The Bible is the book, the Good Book that teaches us about the story of a Father and His Son...We learn about God, the Israeli people, and faith...And the Bible's Old Testament starts out with the story of creation in the very beginning...The Old Testament is much about God's people and His promising the earliest of believers, namely Abram, later to called Abraham, a land, a country for His people...And the New Testament is the story about Jesus...The New Testament builds off the Old Testament and God's people who were the Hebrews, and later to be called Jewish...Jesus is from Israel and is a Jew...
The Bible is about God...And He who calls Himself I AM and I AM WHO I AM...God is very difficult to define, but we know He is Perfect, Holy, and Good...He is Spirit, and He has a Spirit...He is Divine...God is Spirit...And God, maybe most of all, God is LOVE...So this Heavenly Spirit can LOVE, because He LOVES us...And even though He is Spirit, and in heaven, He is always near us...He is not far from each one of us...He is near us with the Holy Spirit He sent to us, when He sent His Son to earth, to dwell among us...God made all men of every nation from just this one man, Adam...Adam was the first man...God determined that all men should inhabit the entire earth...God is the One, who determines the exact places and the exact times where all men should live and when they should live...God did this so that men would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though he is not far from each one of us...He wants us to seek Him...And in this seeking and finding process, He wants us to have a relationship with Him...In Him we live and move and have our being...He created us...God has determined where we live and when we should live, but has given us complete unfettered free choice, in our daily choices...He also gives us complete free will to seek Him or not to seek Him...Free choice and free will are a part of love, His LOVE...Yet in the end, His Will gets done on earth, as it does in heaven...God is in control...That is why He is Almighty...And the more one learns of Him, the more they understand why they should want to worship Him -and do worship Him...Pure and Complete LOVE want all things to love...God wants us, therefore, to love one another, each and everyone of us...So when Jesus tells us that the two Greatest Commandments are to Love God and to Love neighbor, we surely can believe it is true, because Jesus is Truth...God is Full of Grace and Truth...
Every page in the Bible reflects something of God's Son, Jesus...As you read the Bible I try to keep in mind, every verse is like a cell of Jesus...The Bible is about Jesus...Jesus said not one writing of the Old Testament would change, until everything is accomplished...Jesus says He fulfills the Old Testament (Matthew 5:17-18)...And as you read the gospels, you do realize Jesus knew every verse of the Bible, and knew the context that each verse was written...The Bible is Jesus...The Prophets mention and speak of a Messiah to come...He is the Promised One...He is the Anointed One...And throughout the Old Testament Scripture prophecies are mentioned about this Anointed One, that is to come...
In the beginning, God created the universe...And because the universe had a beginning, space, time, and matter became into existence at the time of creation...He created all living things and everything in and on the earth...The sun, the moon, the plants, the seas, the oceans, everything was created by God in six days...On the sixth day, God saw all that He had made, and said it was very good...And there was evening, and there was morning—on the sixth day (Genesis 1:31)...God would on the seventh day create man in His image...By the seventh day and in God's time, He has completed creating the universe...Creation was made with God's orderly design, He used optimum mathematics in creating the universe, He created the universe with the greatest of efficiency, and finely tuned earth so man and the things He created could live on this planet...And God would rest on the seventh day...
Day in the original Hebrew was "yom"...Moses writes in Genesis that God did His work in an organized way, and on the basis of Godly days, in the beginning...And we learn in Genesis what God created in each of these days...
The Bible was not written as a science book and does not give us details on "how" the heavens and earth were created...It is a book about a Father and His Son...The Bible is a book about faith...It is a book about His people, the Hebrew people, who are now the people of Israel...The author (Moses) of Genesis, does tell us "who" created the heavens and earth (but he does not tell us how in any detail)...The Creator of the Universe is God...God is man's Creator...The Creator is also our Father...And we are made in His Image...And the Old Testament gives us the stories of how God has interacted with His people, starting with Abraham, then his son Isaac, then Isaac's son, Jacob...Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are called the three Patriarchs of the Bible...
This is God's covenant with Abraham...God approached Abram, the first Patriarch...Abram fell facedown, and God said to him, “As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations...No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations...I will make you very fruitful; I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you...I will establish My covenant as an everlasting covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you...The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and your descendants after you; and I will be their God.”...
During the creation period Moses writes about the story of a first man and his wife...God made man in His Image and in His likeness and would let man rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground...After God created man, He says that it is not good for man to be alone...I will make a helper suitable for him...God then proceeds to create, the first man, Adam, a partner...Her name is Eve...They live in a paradise, called Eden...
Things go wrong for man and woman...God, in this garden paradise of Eden, has very few rules, maybe only one...The one rule was the two of them (Adam and Eve) could not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...The woman first breaks the rule...A serpent tempts Eve and she eats from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil...Then she convinces Adam to eat from the same tree...The two have broken God's law...They have sinned...God, reprimands the two, and they are banned from Eden...This is called the Fall of Man...We are not told how long the couple lived in Eden, before the Fall of Man happened...
God, from even in the beginning of earth and man, has given us free choice...Complete unfettered, free choice...The serpent, satan, has put in our heads that we can and should make decisions on our own and that we can do things, without God, without the One who created us...This started in the beginning with Eve and Adam...Adam and Eve made the choice to eat from the tree, that they were told not to eat from...Free choice is two edged...Everyday man makes his own choices... Satan wants us to believe that we can do things on our own, make our own choices and live without God...But maybe more importantly the evil one puts in our heads that we can be like God (Genesis 3:5)...Satan wants us to think we can live everyday without our Father, and since we can be like God, we can have our own lives (without Him)...The evil one wants us to think we can be in control in a sense, like God...We can't, even though many of us would always like to be in control of many things...Because of this, many go along in their lives, without thinking about their Creator, thinking they are in control...Satan wants us to think we are in "this control mode" and that we do not need our Father...We think we can make our own decisions without God or His will...
