St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 16, The Good Master.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The rich young man speaks to Jesus )
Part 1.

Our scripture journey skips and takes us to another time and place.  We left Christ where he laid hands on the children and prayed over them.  He departed from that place and moved on to another.  It is in this place where he encounters a young man that has heard of him through the word.  The word traveled.  The word was with the people.  The word was with the rulers, the wealthy, the soldiers, the merchants, the word was with everyone.  The people spoke it.  They heard it.  They marveled at it.  And it spread from one mouth to one ear to another mouth and so on.

It was the word that caught this young man.  He wanted his questions answered.  So he sought  Christ to pose the questions that that no one else could answer to his satisfaction.  He wanted an answer that would provide meaning  to his life.  He wanted to know.  He wanted to believe.  He wanted to do those things that would guarantee him success to the kingdom of heaven.  So he sought Christ  for the answer to his questions.  And behold, a certain man came to him and said, "Good Master, what good work shall I do to have eternal life?" 

What good work shall I do to have eternal life?  Is this not the question for each and every one of us?  Do we not want to have eternal life?  Do we not want to enjoy the life that we have forever?  Or, is this not a question that we concern ourselves with now.  Are we only concerned with the questions of the here and now:  Where will I work to make money?, How will I pay bills?, Where will my kids go to school to get the best education?, What can I do tonight to entertain myself?, What girlfriend shall I call tonight?, etc.  These and others are worldly questions that are upfront on our conscious mind on a daily basis.  They occupy our minds from the time we awake from the time we pass out to sleep.

Do we concern ourselves with what we must do to have eternal life?  Will compliance with Sunday worship be enough to secure our future eternal life?  Or is there more that we should do to be certain of that future?  Our lives are filled with worldly thoughts and demands that prevent us from concerning ourselves with eternity.  And it is those thoughts that we are given to have that stop us from being who we are.  We are eternal beings created in the image and likeness of our Father.  He gave us life and Christ came to renew that life after it was lost by Adam.  Yet in the world today we have no awareness of who we are. 

We are drowned by the demands of the world.  We are blinded by the desires and passions of this world.  We are lost and asleep in the world, as if we are the walking dead.  For it is death that leads us in this world.  It is death that drives us into oblivion.  It is death that stimulates our passions and desires.  And it is death that will lead us down the wide path of destruction. 

Christ came that we would have life.  He came that we would know the truth of who we are.  He gave us the instructions to discover ourselves.  He arose from the grips of death.  He left this world that we would know that he is truly the Christ.  He sits at the right hand of his father waiting for us to call to him as our savior.  The decision is up to us.  The path is before each of us to follow.  The door is open to those who decide to seek the path that will lead them to the knowledge of eternal life.  Know yourself.  Be yourself.  See yourself as you are seen.  For it is through the knowledge of yourself that you open the door to the truth of who you are now and forever.  Christ awaits you.  God the Father loves you.  And the Holy Spirit will lead you in this world and the next.  Open the door and ask Him in.

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: 14, The Lost Sheep: The will of the Father.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The lost Sheep) Part 5.

There will be rejoicing in heaven over the return of a lost one.  For the lost sheep are just as precious in the eyes of the Father as all the others.  They are the little ones.  They are the children that Christ placed before the disciples as an example of what they must become.  For the key to entering the kingdom of heaven is to turn and become like little children who do not worry about the cares of the world, who are not concerned about what tomorrow may bring, who rejoice in the here and now because their father will provide for them.

Christ wanted to teach them about the things of heaven.  He wanted them to know what heaven was like.  He wanted them to have all that heaven has to offer.  But first they must rid themselves of worldly ideas, worldly mindsets, and worldly passions that would prevent them from entering into the kingdom.  For it is not the will of the Father that anyone should perish.  It is not the will of the Father that anyone should be lost.  It is not the will of the Father that anyone should not be with him in heaven.  That decision is ours, given us by our father.  So Christ told his disciples the will of the Father.  Even so, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that a single one of these little ones should perish.

The little ones should not perish, this is what Christ told his disciples.  That is the will of the Father in heaven.  So each and every little one is protected, provided for, and cared for.  But there is evil in the world.  There is desire in the world.  There is lust in the world.  There is scandal in the world and all work towards turning the little ones away from the Father.  For the Father gave man free will.  The Father allowed man to decide.  The Father did not command that we choose.  He gave us the opportunity to make up our own minds, to decide what we wanted. 

