Our paragraph topic is:
(On the coming of Elias) Part 1.
They had been to the mountain top and back. They had seen a vision. The disciples had witnessed the transfiguration of Christ. They saw Moses and Elias, their great leaders. What were they to believe? What were they to do? What they to say? They were filled with excitement. They were filled with joy. And then they heard the voice of God the Father speaking to them about his son, Jesus Christ. Their minds and their bodies were filled with the good news that they were going to share with their fellow disciples and all of their brothers and sisters in Christ.
They were in a state of ecstasy. How would you feel? What would you think? What would you say if you had such a vision? Who would believe you? What would people say if you told such a thing? Would they believe you? Would they criticize you? Would they call you crazy? Would they stone you or behead you or put you in a cell and throw away the key? Would they believe that you have lost it and live in a fantasy world of make believe? But you are a disciple of Christ and the people need to know what happened to you. Christ warned his disciples not to speak of the vision until after the sacrifice. And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus cautioned them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one, till the Son of Man has risen from the dead."
People do not believe in visions today. You have to be crazy or out of touch with society when you talk about seeing things that are out of the ordinary, things that others have not seen. And when you tell someone the things that you have seen, you have to have some sort of proof for them to believe that you have witnessed these things. They will not believe without the proof. You will be laughed at, ridiculed, called names, isolated, and made to feel different from everyone else. And who wants to be different? Who wants to be alone and outside?
This is why Christ told his disciples to tell no one of the vision. He did not want them to face the ridicule and scorn of the enemy. For evil was lurking in the shadows, waiting for every opportunity to pounce upon the disciples and scatter them to the four winds. The enemy was waiting for the opportunity to belittle the disciples and to decrease their influence among the people so that the people would not follow Christ. So he told them not to talk of it. He told them to keep it among themselves until the sacrifice was made. He told them not to share it with anyone until they had proof of his resurrection from the dead.
If we had proof of the living God today, would all believe? Would all follow if God sent a sign to show all that he exists? Evil would not allow us to believe. Evil would convince our reasoning to come up with something that would explain what we witnessed or saw, or thought that we believed. And yet it is not for us to make people believe. It is not for us to convince people that there is a God who loves them. It is not for us to make people follow and believe in God. How do you convince a person who does not want to be convinced? How do you persuade a person who does not want to be persuaded? We each have to want to know, want to believe, want to find, want to accept God in order for him to come into our lives.
And so the visions, the miracles, the love, the protection, and all the blessings that come from our heavenly father are for those who seek to know. For evil would have us without knowledge. Evil would have us without belief. Evil would have us dead and unaware of the love that our heavenly father has for us. So, I can not persuade you to believe if you do not want to believe. I can not tell you of the miracles that have been worked in my life if you do not want to hear. I can not make you understand the love and protection and the provisions that God has provided me, if you do not want to understand. I can only write. For it has been given me to write. It has been given to me to write freely what I have read and what I understand from my bible experience. What was freely given to me from those readings I give to those who want to know. I give freely to those who seek, even as I have sought. I give what those readings have done for me.
God is love. He created man in his image and likeness. He gave us life that we may know the awe and the mystery of his love. I pray that you may know his love. I pray that you may experience his protection and his provisions. I pray that you may come to know his wisdom. For the love that he has shown me, I pray that you may come to know. And when you know his love, you will understand. Come! Follow the path. Read what has been laid out before you and you too will know the truth of who you are in Christ. Christ loves you and so do I.
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!
Our paragraph topic is: (Jesus transfigured) Part 6.
The disciples heard the voice of God and they were afraid. Out of the cloud came a loud voice that spoke to them. These were simple men. They were not scholars. They were not men of learning, men of power, men of stature in the community, but only simple fishermen, simple farmers, and common laborers. But Christ chose them to be his followers. They followed him because he had charisma. They followed him because he had an aura about him that commanded their allegiance. Christ cured the sick. He made the lame walk. He opened the eyes of the blind. He even gave the disciples temporary power to do the same miracles that they saw him perform. And they followed him because they came to love him.
But when the father spoke to them they became fearful. They bowed their heads in fear for their lives. They had not heard such a voice before. They did not know if they were doomed or if they should rejoice. Fear came upon them and took hold of them. Fear opened the door and would have allowed evil to enter. Fear prepared them for what they considered would be the end. Yet this was the voice of their father speaking to them. Hear him, he told them. Hear Christ he told them. Hear his words, hear his deeds, hear his actions, hear his presence. But when the voice ended there was only Christ left for them to see. There was only Christ left for them to hear. There was Christ left for them to believe. And Jesus came near and touched them, and said to them, “Arise and do not be afraid." But lifting up their eyes, they
saw no one but Jesus only.
Jesus told them, "Do not be afraid." He told them as he did in many other situations to not be afraid. He tells us today to not be afraid. We fear what we do not understand. We fear what we do not know. We fear what we can not comprehend. We are fearful creatures. There are many things in this world that would cause us to open ourselves to fear. But why should we be afraid? Some would say that fear is good because it is a natural emotion built into our defense mechanism that protects us from harm. We fear harm to our bodies. We fear loss of life. We fear loss of possessions, loss of love, loss of happiness, loss of material things, we are afraid of many things in this world. This is only because we do not have the spiritual understanding that knows no fear. Christ tells us not to fear. He tells us not to worry. He tells us to be happy because we have a father that will protect us from all harm. It is one thing to believe but it is an even better thing to know with certainty.
