St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 20, The commandments: What is yet wanting.

Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 11.

So Christ has given the young man all the commandments that he must follow to enter into the kingdom.  He should not steal, not kill, not bear false witness, not commit adultery; he should honor his father and mother and love his neighbor.  But as a good Jew he has committed himself to following all of these commandments.  What more is there to do?  Why does he not feel that he will attain his goal.  What is wanting in his life that holds him back?

These are lingering questions that hang in the back of his mind.  These are the doubts that give cause to concern that he has not done everything that he can.  He sees Christ.  He feels the presence of Christ and his disciples.  He desires to have that something that they have which sets them apart.  He wants to be in the inner circle with the disciples.  What holds him?  The young man said to him, "All these I must have kept; what is yet wanting to me?"

What is yet wanting?  What have I missed?  What am I not getting in this world that will let me know that I am close to God?  I keep the commandments.  I follow the prescribed laws of the church.  But I do not feel certain that there is a God who loves me.  I have not found what I need to fill the emptiness, to fill the hole, to complete me inside.  Why do I feel this loneliness, this darkness, this sense of struggle within?  These are the questions that the rich young man may have asked himself and that we may even ask ourselves today.  There are questions.

We do have questions.  We do seek answers.  We want to have a connection, a feeling of certainty, something to hold onto that lets us know for sure that we belong to a living God.  The world would have us believe that there is no God.  The world would have us partake in the joys of today and forget about the commandments that our Father has given us to live by.  Go about your daily routine!  Think not about what God has given you to do!  You are safe just by going to church on Sunday.  Live the other six days according to the world and you will be alright.

These are the concepts and beliefs by which the world has given us to live.  Yet is there nothing more that we may have to guide us, to be with us, to demonstrate the love to us, to protect us, provide for us?  Can we not know our Father more than just on a superficial level?  What more is wanting in us?  Dig deeper, I say.  Seek more, I believe.  Desire to know truly, you can.  But the heart must be sincere.  The heart must seek to know from within. 

The mind does not know.  The heart will see.  The heart will feel.  The heart will know the truth of who is the Father, and who is the Son, and who is the Holy Spirit.  You must want, more than anything else that you have ever wanted in your life.  Your desire must burn from within.  You are willing to do anything in search of Him who you seek.  And with that desire, with that burning, with that open heart, he will come to you.  He will speak to you.  He will touch you to let you know for certain that he is with you.  And he will send the Advocate to be with you always that you may have a guide to give you a right judgment in all things.  And then you will see beyond all doubt that you are real and nothing else in this world matters except His love.  What else is yet wanting?

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: 19b, The commandments: Love thy neighbor as thyself.

Our paragraph topic is: (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 10.

And now Christ tells the young man to do something that he has not heard before.  He gives him a commandment that is the foundation of all the commandments.  And Jesus said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 

Love thy neighbor!  Who was the neighbor of the young man?  Who was he to love, as he loved himself?  He had sought Christ because he knew that he was a man of truth.  He believed him.  He believed in the words he spoke.  He had come a long way to find the truth, to find what he needed to do to obtain the kingdom.  He wanted to make sure that he had the right information that he could follow.  He did not steal.  He did not kill anyone.  He did not commit adultery.  He sought not to bear false witness against anyone, least of all to be false to himself.  And he honored his mother and father, for he was a dutiful son.  And here he was seeking knowledge from Christ as to what else he should do to complete his journey into the kingdom. 

Love thy neighbor as thyself.  This was the last commandment that Christ gave the rich young man who sought to know what he must do.  The rich young man loved himself but how was he to love others as himself?  How was he to treat others as he treated himself?  How was he to love those who hated him, those who sought to do harm to him?  How would he love the poor, the less fortunate, the laborers, the sick, those imprisoned, those that were Gentile and not Jews?  How was he to do this?  This was a hard thing to think of doing since it meant seeing others in a different light.

Christ calls upon all who read or hear these words to love.  He calls upon us to see others as though we were seeing ourselves.  Despite the race, despite the creed, the religion, despite the crime, the wealth or the poverty, we are to see everyone as we see ourselves.  This is the message that Christ spoke of so that we would all hear.  These are the words that he left for every human being.  But how can we know, how can we overcome, how can we practice love  with all the evil, all the hatred, the envy, the jealousy, all the other barriers that prevents us from doing so?

The barriers in the world are there to stop us from being who we are.  The barriers in the world are there to blind us from seeing who we are.  The barriers in the world are there to prevent us from loving one another as we should.  For we are all children of the Father.  We are created in his image and likeness.  We are spiritual and not physical.  And it is that spiritual being that we are, inside, that we should see.  It is that likeness within that we should know.  It is that love from above that we should feel within, that will allow us to be who we are in ourselves and in others.