The fact is we need God...And He has put the Holy Spirit in us...Man is made in His image, but we are not God...It would be and is unnatural for us, to be without Him...He is our Creator...So we think about God both directly and indirectly...When we have troubles and suffer, we wonder why...We might think, why did He do this, or why did this happen to me?...We might search for Him in the Bible..We might search for Him in others...We might search for Him in nature and the natural laws around us...We might ask is that all there is, and this is a way of asking if God is out there...God created us...He made us...Since He made us, He must be a part of our lives...Just like a young son needs his father or a father...We can physically see that in every son is a natural part of his father...Like the son is a part of his father and has a need for him, man is made in the Image of God, and we need Him...Sons and daughters, need their father...That is who we are...And also, we are children of God...Societies are better for this need of the father...The father needs to be there (for the sons and daughters) for the society to be better...Children are made to have a need for their parents and a love from them...Children need to be soothed and comforted...Children must be loved...Children need these things to grow...We have this internal need for the two that have brought us to earth...Because we are created in His Image, we will always have an internal need for our Creator, our Father, with the Holy Spirit in us...God created us and we are made in His Image, so at times find we are seeking Him...So when we feel like something is missing in our lives, it is our hearts searching for Him...Or a yearning for "this Something", our minds are seeking Him...When we feel lost, it is that our hearts are seeking Him...It is who we are, we are looking for a connection, some connection to the universe...This feeling, this invisible quality, this Holy Spirit, (this feeling of trying to get back and closer to our Creator) is why we have an internal need for Him, and is why we search for His superior purpose, and look for purpose in life...The connection of the Holy Spirit is why we feel this mysterious seeking of Him...It is why, we ask why...He is why we search and seek meaning in life...
The two, Adam and Eve, after banned from Eden, have many children...But the men on earth were becoming wicked...God saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time...The LORD regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled...So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”...One of the great great grandchildren of Adam and Eve was righteous...And Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD....Noah was blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God...Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth...God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them...I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth...So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out (Genesis 6)...Then the LORD gave Noah instructions on the size it needed to be...Noah did everything just as God commanded him...The LORD told Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation...Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth...Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”...And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him...The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days...The ark landed in the mountains of Ararat...After the flood the LORD said, "never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done."...So God made a covenant of the rainbow that He would never destroy the earth again... So whenever a rainbow appears in the clouds, we will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth...God tells Noah's family to be fruitful and multiply...
Many generations pass and we are introduced to another descendant of Adam and Eve and of Noah's...We are introduced to a man named Abram...Abram is a good man...Abram has a beautiful wife named Sarai...Abram feels and believes in God...God makes contact with Abram...Abram follows God's will and God wants Abram to leave and go to another land...God makes a covenant with Abram, and tells him to go to this new land named Canaan...God promises Abram this land, and it is known as the Promised Land...Abram follows God's instructions (for the most part)...God will bless Abram and does bless Abram...Abram follows God instructions and goes to Canaan...Canaan was already settled by earlier descendants of Noah...But this is where God told him to go and Abram follows the will of God...God changes Abram's name to Abraham...God changes Abram's wife name to Sarah...God tells Abraham that He will make nations of him...Abraham is credited with righteousness, because he follows God...When Abraham travels to the land of Canaan, God promises to give this land to his offspring...Abraham builds an altar for God in the region, but does not stay to long and travels on...After He builds the altar for God, he goes to and through the town of Bethel...Although Abraham goes to Canaan, he would not be given one foot of that land during his lifetime...God would give the land to his great-great grandchildren and much later...But Abraham believed in the glory and the promise of God...
Abraham is a shepherd and like a nomad...He would travel around to find the best places for his family and animals to eat and live...He would also teach his family and friends about God and the covenants he made with Him...Moses would later be the author of Abraham's life, as well as writing about his son and grandsons...Abraham's story would have been passed on orally from generation to generation...This would be oral Scripture, until it later would be written down as written Scripture by Moses...These first oral stories were our first Bible, albeit an oral Bible...
Abraham is our first patriarch...He has an only one son by Sarah, who name is Isaac...But he would have a son named Ismael by his Egyptian maid-servant Hagar...Isaac, Abraham's Son with Sarah, also follows God...Isaac is our second patriarch...Isaac has twins...His firstborn is Esau and his twin is Jacob...Jacob came out of the womb touching the heel of Esau...Jacob was a mischievous son...Esau would sell his firstborn birthright to Jacob for some stew (and one's birthright was very important in those days)...Esau was a hunter, and Jacob stayed more at home in his family's tents...Jacob would become our third patriarch...Jacob has a son Joseph...In fact, Joseph has twelve sons...These twelve sons would be the original twelve tribes of Israel...Joseph would become a leader, in Egypt...All of these early leaders and patriarchs are blessed by God...All three of our patriarchs are men and do sin, but God blesses them throughout their lives...They are also men of faith...God watches over Abraham's family, as well as Isaac and Jacob's family...From Abraham to Isaac, then to Jacob, then to Joseph, and then to all their followers they are watched by God above...When God told Abraham years ago that he will be the father of many nations and of great religion(s) it has now started with his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob...Abraham's followers are Hebrew...They are called Jews...They are God's people...
After Abraham and Isaac die the families, relatives, and followers of Jacob continue to grow...Jacob settles in Canaan, in the town called Bethel...His grandfather, Abraham had been there years earlier...God gives Jacob a nickname, and calls him Israel...The name would later replace that of the land of Canaan...Joseph, a favorite son, of his father Jacob would be sold because of jealously to Ishmaelites (descendants of Ismael) that are on their way to Egypt...Jacob's family becomes large in number and wind up following Joseph to Egypt during a time of great famine...They leave Canaan and the city of Bethel, because of this famine...Joseph would become a leader in Egypt with the blessing of God...Joseph, a Hebrew, would die and many years pass...The Egyptians start oppressing the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph...The Egyptians make slaves out of the Hebrew people...Approximately four hundred years pass and God makes Moses leader and his job is to lead God's people (the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph) out of Egypt...This is called the Exodus...God teaches Moses and the people two important concepts, that He expects them to follow...These concepts are very important to God...The two concepts are the people must recognize that He is God (and there is Only One of Him) -they should love and respect this...The other concept is to love thy neighbor...These two concepts are the summation of the Ten Commandments...Loving God is described in the first four commandments and the love for thy neighbor are in the last six commandments... This two concepts are God's rights and His wrongs...They are our rights and wrongs...These are our moral rules, all summed up in two concepts...The two concepts sum up love, truth, goodness, justice, and peace on earth...There are other nations and other Gods, but the God of Abraham (and later the nation of Israel) is different...He is a moral God...He wants His people to be good...
