St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 8b, From the Beginning.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The question of divorce) Part 7

From the beginning he created them male and female.  He created them for a purpose.  He created them with a plan.  He created them to grow, multiply, and to be fruitful.  But evil had a plan and evil did not want them to be fruitful for his plan but to be fruitful for evil.  For evil was deceitful.  Evil was cunning.  Evil was treacherous.  And evil wanted to stop the plan of the Creator.

So he created them male and female and evil knew of their weakness.  Evil wanted to exploit.  Evil wanted to separate and divide.  Evil wanted to rule even if it was from hell.  But God created them out of love.  God created them out of compassion.  God created them that they would know his love for them, that they should exist.  And he created them that they should be male and female to multiply and be fruitful.  And evil came in and hardened their hearts.  Evil came in and showed them that they should be separate.  Evil came in and divided them that they would not know the truth of who they are.  But it was not so from the beginning.  And this is what Christ told his disciples and the Pharisees that tested him: "But it was not so from the beginning. "

Today marriage is a joyous occasion.  We come together.  We love.  We laugh.  We are filled with happiness from the beginning.  But then time passes.  We open our eyes to see the other person that we are committed to and we open our eyes to the world.  We compare.  We see, we feel, we long, we desire that which is not within our reach, and we regret.  And it is in that regret that doubt comes in.  It is in that regret that passions are kindled.  It is in that regret that temptation follows, prodding us on, away from the commitment that we made to be one flesh. 

For we are raised in the world.  We breathe, eat, sleep, and become what is in the world.  And even with the strongest of foundations, we may find ourselves drawn into the temptations that the world has to offer.  What stops us?  What keeps us from temptation?  What pulls us back from the brink?  It is that deep sense of inner peace that comes with love.  It is that knowing that we have gone astray from what we believe is right and the wrong that we have done.  Is this enough to keep us?  Is this enough to commit us to a way of life that was given us from the beginning?  With all the things in the world that would pull us, all the things that would divide us,  all the things in the world that will take us away from that joyous commitment that we made, what can keeps us together?

We are male and female, given a purpose here on earth, here in the world.  Christ has told us that in heaven we are not given in marriage but are like angels.  Is this something that we can hold onto?  Is this something that we can believe in?  Is this something that can give each of us, both male and female, the foundation to overcome the trials and tribulations we face in the world that would separate us?  We were created male and female.  Yet we were created in his image and likeness.  We were created as spiritual beings.  We are spiritual beings living in a physical world.  Is this the truth or are we just physical beings seeking to know the truth of who we are in Christ?

Christ gave us new life.  He paid the penalty for our transgressions.  He came.  He preached.  He died.  He arose again and ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father.  He gave us something to believe in; he gave us something to be, to seek, to know.  And yet within the knowledge that he has given us, we know not.  For the Holy Spirit comes to those who seek him.  The Holy Spirit comes to those who want him.  The Holy Spirit comes to those who desire him.  And with his coming, into those who are male or female, eyes are opened.  With his coming, hearts are filled.  With his coming joy is given.  And with his coming the light of life comes to those who would know.  Do you know his plan?  Do you know his purpose?  Do you know, you?

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 Matthews, Chapter 19, verse: 8, The Hardness of hearts.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The question of divorce) Part 6. 

From the beginning he created them male and female.  For this cause they will leave their parents and cleave to one another to become not two flesh but one.  This was God's purpose from the beginning, that they would come together for his purpose.  But man has created his own purpose.  Man changed God's purpose so that he could make it according to his own thinking.  And now we have divorce.  Now we have separation.  Now we have strife, anger, frustration, hatred, fear, doubt, and destruction.  Today we have destruction of God's plan that will brings peace and harmony, and love into the male and female relationship.

Where did it all begin?  God gave us bonding.  He gave us relationships.  He gave us the togetherness that comes with one flesh.  Yet we have separation.  Where did it all begin?  It began in the desert.  It began with the freedom of the captives from Egypt.  For they were in captivity for four hundred years.  They were under the Egyptian rule.  They were under the customs and habits of another culture and they adopted that culture and those rules as their own.  And they became hardened according to what they had known for four hundred years.  And Christ told them that it all began with their hardened hearts.  He said to them, "Because Moses, by reason of the hardness of your heart, permitted you to put away your wives."

