St Matthew, Chapter 16, verses: 5-6, The Leaven: The Warning.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees) Part 1. 

The Pharisees and the Sadducees came with their demon conceived plans to trick him.  They wanted a sign from heaven to make them believe, so they said.  And Christ told them how they could understand.  He gave them a sign that they already had.  But the demons inside wanted their plans put into action.  They were the evil inside the evil doers.  They were the influence that spoke to the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  They were the ones.  Christ warned them that he would visit them and that would be their sign.  He would come to hell for three days and bring destruction to their plans.  For their sign was the sign of Jonas in the belly of the whale.  And with this he left them.  He left the presence of evil in the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And while they were crossing the sea, Christ warned his disciples of the plague.  He warned  them of the leaven of the evildoers.  For Satan had influenced the Pharisees and the Sadducees and they in turn spread the plague.  They spread the leaven to the people and throughout the world.  They were contaminated first.  They received the leaven.  They held the 
original strain and were the carriers of the resident evil.  Yet many were not aware.  Many did not know.  And the evil spread amongst the people without hindrance.  And Christ warned his disciples to be on guard.    And when his disciples crossed the sea, they found that they had forgotten to bring bread.   And he said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees!"

Are you aware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees today?  What are the influences that they play in our lives?  We see it everywhere, on the TV, in the movies, in magazines, on the Internet, in the news, on billboards, wherever we look, we see, hear, and accept the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  It is accepted as a part of our lives.  It is a constant assault on the spiritual purity of our souls.  It is handed down to us as we are children.  It is fed to us  as we become teens.  It becomes our desires as we mature.  And yet it is not until we face destruction in our lives that we wake and become somewhat aware of the leaven that has become a part of us.

Save the children!  Protect the teens!  Guard the mature against the leaven that we live with in our lives.  If the destruction of the world came today many would be lost to the leaven.  Many would face damnation.  Many would not know the love and the gift that God, our Father, has provided to us through Christ Jesus.  For without belief in him we are dead, without life, without the light of new life that comes through Christ.  Are there no alternatives to leaven?  Are there not antidotes?  Is there no solution to what has become so much apart of what we accept today as ordinary and common?  We go to church on Sunday and neglect the other six days of the week to return to the leaven of the world.  Wake up my brothers and sisters!  We have work to do.  Open your minds and your hearts that you may be saved and be born again in Christ.  For without new birth we are dead inside.  We have no life.  We have not the light of Christ within us but only darkness.  Here is a trail to follow.  Christ awaits you.  Come receive the light of the Holy Spirit and be born again.

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! 

St Matthew, Chapter 16, verse: 2 - 4, The Test: Reading the signs.

Our paragraph topic is: (The Pharisees and Sadducees ask a sign) Part 2 
 
The Pharisees and the Sadducees came to Christ to ask for a sign.  They had devised a test for him.  They said they wanted to believe.  They said they wanted to know.  They said that they wanted to see for themselves that Christ was the Messiah and a sign from heaven would convince them that he was the one.  Yet evil had conspired with them.  Evil had devised a plan with them.  Evil had conferred with them to test Christ.  And the evildoers were in agreement that they would come to Christ and ask for a sign.

And Christ saw through them.  Christ saw their evil.  Christ knew of their test but the evildoers were blind.  They did not know.  They could not see who was before them for they could not see the evil that was within them.  But they claimed that they wanted a sign from heaven that they might believe.  Yet they knew how to read.  They knew how to interpret.  They knew how to explain the changes that were taking place but evil was with them and they were blind.  Christ gave them their explanation.    But answering them he said , ''When it is evening you say, 'The weather will be fair, for the sky is red.'  And in the morning you say, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and lowering.'  You know then how to read the face of the sky, but cannot read the signs of the times!   

Christ gave them an example.  He showed them how to use their senses.  He told them that they could read, they could see, they could know if they only use their natural senses.  But the Pharisees and the Sadducees were blind.  They could see but did not want to believe.  They were filled with the darkness that would not allow them to know the truth of Christ.  But he gave them an example that they would know.  He gave them a riddle that would open their minds.  He gave them natural knowledge that they could use to open their hearts and see the truth of the signs that were being worked before their eyes.  But evil consumed them, darkness was within them, and it covered their knowledge of who they were in Christ.

Where are we today?  Are we consumed with darkness?  Are we blinded by the world?  Can we not see the signs that are before us.  Can we not know the truth of who we are and let Christ open our eyes that we may see, and open our hearts that we may know and heal us.  He came to suffer for our wrongs.  He came to die for our sins.  He came that we may have life eternal for without him we are dead.  And through him we have life if we only believe and turn from our evil ways.  The world does not want us to change.  The world would keep us in chains and dead to the life that Christ gives us.  The world would have us not believe.  The world have us partially believe so that we may sit on the fence, living in the world and thinking that we believe in Christ. 