Do we know what we want?  Do we see the results of our wants?  Do we understand the consequences of our wants?  For there will be consequences.  There will be repercussions.  There will be judgments.  There will be payments that must be made as a result of the decisions that we make of our own free will.  What do we know?  We believe that we can decide.  We believe that we have the capacity.  We believe that we know.  And we follow what we know.  We follow what we are told.  We follow what we are led to believe based on what we see in the world, what we feel about the world, what we hear in the world. 

We follow the path that is before us, the path that is given us.  And for those that lay out the path, those that create the path, they are driven by what they think is good and right and just in the mind of the market.  But the market is led by greed.  The market is led by desires and passions.  The market is led by the forces of commerce that are driven by the influences of the world.  And there is evil in the world.  Do we believe?  Do we see?  Do we know?  The choice is ours. 

We can sleep in the world or we can awake from the drugged slumber that the world offers.  Christ knocks at the door.  Christ holds your hand.  Christ lives in your heart.  Do not turn him away.  Do not close the door on him.  Do not go back to sleep when he talks to you.  Wake up!  See the being that you are in Christ.  Wake up!  See the light within you.  Wake up!  Know the truth that is within you.  For the Holy Spirit wants to visit you.  The Holy Spirit wants to live with you.  The Holy Spirit wants to know you.  The Holy Spirit wants you to know him.  Wake up and see!  Wake up and know!  Wake up and live in Christ! For it is not the Father's will that a single little one should perish.

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: 19b, Mustard Seed Faith.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 2.

The disciples were disturbed.  They did not understand why they could not do what Christ had given them power to do before.  He sent them out to the villages in pairs of two.  He gave them power to cast out demons and to heal the sick, cure the lame, and perform miracles.  But they could not help this father who pleaded with them for help.  They could not cast out this demon.  Why was it that they could not do this?  Christ told them, they had very little faith.  They performed the miracles based upon the power that he gave them but not upon the faith that they had. 

What would they do when he was gone?  What would they say?  What would they think, after the sacrifice was complete and Christ's, mission here on earth, was complete?  Would they have the faith to believe in his works, to believe in his words, to act upon their belief that he is the Messiah?  If they could only have faith.  If they could only believe without seeing, believe without feeling, believe without having his physical presence before them, then they would come to know far beyond what their physical minds could comprehend.  They would know that there is something more than just the physical realm.  So he told them:  "For amen I say to you, if you have faith like a mustard seed."

It is said that the mustard seed is the smallest seed in the garden.  Yet it grows larger than any other plant.  What is faith?   Would we define it as having a belief in something?   Would we say that faith is a belief that there is a God, that there is a supreme being, that there is something greater than ourselves?  If we believe that there is a God greater than ourselves then how strongly do we believe it?  Do we believe strong enough to act on that belief?  Do we believe strongly enough to follow the commands that have been given to us, pasted down through the generations?  Can we follow the laws of God and the new covenant given by Christ in this modern day and time?  Or are we so caught up in the world that we can not see the importance of God's commandments? 

Do we believe strong enough to not follow the world in its beliefs as to how we should live?  Do we believe strong enough to know that there is the spirit of God that lives within us?  And do we believe strong enough to see the light of Christ that resides within us, the light that guides us, the light that protects us, the light that loves us, the light that provides for us.  We should have nothing to fear, nothing to doubt, nothing to change our belief in who we are in Christ?  For when we know the truth of who we are in Christ then the seed within grows and becomes like the mustard seed.  The seed of faith becomes the largest plant in the garden and our faith becomes the largest belief that we have.

Faith to me is belief in the desire to become one with Christ.  When I am one with Him I have no fear, I have no doubts, I have no situation or circumstance that will change me from what has been given me by his sacrifice.  There is nothing that can change me from the knowledge that I have life in him and he has life in God the Father.  And in that knowledge I abide.  For the light shines within me and I know it.  The light lives within me and I see it.  The light of Christ fills me and I feel it everyday.  I look around and see his presence, I feel his love, I know his protection and I have the faith of a mustard seed, because it has been given me by and through the light of the Holy Spirit.  Come!  Share in the light that is within you.  Come!  Know the truth of who you are in Christ.  Come!  Celebrate the joy of new life.  Christ awaits you.  Christ Loves you.  And the Holy Spirit will guide you.  Follow the path before you and know the truth of life.

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.