It is so interesting when many countries in the ancient days had many gods and they were thought to be supposedly strong, and supposedly powerful...They were controlling gods of single things -like the sun gods (controlling the sun), gods of weather (controlling the weather), fertility gods (controlling fertility), etc...The God of Abraham first gave us ten moral laws and wants us to be good and loving and moral...Unlike other gods, the God of Israel is a moral God...He is a God of rights and wrongs...He created everything in the universe...And He controls everything in the universe...
Moses meets God at Mount Sinai at a burning bush...God tells Moses He will lead His people to the Promised Land...The people of Israel, and the descendants of Jacob have become slaves in Egypt...God tells Moses His name is I AM...His name is also I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE...God, with Moses as His appointed leader, will lead them back to Canaan, where Jacob had settled...This is the land where God had been told Abraham to go...This is the land where God had told Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation...God had told Abraham many, many years earlier, this is the land I will give to your offspring (Genesis 12:7)...Canaan is called the Promised Land, the Land of Milk and Honey...God's plan of making a nation out of Israel, with the covenant of Abraham, is now in its initial steps...Moses will lead God's people out of Egypt...Leading the people out of Egypt is called the Exodus...God will do ten miracles against the Egyptian leaders and the Egyptian people to help get them out of Egypt... God helped the people of Israel escape from their slavery in Egypt by inflicting ten different plagues upon the Egyptians before the Egyptian leader called Pharaoh would release his Israelite slaves...The tenth and worst of the plagues was the death of the Egyptian first-born...The Israeli people were told to take a young lamb and slaughter it and put the blood from the lamb on their doorpost...Upon seeing this blood on the doorpost, the Spirit of the LORD knew to Passover the first-born in these homes...And the Spirit did just that...But the firstborn of the Egyptians died...Pharaoh after seeing all the miracles saw God's power and released the people of Israel into the desert...The people were on there way to the Promised Land...
On their way to the Promised Land, the people learn more about their God...God is a disciplinary God, and has rules and laws...And the people get their first commandments from Him, via stone tablets...The first of the laws are called the Ten Commandments...Then God lays out more rules and these are put in more detail by Moses...They were called the Law of Moses or the Mosaic Law...By having these rules, God's people will need to be good...Breaking one of these rules is a sign you have done something wrong in God's eyes...The people and the nation will learn right and wrong in the desert traveling while traveling to the Promised Land...The Ten Commandments are all about love of God and love of neighbor...
Some call the first five books of the Bible, The Law of Moses...The Law of Moses refers to all that was revealed to Moses by God...God expected that His people and later the nation of Israel to follow these laws and His moral laws...He wants His people and later His nation to be organized, be disciplined, and be obedient...These laws will help that process...Breaking these rules is wrong and called a sin...For each of our sins, the people were at that time to make a sacrifice of animal or grain...The closer to perfection of the sacrifice the better...God will try over the next hundreds of years to teach His people these rules, these laws, over and over again through His Prophets and wise men sent by Him...God expects His people to listen first to the Patriarchs, then Moses, then His Prophets...He expects them to learn right from wrong...He wants them to be moral and to be good...They can learn to be good by following the Mosaic Law...
The rules, though laid out, might seem simple, but are hard to follow...We learn that small is the gate and narrow is the road to eternal life...Following this road of truth is difficult...Just as Adam and Eve tried to follow God's rules (from what we read they seemed to had only a few rules in Eden), the descendants of Abraham have trouble with following the many concepts and the many rules written out by Moses...These laws, as laid out by God help show us His morality...Man and woman must show some discipline in following His rules...We, as man and woman, try to be good and know what is to be good and we do try (to be good), but we never seem to follow what it is to be continually good for any long period of time...The prophets tried hard to help the people remain good, but still they didn't quite succeed in getting us to follow God's rights and wrongs...Satan has much to say in our daily decisions and choices...Satan still (from Adam and Eve until now) wants us to think we can make our daily choices without God, and wants us to think we are like God...The evil one prefers us to be separate from God...When we sin and listen to the evil one, we move further away from God...
When Moses leads God's people out of Egypt many people have a sense and are aware of the presence of God...God is with them day and night...For one of the few times in the total history of man', that a large group of people will get to feel and sense God, as the Israeli people follow Moses in the desert...These people are called God's people...The unbelievers (in this group), if there are any at this time, will get to sense the Almighty...He will be with them in a cloud by day and a fire by night as they wander the desert for forty years...
Especially during Moses' time, we get to know the power of God...When the people following God in the desert arrive at Mount Sinai they sense His Almightiness... Mount Sinai is a sacred mountain...Moses is given instructions from God, on how to approach the mountain and God's Presence...On Mount Sinai the people hear tremendous thunder, great lightning, and thick clouds...God is there, He is Almighty...He is pure LOVE...He is Perfect...He is Infinite...He is in a small way like the growing universe, only He has and is eternally knowledgeable, eternally wise, eternally LOVE, eternally light, and is the eternal Truth...There are not any or enough words in the vocabulary to totally and properly describe His Infiniteness...That is the way He is...The elders would sense the great power of I AM, His perfect love, and because of Him, they would feel their own limitations and meekness...This feeling on Mount Sinai, would make one feel like nothing in His presence...The people must be careful around the sacred mountain...The Perfect One, Pure Love, and Perfect Light can do nothing else but be Perfect Truth and Eternal and Infinite, which is who He is...The people sense this feeling of this tremendous power...This power almost completely overwhelms them on the Sacred Mountain...Nothing can compare to Him...The people are frightened by all this, as well they should be...God is pure love...God is pure light...They fear the LORD, as well they should...Man with all his imperfections of sin, are very much shown when one is this close to Him...Man with all his faults, and all his sins are magnified on Mount Sinai, because only God is Good and Holy and Perfect...
