ON LOVE; PART MCDXLXXIV
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FIRST IS THE GREAT COMMANDMENTS: “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31).
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WHAT THEN IS LOVE? In a general sense love is benevolence, good will; that disposition of heart which inclines men to think favorably of their fellow men, and to do them good. In a theological sense, it includes supreme love to God, and universal good will to men. While this IS from an older definition of Charity, which IS rendered in the King James Bible from the same Greek word agape which IS generally rendered as Love, we should amend our own definition here to include the idea that in the reality of Love a man will accord to ALL men ALL things that he would accord to himself and to say that Love IS our thoughts and attitude of the equality of ALL men regardless of their outward nature or appearance…that ALL ARE equally children of Our One God.
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PLUS THE EVER IMPORTANT AND HIGH IDEAL TAUGHT TO US BY THE CHRIST: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them” (Matthew 7:12).
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We ended the last post with some thoughts about the way that the Parable of the Unjust Steward leads us into the Master’s admonition that “No man can serve two masters“, that “Ye cannot serve God and mammon“. This IS a fundamental spiritual Truth that says that if one Truly seeks spiritual enlightenment that he must be focused upon that goal and strive toward it. This Jesus’ shows us saying that men should “Strive to enter in at the strait gate” (Luke 13:24) and we should understand that this “strait gate“, this narrow path as the idea IS better defined, IS our entry into the Truth, our entry into the Kingdom of God here and now. Strong’s defines stenos which IS rendered as strait saying that this IS: narrow (from obstacles standing close about)9a and here we should see our carnal lives, our vanity, as those obstacles. From our discussion in the last essay regarding strongholds we should see that it IS our vanity that IS among the obstacles to Truth. This of course should be added to the former ideas regarding strongholds where we define such as the doctrines of men that keep them from exploring the Truth. Here we should recognize that the first idea, our vanity, IS the obstacle for ALL men, those that desire to explore the Truth as well as those to whom their Truth IS embedded in their carnal lives. Doctrines ARE the additional obstacle for those that deem themselves religious and, as we have been discussing, this IS the harder obstacle to overcome. While Luke offers us another parable to explain the idea of the “strait gate“, Matthew offers us a more direct approach to the intent of the Master’s words. Matthew tells us that we must “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).
While Luke tells us that we should “Strive to enter“, Matthew simply tells us that we must “Enter ye in at the strait gate” if we ARE going to enter onto the Path that leads us “into the glorious liberty of the children of God“. The Path IS the Way out of our vanity and our attraction to mammon. We should understand here that the admonition to strive IS inherent in Matthew’s framing of the Master’s words and we should understand this from the difficulty that we ARE shown as “few there be that find it“. In these words we should be able to see that we must seek after the gate, look for it if you will, as we understand that simply finding it IS our first challenge. Luke bypasses this as he likely assumes that men will see the idea of the difficulty based in his words that tell us that many “will seek to enter in, and shall not be able” (Luke 13:24). We should try to see here that howsoever we look at these ideas from the Master which ARE framed according to the personalities of Matthew and Luke, the reality IS the same: moving away from our propensity to vanity, to our carnal modes of living, and onto the Path IS a difficult task. Jesus IS careful to show us this difficulty as well as the choices that must be made. Coming back to Paul’s words to the Corinthians we should try to see that a great part of this striving “to enter in at the strait gate” IS found in our ability to both identify and overcome our own individual strongholds. We should understand that these strongholds ARE ALL things that keep us grounded in our carnal modes of living. While these may include some of the ‘vile’ ideas propounded by John Gill8 in the last post, these modes of living ARE more often the result of our nurturing and our indoctrination into our lives in this world compounded by our own individual propensities. This propensity, this natural inclination or tendency* as the idea IS defined, IS based in one’s personality type which IS coupled with whatsoever ‘baggage’ one brings into his Life from past experiences. ALL of this works together to create the complexity that IS a human being in this world. We should understand that ALL of this remains a mystery and one that will NOT be unlocked by the carnally motivated man regardless of their worldly wisdom or scientific understanding. It IS ONLY when one can be in touch with his Inner Man, his Soul and Christ Within, that such mysteries can be unlocked and we should try to see here that in the continuum of Life and death we ONLY see a very small portion of the cosmic realities that exist. It IS our fundamental belief that reincarnation IS the way of the Soul through his work which begins with Redeeming his own self and continues on to participation in the Redemption of ALL. That the church has chosen to decry reincarnation IS unfortunate and perhaps this IS due to the way that this Life process IS taught by other religions and religious figures that DO NOT themselves understand the mysteries which the Apostle Paul introduces us to saying:
“Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil[d] the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily“
Colossians 1:25-29
We should understand here that Paul has a clear vision of the Truth as he tells us of the mysteries and that even with his testimony the whole idea of “Christ in you” as the Soul in form IS shunned by most ALL of the church. We should note too that while Paul has clear vision of the mysteries he IS yet “striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily“. That such mysteries come to those whose focus IS upon the Truth and the things of God IS shown to us by the Master who tells His disciples such things as “it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand” (Luke 8:10). Despite these words being addressed to His disciples however, the doctrinal church has presumed that the doctrinal Christian has claim to understanding such ideas as “this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory“. This belief, like most ALL of the churches’ presumptions IS built ONLY upon the doctrines of men of which Jesus tells us “Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). We have often shown that these words, while spoken to the Jews, ARE NOT restricted to them alone; we have tried to show that these words ARE timeless stretching from Isiah’s time, to Jesus’ time, to our time and afflict ALL whose doctrines ARE NOT based solely in the Truth of the Master’s words and NOT “the commandments of men“. It IS here that we should try to see that it IS “the commandments of men” that tell us that reincarnation IS NOT a valid theory despite there being NO direct biblical reference to its non-existence. The chosen basis for this disbelief in something understood in many other religions IS a single statement from the Book of Hebrews saying “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment“. We should note here that the context of these words IS NOT in regard to any concept of reincarnation but IS rather the writer’s philosophical discussion on the ‘sacrifice‘ of Jesus as being a one time sacrifice. The writer’s perspective IS in regard to the sacrifices of the Jews for their atonement according to the doctrinal interpretations of the laws of Moses with the point being that in Jesus death, in His shedding of blood, the idea of animal sacrifice IS become moot. Citing the law which IS made moot the writer says “almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:27, 22).
We should understand here that such sacrifices ARE a part of the ceremonial laws, part of the ancillary laws established by Moses speaking as the Lord, established for the comfort of men through their atonement. In Jesus’ time and before the role of sacrifice was purely ceremonial and was never intended to usurp the Truths embodied in the Ten Commandments. We should understand here as well that when the Master says “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matthew 5:17) He IS NOT speaking in regard to the ceremonial but to the heart of the law. We should see this in the way that Jesus disparages the several ways that the Jews held onto their ceremonial traditions; this we can sum up through the Master’s words saying “Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:7-9). Two things we should note here: first IS that Jesus IS speaking of the practices of the Jews and NOT the origination of the ceremonial laws. Both He and Isaiah ARE speaking against the way that the lowest parts of Moses laws had taken precedence over the central parts of the law regarding agape and the interaction of men in this world. Second IS that the vainness of their worship was founded in their belief that acting according to their doctrines DID allow them to “draweth nigh” and to honor the Lord but, as we KNOW, Jesus DOES NOT agree. Nor would He agree with the doctrinal focus of todays religions; especially the way that the Christian world believes that they DO NOT need to practice the heart of the law and that their doctrines will save them.
The New Testament ideas that run counter to reincarnation are few and NONE directly speak to the idea; the most clear approach IS the words from Hebrews above while the others ARE but carnal interpretations of unrelated spiritual ideas. It IS True that “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” but we should understand that this IS in regard to the mortal body and the personality that inhabits it; it DOES NOT refer to the Soul which IS eternally part and parcel of the Godhead. We should understand that this IS a principal part of the mysteries and the Truth that defines it IS difficult to comprehend even when we have a basic grasp on the concept. It IS in the idea of the Soul, the Christ Within, that the Truth of Life IS found but this has been obnubilated by the teachings of the doctrines of men that have refused to see that Truth for a variety of reasons. These include the protection of the personality of a man which IS part of his mortal existance and which IS the ONLY identifying characteristic that the unawaken have, a characteristic that men want to protect and steadfastly refuse to lose; hence the ideas of heaven and hell as these ARE taught. Also included IS the protection of the idea that Jesus IS the ONLY Son of God that the church insists on carrying despite the Master’s own disavowal and such ideas and such sayings as “as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). We have discussed these ideas in some detail in previous posts and will NOT further this in this essay save to say that a True reading of scriptures without doctrinal interpretations or intentionally doctrinal translations will show us that it IS the Soul, the Christ Within, that IS the True man and that the whole of religion IS intended to allow that part to be expressed through form. Returning to Paul’s words that brought us to this point we read:
“though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled“