Their hearts were hardened.  Their minds were set.  They were determined to separate, to divorce, to do other than what was God's plan.  So Moses permitted it.  Moses allowed them to put away their wives.  Moses saw that they were determined.  Moses saw what they would do.  Moses knew in his heart that freedom from the Egyptians was not freedom but continued bondage to the culture and ways of their captures.  And if this continued that their freedom would only lead to death and destruction.  For this was the way of the Egyptians.  This was how they dealt with their wives.  This was their separation and their culture.  And that same culture had been accepted by the Jews, freed from captivity.

So Moses sought a solution.  Moses did not want destruction.  Moses did not want his people to follow the same path.  He sought to change them.  He sought to move them in a different direction.  Moses sought to bring his people back to the Father who had freed them.  But they were determined.  They wanted to stay with what they knew.  They did not want to change.  And now today down through history we have the same.  We separate.  We divorce.  We ignore the will of God our Father who made us male and female, who made us that we would be one flesh for a purpose, for a cause. 

Father, forgive us.  Father, have mercy on us.  Father, help us to understand your purpose, your plan for us, male and female.  Help us to know you.  Help us to see you.  Help us to come to know the truth of who we are in Christ Jesus, our savior.  For he came that we would have life.  He came that we would no longer live in darkness.  He came that we would live abundantly in faith, and hope and peace and love.  Help us to understand the truth of who we are in you.  For with this knowledge we are able to see your purpose.  With this knowledge we are able to see ourselves as you created us, not as flesh and bones, but as spirits created in your likeness.  And with this knowledge we will understand the purpose with which you have given us to be male and female.  Thank you for your mercy, Father.  Thank you for your patience, Father.  And thank you most of all for your love. 

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: 7, Moses written notice.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The question of divorce) Part 5. 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.  You gave us life.  You give us joy.  You give us happiness.  And yet we are today without understanding of your will for us.  For you created us male and female.  You created us two flesh to become one.  You gave us our purpose.  You gave us our plan.  You gave us the world we live in to multiply and prosper.  And yet today we do not know you.  Today we do not obey your commands.  Today we live according to our own will.

For we were lost.  We were deceived.  We were dead, without your spirit.  And Christ.  He came to take back what was lost.  He came to pay the price.  He came that we would have life and have it more abundantly.  The choice is ours.  Do we live with you, according to the laws that you have given us, or do we live according to the dictates of the world.  Christ gave us your command: "What God has joined together let no man put asunder."  And yet we do.  How have we come to changing your laws.  They said to him, "Why then did Moses command to give a written notice of dismissal, and to put her away?"

Why did Moses allow for dismissal of a wife?  Why was the practice of separation begun?  Why was it necessary to have a divorce?  God our Father put them together from the beginning.  God our Father gave them a purpose?  God our Father created them male and female so that they would come together for a cause.  And it was God our Father who gave them life that they may prosper.  Yet man has changed the rules of God.  Man has decided that it is better that they are separate.  Man has willed that they may divorce and remarry.  And thus we have man's plan in today's world.

The plan was changed and the purpose discarded.  And now we divorce, we separate, we remarry as many times as we see fit.  For the structure of the original plan has been changed.  Can we not accept the original plan?  Can we not abide by the original plan?  Are we not God's children living according to his will?  Do we not start with his understanding, his plan, his purpose?  Do we not accept that we are put together for a purpose?  Do we not believe that he knows what is best for us?  It is up to us male and female to come together with the knowledge and the will to live according to his plan and his purpose and not according to the will of the world. 

If we are Christians and live according to the life that is given us through Christ then we should know the truth of who we are.  We should accept the will of our Father when we make the commitment to live according to his purpose.  Yet the tricks and traps of the world weigh upon us, both male and female.  The wants and desires of the world lead us in a direction away from the knowledge of our protector.  The passions of the life we live and the life we experience, on a daily basis, wear upon our conscience like water wearing upon rock, eroding away at our ability to follow the will of our father.  Yet it is only with the truth of who we are and the consolation of the Holy Spirit that we find a stronghold away from the constant battering of the world we live in. 

