I once tried to enunciate through humor a moral principle on this forum and it fell flat. I think my approach was faulty, so let me try again...

The whole point of humility is that you realize you are easily replaced, but that the work you do for the Kingdom is what's critical. In Scripture, there is a fundamental recognition of roles as far more important than the people who fill them. Thus, very often in the Old Testament, someone's "name" is actually a title, not a personal moniker. The idea is that the role shapes you, that you are morally obliged to rise to the occasion, as it were.

We are fungible as individuals. It would be very easy for God to get someone else to fulfill our roles, and most certainly He could find folks better qualified. We should never lose sight of that. But for whatever reason, He chose us and here we are.

Do you sense that the roles we fill in His Kingdom at this time are critical for God's plans? "We hold this treasure in clay jars..." He could do it without us, but for whatever reasons, He has chosen to use us. This is the point at which we joke that He must not have much to work with. He tends to favor the idiots who are available over the experts who think they have better things to do. And maybe they do, but the point is that when He wants to do great miracles, the primary qualification is that you don't filter too much. (That's how Satan got into trouble.)

The original joke I tried to make is that we end up in a sort of "elite" position, while knowing how ludicrous it is that anyone would think we were elite type folks. This is how we come to the place where we would rather folks forget us individually and remember what God did with us. What a privilege it is to be involved in something for which we know ourselves to be ill-qualified in human terms.

In that sense, we hold an elite place without being actually elite.

Linda - I was going to PM you, but I thought it would be good to keep it public.

I'm currently taking vitamins for immunity: one vitamin that has C, D3, zinc, elderberry, etc. One dose is three (rather large) pills, and the directions say to take all 3 at breakfast. I've been taking 2, because 3 tend to give me stomach pains. Sometimes taking 2 does if I don't eat enough, so I make sure I do. My question is, do you think there would be an issue if I took 1 with every meal instead of 3 at one meal? I've read different opinions online but I wanted your advice.

Thanks.

1. Without the Covenant, you belong to Satan. He has blanket permission to use and abuse you as he sees fit in this life and take all your blessings, regardless of your spiritual destiny. There is a sense in which you place yourself into the pool of people bound for hell on earth. Your life will take random turns, unless the Lord has marked you out for some special use.

Jesus noted that people who are mean and hateful are at a high risk of being killed. That's part of what He was saying in Matthew 5:21-22. He describes people who are abusive to others (spite "without cause"). It's on par with blood guilt and leaves you wide open to Satan's abuse. Granted, Satan does have use for such people, but the image Jesus uses is that it leaves you wide open to divine wrath ("in danger of hell fire"). You will suffer in Eternity, and you may suffer a good bit while you are here.

2. One thing I wish I could get across to the world is that there's nothing wrong with using computers. What's wrong is becoming dependent on them. If you have no clue how to proceed without access to computing devices, then you will suffer massively when the sun goes nuts on us. A good way of looking at it is this: Pretend you suffer a serious computer security breach and all your data is lost, in your local system and/or in the cloud. If that stops you from doing things you need to do, then you are too dependent. I realize it's a hassle to invest the time and resources for duplicate or parallel systems, but if your mission is really important, you can't afford to not to make that investment.

3. My earliest years were in grinding poverty. Except for brief periods of my life since then, I've never been very far from it. There's nothing particularly noble about it. Rather, it's the net result of avoiding things that violate my convictions. Also, I'm quick to give stuff away if someone else needs it.

That's the background for this: I'm convinced poverty is very close, quickly approaching a lot of Americans who aren't used to it. Most people have no idea how to make do with what's at hand. Unless you have a powerful sense of mission, you can get distracted very quickly by worries about what you don't have. That's the signature of folks who operate outside the Covenant; there's no blood on their doorposts. Don't listen to what they say. Watch how they respond when poverty shows up.

4. Again: The mission is simply to live by faith. People will see. Those to whom the Lord would speak will see a lot. All we have to do is manifest that peace with God.

We're glad you're here with us, Denise

Again, there is very little debate about the chronology at this point. Jesus began pushing the parabolic teachings to the point it alienated a bunch of people who refused to think on that level. The crowds following Him were noticeably smaller after that.

At about the same time, a rabbinical examination committee came to see what Jesus was doing. It was composed of ranking Scribes and Pharisees from Jerusalem, suggesting they were in the close orbit of the Sanhedrin. The first thing that caught their attention was how Jesus and His disciples did not observe Pharisaical traditions regarding hand washing. There's no doubt they were eating outside somewhere with no table.

Mark notes that Pharisees tried to enforce a lot of ritual nonsense about this kind of thing. Were they going to carry around a ritual washing cup while working outdoors like this? Perhaps the Pharisees never met with the common people in the first place, much less try to bless them. If you examine modern Jewish teaching, collated with the teaching of so-called Messianic Jews who defend Pharisaism, you'll get a picture of where this comes from. The only thing Moses said about it was for priests to wash their hands prior to engaging in ritual offerings. The basic principle is that the Pharisees at some point made the dinner table ritually equivalent the Temple altar. As Mark's comments indicate, the eating of bread specifically was a particular point at which the Pharisees required this ritual washing. It would have been typical of Jesus and the disciples to carry a lunch of mostly bread.

