St. Matthew, Chapter 23, verses: 13a; The Hypocrites.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Woe to the Scribes and Pharisees) Part 1.   

Christ spoke to the Scribes and the Pharisees in an attempt to get them to understand their plight.  He wants to heal them.  He wants to open their eyes.  He wants to give them the opportunity to turn from their wicked ways.  But they are too far gone.  They are too blind to see.  Their sight, their hearing, and their understanding has been taken away.

So now he scolds them.  He calls them out to the public by a name that all would see.  No one has spoken to them this way.  No one has ridiculed them in the public eye the way that Christ spoke to them.  No one berated them, belittled them, undermined their authority.  Yet Christ did.  He told them:  "But woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!"  

The Scribes and Pharisees were furious.  They wanted to retaliate.  They were enraged.  For if anyone else called them by this name they would have had them arrested and beaten.  But the people considered Christ a prophet.  They praised him for what he gave to the people.  He brought peace, and joy, and understanding of the true nature of the God who loved them.  They would riot before they allowed anyone to harm him.  But it was not his time to suffer.

What lesson can we learn from the plight of the Scribes and the Pharisees?  Are we hypocrites today, preaching to others the life of piety but living a life of sin?  What is our role today with regards to the responsibility to carry the message of peace and love to others.  

God is our Father.  He created us in his image and likeness, not as physical beings but as spiritual beings.  He is love and his love is for all things that he brought forth to life.  Yet there are other forces in the universe that would turn us away from his love, that would have us do evil.  Our Father gave us the commandments to live by.  He placed them in our hearts and minds to guide our lives.  For those who believe, he gives the spirit of his love to guide us in our daily lives.  He gave us his son to take away our sins that we might be justified.  And he gives us a high priest who sits at his right hand to plead for us in our transgressions.

We are loved.  We are protected.  We are provided for.  We are forgiven.  May our God and Father have mercy on the souls of those who seek his forgiveness.  Amen.  

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 23, verses: 12a; The Lowly.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees) Part 10.  

The hypocrisy of the Scribes and the Pharisees presented an opportunity for Christ to teach the people and his disciples an important lesson.  He used the Scribes and the Pharisees as an example to show their pride and arrogance and to teach the people of their hidden nature.  They practiced piety on the surface but underneath they did not practice the laws that they enforced upon the people.  They were hypocrites.

Christ saw through their false piety and instructed the people to do the same.  They wanted all the praise and glory but did not do the work to obtain it.  They were not servants of the people but served their own purpose.  Christ told the people, the disciples, the Scribes and the Pharisees:   "Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled."

We live in a physical world where we see the individual exalted.  We are shown on a daily basis all the stars, singers, athletes, business moguls, millionaires and billionaires, that are paraded before us in the media.  Everywhere we turn someone is raised up, someone has just become a hero, a star, a person who has achieve something that we all want to become.  This is news, worthy of feeding to the people who will buy it so they can read how they did it.  Maybe they too can achieve the same success.

We wish, we desire, we dream of being the one.  We would do anything to reach a level of importance that we should be in the news, in the media, before the public eye.  We don't know the meaning of humility, we only know praise.  And most would do anything to achieve that goal.  

Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled.  We know nothing of ourselves or who we are as a person.  We know even less of where we fit in the cosmic scheme of things.  We search the heavens in a constant desire to know that we are not alone.  We live in our own self awareness of the world knowing nothing of that which is inside of ourselves.

Christ came that we could began to know who we are.  He came to teach us how to live in a physical world that fits within the realm of the spiritual world.  For there are powers and principalities far beyond our understanding, far greater than ourselves, that we know nothing of and have not understood.  Yet we proclaim ourselves masters and lords within the small realm of the world that we live.  How little do we know.

His love provides.  His love protects.  His love fulfills all desires, all passions, all wants.  He is forgiving, merciful, patient, all knowing, all seeing, ever living.  He is our Father, 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 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 22, verse: 11; The Improperly dressed Guest.

Our Paragraph topic is:  (One guest is cast out) Part 1.  

After all the preparation and all the invitations, the celebration began.  The wedding feast of the bride and the groom will be an event to remember for all those who attended.  All those who stopped their journey at the crossroads of the town and came to the party, they will remember this celebration and talk about it to all whom they meet wherever they travel.

There was music and dancing and food and laughter and happiness all around.  Even the king was happy when he came down to see the great hall filled with music and laughter.  But there was one thing that displeased the king.  "Now the king went in to see the guests, and he saw there a man who had not on a wedding garment."  

Now this was a wedding party and all knew the attire.  Yet here was a man who decided to attend but refused to wear the appropriate attire.  It was not that he did not have a wedding garment, but it was that he refused to wear a wedding garment and decided that he was going to attend anyway no matter what the attire.  It would be like attending a formal event without having the formal attire and saying that you were going anyway without the formal attire to show disdain for the event and the host.