(2 Corinthians 10:3-6)
We have discussed the idea of our spiritual struggle against our strongholds and we have identified these strongholds as both the product of our birth into vanity and the ensuing nurturing and indoctrination that we endure as well as the role of the doctrines of men that create a barrier to the Truth. We should try to see that it IS our indoctrination that results in the thought processes of everyman and that this IS twofold. First IS our indoctrination into the ways of the world and second IS our indoctrination into the doctrines of men. As we have often said the former indoctrination IS easier for the Soul to dissuade while the latter becomes for men the way of dissuasion from the ways of the world into a religious pursuit. Because such religious pursuits ARE most often based in the authority of church figures and ARE accepted by men as the Truth, most NO longer see any need to pursue the real Truths, the mysteries that ARE ONLY realized in the absence of our indoctrination. Can we see the point here and can we see how that even the greater Truths can become in many ways an alternate indoctrination? We should try to understand that NO man can teach us these things; it IS in this regard that this exchange between the Master and Peter IS important. We read that Jesus “asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-17). In this IS covered the idea of reincarnation as understood by the Jews and the reality that men CAN NOT teach men spiritual Truths, that they come from God and, for us, through our point of contact with the Lord, the Soul. While we ARE beyond being taught the mysteries that come to the man whose focus IS on the Lord, we can be so led as to discover such revelations on our own. This IS the sole purpose of these blog posts: to awaken men to the possibilities of True revelation and the realizations of Truth that these can bring into one’s Life. We should remember here that our trifecta shows us the Way to these revelations; repeating the Master’s words we read:
- “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32).
- “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
- “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:21-24).
That we post these words from Jesus in every essay should indicate their importance to the overall goal of striving “to enter in at the strait gate“. These words ARE but examples however of the voluminous teachings from the Master and His apostles and should one be so awakened as to search out the Truth, he would find that the Truth stretches across many religions and faiths. ALL True world religions have the same objective when see beyond the doctrinal presentations of them and that objective IS ever the selfless expressions of agape and Truth in this world. We should try to see here that the doctrinal presentations of most every religion serve to inhibit the follower from seeking the greater Truth and that ALL such presentations fit into Jesus’ words saying “in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men“. This brings us to our next point from Paul’s words to the Corinthians cited above: imaginations. The idea of imaginations IS NOT treated properly by most ALL translations as many refer to this as “Putting an end to reasonings“, “every defense that is raised up to oppose the knowledge of God“, “every arrogance….” and such ideas as “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God“. Still others show the idea in terms of pride and speculations but few seem to understand the apostle’s intent. It IS from the Greek word logismos that ALL these renderings come. Logismos IS a derivative of the Greek word logos which IS rendered as word and used to describe the Christ in the prologue to John’s Gospel. We have often said that despite the meaning of logos as word, the idea of Logos IS much more encompassing as we can read in Strong’s rather lengthy definition that tells us that the idea IS: something said (including the thought); by implication, a topic (subject of discourse), also reasoning (the mental faculty) or motive; by extension, a computation; specially, (with the article in John) the Divine Expression (i.e. Christ):—account, cause, communication9a. Contrasting this with Strong’s definition of logismos we can get a clearer picture of the scope of the ideas; they tell us that logismos IS: computation, i.e. (figuratively) reasoning (conscience, conceit)9a. The common links according to Strong’s ARE reasoning and computation and if we import these ideas into Paul’s words we should be able to see that imaginations, while NOT a perfect rendering, DOES give us the general idea while most of the other renderings ARE but doctrinal assertions. The overriding idea here IS thought and this idea IS repeated for us by Paul who tells us that we ARE to be “bringing into captivity every thought“. Webster’s 1828 dictionary, using word ideas concurrent with the translation of King James Bible, defines imagination as:
IMAGINA’TION, n. [L. imaginatio.] The power or faculty of the mind by which it conceives and forms ideas of things communicated to it by the organs of sense. Imagination I understand to be the representation of an individual thought. Our simple apprehension of corporeal objects, if present, is sense; if absent, is imagination [conception.]
Imagination, in its proper sense,signifies a lively conception of objects of sight. It is distinguished from conception, as a part from a whole. The business of conception is to present us with an exact transcript of what we have felt or perceived. But we have also a power of modifying our conceptions, by combining the parts of different ones so as to form new wholes of our own creation. I shall employ the word imagination to express this power. I apprehend this to be the proper sense of the word, if imagination be the power which gives birth to the productions of the poet and the painter.
