St. Matthew, Chapter 20, verse:22b, The Cup.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The mother of James and John) Part 6. 

Often times when we come to our Father asking for something we do not have a complete  understanding of what we are doing.  We ask with the understanding that we want what we are asking.  We ask with the understanding that we are worthy of asking.  We ask with the understanding that we will get what we are asking for.  And we ask with the understanding that we will get what we are asking for right now or in the near future, according to our timetable.  It is oftentimes that we learn that our timetable does not matter and that can be frustrating or disappointing.  We must learn patience in order to see that our Father has granted us what we asked for.

It is in the misunderstanding that we get confused.  We do not know the consequences of our actions.  Our Father knows all.  He knows when and how we will get what we ask.  He knows the consequences of giving us what we want.  And he knows what is the desire of our hearts instead of desires of our request.  It is in that knowing, and in that seeing that we are lacking.  He is our Father.  It was in that same unknowing and unseeing that the mother of James and John asked for her sons to sit at the right and left hand of Christ.  They did not know what they were asking.  They only desired to be seated with power and recognition.  They did not understand that there were requirements to obtain such a seat.  This is why Christ asked them:  "Can you drink of the cup of which I am about to drink?" 

They wanted power and recognition but did not know the consequences of what they were asking.  They did not understand what was required of them.  They did not know what they would have to suffer, what they would have to endure, what they would have to battle to be with him.  For surely they would have to battle the forces of evil.  Surely they would have to endure the constant pressure of those who were evildoers.  Surely they would have to suffer the torture at the hands of evil to become like Christ.  But did they understand the cup of suffering they would have to endure?  Did they truly know what they were asking?

One does not suffer in vain.  One does not endure the hardships, the pain, the slings and arrows of oppression without a cause to carry them through.  And that cause must be justified enough to transform the person into something better, something more wonderful, more lasting, more beautiful than what they had before.  For without the cause one suffers in vain.  Without the cause one only endures to a point and then gives up.  But with the cause one is transformed in the person that will endure to the end.  Christ was the cause.  He was the be all and end all that allowed the apostles to be transformed into persons that gave all.

Can we drink from the same cup that he did?  Can we become transformed into new beings that are willing to suffer to the end?  Or are we just those persons that will only go so far and give up without enduring all?  Christ gave his all.  Can we give our all?  What cause do we have that will transform us into new persons that will allow us to give our all to him?  We live in a world that is consumed with self.  We are given to be wholly in this world.  Yet we are not from this world.  We are children of our Father and he gave us the life that we have today, true life, eternal life.  And the knowledge and wisdom of the understanding of the life that is given us is the transforming factor that makes us who we are, not of this world but of a heavenly kingdom.  Do you belong?  Are you of the heavenly kingdom?  Are you transformed?  Then yours is the cup to drink along with all your brothers and sisters.

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: 11, To whom it has been given.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Continence preferred to marriage) Part 2. 

Why should we marry to simply end up in divorce or separation?  Do we believe in bonding?  Do we have faith that it will work?  Or is this just another modern day interpretation that allows us to do what we want with our partners.  Christ gave his disciples the principles upon which the Father created man and woman.  He created them male and female.  He created them so that they would cleave to one another for a purpose, for a cause.  But that cause, that purpose, was changed due to the hardened hearts of men and the influence of evil in the world.

For evil would seek to change what God created.  Evil seeks to turn man around.  Evil seeks to have man worship it and to have man do its will.  So evil influenced man to change the purpose of God, to have them cleave to one another.  Evil seeks to have man and woman cleave to one another simply for the passion, for the pleasure, and not for a cause.  And when the passion and the pleasure is over, evil seeks to tear them apart, to bring about hatred, fear, distrust, doubt, anger, and all manner of discord that turns man against the God  that created him.  Christ told his disciples:  And he said, "Not all can accept this teaching; but those to whom it has been given. 

