Our paragraph topic is: (Christ's answer) Part 5.
They came to him for answers and he gave them knowledge. They thought that they knew about the resurrection. They believed that there was no life after death, that there was no resurrection so they came to him for an answer. He told them that they were wrong, that they knew neither the scriptures nor the power of God. They thought that they knew, but they did not. They thought they had the answers but they did not. They thought that they were right in their beliefs but they were wrong in their assumptions and Christ told them so.
He told them that there would be no marriage in heaven. Therefore, what took place on earth would not be bound in heaven. Men and women would not be bound to each other in heaven. They will be like angels of God in heaven. This was a shocking revelation to the Sadducees because they assumed that the wedding commitment would be bound over at the resurrection after death. Christ had to correct them on this point also. God was a God of the living and not of the dead. He told them what was spoken by God himself saying: " ' I am God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?' He is not the God of the dead, but of the living."
Where does that leave us today, those who believe? Do we believe in the living God? Are we right in our faith, in our hope, in our trust in the invisible God? Can we act on that which we believe, walk by, live by, and know, that we have a living God that we can call on, in our time of need? Will he hear us? Will he respond to us? Will he care for our needs? Will he provide for us?
We indeed are weak. Yet something inside tells us, talks to us, encourages us to think otherwise. Something wants us to not be humble, to not be dependent, to not trust in the Lord. History has taught us that he has been there for us. He has walked with us, showed us the way, done things for us, brought us far without problems. So why should we stop leaning on him now. Why should we stop trusting him now. He was a plan for us, all we have to do is be patient and enjoy the ride.
Our God is patient. He is merciful. He is loving. He saved us from the deep depression that we were in where those thoughts of ending came upon us. He gave us new life and new hope. He show us the way. He opened the door for us to enter the kingdom of heaven. He opened our eyes to who we are in Christ Jesus and now we see ourselves in a new light. The Spirit lives with us and guides us daily. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to Jesus Christ. Thanks be to the Holy Spirit.
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.
Our paragraph topic is: (Christ's answer) Part 2.
They came to him with the question of the resurrection. They did not believe that there was life after death. They did not believe in the resurrection of the soul. They only believed that after life you die and there was nothing else. So they wanted to hear what Christ had to say since he was the up and coming preacher of the day. He was the person that everyone was talking about. Some called him a prophet, some called him the Messiah.
So to get their answer they conceived a question about life and death, marriage and heirs that would address the question of the resurrection. Christ told them that they erred in their assumption of marriage and ownership after death, after the resurrection. He said: "For at the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage."
Imagine that! Christ gave them insight into the kingdom of heaven. He told them that there will be no earthly ties in heaven. God created man and woman, gave them the garden, and told them to be fruitful and multiply. But in heaven man and woman will be free of those earthly ties. They will be free of those physical bonds that held them to the pain and suffering in the physical realm. They will be able to experience freedom in the kingdom of heaven. In the spiritual realm created by God there will be no marriage, no physical as on earth.
Christ came that we could know what to do, how to live, what to believe, and how to love one another. He came as an example for us to live by, as an example to love by, as an example to believe and to hope by in our daily lives. He created his church to continue his message and to be witnesses to his message for those who did not see him or did not hear his words personally. He is the living word of God the Father. He is the eternal love of the creator of the universe, our hope and our passion for life today and tomorrow.
We struggle each day with the trials and tribulations of this world that we live in seeking to maintain a sense of peace amongst all that is not peaceful. To look around and see the world in its true form only leads to discouragement. Yet peace comes from within, from the connection with the living soul of life given us through the sacrifice of Christ's passion. The Spirit abides with us. The Spirit guides us. The Spirit lives with us daily to help us along the way when we become weary of life. Thank you Christ for that which you have given us. Thank you Father for all that you provide for us. Thank you Holy Spirit for your guidance.
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.
Our paragraph topic is: (Christ's answer) Part 1.
They came with their question about marriage and the issue of heirs. Hidden in it was the question of the resurrection. They did not believe in the resurrection but they wanted to know the answer from Christ. They wanted to know his thoughts on the resurrection so that they could trap him.
He saw them coming. He knew of their deceit. He knew of their lies and their plans to trap him. Each group came with their questions hidden with their traps. Yet they did not understand who they were speaking with, who they were talking to. They knew not, they thought not, they perceived not. But Jesus answered and said to them, "You err because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God."
They had read the scriptures. They had read them over and over again but they knew them not. They did not understand them. They did not truly comprehend the depth of the knowledge of what they had read. For the power of God was in the scriptures and was far greater than their imagination could conceive. They did not believe in the knowledge of what they read in the scriptures.
The scriptures tells of the many miracles wrought by God for his chosen people. He brought plagues upon those who were against the Jews. He brought death to the first born, he fought battles to save the people. He parted the waters of the Red Sea and crushed the Egyptian army to save the Israelites. Yet they did not know the scriptures and the power of their God that he would do anything for his people.
