Highlighted New Testament Bible

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Showing posts with label enlightenment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label enlightenment. Show all posts

Sunday, February 16, 2020

St. Matthew, Chapter 23, verses: 35b; The Blood Abel to the BLood of Zacharias.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Their persecution of religion) Part 12.  

The pronouncement of judgment continues upon the Scribes and the Pharisees of the crimes they have committed against the just.  The list of the blood they have spilt is long.  Yet that list can only include those evils they have done during their lifetime.  God speaks of the blood that was shed long before they were born and how that blood will be accounted to their list of crimes.  How can this be?  How is it that the Scribes and the Pharisees are responsible for those evils before they were born, before they were conceived, at the beginning of the history of mankind?

God speaks beyond the physical to the spiritual evil that is within them.  He speaks to the evil that has taken over the Scribes and the Pharisees to posses them to do the murders.  He speaks to Satan's minions.  They are the ones who will suffer the wrath and the judgment for the blood that has been shed since the beginning of time.  He tells them upon their heads will come all the just blood shed on the earth:  "From the blood of Abel the just unto the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias."   

What gives life to the body?  Is it the blood that pumps through our veins?  is it the heart that pumps the blood through the veins to all parts of the body such that if it stops life ceases to exists?  Or is it the electrical impulses that comes from the brain that tells the heart to pump the blood, that tells our muscles to work, that causes our eyes to see, that allows us to feel sensations and taste food?  What gives life to the body?  In all of this is it the soul that comes from God that starts the entire process of life as we know it that allows us to experience reality.

We live through the experience of life.  We have knowledge of the world around us.  We explore it.  We dissect it.  We seek to know it and control it to make it our own.  But this is life for us, this is how we come into this world and how we will leave it.  We are given a history and a reality that tells us there is good and there is evil in our experience.  We can choose either to know as our own.  Where does that take us?  We are led to search for a deeper knowledge of either experience which will reinforce our belief systems of who we are and who we will become.  We will either have good experiences or evil experiences and produce lifestyles that result from those. 

Christ came that we might know the truth of who we are in him.  He came that we would see, that we would hear, that we would have real life experiences to follow.  His was the way of enlightenment, the way of knowledge, the way of belief, the way of hope and faith, that opens the doors to a new way of life.  He came to show us that we are not just the physical but also the spiritual.  He also let us know that there is also the real evil that wants to posses and lead us astray.  

God is ever-living.  He is the God of the living and not of the dead and we have the opportunity to live beyond the flesh if we believe.  Call upon Christ and he will come.  Believe in Christ and he will hear.  Open your heart to Christ and he will fill it with his love. 

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 nd 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.

Monday, August 14, 2017

St. Matthew, Chapter 22, verse: 5; And they laughed at the invitation.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The marriage feast) Part 4.  

You see, Jesus is comparing the kingdom of heaven to a king preparing a wedding feast for his son.  He wants to have fun and merriment during the celebration and he wants all those invited to have a good time.  So he has made all these elaborate preparations so that there will be music and wine and food enough for all.  He has sent out invitations to all those that he would like to attend but they refused to come.

Those that were invited talked about coming.  They thought about making preparations to come.  They did not show.  "But they made light of it, and went off, one to his farm, and another to his business."  

We are party people.  Why would one turn down an invitation to a party?  In this day and time a well planned party is a welcomed opportunity.  It is like a vacation away from the ordinary dull drums of the work-a-day world we live in.  But Christ was making a comparison for those to hear who could understand his meanings and his message.  One has to question himself as to why would one not go to a celebration.

We can think of reasons why: "It's going to be a bad party.", "No one is going to be there.", "The celebration will be dull and boring, the same as before.", "It will not be a fun time that one will remember because one cannot have fun with the king present."  There are many reasons that they did not want to go to the wedding celebration.  

What are our reasons today?  Do we not want to be at the celebration?  Do we not want to go to the wedding feast of the king's son?  Do we not want to praise and honor to the one so blessed as to unite with a bride to begin a new life?  What do we have to say about the feast?  There are things that we have to do to prepare ourselves.  We must have the proper clothing to wear.  We must have the right attitude when attending so that we might enjoy ourselves.  Are we preparing to go to the feast?

Christ wants us to understand the kingdom of heaven.  He provides us with examples that we can understand and relate to so that our minds are open to the message he wants to give us.  Just as those who laughed at the invitation and made light of it, we do the same today.  We say that we want to go but we make no plans.  We say that we want to be there but we do not want to make the preparations to be there.  We say that we will be there but we go about doing the same things that lead us in a different direction.  What do we want?  What are we doing?

The path that leads to the celebration is like a path of enlightenment.  For this celebration the whole path is filled with wonderful joys and happiness that we can not even imagine.  Our eyes are opened.  Our hearts are filled along the way.  And that which is within us is awakened to the truth of who we are.  We become more alive because we realize who we are becoming and where the path is taking us.  The celebration is a wonderful place to be and the path that leads to it is filled with prizes of enlightenment.

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 nd 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.