When the people saw the smoke on the sacred mountain and heard the thunder and saw the skies with all the lightning and the noise, they trembled with fear...The people instead of approaching God, they remained at a distance...They were so close to His presence...They were so very close to God...But they were afraid...They felt His Eternal Presence...They knew what was in their hearts and could not, and had not, and would not be able to live up to His Perfection, His Goodness, and His Absolute Morality...God is perfectly moral...Anything the people might think, say or promise Him in their thoughts, were not like His thoughts and His Presence...Their thoughts were of this world, and not perfect like His in heaven...We as man are flawed...We sin...This great sense of Him, His Presence that was felt on the Sacred Mountain of Mount Sinai probably magnified our own sins...They feared if God spoke to them, they would die...Moses told them that the fear of His presence, and their fear of Him was one way that would keep them from sinning...The people remained at a distance, while Moses approached God in the thick darkness, where He was (Exodus 20:18-21)...
Later a Saint would write, that -we know that the Law of Moses is spiritual, but we are unspiritual...I do not understand, what I do...I want to do good, but I hate what I do...It is the sin living in me that does this...I know that nothing good lives in me (Romans 7:14-18)...St. Paul wrote this...Even our Saints know how difficult it is to be good, even most of the time, when we are near and or are compared to our LORD...There is a battle within each of us with temptations and our sins and the Holy Spirit (within us)...There is no one who does good, not even one (Psalm 14:3)...No one is good, except God alone (Mark 10:18)...The Law showed the people, what sin is...When the people did not or could not follow the Law or follow God's will, they sinned...The people felt this and it was magnified on Mt. Sinai, because God was so close to them...
God's people traveled from Egypt through the desert for forty years...Moses leads the people...They make it to Canaan, the Promised Land...The land that was originally promised by God to Abraham hundred of years ago, in His covenant (to Abraham) is seen...Moses gets to see the Promised Land, but does not make it into the land...Moses dies and his successor is Joshua...Joshua leads the Hebrew people into the Promised Land...The land gets divided among the tribes of Israel...After Joshua's death, he is replaced with judges, and then the judges are replaced by kings...Many Jewish people have lived and died, and now God's people live in the land of Israel and Judah (the Promised Land)...Israel and Judah (they no longer call it Canaan) are the nations of God's people...
Moses, and the Prophets tried to further their learning and keep teaching the followers of Abraham about God...How they do over the next several hundred years, God's people would labor and struggle with His rules...These rules called, the Law of Moses are covered in the Old Testament in the wisdom books and the prophet's books...In God's rules there was a need for blood, when a rule was broken...When one of His rules were broken, a lamb without a blemish would be sacrificed to Him, to help put the sin or sins you committed into context...There is a great need in life for atonement...(Because of the ancient times they lived), the sacrifice of the Unblemished Lamb helped His people understand this, a little better...Over the next hundreds of years, God tries to teach His people, His nation, through His prophets and other wise men, the moral rules He has set up (but they would continue to labor and struggle with His rules)...Temptations would often overcome them...But throughout these times many did do not listen to Moses and the Prophets...They just lived day to day, and did what they did from day to day...
Everyday the people (and we as well) make decisions that affect these moral rules...Love God and love your neighbor...These are the foundation of His rules...The Law of Moses and the entire teachings of the prophets are summed up in love God and love your neighbor...The decisions we do daily, either bring us closer to God or help separate us from Him...This freedom of these daily choices is called (as earlier stated) free will...God allows us this unfettered free will in making our daily decisions...God wants us to make good decisions everyday...The evil one doesn't...The descendants of Abraham and us as well, struggle each day getting closer to God and in following His two Great Commandments...These daily struggles are caused by our sinning...
Over the years, the Prophets and Moses spoke early on of a Promised One to come to the people of Israel...Moses said this about Him: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites...You must listen to Him...For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.”...The LORD said to me: “What they say is good...I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put My words in His mouth...He will tell them everything I command Him...I Myself will call to account anyone who does not listen to My words that the Prophet speaks in My name...But a Prophet who presumes to speak in My name anything I have not commanded, or a Prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, is to be put to death.”...You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the LORD?”...If what a Prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken...That Prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed."...
Several hundred years later, a Child would be born in small town of Bethlehem among God's people and in the nation of Israel...And this Child would not be like any other child ever...This Child would grow up in Nazareth in the district of Galilee...He is called a Nazarene, and sometimes He is called, a Galilean...He is Jewish...He grows up being very poor in a very poor family...So He learns what it is to be very poor, because His family is very poor...He never travels very far from His original home in Galilee...After He leaves the home of His parents, He really does not get a home of His own, that we know...He never has a wife or children...He does not get educated from what we know...He goes out and chooses twelve men to follow Him...And they do follow Him and listen to Him...And this is where His ministry starts, and His teachings begin...
When He speaks, He seems very well educated and very diverse in His thoughts...What He says and when He does speak is truly remarkable...He speaks like no other man has ever spoken...He has this great ability to completely interpret the Bible and the Old Testament...There is something great and authoritative about Him...He even seems very humble, to be such a Great Communicator and Great Teacher...He teaches, speaks, heals, and does things no man has ever done before or will ever do again...In fact, He heals like no other man has ever healed...He is like no other man in many respects...People, for reasons never explained, are drawn to Him, and people want to hear Him speak...He is like no other man...It may not be even fair to call Him a man...Some type of Great Wisdom surrounds Him, and many are amazed at His Great Teachings...He lives among the Jews, and He too is a Jew in the middle of the religion of Judaism...And this Man is always talking about God, always...The center of His Teachings are God...