The Pharisees objected to the way Jesus and His disciples disrespected what they regarded as sacred traditions. Jesus quotes from Isaiah 29 and applies it to the Pharisees. In essence, they piled up a hedge of ritual traditions to protect the Law from the people, as if peace with God was fragile. You would think that Jehovah was ill-tempered and petty, if you listened to them. They didn't even know the moral character of the God they claimed to worship because they never engaged their hearts.

Then Jesus contrasted this silly nonsense about ritual washing against a very ugly tradition that flatly violated the Ten Commandments. Pharisees who gained wealth -- through their abuse of the Law, packing the courts with their own kind -- would refuse to support their own aged parents. Moses required men to care for their own parents, a part of the meaning of "honor your father and mother." Yet the Scribes and Pharisees had concocted a legal strategy that allowed them to claim their estate was a Temple trust. As long as they lived, they could use their wealth as they saw fit for their personal comfort, but upon death it all went to the Temple (or similar religious charities). So, upon the excuse of preserving their estate, which they could legally claim belonged to God, they would refuse to take care of their own parents who were too old to work any more.

Jesus said they were full of such trickery and legal stratagems to avoid actually embracing the moral character of God as manifested in Scripture. Then He turned and gathered those left still hanging around Him for a lesson, right in front of these self-anointed inspectors. The issue was their claim that failure to wash as they required would ritually defile someone. Jesus countered the whole idea of defilement as they taught it.

Once again He made it clear that this was a parable. What you put in your body does not make you unfit to stand in God's favor. It's what comes out of you that defiles you. Then Jesus turned and walked away. Afterward Jesus went inside someone's private residence, apparently their host at that time. The disciples asked Him to explain that little epigram parable about defilement. Given the context, He was surprised they hadn't worked it out.

Ritual defilement is one thing, but they shouldn't confuse it with actual moral failure. There is a bigger issue at stake here. When you eat something, it goes through your guts and out the other end. Nothing about that darkens or brightens your soul. What makes you unacceptable to God is a matter of the heart. If your heart is not wholly committed to the Lord, then your life will be defiled by what comes out of your compromised choices. Once your heart is right with God, all that external stuff will take care of itself.

This is pretty much a repeat of what Jesus said about having a snack from heads of grain when passing through a field on the Sabbath. The Father is not cranky about silly details like that, all the more so when they were man-made rules that do not reflect the priorities of revelation. If God gives you a mission, He expects you to understand the priorities. Ritual purity wasn't a priority in the midst of healing and teaching out of doors.

Once again, Jesus is calling His nation back to the ancient Hebrew outlook. He very specifically rejects the legalistic nonsense of the Scribes and Pharisees. Most of their power and wealth came from perverting the Law of Moses and abusing the common peasants, and Jesus was threatening that.

(I thought I had posted this Saturday, but I can't find it anywhere on the forum.)

John's is the only Gospel to share this story, and he puts a different spin on the context. Jesus has been performing miracles and teaching massive crowds all around Galilee. After feeding the 5000, John notes the crowd came very near to forcibly declaring Jesus King. This adds a critical element to the story, as to why Jesus disappeared up the ridge to pray. It was necessary to ensure He was about to do the right thing. A confrontation was brewing.

This same crowd wasn't ready to give up. Next morning they went back to the wilderness place where the miracle feeding took place. They knew the disciples had left in their boat, and that Jesus had stayed. The disciples had not returned for Him, yet Jesus wasn't there, either. So they all rowed or walked back to Capernaum, hoping to find Jesus there. No luck. Eventually they heard that everyone was gathering around Gennesaret, so they hurried there. They acted almost a little peeved, perhaps thinking He was playing games with them. How did He get there on the far shore during the night without being noticed?

The miracle of walking on water was for the disciples to experience, so Jesus didn't bother to explain. Instead He pointed out that it wasn't even the miracles that drew them, but the simple fact that He filled their bellies. He warned them that their worldly focus was contrary to the eternal nature of the Messianic Kingdom. They should invest their efforts in securing the bread that fed their souls, for which God the Father had placed His stamp of approval on Jesus.

To this they asked what kind of work was He referring to. Jesus replied that the primary work of the Kingdom was declaring Him their feudal Lord. Wasn't this more or less what they had tried to do the day before? What miracle sign would He display now that would make it obvious He was actually going to lead them into the Messianic promises? Up to now, it seems like He's playing head games, showing miracles that would qualify Him as Messiah, yet not doing anything to lighten the burden of bad government. Was He going to reign or not? How about that manna during the Exodus they heard so much about?

They weren't following Moses in the first place, and certainly didn't have to endure what their forefathers did on the journey from Egypt. Manna would be part of that package. Besides, it didn't really do the forefathers that much good. They should rather focus on the Bread of Heaven that would give them eternal life. Being so tightly locked into their worldly orientation, all they heard was that it would be something better than manna. Sure; why not?

