Our Paragraph topic is: (The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees) Part 5.
Understanding was not with the disciples. Wisdom was lost. Knowledge was foreign. And they themselves were without sight. The disciples did not see. They did not understand. They did not know what was happening among themselves. All they knew was that they forgot to bring leaven to make bread and this caused great strife. They had forgotten who made the bread. They had not understood the miracle maker and his power. They were without the wisdom that comes from spiritual insight. And they were being filled with the leaven that spread from the Pharisees and the Saducees.
But Christ was in their midst. Christ was there to guide them. Christ was there to give them sight, to instruct them in the ways of the world. So, he had to bring them back to the reality of the spirit. He had to warn them of the plague that was taking over. He had to instruct them in the wisdom of past events so they would have understanding and love. The disciples were so filled with what they considered the needs of the now that they forgot that their needs were already given to them. And Christ had to call forth understanding that they would come back to spiritual reality. Then
they understood that he bade
them beware not of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and
Sadducees.
There is a famous experiment used in psychology where several cards in a deck are altered. A black spade becomes a red spade, a red heart becomes a black heart, etc. The deck of cards are then flashed before a patient in shot intervals, asking the patient to identify each card before going to the next. At short intervals the altered cards are not identified properly. However, after each round of exposure, the interval of exposure is increased to allow more time to identify the altered cards. As the exposure time increases most patients are able to identify the altered cards. But there were some who, even at increased exposure times, still did not identify the altered cards. Most people can and do understand with increased time to contemplate the internal change. Others simply will not make the adjustments necessary to understand. This is explained as an unwillingness to make the necessary internal adjustments to identify change. Change requires a willingness to let go of the internal reality created by the mind and an acceptance of a new reality.
We live in a world today that is our reality. It is given to us at birth and we live within it throughout our lives. It is our reality. Yet there is another reality that is before us that we are unable to accept or unwilling to accept. Most of us accept a reality that there is a God, a higher being that created the world we live in. Yet our acceptance is only partial, only minimal, without complete commitment. We live in a physical world that we see, feel, smell, and hear. Our acceptance of this world is real, complete, total. And it is the acceptance of this world that prevents us, denies us, holds us back from accepting completely the reality of the world of God. Understanding is our vehicle. More exposure is our tool. And internal change is the purpose which allows us to know who we are. Some will accept. Some will not. Some will believe partially, partially in the world and partially in the spirit. And then there are those who will let go of all that is in the world and connect with all that is in the spirit. Can you make the internal change to let go? Can you believe, totally, that God lives and the spirit is alive? Can you make the change that will turn you inside out? Can you become the spirit that you are? The change is simple. Follow the path that is laid out before you and search for the light that is within you.
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 leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees) Part 4.
And there they were, standing among themselves, after having been in a heated argument, listening to Christ chastise them. They did not yet understand. They had lost all memory of what had happened with the five loaves and five thousand men. Their minds were focused upon a simple, what they believed, a failure on some one's part, to bring bread that they would not go hungry. Yet before them stood the creator of bread and wine. Before them stood the creator of all things that would provide and protect them. The leaven had crepted in and was infecting their minds and bodies and spirits.
Christ was appalled. He could not believe what he was hearing, what he was seeing, and what he felt in his heart for those that he cared so much for and loved. These were his future candidates. These were the ones who were to carry the gospel throughout the world. And here they were arguing among themselves about a material thing called bread. Why Satan himself must have stood amongst them and laughed at how easily they could be persuaded to loose the one thing that gave them life, love for one another. Christ had to bring understanding. He had to call forth order. He had to bring back their memories of the things that had come before them that they would know and see the pettiness of their behavior. He said to them: "Why do you not understand that it was not of bread I said to you, 'Beware of the leaven of the
Pharisees and Sadducees'?"
