St. Matthew, Chapter 21, verse:13b; The Den.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Cleansing of the Temple) Part 4. 

God's place was defiled.  It was invaded and unclean.  The people did not know but the evil doers knew.  The high priest allowed it.  The scribes wrote about it and considered it workable and necessary.  They did not consider that evil and greed would come into the holy place.  They did not think that the temple was a holy place meant for the worship of God the Father.  They only considered how it would help the merchants of the day.

But even with the best of intentions, evil used those intentions to come into the temple and defile the holy place of worship.  God's house is a place of worship.  His house is a place of prayer.  His house is a place of peace where the people can come and send up their wants and needs to the Father.  But the priests and the guardians of this holy place allowed it to be defiled.   "But you have made it a den of thieves." 

What do we believe today?  We have churches on every corner on every street, of every denomination, of all beliefs.  Are they places of worship, places of peace, places to go and give thanks to God our Father for all that he has done for us? 

I grew up in a church and there I found peace and happiness.  But then I left that place and went out into the world and lived the way of the world.  And I lost my way.  For many years I wanted to return to that place of peace, that place of comfort, that place of happiness.  But I felt cast out, without a home, no place to go.  I would drive by the church many times afraid to go in, not having the courage to return.  Then I overcame my fear; I knew that I needed the church in my life.  My life was out of control and I had lost something I needed to find.  So I returned, little steps at a time.  At first once a month, then later, more often.

It was a monk who encouraged me to return completely and take up my place in God's family.  And so I started to come more often and to participate in the service.  I was thankful that throughout all the years away from the church that my Father held my hand and did not let go.  I am grateful that now I have a place to go, a place to worship, a place to find peace in my life.  I am blest to be a member of the body of Christ and to have a church family.  

Most of all I am blest to know who I am in Christ and nothing can change that knowledge.  The world has nothing to offer that I do not already have.  For now I know that the Father loves me, provides for me, and cares for me.  I know that that for which I long for is not of this earth but with Christ Jesus in heaven and his love is the only thing that can fulfill my longings.  My house is clean and is not a den for evil to dwell in.  Come!  Clean your house and become one who knows 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 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: 15 - 16, Understanding: Those without

Our paragraph topic is:  (Christ explains what defiles a man) Part 1.    
 
Christ had taught the people.  He had informed the crowds that followed him of the difference between being unclean, defiled, and being clean.  For years the Pharisees had taught the people that they were unclean if they did not wash before eating.  They had impressed upon the people that they were an unclean people because they did not have access to water as the did the rich, the powerful, the educated, the well to do, those with influence.  For water was not readily available to everyone.  One had to go to the well and carry water to the home.  One had to walk miles to the river and transport water to where one lived, to have access to it, readily.  So to wash before eating was a luxury.  To be able to clean up before eating was the pastime of the rich, and yet this was the sentence that was placed upon the people, they were unclean.

But Christ came and taught different.  Christ came and opened the eyes of the people.  Christ came and gave new insight to the people to lift them out of the grave of uncleanness.  He instructed that it was not what one put into the mouth that made one defiled but what one brought out of the mouth that made one unclean.  And the Pharisees heard these words and took offense.  For it was they who were unclean. 

And understanding came upon the people.  A light awareness was brought to the people.  They understood the difference and the cloak of ignorance was lifted from their understanding and they became clean.  They became undefiled.  They became new children in the eyes of God through their understanding of who they were.  And the Pharisees took offense.  And then came the disciples seeking understanding.  For they were lost.  They were confused.  They were still under the cover of the trickery of darkness.   But Peter spoke to him, saying, "Explain to us this parable."  And he  said,"Are you also even yet without understanding?"

Are you yet even without understanding?  These were Christ's words to his disciples.  These are Christ's words to us today.  With all that has be spoken to you, do you still not have understanding of the words?  Seek their meaning.  Search their truths.  Desire their wisdom and it will come to you.  Christ left us his words to enlighten us, just as he spoke them to the crowds that followed him in his time.  His words lifted the veil of darkness from the minds of the people who believed that they were defiled.  His words open the minds and the hearts of the people who believed in him.  His words made clean a people who believed they were soiled.  And yet today we still are without understanding. 

