St Matthew, Chapter 18, verse: 9, Occasions of sin for the Eye .

Our paragraph topic is:  (Avoiding scandal) Part 6.   

Drastic as it may sound, Christ continues to warn his disciples of the dangers of occasions to sin through the parts of the body.  The eye is the key to the soul and if it leads to sin then Christ says that it should be plucked out and cast away.  The vision to plucking an eye out is very hard to imagine.  Plucking an eye out compared to being cast into the hell-fire is not imaginable since we have no real comparison to the hell-fire.  But Christ knows and he warns his disciples so.  He warns the people of the same.

And the occasions of sin of the eye are the causes of scandal.  The people heard his words.  The disciples heard his words and how drastic or bad, or unbelievable they did sound.  Yet they were spoken from the mouth of Christ, the mouth of the Messiah.  For one must imagine the loss of an eye as compared to the hell-fire.  And if the plucking of an eye is bad then the hell-fire must be ten times worse.  Control the eyes.  Let them not lead to sin.  Let them not stray.  Let them not be controlled by evil such that one commits sin as a result of what one sees.  For the words were spoken.  And the words were written.  And Christ told us:  And if thy eye is an occasion of sin to thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee!  It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell-fire.    

It all starts with what we see.  For through the eyes and into the mind and settling in the heart begins the passion of our desires.  For we desire earthly things.  We desire cars and houses and clothes and women and money and power and all manner of earthly things that become ingrained in our minds and desirous of our hearts.  We are fed these desires on a daily basis.  And it is through these desires that we make plans.  It is through these desires we scheme.  It is through these desires that we take actions that lead us down the road to the commission of sins.  And through the commission of those sins, our hearts turn black and we become instruments of evil.

Guard what the eye sees.  Reject the desires of the mind.  Fill the heart not with the desires of the world but with the love that Christ has given us.  For it is through his love, through his passion, through his desire for man to live eternity with him and the father that we find our freedom from sin.  We are heavenly beings created in the image and likeness of our father.  Creatures of light and not of darkness.  But evil would have us live in ignorance.  Evil would have us destroy our likeness and assume its likeness.  We are not evil.  We are not of the darkness.  We are children of light.  

Come!  See the light that is within you.  Know the truth of who you are in Christ.  Seek the knowledge that will provide freedom from the desires of the world and your father will provide for you.  Your father will protect you.  Your father will strengthen you to walk in his goodness.  For Christ came that we may have life.  He restored us to new life.  He provides us with the opportunity to live a life of eternity in heaven, if we choose.  But without choosing we live in darkness.  Without the knowledge of who we are we are asleep.  Without the truth of the light of the Holy Spirit we live in darkness.  Open the door and let him in.  Seek the light that Christ has given you and you too will know the true self that is within you.  Christ loves you.  God the Father adores you.  The Holy Spirit awaits you.  Let him in.

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 15, verses: 26, The Lost Children of God: It is unfair.

Our paragraph topic is: (The Canaanite woman) Part 5.   

What are beliefs?  Are they the stuff that our dreams are made of?  Are they the desires of our hearts?  Are they the thoughts that we have about what we want, think, see, feel.  A writer I once read described a belief as a feeling of certainty about something.  The Canaanite woman had a belief.  She believed that her daughter could be cured of the demon that possessed her.  She had an idea and she became certain that she could find a way to restore her daughter to the way that she knew her before being possessed.

She followed that idea up with action for she knew that there was a way.  She consulted all the known cures of the time, met with the best physicians, doctors, healers, sorcerers of the time but found no answer.  Then she heard the word.  She heard of Christ.  She heard of his miracles, she heard how he made the lame walk, the blind see, cured the sick, and made the demons depart from the possessed.  Then the word she heard convinced her, with certainty, that her daughter would be cured.  She had no doubts, she believed with certainty.

She had to find this Christ.  She had to ask him for help.  She had to beg and plead with his disciples that she might see him, get near to him, speak with him that her daughter might be saved.  She knew that she was not a Jew.  She knew that she was a gentile.  She knew that Jews and gentiles did not associate, did not live together.  The former considered the latter less than.  The former did not associate with the latter.  The former considered the latter unclean.  But all this did not change her belief that her daughter could be saved.  All of this did not deter her purpose or change her from her goal, her desire, her belief.  She was certain that she could persuade the Christ to save her daughter.

So she came to him and falling on her knees she worshipped him and pleaded for his help.  And Christ,  he saidin answer, "It is not fair to take the
children’s bread and to cast it to the dogs."