Come!  Let us retire from the storm of the outside world.  Let us live according to the will of our Father.  Let us know the truth of who we are in Christ and thereby secure the protection of the Holy Spirit that will guide us through the darkness.  Christ is the light in the darkness.  He is the beacon to follow.  He gives us the strength to weather the storm of the world.  Stay strong.  Stay true to who you are in him.  Seek the solitude of his protection and you will know the peace and joy of his love.  For he is our fulfillment.  He is our purpose.  He is our love and our happiness.  For there is nothing in the world that can compare to what our father has prepared for us in heaven.  And it is our decision to turn from the ways of the world and turn our hearts to him who made us and sustains us.  For to know him is to love him and to love him is to be with 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 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: 6, God joined them together.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The question of divorce) Part 4.

From the beginning he made them according to his plan.  He made them male and female.  And his purpose was that they should be joined together as one flesh not as two separate flesh.  He made them that they should be joined together for life and not that they should separate.  For God told Adam to go forth and multiply.  He wanted man to be fruitful.  He wanted man to live in peace.  He wanted man to reproduce and have dominion over the earth and all that was within it.  But evil entered the world through deceit.

So we live in a world today that has changed.  We live in a world that makes its own way.  For God, our Father, created and set life in motion.  But man through deceit of  his wit and his own will has changed what God willed into what man wills.  For it is through deceit that we exist in the world.  It is through deceit that we live.  It is through deceit that we think and believe, express our hopes and dreams, live out our passions and desires.  For we do not the will of God our Father.  Christ left us with this message:  "Therefore now they are no longer two, but one flesh.  What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder." 

Our Father in heaven gave us bonding.  He gave us the rules.  He gave us the reason.  He gave us his purpose so that we would cleave to one another as male and female.  He did not give us divorce.  He did not give us separation.  He did not give us strife, and anger, and frustration, and fear, and mistrust, and hate.  Those things came from and through deceit.  For it is through deceit that we live and breathe and act.  It is through deceit that we believe in the world that we live in.  It is through deceit that we are raised from childhood to believe in the world around us.  And it is through deceit that we throw out the purpose of God and insert our own purpose.

Our purpose was to grow and multiply.  Our purpose was to have dominion over the earth.  Our purpose was to live in the knowledge of the Creator and give thanks and glory to him who made us.  For through his love he gave man life.  Through his love he created us.  Through his goodness he brought us forth from nothingness and gave us existence.  And it is through that knowledge of who we are in him that we find our purpose in this world. 

Deceit opened the door to evil and through that open door came death.  And since that time we have lost the knowledge of who we are.  But Christ came that we may reclaim what we lost.  Christ came that we may now reclaim the life that was lost.  He came that we may rekindle the fire that was given to us from the beginning, the fire of truth, the fire of love, and the fire of peace.  For we are children of God our Father.  And it is he who we adore.  It is he who we worship.  It is he who we give all the praise and glory.  And it is he who has given us the rules of life and not the world.  For we were created male and female.  For this cause we cleave to one another and become one flesh.  What God our Father has joined together and let no man put asunder.

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: 5, One Flesh

Our paragraph topic is:  (The question of divorce) Part 3. 

The Creator had a plan.  The Creator had a purpose.  The Creator gave them life and called them male and female.  And they were made for each other and not against each other.  So why do we have divorce?  Why do we have separation?  Why do we not live together as The Creator meant for us to be from the beginning?  Have you not read it?  Have you not heard it?  Have you not believed in it?

He was the one who gave marriage to us.  He was the one who first instituted bonding.  He was the one who made us male and female that we should be together for a purpose.  But today we live not for his purpose but for our own purpose.  And if our own purpose does not work then we divorce, we separate, we get a legal and judicial breaking apart contrary to what we were created for.  Yet he created us for one purpose, male and female.  "For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?"

