St. Matthew, Chapter 22, verse: 16c; The person of men.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Tribute to Caesar) Part 3.  

The Herodians continue with their set up.  Their premise was to lead the conversation by beginning with a preset foundation upon which to build a trap for Christ.  They made conditions.  They made assumptions.  They made initial conditions upon which they believed that Christ would accept so that they could come back and use those same assumptions to tear him down.

He was a man of God who taught the truth.  He did not care for the any man.  He was truthful in his speech and words.  And he did not care who heard or did not hear what he said about them.  One of their premise:   "And that thou carest naught for any man; for thou dost not regard the person of men."  

You see these were the initial steps that they used to set the foundation to trap Christ.  They believed that they were smart and wise and cunning.  They believed that they knew who this Christ was.  So they had conceived a plan to trap him and to deceive him in his own words.  They had no idea who they were dealing with, who they were standing before, who they were speaking with.  All knowledge and wisdom was with him.  All things hidden were revealed to him.  And all that was under the influence of evil was open to him.  Nothing was hidden, nothing was covered up.  He knew all.

Yet here were the wise of the wise before him seeking to show that their wisdom was greater.  Here were the knowledge of the knowledgeable seeking to show that they knew more than he who held all knowledge in the palm of his hand, he who created the wisdom of the universe before they were even conceived in the mind of God.  Yet their arrogance brought them before him with the grain of knowledge that they possessed in an attempt to show how limited they were in their understanding of the master of knowledge.  Yet he was humble.  He was merciful.  He was loving in his judgement of them.

For they were his children and he was their Lord and Savior.  He knew them before they were conceived, before they were born into this realm.  He loved them because they were his own.  He forgave them of their ignorance because he knew that they did not know, they did not understand, they were influenced by others who would deceive them and lead them astray.  But such is the love of Christ.  Such is the love of the one who forgives and forgets.  Such is the love of the one who sees the good in what he has created and wants all to come to him of his/her own free will. 

Let it be known that the choice is ours to make.  Let it be known that the world we live in today seeks to turn us away from that which was freely given to us and paid for at a high price, the price of death.  The choice is yours.  Choose wisely, if you have wisdom.  If not then ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the doors shall be open unto you, and you shall know the truth of who you are in Christ.

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. 

St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 19a, The commandments: Honor thy Father and Mother.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 9.

The rich young man is there before Christ as Christ tells him what he must do to enter into the kingdom.  He is listening intently.  He is taking in all that is being spoken.  He is absorbing on a conscious and subconscious level all that which is being given him by Christ.  For he has to make sense of it all.  He has to understand it.  He has to remember it and repeat it so that he can accepts it completely.  And Christ has given these commandments to him in simple terms in order that he can accept them.

Just as he was speaking to the rich young man, he was also speaking to all that heard, to all that was in ear shot of his words, and all that would hear these words as they are passed on to others.  For he has given to all the stepping stones, the building blocks, the foundation for salvation.  These are the commandments that have the most meaning and these are the commandments that will open the doors to the kingdom.  And Jesus said, "Honor thy father and mother."

Of all the things that we should not do: kill, steal, commit adultery, etc., this is the one thing that Christ tells us that we should do.  We should give honor to those who gave us life.  We should give honor to those who brought us into this world.  We should pay homage to those who came before us.  We should show respect and recognition to their contribution to our life. 

Why was I born?  Why am I here?  These are two questions that each and every one of us has asked at some point in our lives.  We want meaning.  We want purpose.  We want direction.  We want understanding that we may know what is our purpose, our goal, our destination.  And thus we turn back to those who gave to us the who that we are today.  We turn to them for purpose, for direction, and for knowledge.  Lacking that meaning, that purpose, that direction we must seek it from the world around us.  And we must go in search of knowledge and wisdom that we may have purpose.

In search of that meaning and purpose we may, if we are fortunate, come full circle to those who gave us life.  For the purpose is meaningless.  The direction is full circle.  And the question that we seek the answer to brings us back to our beginning.  We have life.  We have spirit.  We have joy and peace and love and hope and faith and belief that our lives do have meaning and purpose.  And that meaning comes from what has been give to us.  That meaning comes from the life that we have.  We are not talking about the physical but the spiritual life that is given to us.

