St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 15, Christ touching the little ones.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Jesus blesses the children) Part 5.

Christ instructed his disciples not to hinder the little ones from coming to him, for he wanted to touch them.  He wanted to be with them, to see them, to feel their presences up close.  They were the newly born, the new life, the light of life fresh from the tree of life.  Christ knew them before they were born into the physical world.  He knew them from the tree of life as he knows all.  He knew them in heaven as they were still on the tree of life.

So he instructed his disciples to let them be.  He told them to come close.  He told them to come see him that they may see with their eyes the savior of the world.  Though they were still just children, they would remember the day that they met the Savior.  They would remember the day they saw him, the time that they felt him, the time that they were near to him in the flesh.  For his time was short.  His mission was almost complete, his journey coming to an end.  And when he had laid his hands on them, he departed that place.

The little ones come into this world without any knowledge or understanding.  They depend upon those that came before for wisdom and truth.  They take what is given to them and incorporate into themselves the knowledge of those around them.  And when the time comes, they may question the validity of what has been given to them.  Or they may accept what the world has offered them and seek to conform to the norms of the day.  But they came unblemished into the world.  They came without malice.  They came clean, new, fresh from the tree of life.

And then we laid hands on them.  And then we loved them.  We gave them the best of what we had.  We influenced them and turned them out into the world.  And the world took hold of them and molded them into the people that they became.  Yet deep within them there was still life.  Deep within there was still the light of Christ.  Deep within was the spark that came from God our Father who loves them, calling them from the world that they may know the truth of who they are.  Did they hear?  Did they see?  Did they understand what they felt was a deep need that could not be filled from the world? 

Christ came to give his life for the children, that they might have new life.  He came that all would have the opportunity to know that they are spiritual and not physical beings.  He came that we would all have new life in him.  But it is up to us to know it.  It is up to us to see it.  It is up to us to grasp the true meaning of our spiritual being.  For our life is in him and not in the world.  Our hope is through him and not in the sky.  Our dreams are fulfilled from him and not in the dreams of death in the world.  He laid hands on the little ones just as he lays his hands on each and everyone of us.  Reach out and take his hand.  Reach out and hold it.  Reach out and feel him.  And then, you will know the joy of your Father who loves you.  You will know the peace of your Lord who believes in you.  You will know the excitement of the Holy Spirit who will live with you until you make the transition into the kingdom of heaven.

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 19, verse: 12d, Who can accept His teachings?

Our paragraph topic is:  (Continence preferred to marriage) Part 6.

Christ spoke to his disciples concerning God's law, God's plan for man and woman.  He gave them the truth.  He gave them knowledge, even though they did not understand it then.  He gave them a foundation upon which to build relationships with each other for the future of mankind.  He gave them love.  For it was through the love from the Father that they would come to understand the truth of God's law concerning marriage.

They thought it was hard.  They thought it was difficult.  They thought it was extreme.  But they did not understand the depth of meaning in what was being given to them.  For their eyes were focused upon the physical.  Their minds were concerned with the emotional.  Their hearts were built upon the passions of the world and not the spiritual being and the nature of God.  For God was about to give them new life.  He was about to transform them from the dead into the living.  And all this was to take place through his son Jesus.  So, they did not completely understand.  But soon they would completely know, the truth of what they were given.  He told them:  "Let him accept it who can."

That was his message to his disciples concerning marriage and divorce, adultery and immorality, male and female, one flesh and many flesh.  There were eunuchs who were created so.  There were eunuchs who were made so.  And there were eunuchs who gave of themselves  for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.  Let him accept it who can.  Let him who desires to be chosen do so.  Let him or her who loves God do so.  Let him or her who understands God's plan and God's purpose be so, for the kingdom of heaven.  For they are the ones whom the future will be built upon.  They are the ones who are planted to yield fruit.  They are the ones who were chosen from birth to be the fathers and mothers of men and women for all eternity.

And so the world goes on.  The day to day lives of us all are not impacted.  We live.  We eat.  We breathe.  We have joy, pain, sorrow, troubles, trials and tribulations and we survive.  But amongst all of what we do each day, we are of the world and not in it.  For we are spiritual.  We are aliens.  We are created in his image.  And we do not belong here for eternity.  This is an awareness that each of us must come to.  It is an awareness that we can have now or after now.  But the truth still remains as to who we are.