And He is much attracted to helping people...He is always helping the needy and those in need of help...He seems to be led to those suffering and those in need of assistance...And somehow, He gives them a healing, a forgiving peace...Throughout His adult life, He is always on His guard and this alert to help someone who needs help...He will help anyone who needs it, and He is always looking for those who need help...Someone mourning, suffering, in bad health, someone who needs mercy and support, and the poor and needy seem to be those He is especially attracted to...And these people are attracted to Him and His persona...And in His helping of others is in many of His teaching in His different parables...And God is also woven into His Parables and Teachings, along with this Great Helping of others...
Some of the things He teaches, what He says, and does, you have to wonder and think, where is this Man from?...Where has He learned to speak like this?...What exactly is He saying?...He tells many people, in regular conversation, that He can forgive sins...And He goes around forgiving people of their sins quite naturally, believably, and commonly...He does this and does not even ask the people what sins they have committed...But He goes around forgiving many people of their personal sins...And He just does this so commonly and naturally, one would think that is a natural thing for Him to do...And the Central Figure in His life is God...
He does things that other men have never seen before...He has this great power of healing others...He can heal anyone of anything, if they believe in Him...He talks to people about believing in Him and what they can do, when they do believe in Him...He can even walk on water...He can and does turn water into wine...He can calm the weather, when there is a storm and a storm is raging...He can feed thousands of people from practically no food at all...He even can resurrect the dead, and does this in each of the four gospels of the New Testament...He is truly the most Remarkable Man, ever to the walk on the face of the earth...He even tells the people, He has been around before Abraham...He tells a woman named Martha that He is the Resurrection and the Life...What keeps coming out of His mouth are shocking statements, shocking truths, and continued great wisdom...He has people raising their brows, turning and scratching their heads...What is He saying, His followers were asking?...He even tells people that God is His Father...And that He and God are One...Why is He saying this and these things, His opponents were asking and kept asking?...He draws large crowds and has multitudes of people who have witnessed what He was doing and had done...He does most all of His healings and healing miracles in public...People are amazed at Him...People are naturally drawn to Him...He truly shocked the world, especially when He walked the different villages and taught His people and His followers -with the greatest of wisdom ever to be known and speaking the greatest words ever to be spoken...He is this Traveling Rabbi, who seems to know a lot about everything...
This Remarkable Man's life is completely centered around God, and He keeps calling God, His Father...He talks so much about His Father, and says very often that His Father is in heaven, and is God...He knows all about the Ten Commandments, and in such depth...His Sermon on the Mount take the Ten Commandments to a greater depth...He says there are two concepts of Love God and Love You Neighbor -and that these are the two Greatest Commandments of God...All the other commandments are part of these two, He tells the people...He is uneducated, But He is so smart and so knowledgeable...Where did He learn all this, the people must be thinking?...Where did all His wisdom come from?...In fact, He knew the the Law of Moses better than anyone ever has known it...He understood these laws of Moses (all of them), and could interpret any passage of Scripture in the most proper of ways...He tells the people in a synagogue, He has come to fulfill the Law of Moses...And this upsets some of those people in the synagogue...He knows so much more than any man has ever known...How does He know so much?...He knows more about the Scripture and how to explain the Scriptures better than anyone ever...He can explain in detail any verse of Scripture in the Bible...Yet, He sometimes confuses those listening to Him, with His parables and proverb-like speaking that He uses in His teachings...He knows so much about God and has so much knowledge that He seems to come from somewhere else...It is like He is from Another World...And with all His wisdom, the people want to listen to Him...The crowds around Him, keep getting larger and larger...His wisdom is so deep, yet, He is never arrogant or proud in what He ways or teaches...He remains absolutely humble...He seems to know all the Scriptures by heart, and understands how the people are supposed to live by them...It is like He knows the mind of God, when He talks about the Bible...It is like He knows the heart of God, when He forgives others of their sins...It is like He has never sinned, and even asks the people to tell Him when He has sinned...He later will ask His closest followers another deep question, "Who do you think I AM?"...
This Remarkable Man starts something like a small church with Twelve members...He ministers to these Twelve members...He teaches these Twelve members the two concepts of love in great detail...He tells them that these two Great Commandments are love your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your heart...The other concept is to love your neighbor as yourself...God, self, and neighbor are connected to each other by God and His LOVE...He teaches them to live by these things in their daily lives...He understands the importance of the Twelve's fellowship, and the Scripture -and how the Scripture actually interacts with people...Scripture and God are a complete part of His life...In fact, He seems to understand everything about life...He somehow can put every verse of Scripture of the Bible into its proper context...Yet with all His wisdom, He never writes a book or even an article on God or life...
As He goes around teaching about God, He does great healing miracles of all kinds...He can heal the blind, the crippled, lepers, bleeding diseases, fevers, and people who have been afflicted for many, many years of any disease...He can do many water miracles...He can walk on water, turn water into wine, and calm fierce wind and rainstorms...
This Remarkable Man's life is completely focused on God and doing God's will...He is never detracted from this focus...He teaches the Twelve, that neighbors, include everyone, anyone in need, and even their enemies...Everyone is our neighbor...He can talk about God and everyone wants to hear, what He has to say and what He will say next...He is Somebody that no one can ignore for some reason...No one has ever spoken like this -EVER before...And because of His miracles, His healings, His charisma, and His teachings, He attracts many followers...Followers of all sorts...However, He does have a small group of opponents...The problem with this is that His opposition are Pharisees and the Jewish Sanhedrin...These groups interpret the Scripture literally...They also assist the Romans in His time with enforcing the Roman law...Israel is occupied by Rome and Roman troops...Roman Law and the Roman government are in charge of Judea and Israel...Much of the land in the Near and Middle East are occupied by Rome and they are a part of the Roman Empire...But this Teacher speaks very little about the Romans and doesn't talk much in the way of government or politics...His complete focus is on God...
