him?  Do we today have the desire to strive to be perfect in the eyes of God even though we are imperfect beings?

This young man followed all the requirements of his faith, just as we do today.  We go to church regularly.  We give out tithes as required.  On occasion we give to the poor.  We honor or fathers and mothers.  We try not to lie, cheat, or steal.  We try to follow the commandments as best we can.  If we seek more, we must fight the status quo of our times.  We must be different.  We must dress differently, talk differently, live differently which will make us stand out, make us unpopular.  Even if we seek to be more among those that are our peers we stand the risk of alienating ourselves from those that we can call friends.  We become like religious geeks in our own group.

Yet what do we seek?  What did the young man seek?  He was rich.  He was independent.  He was in a class all his own for there were very few who had the same wealth.  And Christ told him to sell all that he had.  He told him, if thou wilt be perfect then sell what he had.  Get rid of that which possesses thee.  And he tells us the same today.  Rid yourself of those things that hold thee.  Separate yourself from that which will control you, possess you, lend sway over you.  For these are the things that will prevent you from achieving your goals in Christ.

Christ wants us to be free.  He wants us to open our minds and our hearts to all that he has to offer.  He wants us to know that what is in the world is not of him and what is of Christ is not in the world but in the Father.  So the focus must be on God and not on the riches of the world.  For what the Father has to give cannot be found in the world.  What the Father offers is everlasting and not fleeting.  What the Father gives is true and not fake. 

So to seek to fill the desires of the soul, the longing of the spirit, one must relinquish that which is in the world.  One must empty oneself of that which we see in the world and seek that which is in the spirit.  For it is through the spirit and by the spirit and with the spirit that one comes to know and understand the truth of who you are in Christ.  And through this knowledge and wisdom in Christ on finds the treasures of the heart, one finds the unspeakable peace that only the spirit can bring.  And through this knowledge and wisdom one comes to know the eternal love of our Father who gave us life eternal.  Come!  Empty thyself and find the treasure that is waiting for you.  Sell all that thy hast and buy Christ.

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.

St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 20, The commandments: What is yet wanting.

Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 11.

So Christ has given the young man all the commandments that he must follow to enter into the kingdom.  He should not steal, not kill, not bear false witness, not commit adultery; he should honor his father and mother and love his neighbor.  But as a good Jew he has committed himself to following all of these commandments.  What more is there to do?  Why does he not feel that he will attain his goal.  What is wanting in his life that holds him back?

These are lingering questions that hang in the back of his mind.  These are the doubts that give cause to concern that he has not done everything that he can.  He sees Christ.  He feels the presence of Christ and his disciples.  He desires to have that something that they have which sets them apart.  He wants to be in the inner circle with the disciples.  What holds him?  The young man said to him, "All these I must have kept; what is yet wanting to me?"

What is yet wanting?  What have I missed?  What am I not getting in this world that will let me know that I am close to God?  I keep the commandments.  I follow the prescribed laws of the church.  But I do not feel certain that there is a God who loves me.  I have not found what I need to fill the emptiness, to fill the hole, to complete me inside.  Why do I feel this loneliness, this darkness, this sense of struggle within?  These are the questions that the rich young man may have asked himself and that we may even ask ourselves today.  There are questions.

We do have questions.  We do seek answers.  We want to have a connection, a feeling of certainty, something to hold onto that lets us know for sure that we belong to a living God.  The world would have us believe that there is no God.  The world would have us partake in the joys of today and forget about the commandments that our Father has given us to live by.  Go about your daily routine!  Think not about what God has given you to do!  You are safe just by going to church on Sunday.  Live the other six days according to the world and you will be alright.

These are the concepts and beliefs by which the world has given us to live.  Yet is there nothing more that we may have to guide us, to be with us, to demonstrate the love to us, to protect us, provide for us?  Can we not know our Father more than just on a superficial level?  What more is wanting in us?  Dig deeper, I say.  Seek more, I believe.  Desire to know truly, you can.  But the heart must be sincere.  The heart must seek to know from within. 