Yet we continue to fear because we do not believe, because we do not know. We do not know who we are. We have no idea of our spiritual nature within us because we only judge by our physical beings. Fear limits us. Fear controls us. Fear commands us to act. Fear closes the door to the opportunity for us to know who we truly are in Christ. God created us in his image and his likeness. He gave us dominion over this earth, over this realm, over the material world. Adam chose for all men to give that dominion to Satan when he chose to be disobedient to God. But Christ came and gave to all men, individually and collectively, the choice to decide for themselves if they want life or if they want death.
Spiritual life is a wonderful gift to have. And life is as precious as freedom itself. How do you know freedom if you have never been without? How do you know life if you have never been without it? How do you know death if you have never experienced life? For he who is dead does not have life but only a dream. And it is a dream that you wake up from and realize that you are dead. In our life's dream we are given signs that tell us of our death. We see death as though it were real life and true spiritual life as though it were a dream, something far off, something that may or may not exist but only in our imaginations.
For those who seek to know life, Christ gave us the key. He told us in his words how to experience life. He spoke to us about the key to unlock death and open the door to eternal life, eternal life that we can see and experience and know with certainty, here on earth. But we must awaken from the sleep of death. We must open our eyes and see that we are asleep. Once awake we can then seek the truth of life itself through Christ. Some will balk at the idea of being told what to do. Some will yield to the voice of disbelief and go back to sleep reasoning with the mind of the world. But for those who seek, the door is open, the path is waiting for you to follow, the light shines at the end of the tunnel. Come! Find your treasure. Know the truth of who you are in Christ. The eye is the lamp of the body. See the truth within yourself and gain the knowledge of the Holy Spirit within you. Christ loves you and so do I.
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!
Our paragraph topic is: (Jesus transfigured) Part 5.
And the voice of God spoke from the bright cloud. The voice spoke to the disciples telling them to hear Christ. God spoke to them telling them that Christ was his beloved son and that he was well pleased with him. They did not know where the voice came from. They did not know how it spoke to them. They did not know how they were hearing this voice. All they knew was that it spoke to them telling them to hear him.
Did they not hear him before? Were they not listening to him all this time? They walked with him everyday. They talked with him everyday. They slept with him, eat with him, listened to him preach, saw him work miracles, everyday. So why did they not hear him? Why did they not listen to him? Why did they not know him in their hearts that God the father had to tell them to hear him? God spoke directly to them, and them only, that they should know the truth of who Christ was. And they heard the voice of God speak to them. But it was this voice that made them tremble. It was this voice that caused them to fear. It was this voice that brought them to their knees and made them fall to their faces with fear. And on
hearing it the disciples fell on their faces and were exceedingly afraid.
Christ loved his disciples. He watched over them. He fed them, made sure that they had food to eat and wine to drink. He protected them from the evil that sought to destroy them. And he nurtured them for they would become the future leaders of the church here on earth and would bear witness to his life, death, and resurrection. But they did not hear him. They were not listening to him. They did not understand him with the knowledge and certainty of a truth taken from the world we live in. It was only after the coming of the Holy Spirit that they knew him with certainty, only after his death and resurrection.
We know with certainty that the wind blows. We know with certainty that the seasons change. It gets cold in the winter and hot in the summer. We know that there is gravity that will cause us to fall from high places. These things and more, we know with certainty because we have experienced them with our bodies. But then there are those things that we do not know with the certainty that we know worldly truths. We believe that Christ lives. We believe that we will come to live with him after we die. We believe that there is a heaven where all God's children will go to, to live for eternity. We know that there is evil in the world because we see it and experience it everyday in our lives. Most of us do not know it directly but hear of it and see it on the news and in the media. We believe that Satan does exist but we do not know it the way we know the things of this world.
The disciples heard God speak of his son. The disciples were told to hear him. The disciples were listening but were not hearing. Why do we not hear today? What stops us from knowing? Can we not know the truth of Christ as we know the things of the world? Is it not possible for us to have the certainty in our beliefs as we have about worldly things. You see, we have our inner beliefs and we have our inner counter beliefs. Evil is in the world and evil influences us from within. We believe the truths that God has given us through Christ Jesus and then we are given doubts. We know within ourselves that Christ lives but evil would have us doubt. Evil would have us disbelieve. Evil would have us not know with certainty Christ Jesus.
With the certainty of the spiritual knowledge of Christ and the life that he has given us, we know no doubt. With the certainty of the truth that comes from the Holy Spirit we know who we are. But evil will plague us. Evil will continue to throw darts. Evil will continue to talk to us and set traps to catch us off guard. For evil wants us to doubt. Evil wants us to question. Evil wants us to ask what if. Evil wants us to not know with certainty who we are in Christ. For with certainty comes power. With certainty comes wisdom. With certainty the light within us is born and we know who we are without doubt, without uncertainty.
Christ knew who he was. Evil knew who he was also and sought to announce to it the world. But Christ would not have his name proclaimed for fame and fortune. He was not of this world and sought not the false riches of this realm. Christ was from the Father and so are we. Yet we do not know who we are or where we are from. And evil would not have us know. God , our father, proclaimed to the disciples to hear his son for they heard so much more. They heard Christ. They heard the people. They heard evil speak to them from within themselves. Just as we do today, they did then. Defend yourself! Stand up to the doubts of evil! Know with certainty that Christ is within you and you are within him. Seek the light given to you, for it is the key that opens the door of the certainty of who you are. Christ told us: "The eye is the lamp of the body and if the eye is sound then the body is full of light." Find your light within and know the truth of who you are in Christ. For certainty is the key to the power that Christ has given you in this 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!