They brought a question of conflict to Christ because this is how they perceived it. Who will the widow belong since all the brothers had her? This would create conflict on earth, but not in heaven.
This was conflict on the physical plain not on the spiritual. For we are spiritual beings in a physical body. When we leave the physical we continue in the spiritual and there is no conflict in the spiritual. There are no physical ties in the spiritual. We become free from the physical plain.
Christ is our guide, the first born. He leads the way, he opens the doors to the kingdom of heaven to the spiritual realm. When we leave the physical realm we move to the spiritual realm to be with him and all those who have gone before us. We rejoice in the union of our past and are filled with the spirit of life from the heavenly realm of God. The path is ours. The choice is ours. Come! Choose! Do not Err!
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.
Our paragraph topic is:
(Continence preferred to marriage) Part 3.
His teachings were given that day that he told his disciples about marriage and adultery. Through Christ the Father told the world of his plans, his purpose for man and woman. For they were created with a purpose, a plan. They were designed physically to bond together. They were given from birth to cleave to one another and to become one flesh. For through one flesh they would create. Through one flesh they would provide the physical beings for the future. Through one flesh they would open the door to all the others that would come after them.
The disciples did not understand. They did not see the plan, the purpose. They were still in the physical and not in the spirit. They had not yet been reborn in the spirit of Christ and the justice the he would bring to the whole of mankind. Through temptation man was disobedient. Through deceit mankind died. Through death mankind was doomed. But Christ came and redeemed all. He came and brought the teachings of his Father that all would know his will. And he left with us the living words to open our hearts and give life to our souls that we could know the truth of who we are in him. Who can accept his teachings on bonding and adultery?
"For there are eunuchs who were born so from their mother's womb."
There are those who were born eunuchs from their mother's womb. These are those who can accept his teaching. They have no issue with bonding. They have no issue with marriage. They have no issue with becoming one flesh. They are without the means to bond. Yet they were created in the image and likeness of God our Father. They are physical and spiritual. They have a purpose. They belong to the plan. They are children of the father just as you and I are also.
He created us all. He gives us life. He protects and provides. He guides us if we allow. For the decision is ours to make. The path is ours to walk. The life is ours to lead if we choose. Be not deceived. Be not led astray. Be not an evil doer. For those are the unknowing. Those are the ones who are of the flesh and not of the spirit. Those are the ones that are led by the inclinations of evil. Where are you? What do you believe? What do you know about who you are? Or do you know who you are?
Many would think that they are physical in the body. Many would believe that they are flesh and bone and nothing else. Yet within the flesh is a spirit. Within the flesh is the life. Within the flesh is the likeness given us by the Father. Can you believe? Can you accept? Can you truly know the spirit within? Christ gave us the truth. He told us who we are. He spoke on many occasions of the life that is within. Yet we do not believe. We do not accept. We do not know. The world has not taught us so. So we walk through life without the knowledge of who we are in Him.
Come! Seek the truth in who you are. Search and find the knowledge that will awaken the flame of your spirit and you will see. Do not be afraid. For the world will tell you not. The world will whisper to you falsely. The world would have you ignorant. Christ came to give life. He died that we would be awaken. He arose that there would be witnesses to the truth. And he sits at the right hand of the Father that we may see his majesty and glory. His advocate awaits your awakening. His advocate calls to your heart. The Holy Spirit sits at your door waiting to be invited in. Open the door to your heart and you will know the peace and joy that this world cannot offer. Come! Know 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 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.
Our paragraph topic is:
(Continence preferred to marriage) Part 1.
Christ raised the question of adultery and immorality to his disciples and they were puzzled. They did not understand this teaching. According to their backgrounds and their teachings from the community, a man was given to a woman and a woman given to a man. They were bound together by law. And the law had allowed for separation, the law had allowed for putting away of a wife or husband. But Christ told them that this is not the case from the Father.
For the Father created them male and female that they would cleave to one another. The Father created them that they would leave their fathers and mothers and bind with one another, male and female. He did not intend that they would separate. He did not intend that they would divorce. Christ told his disciples that divorce for any cause and marriage to another is adultery. He told them that the only way that a divorce could take place is through the
immorality of one of the partners. And also to marry one who has been put away is committing adultery. They found this unbelievable. They questioned that if this is the case then why should one even marry. His disciples said to him, "If the case of a man with his wife is so, it is not expedient
to marry."
They saw this teaching as extreme. They saw this as harsh. They did not understand what they were to do if this is the teaching, the commandment, the rule by which they were to live. Only through immorality is one able to put away his wife or husband. Otherwise they are bound together as one, not to separate or not to divorce. One has to ask why then should one marry? One has to ask why then: "Why then should one fall in love?" One has to ask why then: "Why should one consider bonding for life, if there is no opening for separation, no relief for mistakes, no escape from the commitment of marriage?"
