Matthew 23 - Hypocrisy

This chapter teaches important lessons about hypocrisy, and thereby some ideas of what a good focus should be.

These are some of the things that I notice.  

The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

Some of the things that we should be avoiding:

• Saying, and not doing.
• Having others bear the burden, while not bearing the burden ourselves.
• Doing things to be seen, to be popular, famous, etc.
• Love to be called the Leader.
• Close the Kingdom of Heaven, change doctrines, tell people they cannot achieve it, etc.
• Do not go into Heaven, nor allow others into Heaven.
• Drain the widows, while pretending to be good, making long prayers, flowery, emotional talks, etc.
• Proselyte in a pretense of caring, and make the convert more evil than yourselves.
• Justify breaking covenants.
• Making things like tithing, etc., take precedence over the more important parts of the Law, like Justice, Mercy, Faith, etc.!
• Justify horrible sins in yourselves, but pick at little details in others.
• Look good on the outside, but full of sin on the inside.
• Say you would not have killed the prophets, but here you are mocking and saying evil of those sent by God.

Some of the things that we should be doing:

• Keep the Law of God.
• Bear the burdens.
• Do lots of good, do not be seen.
• Be humble, be a servant.
• Make the path strait.
• Go into Heaven, and show others how to go into Heaven.
• Care for the widows, orphans, infirm, victims, poor, etc., making sure they want for nothing!
• Proselyte, and help the converts rise further than you.
• Never break covenants!
• The important parts of the Gospel, Justice, Mercy, Faith, always come first, but we are still required to do the lesser parts of the Law as well.
• Get the sins out of ourselves, throw a cloak of charity over others.
• Clean the inside!  
• Feel, think, say, and do only good to others.  

If we are to believe the Saviour, hypocrisy is going to cause a lot of Grief.   

Best to get it out!   

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Willing To Help

Reading through the scriptures I find many instances where a calamity is about to strike, at which times, the Lord sends messengers to warn the people of impending danger and to give them advice which will protect them.  It always amazes me when the people in those events choose not to even consider the message, nor to test the message with the keys of discernment, nor to even take the message to the Lord for confirmation.  Often, those people just ignored or mistreated the messengers, and then did not prepare for the upcoming calamity, and sadly, suffered greatly.

The Lord is always willing to help.  Always willing to warn us of impending danger.  Always willing to give us good counsel to keep us safe and healthy.  And even when we did not listen the first time, the Lord has endless patience to try again to help us!

What a great God!!!  

The thing is, even though the Lord always gives us the heads up, it is up to us to stay in the Spirit often, to hear the counsel of the Lord.

It is my observation that, the messengers in the scriptures would often show up and counsel people to return to the ways of the Lord, in which state those people would then be able to hear the Spirit of the Lord, and be led to safety.

If anyone is not hearing the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord, I would counsel returning to the ways of the Lord.  The Lord gives us directions as to how to live our lives, so that we will always be able to clearly hear the Spirit of the Lord, which will direct us to safety.  

It is the desire of the Lord that, His children reach their fullest potential, based on their agency of course.

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Spirit Of The Law

How many, who are breaking the Letter of the Law, say they are justified because they keep the Spirit of the Law???  This is false doctrine.  If they kept the Spirit of the Law, they would not be breaking the Letter of the Law!  

Breaking the Letter of the Law, comes from breaking the Spirit of the Law!   

You cannot obey God and break His commandments!   

A man who breaks the Letter of the Law, does not keep the Spirit of the Law, for:   

Out of the abundance of the Heart does the mouth speak, and;   

As a man thinketh, so he does!   

Keeping the Letter of the Law is only the first step.  

Keeping the Spirit of the Law is the second step.   

To keep the Spirit of the Law, we must keep the commandments in our heart and mind also!   

How many people are under the false impression that, if they say they keep the Spirit of the Law, they are free from the guilt of breaking the Law???   

And yet, Messiah said, that those who break the Law in their Hearts and Minds, are already guilty, and in danger of judgement!   

The Letter of the Law says; if you break the commandments, you will be judged.   

The Spirit of the Law says; if you break the commandments in your thoughts, or heart, you are already guilty, and will be judged.   

To keep the Spirit of the Law, a person must keep their Heart and Mind free from even those things which would lead to the breaking of the commandments!   

So basically, if we actually keep the Spirit of the Law, we would never break the Letter of the Law!

At least we will never run out of thing to work on.  Life would be so boring, if we ran out of ways to progress! ;)

Peel another layer from me Lord!!!!    

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Advice And Counsel

It is my heart, to share the things of God, especially those things with which I am personally familiar.  I share some of my experiences on this blog, so perhaps those who are seeking the Lord, may find encouragement and strength.  Perhaps, kindred spirits may be re-united.  It is my joy, to walk with others on their journeys, to help where I can, or to just be there for a friend.  

Often though, people ask me questions, and I give my answers, which are not always received in kindness.  And sometimes, those who have asked for my advice, or counsel, get upset at my answer.  Remember please, these are my experiences to share.  They are the things I have done and experienced.  If you ask me my advice, why get upset at the answer?  It is my answer.  No one is forcing you to do, or even to try my advice.  No one is telling you that you have to follow my counsel.  If you ask for my coaching, it is still up to you, if you would like to follow my insights or not.  

The simple solution is this: If you do not like the counsel from a particular person, and you still want to ask that person for their advice, take responsibility for yourself.  You have your agency, use your agency.  Do not blame someone else for you making your own choice.  