Christ came that we would have the opportunity to be aware.  He came that our eyes would be opened if we chose to see.  He came that the truth would be there if we sought it.  Whether we believe or not, the truth is still present.  And our awareness of the truth will happen.  The joy in that truth is in the now.  The happiness in that truth is today.  The peace in that truth is in his presence.  Are you ready to see?  Are you ready to believe?  Are you ready to know?  The love of his presence awaits, you and only you, both male and female.  Come!  Let him, or her, accept it who can!

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 18, verses: 35: Forgive from the heart!

Our paragraph topic is:  (The servant's fate) Part 4. 

Pay the torturer.  Christ told his disciples the parable of the settlement of accounts to give them a reference in real life they could understand.  He wanted them to have a complete grasp of the principle of forgiveness.  He wanted them to know the good and bad part of forgiving.  For the Father has forgiven them their transgressions because of his compassion.  Why should they not forgive their brothers and sisters their transgressions since they are forgiven?  Or they could exact vengeance and pay the torturer his due for not forgiving.

This was an important principle for his disciples and for us today.  For we are given from birth that no one should wrongs us.  We are given that we should fight back.  We are given and taught that we should exact our vengeance upon those who wrong us.  We see this daily, in the news, on the TV, in the movies, and we live it in our society .  Yet Christ came along and said that we should forgive those who wrong us.  This is not an easy concept to grasp, not an easy principle to put into practice.  We feel wronged.  We feel vengeance.  We feel compelled to exact revenge.  And Christ tells us that we must let go of those feelings and forgive from the heart.  "So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if you do not each forgive your brothers from your hearts."

What shall we do in the heat of the moment?  Shall we retaliate?  Shall we respond as we feel?  Do we stop and think about what happened?  Or do we think about all the transgressions that we are responsible for against our Father.  How did he respond?  Did he retaliate?  Did he exact vengeance?  Or did he forgive us with love?  We are children of God, created in his image and likeness.  We were not born of darkness.  We came from the tree of life, given physical form that we may live in the physical realm.  Our task on this earth is determined by the understanding of who we are.

Are we alive in the world?  Are we fully committed to living life, being successful, having all that this life has to offer.  Or are we partially committed, wanting all that we see and know but not having the opportunity to gain that which is in front of us?  Are we not committed, angry, willing to take all, by any means, to make us feel what we believe is our right to have?  Our physical desires hide the truth of the spiritual being that we are.  Our passions blind us to the love that our Father has for us.  And our intellect locks us out from the knowledge, the simple truth, that our intellect can not grasp the spiritual being, but the heart knows.

We belong to Christ.  He is our fulfillment.  He gave us new life.  He sacrificed that we might have the choice.  Do we choose the world?  Or do we choose the spirit?  What we see today as spiritual turns us away from ourselves.  For who wants to be spiritual?  Who wants to be religious?  Who wants to be a Bible toting, hell damnation condemning, prophesying, religious person.  That image has been given to us through our personal experiences.  Yet we worship what we do not understand.  The time will come when people will worship God in spirit and truth.  For the Father seeks those who know themselves and worship him in spirit.  For the spirit of Christ will come and abide with those who know.  And it is in the knowing that one understands the truth of who they are.

Our Father is love.  And through Christ Jesus we can become love.  For it is through him and with him and for him that we find our completeness.  The world has no hold.  Sin has no corner.  The light of Christ abides within our hearts and guides the way.  And the completeness of his love overwhelms the soul so fully that nothing else will satisfy.  It is with that knowledge of his overwhelming love that we begin to understand the power of forgiveness.  For we are all one family.  We are all children.  And we all belong to our Father, who provides for us and protects us.  Come!  Let us forgive from the heart.  Let us love with the heart.  Let us become brothers and sisters 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 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 18, verse:4, Pride vs Humility.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Against ambition) Part 3. 

Christ told them that they had to turn.  He told them that they had to change.  He told them that they were in the wrong place and that they had to leave that place and get to another place.  Satan was in their midst and had persuaded them to come to his place.  He influenced them to think about the future, to think about themselves, to think about fame and fortune and greatness.  He influenced them to think about all those things that were of this world and not of the spiritual world of heaven.  Satan wanted to turn them around, to turn them away from Christ.

Christ told them that they had to turn away from where they were.  He told them that they had to see what was needed to enter into the kingdom of heaven and that ambition would not lead them there.  Just as a child had no ambition, so the disciples had to become.  Just as a child had no desires, so the disciples had to become.  Just as a child was full of joy and wonder, so the disciples had to become.  Just as a child was humble, so the disciples had to turn away from pride and become humble.  Christ told them: "Whoever, therefore, humbles himself as this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven".