This Remarkable Man seems a contrarian to those around Him...He almost seems like a paradox on earth, as He teaches...He teaches that success is not in wealth, not in power, not in fame, and is not money...How we know and love God and man, and how we help others is how success should be measured in His eyes...We are to help people in need and to serve them...Accumulation of material things, power, fame is not success, as He goes about explaining success...In fact, He teaches wealth, and what material things we have -are actually given to you by God and from God...If God is giving these things to you, then you are to share these material things with others...Material things should be used to help others...This Remarkable Man teaches whatever talent God has given you, should be used and is to be shared and in helping others and for the glory of God...Being great means, we humbly, in fact, most humbly and cheerfully serve others in need...This is what loving your neighbor means...And each and every neighbor -we are to have mercy on them...
This Remarkable Man defines happiness in a unique way...Happiness is not the biggest house, best and most expensive car, or collection of the most material things -but happiness is needing Him...He tells us blessed are the poor, and the poor in spirit....He teaches when we are like this -and are poor in Spirit, and when we search for righteousness and need God, then we are happy and blessed...The people that suffer and need the Father and Son, they are the ones who find joy...It is not the rich, the famous, and the wealthy ones who find joy...This man links God so often to and with the poor and needy and the outcast...He often teaches about the outcasts of society...We are told by this Remarkable Man, whatever we do for the least for these outcasted brothers and men, you did for Me (Matthew 25:18)...When He mentions "least", He is referring to the poor and needy...Some, if not many, are wondering, where are all these type of ideas coming from?...Where did He learn this stuff?...Who taught Him?...
He teaches us that those who happy, are those who hunger and are searching for righteousness...We can be both happy and discontented...We can be both happy and hungry...The search for truth and righteousness can give us pleasure and happiness...This discontent is a need...St. Paul (a follower of this Man, after His death) tells us that a key to contentment in life, is to learn to accept and be contented in all your situations...Whether you are in need or whether you have plenty, whether you are hungry or full, whether you are contented or discontented, you can be happy (Philippians 4:12-13)...Those that are in need and poor in Spirit, often look to God for help...This Man wants us to always be seeking His Father...His Father is All Things, and is everything we need...We should trust in His Father, and He tells we should also trust in Him...We should do the will of His Father...The Man is always doing His Will...
This Remarkable Man speaks with such authority, that all His followers believe He is speaking for God...But a group called the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin (and the one in charge of the Sanhedrin -the High Priest) oppose Him...They believe He is blaspheming God's name...They believe He does not come from God or heaven...He speaks like (or so the Pharisee's think) that He Himself is God...The Pharisees do not think He can speak for God...He tells this group of Pharisees, He did not come to earth for the righteous, and since you Pharisees think you are righteous, bye-bye...He says no one is good or righteous except God...He says He came for the lost...He tells the Pharisees He came for the sick, the lost, the lame, and that He came for sinners on earth...
He teaches a lot on forgiveness...He links forgiveness to love...He teaches that if we can only forgive a little, then we will be able only to love a little...But if we learn to forgive in abundance, we will be able to love in abundance...He also says we are to forgive others not just once, but many, many times...He even wants us to forgive everyone, even our enemies...He even wants us to love our enemies...Very interestingly and controversial, He is forgiving people who have sinned against God and other people...How can One forgive others, when He has not talked to the one or the ones who were sinned against?...What is so strange about this is, He never sins, so He doesn't need anyone's forgiveness...And He speaks with such humble authority, that you have to believe He is speaking the Truth...One might think He is arrogant, in doing all the things He is doing, and knowing all the things He knows, but in reading the four biographies and books about Him, He seems far from arrogant...He seems quite humble...He seems somehow to even be a Solitary Man, even though there are crowds of people who follow Him...Even His enemies never mention anything about Him being arrogant or proud...He is so humble, yet One who speaks with such authority, that you cannot quite put your finger on Him, and His ideas...But He is different...He has a charisma, as shown by the large following and crowds, whom are often around Him...People still wonder, where did He learn, all this stuff -and where did He come from?...He relates the Scriptures with everyday parables and everyday life...He is able to put the Bible into complete context, and make it understandable -far, far more than anyone has ever seen or heard before...The Bible has meaning, and a meaning, when He speaks about it...He understand the Scriptures and quotes it often...He knows how to live the Bible and its Scriptures...He has the ability to interpret every verse of the Good Book...He easily relates the Bible to life and how we should live our lives...
This Remarkable Man has all this great wisdom...And speaks the greatest words ever spoken...Yet, this Man is also so very surprising humble...The humblest of the the most humble of men...
This Remarkable Man shows us that there is love found in forgiveness and humility and Truth...
What maybe the most remarkable thing about this Man is He goes around regularly saying things like "I and the Father are One" (John 10:30)...I AM the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6-7)...No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6)...No one knows who the Father is except the Son, and those who the Son chooses to reveal Him (Luke 10:22)...No one has ever gone to heaven except the One who came from heaven, the Son of Man (John 3:13)...You are from below; I AM from above...You are of this world; I AM not of this world (John 8:23)...To say these things at especially, the time He walked the earth and in the city of Jerusalem, would have been truly extraordinary, and very, very controversial...The Jewish people know there is only One God...What does this Man mean, by what He is saying?...The first commandment is you shall have no other gods, before or besides Me...He never comes out and says He is God, but you get the feeling that He wants you to decide who He is and where He comes from (and He is very close to God)...In fact, He even asks His disciples who they think He is...Peter, one of His Twelve Disciples, tells Him, that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God...All this further upsets the Pharisees, who now want Him arrested...What right does He have to compare Himself to God?...What He would say and has said will have a great impact on the Judaism religion...