One flesh!  One body!  One mind!  Two spirits!  But we do not know who we are.  We do not know the spirit within.  We have no knowledge of what The Creator made.  So we only know the flesh.  We only know what we see, feel, taste, and smell.  And it is in that physical knowledge that we are trapped.  For we reside in the knowing of the mind and not of the spirit.  We believe in the physical and not the spiritual.   

Taught from childhood, reinforced throughout life, we know the physical.  We are given the desires of the flesh, the aspirations of the world, the beliefs, desires, dreams, and passions of the physical with no knowledge of the spiritual being that we are.  We are loosed into the world to struggle with the tricks and traps of evil.  For evil seeks to kill us.  Evil seeks to possess us.  Evil seeks to have us do evil.  We become evildoers and do the bidding of evil. 

Father, hold my hand and don't let go.  Father, Hold the hands of all your children and keep them from evil.  For we are lost.  We are asleep.  We are without the knowledge that opens our minds, our ears, and our hearts that you may heal us.  We are in the world and the world is around us.  We know not.  We hear the Word but it is stolen from us.  It is choked before it can bear fruit.  It is given to us but we have no roots for it to take hold.  And we become lost. 

Help us to know you, Father, that we may know ourselves.  For you are our source, our life, our joy, our happiness, our fulfillment.  We are male and female.  Help us to know your purpose that we may fulfill your will. 

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: 4, The Creator made them male and female.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The question of divorce) Part 2. 

The question of divorce, what does it mean.  By definition divorce means: a judicial declaration dissolving a marriage in whole or in part, especially one that releases the marriage partners from all matrimonial obligations.  Where did this idea of marriage come from?  Where did it originate?  Marriage by definition means: any of the diverse forms of interpersonal union established in various parts of the world to form a familial bond that is recognized legally, religiously, or socially, granting the participating partners mutual conjugal rights and responsibilities.

So now we have an established union for marriage and a judicial declaration for divorce.  Christ instructed the Pharisees on this question and it's origin.  He wanted them to understand its origin and why it came to be.  He said to them: ''Have you read , that the Creator from the beginning, made them male and female?" 

From the beginning they were made different.  From the beginning the Creator made us different.  We were conceived in the mind of God our Father as male and female.  For there was a purpose.  There was a cause.  There was a reason for the different vessels that we inhabit.  Our goal, our mission, our existence is based upon what God created us for.  Yet his creation was given free choice, free will, the freedom to change.  And with that freedom came disobedience.  And with disobedience came into the world right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust, sin and death.

Our Father made it so, from the beginning.  We decided to make it otherwise through judicial declarations in our own eyes, disregarding the purpose of God.  And so it has been down through the ages.  Why do we marry?  Why do we live together?  What is the purpose of it all?  We are given to believe that this is the norm, this is natural, this is the accepted way.  This is how we are raised from birth.  We are given the thoughts of man, the thoughts of the world and not the thoughts of God, our Father.  We are given the world and all that is within it and not given the spirit and all that awaits us. 

We are spiritual beings living temporarily in the physical form.  Do we know?  Do we understand?  Do we believe who we are?  Science has not told us so.  Education has not taught us how to find the spirit or even, that we have one.  On the contrary our education denies that we are spiritual beings.  Our world teaches us that we are material, flesh and blood, and not of a spiritual nature.  Our world supports the belief of the physical realm and not that of the spiritual.  Yet we exist, we live, and we die  And then we are unsure of our spiritual transformation to the true state of who we are.

But with knowledge we can come to know who we are.  With insight we can understand the true nature of the spirit being of who we are.  With the gift from the Holy Spirit we can begin to awaken from the sleep of the world that has been given to us since our birth.  And with that awakening we see the truth of ourselves and the majesty and glory of God our Father.  For he has given us purpose.  He has given us life.  He has given us the word.  God's plan comes through the knowledge of who we are in Christ.  And with this knowledge can we begin to know the truth of why the Creator made us male and female.  It is not the divorce for any cause but the bonding for a cause.  It is the knowledge of the spirit that eliminates divorce completely and brings us back to the will of God Our Father.  Do you know?  Can you understand?  He made us male and female.  He put us together for a purpose and the spirit, not the world, will guide us according to the will of God.

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.