Today we still do not grasped the spiritual meanings of the words he spoke and the cleansing that they bring to our hearts and minds and bodies and souls.  Christ came that there would be light in the world and men would no longer have to walk in darkness.  Yet even today we prefer the darkness.  Even today we prefer to live in the world instead of living in the understanding and the enlightenment of the words of the living God who provides all for us.  Christ opened the door.  Will you follow?  Christ gave us the path to follow.  Will you seek it?  Christ gave us the words to instill within us.  Will you feed on them?  The choice is yours.  Live in the light of Christ or exist in the darkness of the world.  Which will you choose?

St Matthew, Chapter 15, verse: 12, The Lesson: The Pharisees take offense.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Disciples warned to shun the Pharisees) Part 2.  

 Christ had called the people unto himself that he may give them instructions.  He called their attention that they may hear, that they may listen, and that they may understand the lesson being taught.  He told the people that it was not what they put into their mouths that defiled but what came out of the mouth that made a man defiled.  And the Pharisees heard and understood.  And the Pharisees heard and were angered.  And the Pharisees heard and took offense.  For they, the Pharisees, had taught, for hundreds of years, that a man was unclean and defiled if he did not wash before eating.  They, the Pharisees, had impressed upon the people that they were unclean if they did not follow the traditions as they were taught.  And many people felt and believed in the teachings of the Pharisees.  Many people believed that they were unclean.  Many people, because of the limited availability of water, believed the teachings of the Pharisees.  

They did not have flowing water available to them as the rich, and the wealthy, and the powerful.  They could not wash before every meal, as the rich, and the wealthy, and the powerful were able to do.  They could not follow the traditions as handed down by the Pharisees, as the rich, and the wealthy, and the powerful.  So they believed that they were unclean.  But Christ came and made a change.  Christ came and taught differently.  Christ came and made the people clean, for he taught that it is not what is put into the mouth that makes one unclean but what comes out of the mouth that makes one unclean.  For from the mouth the heart speaks.  And many, spoke evil from their mouths and were unclean because of what came from their heart through their mouths.  The disciples came and told Christ .  Then his disciples came up and said to him, "Dost thou know that the Pharisees have taken offense at hearing this saying?"

The disciples listened to the Pharisees.  The disciples heard the talk of the Pharisees.  The disciples believed in the teachings of the Pharisees because they did not know.  The disciples did not know that if the heart is clean and pure then the mouth speaks no evil.  The disciples did not know that what is put into the mouth does not make one clean or unclean.  And so Christ had to teach.  Christ had to inform.  Christ had to give a lesson to his disciples and to the people gathered around him.  And Christ had to offend the evil in the Pharisees.  For the Pharisee took offense to what was spoken by Christ.  The evil within the Pharisees arose and brought forth the anger against the teachings of Christ.  The evil within made the Pharisees spoke against the teachings of Christ and took offense.

Christ taught a lesson 2000 yrs ago and it still rings true today.  The Pharisees objected.  The Pharisees were compelled to speak.  The evil within them had to come out.  Is this still true today?  Are you compelled to speak?  Does your mouth speak before you have had to time to think about what you are to say?  Does your heart know what comes forth from it or not?  Defilement comes out of the mouth.  Unclean words are an indicator of what lies within.   And when the words of truth are spoken to us the unclean spirits come forth.  For we do not speak of and by ourselves.  We do not know what is to be said in the heat of an argument.  Only the evil that is within us comes out and we are made unclean.  Only the darkness that hides within our hearts comes out and is spoken through and by the mouth giving evidence of the state of our being. 

God is love and within his being is love.  We are created in his likeness.  We are created in his image.  Yet we can be infested with evil.  We can be filled with evil.  We can be taken over by the darkness that is in and of the world.  But there is a choice.  Christ came, a light into the world.  Christ came that we may not walk in darkness but in the light of his life.  The choice is ours.  Which do you choose?  Do you choose darkness or do you choose the light?  It is a conscious decision.  It is a decision that requires action.  It is a decision that means walking a different path than what the world would have us walk.  Come!  Walk the path with Christ.  He will walk with you and give you the light of life to walk with you.  And you will know the treasures of the kingdom of heaven in your walk.  