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Love And Forgiveness

It is difficult to write posts from time to time, because there is always a chance at offending a friend.  The funny thing is, there may sometimes be more than one friend who may think the post is about them and get offended, and yet, we need to love each other, and forgive each other.  So, if you think this post is about you, please find it in your heart to forgive me!  

I worry about some of those in the church, who are going through persecution and revilings, and I would write a few words of encouragement to them.  

The Son of God preached forgiveness, and many now parrot His words.  They preach forgiveness, and love, yet they are angry, grumpy, jealous, covetous, envy, say bad things, criticize, impatient, upset, etc.  They may even go out of their way to call others, and turn them against you, to cause dissentions, and seditions, instead of creating peace and brotherhood.  Let none of these things bother you, for the Lord said:  

"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."  
~ Matthew 5:11-12   

Be sure not to revile back.  Bear it patiently.  Watch yourselves closely, that you do not take offence, instead forgive.  

Do not say anything bad about those who say bad about you; instead, forgive. 
Do not say anything bad about their family or their friends, even if they have said bad about yours; instead, forgive.  
Do not get angry at those who are angry at you; instead, forgive.
Do not get impatient (this is a hard one) with those who are impatient with you; instead forgive.  
Do not Criticize those who criticize you; just forgive them. 
Do not call others, and get others on your side, creating seditions, divisions, etc.  Remember, these things are of the devil; Do not do them, even if you think you have cause; Instead, forgive. 
Do not even be grumpy with others, whether they have offended you or not; instead, forgive.  

The Lord's people always forgive.  

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:"  
~ Matthew 5:44-45    

Let us bless our enemies, let us bless those who curse us; that is what our Heavenly Father does, giving His sunshine even to those who are evil, not only to those who are good, and even sends a blessing of rain, not only on the just, but also on the unjust.  We must love all, the good and the bad.  This is the perfection to which Yeshua referred.  This is our goal!  

So, do not give up!  We have almost won the fight!  Victory is in Messiah, the Son of the very Eternal Father!!!  

Keep going!  We are in this together, and I will not depart from you.  We can do this!!!  

May God bless you my friends.  

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Spider Bites & Healing

We moved out to a cabin, which was located on a little island.  On that island, there were spiders that were toxic.  When they bit, the venom would cause the bite area to swell.  If bit on a finger, the finger would swell to about three times the size, and the swelling would travel from one finger to another.  The swelling would stay for days.  We were getting bit on the fingers a lot, which would be painful and we would lose the use of the finger until the swelling would go down.  The bites around the eyes were the worst.  The bite area would at times swell the eye shut, so as to not see.  This became very serious.  We turned to the source of all knowledge, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not!

As we prayed for enlightenment, the idea came; How did the indiginous peoples deal with this situation?

It was a good question.  And so began our research.  We may have taken a trip to a city, to visit a library, and also researched online to find information on indiginous healing practices and herbs in our location.

We discovered reference to a plant called Green Alder, the leaves of which were used to make a poultice to draw out the poisons, and reduce swelling.  This seemed to be exactly what we needed.  We found pictures of what this bush looked like, and again, we took our discovery to the Lord, and asked Him to lead us to this plant.

We did find the plant, it seemed to grow all over the shorelines and in wet areas.  We gathered some of the leaves and crushed them, mixing them in water to make a paste.  We applied this poultice to the swollen area, but nothing happened!

We went back to the Lord in prayer, asking for guidance.  It still seemed to be the correct plant, it was just that we were using it incorrectly.  Inspiration came to chew the leaves first, that the saliva was needed to activate the healing properties.  So we chewed the leaves, spit out the paste, and applied the poultice to the swollen area, ... nothing much happened!  Perhaps it worked a little one time, but not a different time.  This was very strange.

Once again, we went back to the Lord in prayer.  Asking the Lord; What was wrong?  We were very concerned, because the children were suffering worse than the adults.  We decided to do a little more research, and found that the Green Alder bush came in both a bush that would bear flowers, and those that would not seem to flower.  Perhaps like a male gender bush, and a female gender.  This was interesting!  We gathered leaves from both genders, created the poultice, and tried them both.  The leaves from the Green Alder bush which grew the long male flowers drew out the poison in a matter of minutes.  It was so fast, you could almost watch the swelling go down.  The swelling, pain, and bite area would cure in a matter of 10-20 minutes consistently!  It was amazing!  What took days to heal, now took minutes!!!  

Once again, we went to the Lord, prayed and gave thanks to such a loving Father!!!  

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Core Doctrine

God loves us, and wants us to be just like Him, even better!!!

God has found out how to have Eternal Joy, and wants to share the secret with us, so we may have Eternal Joy also, even Greater Joy than what He has, than what He experiences.

All He wants is, for us to experience greater joy than what He experiences, as any loving parents want for their children.  And to do this, he has devised a plan that will get us there.

He knows that the only way to achieve this Joy is to become completely selfless, as He is! 
To never hurt others, and to always help others!

The commandments teach us how to not hurt others, nor ourselves; and,
The higher law teaches us how to help others.

You are of this value to God.

If you are this value, then all of God's children are of this value.

Everyone is of this value to God.

So, God loves us with all His heart, might, mind, and strength.
We should love Him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength.

God loves each of us as Himself,
We need to love our neighbour as ourselves.

Let us be like our Father, let us emulate Him, let us be one with Him, thereby acquiring the same Eternal Joy He has!

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