It was not of physical but of spiritual. It was not of bread but of leaven. It was not of death but of life that he spoke to them that they would know the truth. Yet they were still in the flesh. They were still in the body. They were still not in the spirit that Christ wanted to make them aware of who they were. For the flesh was of death. The spirit is of life. The flesh commands attention but the spirit awaits the truth. The body says I am. But the spirit knows I am. The flesh says now. But the spirit says eternity.
Why do you not understand that it is not of paper and dots and dashes that I write? Why do you not remember who brought you to this place, this blog, this moment in time that you would be able to read what is written? Is it just words? Is it just nonsense? Or is it the awakening of something more in you that desires life, that desires love, that desires peace? For your inheritance has been given. Your light is seeking to be seen. Your joy is waiting for your embrace that you may know the truth of who you are in Christ. Created in his image and likeness, your light will shine throughout the world that many may see and know that you are a child of your father and creator. Come, walk the path that is before you. Open your heart to the love that awaits you. Know the truth of who you are and your life starts anew. Christ
awaits you. The Spirit seeks you. God, your father, loves you.
Read the signs 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 leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees) Part 2.
Christ was in the presence of evil as he spoke to the Pharisees and the Sadducees. For they were the agents of evil, they were the evildoers. Evil can not operate of its own but must operate through man. So they sought the highest authority and corrupted the priest to do their evil. And they spread the plague throughout the towns and villages that evil would prevail. And Christ know of the plague. He knew of the leaven that was being spread by evil through the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He told his disciples to beware of that evil, to beware of the leaven being spread by the Pharisees and the Sadducees. But they did not heed his warning.
And so the disciples became infected with the plague. They themselves began to show signs of the infection. They began to show signs of the leaven that was spreading about. But they themselves were not aware. They did not know what was happening. They did not see yet how the leaven was affecting them. So they began to argue among themselves about little things.
They began to show signs of the leaven taking hold of them while they were traveling. For the leaven brought strife. The leaven brought chaos. The leaven brought anger, fear, hatred, hopelessness, jealousy, and many other evils that would infect the person who caught it. And they did not know. But Christ knew and he warned his disciples so that they would not be infected. He warned them that they would know and see the change that it brought about within themselves. And yet without faith, the cure to the leaven, all would be infected with the leaven. But they began to argue among themselves, saying, "We have
brought
no bread." But Jesus knowing this, said, “You of little faith, why do
you argue among yourselves that you have no bread ?
And the disciples became infected with the leaven because they had little faith in the one who was the source of all faith and hope. Are we affected with the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees today? Are we without hope? Are we without faith that the one who came down from heaven will not provide? Do we argue among ourselves as to where we are to get bread, where we are to get food, where we are to get clothing, where we are to get money to provide for ourselves? After all, we are the ones, so we are told, that provide for ourselves. We are the ones who are not dependent upon a hand out from the government or from others to provide for ourselves. We are independent. We have jobs, we have houses, we have cars, and money, and clothes, and big screen TVs, and smartphones, and ipads, and Internet data plans that allow us to be happy in the world we live in. And those who are without? Well they must be independent and provide for themselves. This is the leaven of today. We are independent and do not need hope, we do not need faith.
Christ came that we may have new life. For without belief in his sacrifice, his death and his resurrection we are dead, we have no life. Yet, we say we believe. We say we have faith. We go to church each week in belief of that faith and that hope. But when the bills come due, the money runs short, when we fear the loss of the jobs we hold, do we believe, do we have faith? The creator of the universe wants to provide for us. He wants to protect us. He wants to show his love for us and yet we are infected with the leaven of the world. Is it hard to let go? Is it difficult to trust in the Lord?
We expect miracles to happen when we pray. Yet we are not patient enough to see them happen. We are not faithful enough to allow our God, our Father to work in our lives. We know not the life that has been given us is not the life in the world but the life of the spirit within us. Faith is the belief in the desire to be one with Christ. Are you one with him? Do you know who you are? Has your spirit been robbed by the evil in the world? Mine was but now I am found in Christ. Come, find yourself. Come, find the truth of who you are in Christ and heal yourself of the leaven of the world. For with the truth, you will know the life that is within you and with the truth you will be able to throw off the fears and doubts that are brought on by the passions of the physical life. You will know the true nature of who you are in Christ. Follow the path. Read the signs. Open your heart and you will see the life Christ has given you.