Based upon these ideas regarding imagination we should be able to see that the whole thought process IS involved and, since we ARE humans these thought processes ARE somewhat intertwined with our emotions. The degree of this intertwinement IS dependent on the person, his proclivities and whatsoever nurturing and indoctrination that he had been put through. While we may see the idea of imaginations as used by Paul as a negative, this IS NOT necessarily the case. When we try to see that this thought process, creative or NOT, is recognized in addition to “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God” we should then see two things. First we should deal with “every high thing” as more than mere thoughts or imaginations. Vincent, while using analogies to warfare in his commentary, sees “every high thing” as haughtiness4, an idea that IS defined as: scornful pride, snobbishness, or arrogance* in today’s dictionary. If we should apply these ideas to those purveyors of what the apostle calls “another gospel” we can perhaps see the point. We should try to see that “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God” IS ALL components of “another gospel” that DO NOT hold True to the teachings of the Master and here IS yet another indictment of doctrinal religion. In this we should try to see the attitudes of men who believe that they have the Truth, the Kingdom and the Presence of the Lord and to understand that these beliefs ARE but their imaginations “that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God“. This because the Truth, the Kingdom and the Presence of the Lord ARE the essence of “the knowledge of God“. This IS “every high thing” in a nutshell and we should see here how that this IS intertwined with imaginations. Imaginations as a separate idea still pertains to our thought processes but when we remove the idea of God from the equation what we have left IS carnal imaginations, thoughts that DO NOT necessarily conflict with “the knowledge of God” except through the idea that they ARE carnal. Can we see the point here?
By example we can perhaps illustrate the idea of “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God” through our trifecta which gives us the Truth, the Kingdom and the Presence of God in our lives. The trifecta IS the words of the Master spoken as separate ideas in the gospels. These ARE the words of Jesus of which we read two things. First that “the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” making these the words of the Lord in every respect. Second IS Jesus’ saying that “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away” (Luke 21:33). The first tells us that Jesus’ words, ALL of them, ARE the words of the Father; there IS NO separation. The second tells us that His words ARE eternal, that they ARE NOT merely said for the Jews or for a time….they ARE eternal Truths. In the trifecta we have a vision of the Path to that “glorious liberty of the children of God” which IS also the Path to becoming “partakers of the divine nature“. While this Path IS available to ALL, there IS a cost to enter into it; that cost IS that we keep His words. Peter describes this keeping His words as that we must have “escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4) while Paul describes it as that we must “through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body” (Romans 8:13). Both of these ideas bring us to that place where we can become the selfless expressions of agape and Truth in this world and while the church may regard this as a high ideal they DO little to teach or practice this Way of Life. This failure effectively creates that place where what IS taught DOES indeed “exalteth itself against the knowledge of God“. Can we see the point here? Can we understand that these ARE the primary strongholds that grip religion today: their insistence that their doctrines ARE the way as their doctrinal approach that leaves ALL things carnal in place. To be sure there ARE few that would be willing to follow the steeper path of Truth and Love but this IS likely a result of the failure of the church to teach the most basic Truths over the centuries. While we seldom speak of current events in our blogposts, today we should touch upon something that I heard in a comedic discussion show last night as the host was presenting his case for an atheists holiday to rival the religious holidays of today. This in itself IS NOT the point however as the host rambled off some statistics to support his call for such a day and while these statistics may be a burden to the church, they ARE an element of hope for those that decry the doctrinal approach to the Lord.