Christ gave the disciples an example to follow.  He showed them the humility of a little child that they would know true humility.  Here they could refer back to this example and remember what they saw and what they felt to know who would be the greatest.  This is a simple example for us to follow if we can.  We live in a world filled with examples of how not to be humble.  We ware fed through all our senses the world's view of how we should live, how we should think and how we should be.  Humility is not a part of what the world teaches us.  Humility is not a part of what we see in the world.  Humility is not a part of what we believe today.

Yet Christ tells us that to be like a child is the key to entering the kingdom of heaven.  How can we do this?  How can we turn from the world and espouse humility?  How can we practice this principle in a world that presents everything to the contrary?  It all starts with the knowledge of who you are in Christ.  What knowledge is this? 

God, our father, created man in his image.  He created man and woman in his likeness as  spiritual beings and not physical beings.  God is not a man.  God is not a physical being.  God is not of this earth.  And yet we are created in the image of our God.  We are spiritual beings and not physical beings.  We belong to the spiritual world and not to the physical world.  Our life and our light comes from the light that was given back to us by the sacrifice made by Christ. 

Christ is the most humble of all.  He gave up his power, his majesty, his glory to become a physical man to save us from destruction.  And it is through his humility that we have life today as spiritual beings not physical beings.  The body dies, decays, and returns to dust.  But the spirit is eternal in Christ, if we choose it to be.  It is our choice. 

It is only that we do not know who we are that we follow the principles and precepts of the world.  For with the knowledge of the light of Christ we know who we are and we can see ourselves as we truly are in him.  Christ gave us the way.  He told us what to do.  He created the path to follow, the path to discover the joy and the peace and the happiness that is ours to have, if we choose. 

Follow the path that is before you.  See the light that is within you.  Know the truth of who you are and the world will no longer have a hold over you.  For you are a child of God, your father, and he will provide.  He will protect.  He will love you as no other can love.  Christ knocks at the door.  Open it!

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 17, verse: 19c, Faith to move Mountains.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 3.

Try as they might the disciples were not successful.  They were unable to remove the demon from the child.  The father begged them.  They tried all they knew.  They remembered that Christ had given them powers to cast out demons as they entered the towns and villages going before him.  But this was different and they did not understand why.  Christ had given them powers to do the work and now that the work was completed they did not have the power.  They could not cast out this demon.  What was different?

Did they not continue to have the power?  Was the power taken away?  Was the power only temporary?  What was happening?  They asked Christ why and he told them of their little faith.  He told them that even though he had given them the power to cast out demons in his name they lacked faith.  Their faith was so empty that it could be compared to that of a mustard seed.  Yet with only a small amount of faith, the size of a mustard seed even, they could move mountains.  He told them:  "You will say to this mountain,
'Remove from here'; and it will remove."

How do you say to a mountain 'Remove from here?'  How do you mentally speak something that mentally you know is impossible?  How do you begin to believe that such a thing is possible?  We dream, we fantasize, we create heroes and monsters in our minds and bring them to life in the movies and in books and magazines and they are capable of doing the impossible.  But all this, we know, is only fantasy, make believe, wishful thinking.  All those dreams and desires and impossible things that we would like to happen in our lives and in the world, are only ideas and thought within our heads.  We do not envision that we will ever have the power to do the things that we dream of.  Yet they are the desires of our hearts, things that we would like to do, powers that we would like to have. 

We have read the stories in the Bible where Moses parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape from the Egyptian armies.  We have read about the Manna from heaven.  We have read about the water that came from the rock.  Do we believe in the stories that we read about in the Bible or are they just fiction?  Our minds have sought to make sense of the miracles that we have read.  Even through scientific evidence, we have attempted to prove these things happened naturally without the intervention of God.  So we fall short of true belief, fall short of true faith, and have not the faith of a mustard seed because of what our physical belief tells us is impossible.