Why is it that we are compelled to bond, compelled to desire the company of that other person, compelled to want to spend our every waking hour with the person that makes us complete in some way? We come together with a desire to love. We are drawn to one another out of a physical and emotional passion. We have a need to belong, a need to not be alone in the world. And marriage gives us that bonding opportunity which says that I am committing myself to this one person and no other. Yet we are different people. We are different personalities, with different desires, different beliefs, different habits, mannerisms, quirks, patterns, and every sort of unique behavior that distinguishes us from everyone else.
We have been given that what is unique about ourselves is withheld and not revealed. For one does not truly know another until one has lived with another. It is only through the intimate living experience that one comes to know another person. And it is through that same living experience that the eyes are open to all that is the other person we have chosen to spend our lives with. So in that transition from the point where we have a complete desire to spend every waking hour with our partners, to that point where we have a complete understanding of our partners, we obtain a conscientious awareness of the truth of our relationship. And one day we wake up and see the person next to us as they truly are. It is in that day that we come to understand the true meaning of the commitment we have made.
But is it the commitment we have made to ourselves or the commitment we have made to our Father. For he made us this way. He made us to come together. He made us that we would cleave to one another, becoming one flesh. And he made us that we would not be the perfect relationship. Can we find perfection in that imperfect relationship? Can we find commitment in that imperfect relationship? Can we find the true meaning of love in that imperfect relationship? The world does not want us to understand commitment, to understand perfection, to understand love. The world tells us that all is lost and we should abandon that relationship. The world tells us that we are hurt and we should strike back. The world tells us that we cannot stay together, that we should seek another partner, that we should separate. The world gives us all manner of external relationships that will solve our commitment problems. And it is the world outside that will tell us what we are on the inside. It is the world that seeks to define us as physical and not spiritual beings.
If we are committed to the cause, we can succeed. If we are bound by His love, we can know love. If we are understanding of His truths, we can know the truth of who we are. If we seek to know him in His goodness and His mercy then we can come to know true commitment. If we open our hearts and understand the truth of who we are, both male and female, our commitment can become a blessing and not a burden. For through Him and with Him and in Him we become one with Him. And He, who is one with the Father, becomes one with us. It is through that oneness that we come to know the cause, the purpose and the mission of our physical lives here on earth. Christ came that we: past, present, and future, would have life. And it is our cause, in the present, that brings forth the life of the future that is to come. Let us then, come to know our purpose, our true spiritual passion, and our cause that we may continue to be one with Him who created us.
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.
Our paragraph topic is: (The question of divorce) Part 2.
The question of divorce, what does it mean. By definition divorce means: a judicial declaration dissolving a marriage in whole or in part, especially one that releases the marriage partners from all matrimonial obligations. Where did this idea of marriage come from? Where did it originate? Marriage by definition means: any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities.
So now we have an established union for marriage and a judicial declaration for divorce. Christ instructed the Pharisees on this question and it's origin. He wanted them to understand its origin and why it came to be. He said to them: ''Have you read , that the Creator from the beginning, made them male and female?"
From the beginning they were made different. From the beginning the Creator made us different. We were conceived in the mind of God our Father as male and female. For there was a purpose. There was a cause. There was a reason for the different vessels that we inhabit. Our goal, our mission, our existence is based upon what God created us for. Yet his creation was given free choice, free will, the freedom to change. And with that freedom came disobedience. And with disobedience came into the world right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust, sin and death.
Our Father made it so, from the beginning. We decided to make it otherwise through judicial declarations in our own eyes, disregarding the purpose of God. And so it has been down through the ages. Why do we marry? Why do we live together? What is the purpose of it all? We are given to believe that this is the norm, this is natural, this is the accepted way. This is how we are raised from birth. We are given the thoughts of man, the thoughts of the world and not the thoughts of God, our Father. We are given the world and all that is within it and not given the spirit and all that awaits us.
We are spiritual beings living temporarily in the physical form. Do we know? Do we understand? Do we believe who we are? Science has not told us so. Education has not taught us how to find the spirit or even, that we have one. On the contrary our education denies that we are spiritual beings. Our world teaches us that we are material, flesh and blood, and not of a spiritual nature. Our world supports the belief of the physical realm and not that of the spiritual. Yet we exist, we live, and we die And then we are unsure of our spiritual transformation to the true state of who we are.
But with knowledge we can come to know who we are. With insight we can understand the true nature of the spirit being of who we are. With the gift from the Holy Spirit we can begin to awaken from the sleep of the world that has been given to us since our birth. And with that awakening we see the truth of ourselves and the majesty and glory of God our Father. For he has given us purpose. He has given us life. He has given us the word. God's plan comes through the knowledge of who we are in Christ. And with this knowledge can we begin to know the truth of why the Creator made us male and female. It is not the divorce for any cause but the bonding for a cause. It is the knowledge of the spirit that eliminates divorce completely and brings us back to the will of God Our Father. Do you know? Can you understand? He made us male and female. He put us together for a purpose and the spirit, not the world, will guide us according to the will of 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 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.