For the spirit is eternal.  The spirit is everlasting.  The spirit is created from an image and a likeness that is eternal.  And the spirit will be light or it will be dark.  The spirit will know its meaning and purpose or the spirit will turn to the darkness that is within and be influenced by the evil that is in the world.  We all have the choice.  What do we choose?  Do we know who we are or are we asleep in the world, following the norms that it gives us.  The light of life is within all.  This is the gift given us by Christ.  For he came that we would have life again.  He came that we would know.  He came that we would believe in the one true God.  But the choice is ours.  We can believe or not believe.  We can know or we can deny.  We can see or we can be blind.  That is our choice.  But the knowledge or the ignorance that comes from the choice that we make can enlighten us to our destiny or blind us to darkness. 

If we choose life then we can know the truth of who we are in Christ.  We can see the light of life that is within us.  We can know the love that our Father bears for us.  And we can be with the spirit that will come to live with us.  We give homage to those who participated in the creation.  We honor those who came before us.  We remember those who brought us into physical life that we would have choice.  And we honor father and mother for the love and sacrifice that they made for us.  For they gave what they had.  They loved with what they could love.  They gave direction with the direction that was given them.  And they died with the spirit that will transform them to the true nature of their existence.  May God be with them and may be with our Lord Christ Jesus forever.

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 12, verses: 9-10, The Battle begins: The traps are set.

Our paragraph topic is:  (A man with a withered hand) Part 1. 

The battle begins with the Pharisees, the enforcers, the power rulers.  Christ has refuted the Pharisees.  He has given them instructions in the face of the public.  He has put them down and told them of their errors.  And now Christ has told them who they are faced with, one greater than the temple and one Lord of the Sabbath.  The gates of hell are thrown open and all the demons turn focus upon Christ.  The battle begins.  

Christ has cast out demons.  He has cured the sick.  He has made the lame walk and raised the dead.  But he now confronts the demons of the rulers.  And the true battle begins.  For they are the ones who are the enforcers.  They are the ones who possess the power.  They are the ones who rule the people.  And they are the ones who are ruled by the biggest demons of all.   Christ spoke to the Pharisees, but in truth he spoke to the demons of the Pharisees.  For he spoke to arrogance.  He spoke to ignorance.  He spoke to pride.  He spoke to vanity.  And he spoke to hatred.  These are the spirits that ruled the land and the people.  They are the ones who sent suggestions in and out of their minds to make them feel what they felt for Christ.

Christ had finished his work with the crowds and moved on to other towns.  As it happened, he was in a synaggogue and there came a man with a withered hand into their midst and one could hear the traps being set.  For the Pharisees asked him a trick question.  They asked him,  "Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?"   They wanted to trap him in his words.  They wanted to have him speak words before the people in the synagogue so that his words would bring him to ruin where they could accuse him and bring him to punishment according to the law.  So they questioned him.

Often times we find ourselves in the same position as Christ, being questioned.  We live in a world that constantly questions us about our beliefs.  It questions us about our actions.  It questions us about our morals.  It questions us about our God.  For the world is not outside of us.  It sits on our shoulders and speaks to us.  It resides in our minds and talks with us.  It lives in our hearts and becomes us, if we do not take action and clean house.  For each action that we seek to do according to the will of God, the world will have a different opinion.  Often times the world will tell us what to do.  The world will direct us and our actions.  The world will tell us to relax when we should be on our guard.  The world will tell us that it is OK when we know that it is not OK.  The world within us will have us believe that we are in the world when we are not.  The world will put us to sleep in the matrix and we will not even know it.

Christ came to wake us up.  Christ came to remove the world from us.  Christ came to cast out the world from our hearts so that the true owner may take up residence.  For we are children of God and it is in our hearts that the light of the world should reside.  It is in our minds that the word should remain.  It is in our words that the truth should be spoken and not those of the world.  For from our hearts come the fire of life.  And through our minds we are freed from the world.  And with the words of the sword , we will slash and destroy the enemy.  The battle has begun.  The enemy is relentless.  Be on your guard and remember that you are not of this world but are of the kingdom of heaven.  There, shall your heart be and there, your treasure you will find.