Read the signs 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 Pharisees and Sadducees ask a sign)
Part 3.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Jesus with in their plots and plans. They asked him to give a sign that they would know and believe was from heaven. They wanted to test him. They wanted to have him perform a miracle for them even though they knew that he was the Messiah. The evil within them knew that he was the Christ yet the evil urged their evil doers to ask for a sign to test him.
Evil was all around. Evil sought to trap. Evil sought to ensnare. Evil sought to find a way to discredit what was truth. So they plotted and planned with their evil doers on ways to carry out their plans. One worked in the spiritual realm and one worked in the physical realm. And yet the physical realm did not perceive that which was in the spiritual realm. The physical body did not or would not accept that there was a spiritual realm of evil that suggested the things to do in the physical realm. They were blinded. They could not see. They did not want to see for their physical passions kept them from seeing, kept them from believing, kept them from know the truth that was before them.
So Christ gave the physical as an example. He gave them knowledge that they could relate to in the physical realm. He demonstrated to them the knowledge that they had about interpretation. They could interpret the morning sky. They could interpret the evening sky and know what was coming before them. So why did they not want to see the interpretation of what was before them so that they would know the truth. They did not want to let go of the physical and accept the spiritual that was before them. So instead of reaching understanding for themselves and having their eyes opened to the evil that was within them, they accepted the plot of evil and continued to live in the darkness.
They came to Christ and asked for a sign. And Christ told them: An evil and adulterous generation demands a sign, and no sign shall be given it but the sign of
Jonas." And he left them and went away.
Are we like the Pharisees and the Sadducees? Do we request a sign? Do we demand a miracle so that we can say that we believe? Do we counsel with evil that evil may reside within us? For a sign will not be given except for the sign of Jonas. Christ spoke to the Pharisees and the Sadducees to let them know that he knew of their evil. Even more so, he spoke to the evil within them to let evil know that he was coming. He told them that he would be with them for three days. He told them that he would come to bring about a change. He would reside in the belly of hell to release the souls that were trapped there. He would come to the belly of hell to right what was wrong and to seal those who walked the earth and possessed men to do evil for them.
Shudder in your spirits for Christ would come and exact judgement upon the evil in hell for three days. He would come and release all the souls that lived in purgatory that had waited patiently until his coming. He would come to hell and give life to those souls that lived by the laws of God and bring punishment to the evil that roamed the earth. So, he gave the Pharisees and the Sadducees the opportunity to read the signs of the times. He gave them the opportunity to awaken from their sleep with evil. He gave them the spark that would ignite their minds and open their hearts that they may be healed. But they refused to believe. They refused to see. They refused to know. They only wanted to sleep in the bed of darkness. They only wanted to remain in the web of evil that walked the earth and tempted them to do evil.
Where are we today? Are we asleep with evil? Are we not reading the signs of the times and awakening from the blindness of evil? Many will go down the wide road of destruction. Many will heed the call of sin. Many will succumb to the passions of lust and open their hearts to the evil that comes from within. And yet we refuse to understand truth for its simplicity and its beauty. God loves us. God created us in his image. God wants each and every one of us to live with him in heaven. But we continue to allow ourselves to follow the world down the path of destruction and death. WAKE UP! See the signs! Open your hearts to the love of Christ who died that you would have life again. Believe! And be saved from darkness that awaits you. Death is a thief and will come when least expected. Be prepared daily, hourly, that you may not be caught unaware. A trail of crumbs have been left for you to follow. Come! Christ awaits you and the Holy Spirit will guide you on this journey of life.
Read the signs 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!
