Highlighted New Testament Bible

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Showing posts with label pleasure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pleasure. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

St. Matthew, Chapter 23, verses: 37a; Jerusalem, Jerusalem!

Our paragraph topic is:  (Lamentation over Jerusalem) Part 1.  

Love hurts.  Those who have experienced deeply the pleasure of love know the pain that comes from rejection, separation, and breakup.  The experience is one that all humans must go through at some point in their life.  It is important to know it in order to know how to overcome the pain and the sorrow.  It is important to know how to overcome that experience in order to know how to go on living.  

We experience love in life and in death.  We love in life and we love lost those that are taken away from us in death.  It is a part of how we live, a part of how we learn to live, a part of how we must grow and accept who we are in this world.  Living is pleasurable but it is also painful in many ways.  Yet it is something that we must accept.  We loose mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, love ones, children, relatives, and yet we must find some way to accept and go on living in this world.  

Christ cried for those that he loved.  He lamented for the many times that he sent love messages that were rejected, scorned, trashed, burned, and ignored.  His passion for those that he loved burned deeply within his soul.  He lamented deeply for the souls of the people knowing what they would do to the people that he sent.  He cried out:  "Jerusalem, Jerusalem! Thou who killest the prophets, and stonest those who are sent to thee!"

We were children together.  We played in the same yard, ran on the same streets, grew up in the same schools, had the same friends, yet you know me not.  Have you become so high and mighty, so proud, so famous, that you do not know from where you come?  Jerusalem wherefore have thou come?  Jerusalem, the high and mighty city on the hill.  The one where kings and rulers live.  Forget not from which from which you have come, for you are but the same as the man in the street or the village down the road.  It is God's love that has brought you forth, that keeps you in the light of time.  It is God's love that will leave you in the limelight and shine on another, least you forget who you are.

We are but children of God, our Father who created us and gave us life.  For he has life within him and it is that life that he shares with us.  We have a choice.  We can choose life or we can choose to remain in death.  The passion of Christ gave us that choice.  Which do you choose? 

 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.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

St Matthew, Chapter 16, verse 17, The Rock: The Revelation.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Peter's confession) Part 5.    

Simon says that he is the Son of the Living God.  Simon said that he was the Christ.  Simon said that he was the Messiah.  Everyone else said different.  Everyone else called him a prophet.  Everyone else called him Elias.  Everyone else called him Jeremias or John the Baptist.  But no one else would speak what they knew in their hearts but feared to speak.  The law of the Pharisees was upon them.  The punishment of the law would follow them.  The fear of death would walk in their footsteps if they spoke the words that all thought.  

They knew that he was the Messiah.  They knew that he was the Son of the Living God.  They knew that he was the Christ.  But none would speak for fear of death.  None would proclaim for fear of punishment.  None would acknowledge for fear of the law of blasphemy.  Blasphemy had their tongue tied.  Blasphemy had their hearts locked.  Blasphemy had their lips sealed.  But all knew.  And then there was Simon who said.  Simon spoke the words.  Simon opened his heart.  Simon allowed the love of the Father to enter in and the truth came upon him.  Then Jesus answered and said, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to thee, but my Father in heaven.   

The truth was revealed.  The truth was spoken.  The truth came forth into the heart of Simon and he put to words that which fear had compelled not to be spoken.  And Christ revealed to all the source of the truth.  Not from his own flesh did the truth come forth, but from the Father himself was the truth revealed.  

What is truth?  If we know the truth will it matter today?  Will we accept the truth if it came to us?  For truth to us is money.  Truth to us today is wealth.  Truth to us today is pleasure, lust, desire, passion, power, prestige.  Truth to us today is what we seek in the world.  We seek to know the things that we believe will make us free.  And yet the things that we believe will make us free will only enslave us, bind us, engulf and overwhelm us into the desires of the world.  Evil awaits us at every turn, every corner, every awaking moment to capture us in its addictive ways and bring us to damnation.

The truth comes to free us.  The truth comes to give us life.  The truth comes to open our hearts to the love that is in Christ Jesus and God our Father.  For it is his love that completes us.  It is his love that provides for us.  It is his love that protects us and guides us in our daily lives.  Be not betrayed by the desires of the world.  Be not misled by what you see and hear in the world.  For you are children of the light.  And light overcomes darkness.  You are not of this world.  You are a spiritual being in a physical body.  Learn the truth of who you are.  Open your heart and let the light of Christ come to you.  Flesh and blood will not reveal this to you but only the father in heaven.  This is how I have come to know that which is truth within me.  Here is my invitation to you from Christ to come follow the path that is set before you and know the truth of who you are. 

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!