The Father asks us to turn from the evil in the world and to obey his commandments.  The commandments are not meant to harm us, to block us from living.  If you tell a child not to touch the flame because it will burn and cause harm, that child does not know the truth of your words.  But it accepts that truth and does not touch the flame.  Our Father tells us to follow his commandments because to do otherwise would bring harm to us.  And yet we do not obey. 

I did not obey.  I followed the ways of the world, because everyone else followed.  Everyone else was in the world.  Everyone else was consumed with the world and I followed.  I tried to live in the world.  I tried to do as the world said.  I tried to make it work in the world, to have the riches and the desires of the world.  It only led to my destruction.  It only led to my downfall.  It only led me to be tested, to cross over to the darkness. 

Thank you Father for holding my hand.  Thank you Father for not letting go of me for not even sparrow falls to the ground except by the Father's leave.  Thank you Father for giving me your peace when I was a child that I would know how to find you.  Read the signs of the times.  Know the truth of who you are.  Follow the example that is given you as Christ gave to the Pharisees and the Sadducees.  Read the signs of the times!  Christ awaits you.  Christ is holding your hand.  Come back to him and know the joy and the peace that his love gives to all those who know him.  I did and I know the peace and the love that he gives me daily. 

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!

St Matthew, Chapter 15, verses: 5 - 6, Man voids Commandments of God

Our paragraph topic is: ( Christ refutes the Scribes and Pharisees)
Part 4.   

Evil stands with the Pharisees as they challenge Christ about the law.  The Pharisees had witnessed the disciples of Christ breaking the Law by not respecting the traditions the Pharisees had implemented.  For the Pharisees were the keepers of the law.  They were the enforcers of the Law.  They were the learned in the law and no one knew more of the law, handed down to Moses, than they.   They held their office in high esteem and believed that they had the authority of God to command that the people follow the Law as they interpreted it.  So they challenged Christ, the author of the Law.  They did not know.  They did not understand.  They could not see because evil had taken them.

They had made void the commandment of God through their arrogance.  They had cancelled the judgement of the father of Justice according to their own designs, that they may maintain their enforcement upon the people and set aside judgement for themselves.  For they had no honor for their fathers and mothers.  They had no desire to obey the commandments.  They had set themselves apart from the people that they may set themselves above the law.  For this was the design of evil and the arrogance of man, to rule the people as they saw fit, without following the commandments of God.   For Christ said to them,  But you say ‘Whoever shall say to his father or mother, "Any support thou mightest have had from me is dedicated to God," does not have to honor father or his mother. ' So you have made void the commandment of  God by your tradition.

Man was with evil and evil was with man and together they were one.  The evil doer became evil, even though they were not made the same.  For evil resided with man but man was made from God and still had the spirit of God within him.  Yet evil came and took over man and he knows not what he does.  For evil persuades with convincing arguments and compelling evidence to the minds of men and man has no defense save to call upon the love of Christ.  Evil has no defense against the love of Christ and his Holy Spirit.  For Christ was the sacrifice that paid for all mankind to be free of sin.  Christ gave his life and his spirit so that man could be restored to salvation.  Christ came and died for our sins that man may be justified before God.  Yet evil still prevails and man knows not.

The Pharisees voided the commandment of God and replaced it with their own tradition.  Today man voids the commandments of God and replaces them with his own interpretation of how we should live.  We live in a world surrounded by the presences of evil.  Yet we know not that it exists and desire not to know that we are in a battle.  For evil tells us that we may set aside the commandments of God.  Evil tells us that we may live the life that we desire on this earth and not suffer the consequences of God's justice.  God is the ultimate judge and there is no other higher authority.  His justice is complete.  His justice is true.  His justice is honest and fair.  For he who transgresses the commandments subjects himself to God's justice, and this is what evil desires of man, that he suffers the justice of God and loose eternal life that is store for him in heaven.

So evil distorts, evil deceives, evil disguises truth, evil lies, and evil does everything that it can to turn man away from his true self.  For man was created in the image and likeness of God and his true place is in heaven.  But, changed by the designs of the world, man has lost sight of who he is.  Man does not know that he is the light of the world.  Man does not know that within him the Holy Spirit is to dwell.  Man has forgotten that Christ came, suffered and died for our sins that we may no longer live in sin.  Yet sin prevails and man continues to live, asleep in a world of sin, as evil grows in the minds and hearts of man.  

For the evildoer does the deeds of the evil one and man is not aware.  And the evildoer makes void the commandments of God that evil may prevail.  Guard your hearts!  Guard your minds!  Be vigilant of what you see and what you hear.  For evil is subtle in its attack upon the children of God.  Pray daily that the other advocate will come and live within you that you may be protected against the attacks of evil.  For you can know him.  You can see him.  You can carry him with you every minute, every second of the day that you will be protected and shielded from evil.  Seek him.  Ask for him to come.  Know that he will be with you for Christ has promised that he will send him.  And when he comes, Christ has said that you will be filled with his light that you will see and know the truth of who you are.  For the eye is the lamp of the body and if the eye is sound then the body will be full of light as though it shines from a lamp within.  Seek it!  Find it!  Know it, and you will see the spirit of Christ within.