1 John 4:8
God is LOVE
8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
John 3:10-12
Earthly Things Differ from Heavenly Things
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?
Ecclesiastes 8:15
Being Happy on Earth
15 So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.
Romans 14:17-18
The Kingdom of God and Earthly Things
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.
John 14:16-17
The Holy Spirit
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
John 6:29
The Work of God
29 Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
Matthew 16:16
Peter Recognizes Jesus is Christ, the Messiah
16 Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Matthew 13:10-34
Jesus on The Kingdom of Heaven
10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you,but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see;
though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
The Parable of the Weeds
24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’
28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.
“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”
The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
34 Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. 35 So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.”
John 5:24-27
Trust and Believe in Jesus
24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.
Acts 4:12
Salvation is Only Through Jesus Christ
12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
John 14:6-7
The Way, The Truth, and The Life
6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."
Jesus tries to explain the difference between earthly things and heavenly things to Nicodemus, one of Israeli's teachers...Nicodemus gets confused, it seems...When we think of living on earth, we think about our experiences and what we have seen and heard...We believe in things that we have seen and understand and know...And as we read the dialog between Jesus and Nicodemus, we quickly see that our understanding is limited about heaven and we cannot understand when Jesus speaks about the heavenly things...Life on earth is different than life in heaven...
Jesus tells us that part of God's work is for us to believe in Him...He is the One that God sent...Simon Peter recognized who He is...He is the Messiah...He is the Christ...He is the Son of the Living God...And St. Paul says that we should serve Christ, because that is pleasing to God, His Father...
When we try to enjoy life on earth, Solomon writes that we can eat, drink, and be merry...But there is more to life than this world and there is more to life than eating and drinking...St. Paul teaches us that the Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval...The Kingdom of God is very different than earth, and requires some very different thinking...The Kingdom of God makes us think about the Holy Spirit...The Holy Spirit is an Advocate for Jesus...The Holy Spirit is something the world has difficulty with, because the world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him...The Holy Spirit does not come to us to act on His own or speak for Himself...He is acting on behalf of Jesus and speaking for Him...
Jesus is from Another World...And as we read the worlds of Jesus about the Holy Spirit -I think that we see this...And it can get confusing...To help us with better understanding the Holy Spirit and the Kingdom of God, Jesus gives us many parables...He wants us to think in images, as He tells us His parables...He must expect us to use our imaginations...When we read what the Kingdom of God and Heaven is like, He explains it to us in these parables, so we can better understand God's Kingdom and Heaven...And for His reasons He tells us what the Kingdom of God is like, not necessarily what it is...Jesus says "the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field...The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field...Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches...The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough."...The Kingdom of Heaven has these characteristics of man sowing good seed, a small mustard seed which grows, and it is like yeast that a woman mixes into flour and works itself all the way through the dough...We are to think on and compare heaven to these earthly things which we do know and understand...
All this gets very confusing and believing in heavenly things, in the end, comes down to faith...Jesus asks us to trust and believe in Him...We must sometimes believe in things we do not understand and do not know...If we read and hear His word and believe in Him and in the One who sent Him -we will be given eternal life and will not be judged but will cross over from death to life...Salvation is found in no One else...No One gets to the Father except through Him...No One gets to Heaven except through Him...All of this a matter of personal faith and believing in Him...Do you believe like St. Peter, that He is the Christ, the Holy One of God?...He is the Son of the Living God...
What is interesting, this idea that Jesus put in our hearts two thousand years ago still exists today, for those who believe...A kingdom based on LOVE, because God is LOVE...