To those to whom it has been given!  Are you one?  Are you one of the persons to whom this teaching of marriage has been given?  Do you believe in God's purpose?  Do you believe hat he created us male and female that we should cleave to one another for life?  For he has a purpose.  He has a goal.  He has a reason and he who created the universe has a better reason than any other person on earth.  But more than anything else do you and your partner have the faith to know that your example of togetherness will shine before the eyes of God and the world?

For he told us through the teachings of Christ that separation and remarriage for any other reason other than immorality, is adultery.  And marriage to another that has been put away is also adultery.  So who can accept this teaching?  Who is worthy to receive this teaching?  The acceptance is not one sided but requires the knowledge and belief of both parties, male and female.  Are you the one that it has been given?  Are you and your partner the chosen ones?

Will you follow the will of God and keep his purpose, keep his goal?  It is only through the knowledge of who we are in this world, that we can come to accept the will of God our Father.  For he gave us life through Christ Jesus.  He allowed us to be born again.  His mercy and his love for his children is overwhelming.  He forgives us our trespasses.  He protects us from evil.  He gives us our daily bread.  All this, if we let him.  If we open our hearts to his love he will come and demonstrate miracles before our eyes that will amaze us of his power and majesty.  For He is the power and the glory for ever and ever, amen.  Are you the chosen, the one to whom it has been given?

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: 4, The Creator made them male and female.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The question of divorce) Part 2. 

The question of divorce, what does it mean.  By definition divorce means: a judicial declaration dissolving a marriage in whole or in part, especially one that releases the marriage partners from all matrimonial obligations.  Where did this idea of marriage come from?  Where did it originate?  Marriage by definition means: any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities.

So now we have an established union for marriage and a judicial declaration for divorce.  Christ instructed the Pharisees on this question and it's origin.  He wanted them to understand its origin and why it came to be.  He said to them: ''Have you read , that the Creator from the beginning, made them male and female?" 

From the beginning they were made different.  From the beginning the Creator made us different.  We were conceived in the mind of God our Father as male and female.  For there was a purpose.  There was a cause.  There was a reason for the different vessels that we inhabit.  Our goal, our mission, our existence is based upon what God created us for.  Yet his creation was given free choice, free will, the freedom to change.  And with that freedom came disobedience.  And with disobedience came into the world right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust, sin and death.

Our Father made it so, from the beginning.  We decided to make it otherwise through judicial declarations in our own eyes, disregarding the purpose of God.  And so it has been down through the ages.  Why do we marry?  Why do we live together?  What is the purpose of it all?  We are given to believe that this is the norm, this is natural, this is the accepted way.  This is how we are raised from birth.  We are given the thoughts of man, the thoughts of the world and not the thoughts of God, our Father.  We are given the world and all that is within it and not given the spirit and all that awaits us. 

We are spiritual beings living temporarily in the physical form.  Do we know?  Do we understand?  Do we believe who we are?  Science has not told us so.  Education has not taught us how to find the spirit or even, that we have one.  On the contrary our education denies that we are spiritual beings.  Our world teaches us that we are material, flesh and blood, and not of a spiritual nature.  Our world supports the belief of the physical realm and not that of the spiritual.  Yet we exist, we live, and we die  And then we are unsure of our spiritual transformation to the true state of who we are.

But with knowledge we can come to know who we are.  With insight we can understand the true nature of the spirit being of who we are.  With the gift from the Holy Spirit we can begin to awaken from the sleep of the world that has been given to us since our birth.  And with that awakening we see the truth of ourselves and the majesty and glory of God our Father.  For he has given us purpose.  He has given us life.  He has given us the word.  God's plan comes through the knowledge of who we are in Christ.  And with this knowledge can we begin to know the truth of why the Creator made us male and female.  It is not the divorce for any cause but the bonding for a cause.  It is the knowledge of the spirit that eliminates divorce completely and brings us back to the will of God Our Father.  Do you know?  Can you understand?  He made us male and female.  He put us together for a purpose and the spirit, not the world, will guide us according to the will of God.

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.