St. Matthew, Chapter 23, verses: 39a; You shall not see me.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Lamentation over Jerusalem) Part 6.  

Christ felt a great passion for his city, for his people.  He loved them in all their glory and in all their sin.  His heart went out to them for he foresaw what he knew would happen to them without his protection, without his love.  Evil was waiting in the wings to take over completely.  Yet he was there to fulfill his destiny to pay for the sins of mankind and put a stop to evil.

Still he lamented over Jerusalem.  All the years of work and pain and toil put into making the city as it was, would come to ruin.  This was the city based on the kingdom of heaven, on the measurements of the city of God.  Evil was coming.  You could hear it in the hills.  You could understand what was happening in the courtyards of the rich.  They were selling their souls and Satan was coming to collect.  

Christ knew.  He came to put a stop to it.  He came to end it all.  His new covenant would provide protection and provisions for all mankind who chose to believe and follow him.  So he wept for the city of Jerusalem.  He lamented for the people therein.  He knew that there would be some who would believe and some who disbelieve.  He said: "For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth."

The time was coming near for his sacrifice, for the payment to be made for the sins of the many.  He would not be available to aid the people in their struggles to come.  He would not heal the sick, cure the lame, open the eyes of the blind, raise the dead, perform all types of miracles as before.  His time was coming to an end.  Yet the people did not know or understand his meaning.

It is hard to believe that such a person walked the earth some two thousand years ago.  Yet we have writings of witnesses of his life and history.  Much is told of Christ over the years.  We have much to read and study of his life, his works, his words, his miracles, interpretations of all that he said and did.  Despite all this, in all that we know ourselves, in all we are taught from early childhood, it comes down to believing what we are given.  We are not scholars.  We have not spent a lifetime studying the books of old to gain the wisdom and knowledge of Christ's life and works.  So we take what is given us in our schools and churches and from our Bibles and Christian readings to help us believe in him.  And yet of this little knowledge the most basic understanding that we can come away with is belief.

Do you believe?  Do I believe?  Do I know?  Yes!  I know within myself, that I live within Christ.  I know within myself that I have life within him.  I know that he lives and therefore I have life because he has given me new life.  Before I was lost in the world, seeking the treasures of the world, not knowing who I am.  But now I seek the treasures of the kingdom of heaven because it is there that I want to be.  It is there that I am from.  It is there that my life originates and not from this world.  

When I seek the treasures of this world I seek darkness.  But when I seek the treasures of the kingdom I seek the light of life that comes from Christ because he has awaken me as to who I am and where I am from.  I am spiritual and not physical and within this flesh lives me, the spiritual being that Christ has awaken and given new life.  My flesh is but dust, but my spirit is alive in him.  Open your heart and seek that which only he can give and you too will 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 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 23, verses: 34b; Scourge and persecute.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Their persecution of religion) Part 10.  

In the previous part God speaks to the Scribes and the Pharisees through Christ Jesus to let them know his judgment upon them.  God and Christ are one.  But we know that God speaks simply through the use of the pronoun I.  He says " I send you."  Christ does not speak this but God speaks this through Christ to the Scribes and the Pharisees.

Christ has offered them opportunities to repent of their ways.  He has opened the door for them to repent of their persecution of their religion but they are not open to the idea of repentance.  They are set in their ways, completely possessed of the evil within them.  This is why Christ calls them a brood of vipers.  They cannot change.  God tells them that the prophets and the wise men he will send them:  "And some you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from town to town."

How did he know what they would do?  How did he foresee their actions?  Would they fight and continue to persecute the spread of God's religion from town to town?  Were they that zealous in their beliefs against the spread of God's love for his people?  

Christ came to establish a new covenant with man.  He came to build his church on earth, to teach his disciples how to love, how to live, how to spread the words of the kingdom of heaven.  In order to do that he had to suffer the sacrifice for our sins and pay the price for our deliverance.  The Lamb of God shed his blood for us.  He died, was buried, and rose again on the third day declaring his deliverance over death and the grave.  And God took him into his arms up into heaven where he sits at his right hand waiting for the coming of judgment day.

Do not be afraid Christ told his disciples many times.  His last words were that he will be with us always, even until the end of the world.  Let us remember that we have a Father in heaven who is the creator of all things who is in control.  When things do not go the way that we expect or would like and we get disappointed, always remember that God is in control and it is he who has the ultimate say.  It is his plan that will work out and not ours.  We must be thankful that he is in control and not us.  Thank you Father for the blessings that you have given us this day.  Keep us in your grace. 

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 23, verses: 20; The Oneness of the gift and the Altar.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Their distorted religion) Part 11.  

They had taken the essentials of faith and distorted it to their own beliefs.  Little did they understand the true meanings of religion.  Little did they know the truth of faith.  Little did they believe in the spirit of the living God who brought them out of Egypt into the land of milk and honey.  The Scribes and the Pharisees were only concerned in maintaining the status quo over the people so that they could keep their positions of power.

They did not understand the oneness of God the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Without that understanding how could they understand the oneness of the altar.  They believed that swearing by the altar was nothing but swearing by the gifts that were placed upon the altar meant that they were bound by the gift.  Christ had to explain to them: "Therefore he
who swears by the altar swears by it, and by all things that are on it."

This is the distinction that had to be made, the oneness of the altar.  Everything that is placed upon the altar becomes one with the altar and is sanctified by the altar.  They are not separate from it but are one with it.  The altar is the sacred table of God upon which Christ made his covenant with the church at the last supper.  He blessed the bread and the cup of wine that he gave to his disciples as a symbol of the new covenant that he made for the sacrifice which he was about the make for the sins of mankind.  And it was upon that sacred table upon which he made that covenant.

Today, all over the world, we have the sacred altars which are blessed by the church before they are used in services.  Our gifts are no longer gifts of food, or animals, or incense, but today we give tithes that are placed before the altar to show our thanks to God for the many gifts that he gives us on a daily basis.  We show our gratitude through what we give back to the church to help spread God's word to his people.  

We are blessed to know our God.  We are blessed to walk in the light and not in darkness and despair.  We are blessed to be able to call out to our God and have our voices heard.  For truly he will respond.  And truly we must be patient.  For he is loving and caring and protective and providing and vengeful of those that would do us harm.  Thank you Lord Jesus for loving 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 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.