If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Luke 14:26
The way of discipleship is the way to follow the cross. The requirement of discipleship is to never look back.
Jesus said that the Kingdom was like a precious pearl, that, when found, a man sold all he had and bought it. There is something about finding something that is worth it. If you can see it, if you can recognize what you see, and correctly appraise it, it is not a hard choice to lose everything else to obtain the best. Read more…
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Hebrews 11:1
Faith in God is a real, active, and living thing. God is alive, and powerful. Faith sees Him, and the word of His power overcomes what cannot be otherwise overcome, and carries a person with it through otherwise impossible situations.
It was by faith in God that David conquered the giant, and it was by faith in God that Jonathan, his friend, along with his armor bearer, single-handedly took on an entire Philistine garrison. It was by faith that overcame their weaknesses and came to be firmly established in the land.
Luke 16:16
“The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it.
Music from “Ancient Cry” by Chris Harvey (www.chrisharvey.org).
Don’t miss God’s plan… It doesn’t’ include you, per say, although it does… You’ll be there, when you’re in His love, but it’ll be His power.
But, a whole nation missed it, because the physician was sent to the sick, and not to the well. Those who said they saw, their sin remained, but to those who cried out in poverty, desperation, and misery, the Son came.
Only the eyes of a child can see it, and only the pure can remain. Only by the blood, and only as a child. Nothing else matters in Eternity, nothing.
You don’t have to live a life of anger. You don’t have to just accept it. Receive Jesus. Heed His warnings in Matthew 5:21-22. You’re in danger. Only Jesus saves. Live the life of Faith and, by obeying the truth, have your soul purified so you can actually love each other with a real, genuine, and love you can feel the warmth of. That’s what the goal of the gospel is… Faith expressing itself through Real love proceeding from a clean conscience… You can be free.
This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
John 3:19-21
This is the verdict. Light has come. Men didn’t want it. They wanted something different.
The difference here is important. Jesus contrasts the two walks. One is those who do evil. The other is those who do Truth.
In a stable, outside an inn, Jesus came in the flesh, God became man, and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the only begotten, full of grace and truth.
God gave Moses the tabernacle, the law, and the seat of government over the children of Israel. He specified every detail, the number of poles, the size of the curtains, and even the number and material of each clasp. Nothing was overlooked.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Matthew 7:24
[H]e is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built.
Luke 6:48
Growing up, spending a lot of time in Matthew, I sort of got the impression from Matthew 7:24, that listening to and following Jesus was kind of like considering real estate on the beach. You have sandy portions and you have rocky portions. In some places, there are only dunes, and in other places, namely, upon Jesus, there is a rock sticking out, and it is at this place that one should build their house, rather than upon the sand. The “choice”, if you will, was simply to follow the instructions or to live a different way, which, of course, would be wrong, and result in failure.
The more I read and understand the Beatitudes, Matthew 5:3-12, the happier I get. Hugely Happy. Ultra Happy. Maximumly Happy. Macro happy even, which is what the word translated “blessed” actually means, if you look it up. It doesn’t mean “blessed”. That would be eulegio. This is Macagredso… horribly transliterated, but… macro + agredso… macro meaning big, agredso meaning… well… HAPPY! Read more…
If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