The king went to great lengths to host this event for the bride and the groom and he did not want anything to take away from this occasion.  And certainly this person would was not going to be a distraction for everyone to see and talk about at this great event.  Christ is telling this parable to the people because he wants them to understand the conclusion that he is leading up to.  He has a lesson that he wants them to learn.  He teaches in parables but within the parables are life's lessons that the people can take with them and remember for the rest of their lives and apply in situations when they come up.

The same is true in our lives today.  His parables are teachings to guide us through life.  The Bible is full of the parables and teachings that we can learn from.  There are hundreds of stories that we can take with us on our journey through life if we choose to look and see, if we choose to read them, if we choose to believe that they are there for us to know.  We walk a path everyday through life lost in the physical world doing the same things over and over again telling ourselves we are happy.  We find joy in some things that we do but we wake up to the drudgery of life and have to go back to the everyday work of living instead of living the life that we dream.  Few get to live a life of freedom and even they become board with their lives.  

Find the life within and walk the journey that you are given.  Seek the true light that gives you life and you will know who you are.  Each day you will grow in the knowledge and strength of your self awareness and soon you will no longer be the physical but more the spiritual than the physical.  And in that moment of transition Christ and the spiritual will be with you more than the physical, always.

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 21, verse:22; Believing, all things in prayer.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Power of faith) Part 4. 

It is amazing what Christ did for the disciples.  He taught them about the things that come from the kingdom of God.  He demonstrated for them the power of words, his words.  And he told them that they could do the same if they did not waver in their belief.  This was the lesson that they had to learn.  This was the lesson that they had to remember after he had ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of his Father.

They were amazed and astonished at the miracles he performed.  They believed that he was the Messiah, the Son of God, and that he had the power to do many things.  They did not know or believe that they would be able to do the same.  Yet he gave them the instructions that they could follow.  "And all things whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you shall receive." 

What do we pray for?  Is it money?  Is it to pay our bills?  Is it to feed our families?  Is it to keep our home and not be set out in the street?  What is it that we pray to God our Father and ask for?  After we pray do we believe that he will hear us and answer?  Do we believe that he will provide?  If we want it now do we believe that he will provide now?  If he does not provide for us now do we continue to believe or do we waver and give up our hope and belief in him? 

We are humans in nature and do not know how to ask for that which will provide for our future.  We are humans and do not know what will truly make us happy.  We are humans and do not know what will bring us true peace.  If we ask for a snake, do you think that our father would give us a snake?  If we ask for something that he knows will not bring us peace do you think that he would give to us that thing that will create chaos in our lives?

Yet we ask for those things that we know not how they will affect our lives in the future.  We pray not for humility.  We pray not for patience.  We pray not for forgiveness, love, mercy, hope, faith, piety, etc, those things that will help us to be more like him.  We know not.  We only know what is in this world and what we believe, by what has been given us, will satisfy and help us.  He know the truth.  He knows the way.  He knows the love and the peace that we need.  He is our father and he gave us and continues to give us life.  His lesson is seek and you shall find.  Knock and it shall be opened to you.  Ask, in prayer, believing, and it shall be given to you.  Do not give up five minutes before the miracle happens.  Patience is the key.  Belief is the door that will open your heart.

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 21, verse:21b; The Knowledge of Faith.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Power of faith) Part 3. 

So this was their instruction, this was their lesson to master, "Have faith and do not waver."  Christ gave them this lesson and he demonstrated the power of faith by commanding the fig tree to wither.  They heard his words.  They saw the results.  And they could not understand how this happened.

Christ told them to believe and to not waver in that belief.  He told them to have faith and know that what they say will happen.  He told them that there is power in their faith, in their belief, in their trust in something that is much more than the physical understanding.  He told them:  "But even if you shall say to this mountain, 'Arise, and hurl thyself into the sea,' it shall be done."  

We believe in what we see or what we know can happen.  And therefore, we understand that something can be done.  We find difficult to believe something that we do not see or do not understand, especially if it is beyond our imagination.  Christ told his disciples that if they spoke to the mountain and said to it to, hurl itself into the sea, it would be done if they did not waver in that belief.

But how can we not waver in something that is beyond our belief?  How can we not waver in something that we do not have an understanding of how that would be possible?  How can we not waver if we believe that that something is impossible to our physical knowledge of what can be done in the world?  This is the dilemma.  In the physical realm and in the realm of the physical thought processes of the mind, what we believe is impossible, cannot be done.

Yet in the spiritual realm of belief and understanding, Christ is telling us and the disciples that faith is the key to opening up the impossible realm of belief and knowledge in the unwavering impossibility and will make it happen.  There is another side to who we are.  There is another part of what we can do in this realm.  There is the power given us through the power of Christ that we can stand upon in our daily lives.  His words are truth.  His words are everlasting.  His words will be fulfilled, in our belief, in our knowledge, in our trust, and our unwavering knowledge of who he is, Christ Jesus, our King and our Savior, the Son of the Living 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 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 21, verse:21a; Unwavering Faith.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Power of faith) Part 2. 