St Matthew, Chapter 15, verses: 10 - 11, The Lesson: Hear and Understand.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Disciples warned to shun the Pharisees) Part 1. 
         
Christ was in the land of Genesar.  And the people heard of him through word of mouth.  There was no Internet.  There was no radio.  There was no television.  There were no anchor people giving the news hourly or live as it happened.  There were no reporters in the field.  There was only the local person who kept the latest news and spread it to the appropriate people like himself that would carry the message throughout the land.  They were paid for good news.  They were rewarded for keeping up with hot topics that the rulers wanted to know about.  And the Pharisees wanted to know about Jesus.

He was a miracle worker.  He healed the sick.  He made the lame walk.  He opened the eyes of the blind.  Some called him a prophet.  Some said he  was a great man of God.  And some knew that he was the Messiah.  So the Pharisees had to find out who this man was that performed miracles.  If all that was said about him was true then they had to win him over to their side that he might bring the people under their authority and their rule.  But Oh!, were they shocked when they heard the things that he preached and taught the people.  They were compelled to confront him.  They were moved to action.  They had to do something before the people were led astray.  For this man, this miracle worker, taught the people against the Pharisees.  This Christ allowed the people to go against the teachings of the forefathers.  This Rabbi was wrong in their eyes and they had to stop him.

For decades the Pharisees had taught that a man was defiled if he did not wash before eating.  For years they preached that one should wash before eating to prevent from becoming unclean.  All they had to do was to watch the gentiles who were unclean, defiled men, women, and children that eat without washing.  They, the gentiles, were below the chosen people because they did not follow the traditions set by the Pharisees.  And then Christ comes along, after years of traditions, and he teaches the people how not to be unclean.  He allows his disciples to eat without washing.  They, the disciples, set the example for all the followers of Christ.  And if this example was not corrected it would corrupt and defile all of Judea, according to the thinking of the Pharisees.  But Christ taught them differently.  Christ,  then he called the crowd to him, and said to them,'' Hear, and understand.   What goes into the mouth does not defile a man; but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man."

A new lesson!  A change in direction from the teachings of the past.  For it was taught that every man was unclean unless they washed.  Every man, according to the Pharisees, was unfit unless they followed the traditions handed down by them.  Every man did not have water to wash before eating.  Every man did not have flowing water into their homes as did the Pharisees.  Every man was not wealthy enough to be able to bath and clean up two to three times a day.  So only the wealthy and the well to do and the rich, and the politicians and the rulers and the Pharisees had access to this privilege.  So this tradition made all men who were not able to follow the teachings, unclean.  And all were made unclean and defiled.  But Christ came and changed all that.

He taught people that they were clean.  He taught the people that it was not the washing that made them clean but what came from the mouth that made them unclean.  For out of the mouth the heart speaks.  And if the heart is evil and possessed of evil, then from the heart comes all manner of evil.  For the heart is concealed from man and no one knows what is in the heart of men except Christ.  And it is from the heart that evil takes possession of men.  Christ  wiped away the teachings of the Pharisees and opened the eyes of men that they may see the truth of who they are.  The door to the soul is through the heart and the heart must be protected against the evil that wants to posses it. 

Hear and understand!  Christ told the people around him and he tells us today to understand that the mouth is the gateway through which evil comes.  The mouth is the archway from which man is defiled and made unclean.  For the mouth only speaks what is in the heart.  And if the mouth speaks defilement then the heart is unclean. 

Hear and understand!  Protect the heart.  Open the heart to the love of Christ and he will protect it.  Open the heart to Christ and he will send the Advocate to guide it.  For the Advocate will protect.  The Advocate reside in it.  The Advocate will counsel with it.  The Advocate will fill the heart with the spiritual love of God.  And it is this spiritual love that provides understanding and wisdom to the kingdom of heaven. 

Christ has given us a way to know that we have received.  He has told us what to look for.  He has provided a light that we may follow.  But it is our decision to follow.  It is our decision to seek.  It is our decision to wake up from the drug induced sleep of the world and become lamps unto the world.  Christ has opened the door.  He has provided a way.  He has set forth a path for us to follow.  Seek and ye shall find!  Knock and it shall be opened to you!  Ask and it shall be given to you!  Come!  Receive the Holy Spirit and all will be revealed to you.