The Jewish people have been waiting many, many years for a Messiah to come...The Scriptures write about One to come from the line of King David...In fact, Moses wrote about a prophet to come (Deuteronomy 18:15)...Most thought the Messiah, would be a political leader, a great soldier, a military leader, or a king...Was this humble Teacher of Twelve common men, the Messiah?...Was this the Christ that was to come?...Was He the One?...Would a Mere Carpenter become the Messiah?...Was this the Prophet, Moses wrote about hundreds and hundreds of years ago?...Who does He think He is?...His opposition would have been thinking of many of these questions...The Pharisees, Jewish teachers, and leaders have found His statements so remarkable, (let alone Him going around forgiving people of their sins without finding those people the sinners had sinned against and asking them about this) that they think they must do something...The groups who take the Scriptures literally, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, must make a decision about His future (or so they think)...Is He the Messiah or is He someone else?...Is He just a simple teaching Rabbi?...There would be no other choice for the teachers of the Law and the Pharisees of their conclusions, because of the way they read the Scriptures...The teachers of the law and the Pharisees would have known, there is only One God...With Him saying I and the Father are One -does that mean there are Two now?...But the scripture says there is only One God...That is the first commandment...So they would be asking, who is He and why is He saying these things?...If He is a follower of God, why does He talk like He is God?...To say these remarkable things, we must say, He is our Messiah, or He is not...He cannot be a just a Prophet like Elijah or Isaiah, because of all the things He has said and done...He has healed so many...He has done so many different kinds of miracles...Everyone is watching and trying to decide who He is...And what might He do next?...Crowds want to hear Him speak and hear and see these remarkable things, He can do...And man, does this Man know the Scriptures...And who taught Him?...
For His actions, He now has this opposition, from Pharisees, elders, and teachers of the Law, thinking they must act...His teachings have brought the wrath and anger of the religious leaders...The religious leaders oppose Him...This opposition comes to a head on His third Passover of His ministry...The religious leaders claim He is guilty of blaspheming God...He is given a mock trial, by the Roman governor, Pilate...Before His death, He tells His judge that He came to earth to teach the truth...And to testify to the truth...He told His Disciples that He is the Truth...He has told the Jewish people that if they hold on to His teachings they will know the Truth, and the Truth will set them free...This remarkable Man, after many great teachings is arrested one evening...He is betrayed by one of His own Disciples...After His arrest He is tortured and flogged...He is then forced to carry His cross to the place He will be crucified...Then He is nailed to His cross...He is crucified on a cross, and dies...And what is so interesting, His death is for our sins, not His...He has done nothing wrong...He said He came to earth to die for sinners and He does just that...But this man has never sinned...He had told His disciples a few times that He would die on a cross...He dies just like He had predicted and had said...And His suffering on the cross would forever link Him to man...He suffered like any man would on that cross, and somehow His suffering unites humanity and the Divine One...
Now the surprise!!!..He, somehow, rises from His death...This is the Great Mystery of Life...His resurrection is the most important fact in our history...With His resurrection, He has defeated death...His death, was for our sins and for us...Before His death, the Pharisees ask for a miracle so they could decide who He was...He told them He the only miracle He would give them, was a Sign of Jonah...This would symbolize that He would have an earthly death and for three days be in a tomb, and then rise...This miracle now has happened...Many Pharisees still do not believe in Him, even with the Sign of Jonah, that has now happened, as He predicted...
Since, He returned from the dead, the decision of who He is, is now easier for people to make...Only Someone divine can defeat death...However, His opposition refuse to believe that He is the One, that was to come...Some still do not believe that He is the Messiah...The miracle of the Sign of Jonah is still not enough...This Man returning from His own death, there are still skeptics...But because of His resurrection, His death, His Particular death, will always be remembered...His death is celebrated on Good Friday...
After His death, and His resurrection He is with His Twelve Disciples (one disciple, who betrayed Him, is later replaced)...His Disciples are surprised at first to see Him...But for forty days, after His death, He reinforces the two concepts of love for God and love of neighbor to His Disciples...He not only appears to His Disciples, but also to others...He appears to Mary Magdalene after His death, and some other women...He appears to two men that know Him on the road to Emmaus...He appears to five hundred people after His death...
He wants this message spread to the entire world...This is called the Great Commission...In fact, this Great Commission is maybe our purpose or one of our purposes on earth...And this Great Commission is about the entire world, and not be completely focused on the Jews and the country of Israel...The Great Commission is about a worldly religion, and not just one in Israel...Christianity is born as the Disciples and His followers get out and start talking about Him and what they have seen...Christianity grows and grows as more of His followers get out and spread the word about Him...And the next generation is convinced this Man is Divine and resurrected and the Great Commission continues...
And this Remarkable Man's death He would convert another man...A man who is against Him...Later, He comes back to earth and teaches another man named Saul, the two concepts...This man later called would be called Paul...He is to teach the two concepts to the rest of the world...He would teach the non Jewish people...They are called Gentiles...Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles...
This is His Great Commission to His Twelve disciples and to us, to teach the world these two concepts of Love...These Twelve disciples of uneducated fishermen and tax collectors covert the entire Roman world, the Roman Empire to Christianity...They teach Love of God, and love of thy neighbor...He tells His Disciples that He will send them the Holy Spirit, when He finally goes ascends to heaven...And when He says He will send them the Holy Spirit, He waits to do so, and it comes after He has left earth and ascended to heaven...The Holy Spirit arrives days later on the Day of Pentecost -this miracle was not immediately done...But He told them that it is better that He goes away, so that we can have and receive the Holy Spirit...The Holy Spirit is our way of communicating to Him and to His Father...The Holy Spirit is humbly and subtly within us...
This Remarkable Man's name is Jesus...He is the greatest and most influential Man to ever walk the earth...He is the the most important Man, ever to walk the earth...His life will always be remembered...His words will never be forgotten (Luke 21:33), and He never wrote a book...He teaches us the eternities...