The disciples saw the fig tree wither before their eyes.  They could not believe what they saw.  They were in unbelief.  They heard Christ speak the words.  They knew that he was the Messiah and that he performed great miracles, but they did not understand how this had happened.  They wanted to know.  They wanted to understand, but their minds and their hearts were not open to this.

This was their instruction.  This was their lesson.  This was their homework so that they would be able to transform themselves, their hearts and their minds, to the will of God.  Christ wanted them to know.  He wanted them to learn.  He wanted them to see that what just happened they will also be able to do.  But Jesus answered and said to them, "Amen I say to you, if you have faith and do not waver, not only will you do what I have done to the fig tree." 

We have seen great feats and wonders in our time.  One can think of the great monuments left for us to marvel and to contemplate.  The great Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower, The Washington Monument, the Hover Dam, and many other great wonders of man.  Our desire is to see them for ourselves, to be in their presence and to ponder how they were built and constructed.  We can be amazed at these man made feats of wonder and even want to be a part of their history. 

Even in our time we are amazed and aahed by entertainers who perform feats of wonder beyond our comprehension.  We pay to go see these tricks of magic knowing that that is what they are, slight of hand and mind performances.  But few have seen a tree wither before their eyes.  Even more, few have heard of someone telling a tree to wither and it obeys.  How do we wrap our minds around such a feat?  How do we begin to understand the how and the wherefore of such a feat?  This was the lesson that Christ was giving his disciples and even to us today.

We have the capacity to believe.  We have the capacity to understand.  We have the capacity to do that which Christ has given us to do.  The key is in our capacity to believe, our capacity to know, our capacity to trust that it will be done, and in our capacity to not waver in that belief, in that knowledge, in that trust.  Not only will you do what I have done to the fig tree if you do not waver, if you believe, if you know within yourself, it will happen.

What do you want today?  Do you want money?  Do you want fame?  Do you want power?  What is it that your heart desires more than anything else in this world that will satisfy you and fulfil your deepest desires?  Careful for what you desire, for material desires are fleeting and do not satisfy.  Spiritual desires are eternal.  I want peace within myself to know that I will not stress or worry for what will happen tomorrow or what has happened in the past.  I want forgiveness from all my past sins.  I want a true feeling of that which has been promised.  I want to be with Jesus Christ in heaven because I know that he is the only one that can satisfy all my needs and fulfil the hunger within me.  What do you want?  Unwavering Faith. 

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 20, verse: 9, The Call of the Laborers: payment to last.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Parable of the laborers in the vineyard)
Part 12.  

The time has now come for reward.  All the laborers are called to receive their payment for their labors.  Some have worked from the beginning of the day through the heat and blaring sun.  Some have only worked an hour.  And the last that were called have hardly worked at all.  And now comes the time for reward, the time for payment, the time for the end of the contract.

Christ is telling this parable to his disciples and to those today who are reading his words.  There is a message.  There is a lesson.  There is enlightenment that comes with an inner understanding of the living word.  Who will understand?  Who will receive the message?  Who will be enlightened by the words that are given to us today, passed down through the centuries of written text.  The spirit will open the hearts of the chosen that they may see and understand.  "Now when they of the eleventh hour came, they received each a denarius."

The eleventh hour has come.  The time for reckoning has come.  The time when all work ends.  The time for judgment comes.  What will you receive?  What will I receive?  Only the judge knows.  Only the house-holder knows.  We can imagine that we have done good deeds in our lives.  We have tried to follow the commandments.  We have done all that was given of us to do.  What will we receive? 

We do not know of that which has not been given us.  We only know that which has been promised to us by Christ's words.  He has promised that he will be with us even to the ends of the world.  He has promised that he has gone to make a place for us in his father's house that has many mansions.  He has promised that he will not leave us orphaned that we will have the advocate that will come to us, to help us, to guide us, to protect us along the way.  He has told us not to be anxious, for the Father know of our needs.  And he has told us that if we love him and keep his commandments that we will be in him just as he is in the Father.

A denarius is what they received, those who were last.  A denarius is what they received, those who started to work at the eleventh hour.  A denarius is what they received, those who found work after waiting so long in the market place without giving up hope that they would find work.  Are we still hopeful?  Are we still faithful that we too will be found?  Do we still desire to find our work at the eleventh hour or have we given up in our search?

The eleventh hour comes soon for some.  The eleventh hour comes without warning for others.  The eleventh hour seems like it will never come and some would take time into their own hands and make the eleventh hour appear for their own purposes.  What will you do when the eleventh hour comes?  Will you be prepared?  Will you be ready? 

Remain hopeful and you will find your way.  Continue searching and you will find that which is yours.  Seek that which is real and meaningful and not that which is temporary, meaningless, and unfulfilling.  If your search is real and genuine, you will discover the truth that is waiting for you.  It knocks waiting for you to answer.  The voice from within calls you to know him.  Your heart knows the truth.  Open the door and receive your reward.

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.