The mind does not know.  The heart will see.  The heart will feel.  The heart will know the truth of who is the Father, and who is the Son, and who is the Holy Spirit.  You must want, more than anything else that you have ever wanted in your life.  Your desire must burn from within.  You are willing to do anything in search of Him who you seek.  And with that desire, with that burning, with that open heart, he will come to you.  He will speak to you.  He will touch you to let you know for certain that he is with you.  And he will send the Advocate to be with you always that you may have a guide to give you a right judgment in all things.  And then you will see beyond all doubt that you are real and nothing else in this world matters except His love.  What else is yet wanting?

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.

St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 19b, The commandments: Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 10.

And now Christ tells the young man to do something that he has not heard before.  He gives him a commandment that is the foundation of all the commandments.  And Jesus said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

Love thy neighbor!  Who was the neighbor of the young man?  Who was he to love, as he loved himself?  He had sought Christ because he knew that he was a man of truth.  He believed him.  He believed in the words he spoke.  He had come a long way to find the truth, to find what he needed to do to obtain the kingdom.  He wanted to make sure that he had the right information that he could follow.  He did not steal.  He did not kill anyone.  He did not commit adultery.  He sought not to bear false witness against anyone, least of all to be false to himself.  And he honored his mother and father, for he was a dutiful son.  And here he was seeking knowledge from Christ as to what else he should do to complete his journey into the kingdom. 

Love thy neighbor as thyself.  This was the last commandment that Christ gave the rich young man who sought to know what he must do.  The rich young man loved himself but how was he to love others as himself?  How was he to treat others as he treated himself?  How was he to love those who hated him, those who sought to do harm to him?  How would he love the poor, the less fortunate, the laborers, the sick, those imprisoned, those that were Gentile and not Jews?  How was he to do this?  This was a hard thing to think of doing since it meant seeing others in a different light.

Christ calls upon all who read or hear these words to love.  He calls upon us to see others as though we were seeing ourselves.  Despite the race, despite the creed, the religion, despite the crime, the wealth or the poverty, we are to see everyone as we see ourselves.  This is the message that Christ spoke of so that we would all hear.  These are the words that he left for every human being.  But how can we know, how can we overcome, how can we practice love  with all the evil, all the hatred, the envy, the jealousy, all the other barriers that prevents us from doing so?

The barriers in the world are there to stop us from being who we are.  The barriers in the world are there to blind us from seeing who we are.  The barriers in the world are there to prevent us from loving one another as we should.  For we are all children of the Father.  We are created in his image and likeness.  We are spiritual and not physical.  And it is that spiritual being that we are, inside, that we should see.  It is that likeness within that we should know.  It is that love from above that we should feel within, that will allow us to be who we are in ourselves and in others.

Christ came that we would know ourselves.  He demonstrated his passion for mankind that we would see the love that the Father has for us.  He gave his life that we would have new life, in him, for eternity.  And he loves with the love of the Father for each and every one of us, no matter what the barriers.  For we are not black, or white, or Hispanic, or Jews, or criminals, or the poor, or democrat or republican or any other barrier that is placed upon us.  But we are spiritual beings created in the likeness of God our Father.  And in this likeness we are the light of the world. 

Within the physical, through the darkness, inside the spiritual eye, lies the truth of who we are.  The world seeks to deny our nature.  The evil wants to blind our sight.  And the darkness wants to cover the light of Christ that is within us.  Yet each and everyone of us has that same light, that same nature, that same likeness; if we could only see it.  For within, lies the joy, the happiness, and the peace that comes with the knowledge and the wisdom of life in Christ.  And the knowledge and wisdom of Christ opens our minds, our eyes, and our hearts to the true vision to see our neighbors as we truly see ourselves.  And the vision of ourselves and others will overwhelm us with the love that is from Christ.

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.