God wants His word and His commandments taught to everyone in the world...Jesus tells the Twelve that they will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8)...The Twelve would stay around Israel for some time, before going out to these other lands...Jesus would recruit another apostle (as stated earlier), after His death...The man's name is Paul...He will meet with the early leaders of the early religious groups and some of the original Twelve disciples...The early leaders had a council...These early leaders met at the Council at Jerusalem with Paul...They would give him and others some guidance on Gentile followers (Acts 15)...Saul, who is also known as Paul, is also a Pharisee...He does not believe in Jesus, until Jesus knocks him to the ground on the road to Damascus, Syria...Jesus blinds Paul and shows him how much he has to suffer for His name...He names Paul His vessel to the Gentile people (the non-Jewish people)...Paul would go on and teach the Gentiles about this Resurrected Man that He says is alive...Paul says that God has now set a day when He will judge the world with justice by the Man He has appointed...He has given proof of this to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31)...Paul preaches all over the world as he knows it and the old Jewish followers (as well as many others) disputes that Jesus is the Messiah...Paul, in fact, gets arrested many times, for arguing with some Jews about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus, who Paul claims is alive (Acts 25:19)...Paul will spread the good news about this remarkable Man after His arrests...In fact, he is arrested many times and jailed...He would write thirteen books of the New Testament, and some would be written from jail...But when you read his writings, one doesn't get the feel he is incarcerated...
God wants us to spread the word, and the word that is true...But He wants more than rule and concept followers...God is LOVE...What does any man or woman who loves his or her beautiful partner want?...What does any lover want?...He wants someone to love...God wants people, to love people...Each of us...God wants us to love, that is what He really wants...
Any good father, wants his son to be good....This Good Father, wants us to be saints and like saints...He wants us to be like this Remarkable Man that He sent to earth to teach us...God wants man in this life and world to reach the potential of His Son...He wants us to spread His word about His love...This maybe our sole (soul) purpose in life...
If you believe that this deceased Man is still alive and believe in what He teaches, then you are a Christian and this is Christianity...Then you also believe, that He was sacrificed for your sins and not His...He committed no sin...When you reflect on what He did, then you can see He was a Teacher, the Teacher, our Teacher...He still is our Teacher, because He lives...He taught us the best ideals and the true way to live...He taught us Truth...There is this world and the next world...Yet, He was arrested and killed on a cross for what?...He was the perfect sacrifice, and His death is for us...
Jesus teaches us that God is the absolute moral law...He teaches us that we have faults and that we sin...He teaches us, we are flawed...He reminds us that we are not what we should be, or what we can be...We can be and will be so much better and so much more, in heaven...Jesus teaches us what truth and grace is...He teaches us and lived as, we are to be, and as God intended us to be...We have to keep focused on Him...He says that eternal life is knowing His Father and Him (John 17:3)...Because we have this flaw, we drift away from His focus often, with what goes on in this earth and our lives...We just drift away often...But because He gives us the Holy Spirit, we try to be good...As we drift we lose our focus on Him, and don't seek Him as we should...Earth seems to keep our attention and hold it...While we live on earth, it seems we are focused on earth and earthly thoughts, while He wants us to think of God and the eternities, and eternal thoughts...
The shock of Jesus, sadly is not the shock it was during His time on earth, and after His resurrection...Two thousand years have passed...We must get Jesus back in our lives...The One who does miracles...The One who could calm a storm...The One who could walk on water...The One who could change a simple glass of water, into the most delicious wine...The One who said things like, this bread is My body, when you eat your daily bread, eat, and remember Me...The One who read this scripture, “The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to proclaim good news to the poor...He has sent Me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor.”...Then He said this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing...We need Him back, we must get Him in our lives...We need Him and the world needs Him...
Let us remember what He said...I did not come for the righteous, I came to call on sinners...
Man is imperfect...We are flawed...We struggle with sin...We are condemned by our sins to die...The wages of our sins is our death (Romans 6:23)...We know we have these imperfections, these flaws, and have sinned by God's Moral Absolute Law...One of the greatest things we know is that He knows that we are sinners...And He sent His Son to save us (anyway), if we believe in Him and the One He sent...And when we are saved, He will give us eternal life...Jesus exposes us, for who we really are...When you really know Jesus, you really know who you are...We are sinners...But there is grace, His grace, and His Great Gift, His Son who came for us who sin...
Belief in Him and belief in the One who sent Him, our graceful God gives us eternal life...When we die our earthly death, God will look in our soul...If He sees the Son, and sees our belief in Jesus and Him in our heart, He will give us eternal life...
If we believe that God is LOVE, and He so loves the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, we will have eternal life...For God did not send His Son to condemn the world (with our imperfections, flaws, and sins) but to save the world through Him (John 3:16-17)...Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but will have eternal life...We are saved by God's LOVE and His grace...So even though the wages of sin is our death, the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our LORD (Romans 6:23)....By believing in the Father and Son, we can live with them eternally...
This Man forever links God and man together...And as He talks about man, He often calls all men and women -neighbor...He says the two Greatest Commandments are love God and love your neighbor...He links God and man together with love and always helping your neighbor...
This Remarkable Man, in one of the last things He told His disciples and followers, before ascending to heaven, was to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19)...He ask that His disciples and His followers to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:7)...He wants us to spread His Word, the good news about His Father...His disciples and followers did just that and Christianity came into being because of One Remarkable Man...No other man can be compared to this Man...He is a Man that is needed by all men and women, and not just a particular group of people...And He is a Man that is needed forever and ever -and not just one particular time in the history of man...I am not sure if it is fair to call this Man, a man...
Many books and articles were written about this Man...And some of the first books written about Him were called gospels...The early writers tried to write the gospel truth about Him...These gospels would be the Sacred and Holy Books about Him...There were four earliest texts written about Him called the Gospel According to Matthew, the Gospel According to Mark, the Gospel According to Luke, and the Gospel According to John...From these four books came the religion of Christianity...Luke who wrote, The Gospel According to Luke, would become friends with Paul and Paul would write thirteen New Testament epistles in the Bible...