Christ made this statement in expressing the sentiment of the times.  Food was scarce and there were many mouths to feed.  Who got to eat first?  Who would go without food?  Who would make the decision, the judgement as to who would eat and who would not?  For it had come to be, that the scales of fairness played into the decisions of men.  It was not fair, it was not right to take bread from children and give it to the animals.  But the wealthy did.  It was not right, it was not fair that the dogs of the rich eat better than the poor.  It was not right, it was not fair that the poor were taxed out of the food to feed the children and those same taxes fed the dogs of the rulers, the dogs of the wealthy, the dogs of the powerful.

Christ made this statement to the Canaanite woman because he knew that just as strong as her desire, her belief, that her daughter needed help, she had the same belief that her dogs would eat before the poor.  You see the Canaanite woman was a woman of means.  She was a woman of power and influence.  She did not know hunger.  She did not know poverty.  She did not know want.  For she was of the ruling class and was a wealthy person.  And Christ admonished her with the statement that it was not fair for her to think and believe that her dogs should eat and be fed from the wealth taken from the poor.

And where are we today?  Do we believe the same?  Are we the selfish ones who feed ourselves, our children, and our pets while those less fortunate go hungry?  Do we pass up an opportunity to help others, thinking that they are bums or beggars seeking a hand out?  We tell ourselves that they are drug addicts.  We tell ourselves that they are drunkards seeking another drink.  We look down on them from our high position without considering that they too are the children of God created in his image and likeness.  And we even get indignant and angry that they would ask us for help.

They are on every corner.  They are under every bridge.  They are without house, without clothes, without means, without hope.  And we pass them by, avoid them, and yet, feed our pets and our dogs before we would feed them.  It is not fair to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs.  What do you do?  What is your excuse?  What is in your heart?  Judge not and feed the children of God. 

St Matthew, Chapter 15, verses: 1-2, The Traditions of the World.

Our paragraph topic is: (Christ refutes the Scribes and Pharisees) Part1. 

Christ was in the land of Genesar and the word spread of his presence.  People came from far and near to hear him, to be near him, to see him and to just touch the tassel of his cloak that they may be saved.  And the Pharisees of Jerusalem heard of the whereabouts of Christ and they came also to see him, to hear him and to know of his teachings.  But the Pharisees were the rulers of the people.  They were the keepers of the law.  They told the people what to do, what to think, what to wear, how to speak, how to pray, how to give thanks to God and all things religious.  For they knew the law.  They knew the teachings of the Old Testament handed down through the ages from Moses.  And they came to hear what Christ was doing since his popularity was widespread.

The Pharisees came.  They wanted to know what or who the people were talking about.  Christwas the talk of the villages, of the towns, of the beggars, paupers, farmers, the lame.  Everyone was talking about Christ.  And the Pharisees wanted to know, needed to know, who was this Christ themselves.  So they came to Genesar to see Christ.  And when they saw, they were amazed.  They were amazed at the disciples of Christ.  They were amazed at those he had chosen to be close to him.  They were amazed that he had simple commoners as his close followers, as his disciples. 

They were amazed that he had chosen the uneducated, the lowly, the unprincipled, the men of no influence, the nobodies.  For these disciples of Christ were not educated in the traditions set down by the law.  They did not follow the principles and precepts that the Pharisees instructed the people that they should follow.  And this was an affront to their authority.  So they questioned Christ.    THEN scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem came to him, saying, "Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the ancients?  For they do not wash their hands when they take food."  

Christ broke away from tradition.  Christ called those who did not follow the ways of the world, the traditions of men.  He called those that were lowly.  He called those that were uneducated.  He called those who were without hope.  He called those who wanted to believe in something greater than what they were experiencing in the world that they lived in.  But the world objected.  The world did not want them to change.  The world wanted to keep them without hope.  The world wanted them to continue to follow the traditions set down by men.  Do not pray.  Do not believe.  Do not know the presence of the Lord.  These are the things the the world wanted men to do.  The world wants men to continue to live in the traditions of the time.  The world wants to capture the hearts of men and to keep them.

Christ calls men to step outside of the world.  Christ calls men to give up the traditions of the world and to accept the traditions of the kingdom of heaven.  Christ calls men to open their hearts to the presence of the Holy Spirit that he may come and reside with them.  For the Holy Spirit is the counselor.  The Holy Spirit is the provider.  The Holy Spirit is the protector.  The Holy Spirit is the presence of God and Christ here on earth. 

Step out of the world.  Give up the ways of the world, for the world wants to have and keep your heart.  What are the desires of the heart?  What are the things that hold and keep the heart in the world?  There are many lusts and desires and spirits that hold the heart.  But the heart can not hold both the ways of the world and the the ways of the kingdom of heaven.  One must awaken and stand at the crossroads to choose.  Open the heart to the ways of Christ and welcome the spirit within!  Christ will send the advocate to come and reside with you and you will know the truth of abundant life.