St. Matthew, Chapter 23, verses: 32; The measure of your fathers.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Their persecution of religion) Part 6.  

They were taught well, the sons.  Their fathers were the leaders of the people who killed the prophets in order to keep the people in line with their interpretation of religion.  They did not want to change.  They did not want to show love, or mercy, or faith, or hope in God that they could show the people.  They only had what they knew to be their own way of knowledge and understanding.

They had the writings of the prophets and the commandments.  They had the rules as given by Moses.  But those were from ancient history passed down from centuries ago.  Their fathers needed new rules and new laws to fit their needs and their ways of thinking so they made their own.  And they taught those new learnings to their sons to rule the people so that they would  continue to persecute the people.  Christ told them:  "You also fill up the measure
of your fathers."

Their fathers would be proud of the way they rule over the people.  They would be honored because their sons carry on the traditions that they established.  The sons continued the sins of the fathers and persecuted religion the same as their fathers.  They know no difference.  They seek no change.  They understand no sorrow or pain for the people.  They know no mercy or love, for they live in palaces away from the common people, they fill themselves with fine foods, dress in the best of clothing and live a life of luxury.  

Has time changed so drastically today that we are that much different from the past?  Some live in poverty, some live just above poverty.  Some live, in the median, and then there are those who live above the median and those that live ultra median.  And above all those are the generational life that has known luxury for many lifetimes.  This is our society today.  This is our way of life today.  This is our religion today. 

Christ came, to bring about change to the system.  He came to open our minds and our hearts to a different way.  We live in the system but we do not have to be a part of it.  We are in the system but we are not bound by it, if we choose.  We are flesh and spirit but we are bound by spirit.  He has given us a new spirit, a new life, a new light.  He has given us the key to the kingdom if we choose to accept it.  

Our key allows us to step out of the worldly system and into the spiritual system.  In our new life we are given the riches of the world plus the wealth of the kingdom of heaven.  We are given the eternal joy and the peace and the everlasting happiness that the worldly system cannot buy or give us.  We are given the love and protection of the ever-living creator of the universe, our Father Almighty God.  We are given the promise of Christ that he will be with us always, that he will guide us and protect us from harm.  All this we are given because of his love for us.  If you have ever been down and out, know that he is with you.  All you have to do is call upon him and you will know his love.  And his love for you will fill you with a love for him. 

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 15, verses: 26, The Lost Children of God: It is unfair.

Our paragraph topic is: (The Canaanite woman) Part 5.   

What are beliefs?  Are they the stuff that our dreams are made of?  Are they the desires of our hearts?  Are they the thoughts that we have about what we want, think, see, feel.  A writer I once read described a belief as a feeling of certainty about something.  The Canaanite woman had a belief.  She believed that her daughter could be cured of the demon that possessed her.  She had an idea and she became certain that she could find a way to restore her daughter to the way that she knew her before being possessed.

She followed that idea up with action for she knew that there was a way.  She consulted all the known cures of the time, met with the best physicians, doctors, healers, sorcerers of the time but found no answer.  Then she heard the word.  She heard of Christ.  She heard of his miracles, she heard how he made the lame walk, the blind see, cured the sick, and made the demons depart from the possessed.  Then the word she heard convinced her, with certainty, that her daughter would be cured.  She had no doubts, she believed with certainty.

She had to find this Christ.  She had to ask him for help.  She had to beg and plead with his disciples that she might see him, get near to him, speak with him that her daughter might be saved.  She knew that she was not a Jew.  She knew that she was a gentile.  She knew that Jews and gentiles did not associate, did not live together.  The former considered the latter less than.  The former did not associate with the latter.  The former considered the latter unclean.  But all this did not change her belief that her daughter could be saved.  All of this did not deter her purpose or change her from her goal, her desire, her belief.  She was certain that she could persuade the Christ to save her daughter.

So she came to him and falling on her knees she worshipped him and pleaded for his help.  And Christ,  he saidin answer, "It is not fair to take the
children’s bread and to cast it to the dogs."

Christ made this statement in expressing the sentiment of the times.  Food was scarce and there were many mouths to feed.  Who got to eat first?  Who would go without food?  Who would make the decision, the judgement as to who would eat and who would not?  For it had come to be, that the scales of fairness played into the decisions of men.  It was not fair, it was not right to take bread from children and give it to the animals.  But the wealthy did.  It was not right, it was not fair that the dogs of the rich eat better than the poor.  It was not right, it was not fair that the poor were taxed out of the food to feed the children and those same taxes fed the dogs of the rulers, the dogs of the wealthy, the dogs of the powerful.

Christ made this statement to the Canaanite woman because he knew that just as strong as her desire, her belief, that her daughter needed help, she had the same belief that her dogs would eat before the poor.  You see the Canaanite woman was a woman of means.  She was a woman of power and influence.  She did not know hunger.  She did not know poverty.  She did not know want.  For she was of the ruling class and was a wealthy person.  And Christ admonished her with the statement that it was not fair for her to think and believe that her dogs should eat and be fed from the wealth taken from the poor.

And where are we today?  Do we believe the same?  Are we the selfish ones who feed ourselves, our children, and our pets while those less fortunate go hungry?  Do we pass up an opportunity to help others, thinking that they are bums or beggars seeking a hand out?  We tell ourselves that they are drug addicts.  We tell ourselves that they are drunkards seeking another drink.  We look down on them from our high position without considering that they too are the children of God created in his image and likeness.  And we even get indignant and angry that they would ask us for help.

They are on every corner.  They are under every bridge.  They are without house, without clothes, without means, without hope.  And we pass them by, avoid them, and yet, feed our pets and our dogs before we would feed them.  It is not fair to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs.  What do you do?  What is your excuse?  What is in your heart?  Judge not and feed the children of God.