St Matthew, Chapter 17, verse: 19c, Faith to move Mountains.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 3.

Try as they might the disciples were not successful.  They were unable to remove the demon from the child.  The father begged them.  They tried all they knew.  They remembered that Christ had given them powers to cast out demons as they entered the towns and villages going before him.  But this was different and they did not understand why.  Christ had given them powers to do the work and now that the work was completed they did not have the power.  They could not cast out this demon.  What was different?

Did they not continue to have the power?  Was the power taken away?  Was the power only temporary?  What was happening?  They asked Christ why and he told them of their little faith.  He told them that even though he had given them the power to cast out demons in his name they lacked faith.  Their faith was so empty that it could be compared to that of a mustard seed.  Yet with only a small amount of faith, the size of a mustard seed even, they could move mountains.  He told them:  "You will say to this mountain,
'Remove from here'; and it will remove."

How do you say to a mountain 'Remove from here?'  How do you mentally speak something that mentally you know is impossible?  How do you begin to believe that such a thing is possible?  We dream, we fantasize, we create heroes and monsters in our minds and bring them to life in the movies and in books and magazines and they are capable of doing the impossible.  But all this, we know, is only fantasy, make believe, wishful thinking.  All those dreams and desires and impossible things that we would like to happen in our lives and in the world, are only ideas and thought within our heads.  We do not envision that we will ever have the power to do the things that we dream of.  Yet they are the desires of our hearts, things that we would like to do, powers that we would like to have. 

We have read the stories in the Bible where Moses parted the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape from the Egyptian armies.  We have read about the Manna from heaven.  We have read about the water that came from the rock.  Do we believe in the stories that we read about in the Bible or are they just fiction?  Our minds have sought to make sense of the miracles that we have read.  Even through scientific evidence, we have attempted to prove these things happened naturally without the intervention of God.  So we fall short of true belief, fall short of true faith, and have not the faith of a mustard seed because of what our physical belief tells us is impossible.

I have not tried to speak to a mountain to have it moved.  I have not tried to do things that would seem unnatural.  But I know that I have faith.  I know that I am loved.  I know that the spirit of Christ lives within me.  And I believe that through Him nothing is impossible.  Will I try to prove it?  Do I have to prove it to know that it is possible?  Do I have to see with my own eyes, to feel with my own body, to smell with my own sense of smell, to know that it is possible?  No!  But that does not stop me from knowing that I have the faith to believe with certainty, with the faith of a mustard seed, that all things are possible with God.  And there is the difference.  We seem to know through our physical being but we lack the certainty to believe within our spiritual being.  For it is through the spirit that we have certainty.  It is through the spirit that we see who we are.  It is through the spirit that we transform ourselves beyond the physical being to who we are in the spirit. 

We are created in the image and likeness of our father.  He gave us life.  He gave us breath.  And he gave us the physical, to experience who we are in him.  It is not through the physical that we are.  It is not through our arms and our legs, and our physical ability that we exist.  It is only through the spiritual being that is within the physical that we are.  Are you dead to the spirit?  Do you not know that you are a spiritual being and not a physical being?  Can you not see the spirit within, to know?  Do you not have the light of Christ within you that you might

see who you are?  Come!  Walk with me on this journey!  Experience the truth of who you are.  Know the true light that is within you and you will see for yourself that you too can have the power to say to mountains to remove from here and it will be done for you.  Christ loves you so much that to experience his love will overwhelm you.  He is our desire.  He is our fulfillment.  He is our love, our protection, our provision.  Open the door and let him in.  Follow the path set before you and see the light within. 

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, verses: 18-19a. Faith is the cure.

Our paragraph topic is:  (Why the disciples could not cure him) Part 1.  

Christ made the demon leave.  He cast it out.  He returned the child to his father and set the guard to prevent the demon from returning.  And the light of Christ shone within the child.  The disciples tried to cast it out.  They made an effort to remove the demon but it would not obey them, it would not leave.  The father pleaded with them for their help.  He begged.  He knew that it could be done.  He heard the word of how others were cured.  He saw the ones who were transformed, the ones who were made whole, the ones who had demons that were cast out.  And he believed that this could happen for his son also.  He had faith in his belief.

The father was persistent.  He was demanding.  He was unrelenting because he loved his son and he knew that if it could happen to others it could happen for him.  He had faith.  So he searched, he traveled, he followed the word.  He listened to all the talk about Christ and what he had done for others.  He believed with certainty that it could happen for his son.  He believed with certainty and he had faith.  But the disciples did not know.  They did not have the certainty in their beliefs, in their faith.  So they could not cure him.  They asked Christ why they could not cure the boy.   Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could not we cast it out?"  He said to them, "Because of your little faith."

They had little to no faith.  They had little to no belief to guide them in their actions.  They were not ready to do great things.  Yet these were the ones Christ chose to follow him.  These were the twelve that he hand picked.  They were the chosen ones that the people would follow after Christ returned to his father in heaven.  When would they get it?  When would they believe?  When would their faith increase so that there was no doubt?  All plans were in place for the completion of the mission and the training time was coming to an end.  When will we get it?  When will we believe?  When will our faith increase so that there is no doubt?

What is faith?  How would we define it: faith is 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?  The question then becomes: Is this God a loving God?  Is this God a caring God?  Is this God a protective God?  Can we believe in this God?  Can we trust this God?  What is it that we believe, as we go through life on a daily basis?  We are taught that there is a God.  We are given the scriptures as a basis for our beliefs.  As children we are taken to church and taught in Sunday Bible study about our God from the scriptures of the Bible.  Is this enough to guide us through life?  Do we continue our beliefs as we grow older and venture out into the world to make our own way? 

The world would change our beliefs.  The world would turn us away from what we are given as children, as young adults.  The world would have us doubt what we are given through the teachings from the scriptures.  It would convert us to its way of thinking and lead us away from the commandments of the Bible.  The world says the Bible is outdated.  The world says the Bible is a book of fiction and not to be believed.  The world says do not follow the Bible but follow us and we will reward you with our riches.  The world says we will make you happy, we will make you rich, we will fulfill your desires, we will provide for you, we will protect you if you only follow our ways and not the ways of the Bible. 

How do we reconcile the difference?  How do we come to terms with what the world offers and what we are taught in church?  On the one hand we have the world that would offer to fulfill our needs and on the other hand we have the church that would have us believe that our needs will be fulfilled.  Do we have the faith to believe?  Do we have the faith to know with certainty that our beliefs are true, our hopes are real, and our desires will be fulfilled?  Only with certainty will we be able to act.  Are you sure?  Do you know?  Have you discovered the truth of who you are in Christ?  Faith is the belief in the desire to be one with Christ, as Christ is one with the Father?  Come!  Open the door to your heart and become one with he who is one with the Father.  And you will know for certain who you are.  There will be no doubt.  There will be no fear.  There will only be you in the truth of Christ and the Holy Spirit. 

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.