Jesus then used the figure of speech that He was the Bread of Life. Anyone who bowed the knee to Him as Messiah would never lack for anything they really needed for Kingdom service. Yet He has already warned them that they can see Him with their eyes -- meaning His teaching and miracles -- and still weren't ready to offer the level of commitment He wanted from them. It's one thing to be ready to face Rome and the Jewish rulers with these nifty miracles, but it's another thing to ignore all of that and focus on something spiritual in nature.

Anyone who truly embraces Him as Lord has no reason to doubt His power and promises. He's didn't come down from Heaven to seek His own convenience as a man, but to press the moral and spiritual claims of His Father. When He grants citizenship in His eternal kingdom, nothing in this world can take it away. Stop worrying about your short miserable life here on earth; consider the eternal life that will see you resurrected on the Day of Judgment.

In the crowd were some Pharisees and such; they began to rumble about this claim to come down from Heaven. They knew where He grew up, so how could He claim to be from Heaven? The whole crowd was hung up on fleshly thinking. Jesus told them to stop derailing the discussion.

He acknowledged that this was not a rational decision. The only people who would declare Him Lord were those whom the Father granted faith. Those people would live into Eternity. As a hint, Jesus quoted Isaiah 54:13, from a passage long established as symbolic, not literal. God Himself is the only one who can grant a listening heart, and such people would be the only ones able to embrace Jesus as the Messiah. It's not a question of sitting in class with God as your literal teacher; humans can't see God that way. The only people who could grasp the meaning of this kind of figurative language were people of faith, people already marked as eternal.

So Jesus said it again: He was the Bread of Life. People who ate manna during the Exodus died, if that was all they had going for them. But those who could operate by faith and embrace this Bread of Life would not see the grave. They would leave their mortal bodies behind and live in Heaven. So Jesus was going to give up His mortal flesh so they could follow Him into Eternity.

The Pharisees were being obtuse. Going to give us His flesh to eat, eh? Jesus pressed it home. Yes, if you don't consume what His human life accomplished on your behalf, then you cannot hope for Eternity. His flesh was the real food of Heaven, and His blood was the true wine of the Spirit Kingdom. Feed your soul; let God worry about feeding your body until you no longer need it.

John takes a moment to note that this thread of discussion carried over into His return to Capernaum in the synagogue there. The symbolic language choked a lot of people who had been following Him around up to that point. Even without their saying anything out loud, He knew in His heart that many hearts in the crowd weren't with Him. It was time to make a clean break, to polarize these people the way His message would eventually polarize the whole nation.

Was this kind of talk too much for them? Would it make it any easier if He literally ascended to the Heavens in their presence? No, they would still not be able to embrace Him as Lord. The business of the Spirit Realm cannot be formulated in concrete terminology. His Words beckoned them from that higher realm of existence. But only those who were enabled by the Father could shift their focus from fleshly concerns to eternal concerns.

Finally, the empty souls in the crowd stopped following Him around. They went back to their drab lives of flesh. He turned to the Twelve and asked if they were put off, as well. Peter's answer was that they had nowhere else to go. They might not understand everything He taught, but they were convinced it was the Word of God. Whatever happened now, He was still the Messiah.

"Did I not choose wisely with you Twelve? And yet, one of you is a devil." Of course, He was referring to Judas Iscariot, who would later betray Him. This, even though he had performed miracles himself by Jesus' authority. John was pointing out that the time had not yet come for Judas to betray his lack of spiritual understanding.

Quote:For to us a child is born,
    to us a son is given,
    and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
    Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
    there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
    and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
    with justice and righteousness
    from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
    will accomplish this.

We're glad you're a part of the community here

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

This just seems like a good time to remind everyone that I love you all.

The Lord prompted my recollection several times since Iain announced a prophetic warning about a coming CME. It echoes like thunder that I can feel in my body. We won't get much warning, but I keep getting this potent sense that it's quite near, within the next two years.

If it's just a CME, it will probably clobber the electricity grid. If there's much of a flare with it, exposed electronics will be fried. But even a mere power outage will keep us from using our computer devices.

We can't guess how extreme it will be. At the worst, it will likely cut off our access to this forum for quite some time, if not permanently. If you really feel strongly about the communications we have here, be aware that it will disappear. And to be honest, it's quite likely the US Post Office will go down, too, because they rely too much on computers and such. I doubt they remember how to do it all manually. Lots of government functions will come to a screeching halt.

In the hustle and bustle of the holidays, keep your eyes on the Lord. Consider the Radix Fidem Covenant. I've added the Radix Fidem Booklet to our library so you can review it again (might be a good time to print a hard copy). This is what binds us together as a community of faith. No human is going to hold you accountable; only the Holy Spirit can do that. It's all between you and the Lord.

That day is coming. The labels won't matter, but the convictions that bind us to the Covenant of Christ is a message that must outlive us. Until that day comes, we'll take full advantage of our online communion to ensure we stand ready for what comes next. Perhaps He'll provide us with some alternative means of communication, but we should be ready for having no contact for a very long time once this thing hits.

May the Lord make you strong and able to witness to His glory.