Christ came that we would know ourselves.  He demonstrated his passion for mankind that we would see the love that the Father has for us.  He gave his life that we would have new life, in him, for eternity.  And he loves with the love of the Father for each and every one of us, no matter what the barriers.  For we are not black, or white, or Hispanic, or Jews, or criminals, or the poor, or democrat or republican or any other barrier that is placed upon us.  But we are spiritual beings created in the likeness of God our Father.  And in this likeness we are the light of the world. 

Within the physical, through the darkness, inside the spiritual eye, lies the truth of who we are.  The world seeks to deny our nature.  The evil wants to blind our sight.  And the darkness wants to cover the light of Christ that is within us.  Yet each and everyone of us has that same light, that same nature, that same likeness; if we could only see it.  For within, lies the joy, the happiness, and the peace that comes with the knowledge and the wisdom of life in Christ.  And the knowledge and wisdom of Christ opens our minds, our eyes, and our hearts to the true vision to see our neighbors as we truly see ourselves.  And the vision of ourselves and others will overwhelm us with the love that is from 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.

St Matthew, Chapter 19, verse: 19a, The commandments: Honor thy Father and Mother.

Our paragraph topic is:  (The rich young man speaks to Jesus) Part 9.

The rich young man is there before Christ as Christ tells him what he must do to enter into the kingdom.  He is listening intently.  He is taking in all that is being spoken.  He is absorbing on a conscious and subconscious level all that which is being given him by Christ.  For he has to make sense of it all.  He has to understand it.  He has to remember it and repeat it so that he can accepts it completely.  And Christ has given these commandments to him in simple terms in order that he can accept them.

Just as he was speaking to the rich young man, he was also speaking to all that heard, to all that was in ear shot of his words, and all that would hear these words as they are passed on to others.  For he has given to all the stepping stones, the building blocks, the foundation for salvation.  These are the commandments that have the most meaning and these are the commandments that will open the doors to the kingdom.  And Jesus said, "Honor thy father and mother."

Of all the things that we should not do: kill, steal, commit adultery, etc., this is the one thing that Christ tells us that we should do.  We should give honor to those who gave us life.  We should give honor to those who brought us into this world.  We should pay homage to those who came before us.  We should show respect and recognition to their contribution to our life. 

Why was I born?  Why am I here?  These are two questions that each and every one of us has asked at some point in our lives.  We want meaning.  We want purpose.  We want direction.  We want understanding that we may know what is our purpose, our goal, our destination.  And thus we turn back to those who gave to us the who that we are today.  We turn to them for purpose, for direction, and for knowledge.  Lacking that meaning, that purpose, that direction we must seek it from the world around us.  And we must go in search of knowledge and wisdom that we may have purpose.

In search of that meaning and purpose we may, if we are fortunate, come full circle to those who gave us life.  For the purpose is meaningless.  The direction is full circle.  And the question that we seek the answer to brings us back to our beginning.  We have life.  We have spirit.  We have joy and peace and love and hope and faith and belief that our lives do have meaning and purpose.  And that meaning comes from what has been give to us.  That meaning comes from the life that we have.  We are not talking about the physical but the spiritual life that is given to us.

For the spirit is eternal.  The spirit is everlasting.  The spirit is created from an image and a likeness that is eternal.  And the spirit will be light or it will be dark.  The spirit will know its meaning and purpose or the spirit will turn to the darkness that is within and be influenced by the evil that is in the world.  We all have the choice.  What do we choose?  Do we know who we are or are we asleep in the world, following the norms that it gives us.  The light of life is within all.  This is the gift given us by Christ.  For he came that we would have life again.  He came that we would know.  He came that we would believe in the one true God.  But the choice is ours.  We can believe or not believe.  We can know or we can deny.  We can see or we can be blind.  That is our choice.  But the knowledge or the ignorance that comes from the choice that we make can enlighten us to our destiny or blind us to darkness. 

If we choose life then we can know the truth of who we are in Christ.  We can see the light of life that is within us.  We can know the love that our Father bears for us.  And we can be with the spirit that will come to live with us.  We give homage to those who participated in the creation.  We honor those who came before us.  We remember those who brought us into physical life that we would have choice.  And we honor father and mother for the love and sacrifice that they made for us.  For they gave what they had.  They loved with what they could love.  They gave direction with the direction that was given them.  And they died with the spirit that will transform them to the true nature of their existence.  May God be with them and may be with our Lord Christ Jesus forever.

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.