The combination of atheists and non-religious people IS steadily growing as a percentage of the population; the statistics on this ARE readily available on the internet. Adding to this those that affirm that the ARE non-practicing religious people we should see the concern of the churches and their dwindling numbers of participants. There IS a general fallacy in the whole of this idea of a shift toward non-religious who have ONLY a belief that there IS a God plus the atheists who contend that there IS NO God. Such groups ARE NOT revolting against the idea of some Greater Power, they ARE revolting against the way that this Greater Power IS portrayed in religion. This IS True in every religion where the idea of God IS made personal and portrayed as a man-like figure or figures wielding the power. As we have ofttimes discussed, the idea of God IS a warped human conception of a personal God and savior who has control of the ways of the world but refuses to exercise that control through the concept that whatsoever IS happening IS God’s Will. Others believe that this version of God will come to their assistance in times of need through prayer and faith and failures in this arena ARE also chalked up to the idea of God’s Will. It IS the doctrinal versions of God that ARE the singular cause of the falling away from the church as men ARE increasingly more mentally oriented. In their more emotional states many DO see the ideas presented by doctrines as Truth as they rely upon the nebulous ideas of faith and believing to comfort them. This IS the point: men continue to seek some form of reality regarding their own demise as they look toward the hope of Life after death and, to be sure, doctrinal religions DO suffice to somewhat satisfy this desire to NOT end. In the end however death will bring what death brings and there IS NO real understanding of this process in or out of religion; nor IS there any certainty save in the minds of those who rely upon their concept of faith. We have defined faith and believing, pistis and pisteuo, in terms of KNOWING and in the arena of True religion the idea IS KNOWING God. This IS the way that faith and believing ARE defined by the Master and while there ARE seemingly NO direct words regarding the way that this works, they ARE adequately defined for those that will connect the dots so to speak. It IS when we can come to a point of Truly KNOWING God that we gain access to the mysteries and when we understand this in terms of measure we can then perhaps see the simplicity of the whole idea that there IS a God but NOT one as depicted in the various doctrinal world scriptures.
The idea of God has likely been debated from the beginning of men’s ability to think rationally and we should try to see here why and how the idea of God IS ever put into human terms. To understand the unknown we must develop a way to comprehend it and it IS this that gave rise to the numerous gods of the Romans, the Greeks, the Hindus, etc. Alexander MacLaren offers us a Christian view of the the beginnings of Judaism, a time where other cultures had a multiplicity of gods according to the various powers of the Godhead and we should try to understand these cultural anomalies in this way. The gods were individually responsible for segments of the reality of Life so that there was in most cultures a god of Love, a god of war, a god of the underworld and so on through the aspects of Life that needed gods along with the one god in charge of all such as Zeus and Jupiter for the Greeks and Romans respectively. The Hindu culture had their own set of gods and goddesses according to similar aspects of Life and while we will NOT get into others here there ARE similar lists of gods for many ancient cultures. For the beginning of the Judeo-Christian Mr. MacLaren offers us these words that we have used before albeit for a different purpose; he tells us:
“We are not to look to Genesis for a scientific cosmogony, and are not to be disturbed by physicists’ criticisms on it as such. Its purpose is quite another, and far more important; namely, to imprint deep and ineffaceable the conviction that the one God created all things. Nor must it be forgotten that this vision of creation was given to people ignorant of natural science, and prone to fall back into surrounding idolatry“12.
In these words the idea of God IS synthesized into One God without the ancillary gods of the other world cultures and we should try to understand that this IS likely foremost in the in establishing the Judeo-Christian view of the Lord. We should note here that Islam follows this soon afterwards and while Allah may be seen by both sides as different than the One God of the Judeo-Christian view, they ARE singularly the same if we can phrase this so. We should NOT leave out the Buddhist cultures here and understand that while many in the West see Buddhism as having NO God, this IS NOT the case as the Buddhist philosophy played down the role of a God in favor of the idea, unspoken to be sure, of the God Within. We should try to understand that there IS NO God in the sky on a throne in a place called heaven; there IS however One God that maintains Life in ALL of its forms according to a likely incomprehensible Plan that involves the billions upon billions of star systems in our Universe. In many ways we can say that the Universe IS God and that within God ALL things exist but this would be an inadequate summation. ALL that we see and KNOW IS the densest physical Universe and of this we KNOW little. What lies beyond IS a myriad of forces and we should try to see that in this idea of beyond there IS also NO end; while we have identified energy particles as small as the quark, there ARE likely even ‘smaller’ units to be discovered on wavelengths that ARE unimaginable. ALL of this IS our Infinite God giving Life energy to ALL that exists and from the unimaginably small to stars, star systems, galaxies and the entirety of the Universe. This IS our God. In closing today we should simply say that the personal ideas of God ARE created by men for men so that they can understand something of the working of Life and find comfort in their experience. How DO we come to KNOW God? Simply by keeping His words according to our trifecta; in so DOING we find the Truth, we find the Kingdom and we find His Presence in our lives here and now.
We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.
- 1 Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and 1913 from https://1828.mshaffer.com/
- 4 Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition
- 8 Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
- 9 Thayer’s Greek Lexicon on blueletterbible.org
- 9a The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible on blueletterbible.org
- 12 Expositions of Holy Scripture–Project Gutenberg’s and Baker Book House’ Expositions of Holy Scripture, by Alexander Maclaren–(1826-1910)
- * Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020
Those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road.
Voltaire, Writer and Philosopher