I have not tried to speak to a mountain to have it moved.  I have not tried to do things that would seem unnatural.  But I know that I have faith.  I know that I am loved.  I know that the spirit of Christ lives within me.  And I believe that through Him nothing is impossible.  Will I try to prove it?  Do I have to prove it to know that it is possible?  Do I have to see with my own eyes, to feel with my own body, to smell with my own sense of smell, to know that it is possible?  No!  But that does not stop me from knowing that I have the faith to believe with certainty, with the faith of a mustard seed, that all things are possible with God.  And there is the difference.  We seem to know through our physical being but we lack the certainty to believe within our spiritual being.  For it is through the spirit that we have certainty.  It is through the spirit that we see who we are.  It is through the spirit that we transform ourselves beyond the physical being to who we are in the spirit. 

We are created in the image and likeness of our father.  He gave us life.  He gave us breath.  And he gave us the physical, to experience who we are in him.  It is not through the physical that we are.  It is not through our arms and our legs, and our physical ability that we exist.  It is only through the spiritual being that is within the physical that we are.  Are you dead to the spirit?  Do you not know that you are a spiritual being and not a physical being?  Can you not see the spirit within, to know?  Do you not have the light of Christ within you that you might

see who you are?  Come!  Walk with me on this journey!  Experience the truth of who you are.  Know the true light that is within you and you will see for yourself that you too can have the power to say to mountains to remove from here and it will be done for you.  Christ loves you so much that to experience his love will overwhelm you.  He is our desire.  He is our fulfillment.  He is our love, our protection, our provision.  Open the door and let him in.  Follow the path set before you and see the light within. 

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 17, verse: 14-15, The Lunatic and his father.

Our paragraph topic is:  (A father asks Jesus to cure his son).  

After all the questions in the minds of the disciples, they finally understood.  They finally had answers.  They finally could make some sense of what they had experienced on the mountaintop with Christ.  But then there came new questions that needed answers.  There came new challenges that required addressing.  There came new prayers that needed answers and new requests from the people that followed Christ that needed help.

Many were sick.  Many were in pain.  Many were without hope.  Many were lost and under the possession of evil.  Those that had some belief came to Christ.  Those that sought help came for help.  Those that heard the word were led by the word.  And those that sought to destroy the word came for destruction.  But Christ knew of their plan.  He knew of their desire to destroy him.  He knew of the evil that was in the world that did not want the people to turn back to God.  So they sought in every way to prevent the people from seeing, hearing, or knowing the truth of Christ. 

And when he had come to the crowd, a man approached him and threw himself on his knees before him, saying, "Lord, have pity on my son, for he is a lunatic, and suffers severely; for often he falls into the fire, and often into the water.  And I brought him to thy disciples, but they could not cure him."   

How often have we called upon God to cure our ills?  How often have we asked for help?  How often have we prayed to our heavenly father to solve a problem for us that we have not had  success with.  And then there are those among us who are the disciples of Christ that would give us ways to find solutions.  There are those who would tell us all kinds of things that we must do to find help.  Do they work?  Do we find solutions?  Do we believe in what they give us for our ills and our problems?  Some do.  Some half do.  Some don't believe.  And some scoff at the thought that these men and women of God can give us the help that we need.

Here was a father who believed that his son was a lunatic.  He believed that he had a problem that could be fixed by the modern day solutions that were available to him.  After all, he was told by some authority that his son was mad, a lunatic, not of a normal mind.  But his love for his son prevailed.  For he believed enough, that there was a solution, somewhere, to restore his son to him.  He heard the miracles.  He heard the stories of the cures.  He saw those who were restored and he had hope.  He sought the foundation of hope and he sought Christ.

Christ came that we would have salvation.  He came that we would have redemption.  He came to restore what was lost to man.  He came to bring life.  So the door is open for many to have life and to have it for eternity.  All one has to do is stay away from those things that cause us to sin against God.  Yet we live in a world that is of sin.  We live in a world where sin is interwoven into our daily fabric of life.  We eat, sleep, breathe, see, smell, and taste sin on a daily basis as if it is impossible to do without it.  And there is one that can resist.  There is one that can turn away.  There is one who can help us to be the people that our father wants us to be. 

I write this blog as an invitation to those who would read it.  This is an invitation to close the door to sin, to open the door to the truth of who you are in Christ.  This is an invitation to awake from the sleep of the world and see the light that is within you that you may see yourself as you will be seen and know in heaven.  For you were given life, as a spirit, and brought into this world.  You are a spiritual being and not a physical person.  And when your time has ended in the physical realm you will return to the spiritual being that you are.  So, Come!  Know the truth of who you are and see the treasure that awaits you.  The path was given to me and now I give it to you.  Follow the path and you will 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 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.